Chinese literate: viruses against epilepsy and brushing teeth with electricity

Chinese scientists have successfully tested a treatment method for drug-resistant epilepsy. Researchers from Beijing have also developed a toothbrush that destroys bacteria using electricity generated by the movement of the bristles. In Russia, a hybrid of the African catfish is being bred, which can be grown in the European part of the country. Artificial intelligence will help identify substances in the environment that are dangerous to reproductive health. And experiments at the NICA accelerator can improve the safety of nuclear energy. Read more about the interesting scientific news of the week in the Izvestia collection.

Viruses to fight epilepsy

Chinese scientists have proposed an experimental method of gene therapy for drug-resistant epilepsy, aimed directly at the brain. After the introduction of viruses with therapeutic genes into the brain, the frequency of seizures decreased by more than 90% in three study participants.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Eduard Kornienko

The therapy affected a strictly defined small area of brain tissue that served as a source of seizures. The viruses delivered a gene that made the neurons sensitive to a particular drug. The combination of gene therapy with medication allowed the researchers to regulate the strength of the therapeutic effect, which other treatment methods do not provide. No serious side effects were observed in the participants of the trial.

All three participants are adult patients with a common form of epilepsy caused by hippocampal sclerosis. In each case, the scarring affected only one side of this brain structure. They were diagnosed 10-25 years before the start of the study. During this time, the patients developed resistance to at least two anticonvulsant drugs. In addition, during the 90 days prior to inclusion in the study, each of them suffered an average of at least two epileptic seizures per month.

Brushing teeth with electricity

Experts from Beijing have developed a toothbrush that destroys bacteria using electricity generated by the movement of the bristles. The researchers made them from polyvinylidene fluoride, a polymer that was subjected to stretching and heating to give it piezoelectric properties, that is, the ability to generate an electric charge when deformed.

Photo: Global Look Press/Julian Stratenschulte

During brushing, the bristles bend and release charges. These, in turn, contribute to the formation of highly reactive oxygen species in the saliva surrounding them. According to the researchers, these compounds damage the cell membranes of bacteria. When the bristles return to their original position, the material absorbs the charges back.

Scientists have found that the new brush does not damage the surface of teeth and is not toxic to human cells. However, its long-term safety and cost have not yet been assessed.

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Muscular African catfish will replace imported fish

Experts from MGUTU named after K.G. Razumovsky (First Cossack University) are working on the creation of a new hybrid of the African clary catfish. Scientists have already obtained offspring of the first and second generations by crossing representatives of two domestic breeds of this fish — Mikhailovskaya and Tamanskaya. In addition, the researchers have decoded the genome of the Russian catfish. This will allow breeding not only based on appearance, but also taking into account more accurate genetic data.

— We have sequenced the genome of catfish from the Russian population. Now our task is to obtain aquaculture with high cold resistance. Ordinary African catfish needs a high temperature of about + 28 degrees, so it is grown mainly in southern regions or in closed reservoirs. At the farm in Belgorod, we acclimatized the fish to a water temperature of +18... +21 degrees. In four months, individuals weighing 50 g have grown to 2 kg or more. Moreover, in an ordinary pond without energy costs," said Anastasia Klimuk, a junior researcher at the Center for Aquaculture at the Faculty of Biotechnology and Fisheries at the Razumovsky Moscow State Technical University.

Photo: IZVESTIA/Andrey Erstrem

Clariy catfish is a popular aquaculture facility in Russia. However, recently farms have faced a slowdown in its growth, a decrease in the concentration of nutrients and the yield of edible fish parts. One of the reasons is inbreeding, that is, closely related crossbreeding. Breeders select individuals based on their appearance, without taking into account their pedigree. Using genomic data will avoid this problem.

AI will identify substances dangerous for childbirth in the environment

Scientists at Sechenov University have developed a machine learning-based system for the preliminary assessment of chemicals potentially affecting the reproductive system. It predicts whether the compound can bind to the progesterone receptor, activate or block it, and have a general toxic effect on cells.

— The progesterone receptor plays an important role in the regulation of reproductive processes, however, computational toxicology tools are still much less than for estrogen and androgen receptors. It was important for us to create an approach that would allow us to prioritize chemicals according to the degree of risk of negative effects on the reproductive system and effectively plan further research," said the head of the study, PhD, Associate Professor of the Department of Human Ecology and Environmental Hygiene at the F.F. Institute of Public Health. Erisman Ekaterina Guseva.

For preventive toxicology, this means the possibility of a preventive assessment of the safety of new or insufficiently studied compounds. It is especially important in this way to check industrial chemicals, plant protection products, as well as other xenobiotics that are massively present in the environment and require operational control over their content, the specialist said.

Hand with help: the glove will identify the precursors of an epilepsy attack

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The new NICA accelerator station will help create "green" nuclear reactors

The experimental facility was named SIYET — "station for research of nuclear energy technologies". This is a joint project of specialists from the Institute of Physical and Technical Problems (part of Rosatom) and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, as well as a number of other Russian scientific centers.

"The main idea of the complex is to study an electro—nuclear method of generating energy," Ildar Gazizov, head of the IFTI uncooled detector laboratory, told Izvestia. — The essence of the method is that a beam of accelerated particles — protons or light ions, formed on a NICA nuclotron, is directed at a target. This is an array of heavy metal, such as lead, weighing up to 25 tons and with a diameter of up to one and a half meters. When particles enter the mass, a powerful stream of neutrons is generated.

Photo: Provided by JINR Press Service

As the scientist explained, in the future, as part of an electro—nuclear installation, the resulting neutrons will trigger the nuclear fission reaction of heavy elements, which will give energy. In the meantime, the experimenters' task is to study and select the optimal beam parameters, compare protons and light ions, and based on this, choose which type is best suited for future industrial installations.

The advantage of the new technology lies in the very principle of operation. If a self—sustaining chain reaction occurs in traditional reactors, then in electric nuclear installations, nuclear fission is triggered by an external source - a beam of particles obtained from an accelerator. This allows the reactor to be switched on and off as needed, which makes the process more economical and safer than in modern nuclear power plants.