This Week In Science

"Shock And Kill" Approach Cures Mice Of HIV In World First

A combination of four drugs can flush out HIV-infected cells from hidden reservoirs in the body and kill them with a boost to the immune system, according to research published in the journal Cell today. The finding takes scientists one step closer to a HIV cure.

Although the research was done in mice, head of the infectious diseases unit at The Alfred Hospital, Professor Sharon Lewin said it was a significant step in HIV cure research.

When a person is infected with HIV, some of the virus can go into hiding by burrowing into the DNA where the immune system can’t see it. This is called HIV latency. In patients on anti-HIV drugs, latent virus can persist indefinitely.

The “shock-and-kill” approach used in the research induced these hidden or latent viruses to resurface by using a combination of three drugs.

“It proves the principle that a combination of drugs that activate latent virus together with antibodies can induce remission – at least in a slightly artificial HIV-infected mouse model,” she said.

Professor Lewin said the principle wasn’t new.

“This has been an idea we have been exploring for many years in test tube models of HIV latency and more recently in clinical trials. In the few clinical trials recently completed, a range of drugs that are used for treating cancer could wake up latent virus in people but the infected cell wasn’t killed,” she said.

To kill the cells, the researchers boosted the mice’s immune systems using powerful antibodies known as “broadly neutralising antibodies”.

More than half (57%) of the HIV-infected mice treated with the combination activating drugs together with these antibodies could keep the virus under control.

Scientia Professor of Medicine David Cooper, director of the Kirby Institute at UNSW said the research represented an important model but added it was difficult to extrapolate the results to humans.

“The mice were treated with the antiretroviral therapies within a day or two of infection and that is not the case globally. People don’t usually know they’re infected as soon as that,“ he said.

“Many people in low- and middle-income countries aren’t identified until they get an opportunistic infection like tuberculosis and at that late stage, the amount of latent virus is very large,” he added.

One unique aspect of the research was the use of three drugs to induce the latent infected cells to come out of hiding.

Professor Lewin said there had been clinical trials using one drug to activate the latent virus and it was known that using two drugs to activate latent virus – at least in test tube models – led to a better effect than each alone, but a combination of drugs have not yet been tested in clinical trials.

“This study went a step further and used three, showing that three drugs are better than two, which is better than one,” she said. “And these drugs worked in keeping the virus under control when combined with one of these potent antibodies.”

Professor Cooper raised concerns about the toxicity of the drug combination used in the research.

“One of the agents that they used in the study has been approved to treat a rare type of lymphoma, and it’s fair to say that it’s not a particularly light therapy,” he said. “It’s possible that the other types of drugs they use to shock might have these sort of toxicities. It’s very hard to tell in these mice, what the toxicities of these drugs are.”

Both Lewin and Cooper agreed that safety was a key concern when trying to activate latent virus, given antiretroviral therapies were safe and allowed people with HIV to have a normal lifespan.

“What is interesting here is the role of broadly neutralising antibodies in eliminating latent virus,” Professor Lewin said. “These antibodies have recently been shown in monkeys to work well in preventing infection. And there are studies giving broadly neutralising antibodies to monkeys and humans on antiretroviral treatment to see if they can help keep the virus in remission.”

“Whether you need three agents to activate latent HIV and whether that’s even feasible given potential drug interactions, I’m not sure. But it is exciting because it shows broadly neutralising antibodies and combination activation could play a role in the kick-and-kill strategy,” she said. “That has not been shown before.”

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

The Conversation

Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/health-and-medicine/shock-and-kill-approach-cures-mice-hiv-world-first#WcT0Fzim0WKSeJLE.99

Top Five Myths About Genetic Modification

The Conversation asked CSIRO scientist, Richard Richards, to look at the top five myths about genetic modification (GM), and correct the public record.

Myth one: GM is just haphazard, imprecise cross-breeding

In genetic engineering, scientists can very precisely select genes and introduce them into their target species. For example, genes that produce insulin for medical use have been introduced into bacteria. Genes from bacteria have been introduced into corn or cotton to dramatically reduce insect damage.

In fact, the most dramatic genetic modifications to our crops occurred naturally thousands of years ago when chance events resulted in hybrids of different species.

Some of these events have resulted in some of our most important crops such as wheat, sugar cane, canola and cotton.

The wheat we consume today, for example, is a natural hybrid of three different wild species. This has resulted in bringing tens of thousands of genes together in several independent events. It is responsible for wheat being such an important crop.

Modern wheat breeders release new varieties after introducing thousands of unknown genes from wild grasses without any regulatory requirements or special testing and with no genetic engineering involved.

This is very haphazard and we do not know what genes are being introduced, apart from the target gene we know is present. The irony is that the precise introduction of a single gene is heavily regulated yet the introduction of thousands of unknown genes from wild grasses into a new wheat variety via traditional breeding methods is regarded as being completely acceptable.

Myth two: GM is a cure-all for more efficient land use and food security

It is important to remember GM technologies are just one of the tools that may be useful. Other important contributions to land use and food security come from traditional breeding, agronomy, land management and sustainability research.

Breeding new varieties of any species requires multiple selection and evaluation methodologies, and there are a lot of conditions at play when developing better wheat.

A new variety has to offer an advantage to the grower, it must have good yields and be adapted to the region where it is grown. It must also have good resistance or tolerance to diseases.

More importantly, it must be beneficial for end users and consumers.

In fact, breeding combines many traits together some of which are simple and some of which are complex. Usually, GM technology contributes only one or two of these traits, although combinations of up to eight genes are now in corn.

Some of these traits may be simply inherited (single gene) - such as plant height or flowering time.

But most are controlled by many genes, including performance in dry environments, grain yield, tolerance to high temperatures, and once the wheat is turned into flour, improved baking quality.

GM technologies are generally only suitable for the single gene traits, not complex multigenic ones. Over time, GM may contribute to factors such as grain yield and drought resistance as we learn more about the basic biology underpinning these traits and identify the key genes to optimise.

Myth three: GM is harmful to the environment

In fact, there have been many environmental benefits from GM.

GM technologies have massively reduced pesticide use in all circumstances where pests have been targeted.

For example, the GM cotton varieties bred by CSIRO that are insect resistant reduce pesticide use by up to 80%.

This reduced use of pesticides has other flow-on effects: less greenhouse gas associated with lower diesel use; less pesticide run-off; less residual pesticides; more biodiversity and improvements in human safety.

Both GM crops and non-GM crops with inbuilt herbicide resistance have also resulted in improved agricultural practices. This has resulted in more efficient water and light use, less soil degradation and improved yields for farmers.

Myth four: GM means creating Frankenfoods

Far from creating radical changes to plants, GM produces defined improvements to existing crop plants that meet a recognised need, such as food quality, increased yield or pest resistance. Strong regulatory systems ensure that GM crops meet stringent standards.

The reality is that scientists experiment with purpose and for beneficial outcomes. There is no use breeding a crop with no market need. Regulatory costs and market demand drive what genes will be introduced into crops.

Almost all introductions will be to improve crop production, quality and health outcomes. Other crops will be modified to change management practices, such as introducing resistance to herbicides.

Often GM technologies don’t involve the introduction of any new genes from another species. Rather they turn the “volume” up or down of a certain gene already present in our crops (rather than introducing foreign genes).

Some of them just silence, or “turn off”, a particular gene. Silencing can be important in modifying grain composition. For example, modifying starches can result in grains that have the potential to reduce the incidence of certain cancers.

Turning up the volume is used to over express some genes, such as those that detoxify excess levels of aluminium in the soil or solubilise nutrients in the soil to improve the nutrition of plants.

Myth five: The GM research agenda is run by big multinationals

GM research has contributed greatly to our understanding of how plants function and this has delivered tremendous benefits to both traditional breeding and to opportunities for GM crops.

However, commercial introductions are extremely costly due to the extensive regulatory processes required by different territories before GM crops can either be grown or utilised for feed and food purposes.

The public sector, through institutions such as CSIRO, also expends considerable research dollars on GM research.

Regardless of this, GM products will not be adopted by growers if they negatively impact their farming operations or they do not capture value in their farm products.

It is largely up to farmers which GM varieties they grow and market. More importantly, if consumers do not accept them, then they will not be grown.

By way of example, the adoption of insect resistant varieties and herbicide resistant varieties by farmers has been spectacularly successful.

It must represent some of the fastest technology adoption ever by farmers.

This has occurred because these varieties offer genuine benefits in terms of the cost, timeliness and sustainability of their overall farming operations.

Despite this, traditional varieties remain available and can be maintained if farmers wish to continue growing them for a particular performance or market demand.

The vast majority of funding for CSIRO’s research relating to gene technology comes from government funding, non-profit organisations and research centres.

There is investment from private companies but investment from all these sources makes up less than 0.2% of CSIRO’s total budget of $1 billion.

The Conversation

Richard Richards has received and is currently Principal Investigator/Co-investigator on externally funded projects associated with wheat improvement.

Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/chemistry/top-five-myths-about-genetic-modification#vkiaUf82bDe2MyGX.99

Renewables Now Produce 22 Percent Of The Worlds Energy.

Last year, renewable power capacity expanded at its fastest pace yet, reaching nearly 22 percent of the global mix. Up from 21 percent in 2012 and 18 percent in 2007, that puts renewable electricity generation—from wind, solar, and hydro—on par with that of natural gas. But with uncertainty over policy support, the expansion of renewable energy will slow over the next five years, according to a new report from the International Energy Agency.

Renewable energy could make up over a quarter of global electricity generation by 2020, according to the agency, but annual growth is expected to slow and stabilize after 2014—putting renewables at risk of falling short of global climate change goals.

“Renewables are a necessary part of energy security. However, just when they are becoming a cost-competitive option in an increasing number of cases, policy and regulatory uncertainty is rising in some key markets. This stems from concerns about the costs of deploying renewables,” IEA’s Maria van der Hoeven says in a news release. “Governments must distinguish more clearly between the past, present and future, as costs are falling over time.”

The report also provided a renewable power investment outlook. Through 2020, investment in new renewable power could average over $230 billion a year—though that’s lower than the $250 billion invested around the world in 2013. The decline is because unit costs are expected to fall, but also due to expectations that global capacity growth will slow.

However, with the focus on electricity and transportation sectors, the contribution of renewables to heating and cooling remains underdeveloped. Although renewable energy sources are expected to grow by almost 25 percent in 2020, their share in energy use for heat rises to only 9 percent—up from 8 percent in 2013.

[Via International Energy Agency]

Read more at http://www.iflscience.com/environment/renewables-now-produce-22-percent-worlds-electricity#C1dqdqFVQ7YpJtrO.99

Watch A 7-Week Year Old Baby Hear For The First Time

Hearing aids have helped a 7-week old boy listen to the sounds of his mother's voice for the first time. View his reaction in the video below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUP02yTKWWo

According to the boy's parents, he was diagnosed with moderate to severe hearing loss in both ears.

A digital hearing aid contains a silicon chip comprising millions of electrical components that continuously process incoming sound. It converts the signals into clearer and more audible sounds and then feeds these into the ear. A hearing aid is built to distinguish between sounds that are amplified and unwanted background noise, which are reduced. This differentiation allows wearers to distinguish similar sounding speech sounds much more clearly. Hearing aids also have a built-in function to recognize loud sounds, such as traffic, so that they don't further amplify the signals.

https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10649523_922995917721420_2543612983182866232_n.jpg?

Watch A Man Dive Into An Active Volcano

Kourounis is an adventurer and storm chaser who specializes in documenting extreme weather conditions. With fellow explorer and filmmaker Sam Cossman, the pair climbed deep into the Marum crater, located in an active volcano on the South Pacific's Vanuatu archipelago.

George Kourounis stood so close to the fiery pit of churning lava that at one point a splash of it melted a hole in his protective suit.

"When you see that shot of me [in the video] looking like a little silver dot, next to what appears to be a waterfall of lava, that was an extremely dangerous spot to be standing," Kourounis told the Huffington Post. "It was a bit scary. If something were to have gone wrong. It would’ve happened quickly, and catastrophically.”

Kourounis, Cossman, and two guides—Geoff Mackley and Brad Ambrose—spent four days at the crater's edge, descending twice into the Marum Crater with rock climbing gear, heat resistant equipment, face masks and three cameras. The footage was filmed with a GoPro, a Canon 5D Mark III camera and a Sony NX Cam.

As Cossman wrote in a summary for the Youtube video, "More people have visited the moon than the fiery bottom of this spectacular and deadly place."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAdFvTo9874

24-Year Old Woman Born Without Cerebellum.

The cerebellum is a portion of the brain that is responsible for fine motor movements including posture, balance, motor learning (like learning to kick a ball), and speech. Located at the base of the skull, the cerebellum contains about half of all neurons in the brain, though it represents only 10% of the volume. Losing partial function due to injury or disease isn’t completely unprecedented, though lacking a cerebellum from birth is exceedingly rare. Physicians in China discovered a 24-year-old woman who is only the ninth known case of a living person with cerebellar agenesis. Her condition was described in the journal Brain.

The woman’s condition was discovered after she sought medical attention due to nausea and vertigo. CT scans and MRI images revealed the missing cerebellum, which readily explains why those symptoms would be present. It also explains why she wasn’t able to speak until she was six and wasn’t able to walk until age seven. She had never been able to play and jump like normal kids due to this defect.

Unsurprisingly, the woman had been unable to walk steadily without support throughout her life.

While testing revealed that she had no trouble understanding vocabulary, the missing cerebellum caused her to have difficulties with pronunciation. Her voice trembles, words are slurred, and the doctors described her voice tone as “harsh.” Even still, the doctors were amazed that her symptoms were more in line with a mild to moderate impairment, not a complete absence.

In the space where the cerebellum should have been, cerebrospinal fluid has filled the gap. The chemistry of the fluid appeared normal, though the pressure was a bit high. Initial measurements read 210 mm H2O, exceeding normal limits of 70-180 mm H20. She was treated with a dehydration treatment that removed some of the water pressure along with other techniques that were less invasive, which provided immediate and lasting improvement of her symptoms. Even at a follow-up appointment four years later, she was still doing quite well.

Neurological defects do not appear to run in her family, and she was able to get married and have a neurologically-typical daughter without pregnancy complications. The structures and tissues surrounding the missing cerebellum appear to be mostly well-formed with no signs of extreme defects. The pons appeared underdeveloped, but considering part of its job is to convey messages from the frontal cortex to the cerebellum, that’s not completely surprising.

As the condition is so rare, it isn’t very well understood how it occurs. While there are about 30 mutations associated with disorganized cerebella, complete absence of the structure is a bit tougher to figure out. This woman represents a very unique opportunity to study the effects of this disorder in a living adult. It isn’t known how her condition will change as she ages, but the fact that she has made it this far is a testament to the plasticity of the brain.

Khaos wrote: 24-Year Old Woman Born Without Cerebellum.

How was this woman born at the age of 24 :ohmy: that is clearly the more impressive miracle here!

Thats not even what it says in any context.

Scientists Create Solid Light

On a late summer afternoon it can seem like sunlight has turned to honey, but could liquid—or even solid—light be more than a piece of poetry? Princeton University electrical engineers say not only is it possible, they’ve already made it happen.

In Physical Review X, the researchers reveal that they have locked individual photons together so that they become like a solid object.

"It's something that we have never seen before," says Dr. Andrew Houck, an associate professor of electrical engineering and one of the researchers. "This is a new behavior for light."

The researchers constructed what they call an “artificial atom” made of 100 billion atoms engineered to act like a single unit. They then brought this close to a superconducting wire carrying photons. In one of the almost incomprehensible behaviors unique to the quantum world, the atom and the photons became entangled so that properties passed between the “atom” and the photons in the wire. The photons started to behave like atoms, correlating with each other to produce a single oscillating system.

As some of the photons leaked into the surrounding environment, the oscillations slowed and at a critical point started producing quantum divergent behavior. In other words, like Schroedinger's Cat, the correlated photons could be in two states at once.

"Here we set up a situation where light effectively behaves like a particle in the sense that two photons can interact very strongly," said co-author Dr. Darius Sadri. "In one mode of operation, light sloshes back and forth like a liquid; in the other, it freezes."

As cool as it is to produce solidified light, the team was not acting out of curiosity alone. When connected together the photons of light behave like subatomic particles, but are in some ways easier to study. Consequently, the team is hoping to use the solid light to simulate subatomic behavior.

Attempts to model the behavior of large numbers of particles usually use statistical mechanics, and often simplify by assuming no interaction between particles and a system at equilibrium. However, in a point we can all relate to, Houck and his colleagues note, “The world around us is rarely in equilibrium.” The solidified light offers a chance to observe a subatomic system as it starts to diverge from equilibrium, with potential for a basic understanding of how these systems operate.

The system created so far is very simple, with the light entangled with the atom at two points. However, it should be possible to increase this, greatly expanding the complexity and range of possibilities of what is being constructed.

As well as providing an easy-to-study model of atomic systems that actually exist, Houck and his team hope the frozen light could be made to behave like materials that do not exist, but have been hypothesised by physicists, allowing them to explore how these things would react if they were real.