Yay! It's week 18 of the what I learnt this week series. It was a wonderful week last week as we discussed the nasal polyps, the danger of fast foods, secret-keeping traits... which you can check here. It's still easy to find because it dropped later than the supposed time. That's by the way, let's go to what we came here for. I hope you find today's episode more interesting as you know I always sort to improve on my last writing, so today I packaged a lot more interesting topics for you, for us....
Monday: A vagina implant can prevent HIV transmission
We all know the fears that accompany the HIV and other STDs. HIV being the king of them all arouses fear in the minds of a large range of people. After several years of tormenting humanity, there's still not a definite cure for it or probably they've not been implemented. I remember writing about the progress of scientists in the production of HIV vaccines in the series sometime ago.. but as at then, the clinical trials had not kicked off due to some problems they had with partnership and funding.
But you know, every man for himself. Since there has not been any distinctive cure at hand, scientists are still working to ensure that HIV is tamed. Although the discovery of today is not about curing HIV, it's still for the same course. We know we have condoms, the anti-HIV drugs and the likes of them but how effective are they?? I've heard of a case of HIV contraction even with the usage of a condom which means we need more reliable methods of prevention.
Scientists knowing that the T-cells are usually activated when a virus enters the body, thought of putting them to rest, a situation known as Immune Quiescence. In other words, if HIV comes to the system when the T-cells are resting, there won't be any corruption and the infection won't spread. Scientists in years past discovered this and made medicines to put the T-cells to rest but the medicine doesn't easily find their way to the vaginal tract so the idea if an implant came.
The implants came as a better option being more reliable and cheap as well. However, the scientists at the University got this idea from a natural occurrence in Kenya; the sex workers in Kenya don't use protection even when with a positive client and they don't contract the virus in most cases. The scientists later discovered it's because they have T-cells that are naturally unresponsive to the virus.
There's still a need to confirm if this can work alone in the prevention of HIV or it could only be used as a backup plan.
Tuesday: Scientists grow miniature human brain in mice
Creation of miniature human brains started a few years ago. Scientists made a human brain organoid, induced it to be like the brain of a foetus and watch it grow probably into an adult brain but the brain stopped growing just after about 5 weeks. It was discovered that the stop of growth was not as a result of any malfunctioning because even though the growth stopped at the 5th week, the death of cells started at around the 10th week.
So in searching for a solution to the short life span of the human brain organoids, scientists turned to mice by implanting a growing human brain organoid into its brain after scooping out a small amount of the mice's tissue to create space for the organoid. They also covered its brain with a transparent cover to ensure they are able to observe all changes.
This did not only solve the issue of short life span but also the growth as the human brain organoid did not only survive beyond the usual time but it also grew beyond the usual size in lab dishes. In 12 weeks, about 80 % of the implant was sprouting additional neuron and "almost all the organoids had developed a dense network of blood vessels carrying nutrients and oxygen"
Eventually, the organoid was able to last until the 223rd day before death. During this period of 223 days, there was no difference in the behaviour of the mice according to the result of the behavioural test carried out on it.
Wednesday: Microbes and our minds
One thing we know for sure is that we all have micro bacteria in our gut that help us with digestion and production of vitamin. They colonize our gut from birth through the food we eat, and they help us digest the food we take in. That's what we knew. But now......? There's a possibility they have control over our minds and can even manipulate it...
Scientists found out about this and looked into it. They discovered the micro bacteria in the gut can do beyond digestion and production of vitamins... They can also influence our behaviour, stress, anxiety and a few other things that can not be linked to digestion or even vitamin production which is a reason for scientists to wonder and definitely find reasons to dig deep into the study.
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Well, it wouldn't really matter if their manipulation on our minds is for our benefits but actually, that's the opposite... They manipulate our minds for their own benefits - so, it's like they take advantage of us. One thing they majorly do is to increase the social ability and relationship of their host. This would naturally increase the number of people their host interact with and when their host interact with a larger number of people, it increases their chances of being transmitted to another host.
The manipulation is possible because the bacteria produce a neuro-active chemical that can manipulate the behaviour of hosts..
Thursday: Contact lens could prevent a leading cause of blindness.
Contact lens in the world I live in is something the ladies cherish, the guys probably like too or are just indifferent about, while the elderly people do not like it at all. They just preach being natural to the youth, they say it's good to be satisfied with the colour of eye nature gave us and not try to covet some foreign eyes - that's for the elderly anyway. Some people just can't use it and would definitely criticize those using it... What do you think this discovery would do to them when they eventually find out??? It would be a shhhh.... something, lol...
Diabetes is a high blood glucose disease that affects the blood vessels and can even damage the heart and eyes after the blood vessels must have been damaged. It damages the tiny blood vessels throughout the body including those of the heart and eyes so, the reduction of blood flow to the heart and to the nerve cells of the retina causes the heart and eye damage.
Scientists sought for the reason behind the eye damage and it was not necessarily the reduced supply of blood but the reduced supply of oxygen offered by the blood. From this point, it was either [1] finding a way to increase supply of oxygen or [2] Finding a way to optimize the little supply which might mean the reduction of oxygen demanded by the retina.
Over the years, scientists have chosen to use the latter way by using a laser to burn cells in the peripheral parts of the retina to allow the vision important part use the available amount of oxygen... Just like the laser, the scientists worked on a glowing contact lens to reduce the metabolic demand of the retina.
The glowing contact lens tackles the rod cells of the eye in that the rod cells consume about X2 oxygen than the cone cells and they are active majorly at night or in dark areas. Knowing that the rod cells consume oxygen when there's low light, the scientists thought of adding a glow to the contact lens to reduce the amount of oxygen and light needed by the rod cells.
Friday: Exercises can help you recover from concussions
If you can remember vividly when I wrote about concussions and chronic traumatic encephalopathy here, I said it's mostly caused by some sports like American football and rugby due to the high amount of head hits and contacts during these sports. In that post, I explained concussions and CTE so, I thought this would pass as a little continuation and conclusion as I didn't mention any cure at all then.
We all know the importance of exercises on our health and our recovery from sicknesses. In the case of concussions, many people think it's best to abstain from exercises for a long time because the original cause is a sport or even an accident during exercise but that's very wrong. In this case, the recovery is not a function of the exercise but how soon the exercise commenced after the concussion. The best time frame is 24 hours although this might not work for everyone but it's the best.
Scientists discovered aerobic exercises helped about 253 people recover earlier than normal. From there, they sort to find out the best time to start exercises after a concussion and they discovered that the best time is within one day because starting exercises in about three days after a concussion reduces the probability of fast return to sport by 36.5%, to school or work by 45.9% ~ 46%.
Funnily enough, the same pattern works for male and female victims. So, it's a general solution to concussions. Exercises like walking, stationery cycling are perfect. As you'd notice, they are not really stressful or rigorous exercises so, it could be easily done by any concussed person no matter the degree of concussion. You have a contrary idea?? Use the comment section..
Note that the exercises required are not strenuous or high-impact exercises. So, exercises like jogging and swimming wouldn't be at all necessary
Thank you for coming around!!
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Sources:
Stop HIV transmission |Miniature human brain in mice |Microbes manipulate our minds | Glowing contact lens |Exercise and concussions