Zinc Found to Help With Autism

            According to a new study from the University of Aukland, the cellular changes that the brain undergoes from genetic mutations such as autism can be reversed by zinc. Autism is from a genetic mutation that begins at the cellular level that results in changes in behavior. So why did they decide to use zinc? Zinc is considered to be a very important factor in the synthesis of both DNA and proteins. It has been found that autistic children have a zinc deficiency, which is critical because zinc is needed for children to help them grow and develop. In this study, the protein of interest was Shank3, which is located in the brain and has association with disorders like autism and schizophrenia.

From the team’s research Shank3 was found to be an important factor of signaling system that is zinc-sensitive and can regulate how the brain cells can communicate. Even though the Shank3 gene has autism-associated genes that impair communication with brain cells, the ability to respond to the addition of zinc is not affected. So when zinc is added brain cell communication can be increased when it was previously weakened by changes to Shank3 that were autism associated. Environmental and dietary factors can change the protein’s signaling system, which causes the ability to control the nerve cell function of the brain to decrease. What is next for this research? The team hopes to further study what the affect of dietary zinc supplements has on autistic behaviors. I am really excited to see where this research goes in the future, for I believe that autism awareness and research is very important

References:

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-08-zinc-reverse-brain-cell-autism.html

http://www.wellnessresources.com/health/articles/zinc_and_autism_the_missing_link_for_brain_cell_communication/

Fireflies Helping with Medical Diagnostics

            As kids it is always fun to go out in your backyard and try to catch fireflies, but now they are also being used to help in the medical field. There are times when doctors need to be able to quickly identify if their patient has tumor cells in their body, but most methods take a lot of time. So could there be a faster, easier, and cheaper way to detect such things? The light from fireflies is that way. The enzyme from fireflies that causes them to illuminate can now be used as a cheap and effective detection system.

            The enzyme luciferase is what causes the fireflies to glow. A lab at EPFL figured out that by adding a small chemical tag to the luciferase enzyme it is able to detect a target protein. The tag originally acts as if it is a switch that is able to block the light from illuminating. The tag continues to block the light until the tag is able to locate the target protein. Once this happens the tag will attach to the protein of interest and remove the block from the luciferase, causing the luciferase to light up. When the luciferase illuminates it is visible to the naked eye, which means it is able to eliminate the need for expensive and complicated readout devices.

            The hardest part is designing the appropriate tag that can recognize the target protein of interest. This method can be a very useful tool to create biosensor proteins for many different targets.

Reference:

http://phys.org/news/2015-07-fireflies-medical-diagnostics.html

Figuring Out the Genes of Peanut Allergies

            Food allergies have been rapidly growing all over the world, with about two to ten percent of children being affected in the United States. This growth in food allergies has become a major health problem due to the fact that they can potentially be life threatening, as well as their impact in the medical and economic fields. The three most common food allergies in the United States are peanut, egg, and milk.  Peanut allergies are considered to be one of the most fatal food allergies that are often life-long.

            A research team at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health began researching the idea that genes could factor into food allergies. The team has discovered a region in the human genome that is associated with children’s peanut allergies in the United States. DNA samples of 1, 315 children and then 1,444 of their biological parents were collected. Most of the children being tested had some type of food allergy. The team scanned about 1 million different gene markers throughout the entire human genome to try and find which genes if any contribute to food allergies. The team discovered that on chromosome six, which is the region that has genes like HLA-DQ and HLA-DR, is linked to peanut allergies. This region of HLA-DQ and HLA-DR accounted for 20% of all of the peanut allergies in this study.

Not everyone that had these mutations developed a peanut allergy, which confused the team. They then theorized that epigenetic changes could also be a factor. An epigenetic change is when a methyl group attaches to the DNA, which causes the gene expression to be altered but not the underlying code. So they concluded that the level of DNA methylation determines if the peanut allergy will develop in people with the susceptibility. These levels can be altered by environmental factors such as in-utero or the first couple years of life. If these factors could be identified this could lead to being able to discover treatment or prevention plans.

Reference

http://www.jhsph.edu/news/news-releases/2015/do-genes-play-a-role-in-peanut-allergies-new-study-suggests-yes.html