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Originally published by Frontiers, on August 18, 2023  Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain What if we could identify the earliest warning signs of cardiovascular disease from a simple saliva sample ? Scientists think they have found a way to do so. Gum inflammation leads to periodontitis , which is linked with cardiovascular disease . The team used a simple oral rinse to see if levels of white blood cells —an indicator of gum inflammation—in the saliva of healthy adults could be linked to warning signs for cardiovascular disease. they found that high levels correlated with compromised flow-mediated dilation , an early indicator of poor arterial health . " Even in young healthy adults, low levels of oral inflammatory load may have an impact on cardiovascular health—one of the leading causes of death in North America," said Dr. Trevor King of Mount Royal University, corresponding author of the study published in Frontiers in Oral Health . Read more  

  Originally published by University of Sydney on August 24, 2023 Nanoscale scan image showing protein condensate interaction. Credit: The University of Sydney Many diseases affecting the brain and nervous system are linked to the formation of protein aggregates , or solid condensates , in cells from their liquid form condensate, but little is known about this process . This liquid-to-solid transition can trigger the formation of what are called amyloid fibrils . These can further form plaques in neurons causing neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's . Biomedical engineers at the University of Sydney , in collaboration with scientists at the University of Cambridge and Harvard University , have now developed sophisticated optical techniques to monitor at close range the process by which these protein aggregates form. By testing a protein associated with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis—ALS disease, which affected astrophysicist Professor Stephen Hawking—

Originally published by Dresden University of Technology, on August 11, 2023 A Kosmoceras ammonite fossil. A CT scan render. Credit: Robert Lemanis Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusk animals that are now an iconic fossil group often collected by amateurs. Over 350 million years of evolution , ammonoids developed increasingly elaborate shells with fractal-like geometry. For nearly 200 years, scientists have debated the reason why these animals show a trend of increasing complexity in their shell structures. Dr. Robert Lemanis and Dr. Igor Zlotnikov from the B CUBE–Center for Molecular Bioengineering at TU Dresden created mechanical simulations of theoretical and computed tomography-based models to unveil a potential explanation : the intricate architecture of these shells may have been nature's ingenious defense strategy against a wide array of predators . Their paper is published in the journal Science Advances. Read more