Binge Drinking in Teenage May Raise Anxiety Later

Are you a heavy drinker? Take note. Alcohol exposure early has lasting effects on the brain and increases the risk of anxiety in adulthood, say researchers.

A study showed adolescent binge drinking, even if discontinued, increases the risk for anxiety later in life due to abnormal epigenetic programming.

"Epigenetics" refers to chemical changes to DNA, RNA or specific proteins associated with chromosomes that change the activity of genes without changing the genes themselves.

"Binge drinking early in life modifies the brain and changes connectivity in the brain, especially in the amygdala, which is involved in emotional regulation and anxiety, in ways we don't totally understand yet," said a Prof.

"But what we do know is that epigenetic changes are lasting and increase susceptibility to psychological issues later in life, even if drinking that took place early in life is stopped," said the Prof.

For the study, adolescent rats that underwent an assessment for anxiety were exposed to ethyl alcohol for two days on and two days off or to the same protocol using saline for 14 days.

The rats were allowed to mature to adulthood without any further exposure to alcohol.

The rats exhibited anxious behaviour later in life, even after the binge drinking regimen stopped in late adolescence. They also had lower levels of a protein called Arc in the amygdala.

Arc is important for the normal development of synaptic connections in the brain.

Rats with less Arc also had about 40 per cent fewer neuronal connections in the amygdala compared with rats that weren't exposed to alcohol.

The decrease in Arc levels is caused by epigenetic changes that alter the expression of Arc, and an enhancer RNA, which modifies the expression of Arc. These changes are caused by adolescent alcohol exposure, said the Prof. 

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New way to remove toxic mercury from drinking water can be reused many times

Considering mercury is highly toxic, it not only needs a whole lot of caution when handling or disposing it, it can also be quickly absorbed by the skin or lungs if inhaled. No amount of boiling can remove Mercury from water, but a new study proposes a radically different way to filter it from contaminated water.

The filtering works using electrochemistry — chemical interactions where electricity is used to move electrons from one atoms or molecule to another. Much like the positive and negative electrodes in a battery, a platinum electrode is dipped into the contaminated water as electricity is run through the electrode.

The surface of the platinum rod can attract a large number of mercury or other heavy metal atoms. Platinum, which is a noble, unreactive metal under normal circumstances, forms an alloy with mercury atoms when electricity is involved in the process. The contaminated water gets progressively cleaner as more mercury from the water is taken up with the platinum to form an alloy. The alloy, being very stable, doesn’t allow mercury to re-enter the water.

Mercury can find its way into our water supply quite easily. The largest source of mercury in water supply is from discarded devices that contain the heavy metal being throw away without taking extra safety measures. Heavy metals can trickle into water bodies and spread over larger areas very quickly.

Not only is this effective in ridding water of mercury, it can also be re-used, making it a scaleable concept for commercial water purifiers.

“Another great thing with our technique is that it is very selective. Even though there may be many different types of substance in the water, it just removes the mercury,”  author of the study said.

“Therefore, the electrode doesn’t waste capacity by unnecessarily taking away other substances from the water.”

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This gene can cause vision loss in middle-age

According to researchers, chemical changes in the eye can lead to blindness in middle-age.

Their findings aid understanding of a genetic condition that causes sight loss for one in 3,000 people.

The team examined how changes in a gene - known as RPGR - can damage eye cells to cause a disorder known as X-linked retinitis pigmentosa - a chronic hereditary eye disease characterized by black pigmentation and gradual degeneration of the retina.

The condition is incurable and affects night and peripheral vision before gradually causing blindness in middle age.

The team  took skin samples from two patients and transformed stem cells - which can change into any cell type - into light-sensing eye cells known as photo-receptors.

They compared these with cells from healthy relatives of the patients.

Photoreceptors - which decay in retinitis pigmentosa patients - differed in their fundamental structure when compared with those from family members.

Follow-up studies in mice identified key molecules that interact with RPGR to maintain the structure of photoreceptors.

When RPGR is flawed, the structure is compromised and photoreceptors cannot function correctly, leading to sight loss.

Lead researcher said that by furthering the understanding of the RPGR gene and its effects on photoreceptor cells, they hope that these findings bring them closer to developing a possible treatment for this devastating disease.

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