Our heart has its own mini-brain

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In this newsletter

• Fructose increases tumor growth

• Cattle-consuming parasite reaches US!

• Our heart has its own mini-brain

• Music as medicine for better health outcomes

Fructose increases tumor growth

To counter tumors, scientists focus on dietary components that promote their growth, and a new study by researchers at Washington University in St. Louis shows that fructose promotes tumor growth in animal models of melanoma, breast cancer, and cervical cancer.

Fructose is the name given to the naturally occurring sugar in fruits and vegetables. But this directly does not fuel up the tumour growth. What scientists found is that the liver converts fructose into other nutrients used up by cancer cells. 

Turns out, studying tumour cells alone does not tell us the whole story. The liver that transforms fructose is equally important. Using metabolomics—a method of profiling small molecules as they move through cells and across different tissues in the body—the researchers concluded fructose consumption increases the availability of circulating lipids in the blood. These lipids are building blocks for the cell membrane and help cancer cells grow too. 

Of course, the fructose the researchers are referring to isn’t from fruits and vegetables alone but from the high fructose corn syrup, which is used as a sweetener in ultra-processed foods and beverages. 

The research study was published in Nature.

Cattle-consuming parasite reaches US!

The recent reappearance of flesh-eating parasites in Mexico has grabbed attention in North America. Commonly known as cattle screwworm, Cochliomyia hominivorax, is the larva of a metallic blue-green fly that spends the early part of its life cycle devouring the living flesh of mammals. 

Cows are the screwworm’s favorite feast, but the maggots can also feed on other livestock as well as wildlife and pets. Although it mainly affects cattle, C. hominivorax—Spanish for “maneater”—earned its scientific name from a terrible outbreak among prisoners in a 19th-century penal colony in South America.

Flies often lay their eggs near open wounds, and if the larvae can find a hole in the skin to deploy their sharp mouth hooks, they will then bury themselves in the animal’s flesh and gorge.

This insect is endemic to South America and several Caribbean countries. Its life cycle requires pain. Females take advantage of any hole in the skin, even a tick bite wound, to lay between 200 and 300 eggs at a time. From these, larvae hatch and eat live flesh for seven days, then drop to the ground and, in less than a day, take flight as flies. 

Although females mate only once in their lifetime, they can lay up to 3,000 eggs in the 20 days they live.

For decades, the screwworm was eliminated in North America, but with cattle smuggling, it is making a comeback, says this Wired report.  

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Our heart has its own mini-brain

Anatomy books will tell you that the heart's neural network, embedded in the superficial layers of its walls, works on signals received from the brain. But scientists at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have now found that the heart has its own complex nervous system and also a mini-brain. 

The researchers identified several types of neurons in the heart with different functions, including a small group that have pacemaker properties. The 'mini-brain' has a key role in maintaining and controlling the heartbeat, just like the brain regulates rhythmic functions like breathing.

The study was conducted on zebrafish, an animal model that exhibits strong similarities to human heart rate and overall cardiac function.  

The findings were published in Nature Communications 

Music as medicine for better health outcomes

Just a few gentle strums of ukelele music can immediately transport us to a place of calm. But music is far more than a pleasant diversion, exemplifying how the art and science of medicine can work in tandem. 

Because of music's connection to the limbic system in the brain, it can help you access the relaxation response and calm your nervous system, slowing down your breathing. 

People with Alzheimer's disease were the focus of a research review that suggested that music therapy improved memory, attention, and orientation in these patients. 

For people with psychiatric illnesses such as depression, music therapy can bring energy and joy back. It is interesting to see how music can connect people of different ages and stages, cognitive abilities, and cultures and recent studies indicate this type of intervention can provide important relief by reducing anxiety during medical treatment. 

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Until next time,
Adya