WIKIMEDIA, RAMANew research suggests that inflammation in the hypothalamus may underlie aging of the entire body. Specifically, the inflammatory protein nuclear factor κB (NF-κB), when over-activated in the brain region of mice, suppressed gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH), which stimulates adult neurogenesis. This resulted in numerous aging-related changes in mice, including cognitive deficits, muscle atrophy, thinning skin, loss of bone mass, deterioration of cartilage in their tails, and early death.
“Many different aspects of aging are being slowed together,” Richard Miller, a biogerontologist at the University of Michigan, told The Scientist. “That means that whatever [NF-κB is] working on is somehow slowing that basic aging process itself.”
FLICKR, MOONLIGHTBULBOne approach to understanding infectious disease outbreaks is to map their patterns of occurrence. Such techniques were used as early as the 19th century, when, for example, John Snow tracked the source of a cholera outbreak in London to a local water pump. But some epidemiologists argue that today’s maps suffer from patchy data, and that new online tools should be applied to better understand when and how disease will spread.
WIKIMEDIA, THEGREENJLast week, The Scientist’s Kate Yandell reported the most up-to-date knowledge on the zoonotic flu virus that has infected more than 100 people in China since February. The Chinese government was commended by scientists around the world who were analyzing the viral sequence, which was posted by Chinese researchers in an open-access repository in late March, as well as researchers who had received samples of the live virus for study. This week, The Lancet published new results suggesting that the deadly flu descended from at least four different bird flu strains.
Adult deer tickWIKIMEDIA, SCOTT BAUERThe largest study to date on the possible link between autism disease and the Lyme-causing bacterium, Borrelia sp., finds no evidence of the infection in autism patients, debunking a theory in some corners of the autism community that had some doctors prescribing antibiotics known to fight Lyme disease to children with autism. Some question the detection method used, however, and speculate that autism trigged by the bacterium can remain even after the infection has disappeared.
Daniel DruckerCOURTESY OF ANNIE TONGDaniel Drucker, a senior investigator at Mount Sinai’s Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute in Toronto, Canada, tells the story of a discovery he made in his lab 17 years ago involving a gut hormone called GLP-2, which this year became available to short bowel syndrome patients as a new drug, called teduglutide, or Gattex.
