Science News Digest 16th May 2011
In the science news this week, we take a look at the ‘unprecidented’ progress of an HIV vaccine, the funding cuts making waves in the research community, the discovery of a bipedal crocodile ancestor and finally…. a spoon full of sugar really does help the medicine go down!
HIV vaccine makes ‘unprecedented’ progress
US research published in Nature this week claims to have found an effective vaccine against HIV in monkeys after 13 of 24 rhesus macaques were protected from the virus in the study.
Furthermore, 12 months later, the vaccine was still effective in 12 of those monkeys according to the BBC.
This research could now contribute significantly to the development of an HIV/Aids vaccine in humans.
During the experiment, 24 healthy rhesus macaques were given a vaccine which contained a genetically modified version of the virus, dubbed rhesus cytomegalovirus (CMV), that was engineered to produce antigens that would attack the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).
The vaccine offers long term protection by stimulating the ‘effector memory T-cells’ which remain on guard in the body long after the infection.
The vaccine worked by stimulating the production of a particular type of blood cell, called "effector memory T-cells", which can remain vigilant in the body long after an infection has subsided, providing long-term protection.
Lead author Professor Louis J Picker, of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Oregon, said that there was also evidence that the vaccine all but eradicated traces of SIV in the monkeys, something which he said was "unprecedented" in HIV vaccine research.
Professor Sir Andrew McMichael of Oxford University backed the study by saying that the use of an animal model to test this on was a sound idea because HIV arose from a type of SIV found in chimpanzees. However, the biggest problem is the potential safety and regulatory issues with introducing CMV into humans, despite the fact that many of us already carry the virus.
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Funding cuts hit research community.
In the Guardian this week, news that scientists will be forced to share laboratories more often and source more money for basic equipment has caused concern across the industry as the funding cuts start to bite the research community.
Senior academics expressed concerns that top-end equipment would be concentrated ever more in elite universities and government centres, leaving other researchers forced to strike deals to get access to the facilities.
The news surfaced following an announcement by David Willetts that the government would not fund a national supercomputing service for developing drugs and modelling climate change; a computer science centre at the Daresbury research and innovation campus in Cheshire; redevelopment of the Institute for Animal Health; and upgrades to facilities at the Rothera research station in Antarctica, which were all earmarked as priority projects by research councils.
Universities are hoping to recoup some of the funding shortfall for teaching equipment through the recent increases in tuition fees, however, they are now under pressure to form consortiums to share more specialised research tools.
Mark Downs, the chief executive of the Society of Biology, said: "Capital expenditure is essential for research. Without it we will fail to get the most out of the money spent on the rest of research. Critically it is also the budget for maintenance of expensive equipment. Cutting the budget by half makes no sense. The research councils largely have their hands tied but government must revisit this critical area."
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "Despite enormous pressure on public spending, the £4.6bn per annum funding for science and research programmes has been protected in cash terms and ring-fenced against future pressures during the four years of the spending review period.
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Crocodile ancestors walked on two legs.
To look at, the Poposaurus gracilis initially resembles a dinosaur, as it stood on two legs, had small forelimbs and a long tapering tail to give it balance when walking upright.
However this 225 million year old reptile is actually much more closely related to the forerunners of crocodiles. The Poposaurus, aka a “rauisuchian,” differ from modern crocodiles because they hold their limbs upright beneath their bodies rather than out to the side, which apparently made them more efficient at walking and running on land.
Recent research from Yale University confirms a growing body of research that suggests a specialised subgroup of bipedal crocodiles existed and walked like dinosaurs.
According to the new research, the anatomy of the creature’s pelvis and hind limbs shows that Poposaurus walked upright, planting its feet close to the midline of its body.
This research now brings into question the factor that is credited for the evolutionary success of the dinosaur- walking upright. It is thought that dinosaurs achieved dominance over crocodiles at that time because they were bipedal, but the discovery of bipedal crocodiles reopens the debate as to why Poposauruses perished while dinosaurs thrived.
Read more in ScienceNOW
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A spoon full of sugar…
It seems Mary Poppins may have actually been a pioneering healthcare advocate with her catchy affirmation of the benefits of sugar in recuperation from ailments- otherwise known as the sing along song ‘a spoon full of sugar’.
Researchers from Boston University in the US have found that taking sugar with antibiotics could give them a boost in their effectiveness against conditions such as tuberculosis.
According to test, glucose and fructose stimulated bugs and made them more vulnerable to the drug treatments. This is because chronic infections become metabolically dormant after a period of time and therefore dodge the effects of antibiotics, allowing them to persist.
Often dormant bacteria return to life more aggressively than before, causing a relapse, so the research team were investigating ways of prematurely bringing the bacteria out of hibernation so that they can be treated.
Something as simple as sugar acts as a stimulant and rouses the bacteria’s responses, making them vulnerable to antibiotic attack.
To test the theory, the researchers focused on Eschericia coli (E. coli) bacteria, which are responsible for majority of urinary infections, and in just two hours of the treatment, they had eliminated 99.9 per cent of persistent bacteria within just two hours.
Without sugar, the drugs they used had no effect.
The next step for the team is to look at whether sugar additives can improve the effectiveness of drugs against tuberculosis (TB), which is responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other infectious disease.
Kyle Allison from Boston University said; "Our goal was to improve the effectiveness of existing antibiotics, rather than invent new ones, which can be a long and costly process,"
Read more in the Telegraph
HIV vaccine makes ‘unprecedented’ progress
US research published in Nature this week claims to have found an effective vaccine against HIV in monkeys after 13 of 24 rhesus macaques were protected from the virus in the study.
Furthermore, 12 months later, the vaccine was still effective in 12 of those monkeys according to the BBC.
This research could now contribute significantly to the development of an HIV/Aids vaccine in humans.
During the experiment, 24 healthy rhesus macaques were given a vaccine which contained a genetically modified version of the virus, dubbed rhesus cytomegalovirus (CMV), that was engineered to produce antigens that would attack the simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV).
The vaccine offers long term protection by stimulating the ‘effector memory T-cells’ which remain on guard in the body long after the infection.
The vaccine worked by stimulating the production of a particular type of blood cell, called "effector memory T-cells", which can remain vigilant in the body long after an infection has subsided, providing long-term protection.
Lead author Professor Louis J Picker, of the Vaccine and Gene Therapy Institute in Oregon, said that there was also evidence that the vaccine all but eradicated traces of SIV in the monkeys, something which he said was "unprecedented" in HIV vaccine research.
Professor Sir Andrew McMichael of Oxford University backed the study by saying that the use of an animal model to test this on was a sound idea because HIV arose from a type of SIV found in chimpanzees. However, the biggest problem is the potential safety and regulatory issues with introducing CMV into humans, despite the fact that many of us already carry the virus.
---------------------------------------
Funding cuts hit research community.
In the Guardian this week, news that scientists will be forced to share laboratories more often and source more money for basic equipment has caused concern across the industry as the funding cuts start to bite the research community.
Senior academics expressed concerns that top-end equipment would be concentrated ever more in elite universities and government centres, leaving other researchers forced to strike deals to get access to the facilities.
The news surfaced following an announcement by David Willetts that the government would not fund a national supercomputing service for developing drugs and modelling climate change; a computer science centre at the Daresbury research and innovation campus in Cheshire; redevelopment of the Institute for Animal Health; and upgrades to facilities at the Rothera research station in Antarctica, which were all earmarked as priority projects by research councils.
Universities are hoping to recoup some of the funding shortfall for teaching equipment through the recent increases in tuition fees, however, they are now under pressure to form consortiums to share more specialised research tools.
Mark Downs, the chief executive of the Society of Biology, said: "Capital expenditure is essential for research. Without it we will fail to get the most out of the money spent on the rest of research. Critically it is also the budget for maintenance of expensive equipment. Cutting the budget by half makes no sense. The research councils largely have their hands tied but government must revisit this critical area."
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "Despite enormous pressure on public spending, the £4.6bn per annum funding for science and research programmes has been protected in cash terms and ring-fenced against future pressures during the four years of the spending review period.
---------------------------------------
Crocodile ancestors walked on two legs.
To look at, the Poposaurus gracilis initially resembles a dinosaur, as it stood on two legs, had small forelimbs and a long tapering tail to give it balance when walking upright.
However this 225 million year old reptile is actually much more closely related to the forerunners of crocodiles. The Poposaurus, aka a “rauisuchian,” differ from modern crocodiles because they hold their limbs upright beneath their bodies rather than out to the side, which apparently made them more efficient at walking and running on land.
Recent research from Yale University confirms a growing body of research that suggests a specialised subgroup of bipedal crocodiles existed and walked like dinosaurs.
According to the new research, the anatomy of the creature’s pelvis and hind limbs shows that Poposaurus walked upright, planting its feet close to the midline of its body.
This research now brings into question the factor that is credited for the evolutionary success of the dinosaur- walking upright. It is thought that dinosaurs achieved dominance over crocodiles at that time because they were bipedal, but the discovery of bipedal crocodiles reopens the debate as to why Poposauruses perished while dinosaurs thrived.
Read more in ScienceNOW
------------------------------------
A spoon full of sugar…
It seems Mary Poppins may have actually been a pioneering healthcare advocate with her catchy affirmation of the benefits of sugar in recuperation from ailments- otherwise known as the sing along song ‘a spoon full of sugar’.
Researchers from Boston University in the US have found that taking sugar with antibiotics could give them a boost in their effectiveness against conditions such as tuberculosis.
According to test, glucose and fructose stimulated bugs and made them more vulnerable to the drug treatments. This is because chronic infections become metabolically dormant after a period of time and therefore dodge the effects of antibiotics, allowing them to persist.
Often dormant bacteria return to life more aggressively than before, causing a relapse, so the research team were investigating ways of prematurely bringing the bacteria out of hibernation so that they can be treated.
Something as simple as sugar acts as a stimulant and rouses the bacteria’s responses, making them vulnerable to antibiotic attack.
To test the theory, the researchers focused on Eschericia coli (E. coli) bacteria, which are responsible for majority of urinary infections, and in just two hours of the treatment, they had eliminated 99.9 per cent of persistent bacteria within just two hours.
Without sugar, the drugs they used had no effect.
The next step for the team is to look at whether sugar additives can improve the effectiveness of drugs against tuberculosis (TB), which is responsible for more deaths worldwide than any other infectious disease.
Kyle Allison from Boston University said; "Our goal was to improve the effectiveness of existing antibiotics, rather than invent new ones, which can be a long and costly process,"
Read more in the Telegraph
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