news 2022

Gut microbiota by-products circulate in the bloodstream, regulating host physiological processes including immunity, metabolism and brain functions. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur (a partner research organization of Université Paris Cité), Inserm and the CNRS have discovered that hypothalamic neurons in an animal model directly detect variations in bacterial activity and adapt appetite and body temperature accordingly.

Migrating human T lymphocytes revealing a broad protrusion at the leading edge and long adhesive protrusions at the rear. Image obtained by confocal fluorescence microscopy: filamentous actin, pink; VLA4 adhesion protein, blue. Institut Pasteur/Lymphocyte Cell Biology. Image by Marta Mastrogiovanni In patients with familial adenomatous polyposis, a genetic disease predisposing to colon cancer, mutations of the APC gene induce the formation of intestinal polyps, but also reduce immune system activity.

If genetics is interested in gene sequencing, epigenetics studies how genes are going to be used, or not used, by a cell. The epigenome of a cell represents the set of chemical modifications of the DNA or associated proteins that will determine the expression of the genes and thus the cell's identity.

Some "hypervirulent" strains of Listeria monocytogenes have a greater capacity to infect the central nervous system. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Inserm and the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP) have discovered a mechanism that enables cells infected with Listeria monocytogenes to escape immune responses.

Publication of the LBMC in the journal Current biology on February 7, 2022. CNRS-INSB communication on February 21, 2022. Wolbachia are widespread endosymbiotic bacteria that manipulate the reproduction of arthropods through a diversity of cellular mechanisms. In cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI), a sterility syndrome originally discovered in the mosquito Culex pipiens , uninfected eggs fertilized by sperm from infected males are selectively killed during embryo development following the abortive segregation of paternal chromosomes in the zygote.

Brain microglia (green) initiating expression of cell division marker (red), but unable divide due to co-expression of a senescence marker (blue), due to the chemotherapy treatment (busulfan). K. Sailor/ PM Lledo, Institut Pasteur. Annually over 50,000 bone marrow transplantations occur worldwide as a therapy for multiple cancerous and non-cancerous diseases.

Thanks to their capacity for introspection, human beings are able to estimate the duration of their actions. When they perform a task - especially a time-based task - they can evaluate their performance and correct themselves in order to do better next time.

A team of geologists and palaeontologists has discovered that, some 50 million years ago, there was a low-lying continent separating Europe from Asia that they have named Balkanatolia. Geographical changes 40 to 34 million years ago connected this continent to its two neighbours, paving the way for the replacement of European mammals by Asian mammals.

Teams from the AP-HP, University of Paris, Inserm, within the Imagine Institute, the University College of London, and Généthon, have carried out work on treatment by gene therapy consisting of transplanting the patient's own genetically modified hematopoietic stem cells as part of a phase I/II clinical trial, promoted by Genethon, in 8 patients with Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome (WAS).

In collaboration with a Canadian team, scientists from Inserm and Université de Tours, at Unit 1253 Imaging & Brain1, have shown in post-mortem brain samples that victims of child abuse present specific brain characteristics. The teams have revealed for the first time in humans an increase in the number and maturation of perineuronal nets, dense protein structures surrounding the neurons.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer of the bone marrow, with a life expectancy of less than 5 years post-diagnosis. Proteasome inhibitors, the therapeutic backbone of current treatments, are very effective in treating newly diagnosed cancers but resistance or intolerance to these molecules inevitably develop, leading to relapses.