Alcohol Used By Fruit Flies As A Drug To Kill Parasites
Fruit flies infected with a blood-borne parasite consume alcohol to self-medicate, a behavior that greatly increases their survival rate, an Emory University study finds. "We believe our results are the first to show that alcohol consumption can have a protective effect against infectious disease, and in particular against blood-borne parasites, " says Todd Schlenke, the evolutionary geneticist who led the research. "It may be that fruit flies are uniquely adapted to using alcohol as medicine, " he adds, "but our data raise an important question: Could other organisms, perhaps even humans, control blood-borne parasites through high doses of alcohol?
For The First Time, Scientists Follow The Development Of Individual Immune Cells In A Living Zebrafish Embryo
T-cells are the immune system's security force. They seek out pathogens and rogue cells in the body and put them out of action. Their precursors are formed in the bone marrow and migrate from there into the thymus. Here, they mature and differentiate to perform a variety of tasks. Scientists at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics in Freiburg have now succeeded for the first time in observing the maturation of immune cells in live zebrafish embryos. During their development, the immune cells migrate into and out of the thymus more than once.
As A Control Measure During Pandemic Outbreaks, School Closures Should Be Considered
Closing elementary and secondary schools can help slow the spread of infectious disease and should be considered as a control measure during pandemic outbreaks, according to a McMaster University led study. Using high-quality data about the incidence of influenza infections in Alberta during the 2009 H1N1 flu pandemic, the researchers show that when schools closed for the summer, the transmission of infection from person to person was sharply reduced. "Our study demonstrates that school-age children were important drivers of pH1N1 transmission in 2009, " says David Earn, lead author of the study published in Annals of Internal Medicine.