Tag: Medicine

Want to Live a Long Life? Consider Investing in Your Marriage.

Written by AUFTAU on 2 July 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

Want to live a long and healthy life? For the men among us, TAU researchers’ best advice is to invest in our relationship.

As Harmful as Smoking

“Our study shows that the quality of marriage and family life has health implications for life expectancy. Men who reported they perceived their marriage as failure died younger than those who experienced their marriages as very successful. In other words, the level of satisfaction with marriage has emerged as a predictive factor for life expectancy at a rate comparable with smoking (smokers versus non-smokers) and physical activity (activity versus inactivity)”, said one of the study’s lead researchers, Dr. Shahar Lev-Ari, head of the Department of Health Promotion at TAU’s School of Public Health, Sackler Faculty of Medicine.

“Furthermore, it’s important to note that we observed a higher risk among relatively young men, under the age of 50. At a higher age, the gap is smaller, perhaps due to processes of adjustment that life partners go through over time.”

The study was based on extensive health data from more than 30 years of research that tracked the deaths of 10,000 Israeli men.

In addition to Dr. Lev-Ari, lead researchers from the School of Public Health at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine also included: Prof. Uri Goldbort from the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine, who initiated and managed the long-term study, and Dr. Yiftah Gapner, from the Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine. The article was published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.

As part of the study, the researchers conducted statistical analyses of a database launched in the 1960s. For 32 years, they tracked the health and behavior of 10,000 male Israel state employees, paying special attention to death from strokes and premature death in general.

At the beginning of the study, most of the participants were in their 40s. Since then, 64% died from a range of illnesses. “We wanted to analyze the data gathered longitudinally using various parameters to identify behavioral and psychosocial risk factors that can predict death from a CVA [a cerebrovascular accident or, in other words, a stroke] and premature death for any reason,” Dr. Lev-Ari explains.

Early in the 32-year-long study, participants were asked to rank their level of marriage satisfaction on a scale of 1 (marriage is very successful) to 4 (marriage is unsuccessful). To the researchers’ surprise, this scale would prove to be a predictive factor for life expectancy, highly similar to smoking and lack of physical activity. The number of deceased from a stroke was 69% higher among those who ranked their marriage satisfaction at 4 (i.e. marriage is unsuccessful) compared to those who ranked their marriage satisfaction very highly. The overall mortality was 19% higher among the unhappily married. The researchers note that the gaps were even larger among men who were relatively young (under 50) at the beginning of the study.

In addition, the researchers conducted a statistical analysis of all known risk factors contributing to death from cardiovascular diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, excessive BMI, and socioeconomic status. Here, too, the data showed that the relative risk of death for any reason among the unhappily married was 1.21 higher than among those satisfied with their marriages. This rate is similar to data cited in medical literature regarding smokers and those leading a sedentary life.

Your list of healthy habits just got a bit longer, guys. But remember, knowledge is power – and next time you go to the gym, perhaps you could make it a date?

A world first: Targeted delivery of therapeutic RNAs only to cancer cells, with no harm caused to healthy cells

Written by AUFTAU on 1 July 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

Tel Aviv University’s Groundbreaking Technology:

The “door-to-door service” that delivers therapeutic RNA payloads directly to cancer cells and other diseased cells

The groundbreaking technology may revolutionize the treatment of cancer and a wide range of diseases and medical conditions.
Researcher Prof. Peer: “Our development actually changes the world of therapeutic antibodies. Today we flood the body with antibodies that, although selective, also damage healthy cells. We have now removed the uninfected cells from the equation, and, via a simple injection, succeeded in targeting only the cells that are inflamed at that given moment.”
The study was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.

Tel Aviv University’s groundbreaking technology may revolutionize the treatment of cancer and a wide range of diseases and medical conditions. In the framework of this study, the researchers were able to create a new method of transporting RNA-based drugs to a subpopulation of immune cells involved in the inflammation process, and target the disease-inflamed cell without causing damage to other cells.

The study was led by Prof. Dan Peer, a global pioneer in the development of RNA-based therapeutic delivery. He is Tel Aviv University’s Vice President for Research and Development, head of the Center for Translational Medicine and a member of both the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. The study was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature.

Prof. Peer: “Our development actually changes the world of therapeutic antibodies. Today we flood the body with antibodies that, although selective, damage all the cells that express a specific receptor, regardless of their current form. We have now taken out of the equation healthy cells that can help us, that is, uninflamed cells, and via a simple injection into the bloodstream can silence, express or edit a particular gene exclusively in the cells that are inflamed at that given moment.”

As part of the study, Prof. Peer and his team were able to demonstrate this groundbreaking development in animal models of inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and colitis, and improve all inflammatory symptoms, without performing any manipulation on about 85% of the immune system cells. Behind the innovative development stands a simple concept, targeting to a specific receptor conformation.

“On every cell envelope in the body, that is, on the cell membrane, there are receptors that select which substances enter the cell,” explains Prof. Peer. “If we want to inject a drug, we have to adapt it to the specific receptors on the target cells, otherwise it will circulate in the bloodstream and do nothing. But some of these receptors are dynamic – they change shape on the membrane according to external or internal signals. We are the first in the world to succeed in creating a drug delivery system that knows how to bind to receptors only in a certain situation, and to skip over the other identical cells, that is, to deliver the drug exclusively to cells that are currently relevant to the disease.”

Previously, Prof. Peer and his team developed delivery systems based on fatty nanoparticles – the most advanced system of its kind; this system has already received clinical approval for the delivery of RNA-based drugs to cells. Now, they are trying to make the delivery system even more selective.

According to Prof. Peer, the new breakthrough has possible implications for a wide range of diseases and medical conditions. “Our development has implications for many types of blood cancers and various types of solid cancers, different inflammatory diseases, and viral diseases such as the coronavirus. We now know how to wrap RNA in fat-based particles so that it binds to specific receptors on target cells,” he says. “But the target cells are constantly changing. They switch from ‘binding’ to ‘non-binding’ mode in accordance with the circumstances. If we get a cut, for example, not all of our immune system cells go into a ‘binding’ state, because we do not need them all in order to treat a small incision. That is why we have developed a unified protein that knows how to bind only to the active state of the receptors of the immune system cells. We tested the protein we developed in animal models of inflammatory bowel disease, both acute and chronic.”

Prof. Peer adds, “We were able to organize the delivery system in such a way that we target to only 14.9% of the cells that were involved in the inflammatory condition of the disease, without adversely affecting the other, non-involved, cells, which are actually completely healthy cells. Through specific binding to the cell sub-population, while delivering the RNA payload we were able to improve all indices of inflammation, from the animal’s weight to pro-inflammatory cytokines. We compared our results with those of antibodies that are currently on the market for Crohn’s and colitis patients, and found that our results were the same or better, without causing most of the side effects that accompany the introduction of antibodies into the entire cell population. In other words, we were able to deliver the drug ‘door-to-door,’ directly to the diseased cells.”

The study was led by Prof. Peer, together with Dr. Niels Dammes, a postdoctoral fellow from the Netherlands, with the collaboration of Dr. Srinivas Ramishetti, Dr. Meir Goldsmith and Dr. Nuphar Veiga, from Prof. Dan Peer’s lab. Professors Jason Darling and Alan Packard of Harvard University in the United States also participated. The study was funded by the European Union, in the framework of the European Research Council (ERC).

Combating Antibiotic Resistance

Written by AUFTAU on 23 June 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

A new TAU study revealed a mechanism through which “good” viruses can attack the systems of “bad” bacteria, destroy them and block their reproduction.

“Good” Viruses Kill “Bad” Bacteria

The researchers demonstrated that the “good” virus (bacteriophage) is able to block the replication mechanism of the bacteria’s DNA without damaging its own, noting that the ability to distinguish between oneself and others is crucial in nature. The discovery reveals one more fascinating aspect of the mutual relations between bacteria and bacteriophages and may lead to a better understanding of bacterial mechanisms for evading bacteriophages, as well as ways for using bacteriophages to combat bacteria. The study, published recently in PNAS – Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Prof. Udi Qimron, Dr. Dor Salomon, Dr. Tridib Mahata and Shahar Molshanski-Mor of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine. Other participants included Prof. Tal Pupko, Head of The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research and also of TAU’s new AI and Data Science Center; Dr. Oren Avram of The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences; and Dr. Ido Yosef, Dr. Moran Goren, Dr. Miriam Kohen-Manor and Dr. Biswanath Jana of the Sackler Faculty of Medicine.

A Great Scientific Challenge

Prof. Qimron explains that the antibiotic resistance of bacteria is one of the greatest challenges faced by scientists today. One potential solution may lie in further investigation of the targeted eradication of bacteria by “good” bacteriophages; namely, understanding bacteriophage mechanisms for taking over bacteria as a basis for the development of new tools to combat bacterial pathogens. With this solution in mind, the current study unveiled the mechanism by which the bacteriophage takes control of the bacteria. The researchers found that a bacteriophage protein uses a DNA-repair protein in the bacteria to “cunningly” cut the bacteria’s DNA as it is being repaired. Since the bacteriophage’s own DNA has no need for this specific repair protein, it is protected from this nicking procedure. In this way the “good” bacteriophage does three important things: it distinguishes between its own DNA and that of the bacteria, destroys the bacteria’s genetic material, and blocks the bacteria’s propagation and cell division.

The process by which the bacteriophage destroys the bacteria’s genetic material Prof. Qimron explains that, “The ability to distinguish between oneself and others is of enormous importance in nature and in various biological applications. All antibiotic mechanisms identify and neutralize bacteria only, with minimal effect on human cells.” The researchers discovered the process by searching for types of bacterial variants not impacted by this bacteriophage mechanism – those that have developed “immunity” to it. This inquiry led them to the specific bacterial mechanisms affected by the bacteriophage takeover. “Shedding more light on the ways in which bacteriophages attack bacteria, our findings may serve as a tool in the endless battle against antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” concludes Prof. Qimron. Featured image: Illustrative: Bacteriophage or phage virus attacking and infecting a bacterium

Diamonds in the Rough

Written by AUFTAU on 3 June 2021. Posted in Magazine, Newsroom.

Maximizing the potential of TAU students on the autism spectrum.

Giving a presentation in front of a class can be daunting for any university student. For someone with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it can be terrifying. Routine study tasks like this can make higher education an unattainable dream for most people with ASD, which reduces the ability to connect with people. To help, TAU established Yahalom (“Diamond”), a comprehensive program that supports high-functioning ASD students from the moment they enroll at TAU through to graduation. “Today we know that ASD does not necessarily affect a person’s academic abilities,” says Alberto Meschiany, Head of the Psychological Services Unit at the Dean of Students Office, which runs the Yahalom program. “We support ASD students in whatever they need help with—primarily enhancing their interpersonal communication skills and ability to independently navigate the complexities of campus life.” Yahalom was launched in October 2017 with 10 students. Today it has 46—an almost fivefold increase in three years. “Ultimately, we aim to substantially boost these students’ independence and self-confidence, ensure they complete their degree, and broaden the range of options open to them once they enter the employment market,” explains Meschiany.

Mentors: Heart of the program

Yahalom is run by a dedicated coordinator who gets to know each of the ASD students and also recruits and trains volunteer TAU students as mentors. The goal is to ensure that the mentors know what to expect and how to communicate with ASD people, reduce their anxiety, help with their dealings vis-à-vis the staff and lecturers, accompany them to classes, and meet whatever other day-to-day needs may arise during the academic year. Demand among students wishing to be mentors is high, says Meschiany. “Right now, we can only give the mentors token scholarships, but we would love to give them larger ones. This is our biggest funding need,” he adds. Mentors help in myriad ways. For example, Yahalom heard about an ASD student who had been unnecessarily buying expensive textbooks for almost two years because he didn’t know how to make photocopies at the library and was too embarrassed to ask for help. He was immediately assigned a mentor who now helps him with these types of issues. Many ASD students have asked their mentors for advice on how to tell their classmates about their condition and the difficulties they face.

Personal ties reduce stress

Efrat Gilboa, a third-year student of Psychology and Law at TAU, mentors two ASD students. “I’ve always enjoyed volunteering and helping others, and used to work with special needs children. I thought that Yahalom could be an amazing opportunity for me not only to help autistic people integrate into the University, but to try to see the world through their eyes,” she says. “As a Yahalom mentor, my main job is to help the students cope with their study load, better manage their time, and help them flourish,” she explains. “But now we have a real friendship. My students can—and do—contact me whenever they feel like it, whether it’s to ask me a question or show me something interesting that they saw on their way to the campus.” “It’s a real privilege and fantastic experience to be able to mentor these students. They are among some of the best people I’ve had the opportunity to meet,” says Gilboa. “Since I began mentoring them half a year ago, I can see that my students are now less stressed and anxious and are better at managing their time.”

An interdisciplinary approach

Along with providing opportunities for ASD students, TAU is pursuing autism research from diverse perspectives. “Together with other neurodevelopmental disorders, autism needs to be addressed by academics from multiple areas—neuroscientists, geneticists, psychologists, cell biologists, speech therapists and social workers—alongside practicing pediatricians, neurologists and psychiatrists,” says Prof. Karen Avraham, Vice Dean at TAU’s Sackler Faculty of Medicine. “This is why TAU, with its inherently interdisciplinary research culture and strong ties with hospitals, is ideally positioned to bring about influential discoveries in the field—and why it has made autism research a strategic priority.” One such researcher is cognitive neuropsychologist Prof. Lilach Shalev of the Jaime and Joan Constantiner School of Education who heads the Attention Lab, affiliated with the Sagol School of Neuroscience. She develops novel training programs aimed at improving academic performance of learners from kindergarten to university students, and assesses their outcomes using neuropsychological, eye-tracking, brain-imaging and psychological measures. Her main work centers on the Computerized Progressive Attention Training Program (CPAT) that she pioneered for children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2007; it is now implemented in several countries. Several years ago, Prof. Shalev expanded her research focus to include autism. “Our system was shown to work with great results among autistic people, also for their behavioral and communication difficulties, and we were very surprised,” she explains. These findings might also be relevant for university students on the autistic spectrum. Read about how TAU alumna, Noga Keinan, promotes the integration of ASD students in higher education. Meschiany concludes: “The tailored support we offer Yahalom participants helps to level the playing field relative to their peers. These are very intelligent students with a high capacity to learn. Our job is to help them overcome their social difficulties and fulfill their potential.” By Ruti Ziv Featured image: Efrat Gilboa mentors two ASD students

How Will We Brave the Post-COVID Era?

Written by AUFTAU on 1 June 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

By Melanie Takefman Dr. Bruria Adina, head of the Emergency and Disaster Management Program at TAU’s School of Public Health, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, and TAU’s Center for Combating Pandemics, has been measuring Israelis’ resilience for years, both during “routine times” and crises. When COVID-19 broke in March 2020, Adini and her team surveyed a sample group of Israelis regarding their mental well-being. They continued to do so every 2-3 months to evaluate their levels of distress, depression and anxiety as well as individual, community and national resilience.

How has COVID-19 affected Israelis’ mental health?

It affected them in almost every facet of their lives. Until October 2020, the rates of distress rose significantly—both anxiety and depression. We got to the point where one in five people had high levels of depression, and one in three had high levels of anxiety. All three levels of resilience—individual, community and national—dropped through much of the first year of COVID-19. Then, in January 2021, we saw a small increase in community and national resilience, most probably a result of the vaccination campaign. We can explain this by the fact that the vaccination campaign offered hope that things will get better. People felt that the country was standing by their side. The authorities were doing something. At the same time, there was a substantial decrease in individual resilience. People didn’t feel the vaccination campaign was impacting their lives yet. They were still stuck at home. They didn’t know what was going to happen with their children’s education. They were still experiencing economic instability.

How has resilience varied with age?

We expected to see the highest threat and the lowest resilience among the elderly population, because we heard that they were the most at risk and COVID-19 could be lethal for them. But what we found was the opposite. It was the younger populations, aged 31-40, who showed the lowest level of resilience and the highest levels of stress, anxiety and perceived threat. The younger people felt the most impact economically because they are the backbone of the workforce, while those who live on pensions were less affected. This younger group also worried about the impact of the pandemic on their children, as the school system was closed. In addition, we found that the resilience of university and college students was lower than that of the average population. Their distress and anxiety levels were higher, as was a perceived threat to their academic success. In addition, many of them lost jobs in the industries that were shut down during the pandemic, such as restaurants and bars.

How can governments help people be more resilient during a pandemic?

Transparency is key to the management of any emergency. Having a clear and unified message is also important. If you enable open dialogue, authorities can provide information that the public needs in a way that builds trust. In other words, the government needs to make the public part of the solution, to make them a partner and to empower them. For example, the government and other bodies can invite the public to relay what is happening on the ground. In this way, citizens can have an impact on policy and crisis response. On the flipside, we saw that messaging that inspired fear among the populace worked only for a short time. Also, the threat of cash fines didn’t convince people to follow the guidelines, such as wearing masks. What does have an impact is helping people understand how their behavior will impact those they care about—their community, family members and so on. During the pandemic, we also saw fruitful connections between academia and decision-makers. We provided data and evidence of what the public feels, which they could take into consideration in determining policy. We collaborated with the Ministries of Health, Social Equality and Welfare.

Some people think that the next pandemic will be a mental health pandemic. Do you agree with this statement?

If you’re asking me is this pandemic going to have long-term mental health repercussions, the answer is certainly yes. No type of adversity or pandemic is singular. The health risk caused economic instability. The economic instability created political instability. Mental health impacts your ability to function, your ability to function impacts your economic situation, your economic situation impacts your mental health, your self-confidence, your certainty of what the future holds, and so on. So it’s not only about mental health; it affects our economy and society as well.

What are the main lessons that COVID-19 has taught us?

Even when we need to make drastic changes in our lives, we have the power to overcome and continue to function. For example, the education system closed and distance learning was a severe blow but in academia, for example, we didn’t miss one day of teaching. We switched to Zoom, and that’s going to impact online learning in the years to come. We saw the same concerning the economy. People worked from home. I think the pandemic led to some positive insights, and these are becoming clearer as time passes. We’re going to see that our society can make the necessary modifications to improve our way of life. That’s the exact definition of resilience: To adapt to what is happening and still try to bounce forward. Featured image: Dr. Bruria Adina, head of TAU’s Emergency and Disaster Management Program

Are We Getting to the Root of Cancer?

Written by AUFTAU on 3 May 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

In an interdisciplinary research project carried out at Tel Aviv University, researchers from the School of Plant Sciences affiliated with The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences collaborated with their colleagues from the Sackler Faculty of Medicine in order to study the course of plant root growth. Aided by a computational model constructed by cancer researchers studying cancer cells, adapted for use with plant root cells, they were able to demonstrate, for the first time in the world, and at the resolution of a single cell, that the root grows with a screwing motion – just like a drill penetrating a wall. In the wake of this study, the cancer researchers conjecture that cancer cells, too, are assisted by a spiral motion in order to penetrate healthy tissue in the environment of the tumor, or to create metastases in various organs of the body. The research was led by Prof. Eilon Shani from the School of Plant Sciences and Food Security and Prof. Ilan Tsarfaty from the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University, and was conducted in collaboration with researchers from the USA, Austria and China. The article was published in March 2021 in the acclaimed journal Nature Communications.

Significant Advance in Plant Research – and in the War on Cancer?

The researchers in Prof. Shani’s group, led by Dr. Yangjie Hu, used as a model the plant known as Arabidopsis. They marked the nuclei of the root cells with a fluorescent protein and observed the growing process and movement of the cells at the root tip through a powerful microscope – approximately 1000 cells in each movie. Furthermore, in order to examine what causes and controls the movement, they focused on a known hormone named auxin, which regulates growth in plants. They built a genetic system that enables activation of auxin production (like a switch) in a number of selected cells-types, and then monitored the influence of the on/off mechanism, in four dimensions – the three spatial dimensions and the dimension of time. After each instance of auxin biosynthesis, each of the thousand cells was video recorded for a period of 6 to 24 hours, thus an enormous amount of data accumulated.

WATCH: The process of growth and movement of cells at the root tip using a microscope

For the next stage, the researchers were aided by the computational tools provided by Prof. Tsarfaty, which had been developed in his laboratory for the purpose of monitoring the development of cancerous growths. They used these tools to analyze the imaging data obtained in the study. Thus they were actually able, for the first time, to observe with their own eyes the corkscrew movement of the root, as well as to precisely quantify and chart some 30 root growth parameters relating to time and space – including acceleration, length, changes in cell structure, coordination between cells during the growth process and velocity – for each one of the thousand cells at the root tip. Using fluorescent reporters, the findings even allowed them to precisely assess the movement and the influence of the auxin on the root, and the way in which it controls the growth process. Prof. Shani: “The computational tools that were developed for cancer research have enabled us, for the first time, to precisely measure and quantify the kinetics of growth and to reveal the mechanisms that control it at the resolution of a single cell. By this they have significantly advanced plant research, an area of utmost importance for society – both from an environmental point of view and in terms of agriculture and feeding the population.” Prof. Tsarfaty adds: “This was a synergetic collaboration that benefited and enlightened both parties. In plants, processes take place much more rapidly, and therefore constitute an excellent model for us. In consequence of the findings provided by this plant study, we are presently examining the possibility of a similar screw-like motion in cancer cells and in metastases, in the course of their penetration into adjacent healthy tissues.”

British Variant 45% More Contagious than Original Virus

Written by AUFTAU on 29 April 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

A new study at Tel Aviv University found that the British variant (termed: B.1.1.7) of Covid-19 is 45% more contagious than the original virus. The researchers relied on data from about 300,000 PCR tests for Covid-19 obtained from the COVID-19 testing lab, which was established in collaboration with the Electra Group. According to the researchers, “The study proves that active monitoring of at-risk population and prioritized vaccination programs can prevent hundreds of deaths.” The new study was conducted by Prof. Ariel Munitz and Prof. Moti Gerlitz of the Department of Clinical Microbiology and Immunology at the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, together with Dr. Dan Yamin and PhD student Matan Yechezkel from the Laboratory for Epidemic Modeling and Analysis (LEMA) at the Department of Industrial Engineering, all at Tel Aviv University. The study’s results were published in the prominent scientific journal Cell Reports Medicine. The Electra-TAU laboratory was established in March 2020, right after the outbreak of the first wave of the pandemic in Israel. To date, it has analyzed hundreds of thousands of tests from all over the country – from public drive-in test facilities, as well as programs targeting specific populations – such as ‘Shield for Fathers and Mothers’ which routinely ran tests in at-risk hotspots like retirement homes. Prof. Ariel Munitz explains: “We use a kit that tests for three different viral genes. In the British variant, also known as B.1.1.7, one of these genes, the S gene, has been erased by the mutation. Consequently, we were able to track the spread of the variant even without genetic sequencing.” According to Prof. Munitz, the data from the lab shows that the spread of the British variant in Israel was very rapid: On December 24, 2020 only 5% of the positive results were attributed to the British variant. Just six weeks later, in January 2021, this variant was responsible for 90% of Covid-19 cases in Israel. The current figure is about 99.5%. “To explain this dramatic increase, we compared the R number of the SARS-CoV-2 virus with the R of the British variant. In other words, we posed the question: How many people, on the average, contract the disease from every person who has either variant? We found that the British variant is 45% – almost 1.5 times – more contagious.”

Vaccine Saved Hundreds

In the second stage of the study, the researchers segmented contagion by age groups. The results indicated that the turning point for the 60+ population compared to other age groups occurred two weeks after 50% of Israel’s 60+ population received their first vaccine shot: “Until January we saw a linear dependence of almost 100% between the different age groups in new cases per 1,000 people,” says Dr. Dan Yamin. “Two weeks after 50% of the 60+ population received the first dose of the vaccine this graph broke sharply and significantly. During January a dramatic drop was observed in the number of new cases in the 60+ group, alongside a continued rise in the rest of the population. Simply put, since more than 90% of those who died from Covid-19 were over 60, we can say that the vaccine saved hundreds of lives – even in the short run.”

Active Monitoring of At-Risk Populations

Moreover, the new study proves that active monitoring of at-risk populations works. “There is a threshold value for determining whether a specific test is positive or negative for the virus – with a lower value indicating a higher viral load,” says Prof. Munitz. “When we compared the threshold values of the different genes in 60+ residents of retirement homes with the values measured in 60+ persons in the general population, we saw significantly higher values in the retirement homes. This means that the viral load in retirement homes was lower compared to the rest of the population. Since the residents of retirement homes are tested routinely, while other people are usually tested only when they don’t feel well or have been in contact with someone who had tested positive for the virus, we conclude that constant monitoring of at-risk populations is a method that works. It is important to emphasize: the relatively low viral load was found in retirement homes despite the fact that the British variant had already begun to spread in all populations. Consequently, we show that monitoring retirement homes, together with vaccination that gives precedence to vulnerable populations, prevent illness and mortality.” Dr. Yemin concludes: “Due to crowded conditions, large households and age distribution in the Israeli population, the coronavirus had a more favorable environment for spreading in Israel compared to most Western countries. Our message to the world is that if with our problematic starting point a distinct decline was identified, other Western countries can certainly expect the curve to break – despite the high contagion of the British variant – with a dramatic drop in severe cases following the vaccination of 50% of the older population, alongside targeted testing at risk epicenters.” Featured image: Left to Right: Prof. Ariel Munitz, Dr. Dan Yamin and Prof. Moti Gerlitz

Optical Technology Generates Immediate Melanoma Diagnosis

Written by AUFTAU on 27 April 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

Melanoma is a life-threatening cancer, but its immediate diagnosis can save lives. An innovative optical technology that can distinguish between different types of cancer has now been developed in the laboratory of Professor Abraham Katzir, from the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences at Tel Aviv University, which enables real time diagnosis of melanoma. Based on special optical fibers, the technology will enable every dermatologist to determine the character of a suspicious lesion automatically, and particularly if it is melanoma. Non-invasive, immediate, and automatic, this process may lead to a dramatic change in the field of diagnosing and treating skin cancer, and possibly other types of cancer as well. The technology has been tried successfully on about one hundred patients in a major hospital in Israel. The findings were published in the Journal Medical Physics.

Seeing Skin Cancer’s True Colors

When a suspicious lesion is found on the skin, during a routine examination, it is removed in a minor surgical procedure and sent to a laboratory for testing. A pathologist diagnoses the lesion and determines whether it is melanoma. In most cases where melanoma is discovered early, when it is still superficial and less than one-millimeter-thick and it is removed, the patient recovers. Late diagnosis, when the melanoma is more than one-millimeter-thick, significantly reduces the chances of recovery and is life-threatening. “The idea that guided us in developing the technology was that in the visible range, there are various substances, having various colors, which are not characteristic of each substance. On the other hand, in the infrared region, various substances have different ‘colors’ of a sort, depending on the chemical makeup of each substance,” says Professor Katzir. “Therefore, we figured that with the help of devices that can identify these ’colors’, healthy skin and each of the benign and malignant lesions would have different ’colors’, which would enable us to identify melanoma.” Professor Katzir’s research group developed special optical fibers that are transparent in the infrared. The group, in collaboration with physicists Professor Yosef Raichlin of Ariel University, Dr. Max Platkov of the Negev Nuclear Research Center, and Svetlana Bassov of Professor Katzir’s group, developed a system, based on these fibers, in accordance with the requirements of evaluating skin. The researchers connected one end of this type of fiber to a device that measures the ’colors’ in the infrared, and touched the other end lightly, for several seconds, to a lesion on a patient’s skin. The fiber made it possible to check the ’color’ of the lesion right away. Clinical trials were then carried out on suspicious lesions in about one hundred patients. With the help of the new system, physicists performed measurements of the ’color’ of each lesion, before it was removed and sent to a pathology laboratory. The researchers showed that all of the lesions that were determined by pathologists as being of a certain type, such as melanoma, had a characteristic ’color’ in the infrared. Each type of lesion had a different ’color’. “The technology gives us a kind of ‘fingerprint’, which makes it possible to diagnose the various lesions by measuring their characteristic ’colors’”, says Professor Katzir. “In this way, lesions can be diagnosed using a non-invasive optical method, and the physician and the patient receive the results automatically and immediately. This is unlike the test that is routinely used, which involves surgery, and the pathological diagnosis takes a long time.” Following the success of the study, the researchers plan to confirm the evaluation method on hundreds of patients.

Non-invasive, immediate, and automatic

In conclusion, Professor Katzir says: “Melanoma is a life-threatening cancer, so it is very important to diagnose it early on, when it is still superficial. The innovative system will enable every dermatologist to determine the character of a suspicious lesion automatically, and particularly if it is melanoma. This system has the potential to cause a dramatic change in the field of diagnosing and treating skin cancer, and perhaps other types of cancer as well. The challenge will be to make this technology, which is still expensive, something that will be used in every hospital or clinic.”

Gut Healing

Written by AUFTAU on 25 April 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

Researchers from Tel Aviv University have created an artificial intelligence platform that can identify the specific proteins that allow bacteria to infect the intestines – a method that paves the way for the creation of smart drugs that will neutralize the proteins and prevent disease, without the use of antibiotics. Participating in the study, which was published in the prestigious journal Science, were Ph.D. student Naama Wagner and Prof. Tal Pupko, Head of The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research at the Faculty of Life Sciences and the new Center for Artificial Intelligence & Data Science at Tel Aviv University. The international partners in the study included researchers from Imperial College (led by Prof. Gad Frankel) and the Institute for Cancer Research in London, as well as from the Technical University and the National Center for Biotechnology in Madrid.

Swapping the Cannon for a Rifle

Intestinal diseases are caused by pathogenic bacteria that attach to our intestinal cells. Once attached, the bacteria use a kind of molecular syringe to inject intestinal cells with proteins called “effectors.” These effectors work together to take over healthy cells, like hackers that take over computer servers using a combination of lines of code. However, until now scientists have not known what protein combination it is that cracks the cell’s defense mechanisms. Now, the TAU researchers’ artificial intelligence platform has identified novel effectors in the bacteria, which have been experimentally tested and validated. Subsequently, laboratory experiments conducted in London successfully predicted the protein combinations that lead to the pathogenic bacteria taking over the intestines. “In this study, we focused on a bacterium that causes intestinal disease in mice, a relative of the E. coli bacteria that cause intestinal disease in humans, so as not to work directly with the human pathogen”, explains Ph.D. student Naama Wagner. “The artificial intelligence we created knows how to predict effectors in a variety of pathogenic bacteria, including bacteria that attack plants of economic importance. Our calculations were made possible by advanced machine-learning tools that use the genomic information of a large number of bacteria. Our partners in England proved experimentally that the learning was extremely accurate and that the effectors we identified are indeed the weapons used by the bacteria.” “Pathogenic bacteria are treated with antibiotics,” says Prof. Tal Pupko. “But antibiotics kill a large number of species of bacteria, in the hope that the pathogenic bacteria will also be destroyed. So antibiotics are not a rifle but a cannon. Moreover, the overuse of antibiotics leads to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a worldwide problem that is getting worse. Understanding the molecular foundation of the disease is a necessary step in the development of drugs that are smarter than antibiotics, which will not harm the bacterial population in the intestines at all. This time we discovered the effectors of gut bacteria that attack rodents, but this is just the beginning. We are already working on detecting effectors in other bacteria in an attempt to better understand how they carry out their mission in the target cells they are attacking.”

Could Your Smartphone Be Damaging Your Teeth?

Written by AUFTAU on 4 April 2021. Posted in Newsroom.

Do you often find yourself checking your social media nonstop, so you won’t feel out of the loop? You may want to become more mindful of this habit – a new study from Tel Aviv University’s Maurice and Gabriela Goldschleger School of Dental Medicine shows that the excessive use of smartphones and social media can lead to sleep issues; drowsiness and fatigue during the day; teeth-grinding and pain in the mouth muscles and jaws. The study was conducted as part of Dr. Yitzhak Hochhauser’s dissertation and was led by Dr. Alona Amudi-Perlman, Dr. Pessia Friedman-Rubin, Prof. Ilana Eli, and Prof. Ephraim Winocur. It will be published in the journal Quintessence International. About 600 participants, including a group of secular people (smartphone users) and a group of ultra-Orthodox people (most of whom use a “kosher” phone without an Internet connection), were asked to address a number of aspects that typify overuse of the phone, including feelings of stress and tension throughout the day, a tendency to wake up at night, a need to be available to the cell phone, teeth-grinding and jaw pain.

More Screen Time = More Sufferings

The findings of the study show that 54% of secular smartphone users have a moderate to high incidence of night wakings, compared with only 20% among the ultra-Orthodox. In addition, half of the secular respondents (50%) feel a moderate to high level of stress due to the cell phone, compared to only 22% among the ultra-Orthodox. The disparities between the groups are also reflected in the question of how available they feel they need to be to their mobile devices – 45% of the secular respondents answered that they had a moderate to high need to be available to their phones, compared to only 20% in the ultra-Orthodox group. These gaps are even more marked when examining damage to the chewing muscles and jaw joints: 45% of the secular group reported teeth-grinding (24% during the day and 21% at night) and 29% of them claimed that they suffered pain in their jaw muscles, in comparison to only about 14% of the ultra-Orthodox who described these symptoms (13.5% reported teeth-grinding and 14% pain in the jaw muscles). Dr. Friedman-Rubin and Prof. Eli explain that “In today’s day and age people live with a sense of FOMO (fear of missing out) and so they want to stay constantly updated and know ‘what’s new’ every moment. This need naturally creates a growing dependence on cell phones, which leads to feelings of stress and anxiety – ‘someone might write something on social media and I’ll miss it and not be in the loop.’” Dr. Friedman-Rubin explains, “The current study has demonstrated a link between the excessive use of smartphones that enable surfing on social apps and a significant increase in night wakings (which lead to fatigue during the day), facial and jaw pain, tightness in the jaw during the day and teeth-grinding at night – physical symptoms that are often the result of stress and anxiety and which may even lead to physical injury such as dental erosion and joint damage. We are of course in favor of technological progress, but as with everything in life, the excessive use of smartphones can lead to negative symptoms, and it is important that the public be aware of the consequences it has on the body and mind.”

Tag: Medicine

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