Pneumonia bacterium leaves tiny lesions in the heart, study finds

The long-observed association between pneumonia and heart failure now has more physical evidence, thanks to research in the School of Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

The researchers found proof that Streptococcus pneumoniae, the leading cause of community-acquired pneumonia, actually physically damages the heart. The bacterium leaves tiny lesions that researchers detected in mouse, rhesus macaque and human autopsy tissue samples.

“If you have had severe pneumonia, this finding suggests your heart might be permanently scarred,” said study senior author Carlos Orihuela, Ph.D., associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the UT Health Science Center San Antonio.

It’s not yet known whether the small lesions contribute to increased risk of death in humans or if the scarring that occurs afterward is permanent, ultimately diminishing cardiac function in individuals who have recovered from a severe infectious disease episode. The team will study the long-term ramifications in non-human primates at the Texas Biomedical Research Institute’s Southwest National Primate Research Center.

Streptococcus pneumoniae in the blood invaded the heart and formed lesions in the myocardium, the muscular middle layer of the heart wall, the researchers showed. The team identified mechanisms by which the bacterium is able to spread across endothelial cells in cardiac blood vessels to travel to and infect the heart.

“Fortunately, we have a candidate vaccine that can protect against this,” Dr. Orihuela said. The Health Science Center, St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and the University of Oklahoma have claimed intellectual property protection on the vaccine project. The candidate vaccine acts to stop both the movement of the infection into the heart and the toxin that kills heart muscle cells called cardiomyocytes. The vaccine protected immunized animals against cardiac lesion formation, the study showed.

Study limitations included the small sample size of human tissues analyzed, the researchers noted. The American Heart Association and the National Institutes of Health funded the project. The journal PLoS Pathogen published the study online Sept. 18.

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Stem cell transplant does not cure SHIV/AIDS after irradiation of infected rhesus macaques

A study published on September 25th in PLOS Pathogens reports a new primate model to test treatments that might cure HIV/AIDS and suggests answers to questions raised by the “Berlin patient,” the only human thought to have been cured so far.

Being HIV-positive and having developed leukemia, the Berlin patient underwent irradiation followed by a bone-marrow transplant from a donor with a mutation that abolishes the function of the CCR5 gene. The gene codes for a protein that facilitates HIV entry into human cells, and the mutation — in homozygous carriers who, like the donor, have two defective copies — protects against HIV infection.

Several factors could have contributed to the cure of HIV/AIDS in the patient:

(1) the ablation of blood and immune cells following irradiation killed all or many of the viral reservoir cells that are not eliminated by antiretroviral treatment (ART);

(2) the CCR5 deletion mutation in the donor cells protected them and their progeny from HIV infection;

(3) a “graft versus host” reaction occurred, where the transplanted cells and their progeny recognize the host cells as foreign and attacked and eliminated HIV-positive reservoir cells that survived the irradiation.

Guido Silvestri, from Emory University in Atlanta, USA, and colleagues investigated the relative contribution of the irradiation to eliminate the reservoir of HIV-infected cells. The scientists worked with the animal model of Simian Immunodeficiency Virus (SIV, a close relative of HIV that infects primates and causes a disease similar to AIDS) infection in rhesus macaques. Using a total of six monkeys (three of which served as controls and did not receive transplants) they performed, for the first time, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in rhesus macaques infected with a chimeric simian/human immunodeficiency virus (SHIV) and treated with ART.

The researchers harvested hematopoetic stem cells from three macaques prior to infection (of all six animals) with SHIV. They also treated the macaques with ART to reduce viral load and mimic the situation in human HIV-infected patients on ART. They then exposed the three monkeys from which they had collected hematopietic stem cells to a high dose of radiation. This killed most of their existing blood and immune cells, including between 94 and 99% of their CD4-T cells — the main target of HIV infection — in the blood. The irradiation was followed by transplantation of each monkey’s own virus-free hematopoietic stem cells. The latter can regenerate the blood and immune cells, and did so in all three monkeys within 3 to 6 weeks. Because the transplanted cells are not from a different donor, no graft versus host disease would be expected, and none was observed.

After that time, the scientists stopped ART in all six monkeys. As expected, the virus rebounded rapidly in the control animals. Of the three transplanted animals, two also showed a rapid rebound. The third monkey developed kidney failure two weeks after ART was stopped and was euthanized. It still had undetectable levels of virus in the blood at that time, but post-mortem analysis showed low levels of viral DNA in a number of tissues, arguing that none of the three transplanted monkeys was cured.

The researchers acknowledge a number of limitations of the study, including the small number of monkeys, and the relatively short period of ART prior to irradiation and transplantation. Nonetheless, they say their study “supports the hypothesis that myeloablative total body irradiation can cause a significant decrease in the viral reservoir in blood cells, even though it was not sufficient to eliminate all reservoirs.” Their results, they say, suggest that in the cure of the Berlin patient, “the use of the CCR5 mutant donor and/or the presence of graft versus host disease played a significant role.”

Having demonstrated in this first test-of-concept study that total body irradiation and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in ART-treated SIV-infected rhesus macaques is feasible, the researchers express hope that “further studies using this model will provide critical information for the requirements to cure HIV infection in humans.”

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Skin coloring of rhesus macaque monkeys linked to breeding success, new study shows

Skin color displayed amongst one species of monkey provides a key indicator of how successfully they will breed, a new study has shown.

The collaborative international research also shows that skin coloration in male and female rhesus macaques is an inherited quality — the first example of heritability for a sexually-selected trait to be described in any mammal.

The team of scientists collected more than 250 facial images of free-ranging rhesus macaques, which are native to South, Central and Southeast Asia and which display red skin coloring around the face, as well as the genital and hind-quarter areas.

Using these images and 20 years of genetic parentage data, the researchers assessed whether the variation in red ornaments influenced fecundity — that is they produced more offspring — and is heritable in male and female rhesus macaques, two necessary conditions for the trait to be considered under sexual selection.

The study showed that males that were darkly colored, as well as high ranking within the community, had higher fecundity. Skin redness amongst females was also positively linked to fecundity.

Monkeys with darker skin coloring were also more likely to produce offspring displaying the same trait. — thought to be the first demonstration of heritability of an ornament selected through mate choice, rather than fighting, in a large mammal.

Dr Lauren Brent, currently an Associate Research Fellow in the Psychology department at the University of Exeter, took part in the study. She said: “Some primates exhibit very noticeable skin colorings, in this case red, that we believe are linked to sexual success. It is not dissimilar to plumage shown by birds — the more striking it is, the more they will be noticed by potential mates.

“What is fascinating is that we can see that the deeper red coloring that seems to be favored in this species seems to be passed down from generation to generation, which is exciting.”

Previous studies have shown that rhesus macaque skin coloration is involved in mate selection -both males and females show interest in darker red faces displayed in the opposite sex. However, this is the first study that shows variation in skin coloration has a genetic basis and can help predict reproductive output.

The study is published in the Royal Society journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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Chimps Raised As Pets And Performers Suffer Long-Term Social Handicaps, Study

It goes without saying that a chimpanzee raised to interact with humans will act differently than other chimps. But according to new research, those effects can last for decades after a chimp is moved to a healthy sanctuary — and being the pet of a loving family (which is legal in most states) could actually be worse for the animals than working as performers.

In a new study published in PeerJ, researchers at the Lincoln Park Zoo attempt to move beyond categorizing chimps as either “human reared” or “mother reared.” Instead, they looked at a full spectrum of chimp vs. human interaction. On one end of the spectrum, chimps were completely isolated from members of their own species for the first four years of life, living instead with humans. On the other, they had little or no interaction with humans.

It wasn’t all bad news: Surprisingly, the researchers didn’t find increased aggression or anxiety in the chimps towards the human end of the spectrum. But they saw big differences in social grooming behavior (that is, where chimps groom each other), which scientists believe to be of incredible importance in chimpanzee communities.

Full story here .

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How pneumonia bacteria can compromise heart health

Bacterial pneumonia in adults carries an elevated risk for adverse cardiac events (such as heart failure, arrhythmias, and heart attacks) that contribute substantially to mortality — but how the heart is compromised has been unclear. A study published on September 18th in PLOS Pathogens now demonstrates that Streptococcus pneumoniae , the bacterium responsible for most cases of bacterial pneumonia, can invade the heart and cause the death of heart muscle cells.

Carlos Orihuela, from the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, USA, and colleagues initially studied the reasons for heart failure during invasive pneumococcal disease (when S. pneumoniae bacteria infect major organs such as the lungs, bloodstream, and brain) in mice, and subsequently confirmed some of their main findings in rhesus macaques and in heart tissue from deceased human patients.

Mice with severe invasive pneumococcal disease showed elevated levels of troponin, a marker for heart injury, in their blood. They also had abnormal EKGs. When the researchers examined the hearts of the mice, they found microscopic sites of injury (called microlesions) in the heart muscle. S. pneumoniae were found within these microlesions, indicating the bacteria were able to invade and multiply within the heart. Looking in more detail, the researchers identified dying heart muscle cells in the tissue surrounding microlesions.

At the molecular level, the researchers found that the S. pneumoniae toxin pneumolysin was present within the microlesions and responsible for heart muscle cell death. They also showed that S. pneumoniae requires a molecule called CbpA to exit the bloodstream and invade the heart. Moreover, an experimental vaccine formulation composed of CbpA and a non-toxic version of pneumolysin generated antibodies that protected mice against cardiac invasion and heart damage.

Having obtained tissues from three rhesus macaques that had died from pneumococcal pneumonia, the researchers found cardiac microlesions that were similar in size and appearance to those seen in mice, but without the presence of S. pneumoniae bacteria. The situation was similar in cardiac samples from human patients who had died from invasive pneumococcal disease. Two of the samples (they looked at a total of nine) showed microlesions, but the lesions did not contain bacteria.

As the macaques and the human patients had been treated with antibiotics, the researchers wondered whether the bacteria had caused the lesions but subsequently been killed by the treatment. To test this, they infected mice with S. pneumoniae and treated them with a high-dose antibiotic (ampicillin) when the lesions were first apparent. The hearts of these mice looked similar to the macaques and human samples, with clear presence of microlesions but devoid of bacteria. As the researchers discuss, ampicillin acts by breaking bacteria apart and releasing their contents, including pneumolysin, and this could exacerbate the death of heart muscle cells. Alternative antibiotics that do not spill their bacterial targets’ contents exist and might be advantageous.

Having shown for the first time that S. pneumoniae can directly damage the heart — which could help explain the link between pneumonia and adverse heart events — the researchers conclude that “research is merited to determine the true frequency of cardiac microlesions in patients hospitalized with invasive pneumococcal disease, if modifications in antibiotic therapy improve long-term outcomes, and if prevention of cardiac damage is an indication for vaccination.”

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Human sense of fairness evolved to favor long-term cooperation, primate study suggests

The human response to unfairness evolved in order to support long-term cooperation, according to a research team from Georgia State University and Emory University.

Fairness is a social ideal that cannot be measured, so to understand the evolution of fairness in humans, Dr. Sarah Brosnan of Georgia State’s departments of Psychology and Philosophy, the Neuroscience Institute and the Language Research Center, has spent the last decade studying behavioral responses to equal versus unequal reward division in other primates.

In their paper, published in the journal Science, she and colleague Dr. Frans de Waal of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and the Psychology Department at Emory University, reviewed literature from their own research regarding responses to inequity in primates, as well as studies from other researchers. Although fairness is central to humans, it was unknown how this arose. Brosnan and de Waal hypothesize that it evolved, and therefore elements of it can be seen in other species.

“This sense of fairness is the basis of lots of things in human society, from wage discrimination to international politics,” Brosnan said. “What we’re interested in is why humans aren’t happy with what we have, even if it’s good enough, if someone else has more. What we hypothesize is that this matters because evolution is relative. If you are cooperating with someone who takes more of the benefits accrued, they will do better than you, at your expense. Therefore, we began to explore whether responses to inequity were common in other cooperative species.”

Brosnan and de Waal began their studies of fairness in monkeys in 2003, becoming the first in the field to report on this subject for any non-human species, Brosnan said. This paper, titled “Monkeys Reject Unequal Pay,” was published in Nature.

In this study, brown capuchin monkeys became agitated and refused to perform a task when a partner received a superior reward for that same task. Since then, Brosnan has tested responses to inequity in nine different species of primates, including humans. She has found that species only respond to inequity when they routinely cooperate with those who are not related to them.

However, responding to getting less than a partner is not the only aspect of fairness. For a true sense of fairness, it also matters if you get more. Brosnan and de Waal hypothesize that individuals should be willing to give up a benefit in order to reach equal outcomes and stabilize valuable, long-term cooperative relationships. Thus far, this has only been found in humans and their closest relatives, the apes.

“Giving up an outcome that benefits you in order to gain long-term benefits from the relationship requires not only an ability to think about the future, but also the self-control to turn down a reward,” Brosnan said. “These both require a lot of cognitive control. Therefore, we hypothesize that lots of species respond negatively to getting less than a partner, which is the first step in the evolution of fairness, but only a few species are able to make the leap to this second step, which leads to a true sense of fairness.”

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Tolerating, not fighting, viruses a viable survival strategy

In ecology, disease tolerance is defined as a host strategy not to fight a pathogen tooth and nail, but rather tolerate it to live (and survive) better in the long term. One key feature of tolerance is that the disease only progresses very slowly — if at all — even if the host carries a high pathogen load.

Roland Regoes, a senior scientist at ETH Zurich’s Institute of Theoretical Biology, has now transferred this approach to HIV. He set about investigating whether there are infected people who are more tolerant of the HI virus than others and if so which factors this tolerance depends upon. The paper has just been published in PLOS Biology.

From the mangabey to man

Regoes came up with the idea for the study during his postdoctoral stay in Atlanta, where he was working with researchers from a large primate centre. They studied sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) infected with SIV, an HIV-like virus that affects primates. Although a large amount of the SI virus was found in their blood, some of the monkeys did not become ill. “The infection in this primate species is one of the best examples of disease tolerance,” says the researcher. He and his co-authors — all medical doctors — are now interested in whether the concept of tolerance can also be carried over to human diseases. In order to determine which factors are linked to tolerance, the scientists evaluated the data from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study statistically.

The young tolerate HIV better than older individuals

Their analyses revealed that certain patient groups are more tolerant of HIV than others. For instance, the twenty-year-old group is more tolerant than sixty-year-olds, with the disease developing 1.7 times more rapidly in older patients than in their younger counterparts.

The same goes for the group of patients whose HLA-B genes come in two different variants. HLA-B genes are a group of genes which facilitate immunity to the HI virus. Every person has two copies of every gene, which do not have to be identical. If they are not, this is referred to as heterozygosity. If both HLA-B variants are identical, i.e. homozygotes, the tolerance of the virus is considerably lower.

Certain HLA-B variants are known to facilitate an immune defence against the virus geared towards its destruction. These variants are not responsible for tolerance. Instead, tolerance is linked to combinations of other HLA-B variants.

Regoes and his co-authors did not find any difference in tolerance between genders. The ETH-Zurich researcher recorded roughly the same high values in women and men, although on average women exhibit lower initial viral loads than men.

Ratio of immune cells to virus decisive

For his analyses, Regoes used the number of particular immune cells, the CD4+ cells, on the one hand and the viral load during the asymptomatic phase on the other. The latter is a key quantity in HIV infection. As soon as the virus infects someone, it multiplies rapidly and heavily before the immune system reduces its number to a certain level. From then on, the immune system keeps the pathogen relatively well under control for a long time. However, the number of CD4+ cells drops continuously until it reaches a critical level. If the number of these immune cells falls below 200 per millionth of a litre of blood, AIDS breaks out. The researchers calculated the tolerance of HIV sufferers to the virus from the correlation between the rate at which the CD4+ cells decreased and the viral load during the asymptomatic phase.

Tolerance-based treatments?

Tolerance and resistance are alternative but complementary defence strategies deployed by a host to combat pathogens. In the case of tolerance, it is not the destruction of the adversary and thus the reduction of the viral load that is the priority, but rather the alleviation of the negative effects of the infection for the host. This is not tantamount to capitulation. Instead, the strategy ensures that the evolutionary race between the parties cools off. “It is heading in the direction of commensalism,” says Regoes — a kind of ceasefire between two disparate partners. However, the two strategies have different evolutionary consequences: while tolerance tends to suppress the emergence of adaptations, resistance challenges the adaptability of viruses, which results in an evolutionary arms race with the adversaries.

“In the long run, one could try to use this ceasefire therapeutically,” says the ETH-Zurich researcher. Tolerance-based therapeutic strategies could constitute interesting alternatives as they are not expected to lead to treatment-resistant pathogens.

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Indian Villagers Shave Their Heads To Mourn Dead Monkey

The macaque drowned when it fell into a pond after being chased by dogs.

Afraid that its death may bring them bad luck, the villagers held a funeral procession and cremated the animal according to Hindu rituals. Another 700 villagers shaved their beards off.

Monkeys are considered sacred by Hindus and there are temples dedicated to monkey god Hanuman across India.

Hanuman is generally depicted with a human body, a red monkey’s face and a tail and his followers believe that worshipping him will liberate them from fear and danger.

The dead monkey was one of a pair that lived near a small Hanuman temple in Dakachya village in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, village resident Mithun Patel said.

It drowned on 2 September and its body was discovered by the villagers the next day.

“The village elders said a monkey dying inside the village is very inauspicious. We were afraid it might bring us bad luck, a natural calamity,” Mr Patel said.

“So we decided to propitiate the monkey’s soul to ensure nothing untoward happened in our village.”

After the monkey was cremated, the local men shaved their heads and beards as a sign of mourning.

Full story here .

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Lethal Violence in Chimps Occurs Naturally, Study Suggests

Steroid hormone to fight age-related diseases

Through the study of the roundworm, Caenorhabditis elegans, the team led by Hugo Aguilaniu has discovered a hormone that enhances longevity and reduces fertility, thus reproducing the effects of an extreme diet. The scientists, based at the “Laboratoire de Biologie Moléculaire de la Cellule” (LBMC — CNRS/ENS de Lyon/Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1), now intend to explore its mode of action in the hope of finding new ways to combat age-related diseases. Their work is published on 11 September in Nature Communications.

Eating less prolongs the lifespan of a large number of species, from yeasts to primates to spiders and cats. It is also known that drastic calorie restriction reduces the incidence of age-related conditions (such as cancers, neurodegenerative diseases and muscle loss). This has been demonstrated in rodents and large monkeys, and it is likely that the same applies in humans.. However, such extreme diets (bordering on malnutrition) are difficult to maintain, notably because of their side effects, which are both psychological (irritability, impaired libido) and physiological (reduced fertility). For health reasons, these diets are therefore not recommended!

In the C. elegans roundworm, Hugo Aguilaniu and his team have identified a hormone that is produced in response to dietary restriction. This hormone, called dafachronic acid, is required to extend lifespan and is also involved in diet-related loss of fertility. This discovery thus establishes a direct link between increased lifespan and decreased reproductive capacity in the context of a low-calorie diet.

The researchers have also discovered the receptor through which dafachronic acid exerts its action in cell nuclei. As the “conductor of the orchestra,” its presence can activate a large number of genes. In this “genetic symphony,” some genes will induce a reduction in fertility while others will slow down the aging process.

Hugo Aguilaniu now hopes to be able to dissociate these two types of response in order to artificially trigger the hormone’s protective effect against age-related diseases, without causing harmful side effects. This may open the way towards therapeutic applications, as the hormone thus identified, and its receptor, have close relatives in mammals and humans.

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Cat bites dog: In India’s human dominated landscapes, top prey for leopards is dogs

A new study led by the Wildlife Conservation Society reveals that in India’s human dominated agricultural landscapes, where leopards prowl at night, it’s not livestock that’s primarily on the menu — it is man’s best friend.

The study, which looked at scat samples for leopards in India’s Ahmednagar’s district in Maharashtra, found that 87 percent of their diet was made up of domestic animals. Domestic dog dominated as the most common prey item at 39 percent and domestic cats were second at 15 percent.

Seventeen percent of the leopard’s diet consisted of assorted wild animals including rodents, monkeys, and mongoose, and birds.

Livestock, despite being more abundant, made up a relatively small portion of the leopard’s diet. Domestic goats, for example, are seven times more common than dogs in this landscape, yet only make up 11 percent of leopard’s prey. The author’s say this is because goats are less accessible and often brought into pens at night, while dogs are largely allowed to wander freely. Cows, sheep, and pigs were also eaten, but collectively made up less than 20 percent of leopard’s food. Most domestic cattle in this region are too large to be preyed on by leopards.

The author’s of the study say that the selection of domestic dogs as prey means that the economic impact of predation by leopards on valuable livestock is lower than expected. Thus, human-leopard “conflict” is more likely to be related to people’s fears of leopards foraging in the proximity of their houses and the sentimental value of dogs as pets.

Study co-author Ullas Karanth, WCS Director for Science-Asia, said: “During the past two-to-three decades, legal regulation of leopard hunting, increased conservation awareness, and the rising numbers of feral dogs as prey have all led to an increase in leopard numbers outside of nature reserves in agricultural landscapes. While this is good news for conservation and a tribute to the social tolerance of Indian people, it also poses major challenges of managing conflict that occasionally breaks out. Only sound science can help us face this challenge.”

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Gibbon genome sequence deepens understanding of primates rapid chromosomal rearrangements

With the completion of the sequencing and analysis of the gibbon genome, scientists now know more about why this small ape has a rapid rate of chromosomal rearrangements, providing information that broadens understanding of chromosomal biology.

Chromosomes, essentially the packaging that encases the genetic information stored in the DNA sequence, are fundamental to cellular function and the transmission of genetic information from one generation to the next. Chromosome structure and function is also intimately related to human genetic diseases, especially cancer.

The sequence and analysis of the gibbon genome (all the chromosomes) was published today in the journal Nature and led by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, the Baylor College of Medicine Human Genome Sequencing Center and the Washington University School of Medicine’s Genome Institute.

“Everything we learn about the genome sequence of this particular primate and others analyzed in the recent past helps us to understand human biology in a more detailed and complete way,” said Dr. Jeffrey Rogers, associate professor in the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor and a lead author on the report. “The gibbon sequence represents a branch of the primate evolutionary tree that spans the gap between the Old World Monkeys and great apes and has not yet been studied in this way. The new genome sequence provides important insight into their unique and rapid chromosomal rearrangements.”

For years, experts have known that gibbon chromosomes evolve quickly and have many breaks and rearrangements, but up until now there has been no explanation why, Rogers said. The genome sequence helps to explain the genetic mechanism unique to gibbons that results in these large scale rearrangements.

The sequencing was led by Dr. Kim Worley, professor in the Human Genome Sequencing Center, and Rogers, both of Baylor and Drs. Wesley Warren and Richard Wilson of Washington University.

The analysis was led by Dr. Lucia Carbone, an assistant professor of behavioral neuroscience in the OHSU School of Medicine and an assistant scientist in the Division of Neuroscience at OHSU’s Oregon National Primate Research Center. Carbone is an expert in the study of gibbons and the lead and corresponding author on the report.

“We do this work to learn as much as we can about gibbons, which are some of the rarest species on the planet,” said Carbone. “But we also do this work to better understand our own evolution and get some clues on the origin of human diseases.”

Chromosomal biology

Chromosomes play an essential role in the packaging of DNA, Worley said. “There are 3 billion base pairs of DNA in every cell and it is packaged into 23 pairs of chromosomes,” said Worley, also a lead author on the report.

When there are rearrangements in chromosomes, the genes and gene regulation are often disrupted or broken, said Worley.

“Cancer is clearly the biggest medical example of the impact of chromosome rearrangements. The gibbon sequence gives us more insight into this process,” said Worley. “There are also a number of other genetic diseases that result from these events.”

Rearrangements

The number of chromosomal rearrangements in the gibbons is remarkable, Rogers said. “It is like the genome just exploded and then was put back together,” he said. “Up until recently, it has been impossible to determine how one human chromosome could be aligned to any gibbon chromosome because there are so many rearrangements.”

Repeat element

The sequencing project revealed a novel and unique genetic repeat element (segments of DNA that occur in multiple copies throughout the genome) that is inserted into genes associated with the maintenance of chromatin structure.

Repeat elements have the capability to disrupt a gene and change their biological function, Worley said. In the gibbons, the team identified the LAVA element — a novel repeat element that emerged exclusively in gibbons and preferentially hits genes involved in chromosome segregation (an essential step in cell division, where chromosomes pair off with their similar homologous chromosome.)

“This explains why the gibbons have undergone so much change,” said Rogers. “Similar disruptions cause disease, which is why everything we learn from this helps us better understand human biology and chromosomal structures.”

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Male–male bonds as a key to the evolution of complex social systems

A German Primate Center (DPZ) study shows tolerance and cooperative ties between male Guinea baboons.

Contests, threats, at best ignore one another: The relationships between male mammals are usually described in this or a similar way. The situation is quite different in humans where strong partnerships and close ties between unrelated men are widespread. Ranging from the joint construction of a hut up to the decisions of Executive Board members, there are countless examples that friendships among men bring decisive advantages and are a core ingredient of the complexity of human societies. In their recently published study, Julia Fischer and her colleagues from the German Primate Center (DPZ) in Göttingen found that male Guinea baboons are tolerant and cooperative towards their same-sex conspecifics, even if they are not related. In this way, males actively contribute to the cohesion of their multilevel Baboon society. Guinea baboons are therefore a valuable model to understand the social evolution of humans.

Within a long-term field study conducted at the DPZ Research Station Simenti in Senegal, a population of Guinea baboons was observed over a period of two years. The scientists found that the social organization of the Guinea baboon has three tiers. The smallest and central units of the society are so-called parties comprising of three to four males with their associated females and their infants. Close social bonds between males are formed within the parties. The next higher level is the gang that consists of two or three parties. Also within the gang, some friendly social interactions between males could be observed. The third level includes all animals that share a home range and is referred to as a community.

“The degree of kinship did not affect the social interaction. The males form close cooperative connections with both related and unrelated conspecifics,” says Julia Fischer, head of the Cognitive Ethology Laboratory at the German Primate Center. Furthermore, the male Guinea baboons showed far less rivalry as well as less aggression towards females than for example the chacma baboons. Interestingly, traits associated with intersexual competition such as the size of their canine teeth or testicles were also smaller in Guinea baboons than in other species.

“Our results show that a complex social organization builds on the emergence and maintenance of cooperation regardless of the genetic relationships,” says Julia Fischer. Humans live in a multilevel social system too, where the smallest unit is the family. Within traditional societies, male individuals enter strong cooperative relationships with each other regardless of the degree of kinship. The occurrence of these bonds is associated with the evolutionary development of multilevel societies. “In order to understand our social evolution non-human primates who live in complex communities are important models,” says Julia Fischer.

In future studies, the researchers want to investigate the role of females in the male friendships. Perhaps they prefer males with an established network and can thereby contribute to a more intensive friendship between males.

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Rapid and durable protection against Ebola virus with new vaccine regimens

One shot of an experimental vaccine made from two Ebola virus gene segments incorporated into a chimpanzee cold virus vector (called chimp adenovirus type 3 or ChAd3) protected all four macaque monkeys exposed to high levels of Ebola virus 5 weeks after inoculation, report National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists and their collaborators.

The ability of the ChAd3 Ebola virus vaccine to elicit rapid protection in monkeys is notable as the world health community battles an ongoing Ebola virus disease outbreak in West Africa. While the protective effects of the single shot waned over time, two out of four inoculated animals were protected when challenged with Ebola virus 10 months after vaccination.

The research team, headed by Nancy J. Sullivan, Ph.D., of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Vaccine Research Center, also demonstrated increased levels of durable protection using an additional vaccine. They inoculated four macaques first with the ChAd3 Ebola vaccine, then 8 weeks later with a booster vaccine containing Ebola virus gene segments incorporated into a different vector (a poxvirus).

Ten months after the initial inoculation, four out of four animals that received both shots were fully protected from infection with high doses of Ebola virus, demonstrating that the prime-boost regimen resulted in durable protection.

The research team included scientists from Okairos, a Swiss-Italian biotechnology company now part of GlaxoSmithKline, and the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The experimental ChAd3 Ebola vaccine used in these non-human primate studies is the same one currently being tested in an early-stage human clinical trial at the NIH in Bethesda, Maryland.

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Brain circuit differences reflect divisions in social status in macaque monkeys

Life at opposite ends of primate social hierarchies is linked to specific brain networks, a new Oxford University study has shown.

The importance of social rank is something we all learn at an early age. In non-human primates, social dominance influences access to food and mates. In humans, social hierarchies influence our performance everywhere from school to the workplace and have a direct influence on our well-being and mental health. Life on the lowest rung can be stressful, but life at the top also requires careful acts of balancing and coalition forming. However, we know very little about the relationship between these social ranks and brain function.

The new research, conducted at the University of Oxford, reveals differences between individual primate’s brains which depend on the their social status. The more dominant you are, the bigger some brain regions are. If your social position is more subordinate, other brain regions are bigger. Additionally, the way the brain regions interact with each other is also associated with social status. The pattern of results suggests that successful behaviour at each end of the social scale makes specialised demands of the brain.

The research, led by Dr MaryAnn Noonan of the Decision and Action Laboratory at the University of Oxford, determined the position of 25 macaque monkeys in their social hierarchy and then analysed non-invasive scans of their brains that had been collected as part of other ongoing University research programs. The findings, publishing September 2 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, show that brain regions in one neural circuit are larger in more dominant animals. The regions composing this circuit are the amygdala, raphe nucleus and hypothalamus. Previous research has shown that the amygdala is involved in learning, and processing social and emotional information. The raphe nucleus and hypothalamus are involved in controlling neurotransmitters and neurohormones, such as serotonin and oxytocin. The MRI scans also revealed that another circuit of brain regions, which collectively can be called the striatum, were found to be larger in more subordinate animals. The striatum is known to play a complex but important role in learning the value of our choices and actions.

The study also reports that the brain’s activity, not just its structure, varies with position in the social hierarchy. The researchers found that the strength with which activity in some of these areas was coupled together was also related to social status. Collectively, these results mean that social status is not only reflected in the brain’s hardware, it is also related to differences in the brain’s software, or communication patterns.

Finally, the size of another set of brain regions correlated not only with social status but also with the size of the animal’s social group. The macaque groups ranged in size between one and seven. The research showed that grey matter in regions involved in social cognition, such as the mid-superior temporal sulcus and rostral prefrontal cortex, correlated with both group size and social status. Previous research has shown that these regions are important for a variety of social behaviours, such as interpreting facial expressions or physical gestures, understanding the intentions of others and predicting their behaviour.

“This finding may reflect the fact that social status in macaques depends not only on the outcome of competitive social interactions but on social bonds formed that promote coalitions,” says Matthew Rushworth, the head of the Decision and Action Laboratory in Oxford. “The correlation with social group size and social status suggests this set of brain regions may coordinate behaviour that bridges these two social variables.”

The results suggest that just as animals assign value to environmental stimuli they may also assign values to themselves — ‘self-values’. Social rank is likely to be an important determinant of such self-values. We already know that some of the brain regions identified in the current study track the value of objects in our environment and so may also play a key role in monitoring longer-term values associated with an individual’s status.

The reasons behind the identified brain differences remain unclear, particularly whether they are present at birth or result from social differences. Dr Noonan said: “One possibility is that the demands of a life in a particular social position use certain brain regions more frequently and as a result those areas expand to step up to the task. Alternatively, it is possible that people born with brains organised in a particular way tend towards certain social positions. In all likelihood, both of these mechanisms will work together to produce behaviour appropriate for the social context.”

Social status also changes over time and in different contexts. Dr Noonan added: “While we might be top-dog in one circle of friends, at work we might be more of a social climber. The fluidity of our social position and how our brains adapt our behavior to succeed in each context is the next exciting direction for this area of research.”

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Oxford . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

How and where to find cheap monkeys for sale

Brain circuit differences reflect divisions in social status

Life at opposite ends of primate social hierarchies is linked to specific brain networks, a new Oxford University study has shown.

The importance of social rank is something we all learn at an early age. In non-human primates, social dominance influences access to food and mates. In humans, social hierarchies influence our performance everywhere from school to the workplace and have a direct influence on our well-being and mental health. Life on the lowest rung can be stressful, but life at the top also requires careful acts of balancing and coalition forming. However, we know very little about the relationship between these social ranks and brain function.

The new research, conducted at the University of Oxford, reveals differences between individual primate’s brains which depend on the their social status. The more dominant you are, the bigger some brain regions are. If your social position is more subordinate, other brain regions are bigger. Additionally, the way the brain regions interact with each other is also associated with social status. The pattern of results suggests that successful behaviour at each end of the social scale makes specialised demands of the brain.

The research, led by Dr MaryAnn Noonan of the Decision and Action Laboratory at the University of Oxford, determined the position of 25 macaque monkeys in their social hierarchy and then analysed non-invasive scans of their brains that had been collected as part of other ongoing University research programs. The findings, publishing September 2 in the open access journal PLOS Biology, show that brain regions in one neural circuit are larger in more dominant animals. The regions composing this circuit are the amygdala, raphe nucleus and hypothalamus. Previous research has shown that the amygdala is involved in learning, and processing social and emotional information. The raphe nucleus and hypothalamus are involved in controlling neurotransmitters and neurohormones, such as serotonin and oxytocin. The MRI scans also revealed that another circuit of brain regions, which collectively can be called the striatum, were found to be larger in more subordinate animals. The striatum is known to play a complex but important role in learning the value of our choices and actions.

The study also reports that the brain’s activity, not just its structure, varies with position in the social hierarchy. The researchers found that the strength with which activity in some of these areas was coupled together was also related to social status. Collectively, these results mean that social status is not only reflected in the brain’s hardware, it is also related to differences in the brain’s software, or communication patterns.

Finally, the size of another set of brain regions correlated not only with social status but also with the size of the animal’s social group. The macaque groups ranged in size between one and seven. The research showed that grey matter in regions involved in social cognition, such as the mid-superior temporal sulcus and rostral prefrontal cortex, correlated with both group size and social status. Previous research has shown that these regions are important for a variety of social behaviours, such as interpreting facial expressions or physical gestures, understanding the intentions of others and predicting their behaviour.

“This finding may reflect the fact that social status in macaques depends not only on the outcome of competitive social interactions but on social bonds formed that promote coalitions,” says Matthew Rushworth, the head of the Decision and Action Laboratory in Oxford. “The correlation with social group size and social status suggests this set of brain regions may coordinate behaviour that bridges these two social variables.”

The results suggest that just as animals assign value to environmental stimuli they may also assign values to themselves — ‘self-values’. Social rank is likely to be an important determinant of such self-values. We already know that some of the brain regions identified in the current study track the value of objects in our environment and so may also play a key role in monitoring longer-term values associated with an individual’s status.

The reasons behind the identified brain differences remain unclear, particularly whether they are present at birth or result from social differences. Dr Noonan said: “One possibility is that the demands of a life in a particular social position use certain brain regions more frequently and as a result those areas expand to step up to the task. Alternatively, it is possible that people born with brains organised in a particular way tend towards certain social positions. In all likelihood, both of these mechanisms will work together to produce behaviour appropriate for the social context.”

Social status also changes over time and in different contexts. Dr Noonan added: “While we might be top-dog in one circle of friends, at work we might be more of a social climber. The fluidity of our social position and how our brains adapt our behavior to succeed in each context is the next exciting direction for this area of research.”

Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Oxford . Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

How and where to find cheap monkeys for sale

Breast vs. bottle feeding in rhesus monkeys: Marked difference in intestinal bacteria, immunologic development

Infant rhesus monkeys receiving different diets early in life develop distinct immune systems that persist months after weaning, a study by researchers from UC Davis, the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC) at UC Davis and UC San Francisco have shown. The study, which compares breast- and bottle-fed infants, appears online September 3 in Science Translational Medicine.

While the researchers expected different diets would promote different intestinal bacteria (microbiota), they were surprised at how dramatically these microbes shaped immunologic development. Specifically, breast-fed macaques had more “memory” T cells and T helper 17 (TH17) cells, which are known to fight Salmonella and other pathogens.

These differences persisted for months after the macaques had been weaned and placed on identical diets, indicating that variations in early diet may have long-lasting effects.

“We saw two different immune systems develop: one in animals fed mother’s milk and another in those fed formula,” said Dennis Hartigan-O’Connor, a CNPRC scientist in the Infectious Diseases Unit and Reproductive Sciences and Regenerative Medicine Unit, and an assistant professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at UC Davis.

“But what’s most startling is the durability of these differences. Infant microbes could leave a long-lasting imprint on immune function,” he said.

Previous research has highlighted the relationship between breast milk, microbiota and the developing immune system. For example, sugars in breast milk help grow specific bacteria, which in turn support certain immune cells. This new study is an important step towards understanding how these separate pieces link together and how they might influence the immune systems response to infections or vaccinations.

Macaques are born with virtually no TH17 cells, and must develop them during the first 18 months of life. Hartigan-O’Connor and other researchers have noted that some macaques develop large TH17 populations, while others have few of these cells. This could profoundly affect the animals’ ability to fight infection, particularly SIV, the simian strain of HIV.

To understand this variability, the investigators followed six breast- and six bottle-fed rhesus macaques from age five months to 12 months. At six months, they found significant differences in the two groups’ microbiota.

Specifically, the breast-fed macaques had larger numbers of the bacteria Prevotella and Ruminococcus, while the bottle-fed group had a greater abundance of Clostridium. Overall, the microbiota in breast-fed macaques was more diverse than in the bottle-fed group.

The big surprise came when examining their immune systems. By 12 months, the two groups showed significant contrasts, with the differences centered on T cell development. The breast-fed group had a much larger percentage of experienced memory T cells, which are better equipped to secrete immune defense chemicals called cytokines, including TH17 and interferon-producing cells.

“This is the first time researchers have shown that these immunologic characteristics may be imprinted in the first new months of life,” said Amir Ardeshir, the study’s first author. “Our study suggests that the gut microbiota present in early life may leave a durable imprint on the shape and capacity of the immune system, a programming of the system if you will.”

Further investigation may have identified chemicals that drive these differences. For example, arachidonic acid, which stimulates the production of TH17 cells and is found in macaque breast milk, was tightly linked to TH17 cell development. Previous studies have suggested it can influence T cell development. The researchers caution that these chemicals must be tested in larger studies to understand their effects.

While this research provides a fascinating window into immune cell development in macaques, Hartigan-O’Connor cautions that it doesn’t prove the same mechanisms exist in people. The lab is planning similar studies in humans to test that hypothesis. In addition, this study does not prove a link between breastfeeding and better health.

“There’s a developmental shape to the immune system that we don’t often consider,” Hartigan-O’Connor said. “It’s dramatic how that came out in this study. There’s a lot of variability in how both people and monkeys handle infections, in their tendency to develop autoimmune disease, and in how they respond to vaccines. This work is a good first step towards explaining those differences.”

How and where to find cheap monkeys for sale

India monkey showers people with stolen banknotes in Shimla

A monkey in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh has rained down banknotes on people, reports say.

Surprised holidaymakers in the scenic pine forest of Shimla, the state capital, ran around, collecting the falling notes for nearly an hour on Sunday, eyewitnesses said.

Reports said the simian stole 10,000 rupees ($165; £100) from a nearby home.

The monkey had entered the house to look for food, but when it did not find anything to eat, it took the money.

Full story here .

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How and where to find cheap monkeys for sale

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