#35 Bacteria Microbots, Seismic Disruptions and Elephants Curing Cancer...
Bacteria based biohybrid microbots on a mission, seismic disruption affecting physiological responses and elephants could cure cancer...
🦠Bacteria Microbots
Bacteria based biohybrid microrobots on a mission…
A team of scientists at the Max Planck Institute for intelligent systems have combined robotics with biology by equipping E. coli bacteria with artificial components to construct biohybrid microbots.
The team attached several nanoliposomes to each bacterium. A Liposome is a tiny bubble or vesicle made out of the same material as the cell membrane. Liposomes can be filled and used to deliver drugs for cancer and other diseases. On the outer circle of these spherical shaped carriers, are enclosed green particles. These melt when illuminated by near infrared light. Towards the middle of the nanoliposome are encapsulated water soluble chemotherapeutic drug molecules.
The second component that the research team initiated was the attachment of magnetic nanoparticles to the bacteria membrane. When exposed to a magnetic field, the iron oxide particles serve as an on-top booster to this already highly motile microorganism.
Meanwhile, the rope binding the liposomes and magnetic particles to the bacterium is stable and strong. The biological rope is a streptavidin and biotin complex.
E. coli bacteria are fast and versatile swimmers that can navigate through material ranging from liquids to highly viscous tissues. As well as this they have highly advanced sensing capabilities. Bacteria are drawn to chemical gradients such as low oxygen or high acidity. Both factors associated with tumour tissues. Treating cancer by injecting bacteria in proximity is known as bacteria mediated tumour therapy. The microorganisms flow to where the tumour is, and activate the immune system. This therapy has been used for more than a century.
Recently, scientists have looked for ways to increase the power of the microorganism. They equipped bacteria with extra components to help fight the battle. However adding artificial components is no easy task. The team in Stuttgart have now raised the bar, equipping 86 out of 100 bacteria with both liposomes and magnetic particles.
The scientists showed how they succeeded in externally steering the high density solution through different courses. Firstly, through an L shaped narrow channel with two compartments at each end. One tumour spheroid in each. Secondly, an even narrower channel that resembled tiny blood vessels and thirdly, the team steered the microrobots through a viscous collagen gel that resembled tumour tissue. The stiffer the collagen, the tighter the web of protein strings, the more difficult it becomes for the bacteria to find their way through their matrix.
Once the microrobots are accumulated at the desired point, a near infrared laser generates rays with temperatures of up to 55 degrees Celsius, triggering a melting process of the liposome and so release of the enclosed drugs. A low pH level or acidic environment also causes the nanoliposomes to break open – hence the drugs are released near a tumour automatically.
🐋Seismic Narwhal Disruption
Physiological Responses in Narwhal disrupted by seismic surveys…
Sounds from the seismic air guns that are used in oil exploration can disrupt the typical physiological responses that are seen in diving narwhals. Narwhals are medium sized, toothed whales that possess a large tusk. It is closely related to the beluga whale and lives year round in the Arctic waters near Greenland, Canada and Russia.
“Most of the potential impacts on the animals take place underwater, so it’s really difficult to study,” Terrie Williams, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at UC Santa Cruz and lead author of the study. She went on to say that “We are fortunate to have this technology to show what’s happening at depth where these animals live in order to understand how their biology may be disrupted.”
13 Narwhals were involved in the study, five female and eight male, around the waters of Eastern Greenland. The animals were fitted with heart rate accelerometer-depth recorders and then exposed to the sounds of vessels and seismic airgun pulses, typically used for exploring oil. The devices allows the scientists to monitor the animals heart and respiration rates in both diving and swimming periods. Like most scientific studies, a control group of whales not exposed to the noise was also recorded.
The data collected suggested that the animals trigger a fear response. This surprisingly included a suppressed hear rate, despite animals in deep escape dives. “They’re swimming as hard as they can to get away, and yet their heart rate is not increasing—we think because of a fear response,” Williams said. “This affects how much blood and oxygen can circulate, and that’s going to be problematic.”
In the past, due to the regions isolation and ice cover, the animals were infrequently exposed to noise from human activity like heavy industry or commercial shipping. With increasing activity in the North, as well as shrinking ice due to climate change, there has been an increase in concern about the effect increased shipping traffic and resource exploitation.
William said that the ongoing nature of the noise during seismic testing means that the animals cant immediately return to homeostasis.
“When they escape from the nets, their heart rate comes back up to a more normal rate within three or four dives, but with the seismic ship moving through and the sound bouncing around, the escape response occurred over a longer period,” she said.
🐘Elephants Cure Cancer?
Elephants could hold the key to curing cancer…
Elephants could hold the key to curing cancer, according to a University of Oxford and Edinburgh research team. These giant mammals carry an army of tumour fighting proteins that destroy mutated cells. The discovery explains why Earth’s largest land animals are over five times less likely to develop the disease than Humans. The team aims to harness the genes which in time, could lead to a ‘one size fits all’ therapy for one of the world’s deadliest diseases.
“This intricate and intriguing study demonstrates how much more there is to elephants than impressive size and how important it is that we not only conserve but also study these signature animals in minute detail. After all, their genetics and physiology are all driven by evolutionary history as well as today’s ecology, diet and behaviour,” says study co-author Professor Fritz Vollrath in a university release.
Tumours form as a result of the accumulation of gene mutations, and increase in risk with age. Unlike humans, elephants seem to buck this trend, despite their large body size and life expectancy. Cancer mortality in elephants is less than 5%, whereas 25% in humans. This resistance in Elephants has been linked to their 20 copies (from each parent) of the p53 gene.
P53 has a key role in regulating the repairing mechanisms of the DNA and suppresses uncontrolled cell growth. The protein essentially responds to damaged DNA and repairs any uncorrected copies of the cell. In replicated cells with undamaged DNA, the p53 repair activity is unnecessary and is inactivated by another protein, the oncogene MDM2 E3 ubiquitin ligase.
Following further research and biochemical analysis, the team were able to use computer simulations to show the 40 versions all having slight structural differences. This provides a much wider range of anti-cancer activity than the humans two genes.
“This is an exciting development for our understanding of how p53 contributes to preventing cancer development,” says co-author Professor Robin Fåhraeus from the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.
“In humans, the same p53 protein is responsible for deciding if cells should stop proliferating or go into apoptosis but how p53 makes this decision has been difficult to elucidate. The existence of several p53 isoforms in elephants with different capacities to interact with MDM2 offers an exciting new approach to shed new light on p53’s tumour suppressor activity.”
Understanding more about exactly how the p53 molecules get activated and when this can lead to an increased sensitivity and response against carcinogenic conditions is an exciting prospect for further research into activating p53 and targeted drug therapies in humans and the creation of any “one size fits all” therapies.
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🧬 Genetics
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📷 Weekly Camera Roll
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Reference List
Content may be adapted and edited for style and length.
🦠Bacteria Microbots
Akolpoglu, M., Alapan, Y., Dogan, N., Baltaci, S., Yasa, O., Aybar Tural, G. and Sitti, M., 2022. Magnetically steerable bacterial microrobots moving in 3D biological matrices for stimuli-responsive cargo delivery. Science Advances, 8(28).
News Release - https://is.mpg.de/news/bacteria-based-biohybrid-microrobots-on-a-mission-to-one-day-battle-cancer
🐋Seismic Narwhal Disruption
Williams, T., Blackwell, S., Tervo, O., Garde, E., Sinding, M., Richter, B. and Heide‐Jørgensen, M., 2022. Physiological responses of narwhals to anthropogenic noise: A case study with seismic airguns and vessel traffic in the Arctic. Functional Ecology,.
News Release - https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/2022/07/12/physiological-responses-in-narwahl-disrupted-by-seismic-surveys-says-study/
🐘Elephants Cure Cancer?
Padariya, M., Jooste, M., Hupp, T., Fåhraeus, R., Vojtesek, B., Vollrath, F., Kalathiya, U. and Karakostis, K., 2022. The Elephant Evolved p53 Isoforms that Escape MDM2-Mediated Repression and Cancer. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 39(7).
News Release - https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2022-07-15-elephant-genes-could-hold-key-avoiding-cancers