US pharma firm says COVID-19 vaccine produces antibodies in mice, guinea pigs

US immunotherapy company Inovio Pharmaceuticals Inc on Wednesday said its experimental vaccine to prevent coronavirus infection was shown to produce protective antibodies and immune system responses in mice and guinea pigs.

"We saw antibody responses that do many of the things we would want to see in an eventual vaccine," said Dr. David Weiner, director of the vaccine and immunotherapy center at the Wistar Institute, which has collaborated with Inovio. 

"We are able to target things that would prevent the virus from having a safe harbor in the body."

Inovio, which began human testing of its vaccine in April, said preliminary results from that trial are expected in June. 

The 40 healthy participants in the Phase 1 trial are given 2 shots, 4 weeks apart, of the vaccine, called INO-4800, and then followed for 2 weeks.

"We are already seeing safety data and it has been benign," Dr. Katherine Broderick, head of research and development at Inovio, told Reuters. "Some people have slight redness of the arm."

Once the preliminary data are in, she said Inovio expects to approach the US Food and Drug Administration for authorization to move into a Phase 2/3 trial, which could happen in July or August.

Inovio said the latest animal study results, published in the journal Nature Communications, validate its DNA medicines platform and build on previous positive clinical trial data for its experimental vaccine against a different, but related, coronavirus that causes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome.

That vaccine and INO-4800 are made using newer technology that focuses on specific genes on the outer "spike" portion of the virus.

Inovio said the newly published data demonstrate virus neutralizing activity using 3 separate testing procedures. Study authors also said they detected the antibodies in the lungs of the vaccinated animals.

Inovio next plans to test the vaccine in larger animals including rabbits and monkeys, and to undertake "challenge" studies in mice, ferrets and monkeys, Broderick said. 

Challenge studies involve intentionally giving the virus to an animal and then seeing if the vaccine prevents infection.

There are currently no approved treatments or vaccines for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Experts predict a safe and effective vaccine could take 12 to 18 months to develop.

-reuters-

Coral reefs at risk of dissolving as oceans get more acidic: study

OSLO - Coral reefs could start to dissolve before 2100 as man-made climate change drives acidification of the oceans, scientists said on Thursday.

Acidification will threaten sediments that are building blocks for reefs. Corals already face risks from ocean temperatures, pollution and overfishing.

"Coral reefs will transition to net dissolving before end of century," the Australian-led team of scientists wrote in the U.S. journal Science. "Net dissolving" means reefs would lose more material than they gain from the growth of corals.

Carbon dioxide, the main man-made greenhouse gas, forms a weak acid in water and threatens to dissolve the reef sediments, made from broken down bits of corals and other carbonate organisms that accumulate over thousands of years, it said.

The sediments are 10 times more vulnerable to acidification than the tiny coral animals that also extract chemicals directly from the sea water to build stony skeletons that form reefs, the study said.

Coral animals will be able to keep growing and replenish reefs long after sandy sediments start to dissolve, lead author Bradley Eyre, of Southern Cross University, told Reuters.

"This probably reflects the corals' ability to modify their environment and partially adapt to ocean acidification whereas the dissolution of sands is a geo-chemical process that cannot adapt," he wrote in an e-mail.

The report said it was "unknown if the whole reef will erode once the sediments become net dissolving" and whether reefs "will experience catastrophic destruction" or merely a slow erosion.

Some reef sediments were already starting to dissolve, such as at Kaneohe Bay in Hawaii, where other pollutants were contributing.

Eyre said it was unclear if the dissolution of sediments could be a long-term threat to entire islands, from the Pacific to the Caribbean. Other studies say that deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions can limit acidification.

Most studies show that acidification will be overwhelmingly bad for ocean life, also threatening creatures such as oysters, lobsters and crabs. Another study on Thursday, however, found that it might help the growth of some plants.

"An increase of carbon dioxide in the ocean theoretically could stimulate higher growth of kelp and seaweeds," Kasper Hancke, a biologist at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research, wrote in a statement.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Space probe finds vast void between Saturn's rings

WASHINGTON - The unmanned Cassini spacecraft, after completing two passes in the vast, unexplored area between Saturn's rings has discovered not much else there, researchers at NASA said.

Scientists have been surprised to find that not all that much -- not even space dust -- lies between Saturn's iconic rings.

"The region between the rings and Saturn is 'the big empty,' apparently," said Cassini Project Manager Earl Maize of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, after the probe's first pass.

The rings themselves are made of fast-moving particles of ice and space debris.

The 22-foot-tall (6.7 meter) Cassini spacecraft launched in 1997 and began orbiting Saturn in 2004.

Cassini made a first pass to explore what lies between the rings in late April and a second one on May 2, at a speed of about 77,000 miles per hour relative to the planet.

The gap between the rings and the top of Saturn's atmosphere is about 1,500 miles (2,400 kilometers).

Cassini is expected to make a total of 22 dives between the rings and the planet before making a death plunge into the gas giant in September.

Cassini is a 20-year-old joint mission of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US scientists to protest Trump policies at Earth Day rally in Washington

WASHINGTON — US scientists are set to stage an unprecedented protest on Saturday, a March for Science provoked by steep cuts President Donald Trump has proposed for science and research budgets, and growing disregard for evidence-based knowledge.

The march in Washington, timed to coincide with the Earth Day environmental event, will put Trump's questioning of climate change and proposed cuts to federal science programs at center stage.

Demonstrations are also scheduled in US cities including San Francisco, along with smaller towns like Dillingham, Alaska. Overseas, people are due to rally in support of science from Australia to Brazil.

Participants say the Washington march will be nonpartisan and marks a new frontier for scientists more accustomed to laboratories and classrooms than activism in the streets.

"It has dawned on some of them it is time to speak up," Rush Holt, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, told reporters on a conference call this week. "I wouldn't say that it is fundamentally because of Donald Trump, but there's no question that there's been concern in recent months about all sorts of things."

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump has called climate change a hoax. His administration is mulling withdrawing from the so-called Paris Agreement aimed at reducing global emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

Trump's proposed 2018 budget calls for deep spending cuts by government science agencies, including a 31% reduction for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Rally organizers are also worried by what they see as growing skepticism from politicians and others on topics such as vaccinations, genetically modified organisms and evolution.

"It's really the age-old debate of the rational view of the universe against the irrational view of the universe," Elias Zerhouni, former director of the National Institutes of Health, said on the conference call.

Guests at the Washington event will include television personality Bill Nye "the Science Guy," former White House technology aide Megan Smith and Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a pediatrician who helped expose the lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan.

But some questioned whether scientists should play a political role, and whether the march would change the minds of Trump, his top aides, or skeptical voters.

"We need to go to county fairs, and we need to personalize the scientific issues we care about," said geologist Rob Young, a professor at North Carolina's Western Carolina University.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

New photos reveal Pluto's stunning geological diversity: NASA

New, high-resolution images of the surface of Pluto beamed from NASA's New Horizons spacecraft reveal unparalleled geographical variety -- from soaring mountains to sand dunes to frozen ice floes, scientists said Saturday.

"Pluto is showing us a diversity of landforms and complexity of processes that rival anything we've seen in the solar system," said Alan Stern, principal investigator with the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, who is playing a key role analyzing data sent by the probe.

"If an artist had painted this Pluto before our flyby, I probably would have called it over the top -- but that's what is actually there," he said.

Long considered the farthest planet from the Sun before it was reclassified as a dwarf planet in 2006, Pluto has never before been explored.

In July, New Horizons -- a nuclear powered spacecraft about the size of a baby grand piano -- became the first spaceship to pass by Pluto.

By doing so, the unmanned probe has for the first time given scientists the chance to obtain close-up images from the distant and complex dwarf planet.

The stunning pictures, displaying chaotically jumbled mountains and other dramatic geographical features, is somewhat reminiscent of the helter-skelter terrain of Jupiter's icy moon Europa, NASA scientists said.

New Horizon began a yearlong download of new images and other data several days ago.

The pictures downloaded this past week have more than doubled the amount of Pluto's surface seen, at resolutions of about 400 meters (440 yards) per pixel.

NASA said New Horizons will continue to send data back to Earth until late next year.

The space agency also said that next week, the probe will beam images of Pluto's moons Charon, Nix, and Hydra.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

How much chocolate is good for you? New study finds out

New research has added to tentative evidence that eating chocolate in modest quantities may be good for the heart, its investigators said on Tuesday.

Scientists in Britain looked at data from nearly 21,000 people who filled out questionnaires about their lifestyle, and had their health monitored for more than 11 years.

Their average daily consumption was seven grams (0.25 ounces) of chocolate, ranging from none to 100g.

The top fifth of chocolate-eaters were 12 percent less likely to develop heart disease and 23 percent less likely to suffer a stroke compared to the bottom fifth of consumers, the researchers found.

The study, published in the British journal Heart, noted that most consumers of the confectionary ate milk chocolate, not dark chocolate which famously has a higher percentage of protective molecules called flavonoids.

"This may indicate that not only flavonoids, but also other compounds, possibly related to milk constituents, such as calcium and fatty acids, may provide an explanation for the observed association," it said.

The team, headed by Phyo Myint of the University of Aberdeen in Scotland, admitted the probe had limitations.

The study was observational, meaning it could not show cause and effect, merely an association which may be circumstantial.

Another question mark was to be found in "reverse causation": participants who knew they had cardiovascular problems may have followed a healthier diet and eaten less chocolate.

The team also did a review of other published studies, covering more than 130,000 people in total, and said they had found a similarly beneficial association with regular chocolate consumption.

"Cumulative evidence suggests that higher chocolate intake is associated with a lower risk of future cardiovascular events," it said.

"There does not appear to be any evidence to say that chocolate should be avoided in those who are concerned about cardiovascular risk."

A couple of squares of chocolate are around 16g, and an average bar of chocolate about 50g.

Commentators not involved in the research were cautious, noting too much chocolate can lead to weight gain, which is bad for the heart.

"You can't draw a medical conclusion from this study," said Arnaud Cocaul, a nutritionist at the Pitie Salpetriere Hospital in Paris.

"People who refrain from eating chocolate are not necessarily those who eat the most balanced diet."

Added Tim Chico, a cardiologist at the University of Sheffield in northern England: "I would not advise my patients to increase their chocolate intake based on this research, particularly if they are overweight," in remarks to Britain's Science Media Centre (SMC).

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Melting Antarctic glaciers to raise seas, study warns

OSLO - Vast glaciers in West Antarctica seem to be locked in an irreversible thaw linked to global warming that may push up sea levels for centuries, scientists said on Monday.

Six glaciers, eaten away from below by a warming of sea waters around the frozen continent, were flowing fast into the Amundsen Sea, according to the report based partly on satellite radar measurements from 1992 to 2011.

Evidence shows "a large sector of the West Antarctic ice sheet has gone into a state of irreversible retreat", said lead author Eric Rignot of the University of California, Irvine, and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California.

The coastal ends of the glaciers rest on bedrock below sea level, holding back a vast weight of ice and making them vulnerable to melt, he said. He likened the process to uncorking a full bottle of wine while it was lying on its side.

This part of Antarctica would be a major contributor to sea level rise in coming decades and centuries since the glaciers hold enough ice to raise sea levels by 1.2 metres (4 feet).

"It's passed the point of no return," he told a telephone news conference.

Ice-penetrating radars showed no mountain ranges entombed under the ice, for instance, that could halt the flow. The fastest retreat was 34-37 km (21-23 miles) over the period in the Smith/Kohler glacier.

Even so, cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, part of efforts to rein in global warming, could at least slow the slide of the Pine Island, Thwaites, Haynes, Pope, Smith and Kohler glaciers.

"We do think this is related to climate warming," Rignot said. The scientists believed that a build-up of man-made greenhouse gases in the atmosphere was affecting wind patterns around Antarctica, driving warmer waters towards the continent.

Almost 200 nations have agreed to work out a U.N. pact by the end of 2015 to combat global warming, which the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says will cause more floods, droughts, heat waves and higher seas.

SEA LEVELS

Monday's findings may also mean that scenarios by the IPCC for sea level rise are too low. The IPCC said last year that sea levels are likely to rise by between 26 and 82 cm (10 and 32 inches) by the late 21st century, after a 19 cm (7 inch) rise since 1900.

"The major ice sheets of this planet will have a larger and larger role in sea level rise in the decades ahead," said Sridhar Anandakrishnan, professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the study.

Last week, another study also suggested a part of the far bigger ice sheet in East Antarctica may also be more vulnerable than expected to thaw. The IPCC says it is at least 95 percent probable that warming is caused by human activities, led by the burning of fossil fuels.

Monday's study, to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, adds to signs of climate change under way.

On May 6, the Obama administration issued a study saying that warming "once considered an issue for a distant future has moved firmly into the present."

And the IPCC said in March there were signs of irreversible changes to tropical coral reefs and to the Arctic.

A separate study of the Thwaites glacier by the University of Washington in the journal Science also said it may have begun an unstoppable collapse that could last from 200 to 1,000 years.

A disappearance of the Thwaites alone would raise world sea levels by 60 cm (1.96 feet) but the "glacier also acts as a linchpin on the rest of the ice sheet, which contains enough ice to cause another three to four metres of sea level rise", it said.

The findings contrast with a paradoxical expansion of the extent of ice floating on the sea around Antarctica in recent winters that the scientists said may be part of natural variations. "The changes in the glacier reflect much longer-term processes," Tom Wagner, a scientist with NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said in the telephone briefing. (Editing by Mark Heinrich)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Penis size does matter to women, researchers say

WASHINGTON - The eternal question of whether penis size matters to women has been probed by a team of international scientists who reported on Monday that yes, ladies do find larger men more attractive.

What's more, prehistoric women who could see the sex organs of their scantily clad male counterparts may have helped influence the evolution of larger genitals in men by choosing to mate with partners who were bigger.

Researchers said they decided to tackle the topic because past studies had offered conflicting answers, and may have been sullied by asking the women too directly.

"Since penis size is a sensitive subject, it's hard to determine whether females lied or 'self-deceived' in their responses," lead author Brian Mautz, a postdoctoral researcher in evolution and sexual selection at the University of Ottawa, told AFP via email.

So they embarked on a new type of study, using computer-generated images of generic male figures with varying heights, body shapes and flaccid penis lengths.

A sample of 105 Australian women were asked to view 53 of these life-sized robot-like pictures, which rotated so they were visible at different angles.

The women -- all heterosexual -- were not told they were participating in a study about penis size. They were simply asked to rate the figures according to sexual attractiveness. Their answers were collected anonymously.

Researchers found that women rated tall men with long penises as the most attractive.

The women also tended to gaze longer at the larger men. But not too long -- each rating was made in about three seconds.

But how big is best? On that question, researchers were, er, stumped.

"We didn't find an ideal (i.e. 'most attractive') penis size or height," Mautz explained.

"The attractiveness scores were still increasing at the largest values for these traits."

The findings were published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal in the United States, called the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

The results "directly contradict claims that penis size is unimportant to most females," and also hint at why human males tend to have relatively larger genitalia when compared to other primates, the study said.

"Our results show that female mate choice could have played a role in the evolution of the relatively large human male penis," the authors wrote.

"Before clothing, the non-retractable human penis would have been conspicuous to potential mates."

The study did not get into the racial background of men and whether that may affect penis size, but it did document the ethnicity and age of the women it was studying for hints about whether penis size mattered.

More than 70 percent of the women were of European origin, 20 percent were Asian and seven percent were from elsewhere. Their average age was 26.

source: abs-cbnnews.com

NASA builds menu for planned Mars mission in 2030s

HOUSTON (AP) — Through a labyrinth of hallways deep inside a 1950s-era building that has housed research that dates back to the origins of U.S. space travel, a group of scientists in white coats is stirring, mixing, measuring, brushing and, most important, tasting the end result of their cooking.

Their mission: Build a menu for a planned journey to Mars in the 2030s.

The menu must sustain a group of six to eight astronauts, keep them healthy and happy and offer a broad array of food. That's no simple feat considering it will likely take six months to get to the Red Planet, astronauts will have to stay there 18 months and then it will take another six months to return to Earth. Imagine having to shop for a family's three-year supply of groceries all at once and having enough meals planned in advance for that length of time.

"Mars is different just because it's so far away," said Maya Cooper, senior research scientist with Lockheed Martin who is leading the efforts to build the menu. "We don't have the option to send a vehicle every six months and send more food as we do for International Space Station."

Astronauts who travel to the space station have a wide variety of food available to them, some 100 or so different options, in fact. But it is all pre-prepared and freeze-dried with a shelf life of at least two years. And while astronauts make up a panel that tastes the food and gives it a final OK on Earth before it blasts off, the lack of gravity means smell — and taste — is impaired. So the food is bland.

On Mars though, there is a little gravity, allowing NASA to consider significant changes to the current space menu. That's where Cooper's team comes in. Travel to Mars opens the possibility that astronauts can do things like chop vegetables and do a little cooking of their own. Even though pressure levels are different than on Earth, scientists think it will be possible to boil water with a pressure cooker too.

One option Cooper and her staff are considering is having the astronauts care for a "Martian greenhouse." They would have a variety of fruits and vegetables — from carrots to bell peppers — in a hydroponic solution, meaning they would be planted in mineral-laced water instead of soil. The astronauts would care for their garden and then use those ingredients, combined with others, such as nuts and spices brought from Earth, to prepare their meals.

"That menu is favorable because it allows the astronauts to actually have live plants that are growing, you have optimum nutrient delivery with fresh fruits and vegetables, and it actually allows them to have freedom of choice when they're actually cooking the menus because the food isn't already pre-prepared into a particular recipe," Cooper said.

The top priority is to ensure that the astronauts get the proper amount of nutrients, calories and minerals to maintain their physical health and performance for the life of the mission, Cooper said.

The menu must also ensure the psychological health of the astronauts, Cooper explained, noting studies have shown that eating certain foods — such as meatloaf and mashed potatoes or turkey on Thanksgiving — improve people's mood and give them satisfaction. That "link to home" will be key to astronauts on the Mars mission, and there are currently two academic studies looking further into the connection between mood and food. Lacking certain vitamins or minerals can also harm the brain, she said.

Jerry Linenger, a retired astronaut who spent 132 days on the Russian space station in 1997, said food is important for morale, and the monotony of eating the same thing day after day is difficult.

"You just wanted something different. I didn't care if it was something I wouldn't eat in a million years on Earth. If it was different, I would eat it," Linenger said, recalling with a laugh how he would even drink up a Russian sour milk-like concoction for breakfast or drink up some borscht because it offered variety.

Already, Cooper's team of three has come up with about 100 recipes, all vegetarian because the astronauts will not have dairy or meat products available. It isn't possible to preserve those products long enough to take to Mars — and bringing a cow on the mission is not an option, Cooper jokes.

To ensure the vegetarian diet packs the right amount of protein, the researchers are designing a variety of dishes that include tofu and nuts, including a Thai pizza that has no cheese but is covered with carrots, red peppers, mushrooms, scallions, peanuts and a homemade sauce that has a spicy kick.

To keep this menu going, and get the most out of any research about food sustainability on Mars, Cooper says it's possible NASA will choose to have one astronaut solely dedicated to preparing the food — the Emeril of the Mars mission.

Still, since it remains unclear how much time mission planners will want to spend on food preparation, Cooper is also building an alternate pre-packaged menu, similar to how things are done for crews that do six-month stints on the International Space Station. For this option, though, the food will need to have a five-year shelf life compared with the two years available now. NASA, the Department of Defense and a variety of other agencies are researching ways to make that possible, Cooper said.

The ideal, though, would be to combine the two options.

"So they would have some fresh crop and some food that we would send from Earth," Cooper said.

One of the biggest obstacles, at the moment, may be the budgetary constraints. President Barack Obama's budget proposal in February canceled a joint US-European robotic mission to Mars in 2016, and the rest of NASA's budget has also been chopped.

At the moment, Michele Perchonok, advanced food technology project scientist at NASA, said about $1 million on average is spent annually on researching and building the Mars menu. NASA's overall budget in 2012 is more than $17 billion. She is hopeful that as the mission gets closer — about 10 to 15 years before launch — that the budget will grow, allowing for more in-depth, conclusive research.

The mission is important: It will give scientists the chance for unique research on everything from looking for other life forms and for the origin of life on Earth to the effects of partial gravity on bone loss. It also will let food scientists examine the question of sustainability. "How do we sustain the crew, 100 percent recycling of everything for that two and a half years?" Perchonok said.

But first things first: None of this will happen without food.

source: philstar.com