3.12 Intellectual The Intellectual
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Written by | Oil wheat vegetable kanamycin fennel
Editor-in-charge | Yu Qi
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1
Arthritis treatment drugs can significantly reduce mortality in patients with COVID-19
Image source: pixabay Baricitinib acts as an oral tyrosine protein kinase (JAK) inhibitor that suppresses an overactive immune system and is often used in the treatment of moderately to severely active rheumatoid arthritis. In trials of adaptive treatment for COVID-19, physicians have found that the combination of baletinib can significantly alleviate the inflammatory response and reduce mortality in severe patients with COVID-19. In a recent printed study of medRxiv, researchers found that the mortality rate of severely ill COVID-19 patients taking barretinib decreased by 2% within 28 days, and a meta-analysis of the results of all nine treatment trials in 11888 randomized patients found that the combination of barritinib or other JAK inhibitors reduced mortality by 20%. Accordingly, the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health have updated their covid-19 treatment guidelines to recommend that severe patients with systemic inflammation and high oxygen demand be treated with baritinib. Article links:
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.03.02.22271623v1.full.pdf
2
Regular alcohol consumption can cause brain atrophy
Image source: pixabay A growing body of scientific research has found that alcohol not only raises people's risk of cardiovascular-related diseases, but also increases their risk of cancer. A recent study published in the journal Nature Communications showed that mild to moderate alcohol intake can lead to a reduction in brain volume, a phenomenon that can occur throughout the brain, similar to the changes caused by aging. The research team analyzed the brain MAGNETIC imaging results and alcohol intake of 36,000 people in the Uk's Biobank and found that as the amount of alcohol consumed increased, the volume of gray matter and white matter in the brain decreased significantly. For people in their 50s, as alcohol intake increases, the brain is increasingly showing a trend of accelerated aging. The study highlights that even moderate alcohol consumption can have a negative impact on brain volume in middle-aged and elderly people. For the sake of good health, it is advisable to stay away from alcohol. Article links:
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-28735-5#Sec6
3
Gene-edited mammalian eggs allow for normal development without fertilization
Image source: pixabay parthenogenesis (unisexual reproduction) refers to the eggs can develop into normal new individuals without fertilization, and is a reproductive phenomenon that is common in some more primitive animal species, such as some aphids, bees, and fish. For higher mammals, sexual reproduction combined with male sperm and female eggs is required to produce offspring, and the offspring have genetic material from both sides. Recently, Wei Yanchang of Shanghai Jiao Tong University and others used gene editing technology to rewrite DNA methylation in the control areas of 7 methylation imprints of mouse oocytes, and implanted gene-edited oocytes into the uterus of female mice, successfully realizing parthenogenesis of mice, and some mice can survive to adulthood, realizing the survival of a single unfertilized egg offspring of mammals for the first time. The results of this study suggest that parthenogenesis of animals can be achieved by modifying certain key genomic imprint control regions, which is of great significance for the development of agriculture and medicine. Article links:
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2115248119.
4
Cyanobacteria power generation new breakthroughs, or become a new generation of green energy
Pixabay cyanobacteria are one of the most abundant microorganisms in the world, capable of generating electricity using photosynthetic and respiration processes, as a new way of continuous bioelectric power generation and fuel production, or as a new generation of green energy. In a recent paper published in Nature Materials, researchers at the University of Cambridge developed an aerosol jet printing method that uses indium tin oxide (ITO) nanoparticles to print a library of layered micro-column array electrodes with different surface characteristics, and when these electrodes are loaded with cyanobacteria, the photocurrent under the same conditions almost doubles, and exhibits good biocatalyst loading, light utilization, and electron flux output. And when the height of the micropost is increased to 600 m, the photocurrent density can reach 245 Acm-2, which is by far the closest to the theoretical prediction. This research provides new ideas for three-dimensional electrode design and how to use photosynthesis more efficiently in the future to produce bioenergy. Article links:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01205-5.
5
Artificial intelligence is expected to repair ancient Greek inscriptions
Image credit: Marsyas, Epigraphic Museum
Inscriptions are texts written directly on durable materials (stone, pottery, metal) and are important sources for the study of the ideas, languages, societies, and histories of ancient civilizations. But over the centuries, many inscriptions have been badly damaged and illegible. And due to the excavation and resale, many of these precious historical materials have been scattered far away from the original site. Historians have worked with the British Artificial Intelligence Company to develop an artificial intelligence algorithm, Ithaca (the home of the ancient Greek mythological hero Odysseus), which was trained in the inscriptions of ancient Greece and the ancient Mediterranean civilization, and could simultaneously complete the text restoration of inscriptions, creating geographical and temporal predictions. The results were recently published in the journal Nature. To train Ithaca, the team used about 60,000 ancient Greek inscriptions from the Mediterranean region. These inscriptions were created between 700 BC and 500 AD. They masked some of the characters in the inscription, and then Ithaca predicted this "missing" inscription and compared and corrected it with the actual inscription. To test the results, the team then used nearly 8,000 inscriptions to test the performance of Ithaca or the historian, who then collaborated with the two historians to complete the restoration. In the test, Ithaca had an accuracy of 62 percent, about 25 percent for historians, and 72 percent for inscription retranslations when Ithaca and historians worked. In addition, Ithaca predicted the place where the inscription was created with 71% accuracy, and the age of its prediction is less than 30 years different from the historian's time of creation. Article links:
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-04448-z
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Why it is difficult for humans to bring extinct animals back to life
Pixabay Genetic Engineering is considered the most likely method to revive extinct species, but its potential is limited by difficult to break through. In an article published in Contemporary Biology, researchers used the extinct Rattus macleari as a model to study, and they found that it was impossible to restore extinct animal species to their original state. Although researchers were able to obtain high-quality genomes from preserved specimens, many of the genes were unlikely to be reconstructed, meaning that any "resurrected" animal would be "out of stock" with the original species in some important respects.
The researchers sequenced the extracted gene samples, and then used the genomes of existing close relatives as a template for gene matching and reconstruction, trying to restore the genomes of extinct animals and "resurrect" them. But the fundamental problem is that old DNA splits into many small pieces that are impossible to fully assemble. The parts of the genome of those extinct species that differ the most from those of extant relatives, including some of the fastest-evolving genes, make it difficult to match the two completely. And it's these genes that make closely related species different from each other. In other words, "resurrected" animals based on the genomes of existing close relatives can only be counted as a new human "creation" that is likely to be completely different from primitive species in terms of phenotype and behavioral patterns. This study also shows that the farther the evolutionary distance between extinct and extant relatives, the more difficult it is to assemble their genomes correctly.
Article links:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.027
Plate editor| Ginger Duck