Category Health/Medical

Satellite images of Emiliania huxleyi blooms. Credit: NASA images

Using a special profiling technique, scientists at Princeton have determined the mechanism of action of a potent antibiotic, tropodithietic acid (TDA), leading them to uncover its hidden ability as a potential anticancer agent. TDA is produced by marine bacteria belonging to the roseobacter family, which exist in a unique symbiosis with microscopic algae. The algae provide food for the bacteria, and the bacteria provide protection from the many pathogens of the open ocean.

“This molecule keeps everything out,” said Assistant Prof. Seyedsayamdost. “How could something so small be so broad spectrum? That’s what got us interested,” he said...

Here’s a reason for men to eat their lima beans -If research in male fruit flies holds up, it might help you live longer. New research suggests that oral administration of prunetin, found in lima beans, increased climbing activity and reduced glucose levels in male fruit flies but not in females. Prunetin is a plant-derived compound that belongs to the isoflavone group.

“Our study provides novel insights into plant bioactive research and suggests a potential to combat aging comparatively simple by the intake of a plant bioactive,” said Anika E. Wagner, Ph.D. “Further studies in mammalian species/humans are needed to validate initial data which were generated in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster.”

To make their discovery, scientists separated fruit flies according to sex prior to ...

Macrophages initiate and direct other immune responses

A research team describes ‘tuning’ macrophages from ones that repair wounds (and contribute to tumor growth) to ones that sterilize wounds (and contribute to immune system’s attack of tumor tissue).

The immune system’s macrophages pick a life path. Cancers encourage macrophages to pick the path of wound-repair, making what are called “M2” or “repair-type” macrophages. Cancers use these M2 macrophages to promote their own growth. Now researchers can successfully flip M2 macrophages into their wound-sterilizing cousins, called “M1” or “kill-type” macrophages, which, contrary to promoting the growth of new tissue, may aid the immune system in clearing the body of cancer.

“The basic message we’re trying to convey is that turning those M2 m...