Scientist reveals disturbing way Zika virus affects humans: 'It actively manipulates human biology to ensure its survival'
"A new study led by Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and published in Communications Biology shows that Zika causes metabolic changes in human skin that essentially transforms it from a protective barrier to a magnet for mosquitoes," News Medical reported.
The virus alters gene and protein expressions, so the skin increases its release of volatile organic compounds, thereby attracting more mosquitoes and raising transmission success, according to the study.
Many Zika cases are mild, with symptoms including fever, headache, and muscle pain lasting up to a week. However, Zika infection during pregnancy can be severe, causing preterm birth, birth defects, and fetal loss. The Zika virus can also result in Guillain-Barré syndrome, which can lead to paralysis.
The mosquitoes that carry the disease and others are expanding their ranges as the global temperature rises and conditions created by the changing climate encourage their spread. This will expose billions of people to the pests' effects and cost countries $95 billion by 2070, according to other studies.
"Our findings show that Zika virus isn't just passively transmitted, but it actively manipulates human biology to ensure its survival," co-lead author Noushin Emami said.
"As Zika cases rise and Aedes mosquitoes expand their range, understanding the mechanisms by which they gain a transmission advantage could unlock new strategies for combating arboviruses. This could include developing genetic interventions that disrupt the signal transmitted through the skin, which seems to be so attractive to mosquitoes. The possibilities are as intriguing as they are urgent."
To protect yourself from Zika, you can prevent mosquito bites and practice safe sex or abstinence because the virus can be passed through sex as well.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises using certain insect repellents, wearing long-sleeve shirts and pants, and taking other precautions such as using window screens.
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Scientific American
08-07-2025
- Scientific American
Most U.S. Babies Are Deficient in Key Gut Microbes Essential for Their Health
Dirty diapers are more than a messy reality of infant care—baby poop can be an indicator of an infant's gut microbiome and future health. Scientists recently published the first two years of data from My Baby Biome, a seven-year research project that represents one of the largest and most geographically diverse U.S. infant microbiome studies to date. The findings, which came out in Communications Biology in June, are concerning: more than 75 percent of the babies in the study were deficient in key gut bacteria that are associated with a healthy microbiome. Nearly all the infants displayed deficiencies in gut microbes of some kind. These deficiencies led to a significantly increased risk of those children developing allergies, asthma or eczema, according to the study. 'Three-quarters of babies are at heightened risk of atopic conditions because of the composition of their microbiome,' says Stephanie Culler, senior author of the new study. 'That, for us, was the really big alarm.' Culler is CEO of Persephone Biosciences, a biotech company in San Diego, Calif., that runs the My Baby Biome project and funded the research. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. A healthy infant gut microbiome is critical for immune development, and an abnormal microbiome puts babies at a higher risk of being diagnosed with certain autoimmune disorders such as asthma and type 1 diabetes. But a lack of robust data on infant microbiomes in the U.S. has held back researchers. Culler and her colleagues used social media and word of mouth to recruit the families of 412 infants to take part in the study. The children came from 48 states and were representative of U.S. demographic diversity. To identify the types of microbial species that were present, the team analyzed bacterial DNA in stool samples that were collected when the children were infants, and, for 150 of them, additional samples from when they were one-year-olds. They also measured other molecules in the samples that gave clues about microbial activity in the children's gut. Additionally, about half of the participating families gave follow-up information about health outcomes when the children were two years old. Based on the results, only 24 percent of infants had a healthy microbiome. The rest were deficient in Bifidobacterium —a crucial group of bacteria associated with a lower risk of a host of noncommunicable diseases. A quarter of infants lacked any detectable level of Bifidobacterium at all. 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Researchers in other countries have reported similarly alarming findings. Last year, for example, scientists in the U.K. found Bifidobacterium species in very low abundance in the gut microbiomes of around one-third of 1,288 infants they tested. Those infants' microbiome was instead dominated by Enterococcus faecalis, a species associated with antibiotic resistance and negative health outcomes. The recent U.S. study supports previous research that established the relationship between Bifidobacterium in infancy and health, says Willem de Vos, an emeritus professor of human microbiomics at the University of Helsinki, who was not involved in the new work. De Vos and his colleagues' 2024 study of 1,000 infants in Finland also suggests that Bifidobacterium species play key roles in intestinal microbiota development—and that the presence of these species is associated with positive health outcomes in children for at least five years. 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Such factors could include the overuse of antibiotics, the oversanitization of the environment, a reduction in breastfeeding, a lack of physical contact with other babies, adult humans and animals, and more, says Matthew Olm, an assistant professor of integrative physiology at the University of Colorado Boulder, who was not involved in the new study. 'Bifidobacteriathrives on breast milk, and it's conceivable that when only 20 percent of mothers breastfed in the 1970s, it caused a population-level decrease that we're still living with today,' Olm says. 'Even though more than 80 percent of infants are breastfed today, there may just be less bifidobacteria in the environment to colonize these babies.'
Miami Herald
03-07-2025
- Miami Herald
As Florida mosquito season peaks, officials brace for new normal of dengue cases
As summer ushers in peak mosquito season, health and vector control officials are bracing for the possibility of another year of historic rates of dengue. And with climate change, the lack of an effective vaccine, and federal research cuts, they worry the disease will become endemic to a larger swath of North America. About 3,700 new dengue infections were reported last year in the contiguous United States, up from about 2,050 in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. All of last year's cases were acquired abroad, except for 105 cases contracted in Florida, California or Texas. The CDC issued a health alert in March warning of the ongoing risk of dengue infection. 'I think dengue is here with us to stay,' said infectious disease specialist Michael Ben-Aderet, associate medical director of hospital epidemiology at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles, about dengue becoming a new normal in the U.S. 'These mosquitoes aren't going anywhere.' 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What to know about the mosquito-borne illness in Florida California offers a case study in how dengue is spreading in the U.S. The Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus mosquitoes that transmit dengue weren't known to be in the state 25 years ago. They are now found in 25 counties and more than 400 cities and unincorporated communities, mostly in Southern California and the Central Valley. The spread of the mosquitoes is concerning because their presence increases the likelihood of disease transmission, said Steve Abshier, president of the Mosquito and Vector Control Association of California. From 2016 through 2022, there were an average of 136 new dengue cases a year in California, each case most likely brought to the state by someone who had traveled and been infected elsewhere. In 2023, there were about 250 new cases, including two acquired locally. In 2024, California saw 725 new dengue cases, including 18 acquired locally, state data shows. 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Some say there may be limited outbreaks, while others predict dengue could get much worse. Sujan Shresta, a professor and infectious disease researcher at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology, said other places, like Nepal, experienced relatively few cases of dengue in the recent past but now regularly see large outbreaks. There is a vaccine for children, but it faces discontinuation from a lack of global demand. Two other dengue vaccines are unavailable in the United States. Shresta's lab is hard at work on an effective, safe vaccine for dengue. She hopes to release results from animal testing in a year or so; if the results are positive, human trials could be possible in about two years. 'If there's no good vaccine, no good antivirals, this will be a dengue-endemic country,' she said. Phillip Reese is a data reporting specialist and an associate professor of journalism at California State University-Sacramento. This article was produced by KFF Health News, which publishes California Healthline, an editorially independent service of the California Health Care Foundation. KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.
Scientific American
30-06-2025
- Scientific American
Serenading Cells with Audible Sound Alters Gene Activity
The cells in your ears aren't the only ones listening: recent research suggests that crucial cells throughout the body may respond to audible sound. Experiments described in Communications Biology revealed more than 100 genes whose activity changed in response to these acoustic waves, pointing to possible medical applications. Extensive earlier research has shown that ultrasound—sound at frequencies higher than humans can hear— can affect biology in numerous ways; the new study expands this concept to audible sounds that require no special equipment to produce. Kyoto University biologist Masahiro Kumeta and his colleagues bathed cultured mouse myoblast cells (precursors to muscle tissue) in sound, directly transmitting a low frequency (440 hertz, the A above middle C), a high frequency (14 kilohertz, approaching the top of the perceptible range for humans), or white noise (which contains all audible frequencies) to the culture dishes for either two or 24 hours. The team analyzed the effect these sound waves had on the mouse cells through RNA sequencing, which measures gene activity. The scientists found that activity in 42 genes changed after two hours, and 145 responded after 24 hours. Most showed increased activity, but some were suppressed. 'It's a very extensive, thorough study,' says Lidan You, an engineer at Queen's University in Ontario, who studies how bone cells translate mechanical stimuli into biological signals. On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today. Many of the affected genes have roles in key processes such as cell adhesion and migration, which are known to respond to mechanical forces. The researchers found that sound expanded the size of the sites where cells attached to surrounding tissues, most likely by activating an enzyme called focal adhesion kinase (FAK), which senses mechanical forces and helps to guide tissue development. Sound waves seem to deform molecules in a way that provides easier access for a chemical switch that activates FAK, which in turn influences a chain of other genes' activity. The team also found a strong reaction in fat-cell precursors called preadipocytes: sound suppressed their differentiation into mature fat cells, thereby reducing fat accumulation by 13 to 15 percent. Audible sound is noninvasive and probably safer than drugs, Kumeta says. Although it can't be tightly focused like ultrasound, it is easy to produce and could be useful for bathing large regions of the body in sonic waves. Kumeta and his colleagues have already begun studying such interventions to suppress the development of fat tissue in living mice—and humans could be next, he says: 'If it works well in mice I think this could be achieved in five or 10 years.' Other potential applications include enhancing regenerative medicine and combating cancer growth. 'The next step [could be] using not only human cells but human organoids that model diseases,' You says, 'then moving to clinical studies.'
