Medical Bulletin 30/September/2022

Recent findings highlight that chronic circadian disruption significantly increased lung cancer growth in animal models. By identifying the genes implicated, the researchers are illuminating the mysterious link between our sleeping patterns and disease, which could help inform everything from developing more targeted cancer treatments to better monitoring high-risk groups.

To figure this out the scientists used a mouse model with expressed KRAS-the most commonly mutated gene in lung cancer. Half of the mice were housed in a "normal" light cycle, meaning 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness. The other half were housed in a light cycle meant to resemble that of shift workers', where the light hours were moved earlier by eight hours every two or three days.

Reference:

Katja Lamia et al JOURNAL Science Advances DOI 10.1126/sciadv.abo1123

'Junk' DNA could unlock new treatments for neurological disorders as scientists discover its breaks and repairs affect our protection against neurological disease. The groundbreaking research from the University of Sheffield's Neuroscience Institute and Healthy Lifespan Institute gives important new insights into so-called junk DNA and how it impacts on neurological disorders such as Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and Alzheimer's.

The researchers also identified the pathway of how oxidative breaks are formed and repaired. Repairing these breaks in junk DNA is essential for producing proteins which protect us from disease.

Reference:

Nature,DOI A mechanism for oxidative damage repair at gene regulatory elements,10.1038/s41586-022-05217-8

Despite a long-standing hypothesis that personality traits are relatively impervious to environmental pressures, the COVID-19 pandemic may have altered the trajectory of personality across the United States, especially in younger adults, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.

In the new study, the researchers used longitudinal assessments of personality from 7,109 people enrolled in the online Understanding America Study. They compared five-factor model personality traits-neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness-between pre-pandemic measurements and assessments early or later in the pandemic. A total of 18,623 assessments, or a mean of 2.62 per participant, were analyzed. Participants were 41.2% male and ranged in age from 18 to 109.

Reference:

Sutin AR, Stephan Y, Luchetti M, Aschwanden D, Lee JH, Sesker AA, et al. (2022) Differential personality change earlier and later in the coronavirus pandemic in a longitudinal sample of adults in the United States. PLoS ONE 17(9): e0274542. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274542

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a Zika vaccine technology that is highly effective and safe in preclinical mouse models. In a pregnant mouse model, the vaccine prevented both the pregnant mothers and the developing fetuses from developing systemic infection.

Vaccinated mice showed elevated levels of cell-mediated immune response, in the form of increased effector T cell populations, as compared to mice that had not been vaccinated. The researchers also tested the vaccine in a variety of other mouse models, in which it proved safe and protective.

Reference:

Vaithilingaraja Arumugaswami et al,Microbiology Spectrum DOI10.1128/spectrum.01137-22