Friday, June 26, 2020

Tel Aviv University researchers destroy cancer cells with ultrasound treatment

Technique combines ultrasound application and tumor-targeted microbubbles that attach to cancer cells and explode

AMERICAN FRIENDS OF TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY

An international research team led by Dr. Tali Ilovitsh of the Biomedical Engineering Department at Tel Aviv University developed a noninvasive technology platform for gene delivery into breast cancer cells. The technique combines ultrasound with tumor-targeted microbubbles. Once the ultrasound is activated, the microbubbles explode like smart and targeted warheads, creating holes in cancer cells' membranes, enabling gene delivery. Conducted over two years, the research was published on June 9 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Dr. Ilovitsh developed this breakthrough technology during her post-doctorate research at the lab of Prof. Katherine Ferrara at Stanford University. The technique utilizes low frequency ultrasound (250 kHz) to detonate microscopic tumor-targeted bubbles. In vivo, cell destruction reached 80% of tumor cells.

"Microbubbles are microscopic bubbles filled with gas, with a diameter as small as one tenth of a blood vessel," Dr. Ilovitsh explains. "At certain frequencies and pressures, sound waves cause the microbubbles to act like balloons: they expand and contract periodically. This process increases the transfer of substances from the blood vessels into the surrounding tissue. We discovered that using lower frequencies than those applied previously, microbubbles can significantly expand, until they explode violently. We realized that this discovery could be used as a platform for cancer treatment and started to inject microbubbles into tumors directly."

Dr. Ilovitsh and the rest of the team used tumor-targeted microbubbles that were attached to tumor cells' membranes at the moment of the explosion, and injected them directly into tumors in a mouse model. "About 80% of tumor cells were destroyed in the explosion, which was positive on its own," says Dr. Ilovitsh. "The targeted treatment, which is safe and cost-effective, was able to destroy most of the tumor. However, it is not enough. In order to prevent the remaining cancer cells to spread, we needed to destroy all of the tumor cells. That is why we injected an immunotherapy gene alongside the microbubbles, which acts as a Trojan horse, and signaled the immune system to attack the cancer cell."

On its own, the gene cannot enter into the cancer cells. However, this gene aimed to enhance the immune system was co-injected together with the microbubbles. Membrane pores were formed in the remaining 20% of the cancer cells that survived the initial explosion, allowing the entry of the gene into the cells. This triggered an immune response that destroyed the cancer cell.

"The majority of cancer cells were destroyed by the explosion, and the remaining cells consumed the immunotherapy gene through the holes that were created in their membranes," Dr. Ilovitsh explains. "The gene caused the cells to produce a substance that triggered the immune system to attack the cancer cell. In fact, our mice had tumors on both sides of their bodies. Despite the fact that we conducted the treatment only on one side, the immune system attacked the distant side as well."

Dr. Ilovitsh says that in the future she intends to attempt using this technology as a noninvasive treatment for brain-related diseases such as brain tumors and other neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. "The blood-brain barrier does not allow for medications to penetrate through, but microbubbles can temporary open the barrier, enabling the arrival of the treatment to the target area without the need for an invasive surgical intervention."

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American Friends of Tel Aviv University supports Israel's most influential, comprehensive and sought-after center of higher learning, Tel Aviv University (TAU). TAU is recognized and celebrated internationally for creating an innovative, entrepreneurial culture on campus that generates inventions, startups and economic development in Israel. TAU is ranked ninth in the world, and first in Israel, for producing start-up founders of billion-dollar companies, an achievement that surpassed several Ivy League universities. To date, 2,500 US patents have been filed by Tel Aviv University researchers -- ranking TAU #1 in Israel, #10 outside of the US and #66 in the world.

New process could safeguard water quality, environment and health

Pioneering single process can remove pollutants from waste water

SWANSEA UNIVERSITY

A research team at Swansea University have developed a new method for fast removal and detection of wastewater pollutants that come from everyday pharmaceuticals like paracetamol, ibuprofen and aspirin, which could help minimise their impact on the environment.

The all-female team of (bio)chemists from the Medical School, in collaboration with international company, Biotage, have published the research in Analytical Science Advances. The research outlines how they successfully developed a single process for separating and quantifying a wide range of different pharmaceuticals and chemicals from personal care products found in everyone's bathrooms that can end up in wastewater sludge and blood plasma. The new method will speed up our understanding of which pollutants may be released and could help reduce the negative effects they have on the wider environment.

First author Dr Rachel Townsend said: "Many people don't really think about what happens to these drugs once they've taken them. Like any foodstuff, once a drug has been taken, it is excreted from the body and ends up in a wastewater treatment plant.

"It was thought that pharmaceuticals were degraded during the treatment process, but research has shown this isn't the case. And of course this becomes a problem as the treated wastewater is released into water courses such as rivers and streams, while 80% of treated sludge is also recycled back onto agricultural land as fertiliser and potentially onto future food crops."

There have been global reports of the adverse effects of pharmaceuticals on the animal kingdom. Diclofenac, for example, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory has caused multiple species of vulture in Asia to become critically endangered, while the Indian long-billed vulture and red-headed vulture populations have decreased by 97-99%. The female contraceptive pill has caused the feminisation of male fish, which has caused populations to decrease rapidly over 2 years. There are also concerns that that sludge used in agriculture could impact on human health too.

The team have pioneered one process that uses a sample preparation method, called QuEChERS, with mass spectrometric detection. Using this process, they were able to detect, extract and quantify a range of pharmaceutical compounds and personal care products from a variety of sources, such as wastewater sludge, where previously multiple extraction methods were needed, making it more efficient in time and resources needed.

The researchers could then get a clearer picture of the factors controlling how antimicrobial resistance develops and spreads in the community, and this knowledge has the potential to help safeguard water quality, the environment and health.

The results will now help to inform the Chemical Investigation Programme, which is a British research initiative that contributes to the European Union Directive for environmental management. With enough research and data, changes can be made to the wastewater treatment process to ensure these everyday pollutants are degraded or removed with the hope of preventing any further impact on the wider environment and ensuring human health remains unaffected.

Co-author, Dr Claire Desbrow from Biotage said: "The newly developed method fits perfectly with our portfolio of sample preparation products. Being able to clean up complex human, food or environmental samples fast and efficiently will be of benefit to not only researchers, but also to industrial, environmental and regulatory laboratories across the globe."

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Unorthodox desalination method could transform global water management

Columbia engineers apply their pioneering technique to attain energy-efficient zero-liquid discharge--the last frontier of desalination--of ultrahigh salinity brines

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AND APPLIED SCIENCE

IMAGE: ILLUSTRATION OF THE TSSE (TEMPERATURE SWING SOLVENT EXTRACTION) PROCESS, A PIONEERING DESALINATION APPROACH FOR HYPERSALINE BRINES THAT COULD TRANSFORM GLOBAL WATER MANAGEMENT. view more

CREDIT: CHANHEE BOO/COLUMBIA ENGINEERING

New York, NY--June 25, 2020--Water security is becoming an urgent global challenge. Hundreds of millions of people already live in water-scarce regions, and the UN projects that by 2030 about half the world's population will be living in highly water-stressed areas. This will be a crisis even for developed countries like the U.S., where water managers in 40 states expect freshwater shortages within the next 10 years. As the global population and GDP grow, so will the demand for freshwater. And, with the continuing rise of global temperatures, water shortages will only get worse.

Desalination processes are increasingly being relied upon to augment water supplies. In fact, global desalination capacity is projected to double between 2016 and 2030. But these processes are expensive and can be harmful to the environment. The ultrahigh salinity brines that are the byproduct of desalination can be several times that of seawater salinity and its management options are especially challenging for inland desalination facilities such as those in Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas.

Over the past year, Columbia Engineering researchers have been refining their unconventional desalination approach for hypersaline brines--temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE)--that shows great promise for widespread use. TSSE is radically different from conventional methods because it is a solvent-extraction-based technique that does not use membranes and is not based on evaporative phase-change: it is effective, efficient, scalable, and sustainably powered. In a new paper, published online June 23 in Environmental Science & Technology, the team reports that their method has enabled them to attain energy-efficient zero-liquid discharge (ZLD) of ultrahigh salinity brines--the first demonstration of TSSE for ZLD desalination of hypersaline brines.

"Zero-liquid discharge is the last frontier of desalination," says Ngai Yin Yip, an assistant professor of earth and environmental engineering who led the study. "Evaporating and condensing the water is the current practice for ZLD but it's very energy intensive and prohibitively costly. We were able to achieve ZLD without boiling the water off--this is a major advance for desalinating the ultrahigh salinity brines that demonstrates how our TSSE technique can be a transformative technology for the global water industry."

Yip's TSSE process begins with mixing a low-polarity solvent with the high salinity brine. At low temperatures (the team used 5 °C), the TSSE solvent extracts water from the brine but not salts (which are present in the brine as ions). By controlling the ratio of solvent to brine, the team can extract all the water from the brine into the solvent to induce the precipitation of salts--after all the water is "sucked" into the solvent, the salts form solid crystals and fall to the bottom, which can then be easily sieved out.

After the researchers separate out the precipitated salts, they warm up the water-laden solvent to a moderate temperature of around 70 °C. At this higher temperature, the solvent's solubility for water decreases and water is squeezed out from the solvent, like a sponge. The separated water forms a layer below the solvent and has much less salt than the initial brine. It can be readily siphoned off and the regenerated solvent can then be reused for the next TSSE cycle.

"We were not expecting TSSE to work as well as it did," Yip says. "In fact, when we were discussing its potential for ZLD, we thought just the opposite, that the process would likely give out at some point when there is just too much salt for it to keep working. So it was a happy surprise when I convinced lead researcher Chanhee Boo to give it a try, for the heck of it, on a Friday afternoon and we got such great results."

With a simulated (lab-prepared) brine feed of 292,500 part-per-million total dissolved solids, Yip's group was able to precipitate more than 90% of the salt in the original solution. In addition, the researchers estimated that the process used only about a quarter of the energy required for evaporation of water--a 75% energy savings compared to thermally evaporating the brine. They reused the solvent for several cycles with no noticeable loss in performance, demonstrating that the solvent was conserved and not expended during the process.

Then, to demonstrate the practical applicability of the technology, the team took a field sample of high-salinity brine, the concentrate of irrigation drainage water in California's Central Valley, where irrigation drainage water is difficult and costly to treat, and achieved ZLD with TSSE.

Conventional distillation methods require high-grade steam and are frequently supplemented with electricity to power vacuum pumps. Because TSSE requires only moderate temperature inputs, the low-grade thermal energy necessary can come from more sustainable sources, such as industrial waste heat, shallow-well geothermal, and low-concentration solar collectors.

"With the right solvent and right temperature conditions, we can provide cost-effective and environmentally sustainable concentrate management options for inland desalination facilities, utilizing brackish groundwater to alleviate the current and pending water stresses," Yip notes.

In addition to managing inland desalination concentrates, TSSE can also be used for other high salinity brines including flowback and produced water from oil and gas extraction, waste streams from steam-driven electric power stations, discharges from coal-to-chemical facilities, and landfill leachate. Yip's group is continuing to investigate the fundamental working mechanisms of TSSE, to engineer further improvements in its performance. This work includes further testing with real samples from the field, as well as optimization of the overall process.

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About the Study

The study is titled "Zero Liquid Discharge of Ultrahigh Salinity Brines with Temperature Swing Solvent Extraction."

Authors are:

Chanhee Boo,† Ian H. Billinge,† Xi Chen,† Kinnari M. Shah,† and Ngai Yin Yip*,†,‡

† Department of Earth and Environmental Engineering, Columbia University

‡ Columbia Water Center, Columbia University

The study was supported by the United States Bureau of Reclamation, Grant R19AC00111.

The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interest.

LINKS:

Paper: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.0c02555

DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.0c02555

http://engineering.columbia.edu/

https://engineering.columbia.edu/press-releases/ngai-yin-yip-radical-desalination

https://engineering.columbia.edu/faculty/ngai-yin-yip

https://eee.columbia.edu/

https://yiplab-h2o-e-env.eee.columbia.edu/

Columbia Engineering

Columbia Engineering, based in New York City, is one of the top engineering schools in the U.S. and one of the oldest in the nation. Also known as The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School expands knowledge and advances technology through the pioneering research of its more than 220 faculty, while educating undergraduate and graduate students in a collaborative environment to become leaders informed by a firm foundation in engineering. The School's faculty are at the center of the University's cross-disciplinary research, contributing to the Data Science Institute, Earth Institute, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Precision Medicine Initiative, and the Columbia Nano Initiative. Guided by its strategic vision, "Columbia Engineering for Humanity," the School aims to translate ideas into innovations that foster a sustainable, healthy, secure, connected, and creative humanity.

Mountain meadow restoration can bring birds back

POINT BLUE CONSERVATION SCIENCE

New Research: Mountain Meadow Restoration Can Bring Birds Back

In a new study led by scientists at Point Blue Conservation Science and in collaboration with The Institute for Bird Populations, authors evaluated the successes of mountain meadow restorations by analyzing eight years of bird data collected by field biologists. The authors concluded that, when "pond and plug" and similar techniques were followed, the number of birds of many species increased over time as habitat conditions improved.

The paper, published in Restoration Ecology, may prove of particular value to restoration practitioners, many of whom rely on peer-reviewed scientific journal articles to guide their work.

"This paper is the culmination of many years of work monitoring meadows. And it definitely increases the amount of evidence we have that one of the most commonly used approaches n is having the effects we want," says Brent Campos, a lead author of the study.

Restoration of degraded meadows and their streams aims to increase the amount of water flowing out of the stream channel during spring runoff and elevate groundwater levels in the dry season. Currently there are major efforts being made to restore meadows across the Sierra Nevada that have been degraded from overgrazing, agricultural use, or deliberate stream channel modifications. Evaluations of meadow restoration are needed to ensure objectives--such as increased biodiversity--are being met and identify modifications that may improve outcomes.

The study authors evaluated the expectation that meadow birds would increase in abundance following restoration. From 2009 to 2017 biologists sampled birds at 31 montane meadows in California previously restored using a common technique: partially filling the over-sized stream channel with meadow soils. The authors then assessed how the abundance of 12 species of meadow-associated birds changed from 1 to 18 years after restoration, and whether the amount of deciduous shrubs and trees (an indicator of bird habitat quality) at the time of restoration affected the rate of bird response.

According to the research, six of the twelve species studied increased in abundance after restoration, while five stayed roughly the same and one may have decreased. The amount of deciduous trees and shrubs at the restoration site at the time of restoration was a strong predictor of bird abundance. The study's authors concluded that both hydrologic measures (partially filling in degraded stream channels) and vegetative measures (planting shrubs and trees such as willows and cottonwoods at restoration sites) were helpful in creating habitat for birds, with the latter approach accelerating the positive impacts of restoration.

"Having access to one of the longest term datasets around for bird monitoring and meadow restoration was really essential to this paper," said Helen Loffland, a meadow bird specialist with The Institute for Bird Populations, and one of the paper's co-authors. "And it was heartening to see such positive responses from the birds in areas where both hydrologic and vegetative restoration measures were used."

"We know that restoration practitioners are out there trying to do the best job possible with limited funding," said Campos. "We hope that this new research will help them in their work restoring meadows' key functions of fostering biodiversity, reducing downstream flooding, purifying water, and storing carbon."

The study sites included areas throughout the Sierra including the Perazzo Meadows restoration site near Truckee, Red Clover Valley near Portola, and a restoration site in Tasmam Koyom (Humbug Valley) in Plumas County.

"It is pretty incredible to visit the Tasmam Koyom site, which is only 6 years out from the restoration completion and see such an abundance of birds," said Ryan Burnet, another co-author. "To see so many more song sparrows or yellow warblers is really encouraging. Normally, you'd need to wait 10 or even 20 years to see a biological response like that."

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The article, "Bird response to hydrologic restoration of montane riparian meadows" was published in the peer-reviewed journal Restoration Ecology (DOI 10.1111).

About Point Blue Conservation Science:

Point Blue advances conservation of birds, other wildlife and ecosystems through science, partnerships, and outreach. Our highest priority is to reduce the impacts of habitat loss, climate change, and other environmental threats while promoting nature-based solutions for wildlife and people, on land and at sea. Visit Point Blue at http://www.pointblue.org.

Both the famous Hope diamond and British Crown Jewel diamonds, may be "super-deep"

GOLDSCHMIDT CONFERENCE

IMAGE: AN ANALYSIS OF THE FIRST LARGE DIAMONDS CONFIRMED TO COME FROM DEEP UNDER THE EARTH'S SURFACE SUPPORTS INITIAL PREDICTIONS SHOWING THAT THE SMITHSONIAN'S FAMOUS HOPE DIAMOND MAY BE "SUPER... view more

CREDIT: PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION

An analysis of the first large diamonds confirmed to come from deep under the Earth's surface supports initial predictions showing that the Smithsonian's famous Hope diamond may be "super deep", originating from more than three times deeper in the Earth than most diamonds. It also suggests, in a new finding, that the "Crown Jewels" Cullinan diamond may also be a super-deep diamond.

Presenting the work at the Goldschmidt geochemistry conference, Dr Evan Smith of the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) confirmed: "We examined the first large gem diamonds confirmed to originate from Earth's lower mantle, which is several times deeper than most other diamonds. The results support earlier predictions based on smaller gems, suggesting that diamonds with properties similar to those studied, including both the Cullinan and Hope diamonds, are super-deep diamonds".

Diamonds are formed under high pressure in the Earth's mantle, the middle layer between the surface crust and the central core. While the majority of diamonds form in the base of the continental tectonic plates, at depths of 150-200 km, some rare diamonds form deeper in the mantle. These "super-deep" diamonds originate beneath the rigid and stable continental plates, down where the mantle is slowly moving, or convecting. The Hope diamond is classified as a type IIb diamond, which contains the element boron, which can cause a blue tinge. Until now there has been uncertainty over whether "type IIb" diamonds formed in a shallow or deep environment. In particular, the uncertainty revolves around the origin of large type IIb diamonds, larger than 3 carats (about the size of a pea). It is only within the past couple of years that scientist have begun to understand where in the Earth these dazzling blue crystals form.

Now researchers Drs Evan Smith and Wuyi Wang, working at the GIA laboratory in New York, have detected the remains of the mineral bridgmanite in a large type IIb diamond. Smith said:

"Finding these remnants of the elusive mineral bridgmanite is significant. It's very common in the deep Earth, at the extreme pressure conditions of the lower mantle, below a depth of 660 km, even deeper than most super deep diamonds. Bridgmanite doesn't exist in the upper mantle, or at the surface. What we actually see in the diamonds when they reach surface is not bridgmanite, but the minerals left when it breaks down as the pressure decreases. Finding these minerals trapped in a diamond means that the diamond itself must have crystallized at a depth where bridgmanite exists, very deep within the Earth".

Smith examined a large, 20 carat type IIb blue diamond from a mine in South Africa. By aiming a laser at the tiny inclusions trapped inside this diamond they found that the way the light scattered (using a Raman spectrometer) was characteristic of bridgmanite breakdown products.

He said "We also examined a large 124 carat diamond from the Letseng mine in Lesotho. This diamond, which is around the size of a walnut, is very pure, containing no nitrogen in its crystal structure, and is known as a "CLIPPIR" diamond. This is from the same class of diamond as the famous Cullinan Diamond, which is now the centrepiece of the British Crown Jewels. This large diamond showed the same characteristic bridgmanite breakdown products, meaning that it too had been formed as a super-deep diamond. What is special about this one is that it is the first CLIPPIR diamond for which we can firmly assign a lower mantle origin, that is, below 660 km. Previously, we had known that CLIPPIR diamonds are super-deep and speculated that their depth of origin might span 360 to 750 km depth, but we hadn't actually seen any that were definitely from the deeper end of this window. This gives us a better idea of exactly where CLIPPIR diamonds, such as the Crown Jewel diamonds, come from. What we have learned here is that there is some overlap in the birthplace for CLIPPIR diamonds, such as the Cullinan, and type IIb diamonds, such as the Hope. This is the first time this has been found".

Boron-rich type IIb diamonds, such as the Hope diamond, are rare; less than 1 in a thousand diamonds being classified as type IIb.

"Discovering the deep mantle origin means that the material in these diamonds undergoes a remarkable journey. We believe that the boron, which give the Hope diamond it's characteristic blue color, originates from the bottom of the oceans. From there, plate tectonics drags it hundreds of kilometres down into the mantle, where it can be incorporated into diamond. It shows that there is a gigantic recycling route that brings elements from Earth's surface down into the Earth, and then occasionally returns beautiful diamonds to the surface, as passengers in volcanic eruptions".

Commenting, Dr Jeff Post, Curator-in-Charge of Gems and Minerals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, said "This fascinating work confirms that the Hope Diamond is extraordinary and special, and truly one of Earth's rarest objects ".

Dr Christopher Beyer, of the Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany commented: "The discovery of remnants of bridgmanite break-down products in large gem-quality diamonds shows that inclusions in diamonds are capsules which come to us from otherwise inaccessible deep Earth. In addition, the unique signature of boron in type IIb diamonds supports the theory of whole mantle convection with subducting slabs descending into Earth's lower mantle. Diamonds crystallize from a fluid, so further studies are now needed to track down the fluid composition and the conditions that facilitate the growth of these rare large diamonds".

NOTE: Neither Dr Post nor Dr Beyer were involved in this work, these are independent comments.

The Goldschmidt Conference thanks the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History for their assistance in preparing this press notice.

The Goldschmidt Conference is the world's main geochemistry conference, hosted by the Geochemical Society and the European Association of Geochemistry. Held annually, it covers such material as climate change, astrobiology, planetary and stellar development and conditions, chemistry of Earth materials, pollution, the undersea environment, volcanoes, and many other subjects. For 2020 the scheduled Hawaii congress has been moved online, and takes place from 21-26 June, see https://goldschmidt.info/2020/index. Future congresses are in Lyon, France (2021) and the rescheduled Hawaii congress (2022).

NRL telescope onboard ESA, NASA SOHO discovers 4000th comet

NAVAL RESEARCH LABORATORY

IMAGE: COURTESY PHOTO | THE 4,000TH COMET DISCOVERED BY ESA (EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY) AND NASA'S SOHO OBSERVATORY IS SEEN HERE IN AN IMAGE FROM THE SPACECRAFT ALONGSIDE SOHO'S 3,999TH COMET DISCOVERY.... view more

CREDIT: ESA/NASA/SOHO/KARL BATTAMS

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory's Large Angle Spectrometric Coronagraph (LASCO) instrument identified the 4000th comet discovered by the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a joint mission between the European Space Agency and NASA on June 15.

LASCO, which is aboard SOHO, was developed in 1995 to see the extremely faint emission from the region around the Sun called the corona. Operating in space for nearly 25 years, the telescope has seen much more space action than researchers originally anticipated -- discovering well over half of all known comets.

"In less than 25 years SOHO has added this huge volume to the archives of our comet knowledge, and it comes from a telescope not designed to see comets," said Karl Battams, NRL computational scientist. "This is exciting for many reasons, but perhaps mostly because LASCO is discovering comets that are otherwise completely unobservable from Earth due to their proximity to the Sun."

The majority of the comet discoveries were made by amateur astronomers who participated in the NASA-funded and NRL-managed Sungrazer project, which encourages citizen scientists to peruse imagery from SOHO and the Sun-Earth Connection Coronal and Heliospheric Investigation (SECCHI) instrument suite on the NASA Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO) and search for previously unknown comets. New comet findings are reported through the website, and subsequently verified and measured by Battams, who has led this Project since 2003.

"The people who discovered these comets were not necessarily professional astronomers, they were people at home," Battams said. "People of all ages, backgrounds, and countries have volunteered their time to be a part of this citizen science project. The 4000th comet is a testament to the invaluable input from so many volunteers all around the world over the past two decades."

The Navy has a unique interest in the Sun and near -Sun environment. Much of the Navy's equipment, and equipment we use every day, such as GPS, is impacted by the Sun. Studying comets traveling near the Sun helps researchers gain a greater understanding of Earth's closest star, as they observe the comets reacting to its extreme environment.

Battams is a computational scientist and astrophysicist within the Solar and Heliospheric Physics Branch under the Space Sciences division at NRL. The mission of this Branch is to develop improved heliospace environment understanding, awareness, sensors, forecast capabilities, and monitoring tools that predict operational impacts and enable real-time threat warning; and transition these developments to support the Navy/Marine Corps and other agencies.

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About the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory

NRL is a scientific and engineering command dedicated to research that drives innovative advances for the Navy and Marine Corps from the seafloor to space and in the information domain. NRL is located in Washington, D.C., with major field sites in Stennis Space Center, Mississippi; Key West, Florida; and Monterey, California, and employs approximately 2,500 civilian scientists, engineers and support personnel.

MIGHT AS WELL TRY ANYTHING FOR AN 'INCURABLE' VERY PAINFUL DISEASE

Survey: Alternative medicine is widespread among people with MS

Oregon survey finds growing acceptance of complementary and alternative medicine

OREGON HEALTH & SCIENCE UNIVERSITY

A new survey of more than 1,000 people with multiple sclerosis finds that an overwhelming majority use complementary and alternative medicine, with many using cannabis.

Researchers at Oregon Health & Science University conducted the survey of people in Oregon and Southwest Washington in 2018. The results were published recently in the journal Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.

The survey found that patients are nine times more likely to talk with their neurologist about the use of alternative therapies than patients in a similar survey conducted in 2001, a sign of broader societal acceptance of treatments beyond conventional medications. In the years since the first survey, several conventional medications have become available to manage MS-related disease activity.

Even so, patients appear to be more inclined to use alternatives such as dietary supplements, despite limited evidence of their effectiveness.

"The use of these alternative supplements has remained high even though we have all these other treatment modalities," said lead author Elizabeth Silbermann, M.D., a fellow in neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine.

Key findings:

81% used dietary supplements such as vitamins, minerals and herbs, up from 65% in the same survey conducted almost two decades ago.
39% used mind-body therapies such as mindfulness and massage, up from 14% in the earlier survey.
81% used exercise to help manage their symptoms - an increase from 67% in 2001.

The use of cannabis was common among respondents in the new survey, with about 30% reporting that they've used it in a variety of forms. Although cannabis remains an illegal substance under federal law, voters in recent years legalized it in both Oregon and Washington state.

Even though traditional uses of alternative therapies such as botanical supplements dates back hundreds of years, scientific research generally has been limited. Silbermann said it's a positive sign that patients are more open to discussing their use of alternatives with their neurologist because it's important to manage interactions with conventional medications.

"There's been a change in culture between patients and providers over the past 20 years," Silbermann said. "It's less paternalistic and more of a partnership."

More research is needed so that neurologists can tell patients what does and doesn't help their MS, she said. About 85% of the respondents reported mild or moderate disability.

Senior author Rebecca Spain, M.D., M.S.P.H., associate professor of neurology in the OHSU School of Medicine, said she was gratified the survey reflected patients' comfort and openness in sharing their full experience with their doctors. She said that may be due in part to OHSU's well-established reputation as an academic health center that supports patients' use of complementary and alternative medicine, or CAM.

"Patients' openness in sharing the whole picture of what CAM they're taking has allowed us to better understand and effectively care for our patients with MS," Spain said.

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This research was supported by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, award R-1705-27,628, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health, through grant award number UL1TR002369

Maryland offshore wind farm could become stop-over for migrating sturgeon, striped bass

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

IMAGE: RESEARCHER ELLIE ROTHERMEL CONFIGURES AN ACOUSTIC RECEIVER OFF COAST OF OCEAN CITY, MARYLAND, TO MONITOR TO THE MOVEMENT OF ATLANTIC STURGEON AND STRIPED BASS OFF THE DELMARVA COASTLINE. view more

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE/MIKE O'BRIEN

SOLOMONS, MD (June 23, 2020)--For the endangered Atlantic sturgeon and the commercially and recreationally important striped bass, the Delaware-Maryland-Virginia coastal shelf serves as an important spring and fall "flyway." Typically thought of as an established aerial route used by migratory birds to travel between feeding and breeding grounds, a recent study by scientists at the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science applies the term to fish species of concern. Authors suggest that the development of wind farms on the Delmarva coastal shelf, 17-26 miles from Ocean City's shoreline, may alter the migratory behavior of these fish as new wind turbines in this otherwise featureless region could create habitat around which fish linger.

Studies within the Maryland Wind Energy Area--the coastal shelf waters leased by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management for offshore wind farms--prior to construction activities reveal that Atlantic sturgeon and striped bass are frequent visitors. Seasonal trends lead scientists to believe that the wind energy area lies within an important migration corridor for both species. Atlantic sturgeon were most commonly observed moving through the area during the spring and fall, while striped bass had an increased migratory presence in spring and winter. The Atlantic sturgeons' "flyway" tended to favor shallower, warmer waters, while striped bass were more likely to be found at great depths and cooler conditions.

Both species spent longer periods of time in the corridor during the autumn and winter. This trend was particularly strong for striped bass, with many individuals prolonging their presence on the outer shelf during winter. However, during the summer, Atlantic sturgeon were rarely detected and striped bass were absent.

The construction of an off-shore wind farm creates loud noises and increased activity that can disrupt typical animal behaviors. The low occurrence of these important fish species during the summer months suggests a potential window for wind turbine construction, when impacts could be minimized.

"Scientists have learned a lot about the Atlantic sturgeon and striped bass' seasonal patterns of habitat selection within spawning rivers, estuaries, and shelf foraging habitats," says study author Ellie Rothermel, who recently received her master's degree from the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science. "During these times, we know where the fish are likely to be and when to expect them there, but information on the location and timing of key coastal migrations is limited. Coastal waters have been largely inaccessible to scientists. Our study uses acoustic telemetry to understand the critical migratory periods in the lives of these fish species."

Rothermel compares acoustic telemetry to the E-ZPass system used for vehicles. When a car with E-ZPass is driven over the Bay Bridge, a toll booth collects its identification number, along with the time and date. Just like toll booths and the E-Z Pass system, scientists use acoustic receivers and tags to track where fish go, and when they go there.

After catching and determining the size, weight and sex of a striped bass, scientists surgically implanted an acoustic tag into the fish prior to releasing it. An acoustic tag is a small device, about the size of a thumb, that has a unique ID and makes a "ping" sound every few seconds.

Scientists also deployed 20 acoustic receivers in the Maryland Wind Energy Area. When a tagged fish swims past a receiver, a listening device about the size of a liter soda bottle, the receiver records the "ping" sent out by the tag. Each "ping" transmits its unique ID and the depth at which the fish was swimming to the receiver, which also records the time and date. The array of receivers allows scientists to monitor the movements of tagged fish. During the study, "pings" from 352 individual Atlantic sturgeon and 315 individual striped bass were recorded by receivers.

Scientists believe that Maryland's future offshore wind farm could become a stop-over region where striped bass and sturgeon might linger longer. The DelMarVa coastal shelf is a fairly barren area. The development of high relief wind turbines would provide structure around which fish may gather and linger during migrations.

"To extend the highway travel metaphor, the wind farm that will be built in the area off-shore from Ocean City may become a 'rest stop' where fish and sharks can grab a bite to eat and take a break before resuming their travels," says study co-author Dave Secor of the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science.

As wind farms are developed and operated offshore of the Mid-Atlantic and Southern New England regions, which together comprises a multispecies "flyway," scientists could use the telemetry array design to monitor potential impacts. Cooperation among researchers, expanded scale of acoustic telemetry arrays, and increased incorporation of oceanographic data will improve understanding of how fishes will respond to wind energy development in the northwest Atlantic Ocean.

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Project funding was provided by U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), Office of Renewable Energy Programs.

The study "Comparative migration ecology of striped bass and Atlantic sturgeon in the US Southern mid-Atlantic bight flyway" was published in PLOS ONE.

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CENTER FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

A globally eminent research and graduate institution focused on advancing scientific knowledge of the environment, the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science provides sound advice to help state and national leaders manage the environment and prepares future scientists to meet the global challenges of the 21st century.

New data reveals even low levels of air pollution triggers gene expression

MONASH UNIVERSITY

New data from a landmark study by Monash University researchers raises concerns that even short-term exposure to low level air pollution can affect gene expression, leaving us at risk of diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.

It has long been known that exposure to air pollution, including the widespread smoke events of the last Summer in Australia, can lead to short term health problems such as respiratory distress. It is also known that, longer term, exposure to air pollutants leads to oxidative stress and issues like an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Now the American Lung Association has warned that there is a risk of increased infections if and when a region's pollution spikes - as happened when the Summer bushfires occurred in Australia.

The study, published in the PLOS Medicine, provides the first evidence that exposure to even very low levels of air pollution can change gene expression that are the hallmark of diseases such as cancer.

Led by Associate Professor Yuming Guo from the Monash School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, and colleagues at Nagasaki University in Japan and Cambridge University in the UK, the study involved blood samples from 266 pairs of twins (192 identical and 74 non identical) as well as 165 parents in Brisbane over periods from 2005 to 2010. The volunteers are part of the Brisbane System Genetics Study.

The periods when the blood samples were taken were matched to data from seven air quality monitoring stations around Brisbane at that time, to measure the levels of exposure to PM2.5 (the main particulate matter in smoke) and sulphur dioxide (the main gaseous pollutant).

The researchers studied expression in six genes associated with oxidative stress and inflammation, which have long been considered important features of disease processes initiated by pollutants and found that even the low levels of air pollution experienced in Brisbane led to change of gene expression associated with morbidity and mortality in the longer term.

The latest study is further evidence that exposure to air pollutants, even at low levels, has long term health consequences, which has real life implications for the current the COVID-19 pandemic according to Associate Professor Guo. "This is the first evidence as to how exactly exposure to low levels of air pollution actually alters our gene expression which in turn impacts our health," he said.

"Combined with the global consequences of COVID-19 and its impact on respiratory health there is even a greater need to be conscious of limiting our exposure to air pollution."

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Countries with early adoption of face masks showed modest COVID-19 infection rates

AMERICAN THORACIC SOCIETY

IMAGE: EARLY FACE MASK ADOPTION LINKED TO MODEST INFECTION RATES. view more

CREDIT: ATS

June 24, 2020 - Regions with an early interest in face masks had milder COVID-19 epidemics, according to a new letter-to-the-editor published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

In "COVID-19 and Public Interest in Face Mask Use," researchers from the Chinese University of Hong Kong shared findings from their analysis of how public interest in face masks may have affected the severity of COVID-19 epidemics and potentially contained the outbreak in 42 countries in 6 continents.

The authors noted that "In many Asian countries like China and Japan, the use of face masks in this pandemic is ubiquitous and is considered as a hygiene etiquette, whereas in many western countries, its use in the public is less common."

There was a clear negative correlation between the awareness or general acceptance of wearing a face mask and its infection rates. "One classic example is seen in Hong Kong," said Sunny Wong, MD, associate professor, Department of Medicine and Therapeutics, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

"Despite [Hong Kong's] proximity to mainland China, its infection rate of COVID-19 is generally modest with only 1,110 cases to-date. This correlates with an almost ubiquitous use of face masks in the city (up to 98.8 percent by respondents in a survey). Similar patterns are seen in other Asian areas, such as Taiwan, Thailand and Malaysia. To date, there are more than two million cases in the U.S. and more than one million cases in Brazil.

While, the authors acknowledge that face masks are seen as important in slowing the rise of COVID-19 infections, it is difficult to assess whether it is more effective than handwashing or social distancing alone.

As cities in the U.S. and elsewhere put re-opening plans into effect, Dr. Wong said the use of face masks should be encouraged: "Face masks can help slow the spread of COVID-19, and have a relatively low cost compared to the health resources and death toll associated with the pandemic".

He added, "We believe that face mask use, hand washing and social distancing are all important components of the non-pharmaceutical measures against COVID-19."

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About the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine

The AJRCCM is a peer-reviewed journal published by the American Thoracic Society. The Journal takes pride in publishing the most innovative science and the highest quality reviews, practice guidelines and statements in pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. With an impact factor of 16.494, it is one of the highest ranked journals in pulmonology. Editor: Jadwiga Wedzicha, MD, professor of respiratory medicine at the National Heart and Lung Institute (Royal Brompton Campus), Imperial College London, UK.

About the American Thoracic Society

Founded in 1905, the American Thoracic Society is the world's leading medical association dedicated to advancing pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine. The Society's 15,000 members prevent and fight respiratory disease around the globe through research, education, patient care and advocacy. The ATS publishes four journals, the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, and ATS Scholar.

BIOPHAGES VS COVID-19

Bacterial predator could help reduce COVID-19 deaths

UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM

A type of virus that preys on bacteria could be harnessed to combat bacterial infections in patients whose immune systems have been weakened by the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes the COVID-19 disease, according to an expert at the University of Birmingham and the Cancer Registry of Norway.

Called bacteriophages, these viruses are harmless to humans and can be used to target and eliminate specific bacteria. They are of interest to scientists as a potential alternative to antibiotic treatments.

In a new systematic review, published in the journal Phage: Therapy, Applications and Research, two strategies are proposed, where bacteriophages could be used to treat bacterial infections in some patients with COVID-19.

In the first approach, bacteriophages would be used to target secondary bacterial infections in patients' respiratory systems. These secondary infections are a possible cause of the high mortality rate, particularly among elderly patients. The aim is to use the bacteriophages to reduce the number of bacteria and limit their spread, giving the patients' immune systems more time to produce antibodies against SARS-CoV-2.

Dr Marcin Wojewodzic, a Marie Sk?odowska-Curie Research Fellow in the School of Biosciences at the University of Birmingham and now researcher at the Cancer Registry of Norway, is the author of the study. He says: "By introducing bacteriophages, it may be possible to buy precious time for the patients' immune systems and it also offers a different, or complementary strategy to the standard antibiotic therapies."

Professor Martha R.J. Clokie, a Professor of Microbiology at the University of Leicester and Editor-in-Chief of PHAGE journal explains why this work is important: "In the same way that we are used to the concept of 'friendly bacteria' we can harness 'friendly viruses' or 'phages' to help us target and kill secondary bacterial infections caused by a weakened immune system following viral attack from viruses such as COVID-19".

Dr Antal Martinecz, an expert in computational pharmacology at the Arctic University of Norway who advised on the manuscript says: "This is not only a different strategy to the standard antibiotic therapies but, more importantly, it is exciting news relating to the problem of bacterial resistance itself."

In the second treatment strategy, the researcher suggests that synthetically altered bacteriophages could be used to manufacture antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus which could then be administered to patients via a nasal or oral spray. These bacteriophage-generated antibodies could be produced rapidly and inexpensively using existing technology.

"If this strategy works, it will hopefully buy time to enable a patient to produce their own specific antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and thus reduce the damage caused by an excessive immunological reaction," says Dr Wojewodzic.

Professor Martha R.J. Clokie's research focuses on the identification and development of bacteriophages that kill pathogens in an effort to develop new antimicrobials: "We could also exploit our knowledge of phages to engineer them to generate novel and inexpensive antibodies to target COVID-19. This clearly written article covers both aspects of phage biology and outlines how we might use these friendly viruses for good purpose."

Dr Wojewodzic is calling for clinical trials to test these two approaches.

"This pandemic has shown us the power viruses have to cause harm. However, by using beneficial viruses as an indirect weapon against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and other pathogens, we can harness that power for a positive purpose and use it to save lives. The beauty of nature is that while it can kill us, it can also come to our rescue." adds Dr Wojewodzic.

"It's clear that no single intervention will eliminate COVID-19. In order to make progress we need to approach the problem from as many different angles and disciplines as possible." concludes Dr Wojewodzic.

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Notes to editor:

* The University of Birmingham is ranked amongst the world's top 100 institutions. Its work brings people from across the world to Birmingham, including researchers, teachers and more than 6,500 international students from over 150 countries.

* Wojewodzic (2020). '' Bacteriophages could be a potential game changer in the trajectory of coronavirus disease (COVID-19). PHAGE: Therapy, Applications, and Research. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/phage.2020.0014

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