Leischmaniasis is transmitted by the sandfly, here seen biting a human finger.

A new study published in Science finds for the first time evidence of sexual reproduction in the protozoan parasites in the genus Leishmania, causing skin ulcers and potentially fatal disease, Leishmaniasis. The American scientists show that mating and subsequent genetic exchange occurs when the parasites are in the sand flies.

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The bed bug (Cimex lectularius) sucking blood from a human. Wikimedia Commons courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Bed bugs are small night-active insects in the family Cimicidae (order hemiptera). Different species are found in both temperate and tropical regions, where they feed by sucking blood from humans and other warm-blooded hosts. Bed bugs are flattened, brown and have a length of 4-5 mm. They are attracted to body heat and CO₂, and typically feed every 5-10 days, but they can survive for almost a year without feeding.

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Yum! Who can withstand a muffin? Too much wrong and too much sugar containing food is one of the main reasons for diabetes (photocase.com)

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HIV-Virus leaving the host cell (3-D-electron-tomographie photograph, courtesy: University hospital of Heidelberg, Germany)

  Scientists from Germany discovered an unknown mechanism in host cells of the AIDS-Virus. HIV affects cells of the immune system in humans. Viruses transform their hosts for their own purposes and reproduction. Finally they are released from the infected cell and start befalling other immune cells. But how is this achieved by the virus? The latest research results of german scientists from Heidelberg and Munich suggest an active role of the host cell itself!

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The Eastern Green Mamba (Dendroaspis angusticeps) has one of the most venomous bites. From Wikimedia Commons (Photo by user Danleo)

Snakes are limbless reptiles which can be found almost everywhere on the globe although the diversity is far greater in the tropics than everywhere else. Most snakes are poisonous and use the poison to paralyze prey, which typically include rodent, lizards and amphibians. However, the poison is also used for self-defence against larger predators and although only few species are dangerous to humans these often possess a significant threat to humans working in rural tropical settings.

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Melanom - skin cancer. RNA-Interference-Method a new hope for patients?

A new designer drug causes cell suicide in cancer cells of the black melanom. This interesting new research result was now published in "Nature Medicine". Scientists from the University of Bonn, Germany, used a newly developed method to knock out certain genes which cause cancer cell growth. They tested their medicine in mice. The team applied the RNA -Interference-Method for which two US-american scientists (Craig Mello and Andrew Fire) received the noble prize in 2006. The Nobel prize laureates discovered that small pieces of RNA, a form of genetic material, can switch on and off the activity of our genetic material, the DNA in cells.

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Vision loss by macular degeneration, still no cure available

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Treatment with the new drug leads to a decline in plaques in treated mice (Figure: Richard Dodel)

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Womens sexuality is more complex than in men (Courtesy: photocase.com)

More than 20% of women report an inability to get frequently vaginal orgasms when having sex with their partner. Also men often believe that women are less able to have a sexually fullfilled lifes. Often it is indeed the case that in partnerships women suffer from female coital orgasmic infrequencies. The reasons can be quite diverse.

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Animation of oxy and deoxy forms of hemoglobin (from: Molecule of the Month by www.pdb.org, Courtesy: US Federal Government )

A pulse oxymeter can measure if the blood of a patient is oxygen saturated or not, giving evidence about the content of oxygen in the carrier molecule hemoglobin in the red blood cells, the erythrocytes. This optical checking device tests the amount of infrared light, swallowed by oxygen loaded hemoglobin cells. The more oxygen the blood tested contains, the more infrared light can be detected. Hemoglobin loaded with carbon dioxide is absorbing most of the infrared light, telling the physician that he deals with deoxygenated blood of the veins which normally contain the blood returning from the body with low oxygen and high carbon dioxide which is transported by hemoglobin. The color of hemoglobin normally changes when unloading oxygen and uploading carbon dioxide.

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Scientists have developed algorithms that can diagnose Dengue Fever from body temperature and blood samples. Photo courtesy of Photocase.com.

The largest markets for medical drugs are found in the Western countries and therefore both private medical companies and public universities and funding bodies mainly pour money into the research of diseases found predominantly in Western countries, while equally dangerous and prevalent diseases from developing countries has been neglected. However, this is slowly changing with the arrival of medical journals dedicated to this field, such as the open-access PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. In the latest Issue, a research group comprising of scientists from the Novartis Institute of Tropical Diseases and from various public institutions in Singapore and Vietnam has published a study on Dengue Fever.

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Transmission electron microscopy image of the influenza virus. Magnified around 100,000 times. Courtesy of the Public Health Image Library.

In order to avoid something like this happening in the future, we need to know more about the beginning of the pandemic. The biostatistician Laura White and Marcello Pagano from Boston University studied the recorded spread of the disease in Maryland communities and aboard two ships in order to develop reliable models.

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Parkinson Diease and Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis are caused by degeneration of neurons with long axon projects. Parts of the axon guidance pathway genome can be used to predict the susceptibility and onset of the diseases. Source PLoS Biology Vol. 4, No. 2, e29 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0040029.

Parkinson disease (PD) affects the central nervous system and results in deterioration of motor and speech skills. Usually visible tremors and lack of fine motor control appears in the later stages. Parkinson disease mainly affects elderly people. Around one in 500 will catch the disease, which at the moment is untreatable. However, research to find a cure has been intensified in the last decades. An important aspect is to be able to predict the onset of the disease. Recently an American research group found that variation in some nucleotides in the genome of the axon guidance pathways can predict both the bearer’s susceptibility to PD and probable age of onset the disease. Now the same group has used this approach on another neurologic disease Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).

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p.R254W Variance. A shift from thymin to cytosine causes a shift in the aminoacid order of the enzyme Chymothrypsin. Courtesy: University of Leipzig

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AIDs-virus leaving a host cell (Courtesy: NIH)

Scientists from the german universities of Ulm and Hannover now discovered a peptide (an enzyme derivate) that accelerates the process of cell infection by the Aids virus. In the recent "Cell"- Volume the physicians Dr. Wolfgang Forsmann and his collegue Dr. Frank Kirchhoff showed this important results of their research groups.

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The Liquidus tracking method can prevent the formation of ice crystals in organic material.

The main danger for animals exposed to cold weather is the risk associated with freezing and the formation of ice crystals within the body in general and intracellular in particular. Cold resistant animals use a variety of methods to combat ice formation, including increasing the salinity of the blood and thereby decrease the freezing point, using special chemicals to produce anti-freeze liquids. Researchers have long been interested in discovering ways in which organic materials can be frozen without causing damage to the tissue. The most famous application of this is the science fiction idea of letting astronauts hibernate during long space voyages. However, a more immediate application is the medical need for cryo-preserving organs and tissue that are later to be used in organ transplantations. Researchers from the United Kingdom have now come up with a new method of freezing articular cartilage.

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Using one of the most common drugs the scientists can control gene expression during the infection

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Alcohol - a daily drug that can cause head and neck cancer

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Glia cell in cell culture from neonatal mouse brain, green: glia cell, red peroxisome (Courtesy of Max-Planck-Institute for experimental medicine, Goettingen, Germany).

Glia cells have been known to play a protective role for the cells of the nervous system, the neurons. Until now glia cells were known as myelin structures which form the layer around the axons, the connections between nerve cells. Likewise an isolation in an electrical cable the myelin which consists of gliacells gives electrical protection for the currents between axons and nerve cells. Researchers of the Max-Planck Institute in Goettingen, Germany, showed in genetically disabled lab mice (knock-out-mice) for the production of peroxisomes (small cell organells), that a lack of these peroxisomes in gliacells caused subsequently a degeneration in the axons.

 

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Researchers can now see live virus attacks under the microscope. Photo courtesy of Photocase.com

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