The Beauty and Health Chronicles

Scientists restore organ function in pigs even hours after death
The technology could dramatically improve the lifespan of precious organs meant for transplantation.
During death, the entire body’s activity grinds to a halt. The heart no longer beats, breathing stops, and electrical activity in the brain is quiet. Within just a few minutes after we reach the absolute end of the line, the body starts to self-decompose through a process called autolysis, or self-digestion. But this process doesn’t necessarily have to happen that quickly.

In a massive breakthrough, researchers at Yale University have devised a cell-protective fluid that restores blood circulation and other vital cellular functions to the organs and tissues of deceased pigs, even hours after their deaths.

The same technology could be applied to human organs in order to preserve and expand their availability for use as donor organs, which are always in short supply across the world.

“All cells do not die immediately, there is a more protracted series of events,” said David Andrijevic, an associate research scientist in neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine and co-lead author of the study. “It is a process in which you can intervene, stop, and restore some cellular function.”

Keeping organ death at bay
In 2019, the same Yale researchers made headlines earlier after they were able to revive a pig’s brain following death, restoring circulation and certain cellular functions using a technology they dubbed BrainEx. If they could restore cellular function to the dead brain, which is the most vulnerable to degradation after the blood supply is cut, the researchers naturally thought they should be able to do the same for other vital transplantable organs. And it worked.

Applying a modified version of BrainEx, called OrganEx, to the whole body of dead pigs, the researchers found that many key cellular functions were still active in the heart, liver, and kidneys even six hours after treatment. For instance, the heart still had electrical activity, meaning it retained the ability to contract and pump blood. The technology involves a device that resembles heart-lung machines, which pump blood and air for a patient during surgery instead of their body’s organs, as well as a special fluid that contains chemicals that promote cellular health, suppress blood clotting and inflammation, and prevent cellular death.

“We were also able to restore circulation throughout the body, which amazed us,” said Nenad Sestan, professor of neuroscience at Yale and coordinator of the project.

The researchers applied OrganEx to six dead female pigs, whose bodies were left alone for an entire hour after death. After the hour had passed, the researchers hooked the dead pigs up to the fluid-circulating machine and pumped their bodies with the special liquid for six hours. The researchers weren’t allowed to keep the pigs hooked up to the machines any longer due to ethical considerations.

Even after all this time, the heart, lungs, liver, and kidneys were still intact and their cells weren’t dying. Many cells were actually burning glucose, which shows they were still metabolically active. Genes involved in DNA repair and metabolism were active, whereas those involved in death and tissue trauma were suppressed.

“Under the microscope, it was difficult to tell the difference between a healthy organ and one which had been treated with OrganEx technology after death,” Yale’s Zvonimir Vrselja said.

What you need to know about the monkeypox vaccines: A virologist answers your most common questions
There are two approved monkeypox vaccines in the US. Both use a related poxvirus called vaccinia to produce an immune response that protects against smallpox and monkeypox.
1. What are the available monkeypox vaccines?
Two vaccines are currently approved in the U.S. that can provide protection against monkeypox, the Jynneos vaccine – known as Imvamune/Imvanex in Europe – and ACAM2000, an older smallpox vaccine.

The Jynneos vaccine is produced by Bavarian Nordic, a small company in Denmark. The vaccine is for the prevention of smallpox and monkeypox disease in adults ages 18 and older who are at high risk for infection with either virus. It was approved in Europe in 2013 and by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2019.

The Jynneos vaccine is given in two doses four weeks apart and contains a live vaccinia virus. Vaccinia normally infects cattle and is a type of poxvirus, a family of viruses that includes smallpox and monkeypox. The virus in this vaccine has been crippled – or attenuated – so that it is no longer able to replicate in cells.

This vaccine is good at protecting those who are at high risk for monkeypox from getting infected before exposure and can also lessen the severity of disease post-infection. It is effective against smallpox as well as monkeypox. Until the recent monkeypox outbreak, this vaccine was primarily given to health care workers or people who have had confirmed or suspected monkeypox exposure.

2. How effective are these vaccines?
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, there is not yet any data available on the effectiveness of either vaccine in the current outbreak of monkeypox. But there is older data available from animal studies, clinical trials and studies in Africa.

A number of clinical trials done during the approval process for the Jynneos vaccine show that when given to a person, it triggers a strong antibody response on par with the ACAM2000 vaccine. An additional study done in nonhuman primates showed that vaccinated animals that were infected with monkeypox survived 80% to 100% of the time, compared with zero to 40% survival in unvaccinated animals.

Another use of the Jynneos vaccine is as a post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP, meaning the vaccine can be effective even when given after exposure to the virus. Because the monkeypox virus incubates in a person’s body for six to 14 days, the body of someone who gets the Jynneos vaccine shortly after being exposed will produce antibodies that can help fight off infection and protect against a serious monkeypox case.

The ACAM2000 data is older and less precise but shows strong protection. Researchers tested the vaccine during an outbreak of monkeypox in central Africa in the 1980s. Although the study was small and didn’t directly test vaccine efficacy, the authors concluded that unvaccinated people faced an 85% higher risk of being infected than vaccinated people.

3. Does a smallpox vaccine protect against monkeypox?
According to the CDC, a previous smallpox vaccination does provide some protection against monkeypox, though that protection wanes over time. Experts advise that anyone who had the smallpox vaccine more than three years ago and is at increased risk for monkeypox get the monkeypox vaccine.

4. Who should get vaccinated?
At the national level, anyone who has had close contact with an infected person, who has a weakened immune system or who had dermatitis or eczema is eligible for a Jynneos vaccine.

Some state and local governments are also making vaccines available to people in communities at higher risk for monkeypox. For example, New York City is allowing men who have s*x with men and who have had multiple s*xual partners in the past 14 days to get vaccinated.

5. What is the supply like for the Jynneos vaccine?
As of July 29, 2022, a little over 300,000 doses have been shipped to points of care or administered, with another 700,000 already allocated to states across the U.S. However, demand is far outpacing supply. Public health officials acknowledge that vaccine supply shortages have resulted in long lines and clinics having to close when they run out of vaccines. The issues have been magnified by technical problems with online booking systems, particularly in New York City.

Natural antioxidants can keep our skin safe from aging and sunlight when mixed into sunscreen
They work to protect our cells from damage caused by iron imbalances.
The sunscreens and anti-aging creams could be a lot more effective with the addition of naturally-occurring antioxidant compounds, says new research.

Who doesn’t like basking in the sun on a lazy Sunday afternoon? But better pack some sunscreen while you’re at it because, as we age, we need to protect our skin from the damaging effects that ultraviolet (UV) radiation has on our cells.

New research now reports that adding only one of a handful of naturally-occurring compounds to sunscreens and anti-aging creams can allow us to more safely enjoy the sunlight. The study examines the role that antioxidant compounds extracted from a wide variety of plants can play in keeping free radicals — molecules that contribute to tissue damage and aging — at bay in our cells.

Brighter skin
“By including these potent antioxidants in skin-care products and sunscreen formulations, and therefore trapping [free radicals], we can expect to get an unprecedented level of protection from the sun,” says Dr. Charareh Pourzand, who led the research from the Department of Pharmacy & Pharmacology and the Centre for Therapeutic Innovation at the University of Bath.

Experiments carried out by the team revealed that a certain class of antioxidants can have a powerful effect in eliminating excess iron from the cells of our skin. This, in turn, helps them maintain a healthy level of free radicals, chemically-unstable molecules that oxidize cells that are strongly linked to skin damage.

We’ve known for some time now that build-ups of iron in our skin promote aging and the appearance of aging, but the current study comes to flesh out our understanding of the link between these two. The results strongly suggest that skin-care manufacturers should look into adding iron-trapping compounds to their products, the researchers explain.

In their lab at the UK’s University of Bath, the team has identified several such iron-trapping compounds in natural extracts from plant materials ranging from vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds, to bark and flowers. But although these compounds have the right chemical behavior, it’s not yet clear which ones are fit for commercialization and wide-scale human use.

“Though the antioxidants we’ve identified work well in laboratory conditions, they don’t necessarily remain stable once they’ve been added to a cream,” Dr. Pourzand says. “These extracts come from plants, and environmental factors affect their stability and long-term effectiveness—anything from the season in which they are grown, soil type, latitude and the time of harvest can change the strength by which they can neutralize free radicals as well as work as iron traps.”

UV rays contain a lot of energy and are able to break the chemical bonds of certain molecules inside living cells, producing highly-reactive molecules (free radicals) that then go on to bind to DNA or other substances that make up our tissues — essentially, causing chemical damage. Such damage is an important element of aging and occurs both as a natural consequence of biochemical processes going on in our body (chronological aging) and through exposure to sunlight (photoaging).