Researchers in Italy have found that running a marathon stops the cellular processes which lead to cell death.

Apoptosis is the process of programmed cell death and is a closely regulated function acting to renew cells in our bodies.  Pro- and anti-apoptotic proteins are both continuously expressed and only the balance between the two decides whether apoptosis happens or not.  In this study, researchers from the University of Rome collected blood samples from ten amateur runners directly after they had run a marathon.  They analysed the RNA expression profiles of certain proteins and found an increase in several of the anti-apoptotic proteins and a decrease in several pro-apoptotic proteins.

These results show that the work load of a marathon significantly influences the regulation of apoptosis. It might also support scientific evidence for the positive effect effects of exercise on lifespan however, it is not known if this effect extends to marathon training as well.  

www.biomedcentral.com/bmcphysiol/

Using a 50-year-old specimen from the Natural History Museum in London, University of Bath's Dr. Jonathan Cox and researchers from the University of Cambridge carried out CT scans to construct a digital, three-dimensional representation of a hammerhead shark. They then proceeded to fashion a physical model of the head and nasal cavity by printing 178 μm thin layers. In closed-circuit free-surface water tunnels, flow visualisation experiments were conducted with food colouring.

A shark's olfactory chamber consists of folded layers that form channels; the main ones connect to the incurrent and excurrent nostrils. The receptor cells are situated on the secondary channels that branch out. As sharks swim their heads glide from side to side and water is propelled in different angles across the channels. The experiment considered this flow of water, taking these angles into account.

Water enters the shark's nasal cavity through the incurrent nostril, passes through the incurrent and excurrent channels and exits through the excurrent nostril. Between the channels, the water traverses the secondary channels and possibly, as discovered in this study, a hairpin bend.

The point at which the water reaches the anterior side of the head determines the extent of percolation of the water through the channels. This can have an important impact on the information about smell gleaned from it. There are numerous deflecting mechanisms that control flow into the olfactory chamber: the major and minor nasal grooves, nasal bridge and depression behind the nostrils. These may also function to protect the sensitive folded layers from the continuous flow.

This research has brought together various fields of science, ranging from technology to marine biology. Although the scientists recognise that modelling structures at such an intricate level is not yet a perfected procedure, they hope that it will aid in future projects involving chemical sensors.

Scientists at Ajou University in South Korea have designed a material that forms a gel in vivo and releases protein drugs slowly over a sustained period of time.

The gel is designed using biocompatible components, sodium carboxymethylcellulose and polyethyleneimine, that electrostatically link to form a gel on exposure to physiological conditions. The gel was found to be porous enough to release the test protein drug, albumen, in a slow and controlled manner over a period of up to 15 days, while preventing biological materials from entering. 

This slow delivery of protein drugs would enhance their therapeutic benefits greatly. Protein drugs are used to treat a wide range of illnesses but their therapeutic effects are limited by their unstable nature. The drugs are easily denatured in the body and administering them intravenously or via oral pills often causes plasma concentrations that are either too low to have a therapeutic effect or too high and cause toxicity. Methods such as these can lead to significant revolution in the delivery of therapeutic agents.

The research provides a useful experimental platform for the development for  sustained in vivo release of highly potent therapeutics.

http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/JM/

The first draft of the Neanderthal genome, published in Science this week, provides evidence of interbreeding with our Homo sapiens ancestors.

Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig have completed a four-year analysis of over one billion DNA fragments from 38,000 year-old Neanderthal bones. The team had to use some completely new techniques to identify Neanderthal DNA amongst the DNA of microbes that had colonised the remains.  They managed to recover over 60 per cent of the Neanderthal genome.

Comparison of the genome with that of modern humans reveals more similarity with Europeans and Asians than with Africans. According to Svante Paabo, who led the research, this suggests interbreeding in the Middle East between 100,000 and 50,000 years ago: "Neanderthals probably mixed with early modern humans before Homo sapiens split into different groups in Europe and Asia." The team calculate that between one and four per cent of DNA in modern non-Africans originated from Neanderthals.

Differences between the genomes have also allowed identification of several genes that may have been important in the survival and evolution of Homo sapiens over the Neanderthals, including some involved in cognitive function, metabolism and skeletal structure. Paabo is optimistic about the impact of future work: "We will also decode the remaining parts of the Neanderthal genome and learn much more about ourselves and our closest relative."

http://www.sciencemag.org/