From CRISPR to spider silk there are some great scientific research stories out this week.
There are plenty of great scientific research stories out this week. Here’s a look at just a few of them.
Researchers Map the Testicular Cancer Genome
Scientists from the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and a consortium of institutions in a collaborative effort of The Cancer Genome Atlas Research Network mapped out the genetic and genomic characteristics of testicular cancer. They analyzed 137 testicular germ cell tumors for possible mutations and other molecular changes, and identified those most likely to lead to improved treatment. The results were published in Cell Reports.
“We now have a better understanding of the molecular characteristics of the histological subtypes of testicular germ cell cancers,” said Katherine Hoadley, assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine Department of Genetics, and the study’s corresponding author, in a statement to Medicalxpress. “There is a strong epigenetic component to testicular cancer tumorigenesis.”
Scientists Identified Why Amyloid Causes Alzheimer’s Symptoms
Although beta-amyloid has been long-recognized as the primary cause of Alzheimer’s disease—although it is not without its detractors—exactly how amyloid aggregates act on brain cells isn’t well understood. Researchers from Centre national de la recherché scientifique (CNRS) and universite de Bourdeaux in France published research in the journal Cell Reports detailing how amyloid aggregates change the usual function of neuronal connections by interacting with an enzyme involved in synaptic plasticity.
CamKII normally organizes synaptic plasticity. Amyloid peptides prevent the molecule from taking part in the process of synaptic plasticity, which eventually leads to the disappearance of the synapse. This may open up new avenues for Alzheimer’s drug development.
2 Studies Link CRISPR-Cas9 Engineering to Potential Cancer
The two studies in Nature Medicine, one published by researchers from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute and the other by researchers from Novartis, describe research where CRISPR was used on different types of human cells—retinal cells by the Karolinska group and pluripotent stem cells by the Novartis group. Both groups observed the same thing. When CRISPR/Cas9 cuts both strands of the DNA double helix, cells activate a repair mechanism organized by a gene called p53. p53 either fixes the DNA break or causes the cell to self-destruct.
Either way, CRISPR doesn’t work. In fact, the Novartis group calculated that p53 makes CRISPR in pluripotent stem cells 17 times less efficient. In effect, scientists using CRISPR are battling the body’s ability to repair itself. The key thinking is that if p53 doesn’t overcome CRISPR edits by repairing the cells or by killing them, it’s because the p53 in that cell doesn’t work effectively. And it’s well known that p53 dysfunction can cause cancer. P53 mutations are linked to about half of ovarian cancers, 43 percent of colorectal cancers, 38 percent of lung cancers, about 33 percent of pancreatic, stomach, and liver cancers, and about 25 percent of breast cancers.
Using Spider Silk for a New Vaccine
Researchers with the universities of Geneva (UNIGE), Freiburg (UNIFR), Munich, and Beyreuth, in collaboration with the Germany company AMSilk, developed microcapsules out of spider silk that deliver a vaccine directly to the heart of immune cells. The intention was to strengthen the efficacy of vaccines on the immune system, especially T cells, which are particularly important in the immune response to cancer. The research was published in the journal Biomaterials.
The study’s authors conclude, “Particles from hybrid proteins containing a cathepsin-cleavable linker induced a strong antigen-specific proliferation of cytotoxic T-cells in vivo, even in the absence of a vaccine adjuvant. We thus demonstrate the efficacy of a new vaccine strategy using a protein-based all-in-one vaccination system, where spider silk particles serve as carriers with an incorporated peptide antigen. Our study further suggests that engineered spider silk-based vaccines are extremely stable, easy to manufacture, and readily customizable.”
Giant Viruses Create Genes Unique on the Planet Earth
There are four known giant virus families: Mollivirus, Megavirus, Pithovirus and Pandoravirus. These viruses are twice the size of typical viruses, are as big as bacteria. Analyses of three new species of Pandoraviruses, a family of giant viruses described in 2013, have genes that code for proteins found only in giant viruses, nowhere else in life on earth.
Jean-Michel Claverie, a professor of genomics and bioinformatics at the School of Medicine at Aix-Marseille University in France, said in a statement, “Ninety percent of their proteins do not share any significant similarity with proteins of other viruses, outside of their own family, or cellular microbes.”
The research was published in Nature Communications. The bottom line is that these so-called “orphan genes” produce unknown proteins unique to these megaviruses. Although random mutations are common in nature, these are new genes that the giant viruses produce and are not variations of other genes found in nature.
Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs Might Help Schizophrenia Patients
Researchers with the School of Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University and Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior at August University, Georgia, published data in Psychiatric Annals that found certain types of medications for rheumatoid arthritis might help patients with schizophrenia. According to the researcher, Peter Buckley, with VCU and Brian Miller, with August University, earlier research showed that patients with schizophrenia and first-episode psychosis often have immune abnormalities. Medications for RA, such as NSAIDs and anticytokine monoclonal antibodies, are designed to change the immune response.
The researchers are currently conducting clinical trials in schizophrenic patients who have inflammation using siltuximab (Johnson & Johnson’s Sylvant), as well as another trial in schizophrenia patients with elevated blood C-reactive protein (CRP) levels, and evaluating them with tocilizumab (Genentech’s Actemra).
