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Composition of Complex Sugars in Breast Milk May Prevent Future Food Allergies

The unique composition of a mother’s breastmilk may help to reduce food sensitization in her infant, report researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine with colleagues in Canada. The findings, publishing in the June 15 issue of Allergy , further highlight the health role of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), which are not found in infant formula, and underscore their potential for therapeutic interventions. HMOs are structurally complicated sugar molecules unique to human breast milk. They are the third most abundant solid component in human milk after lactose (a different type of sugar) and fat. They are not actually digestible by infants, but act as a prebiotic, helping to guide development of the infant gut microbiota, which previous research suggests is a key influencer of allergic disease. Past research has shown that breastfed infants have a lower risk for a variety of medical conditions, such as wheezing, infections, asthma and ob...
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Supercoil me!

Even living cells have their own tangled problems to solve. They involve knots that arise accidentally in DNA and that can comprise its functionality. A new study by SISSA (Scuola Internazionale Superiore di Studi Avanzati) brings a new twist to the problem and suggests that the DNA propensity to be supercoiled, just like telephone cords, can come to the rescue. These coils can keep DNA knots locked in place for long enough that they can be untied by specialised enzymes. The computational study, based on molecular dynamics simulations of bacterial DNA, has just been published in Nucleic Acids Research . A tangled problem Supercoiled, twisted, and even knotted! Far from the elegant and polished textbook images, DNA filaments in living cells is all crumpled and entangled and, to be functional, needs to be constantly unravelled, much like our telephone cords that with careless use accumulate annoying curls or supercoils. "Supercoils are, in fact, present in DNA too ...
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Enemy within:

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On hearing the word “fungi” most people will probably think of pizza al funghi or a portobello mushroom burger. Incidentally, roughly half of the people salivating about these dishes will also carry a fungus called Candida albicans in their mouths or digestive tracts where it lives quietly, invisibly to the human eye, without causing disruptions or symptoms. But Candida albicans does not always go unnoticed. While most people carrying the fungus will go through life without ever learning the scientific name of their innocuous tenant, also called a “commensal”, some do encounter it as the common cause of oral thrush, nappy rush or vaginal yeast infections. Indeed, 75% of women will experience at least one episode of yeast infection throughout their lifetime. It gets worse. Changes to a person’s immune defences can help Candida albicans cause life-threatening infections of the blood stream and the inner organs. Patients suffering HIV/AIDS or those undergoing canc...
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