The A&P Professor Science & Education Updates - Issue #179

Life Science

Eggs avoid the wear and tear other kinds of tissues suffer by skipping a fundamental metabolic reaction that takes place in every other cell.

Researchers are going beyond fecal samples to understand how the patterns of commensal microbes in the gastrointestinal tract influence development and health.

Two studies have linked the mysterious rise in unexplained hepatitis cases among children to the adeno-associated virus 2, which infects nearly everyone early in childhood

A study of 2.4 million health records suggests the World Health Organization's set of 33 long covid symptoms may be too limited

WHO has declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern

A neuroscience image sleuth finds signs of fabrication in scores of Alzheimer’s articles, threatening a reigning theory of the disease

Neurological manifestations of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection represent a major issue in long coronavirus disease. How SARS-CoV-2 gains access to the brain and how infection leads to neurological symptoms are not clear because the principal means of viral entry by endocytosis, the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 receptor, are barely detectable in the brain.

Authors of this study report that human neuronal cells, nonpermissive to infection through the endocytic pathway, can be infected when cocultured with permissive infected epithelial cells. SARS-CoV-2 induces the formation of tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) and exploits this route to spread to uninfected cells.

In cellulo correlative fluorescence and cryo–electron tomography reveal that SARS-CoV-2 is associated with TNTs between permissive cells. Furthermore, multiple vesicular structures such as double-membrane vesicles, sites of viral replication, are observed inside TNTs between permissive and nonpermissive cells.

These data highlight a previously unknown mechanism of SARS-CoV-2 spreading, likely used as a route to invade nonpermissive cells and potentiate infection in permissive cells.

Teaching & Learning

Then she walks back out of the room. Dubrow reenters, looking a bit less formal — perhaps she’s removed a jacket. This time, she sits on the desk. She’ll say: “Hello, there. I’m Heather Dubrow. Let’s start by talking about plans for the class.”

Jennifer L. Wong-Ma had a tenure-track job in computer science more than a decade ago at Stony Brook University. But she found herself more interested in her teaching than in her research. A few years in, she decided it was time for a change. So Wong-Ma talked to her chair.

TAPP News & Notes

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