Probiotics in Food Affect Brain Functions

The general reputation of bacteria is that it causes disease, so the idea of tossing down a few billion a day for your health might seem — literally and figuratively — hard to swallow. Probiotics (from pro and biota, meaning “for life”), are basically live microorganisms that confer a health benefit on the host. It’s not surprising why then, therefore, Europeans consume a lot of these beneficial micro-organisms because of their tradition of eating foods fermented with bacteria, such as yogurt. The study reported in Gastroenterology by UCLA scientist’s shows that changing the bacterial environment or microbiota in the gut can have significant implications on your brain functions.

A research was conducted on 36 healthy women in the age group of 18 to 55 having no past gastrointestinal or psychiatric symptoms. These women were divided into the group of three: one group consumed a specific yogurt containing a mix of several probiotics which were bacteria thought to have a positive effect on the intestines, twice a day for four weeks; another group consumed a dairy product that looked and tasted like the yogurt but contained no probiotics; and a third group ate no product at all. The women were given an emotion recognition task where they had to view the pictures of people with angry or frightened faces and match them to other faces showing the same emotions. This was basically done to measure the involvement of brain regions to visual stimuli. The participants then underwent a technique called as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance imaging which scanned the brain of these women before and after this four-week study period. The results were interesting.

The researchers found that, women who ate the probiotic yogurt showed a decrease in activity of two important areas of brain whereas women who ate no probiotics showed stable or increased activity. It was only suspected until proved that there is a two way gut-brain connection. Certainly, some chemicals produced by gut bacteria triggers such signals to the brain. This is an interesting finding which opens up a scope in future that leads to expansion of research aimed at finding new strategies to prevent or treat digestive, mental and neurological disorders by modulating dietary changes in human.

Reference:Tillisch, K., Labus, J., Kilpatrick, L., Jiang, Z., Stains, J., Ebrat, B., Guyonnet, D., Legrain-Raspaud, S., Trotin, B., Naliboff, B., & Mayer, E. (2013). Consumption of Fermented Milk Product with Probiotic Modulates Brain ActivityGastroenterology DOI: 10.1053/j.gastro.2013.02.043

Carnivorous Plant Ejects Junk DNA

Research shows Utricularia gibba maintains a small genome size by resisting gene duplications.

Nature is beautiful and so are its mechanisms. The carnivorous humped bladderwort (U. gibba) is unique in showing a wonderful evolutionary trait which would put all of us in awe; wondering if we could, would we ever remove a part of us which we thought is never going to be of any use. The finding published online inNature overturns the notion that repetitive, non-coding DNA or “Junk DNA” is necessary for life.

While duplication of genes and mobile elements such as transposons are the basis of increasing complexity of plant genome, U. gibba; a relative of the tomato, has experienced a net gain of just 1.5% in its size, since their split 87,000 years ago. It has retained only a single copy of its genes. This means it has ejected everything it doesn’t need and therefore now has a genome only 10th the  size of a tomato’s genome.

It is well known that transposons play a primary role in increasing genome size. The bladderwort is unique in having almost no retrotransposons whatsoever. Apparently, this intelligent carnivore has retained all the miRNA silencing genes. miRNA’s do not encode their own proteins, but they do bind messenger RNA, preventing their encoded proteins from being constructed and this is how they are exceptional in suppressing these retrotransposons in the bladderwort. This indicates that, despite its small genome, the general repertoire of miRNA mediated gene regulation in plants is conserved in U. gibba.

This first-of-its-kind study has again fueled the debate deciding whether junk DNA is either Trash or Treasure. The question still remains as to why the genomes have accumulated so much non-coding DNA when this carnivore could do well with bare essentials.

 

Source: Ibarra-Laclette, E., Lyons, E., Hernández-Guzmán, G., Pérez-Torres, C., Carretero-Paulet, L., Chang, T., Lan, T., Welch, A., Juárez, M., Simpson, J., Fernández-Cortés, A., Arteaga-Vázquez, M., Góngora-Castillo, E., Acevedo-Hernández, G., Schuster, S., Himmelbauer, H., Minoche, A., Xu, S., Lynch, M., Oropeza-Aburto, A., Cervantes-Pérez, S., de Jesús Ortega-Estrada, M., Cervantes-Luevano, J., Michael, T., Mockler, T., Bryant, D., Herrera-Estrella, A., Albert, V., & Herrera-Estrella, L. (2013). Architecture and evolution of a minute plant genome Nature DOI: 10.1038/nature12132

Taking Two Antibiotics for Quick Recovery?

Research finds synergistic antibiotics can have opposite effects on you.

Did you ever take two or more antibiotics in order to get rid of a disease? New research in PLOS Biologysuggests that this is not a wise thing to do. Drug resistant bacteria grow faster than their weaker counter parts when resources are limiting and many antibiotics are consumed.

A team of evolutionary biologists from University of Exeter in the United Kingdom explain this by putting antibiotic synergy into test. They were able to prove using mathematical modeling, evolution experiments, whole genome sequencing and genetic manipulation that deploying synergistic antibiotics is the worst strategy.

They added two kinds of antibiotics (oxycycline and erythromycin) to tubes full of E. coli to see how well microbes are able to grow in such a harsh environment.

As expected, initially a decrease of 95% was observed in bacterial populations that were subjected to synergistic attack. However, after one and a half day an overwhelming 500% growth was seen for the bacterial population that had dropped almost 90% after antibiotic exposure initially.

This was tested again for confirmation and same results were obtained every time. Synergist cells suppress drug-susceptible subpopulations more than single drug therapies but at the same time this also eliminates all competitors of drug-resistant cells which grow more rapidly.

The study shows bacterial genes had widely duplicated genes which provided way for such a behavior. Whole genome sequencing revealed genetic amplification of four drug resistant regions including acrAB efflux operon. Basically, these provided more “efflux pumps” that thrust drugs into extracellular space, or the periplasm, thus conferring resistance to a wide range of drugs in many species. Though two-pronged attacks don’t always work but why to take a chance. This research helps in generating awareness that unless super-inhibitory doses are achieved as well as maintained and until the pathogen is successfully cleared; synergistic antibiotics can have the opposite effect to that intended by helping clear the bacterium rapidly.

Source:
Pena-Miller R, Laehnemann D, Jansen G, Fuentes-Hernandez A, Rosenstiel P, Schulenburg H, & Beardmore R (2013). When the most potent combination of antibiotics selects for the greatest bacterial load: the smile-frown transition. PLoS biology, 11 (4) PMID: 23630452

Brain scans can reveal your criminal status!!!

Cognitive Neuroscience predicts Future Dangerousness  

                                                                            

When happily married and a successful schoolteacher suddenly started making sexual advances towards his stepdaughter, immediate action from court sent him to undergo neuroimaging examinations. After a much surprise, results revealed an existence of a major tumor in frontal lobe of his brain, removal of which normalized his sexual behavior towards his stepdaughter. Can Neuroscience predict who’s going to be the future criminal?

For nearly twenty years we have known that psychiatrists cannot predict whether a person who has committed a violent act will be violent in the future or not. Even the most well known psychiatrists and psychologists were mostly inaccurate in an overwhelming majority of cases if not always.

Cognitive Neuroscience— a field of science ensures prediction of Future Dangerousness and Culpability Determinations in Violent Criminal Offenders

Cognitive neuroscience explains why individuals engage in violent, aggressive and/or impulsive behavior by studying the structure and function of the brain. Certain brain injuries in particular part of the brain has direct influence in determining individual’s behavior and their capacity for a future criminal conduct. Basically, there are two specific areas of brains viz. frontal lobe including pre-frontal cortex and amygdale, damage to which impairs decision making capacity and inability to recognize emotional responses, aggression to another person’s fear. This is where we can trace the biological roots of criminology.

Study of Structure and Function of the Brain

Using variety of techniques like PET, MRI, CT, SPECT, EEG scientist are able to come to conclusion about the part of brain which is damaged. It therefore also tells about the different type of disorders and its subsequent symptoms upon individual’s behavior.

Through this paper it is clearly explained that though individuals with frontal or amygdala disorders are still able to make difference between what is right or wrong however, because of the inability to control their behavior they cannot use this knowledge for any good to them or to others. The study also explains that the mind of adolescents is different from that of adults as the part of brain which is generally involved in helping organization, planning and strategics is not done being built yet and therefore deprives them of taking right decisions.

Don’t Worry About Your Liver

Exploiting liver cell genetics gives new insights

    

How would you feel if you would have an eternal liver, a liver that lasts forever? Recently, researchers have found gene targets which will boost the regenerative capacity of your liver cells. This means a complete cure for all your liver related problems!

Around 2% of total deaths worldwide are caused due to failure of liver function. Though liver has an inherent capacity to fully restore itself after significant hepatic tissue loss or partial hepactectomy, factors like aging or diseased condition often impairs its ability leading to loss of organ function and hence serious physiological problems.

Latest research through a functional genetic approach ensures that certain gene targets are exploited for enhancing this tremendous regenerative ability of liver cells. Researchers have used Gene silencing for this purpose which is a very promising technology nowadays. They have already tested this on mouse livers and found a stable introduction of small hair-pin RNA’s in genome which have successfully silenced MKK4 kinase, a potent therapeutic candidate of this process.

This is a pretty impressive and useful finding which would be of great use to many people suffering liver diseases or needing liver transplants.

Source: Wuestefeld, T., Pesic, M., Rudalska, R., Dauch, D., Longerich, T., Kang, T., Yevsa,T.,, Heinzmann, F., Hoenicke, L., Hohmeyer,A., Potapova,A., Rittelmeier, I., Jarek,M., Geffers,R.,, Scharfe, M., Klawonn, F., Schirmacher, P., Malek, N., Ott, M., Nordheim, A., Vogel, A.,, & Manns, M. & Zender, Z. (2013). A Direct In Vivo RNAi Screen Identifies MKK4 as a Key Regulator of Liver Regeneration. Cell, 153 (2)