Bee

Researchers from the University of Würzburg are opening up new horizons in chemistry: They present the world's first triple bond between the atoms boron and carbon.

• Researchers found that infectious bacteria in diabetic mice rapidly evolved resistance to antibiotics.
• Controlling blood sugar in the mice via insulin significantly reduced the emergence of drug-resistant bacteria.

• Scientists found that, when deprived of amino acids, cancer cells cooperated to extract and share them from their environment.
• Blocking a protein called CNDP2 shut down this cooperative survival strategy, suggesting a new potential target for cancer treatment.

Experiments in tiny freshwater animals suggest that certain tumors manipulate their host’s body to increase the likelihood of being transmitted to the next generation.

A planet may have been destroyed by a white dwarf at the center of a planetary nebula — the first time this has been seen. As described in our latest press release, this would explain a mysterious X-ray signal that astronomers have detected from the Helix Nebula for over 40 years. The Helix is a planetary nebula, a late-stage star like our Sun that has shed its outer layers leaving a small dim star at its center called a white dwarf.

Using social robots is a promising approach for supporting senior citizens in the context of super-aging societies. The essential design factors for achieving socially acceptable robots include effective emotional expressions and cuteness. Past studies have reported the effectiveness of robot-initiated touching behaviors toward interacting partners on these two factors in the context of interaction with adults, although the effects of such touch behaviors on them are unknown in seniors. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effects of robot-initiated touch behaviors on perceived emotions (valence and arousal) and the feeling of kawaii, a common Japanese adjective for expressing cute, lovely, or adorable. In experiments with Japanese participants (adults: 21–49, seniors: 65–79) using a baby-type robot, our results showed that the robot’s touch significantly increased the perceived valence regardless of the expressed emotions and the ages of the participants. Our results also showed that the robot’s touch was effective in adults in the context of arousal and the feeling of kawaii, but not in seniors. We discussed the differential effects of robot-initiated touch between adults and seniors by focusing on emotional processing in the latter. The findings of this study have implications for designing social robots that have the capability of physical interaction with seniors.

Social animals, including both humans and mice, are highly motivated to engage in social interactions. Short-term social isolation promotes social behavior, but the neural circuits through which it does so remain incompletely understood. Here, we sought to identify neurons that promote social behavior in single-housed female mice, which exhibit increased rates of social investigation, social ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs), and mounting during same-sex interactions that follow a period of short-term (3 days) isolation. We first used immunostaining for the immediate early gene Fos to identify a population of neurons in the preoptic hypothalamus (POA) that increase their activity in single-housed females following same-sex interactions (POA~social~ neurons) but not in single-housed females that did not engage in social interactions. TRAP2-mediated chemogenetic silencing of POA~social~ neurons in single-housed females significantly attenuates the effects of short-term isolation on social investigation, USV production, and mounting. In contrast, caspase-mediated ablation of POA~social~ neurons in single-housed females robustly attenuates mounting but does not decrease social investigation or USV production. Optogenetic activation of POA~social~ neurons in group-housed females promotes social investigation and USV production but does not recapitulate the effects of short-term isolation on mounting. To understand whether a similar population of POA~social~ neurons promotes social behavior in single-housed males, we performed Fos immunostaining in single-housed males following either same-sex or opposite-sex social interactions. These experiments revealed a population of POA neurons that increase Fos expression in single-housed males following opposite-sex, but not same-sex, interactions. Chemogenetic silencing of POA~social~ neurons in single-housed males during interactions with females reduces mounting but does not affect social investigation or USV production. These experiments identify a population of hypothalamic neurons that promote social behavior following short-term isolation in a sex- and social context-dependent manner.

Abstract

Background: Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and smoking of tobacco products are two of the most important threats to global human health. Both are associated with millions of deaths every year. Surprisingly, the immediate interactions between these two threats are yet poorly understood.

Objectives: Here we aimed to elucidate the effect of toxic compounds from cigarette smoke, ashes, and filters on the spread of antibiotic resistance genes in human lung and environmental microbiomes.

Methods: Conjugation experiments using donor and recipient strain pairs of either Pseudomonas putida or Escherichia coli and AMR-encoding plasmids were conducted under exposure to different concentrations of cigarette smoke condensate in lung sputum medium, and cigarette ash and filter leachate in environmental media. We further measured reactive oxygen species (ROS) production of the donor strain under exposure to the cigarette-derived compounds to explore if stress experienced by the bacteria could be one of the underlying mechanism of changes in plasmid transfer frequencies. Furthermore, used cigarette filters were submerged in a wastewater stream for several weeks, and the colonizing communities were analyzed using high-throughput sequencing and high-throughput qPCR, and compared to unused control filters.

Results: Exposure to cigarette smoke condensate at relevant concentrations resulted in more than 2-fold higher transfer rates of a multi-drug-resistance encoding plasmid in artificial lung sputum medium. This was associated with higher reactive oxygen species production as part of the bacterial stress response when exposed to cigarette-derived toxicants. Similar results were obtained for cigarette ash leachate in environmental medium. Further, used cigarette filters were colonized by different microbial communities compared to unused filters. These communities were significantly enriched with potential human pathogens and AMR.

Discussion: The results of this study suggest that cigarette-derived compounds can indeed promote the spread of AMR within simulated human lung and environmental conditions. This study highlights that the consumption of cigarettes has not only direct but may also have indirect adverse effects on human health by promoting AMR.