Category Archives: frontiers of chemistry

Turning CO2 back into fuel

Typically, when you burn a hydrocarbon fuel, you get waste products like CO2, a serious greenhouse gas. But what if we could turn CO2 back into fuel? A research team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee has made a breakthrough: they found a simple method to do just that. By embedding copper into nanospikes, they were able to make a powerful electrocatalyst that works something like many tiny lightning rods, which concentrate an electric field. This is able to turn CO2 into ethanol.

The reaction starts by reducing CO2 to carbon monoxide, CO. Then two CO molecules connect to form a dimer with the two carbon atoms bonded to each other. Finally, this dimer is reduced, removing an oxygen atom and gains hydrogen atoms. Although they initially believed this process would produce methanol, the final product is actually ethanol.

The structure of ethanol.

The structure of ethanol. This public domain image is from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ethanol-2D-flat.png.

The process is fairly efficient, but not efficient enough to use on an industrial scale yet. The electrons have a yield of 63 percent, meaning only 27 percent of electrons will be “lost” during the reaction, mostly being taken up by hydrogen. The CO2 has a yield of 84 percent. The energy efficiency is not as good, only around 20 percent. On the positive side, the process only needs common materials, such as carbon, nitrogen, copper, and CO2.

It is hoped that this process will someday help reduce CO2 added to the atmosphere. Since it uses CO2 as a reagent, it would only add about as much to the atmosphere as it removes. The reaction could even work as efficient, clean energy storage – excess energy from renewable sources could be used to convert CO2 into ethanol, storing it as chemical energy for later use. However, it is still in development and has a long ways to go before it’s ready for large-scale use.

~ Nat Shipp

 

Sources:

Popular Mechanics – Meet the scientists turning CO2 into ethanol

Discover – Nanospikes Convert Carbon Dioxide Back Into Ethanol

Oak Ridge National Laboratory – Nano-spike catalysts convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol

SciShow – Using Devil’s Milk to kill superbugs

 

Biofuels: From You to Toilets to Cars

Have you ever wondered where your human wastes travel to when you flush the toilet? Probably not, I mean why would anyone think about that after doing their “business” in the washroom?  It is common knowledge that what we flush down the toilet end up in the sewers, but where do they go after? Sewage wastes are treated to separate wastewater and sludge. The wastewater can then be further treated to be reused, but what can we do with the remaining sewage sludge? The U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has researched a method to convert sewage wastes to biofuel.

Sewage sludge wastes being transported, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Sewage sludge wastes being transported, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Biofuels are fuels extracted from biomass, a renewable energy source composed of organic materials. There are many methods to convert biomass to biofuels. The following video provides some background on biofuels and commonly used methods to make them:

Autombile exhaust wastes from fossil fuels, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Autombile exhaust wastes from fossil fuels, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Biofuels can be a suitable substitute for conventional fossil fuels, coal and gas, when supplying energy to devices and vehicles. The development of biofuels is important for the purpose of reducing the use of fossil fuels. Since fossil fuels produces many wastes when burned. These wastes include air pollution, which is harmful to human health, and greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which contribute to global warming. The use of biofuels can reduce the production of theses harmful wastes.

So how do we convert our human wastes to biofuel. The Department of Energy found that using hydrothermal liquefaction can break down human wastes to simpler chemical compounds. Hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) is the process of breaking down wet biomass to crude-like oil under high pressure and temperature. In this case the wastes are pressurized to 3,000 pounds per square inch and 300 degrees Celsius. This process gives biocrude and a liquid phase. These parts can be treated to create fuel. Any other solid by-products from the creation of fuel are used for fertilizer, due to high nutrient content.

Personally, I think processing biofuel via sewage wastes is an ingenious method to kill two birds with one stone. Firstly, we produce high quality fuel that can replace fossil fuels. This will lower the production of greenhouse gases and pollution, thus improving the environment. Secondly, it will be very cost-efficient for the government, as any other sewage processing, transport and disposal are no longer necessary. Lastly, this process produces no unusable by-products, as the fuel and remaining organic matter can be used for many purposes.

– Nelson Yu

References:

Fuel from sewage is the future – and it’s closer than you think. http://www.pnnl.gov/news/release.aspx?id=4317 (accessed November 5, 2016).

What are Biofuels?. http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-biofuels.php (accessed November 5, 2016).

Hydrothermal liquefaction — the most promising path to a sustainable bio-oil production. https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-02/au-hl020613.php (accessed November 5, 2016).

Alzheimer’s disease: An Irreversible Brain Degeneration

Alzheimer’s disease was first discovered back in 1906 by Dr. Alois Alzheimer. It is a degenerative brain disease which is predicted to effect up to 5 million people in the US alone. This disease effect an individual’s cognitive ability, emotion, behavior, physical abilities, and could ultimately lead to death. The following video provides a summary of the Alzheimer’s disease:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Wv9jrk-gXc

Even though this disease was discovered for over a century ago, scientists around the world are still unable to fully understand or discover any cure for the disease. However, they found traces of two forms of proteins known as ‘Plaques’ and ‘Tau’ protein which is believed to be associated with Alzheimer disease.

Normal brain and a brain with Alzheimer's disease

Healthy brain Vs. Brain with Alzheimer’s disease – Plaque and Tangle proteins. <http://neurowiki2012.wikispaces.com/Down+Syndrome>. Photo credit: Jefferson Hospital.

Plaque protein are created from smaller proteins that sticks together and form a clump shape, this protein may block the connection between nervous cells and interfere with the communication network in our brain. In some cases, our body detects that the cell cannot function normally and hence our body started to destroy our own cells. Another protein associated with Alzheimer disease are called ‘tau’ protein, a protein that involved in the process of transporting nutrients to nervous cells. In Alzheimer patients these proteins collapse and form another form of non-functioning protein known as ‘Tangles’ protein. This results in the lack of nutrients being transported to the cell leading to cell death. Both of these abnormal form of proteins interferes with the nervous system in the brain and causes several of symptoms associated to Alzheimer.

“You lose your memory. Step by step, you turn into a person you don’t know anymore. And the one you knew disappears.”- Richard Taylor, Former psychology professor, Alzheimer patient.

Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease

Symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. <http://www.doc-advice.com/alzheimers-disease/>.

Due to the facts that this disease targets the nervous system especially in the brain the symptoms may involve the loss of memories, abnormal behavior and changes in personality. The disease will slowly move from one region of the brain to another, along the way it kills nerve cells and started to alter the brain function. It can be seen that as the disease migrate throughout the brain, different symptoms will start to emerge, from unable to form normal speech to emotional control, hallucination, memories lost, the inability to perform everyday tasks and ultimately destroying the regulatory region of the brain leading to death.

“Most people are aware of the problem— I hope — but I don’t think people get just how serious Alzheimer’s is until it happens to somebody they love, and that’s happening more and more.” – Dr. Christopher Ochner, Ph.D. clinical psychology, Columbia University.

Personally, I think Alzheimer’s disease is extremely dangerous and a worldwide threat. It’s a disease that does not only affect one individual but the whole family. More scientific funding is required for research in this field. To prevent the death toll from rising due to Alzheimer, it is crucial for the cause and a cure for this disease to be found.

Shortcuts to Weight Loss: The Risk-Benefit Analysis of Weight Loss Supplements

With the busy lives that humans now occupy within society, like post-secondary students during exam season for example, balanced and nutritional dietary and exercise are often disregarded or not of a major priority. As a result, the body begins to accumulate fats to act as a storage for excess energy from the foods we eat and thus leads to a case in what society would call “overweight”. The extreme case would result in obesity and this has been a growing concern (and a rather sensitive topic to some) over the past years because excessive body weight is associated with various cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, asthma, and overall, a reduction in life expectancy. However, there is one suggestion that is portrayed by media and human society that is supposedly a shortcut to this problem: weight loss supplements.

Weight loss supplements contain common active ingredients such as bitter orange (synephrine), chromium, guar gum, and Hoodia(1). Synephrine, the main composition of bitter orange, works to suppress appetite and increase the rate of metabolism, thus increasing the number of calories burned (1). Chromium is a mineral that helps to regulate insulin and helps promote muscle growth and fat reduction and guar gum helps block absorption of fats in the body and increase the feeling of fullness whereas Hoodia temporarily suppresses your appetite (1).

Although these active ingredients and their functionality seem to be the solution to obesity, there are many side effects. First of all, synephrine is very similar to ephedrine (see Figure 1), a banned stimulating drug by the Food and Drug Administration due to implications with stroke, heart attacks, and hypertensions, in chemical structure and have many similar characteristics (2).

blog-3-image-1

Figure 1: Chemical structure of synephrine compared to ephedrine

Secondly, although chromium exists naturally in our bodies and certain foods, the intake of excessive chromium is disadvantageous because chromium, like other heavy metals, is rather toxic to the human body even at low concentrations. Moreover, although guar gum and Hoodia (Figure 2) work in synch to suppress the production of fats for excessive energy storage as a result from eating food, the overall results are still not proven and can potentially lead to malnutrition (1).

blog-3-image-2ablog-3-image-2b

Figure 2: Chemical structure of guar gum (top) and Hoodia (bottom)

To note, a research by Eichner, Maguire, Shea, and Fete have determined that many weight loss supplements are still on the market today that contain other ingredients that are banned due to psychiatric issues and complications with the cardiovascular and nervous system (3). Other ingredients that are not banned but are subject to caution and consumer knowledge are also present in many weight loss supplements(3).

In conclusion, although shortcuts are available to everyday medical conditions such as obesity, there are also many drawbacks to such methods. The optimum method would be the natural method of weight loss which involves a balanced nutritional dietary and exercise, despite how busy our lives may be or what telemarketers or advertisements tell you.

-Andrew Siu

References

Eichner, S., Maguire, M., Shea, L.A., and Fete, M. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association 2016, 5, 538.

Fitday. How do weight loss pills work in the body?  http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/fitness/weight-loss/how-do-weight-loss-pills-work-in-the-body.html (accessed Oct. 31, 2016).

Google Patents. Pharmaceutical compositions having appetite suppressant activity. http://www.google.com/patents/US7166611 (accessed Oct. 31, 2016)

Nutrient Journal. Is bitter orange fruit (citrus aurantum as synephrine) new ephedra? http://nutrientjournal.com/is-bitter-orange-fruit-citrus-aurantum-as-synephrine-new-ephedra/ (accessed Oct.31, 2016).

Sci-Toys. Guar gum. http://sci-toys.com/ingredients/guar_gum.html (accessed Oct. 31, 2016).

Super Batteries

phone-1503703_1280

Some people feel like they are always stuck to the outlet because our current batteries cannot hold enough power and degrade quickly. (c) JuralMin, released under Creative Commons CC0

Have you ever been in a situation where you need to charge your phone multiples times a day in order to maintain its battery level? We’ve all probably experienced times when we desperately need to use our phones but the battery is completely drained, with only moderate use throughout the day. Why is it that current cellular device technology has improved significantly, but battery quality has not?

Recently, researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a new type of battery that may soon solve this problem and increase the productivity and lifespan of the modern lithium-ion battery. This new type of battery, called the lithium-sulfur battery, takes inspiration from the villi in our digestive intestinal tract. It is predicted that these next-generation batteries could potentially hold up to five times the energy that a tradition lithium-ion battery can, without increasing the size of the battery.

stock-photo-intestine-lining-and-villi-food-digestion-and-absorption-intestinal-villus-d-illustration-402405103

A illustration of what villi look like in the small intestine (c) nobeatsofierce

Villi are finger-like protrusions lining the intestinal tract which increase the surface area needed for the absorption of nutrients. In the battery, zinc oxide wires stick out like villi from the surface of one of the battery’s electrodes, the part of the battery that generates electrons.

In traditional lithium-ion batteries, active material in the battery that break off the flat electrode are lost and lead to the degradation of the battery. This new villus configuration allows precious “battery nutrients” that break off the electrode to be attracted to the villi wires, just like how the villi in the intestines attract and absorb the nutrients on our food. The material attracted by the zinc oxide wires can then be reused for the production of electrochemical energy, greatly increasing the lifespan of the battery.

The lithium-sulfur battery also has a higher energy density than regular lithium-ion batteries due to the ability of sulfur to hold a higher number of lithium-ions than carbon can in the current battery model. To illustrate this, imagine that the battery is a factory and lithium ions are the workers. The carbon factory only has enough capacity for 100 workers. However, the sulfur factory can have >500 workers. Which factory will be more productive? This is why carbon is replaced by sulfur in the new-type battery, due to sulfur’s ability to hold more lithium-ion “workers” to generate more energy.

These breakthrough changes, substituting carbon for sulfur and the addition of zinc oxide “villi”, result in a new type of battery that surpasses the lithium-ion battery in terms of energy capacity as well as battery lifespan.

“By taking our inspiration from the natural world, we were able to come up with a solution that we hope will accelerate the development of next-generation batteries.” said the study’s lead author Teng Zhao.

However, the battery is currently not yet ready for commercial use and will probably not be available without further research and development.

The new advances in battery technology is exciting and brings hope to all of us who use battery-powered devices. I think it’s about time that the batteries we commonly use now receive an upgrade. Even though this new technology has not yet been perfected, I believe that through the discovery of lithium-sulfur batteries we can move towards developing better batteries for the future.

-Charlie Wei


References:

University of Cambridge. “Next-generation smartphone battery inspired by the gut.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 26 October 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161026102701.htm>.

The Yew Tree: From Foe to Friend

For thousands of years, people have used the poisonous materials from the yew tree to fight their battles. Ancient people used the extract from the bark to coat the tips of their war arrows, rendering them deadly. The Romans used the same substance to assassinate political leaders. In the modern era, the yew tree is fighting a new opponent: cancer. A chemical, Taxol, which is derived from the plant is one of the most prevalent chemotherapeutic agents used today to battle cancer.

roman-eating

The poisonous properties of the yew have been known for thousands of years Source: Wikimedia Commons

Taxol, or paclitaxel, is toxic to cells because it disrupts the mitosis process. Mitosis is when a cell splits into two identical daughter cells. It is essential to maintain an healthy and growing organism. When the yew plant is ingested, cells cannot divide because of the these anti-mitotic properties of paclitaxol. Division halts and the cells die, which can eventually result in the death of the whole organism. These anti-mitotic properties are why Taxol works as an agent against cancer. This is because cancerous cells have mutated so that they divide uncontrollably. As Taxol disturbs cell division, it can efficiently kill certain types of cancerous cells such as breast and ovarian cancer.

yew_berries

The Yew Tree                                                           Source: Wikimedia Commons

The yew tree still holds some secrets: unlike many drugs originally derived from plant sources, there is no entirely synthetic pathway that reproduces the naturally derived compound. That is to say, for this chemotherapy to have full effect, it still needs materials acquired from yew trees. As the National Cancer Institute reports, a manufacturing technique has been developed recently which combines synthetic compounds and the chemicals from the yew bark. This has made the drug more accessible and affordable, but Taxol currently used in cancer treatment is still plant-based.

With a chemotherapeutic drug like Taxol, doctors scientists use the same properties of the substance that has been killing us for thousands of years to kill the enemy within us: cancer.

How Taxol Works (Source: Cancer quest)

YouTube Preview Image

 

-Megan Wolf

Bacteria can help us to extract drinking water and mining minerals from the ocean?!

water-crisis

Figure 1: The global water crisis. Author: MrGauravBhosle from Wikimedia. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Water-crisis.jpg

Nowadays, people around the globe are facing a huge problem with the clean water crisis. More than 36 countries in the world cannot provide drinkable water resources to their citizens. However, the good news is scientists have already found a technique to extract drinkable water from seawater, which saves many people around the world.

The basic idea of this technique is called “seawater reverse osmosis.” By using energy to force the seawater pass through a special membrane which can only allow water molecules to go through, the clean drinking water can be extracted from the general seawater. Furthermore, the remaining salt and other types of heavy metals or minerals will be left on the other side of the membrane. However, the biggest problem is that in the remaining salts and metals solution, which also called “Brine” solution, is highly toxic, and can also cause serious damaging to the local environment. Figuring out how to deal with this problem had been the biggest challenge for Chemists and Ecologists for decades.

800px-simple_ro_schematic

Figure 2: The seawater reverse osmosis system. Description:” A – Applied pressure B – Seawater in C – Contaminants D – Semi-permeable membrane E – Potable water out F – Distribution.” Author: Colby Fisher from Wikimedia. Source :https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Simple_RO_schematic.png

Recently, the problem had been solved by the finding of one special type of Bactria. Such bacteria will create electrical charges during metabolism. If we can mix the bacteria with the Brine solution, the electrical charges can combine with the metals which usually carry positive charges in the aqueous environment. After accumulating and precipitation, the metals can be extracted from the brine solution, and the remaining materials are safe again to be released back to the ocean without damaging the environments.

However, the remaining metals which had been accumulated and precipitated by the bacteria can be used in so many ways. In the seawater, more than 40 types of minerals and metals are present, and most of them are very precious for many industries and medical companies. Also, in a lot of countries that have less natural resources, such as Japan, Korea, Singapore, UK…etc. Mining metals can cost a serious amount of money. For example, Mining Magnesium in Singapore can cost 4.5 billion dollars a year, which is a huge part of the outcome.

By using bacteria to accumulate metals from seawater, much less money can be spent, and the percentage yield of this technique is also very high. Pure products can be achieved without risking miners’ life, which is also a big improvement in our modern society.

YouTube Preview Image

In the future, more and more biomining techniques will be applied to our daily life, and the win-win situation can also be achieved. Not only can we solve the global water crisis problem, but also can help many countries to use a cheaper price to have more mining resources.

Reference:

  1. Components of Seawater: http://www.seafriends.org.nz/oceano/seawater.htm
  2. Biomining costs: http://web.mit.edu/12.000/www/m2015/2015/bioleaching.html
  3. TED Talks — Damian Palin: https://www.ted.com/talks/damian_palin_mining_minerals_from_seawater/transcript

Is antibacterial soap really effective or just risky?

gettyimages-457413239-1024x683

Figure 1: Common Antibacterial soap sold at grocery stores. Author: Joe Raedle from Getty Images. Source: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/antibacterial-soap-may-harm-good-fda-says/

If consumers are given the choice of plain soap or antibacterial soap, the majority of the consumers would prefer to purchase antibacterial soap. It is because antibacterial soap is known to control the spread of germs. However, antibacterial soaps will soon no longer be found in grocery stores in the United States. The U.S Food and Drug association (FDA) has officially banned 19 soap ingredients that are known to be the “germ killers” (1). However, Jane Woodcock, the director of FDA’s Centre for Drug Evaluation and Research, claims there is no supportive evidence that antibacterial soap is more effective in killing germs than plain soap and water (1).

Blaise Boles, a microbiologist from the University of Michigan, conducted a study showing triclosan(2), an ingredient commonly found in antibacterial soaps, increases the risk of people getting staph infection (4). Staph infection is caused by staphylococcus bacteria that can be found in the nose or on the skin of an individual (4) Boles and his colleagues swabbed 90 people’s noses to collect samples. The results showed 37 people had triclosan present in their nasal secretions, and 64% of these people were infected with staph(3). The researchers were surprised by the findings of the study because triclosan is previously acknowledged to reduce bacteria contamination. FDA expresses their concerns over the health risks associated with long-term use of antibacterial soaps. The chance of one getting pneumonia increases when they are infected with staph.

There are not many studies showing triclosan-resistant bacteria poses any major health risks to consumers. However, FDA decides to ban retail stores from selling antibacterial soaps to the general public in U.S unless the manufacturers can provide supportive evidence that antibacterial soap is capable of killing bacteria. The U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) instructs citizens to scrub their hands with plain soap for at least 20 seconds before washing under running water (5). An alternative way to reduce the spread of germs and avoid getting sick is using hand sanitizer with at least 60% alcohol (5).

The take home message is that antibacterial soap does not necessary halt the spread of germs more effectively than regular soap. As long as the general public uses the regular soap to wash their hands as instructed by CDC, the regular soap can also reduce the spread of germs. Therefore, the consumers do not have to spend a dollar or more on purchasing the antibacterial soap.

YouTube Preview Image

The following video shows the proper way of washing hands:

YouTube Preview Image

References:

  1. Science News for Students. Science & Society, Microbes: U.S. to outlaw antibacterial soaps. https://www.sciencenewsforstudents.org/article/us-outlaw-antibacterial-soaps (accessed on Oct 22nd, 2016).
  2. David Suzuki Foundation. Triclosan. http://davidsuzuki.org/issues/health/science/toxics/chemicals-in-your-cosmetics—triclosan/ (accessed on Oct 23rd, 2016).
  3. MOLE, B. (2014). Body & brain: Triclosan aids nasal invasions by staph: Antimicrobial compound may help bacteria stick around. Science News185(10), 12. doi:10.1002/scin.5591851011
  4. Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research. Disease and Conditions: Staph infections. http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/staph-infections/basics/definition/con-20031418 (accessed on Oct 24th, 2016).
  5. Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Hand washing: Clean Hands Save Lives. http://www.cdc.gov/handwashing/when-how-handwashing.html (accessed on Oct 22nd, 2016).

Photo source:

  1. Copyright information: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/antibacterial-soap-may-harm-good-fda-says/

The Anti-microbial Properties of Silver Nanoparticles on Titanium Implants

Titanium is commonly used to make implants (3). However, the implant’s surface poses as a health issue when bacteria can adhere and prevent the skin tissues from healing properly with the implant following surgery (3).

A recent publication in Nature’s Scientific Reports by Wang and colleagues showed supportive evidence that titanium surface combined with silver (Ag) nanoparticles and silver ions (Ag+) release are able to inhibit the growth of Staphylococcus aureus, which is a spherical non-motile type of bacteria that is commonly found in skin and mucous membranes (2), and other strains of Staphylococcus, such as S. epidermis, that are motile (3).  

1 pixel = 0.038 uM 100X objective 15X eyepiece Numbered tick = 11 uM Field of view is 85.12 uM in diameter

Figure 1. Staphylococcus Under Magnification (Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Common; Author: Bob Blaylock; Source: Picture Uploaded by Original Photographer)

 Wang and colleagues varied the amount of Ag nanoparticles (Ag-0, Ag-0.01, Ag-0.1) on titanium plates and exposed bacteria to the surfaces (3). In doing so, they found that higher amounts of Ag nanoparticles had higher antimicrobial properties for motile and non-motile bacteria compared to lower amounts of Ag nanoparticles or titanium plates alone (3).  Moreover, Wang and researchers analyzed how Ag nanoparticles affected the biofilms of non-motile bacteria. By definition, biofilms are a bacterial population that is held together by extracellular matrix, which are molecules secreted by individual bacteria cells (1).

staphylococcus_aureus_bacteria_7739552618

Figure 2. Scanning electromicrograph of Staphylococcus aureus. (Image Courtesy of Wikimedia Common; Author: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); Source: Picture Uploaded on Flickr)

Wang and colleagues observed that bacterial populations grew under Ag-0 and titanium plate alone. While, there was a significantly smaller bacterial population under Ag-0.01 and no biofilm was formed under Ag-0.1. Wang and colleagues also applied both bacterial and mammalian cells to a titanium plate with varying concentrations of Ag nanoparticles (3). They observed that over time, Ag-0.01 had developed a comparatively large population of mammalian cells attached to the plate.  While Ag-0.1 had little growth of mammalian cell population, and both Ag-0 and titanium plate alone showed no living mammalian cells (3).

Biofilms of bacteria, such as Staphylococcus, are one of the main reasons why people have infections following an implant. Due to supportive evidence of antimicrobial properties and mammalian cell growth in Ag nanoparticles, further studies should be conducted on the appropriate concentrations of Ag nanoparticles to be integrated into the surface of titanium implants in hopes that future patients will have successful implants.

–Gloria Kwong

References:

  1. López, D.; Vlamakis, H.; Kolter, R. Biofilms. Cold Spring Perspectives in Biology 2010, 2 (7). http://doi.org/10.1101/cshperspect.a000398 (Accessed October 17th, 2016).
  2. Martin, E. Staphylococcus; 2015. http://www.oxfordreference.com.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/view/10.1093/acref/9780199687817.001.0001/acref-9780199687817-e-9542 (Accessed October 17th, 2016).
  3. Wang, J.; Li, J.; Guo, G.; Wang, Q.; Tang, J.; Zhao, Y.; Qin, H.; Wahafu, T.; Shen, H.; Liu, X.; Zhang, X. Silver-nanoparticles-modified biomaterial surface resistant to staphylococcus: new insight into the antimicrobial action of silver. 2016, 6, 32699.
Video

Primates help advance HIV treatment

Rhesus macaque on which treatment testing was performed. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161013141053.htm

Rhesus macaque on which treatment testing was performed.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/10/161013141053.htm

An international research team based out of the German Primate Center has developed an effective treatment regime against the HIV-like Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV) in rhesus macaques.

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV)  affects more than 36 million people worldwide, it is a sexually transmitted disease which infects vital immune response cells, called helper T cells. By invading these cells, the virus forces the body to kill the helper T cells, thus weakening the host immune system. This environment is ideal for life-threatening infections and cancers to thrive in. Once the number of helper T cells in the blood is below a certain threshold, the patient is diagnosed with Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome. At this point the body is no longer able to sustain immunity and the patient succumbs to his infections or cancer. The most common cause of death among patients with AIDS is tuberculosis.

T helper cell count as compared to HIV and AIDS progression. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS

T helper cell count as compared to HIV and AIDS progression.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HIV/AIDS

 

There is not yet a cure for HIV and AIDS, but a combination of medications are used to fight the HIV infection. Patients are prescribed a regime of six drug classes which prevents the virus from multiplying in the patient’s body, allowing the immune system to recover and protect the patient from infections and cancers. This antiretroviral therapy (ART) controls the virus so that patients can live longer and healthier lives and reduces the risk of transmitting HIV to others.

HIV was originally transmitted as SIV when humans made contact with the blood of chimpanzees while hunting for bushmeat in Africa. In their natural hosts, chimpanzees, SIV is harmless even at high circulating levels, but if a rhesus macaque becomes infected, it will develop SIV, which has nearly identical characteristics as HIV.

In their study, the research team treated SIV-infected rhesus macaques with an antiretroviral drug regime similar to one a human patient would be prescribed if diagnosed with HIV. The macaques were also injected with Vedolizumab, a therapeutic drug used to treat inflammatory bowel diseases in humans such as Crohn’s disease, where the T helper cells also play a vital role.

After finishing the therapy, the macaques had almost no SI virus in their blood and near normal T helper cell levels. Scientists worldwide are testing to see whether a combination of antiretroviral therapy with Vedolizumab would have the same effect in humans infected with HIV.

By pushing the boundaries of effective HIV treatments, some of the adverse effects accompanied by administering continuous antiretroviral drugs such as chronic inflammation and accelerated aging can be reduced or eliminated.

Scarlett Liaifer