UC Science Today

Studies have found that people who believe that alcohol is good for the heart, drink more. While this is not surprising, cardiologist Gregory Marcus of the University of California, San Francisco, says the question is – what are the real benefits of drinking?

"Whereas there is some evidence that moderate consumption of alcohol might help prevent heart attacks, there was also evidence that alcohol may increase the risk for high blood pressure, it might increase the risk for heart failure. And then there is growing evidence that alcohol may increase the risk for atrial fibrillation."

That is the most common abnormal heart rhythm, which may cause stroke.

"There is no randomized data to demonstrate that consumption of alcohol can reduce a heart attack. All of the data has been what we call observational, and we know from previous studies that observational data can fool us."

So Marcus recommends that drinkers pace themselves: no more than one drink a day for women and for men, no more than two drinks a day.

Historically, neuroscientists have been mainly focused on excitatory neurons, which stimulate our brain and have paid less attention to the calming, inhibitory neurons. According to Mercedes Paredes, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, it turns out that these inhibitory neurons play a more important role than previously thought.

"They make a lot more of synaptic connections with other neurons and play a role not just in maintaining the balance and the activity, but also in the potential for the brain to be flexible."

Paredes has discovered that inhibitory neurons, also called interneurons, continue shaping our brain long after we are born, making the brain extremely vulnerable in the first couple of months to a year of our lives.

"Inhibitory neurons are the main regulators of the balance between excitation and inhibition in the cortex. When there is damage to interneurons, balance is at risk and it can lead to disorders all the way from epilepsy to potentially neuropsychiatric disorders."

When it comes to dealing with cavities, not all dentists want to get out that formidable drill. Dr. Peter Rechmann of the University of California, San Francisco School of Dentistry follows a new approach, called Caries Management by Risk Assessment, or CAMBRA. This basically means - fighting cavities before they invade your teeth.

“You recommend to a patient some behavior change and additional chemical interventions like fluoride, which makes the teeth harder, like chlorhexidine, which kills bacteria."

Add to that chewing gum with xylitol and teeth may be saved in the pre-caries stage without dental procedures.

“I watched under x-rays those lesions where someone would take a drill and drill it, and I saw some of them completely disappearing”.

Since Rechmann started the caries management program, word of mouth has brought him many new patients for checkups and cleanings, so he calls on his colleagues to consider following his footsteps.

Does talking or singing to a newborn really their brain development? This week on Science Today, we chatted with neurologist Mercedes Paredes of the University of California, San Francisco to find out. She says this type of stimulation may affect inhibitory neurons, which keep fine-tuning and shaping infants’ brains during the first couple months of life.

"These cells are reaching their target, these brain regions that control the development of motor skills, social skills and language skills. So, I imagine that they might play a role in that. And understanding how they do that will be important for parents knowing, OK, these are the foundations of how the milestones develop."

And as far as we’re concerned, talking or singing to newborns is hard to resist! But how about when those babies become adolescents? There may not be as much talking going then as they hole up in their rooms using social media. But how is that affecting their brains? UCLA’s Adriana Galván says there’s still not enough data to determine the impact because the media itself is still relatively new.

"And so we don’t have the long-term data over many years to determine what it’s doing to the brain, but certainly we do know that it’s another form of teenagers having more social interactions, having greater reactions emotionally to things that they see on media or read about, but we don’t really know what it’s doing to the brain, yet, but stay tuned - a lot of people are doing that research."

Finally, with heavy rainfalls helping quench the parched state of California, there are some questions being raised in the aftermath of drought. UC Berkeley biologist Todd Dawson says in the last couple of years, droughts have killed millions of trees in the Golden State.

"Will we have to manage our forests in different ways? So for example, we have to thin some of our forests, so the limited water resources that we have can keep at least some trees alive, but maybe not at the densities that our current forests are at."

So Dawson calls for scientists to work more closely with governmental agencies to choose the best environmental strategies, especially when it comes to water. That’s all for now – if you want to hear these and other University of California research stories, subscribe to Science Today on iTunes. I’m Larissa Branin, thanks for listening.

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Stories mentioned in this roundup:

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/baby_brain

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/adolescent_brain_research

https://soundcloud.com/sciencetoday/drought_aftermath

Bacteria and fungi are fingerprints of asthma and allergies, which newborn children could develop later in life. Susan Lynch, a gastroenterologist at the University of California, San Francisco, tested stool samples of about 300 babies and found that when bacteria and fungi interact, sometimes it changes microbiota and can trigger the diseases.

"So this kind of a new technology where it allows us to look at variations in specific genes characteristically found in bacteria and fungi. Variation in those genes will allow us to assess which microbes the genes came from. And in that way, we can get a sense of which bacteria and which fungi are present in the gut of these children".

Lynch says this discovery will help researchers advance their testing techniques and predict more precisely if children might become allergic or asthmatic.

Over the past two years, the effect of a strong El Nino has dramatically increased the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, while the amount of fossil fuel emissions produced did not grow. Trevor Keenan, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found out exactly why this happened.

“The effect of El Nino was negative for ecosystems, had a detrimental impact of global droughts and high temperatures caused a net release of carbon dioxide from ecosystems to the atmosphere. ”

Keenan says ecosystems play an important role in regulating the carbon cycle. Sometimes plants release more carbon dioxide, and sometimes they retain more CO2. So, when drastic climate events like El Nino happen, living conditions for plants become more difficult and they release CO2 back into the atmosphere.

“Hence, speeding up climate change independent of what we do with emissions. So we really need to think about how to protect ecosystems."

Especially because scientists are projecting that the earth is accelerating its warming pace.

There's been a lot of interest in how media is affecting the brain during adolescence, but there still isn’t enough data for researchers to determine whether or not it’s beneficial or harmful to the teenage brain. UCLA’s Adriana Galván is an expert on adolescent brain development and says that’s in part because the media itself is still relatively new.

"And so we don’t have the long-term data over many years to determine what it’s doing to the brain, but certainly we do know that it’s another form of teenagers having more social interactions, having great reactions emotionally to things that they see on media or read about, but we don’t really know what it’s doing to their brain yet – but stay tuned, a lot of people are doing that research."

Adolescent neurobiology generates so much interest because the teen years are such a key period of developmental transition. UCLA is even leading the UC system's multi-campus, multi-disciplinary Consortium on the Developmental Science of Adolescence.

In the last couple of years, droughts have killed millions of trees in California. This has raised some important questions for scientists:

“Under the global climatic change that we are experiencing, will we have to manage our forests in different ways? So for example, will we have to thin some of our forests, so the limited water resources that we have can keep at least some trees alive, But maybe not at the densities that our current forests are at."

That’s Todd Dawson, a biologist at the University of California, Berkeley. He thinks that scientists need to work closely with governmental agencies to choose the best environmental strategies, especially when it comes to water.

“We need to really be paying attention to how we manage our water resources. So how do we regulate how much water goes to agriculture, goes to industry, does to supporting people? And then some of the water that we actually just leave alone because it feeds our forests, it feeds our natural ecosystems."

Dawson hopes government will continue to support climate change research, so scientists can better detect and mitigate the negative impact of global warming.

Many mothers talk or sing to their newborns, but how does this really help babies’ development? Mercedes Paredes, a neurologist at the University of California, San Francisco, thinks such stimulation might affect inhibitory neurons that keep fine-tuning and shaping infants’ brains during the first couple of months of their lives.

“These cells are reaching their target, these brain regions that control the development of motor skills, social skills and language skills. So, I imagine that they might play a role in that. And understanding how they do that will be important for parents. These are foundations of how the milestones develop.”

But Paredes adds, if these neurons become damaged – during or soon after birth - that could trigger childhood psychiatric and neurological disorders – like epilepsy.

“The first couple of months to a year of life are uniquely active for the brain and we need to do things to protect the brain or at least be cognizant of the potential damage that could happen.”

Doctors may soon be able to cure more cancers with immunotherapy, thanks to new technologies to fight malignant tumors. Wendell Lim, a molecular scientist at the University of California, San Francisco, has designed smart immune T-cells that he says now more than ever have a better chance to defeat the disease.

"That’s where I think this idea that we really have to attack the problem from two sides. We really have to provide T-cells that can effectively recognize and kill the cancers, as well as ways to counteract immunosuppression."

Immunotherapy has shown some success in treating melanoma and lung cancers, but solid tumors - the majority of cancers – are still a challenge.

“The immune system has this kind of potential. I'm pretty optimistic that our understanding and the tools that we have in immunotherapy are just really accelerating at a dramatic pace."

The Food and Drug Administration may approve first therapies with engineered T-cells as early as this year.