The Surprising Benefits of Drinking Coffee

Do you drink coffee daily? New research shows that there are benefits from caffeine on your cardiovascular and digestive systems.

High levels of LDL cholesterol in the bloodstream increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. A study from McMaster University showed that the amount of caffeine in 2-3 cups of coffee a day reduced LDL cholesterol. Consuming caffeine on a regular basis has also been linked to reduced blood levels of the PCSK9 protein. This protein helps the liver remove excess LDL cholesterol from the bloodstream. The research has discovered the underlying mechanism as to how caffeine and its derivatives mitigate levels of blood PCSK9.

The researchers discovered that caffeine and its derivatives block a protein called SREBP2. When this happens, the protein PCSK9 is reduced. Current study results have shown that coffee and tea drinkers display a reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease. This is the first time an explanation has been made as to why this is.

Because the protein SREBP2 is connected to cardiometabolic diseases, such as fatty liver and diabetes this discovery has many implications. They can now link caffeine to metabolism of cholesterol at a molecular level. In the process of the study they developed new caffeine derivatives that can greatly lower blood PCSK9 levels. This is very promising and could lead to new treatments for high LDL cholesterol levels.

In a new review of previous studies it is shown that drinking coffee can stimulate biliary, gastric and pancreatic secretions. This, in turn can influence the digestive process by aiding acid production in the stomach, pancreatic and bile secretion and colon motility.

After drinking coffee the first organs it comes into contact with are in the gastrointestinal tract. The findings show that coffee consumption of 3-5 cups a day did not generate any harmful effects. It is very interesting that the study also showed a reduced risk of gallstones and pancreatitis, although more research on this is needed.

As coffee travels down the gastrointestinal tract, its impact on gastric, biliary and pancreatic secretions is necessary for digestion of food. It helps stimulate production of gastrin, a digestive hormone, and hydrochloric acid, which both help break down food. The secretion of a hormone that increases the production of bile, called cholecystokinin is also stimulated.

Another benefit of coffee consumption is changes to gut microbiota by improving the level of Bifidobacteria, which inhabit the gastrointestinal tract. Colon motility is also improved. This is the process of food traveling through the digestive tract. The study found that it is stimulated 23% more than decaf coffee and 60% more than a glass of water and could reduce risk of chronic constipation. In some cases, drinking coffee produces a protective effect against constipation.

So drink a cup or two of coffee a day. It can be beneficial.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Caffeine blocks SREBP2-induced hepatic PCSK9 expression to enhance LDLR-mediated cholesterol clearance
Effects of Coffee on the Gastro-Intestinal Tract: A Narrative Review and Literature Update

New Therapy Removes Unhealthy Cells From Blood With Magnets

An engineer has discovered a way to filter unwanted blood cells using magnets. His tool might be able to be used in clinical trials within the next year.

The biochemical engineer knew there was the possibility to force magnetic nanoparticles to bind to specific cells found in the body. However, while other researchers did so mainly to make those cells available in images, he wondered if the identical technique could allow doctors to remove cells that were unwanted from blood.

When a person has a tumor it is cut out. Cancer of the blood is a tumor in the blood so why could it not be taken out the same way?

MediSieve was created which is a treatment technology that works very much like dialysis through removing blood from a patient and infusing it with magnetic nanoparticles which are made to bind to a particular disease. Then it uses magnets to draw out and then trap the cells prior to pumping the blood that has been filtered back into the patient.

The thought is that doctors could run a patient’s blood through the machine many times until their levels of the disease are low enough to be wiped out by medicine or even by the patient’s very own immune system.

The team is now waiting approval to trial their system on patients infected with malaria which is naturally magnetic due to its consumption of its own iron based waste product.

In theory, anything could be gone after. Pathogens, poisons, bacteria, viruses and anything that can be specifically bound to can be removed. It is a very powerful possible tool.

Airway Stem Cells Work Together in Regeneration and Aging

Researchers conducting a new study have identified the process of how stem cells located in the airways of the lungs switch between two distinct phases. They create more of themselves and produce mature airway cells to regenerate lung tissue following an injury.

The study additionally sheds light on how aging can lead to lung regeneration going awry which can lead to cancer of the lungs and other diseases. Currently there are few therapies that target the biology of diseases that affect the lungs. The new findings will assist researchers in efforts to develop targeted therapies to improve the health of the airway.

The airways carry the air that is breathed in from the mouth and nose to the lungs. They are the body’s first line of defense against airborne particles such as pollution and germs that can lead to illness. The two types of airway stem cells have a vital role in this process. Mucus cells secrete mucus to trap harmful particles. Ciliated cells use their finger like projections to sweep the mucus engulfed particles up to the back of the throat and then cleared out of the lungs.

Infectious and toxic particles which people breathe in every day can lead to injury of the airways. When this happens, airway basal stem cells which are capable of self-renewing and producing mucus and the ciliated cells which line the airways, are activated to repair any damage.

In order to keep the correct balance of each type of cell, airway basal stem cells must transition from the proliferative phase where they produce more of themselves, to the differentiation phase where they give rise to mature airway stem cells.

These particular stem cells must maintain a very delicate equilibrium. They need to produce just the correct amount of mucus and ciliated cells in order to keep harmful particles out of the lungs. They must also self-replicate to ensure there will be enough of these stem cells to respond to the next injury.

For the study, the research team examined mice who had lung injuries. They analyzed how the different kinds of cells found in the supportive environment that surrounds airway basal stem cells, work together to insure the repair response.

They discovered that a group of molecules known as the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway activate to stimulate the basal stem cells found in the airway to respond to injury. They were surprised to discover that this molecule group originates in one cell type to initiate proliferation and a different cell type to initiate differentiation.

During the proliferation phase of repair, a connective tissue cell known as a fibroblast secretes the Wnt molecule which then signals to the stem cell that it is time to self-renew. During the differentiation phase of repair, the Wnt molecule is secreted by an epithelial cell which make up the lining of organs and tissues, to signal to the stem cells that it is time to produce mature airway cells.

Understanding how the regeneration process works in healthy lungs is an important first step to understanding how disease can occur when the process goes wrong. In order to gain insights into what role this process and the cells that activate it could play in disease, the team studied its activity in older mice.

They were surprised to find that in the airways of the aging mice, the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway is active in the stem cells even when there is no injury. This is in contrast to the airways of young mice where it is only activated when necessary. When the pathway is active, it stimulates the stem cells to produce more stem cells and more airway stem cells even when they are not needed.

Early research has established a connection between a more active Wnt/beta-catenin pathway and lung cancer. The more a cell divides, the greater the chance that a mutation or a proofreading error can occur which can lead to cancer.

The new study builds on this work by establishing not only what goes wrong, but exactly when it goes wrong in otherwise healthy people as part of the process of aging. The findings have given researchers insight into which types of stem cells are important, which pathway is also important and when therapies to prevent the formation of cancer might be developed.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Distinct Spatiotemporally Dynamic Wnt-Secreting Niches Regulate Proximal Airway Regeneration and Aging.

Cell Speed Limit is a Game Changer for Stem Cell Therapy

Cellular reprogramming is a goal of regenerative medicine. It can be used to replace damaged or sick cells with a cell that is healthy. New research has now discovered improvements for the efficiency of cellular reprogramming which has great potential in cellular repair therapy.

It has been known that adult cells can only duplicate into the same cell type, thus, limiting adult cell therapy. The new discovery has found that embryo cells have the capability to multiply all cell types in our body. This is called totipotency and researchers have found it to be an inspiration in finding new ways to repeat totipotency in the lab by using cellular reprogramming.

Totipotent cells are still a mystery as to their properties, which are not all known yet. And this research made a new discovery about them. From being the mother cells of stem cells, the pace at which DNA replication occurs in them is different in comparison to cells that are more differentiated. It was shown to be much slower.

The researchers now asked if they can change the speed of DNA replication could they then improve the reprogramming of them into totipotent cells? Totipotent cells have been studied for years hoping to discover how nature has made them capable of producing all cell types in our bodies.

In an exceptional experimental achievement, they did observe that slowing down the DNA replication speed did increase reprogramming efficiency. They had slowed down the DNA replication speed by limiting the substrate that the cells use for DNA synthesis.

It was an amazing discovery. It is considered a huge advancement for stem cell therapy and a fundamental strategy of future research in regenerative medicine.

To view the original scientific study click below:
DNA replication fork speed underlies cell fate changes and promotes reprogramming

Cognitive Function Influenced by Gut Microorganisms

A recent study has found a link between microorganism composition that are in the gut and cognitive health. It adds to a growing wealth of research into the interactions between the brain and gut microbiome. Researchers are finding a variety of ways microorganisms in the gastrointestinal tract are diverse leading to studies over the past few years.

Earlier studies in animals and small clinical studies have shown changes in cognition could be linked to changes in the gut microbiome. But there has been few studies investigating cognition and gut microbiome in large samples in community settings.

Recently U.S. researchers have analyzed data from a large cross sectional study and found a connection between cognition in middle aged adults and gut microbial composition. Participants were recruited from across the U.S. as part of the CARDIA Study (Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults).

The CARDIA study 30 year follow-up examination took place in 2015-2016 and had 3,358 participants. The participants were given a set of cognitive assessments as a part of the study with 3,124 participants completing at least one of the assessments. Also, 615 participants were recruited into a microbiome sub-study which sent stool samples to a lab for DNA sequencing.

Six cognitive tests were used – Rey-Auditory Verbal Learning Test, Digit Symbol Substitution Test, letter fluency, Stroop Test, Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and category fluency. The results of the tests were collated for a summary score for each participant.

Other factors were accounted for that could influence either the microbiome composition or test scores in the analysis. The factors included education level, demographics, physical activity, smoking status, medications and diet. Data on comorbidities such as diabetes and hypertension was also collected.

607 of the 615 participants had stool samples that were suitable for DNA sequencing. Ten of the participants didn’t have complete data on the cognitive tests so analysis was used for 597 participants.

Participants were aged 48 to 60 with an average age of 55. 45.2% were Black, 44.7% were men and 44.8% were white. The analysis focused on three main areas – within-person diversity, between person diversity and the individual composition of microorganisms in the sample of stools.

Microbial composition was greatly linked with cognitive measures in the between-person differences after adjusting for risk factors. There was a statistically notable interaction by sex and no notable difference within race. Within-person diversity was generally not linked with cognition in the data.

Future work is essential using whole metagenomics sequencing called shotgun. This is a quick method of sequencing of DNA and gives more information in regards to the interactions and metabolic pathways that take place in the microbiome.

Data that is collected over multiple time points is also needed. This might confirm that gut microbial changes can occur before physiological changes.

There is also a need for longitudinal analysis that collects a lot of information on our health behaviors and social environment to see how these factors and the microbiome will influence health. It is possible that different behaviors and exposures could affect a person’s microbes in different ways and would be important for interventions in the future on a personal level.

The hope is that additional evidence could lead to opportunities to reduce cognition decline in later life. There is the potential to adjust the gut microbiota by altering targeted treatments and health behaviors.
But microbiota could eventually be utilized to identify biomarkers that are involved in risk of chronic diseases which will lead to cognition decline.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Association of the Gut Microbiota With Cognitive Function in Midlife

Does Eating Less Meat Lower Cancer Risk?

The team investigated the connection between cancer risk and diet through analyzing data from 472,377 British adults from the UK Biobank during the years 2006-2010. The participants were 40-70 years old and reported they consumed fish and meat. Using health records, the research team calculated the occurrence of cancers that had developed roughly over 11 years. They took into account sociodemographics, diabetes status, socioeconomics and other lifestyle factors.

247,572 (52%) of the participants consumed meat more than 5 times a week, (44%) 205,382 consumed meat 5 times or less a week, (2%) 10,696 consumed fish and no meat, and (2%) 8,685 were vegan or vegetarian. Of the participants (2%) 54,961 developed cancer during the period the study ran.

The team discovered that the risk of cancer was lower by 2% among the participants who consumed meat 5 times a week, 10% or lower with those who consumed fish but no meat, and lower by 14% among the vegan and vegetarians. These results were in comparison to those who consumed meat more than 5 times a week. When looking at the occurrence of certain cancers, the team found those who consumed meat 5 times per week or less had a 9% lower risk of colorectal cancer when compared to the participants who consumed meat in excess of 5 times in a week.

They additionally discovered there was a 20% lower risk of prostate cancer among men who consumed fish but no meat. Those on a vegetarian diet the risk was 31% lower compared to those who consumed meat more than 5 times a week.

Women who were post-menopausal and consumed a vegetarian diet had a lower risk by 18% of getting breast cancer than those who consumed meat more than 5 times a week. However, these findings suggested that this might be due to women who were vegetarian tend to have a lower body mass index than the women who ate meat.

The team do warn that the study was observational in nature and should not be accepted as a causal relationship between diet and cancer risk. And it should be taken into consideration that the dietary information was collected at one time and not over a continuous time period so that it might not be representative of the participant’s lifetime diets.

The team suggests that additional research could done to investigate the link between diets containing little or no meat and the risk of individual cancers in populations that are larger and with longer periods of follow-up.

An important question to also investigate is whether eating meat from 100% pasture fed animals lowers cancer risk compared to eating meat from grain fed animals.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Risk of cancer in regular and low meat-eaters, fish-eaters, and vegetarians: a prospective analysis of UK Biobank participants

Rejuvenating Old Skin Cells to Regain Youthful Function

Scientists from the Babraham Institute in Cambridge have discovered a new technique to rejuvenate old skin cells. This technique has the ability for researchers to turn back time for up to 30 years on cellular aging without changing their function.

They were able to partially recover an older cell’s function and also rejuvenate it on a molecular level to a more youthful state. They simulated a skin wound for their research and noticed how the cells started behaving like more youthful cells.

As a person ages, their cellular ability to behave normal declines, therefore resulting in accumulation of the genome, which is a mark of aging. From this new technique cells look and behave much younger. It is a monumental step forward in the ongoing research.

Regenerative biology’s main goal is to replace or repair cells, even old ones. The ability to develop “induced” stem cells is an important part. There are many steps involved including deleting some markers that make cells specialised. The theory is that they can then become any cell type. Scientists have been eluded as to how to mimic the conditions necessary to re-differentiate a cell type.

The new technique overcomes this by erasing a cells identity by temporarily stopping the reprogramming process. The scientists were then able to discover the exact balance between a cells reprogramming, which can make them young biologically and still have a specialised function.

But the research is still in the early stages. This new process stems from the research in 2007 from Shinya Yamanaka. He was able to turn a normal cell that has a specific function into a stem cell that has the ability to turn into any cell type. It takes up to 50 days to do this and the four key molecules used are now called the Yamanaka factors.

The new technique is called maturation phase transient reprogramming and uses exposure to the Yamanaka factors for 13 days. It is at this point that the cells lose their age-related changes and temporarily lose their identity. They are then then left to grow, and from observation from genome analysis, showed that they had formed new markers characteristic of skin cells showing collagen production.

This new research has potential for the rejuvenation of not only skin cells but other tissues in the body. It could lead to treatment of diseases of old age such as heart and neurological disorders and diabetes. Because it has now been shown that rejuvenation of a cell can be done without losing its specialised function the implications of further study is very exciting. This new research could be revolutionary for regenerative medicine.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Multi-omic rejuvenation of human cells by maturation phase transient reprogramming

Calorie Restriction Trial Shows Key Factors in Extending Human Health

A new study confirms health benefits of moderate calorie restriction in people and identified a key protein that might be utilized to extend human health. Previous research has shown that restricting calorie intake by worms, mice and flies can enhance the span of life in lab conditions. However, whether calorie restriction is able to do the same for humans has remained unclear.

This was the first controlled study of restricting calories in healthy humans and the research was based on the clinical study CALERIE (Comprehensive Assessment of Long Term Effects of Reducing Intake of Energy).

The researchers first created a baseline of calories consumed for over 200 participants. They asked a portion of the participants to reduce calories by 14% while the remaining participants continued to eat as normal. The long term effects to their health were analyzed for 2 years.

The main intent of the clinical trial was to observe if restricting calories is as beneficial to humans as it is for animals in the lab. They wanted to understand what restricting calories does to the human body and, specifically if it can lead to improved health. Previous research on mice had shown restricting calories can increase infections. So the team wanted to see how restricting calories might have a link to inflammation and the response of the immune system.

In humans chronic low grade inflammation is a significant trigger of a variety of chronic diseases, therefore having an adverse effect on life span. They wanted to answer what does restricting calories do to the metabolic and immune systems. If it is beneficial, then how do we control the endogenous pathways that copy its effects in humans?

The team began by analyzing the thymus gland which is located above the heart and produces T cells. T cells are a crucial part of our immune system as they are a type of white blood cell. This gland will age faster than other organs, and as it ages it produces fewer T cells. When healthy adults are around 40 years old, 70% of this gland is already nonfunctional and fatty. As we age, we begin to feel the absence of brand new T cells as the ones we have left are not good at fighting new pathogens. This is one of the reasons older people are at a greater risk for illnesses.

The team used MRI to determine if there were beneficial differences between the thymus glands of the participants on the restricted calorie diet and those who were not. They discovered that the gland in the participants on the restricted calorie diet had greater function volume and less fat after 2 years of restricting their calories. This meant they were producing more T cells than they did at the beginning of the study. The participants who were not calorie restricted did not show any change in functional volume.

The team was amazed that the thymus gland can be rejuvenated noting that there is hardly any evidence of it occurring in humans. This dynamic effect on this gland had the team expecting to also discover changes to the immune cells that the gland was producing. If so, then there could be underlying overall benefits of restricting calories. However, when they sequenced the genes in these cells, they discovered there were not any changes in gene expression after the two year period.

This observation had the team look closer which showed a surprising discovery – it turned out the action was really in the tissue miscroenvironment and not the blood T cells.

The team had studied adipose tissue which is body fat of the participants on the calorie restricted diet at three different points – the beginning, at one year and at the 2 year end of the study. Body fat is essential as it delivers a strong immune system. The are a variety of immune cells that occur in fat and when they are atypically activated they turn into a source of inflammation.

The team discovered amazing changes in the gene expression of adipose tissue at one year that were sustained to two years. This showed some genes were involved in the extension of life in animals and also unique restriction mimicking of calorie targets that could improve anti-inflammatory and metabolic responses in people.

The team then set out to observe if any genes they had identified in the analysis could be driving some of the benefits of restricting calories. They looked at the gene for PLA2G7 which is one of the genes that was significantly inhibited after restricting calories. PLA2G7 is a protein that is produced by immune cells that are known as macrophages.

The change in PLA2G7 gene expression that was observed in the participants who limited their calories suggested the protein could be linked to the effects of restricting calories. The team also tracked what would happen when the protein was reduced in mice in a lab.

They discovered that reducing the protein in mice yielded similar benefits that were seen in the participants on the calorie restricted diet. The thymus gland of the mice was functional for a longer period. They were protected from weight gain due to diet and were also protected from inflammation due to the aging process.

The effects occurred due to PLA2G7 targeting a specific mechanism of inflammation known as NLRP3. Lowering PLA2G7 protected the older mice from inflammation.

The findings show that PLA2G7 is a driver of the effects of restricting calories. The identification of these drivers helps the team determine how the immune system and the metabolic system speak to each other. This can point to potential targets which can improve function of the immune system and reduce inflammation and possibly enhance a healthy lifespan.

For example, it could be possible to manipulate PLA2G7 and receive the benefits of restricting calories without having to actuall restrict calories which can be harmful for some humans.

CALERIE is a controlled study that indicated that a simple restriction of calories with no specific diet, has a significant effect of shifting the immuno-metabolic state in a direction that protects human health. It gives great hope.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Caloric restriction in humans reveals immunometabolic regulators of health span
Caloric restriction has a new player

New Stem Cell Therapy to Regrow Bone

A new study has discovered a way to regrow or replace bone that has been lost by using high frequency sound waves. Researchers from RMIT University showed how this could be done faster and more efficiently than any process now in use.

Currently the process of changing adult stem cells into bone cells has been complicated and used expensive equipment. This hindered it being used in mass production thus making its use unrealistic. And the small amount of clinical trials that attempted to regrow bone were a painful procedure for the patient. They involved collecting mesenchymal stem cells which primarily reside in bone marrow and converting these into bone cells.

In the study, adult stem cells were treated with a microchip that produced MHz-order high frequency sound waves. This quickly and efficiently turned them into bone cells. They found they could direct the sound waves to the right places with the amount of pressure needed to trigger the process. This new approach doesn’t require any special drugs and is very easy to do. It also cuts the amount of treatment time by several days.

This is extremely important for effective tissue engineering. It is cheap and simple to use and can easily be upscaled to treat a large amount of cells simultaneously. This approach has great potential in the use of treating stem cells before they are coated onto an implant or injected directly into the site of disease or an injury. Once they have started the process of changing into bone cells they can be used to regrow new bone.

These mesencymal stem cells can also be obtained from fat tissue and other areas of a patient’s body instead of bone marrow which is a less invasive procedure. They found the best procedure was to expose cells to 10-MHz signals for ten minutes a day for five days.

More research is needed to be able to scale up the procedure for practical use.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Short-Duration High Frequency MegaHertz-Order Nanomechanostimulation Drives Early and Persistent Osteogenic Differentiation in Mesenchymal Stem Cells

Tendon Like Tissues Created From Human Stem Cells

Tendons are the structures that connect our muscles to our bones. They are important to every movement a person does. When they become injured, it can be quite difficult to repair them. The existing therapies often are fret with complications. In a quest to remedy this, researchers have now constructed artificial tendons. They are biologically and mechanically similar to normal tendons and use human pluripotent stem cells.

In this study, a team from Tokyo Medical and Dental University successfully induced human stem cells to make artificial tendon like tissue. This new tissue copies tendon properties and offers a greatly improved reconstruction from a mouse tendon-rupture model.

The use of human pluripotent cells is important because they can be accumulated from any adult cell and then differentiated into any specialized cell-type. These cells are used with Mohawk, which is a relay factor promoting gene expression in tendon formation, to produce the artificial tendon tissue.

The team then tested the artificial tendon using a mouse model of a ruptured tendon. They were excited by the results. After 6 weeks from the implantation there were similar mechanical tendencies that are normal compared to an undamaged mouse tendon. This confirmed that it had been integrated well. They also found that the new tissue had the ability to find and use tendon cells from the host further activating the repair process.

The results show that human pluripotent stem cell-derived bio-tendons have biological and mechanical properties comparable to normal tendons. They can be entirely integrated rather quickly after transplanting them in a mouse model. The next move is to test them in larger animal models and determine if they have the capacity to be biomaterial on a larger scope.

To view the original scientific study click below:
Generation of a tendon-like tissue from human iPS cells

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