In today’s newsletter, find out why we crave high-calorie foods when we're hungry, how tapeworms trigger epilepsy, and a surprisingly simple strategy for reducing the risk of ventilator-induced lung injury. Plus, hear the authors of eLife papers discuss their research in the latest episode of our podcast.
– Julia Deathridge, Senior Features Editor
Tapeworm larvae under the microscope. Image credit: De Lange et al. (CC BY 4.0)
Neurocysticercosis – a brain infection caused by the larvae of parasitic tapeworms – is a leading cause of adult epilepsy. However, it is not clear how these larvae can trigger epileptic seizures. Now, researchers have shown that the larvae may induce epilepsy by releasing excessive amounts of glutamate, a chemical that excites brain cells and leads to spikes in neural activity. You can also read more about this work in this Insight article – Epilepsy: How parasitic larvae affect the brain.
Patients who have difficulty breathing are often put on ventilators – but sometimes this intervention can trigger inflammation that further damages tissue in the lung. Now, a study has found that lowering the body temperature of mice reduces this inflammatory response, suggesting that therapeutic hypothermia could help protect against ventilator-induced lung injury.
When hungry, we’re often drawn to calorie-rich foods, such as donuts or pizza. A new study tracking the eye movements of 70 participants suggests that this happens because, when we are in a state of hunger, we focus more on how appealing a food tastes than its nutritional value.
The bacterium Salmonella can cause serious illness in humans, with some strains proving more difficult to treat than others. But what makes certain strains more dangerous? New research analyzing the genetic makeup of 1,300 Salmonella strains from across the globe is beginning to offer some clues.
Drugs that target RNA hold great promise for combating hard-to-treat diseases, including viral infections. However, their effectiveness relies on pinpointing the right regions of RNA to target. Now, a study published in eLife demonstrates that a method known as SHAPE-MaP can be used to identify druggable sites within viral RNA. In this Insight article, Lana Heganovic and Luiz Passalacqua explain how SHAPE-MaP uncovers the unique physical properties of different RNA regions, and how drugs targeting specific sites could be used to block viral infections.
Cells regulate their gene expression by modifying messenger RNA (mRNA) – the string of nucleotides that carries the instructions for making proteins. One of the most common modifications involves adding or removing chemical tags called m6A at specific parts of the mRNA molecule. Changes in m6A levels were thought to be driven solely by proteins that actively install or erase these marks. However, research published in eLife suggests that m6A levels are also passively regulated by mRNA metabolism. In this Insight article, Sarah Hallstein and Julian König describe the mathematical model that led to this discovery.
Give your eyes a break and listen to the stories behind some of eLife’s most interesting papers in our latest podcast. In this episode, find out about monkeys that wash their food, how cancers cause extra tentacles to grow in hydra, and the impact of speaking multiple languages on the structure of the brain.
The longest day of the year has come and gone in the Northern Hemisphere, and the nights are slowly getting longer again – but humans are not the only species to notice this change. In this article, published in The Conversation, Andrew Hacket-Pain explores how trees use the summer solstice as a signal to shift their behavior.
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