Category Health/Medical

The bacteria we all have in our gut may play a decisive role in personalized nutrition and the development of obesity. Credit: © aamulya / Fotolia

A ratio between 2 groups of intestinal bacteria is decisive for whether overweight people lose weight on a diet that follows the Danish national dietary recommendations and contains a lot of fruit, vegetables, fiber and whole grains. In the study 31 subjects ate the New Nordic Diet for 26 weeks and lost an average of 3.5 kg, whereas the 23 subjects eating an Average Danish Diet lost an average of 1.7 kg. Thus weight loss was on average 1.8 kilos greater in the subjects on the New Nordic Diet.

When the subjects were divided by their level of intestinal bacteria, it was found that people with a high proportion of Prevotella bacteria in relation t...

Electron microscope view of bacteria in a sinus cavity

Researchers identify amino acids that hold the key to the process. Bitter taste receptors in the upper airway are a first line of defense against sinus infections, but their ability to kill harmful toxins and pathogens is blocked when the sweet taste receptors are also stimulated. While glucose and other sugars are known to trigger these sweet taste receptors, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania have now shown amino acids can also have that effect. This new understanding could help pave the way toward new treatments for chronic sinus infections.

The clinical name for chronic sinus infections is rhinosinusitis...

Neta Shlezinger et al. Sterilizing immunity in the lung relies on targeting fungal apoptosis-like programmed cell death, Science (2017). DOI: 10.1126/science.aan0365

A team from U.S., Germany and Israel has found that mice are able to ward off fungal lung infections because their immune systems cause fungal spores to die. In their paper published in the journal Science, the team describes the means by which they discovered how mice are able to ward off fungal lung infections and what their findings might mean for human patients.

Most people breathe in approximately 1000 fungal spores every single day. But the means by which people ward off fungal infections in the lungs has not been understood...

A cross section through the fibril illustrating the stepwise overlapping arrangement of the Aβ proteins Credit: Forschungszentrum Jülich / HHU Düsseldorf / Gunnar Schröder

A team from Germany and the Netherlands has determined the structure of an amyloid fibril with previously unachieved resolution. The fibrils of the body’s own amyloid beta (Aβ) protein are the main constituent of brain protein deposits associated with Alzheimer’s. The atomic-level 3D structure elucidated by the scientists reveals previously unknown aspects of the growth of harmful deposits and the effect of genetic risk factors.

The structure reveals how the many single Aβ protein molecules are staggered in layers on top of each other and are arranged into protofilaments...