AI and HealthCare, Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Genetic Research / 06.11.2024

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Dina Schneidman-Duhovny PhD Academic researcher Hebrew University of Jerusalem MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The study analyzed genetic data of 12 families (~ 40 patients) with high incidence of breast cancer cases. Most families originate from ethnic groups that are poorly represented in public resources. All participants were tested negative to all known breast cancer predisposing genes. We developed a novel approach to study genetic variants utilizing state-of-the-art deep learning models tailored for analysis of familial data. The study highlighted 80 high-risk genes (out of > 1200 genes) and narrowed down on a group of 8 genes circulating in 7 out of 12 families in the study. These genes are involved in a cellular organelle called the peroxisome and play a role in fatty acids metabolism. We show that  these genes significantly affect breast cancer survival and use 3-dimensional protein structural analysis to illustrate the effect of some of the variants on protein structure. These provide strong evidence of the peroxisome involvement in breast cancer predisposition and pathogenicity, and provide potential targets for patient screening and targeted therapies. (more…)
Infections / 28.10.2024

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Asaf Levy Senior Lecturer, Assistant Professor Plant Pathology and Microbiology The Robert H Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment Hebrew University of Jerusalem MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Bacteria encode many compounds used to target neighboring microbes or cause disease in hosts, including humans. Classic antibiotics (small molecules) are one well-studied group of antimicrobials encoded by bacteria. A less-studied group consists of short protein toxins. These proteins are produced by bacteria and injected into target cells to kill them. In this study, we focused on a group of protein toxins called polymorphic toxins, which carry a short toxin domain at their end, which we termed “PTs” (an acronym for polymorphic toxins) and are roughly 100 amino acid long. We developed a new algorithm to scan 107,000 bacterial genomes and discover novel PTs encoded by these bacteria. We then experimentally confirmed 9 new PT families that can kill bacteria and pathogenic fungi, including human pathogens, such as Candida auris and Aspergillus fumigatus. We saw that two of the toxins kill cells by degrading their DNA. (more…)
Author Interviews, Nature, Nutrition, Orthopedics, Pediatrics / 20.04.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Efrat Monsonego Ornan, Ph.D  Head of School of Nutritional Sciences Institute of Biochemistry and Nutrition The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment The Hebrew University of Jerusalem MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Food supplies in recent decades have been dominated by heavily processed, ready-to-eat products. Essentially, 75% of all world food sales are of processed foods. Over the past 30 years, children’s ultra-processed food intake has increased markedly, with 50% of the children in the US consuming these foods. Only in the US does UPF comprise 58% of energy intake, of which 90% is derived from added sugars. This reflects children’s excessive consumption of food and drink that are high in fat and refined sugars but do not provide appropriate levels of the proteins, vitamins and minerals required for growth. The negative health outcomes of excessive consumption of Ultra-processed food are well known, include obesity, metabolic syndrome and diabetes, and considered as the current world epidemic; the fact that children, during their postnatal development period (birth to adolescent), are the target of the Ultra-processed food industry is very disturbing in terms of public health. Bone development and growth are the characteristic phenomena of the childhood period. Yet, in spite of the huge importance of nutrition to bone development, the impact of Ultra-processed food consumption on skeleton development during childhood has never been studied directly, and this was the purpose of our study. To this end, we used young rats which are an excellent pre-clinical model for growth and fed them with either the recommended diet for their age or  a diet comprised of a typical Ultra-processed meal (a roll, hamburger, tomatoes, lettuce, ketchup and French fries) and a caloric soft drink.   (more…)