Happy Scientific News #5

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In this edition I will provide you with a lot of great and very positive scientific news:

Merry Christmas to all of you! :)

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Topic #13: Powerful Synbiotics are saving children!

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Sepsis is a complex systemic inflammatory reaction of the organism after infection by bacteria, their toxins or fungi. Such events are particularly dangerous for infants and are the cause for one million deaths worldwide each year! Most of them occur in developing countries. Obviously, this huge problem needs proper attention and an attempt must be made to find solutions and prevention. - And that is exactly what was done quite successfully!

In recent years the importance of the symbiosis between human and microbiota has become increasingly clear. Hence researchers hope to apply the growing knowledge to develope probiotic bacteria or to treat and prevent issues like sepsis.

In a large-scale field trial in rural India, over 4,500 infants were included in a study in which probiotic bacteria and prebiotic sugars were used to prevent sepsis. The combination of probiotic and prebiotic measures is called synbiotic and would be an inexpensive preventive option to tackle early-infant mortality in the developing world.

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The study of the synbiotic was designed as a multi-year trial and reduced the cases of sepsis and death by 40 %! And here are the really great news:

The results were so clear and good that the study's executive board ended the trial early, as it was no longer ethically acceptable to give some of the infants the placebo!

A very gratifying and tremendous success! For more information on this have a look at the referenced articles. ;)

Reference:
M. Torrice: Probiotics found success in a large trial C&EN, 2017
P. Panigrahi, I. H. Gewolb et al. Nature, 2017, 548, pp. 407-412

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Topic #14: Emission reduction in Central Europe

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Between 1990 and 2015, the chemical industry in Austria reduced its process-related greenhouse gas emissions by 49 %. This corresponds to a massive 0.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents! In 2015, the emission decreased by 2.1 % compared to the previous year.

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The following fields had the largest emission shares in 2015:

• Ammonia production (64 %)
• Calcium carbide production (7 %)
• Nitric acid production (6.6 %)

Until the year of 2003 the emissions stayed roughly the same. Afterwards catalyic reactors were used in nitric acid production sites, which lead to a considerable drop of their emissions by roughly 70 %! Overall, the nitrous oxide emissions fell by a staggering 95 % between 1990 and 2015!

So stay optimistic and keep looking in a bright future! :)

Reference:
Nachrichten aus der Chemie, 65, November 2017

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Topic #15: The power of genetically corrected stem cells

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The skin consists of the epidermis and the underlying dermis. The first one acts as a barrier against the external environment and the second one serves as an anchor, conferring elasticity and mechanical resistance.

Epidermolysis bullosa is a disease in which genetic mutations prevent normal epidermal resistance or anchoring, leading to a fragile skin. Already minor mechanical stress can cause fragmentation and detachment of the epidermis. This may lead to skin blistering and ulcers, producing chronic, painful and untreatable wounds that ultimately leads to skin cancer, infection and death.

Hirsch et al. used gene therapy to treat a children, who had already lost 80 % of his skin owing to the condition mentioned above. To do this, the researchers isolated a piece of the epidermis from an intact skin area and corrected the genetic code of the cells using a retrovirus. It was known, that the mutation of the gene LAMB3 causes Epidermolysis bullosa, hence they infected the cells with a retrovirus who carried unmutated LAMB3.

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In vitro growth of the epidermal cells produced three types of colonies, which gave sheets of transgenic epidermis after elongated growth time. These sheets were then transplanted back to the patient. Interestingly they found that after 8 months almost the entire skin was derived from the initial holoclones. Thus, the skin is maintained just by a few stem cells.

I am very glad, that the scientists were so successful in treating this child!

Oh, I really had a hard time in this article not to write 'steem cells'! :)

Reference:
M. Aragona, C. Blanpain Transgenic stem cells replace skin Nature, 2017, 551, pp. 306-307
T. Hirsch, M. Luca et al. Regeneration of the entire human epidermis using transgenic stem cells Nature, 2017, 551, pp. 327–332

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Economic-scientific Note

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The US pharmaceutical company Merck has taken over the biotech company Rigontec in Planegg near Munich for 115 million euros. A further 349 million euros are earmarked for reaching milestones. Founded in 2014 as an spin-off of the University of Bonn, Rigontec is specialized in immunotherapy for cancer patients and has a product candidate in an early clinical development phase. Let’s all hope that this candidate turns out to be very promising and helpful! - Ref.

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For previously presented topics have a look at:

• Scientific News #1 – Lab-layered Latte Edition
• Scientific News #2 – Amazing Vitrimere Edition
• Scientific News #3 – Snail-inspired Glue Edition
• Scientific News #4 – Computer-Driven Research Edition

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Best,
mountain.phil28