3 The Friday Four

In this issue of the Friday Four: USDA studies on herbal tea, how bacteria uses nanotubes to communicate and cause antibiotic resistance, studying white blood cells and mechanisms to eliminate inflammation after infections, and a study suggests ALS may be caused by a retrovirus.


1) In The Something We Knew All Along Department: Herbal Teas May Provide Health Benefits

Those who enjoy the caffeinated lift that comes from drinking traditional coffees and teas may tend to overlook the benefits of drinking herbal infusions. Now, as explained in this month's issue of Agricultural Research magazine, the idea that herbal teas may provide a variety of health benefits is no longer just folklore.

ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 3, 2011,
from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2011/03/110301122055.htm

Original Source Publication: USDA/Agricultural Research Service (2011, March 2). Herbal teas may provide health benefits.


2) Bacteria Can Communicate With Each Other Through Nanotubes, Researchers Discover

A pathway whereby bacteria communicate with each other has been discovered by researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The discovery has important implications for efforts to cope with the spread of harmful bacteria in the body.

ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 3, 2011,
from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/03/110302080003.htm

Original Source Publication:
Gyanendra P. Dubey, Sigal Ben-Yehuda. Intercellular Nanotubes Mediate Bacterial Communication. Cell, 2011; 144 (4): 590 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2011.01.015

3) How Much Can a Cell Uptake? On White Blood Cells and Healing from Inflammation

Immunological research at the University of Haifa, Israel, has made a new breakthrough, revealing a critical component in the "decision-making" process of white blood cells that play a role in the healing process from bacterial inflammation. "The process that we have discovered can assist in the development of drugs that are based on the natural processes that take place in the human body, unlike most of the existing drugs that attempt to curb inflammation by artificial means," explains Dr. Amiram Ariel of the Department of Biology at the University of Haifa, who headed the study.

ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 11, 2011,
from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2011/03/110302101656.htm

Original Source Publication:
Sagie Schif-Zuck, Nufar Gross, Simaan Assi, Ran Rostoker, Charles N. Serhan, Amiram Ariel. Saturated-efferocytosis generates pro-resolving CD11blow macrophages: Modulation by resolvins and glucocorticoids. European Journal of Immunology, 2011; 41 (2): 366 DOI: 10.1002/eji.201040801


4) Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Could Be Caused by a Retrovirus, Study Suggests

A retrovirus that inserted itself into the human genome thousands of years ago may be responsible for some cases of the neurodegenerative disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gherig's disease. The finding, made by Johns Hopkins scientists, may eventually give researchers a new way to attack this universally fatal condition.





ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 3, 2011,
from http://www.sciencedaily.com­/releases/2011/03/110302121911.htm

Original Source Publication:
Renée Douville, Jiankai Liu, Jeffrey Rothstein, Avindra Nath. Identification of active loci of a human endogenous retrovirus in neurons of patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Annals of Neurology, 2011; 69 (1): 141 DOI: 10.1002/ana.22149