A study published today in the journal Nature relates the discovery of two unknown strains of tuberculosis. Recall that tuberculosis is a disease that still causes 1.5 million deaths every year, and that it remains the most deadly infectious disease in the world, before AIDS. An international team has investigated the bacteria that cause this disease – the mycobacterium tuberculosis- and she has developed a new molecular test to better diagnose the bacteria’s antibiotic resistance. In Rwanda, in the Great Lakes region, researchers tested patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. By comparing the genomes with other mycobacterial genomes, unknown lineages emerged: two ancestral strains of tuberculosis.
Philip Supply is CNRS research director at the Institut Pasteur in Lille. He led this study.
In Europe, 3.1 million deaths have been avoided thanks to containment
According to a study published yesterday in the review Nature : in Europe, 3.1 million deaths were avoided thanks to confinement. These are the results of researchers from the’Imperial College from London. In 11 European countries, the number of deaths recorded was compared with the hypothetical number of deaths, estimated by mathematical modeling. The authors recognize that the death data is incomplete and that we are still in the midst of a pandemic. However, the closure of schools and shops, the ban on regrouping, all these measures have had significant effects on the transmission of the virus and especially on its famous R0 – its reproduction rate. According to this paper, in the 11 countries analyzed, the R0 fell below 1, which thus allows epidemic control.
Observe atoms individually
For the first time, atoms of a protein have been observed individually, according to two pre-publications on the BioRxiv website – available here and here. This level of detail is unprecedented. Two laboratories in England and Germany worked on a protein that stores iron – apoferritin – and obtained an image accuracy of 1.25 angstroms – 0.125 nanometers, a record. To discern atoms in a protein, the researchers took advantage of recent improvements in electron beam technologies and advances in microscopy techniques: cryo-electron microscopy, combined with image analysis software. This work has yet to be validated by peers, but if it is, it is a major breakthrough for the study of the infinitely small, and for understanding the functioning of proteins.
The emotions of mice
According to a study published in Science, mice also have facial expressions and emotions. Disgust, joy, pain, fear or nausea: these 5 emotions can be read on the “face” of a mouse. German researchers have successfully deciphered this expression panel using machine learning algorithms. They observed and filmed rodents in more or less pleasant activities, while measuring their neural activities. Not only the facial expressions of the mouse – ears tilted in the front or back, trembling whiskers – these expressions can be classified into emotional categories similar to those of humans. But in addition, these emotions are linked to different activations of the brain. According to neuroscientists, rodents have emotional neurons.
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