Mature T cells can switch function to better tackle infection

Jan. 20, 2013 ? Helper cells of the immune system can switch to become killer cells in the gut. The fate of mature T lymphocytes might be a lot more flexible than previously thought. New research from the RIKEN Center for Allergy and Immunology (RCAI) in Japan and La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology (LIAI) in the USA shows for the first time that mature CD4+ helper T lymphocytes can be re-programed to become killer-like CD8+ T lymphocytes and gain killing functions.

The findings are reported January 20 in the journal Nature Immunology, by a team of researchers led by Ichiro Taniuchi from RIKEN and Hilde Cheroutre from La Jolla. The team show using transgenic mice that mature CD4+ helper T lymphocytes that have lost the transcription factor ThPOK express genes specific to CD8+ killer T lymphocytes upon exposure to a specific environmental stimulation such as the gut. This turns them into killer cells that might act to control infection.

CD4+ helper T lymphocytes and CD8+ killer T lymphocytes are important players in the body's defense mechanism against infection. CD4+ helper T lymphocytes normally only assist other cells of the immune system during an infection, whereas CD8+ killer T cells are the main actors in the elimination of infected cells.

Both types of cells are generated in the thymus, where their early precursors develop first into cells bearing both CD4 and CD8 markers. These CD4+ CD8+ cells then differentiate into cells bearing either the CD4 or CD8 marker and take on either a helper (CD4+) or killer (CD8+) fate.

The transcription factor ThPOK is known to play a crucial role in the fate determination of T lymphocytes in the thymus. It represses genes specific to CD8+ cells in precursors of helper T cells and prevents these cells from differentiating into CD8+ killer cells. The expression of ThPOK continues in mature CD4+ helper T cells and is repressed in mature CD8+ cells.

In the study, Taniuchi, Cheroutre and colleagues show that upon deactivation of ThPOK, mature CD4+ T cells revert back to bearing both CD4 and CD8 markers in the mouse intestine. By analyzing RNA extracted from ThPOK-negative CD4+ CD8+ cells, the researchers demonstrate that the cells express various CD8+ cell-specific genes encoding for cytolitic proteins and that they have effectively differentiated into CD8+ killer T cells.

The authors conclude: "The unexpected plasticity of mature CD4+ T cells to differentiate into CD8+ cytolitic cells expands the functional capabilities of CD4+ T cells. It is possible that CD4+ T cells are also involved in direct protective functions and provide the immune system with an alternative protective mechanism."

According to them, these cells may be recruited to help in the immune response at interfaces such as the skin or mucosae, where the rapid elimination of infected cells is crucial.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by RIKEN.

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Journal Reference:

1. Daniel Mucida, Mohammad Mushtaq Husain, Sawako Muroi, Femke van Wijk, Ryo Shinnakasu, Yoshinori Naoe, Bernardo Sgarbi Reis, Yujun Huang, Florence Lambolez, Michael Docherty, Antoine Attinger, Jr-Wen Shui, Gisen Kim, Christopher J Lena, Shinya Sakaguchi, Chizuko Miyamoto, Peng Wang, Koji Atarashi, Yunji Park, Toshinori Nakayama, Kenya Honda, Wilfried Ellmeier, Mitchell Kronenberg, Ichiro Taniuchi, Hilde Cheroutre. Transcriptional reprogramming of mature CD4 helper T cells generates distinct MHC class II?restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes. Nature Immunology, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ni.2523

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/5C-UYWXEMIY/130120145844.htm

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Top 10 Tech This Week

1. Google Glass to Hit Developers' Hands This Month

Google announced plans Tuesday to hold a "Glass Foundry" in San Francisco and New York in the coming weeks: Two full days of hacking that will allow developers to get an early look at Glass and start developing for the platform. Learn more about Google's announcement: http://on.mash.to/Wdd3dy Photo by Mashable, Pete Pachal

Click here to view this gallery.

[More from Mashable: Top 10 Tech This Week]

It was CES 2013 "hangover week" in the tech world this week. With the gadgets bonanza in the rear-view mirror, the top tech news stories were understandably lacking some gizmos. But fear not -- the world of tech was still filled with exciting news.

The biggest announcement of the week was probably that Google Glass will finally be available for developers this very month, with two events planned in San Francisco and New York. So we'll soon know more about Google's secretive and futuristic project. The search giant also has new ideas regarding computer security. Or, more precisely, on how to replace passwords.

[More from Mashable: Top 10 Tech This Week]

There were also a lot of somewhat weird tech stories, like the invention of ice cubes that can tell you when you've had a little bit too much booze -- and text your friends to warn them. Or an alarm clock that sends you an electric shock to wake you up.

Oh, and Chevrolet unveiled the new version of its iconic Corvette, the 2014 Stingray.

Take a look at our Top 10 Tech This Week to see what else happened this week in the world of technology.

This story originally published on Mashable here.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/top-10-tech-week-164449749.html

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Mars may have supported life: Martian underground could contain clues to life's origins

Jan. 20, 2013 ? Minerals found in the subsurface of Mars, a zone of more than three miles below ground, make for the strongest evidence yet that the red planet may have supported life, according to research "Groundwater activity on Mars and implications for a deep biosphere," published in Nature Geoscience on January 20, 2013.

Up to half of all life on Earth consists of simple microorganisms hidden in rocks beneath the surface and for some time, scientists have suggested that the same may be true for Mars. Now this theory has been supported by new research, which suggests that the ingredients for life have been present in the Martian subsurface for much of the planet's history.

When meteorites strike the surface of Mars, they act like natural probes, bringing up rocks from far beneath the surface. Recent research has shown that many of the rocks brought up from the Martian subsurface contain clays and minerals whose chemical make-up has been altered by water, an essential element to support life. Some deep craters on Mars also acted as basins where groundwater likely emerged to produce lakes.

McLaughlin Crater, described in this study, is one such basin that contains clay and carbonate minerals formed in an ancient lake on Mars. The fluids that formed these minerals could carry clues to as to whether the subsurface contained life.

"We don't know how life on Earth formed but it is conceivable that it originated underground, protected from harsh surface conditions that existed on early Earth. Due to plate tectonics, however, the early geological record of Earth is poorly preserved so we may never know what processes led to life's origin and early evolution," said Dr Joseph Michalski, lead author and planetary geologist at the Natural History Museum in London. "Exploring these rocks on Mars, where the ancient geologic record is better preserved than on Earth, would be like finding a stack of pages that have been ripped out of Earth's geological history book. Whether the Martian geologic record contains life or not, analysis of these types of rocks would certainly teach us a tremendous amount about early chemical processes in the solar system."

Co-author Deanne Rogers, Assistant Professor in the Department of Geosciences at Stony Brook University used data from the Thermal Emission Spectrometer aboard NASA's Mars Global Surveyor and the Thermal Emission Imaging System aboard the Mars Odyssey orbiter to detect and identify minerals that proved to be consistent with a sustained aqueous environment on the floor of the McLaughlin Crater.

"Our understanding of Mars is changing very rapidly with all of the new mission data," said Professor Rogers. "There have been several recent observations and models that have pointed to the possibility of a vast store of groundwater in the Martian past, and perhaps present. So you might expect that deep basins such as McLaughlin, which intersect the upwelling groundwater table, would contain evidence of this water. And this study found that evidence."

Current exploration of Mars focuses on investigating surface processes because sedimentary rocks are most likely to provide the best chance evidence for habitability. Evidence suggests, however, that the Martian surface environment has been quite inhospitable to life for billions of years. In future missions, scientists could choose to target rocks related to the surface or subsurface, or perhaps do both by targeting areas where sedimentary rocks formed from subsurface fluids.

Michalski concludes: 'In this paper, we present a strong case for exploring the subsurface, as well as the surface. But I don't personally think we should try to drill into the subsurface to look for ancient life. Instead, we can study rocks that are naturally brought to the surface by meteor impact and search in deep basins where fluids have come to the surface.'

Co-author Professor John Parnell, geochemist at the University of Aberdeen, commented, "This research has demonstrated how studies of Earth and Mars depend on each other. It is what we have observed of microbes living below the continents and oceans of Earth. They allow us to speculate on habitats for past life on Mars, which in turn show us how life on the early Earth could have survived. We know from Earth's history that planets face traumatic conditions such as meteorite bombardment and ice ages, when the survival of life may depend on being well below ground. So it makes sense to search for evidence of life from that subsurface environment, in the geological records of both Earth and Mars. But it's one thing to do that on Earth -- we need to be clever in finding a way to do it on Mars."

Additional co-authors of the study include: Javier Caudros, Researcher, Clay Mineralogy, Earth Sciences Department, Natural History Museum, London; Paul B. Niles, Planetary Scientist, NASA Johnson Space Center; and Shawn P. Wright, Postdoctoral Fellow in Geology, Auburn University.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Stony Brook University.

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Journal Reference:

1. Joseph R. Michalski, Javier Cuadros, Paul B. Niles, John Parnell, A. Deanne Rogers, Shawn P. Wright. Groundwater activity on Mars and implications for a deep biosphere. Nature Geoscience, 2013; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo1706

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130120145825.htm

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Obama says US ready to assist Algerian officials

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, and British Defense Minister Philip Hammond, shake hands for photographers before their meeting at Lancaster House in London, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, on the last day of Panetta's final overseas trip. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, and British Defense Minister Philip Hammond, shake hands for photographers before their meeting at Lancaster House in London, Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, on the last day of Panetta's final overseas trip. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Britain's Secretary of State for Defense Philip Hammond, left, speak to the media with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta during a news conference at Lancaster House in London on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Britain's defense minister says it appears the hostage situation in Algeria has come to an end and resulted in further loss of life. Philip Hammond calls the loss of life appalling and unacceptable. He says "it is the terrorists that bear the sole responsibility for it." Hammond spoke at the start of a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaks to the media during a news conference with the Secretary of State for Defense Philip Hammond, not pictured, at Lancaster House in London on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. Britain's defense minister says it appears the hostage situation in Algeria has come to an end and resulted in further loss of life. Philip Hammond calls the loss of life appalling and unacceptable. He says "it is the terrorists that bear the sole responsibility for it." Hammond spoke at the start of a news conference with U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Britain's Secretary of State for Defense Philip Hammond arrive for a news conference at Lancaster House in London on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama said Saturday the U.S. stands ready to provide whatever assistance Algerian officials need in the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attack at a natural gas complex in the Sahara.

The four-day standoff appeared to end Saturday after Algerian special forces stormed the complex. The clash left at least 23 hostages dead and killed all 32 militants involved, the Algerian government said.

The State Department issued a travel warning Saturday night for Americans in or traveling to Algeria, citing credible threats of the kidnapping of Western nationals. The department also authorized the departure from Algeria of staff members' families if they choose to leave.

In a statement from the White House, Obama said the blame lay with the militants and that the United States condemns their actions.

"This attack is another reminder of the threat posed by al-Qaida and other violent extremist groups in North Africa," Obama said. "In the coming days, we will remain in close touch with the government of Algeria to gain a fuller understanding of what took place so that we can work together to prevent tragedies like this in the future."

Earlier Saturday, during a news conference in London with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, British Defense Minister Philip Hammond called the loss of life appalling and unacceptable.

"It is the terrorists that bear the sole responsibility," Hammond told reporters.

Hammond didn't criticize Algeria's handling of the attack directly, but he appeared to reference the increased concern from world leaders about the lack of transparency in Algeria's anti-terror operation.

"Different countries have different approaches to dealing with these things," he said. "But the nature of collaboration in confronting a global threat is that we work with people sometimes who do things somewhat different, slightly differently from the way we do them ourselves."

Panetta said that "those who would wantonly attack our country and our people will have no place to hide."

"Just as we cannot accept terrorism attacks against our cities, we cannot accept attacks against our citizens and our interests abroad," he said.

___

Baldor reported from London.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2013-01-19-US-Algeria/id-ec29f9e119714080870d0bb799048719

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Burned bodies found at besieged Algeria gas plant

ALGIERS/IN AMENAS, Algeria (Reuters) - Algerian special forces on Saturday found 15 burned bodies at a desert gas plant raided by al Qaeda-linked fighters, two days after the army launched an assault to free hostages being held there by the Islamists, a source familiar with the crisis said.

Efforts were underway to identify the bodies, the source told Reuters. It was not clear how they had died.

More than 20 foreigners were still captive or missing inside the plant as a standoff between the army and the Islamist gunmen - one of the biggest international hostage crises in decades - entered its fourth day, having thrust Saharan militancy to the top of the global agenda.

The number and fate of those involved - hostages alive or dead as well as fighters - has yet to be confirmed, with the Algerian government keeping officials from Western countries far from the site where their countrymen were in peril.

Reports have put the number of hostages killed at between 12 to 30, with possibly dozens of foreigners still unaccounted for, among them Norwegians, Japanese, Britons, Americans and others.

The U.S. State Department said on Friday one American, Frederick Buttaccio, had died but gave no further details. The French defence minister said he understood there were no more French workers among the hostages.

Two Norwegians were released overnight, leaving six unaccounted for, while Romania said three of its nationals had been freed. A number of Japanese engineering workers were still unaccounted for.

On Saturday, the Algerian military was holding the vast residential barracks at the In Amenas gas processing plant, while gunmen were holed up in the industrial plant itself with an undisclosed number of hostages, making it difficult for Algerian special forces to intervene.

The field commander of the Islamist group that attacked the plant is a veteran fighter from Niger called Abdul Rahman al-Nigeri, Mauritanian news agencies reported.

ARMY CORDON

The army is surrounding the plant, and helicopters are monitoring the area, Reuters reporters near the scene said. A cordon appeared to have been thrown around the plant at a distance of about 10 km (6 miles). Ambulances were on hand.

Scores of Westerners and hundreds of Algerian workers were inside the heavily fortified compound when it was seized before dawn on Wednesday by Islamist fighters who said they wanted a halt to a French military operation in neighbouring Mali.

Hundreds escaped on Thursday when the army launched its operation, but many hostages were killed in the assault. Algerian forces destroyed four trucks holding hostages, according to the family of a Northern Irish engineer who escaped from a fifth truck and survived.

The Northern Irishman, Stephen McFaul, told his family the attackers had strapped Semtex plastic explosive to his neck, bound his hands and taped his mouth.

Leaders of Britain, Japan and other countries have expressed frustration that the assault was ordered without consultation and officials have grumbled at the lack of information. Many countries also withheld details about their missing citizens to avoid releasing information that might aid the captors.

France's defence minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, declined to criticise the Algerian response to the crisis, however.

"The Algerian authorities are on their own soil and responding in the fashion they can. The overriding mission is to tackle the terrorists," he told France 3 television.

SECURITY SOURCE

An Algerian security source said 30 hostages, including at least seven Westerners, had been killed during Thursday's assault, along with at least 18 of their captors. Eight of the dead hostages were Algerian, with the nationalities of the rest of the dead still unclear, he said.

Two Japanese, two Britons and a French national were among the seven foreigners confirmed dead, the security source told Reuters. One British citizen was killed when the gunmen seized the hostages on Wednesday.

"(The army) is still trying to achieve a ?peaceful outcome' before neutralising the terrorist group that is holed up in the (facility) and freeing a group of hostages that is still being held," Algeria's state news agency APS said on Friday, quoting a security source.

APS put the total number of dead hostages at 12, including both foreigners and locals.

The base was home to foreign workers from Britain's BP, Norway's Statoil, Japanese engineering firm JGC Corp and others.

Norway says eight Norwegians are still missing. JGC said it was missing 10 staff. Britain and the United States have said they have citizens unaccounted for but have not said how many.

The Algerian security source said 100 foreigners had been freed but 32 were still unaccounted for.

Norway's Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said that based on information from Algerian authorities, "there is hope that the operation could be nearing the end."

A U.S. official said on Friday a U.S. flight carrying wounded people from many countries had left Algeria, without giving further details. Norway said it was sending a specially equipped medevac plane to the area.

The attack has plunged international capitals into crisis mode and is a serious escalation of unrest in northwestern Africa, where French forces have been in Mali since last week fighting an Islamist takeover of Timbuktu and other towns.

MULTINATIONAL INSURGENCY

Algerian commanders said they moved in on Thursday about 30 hours after the siege began, because the gunmen had demanded to be allowed to take their captives abroad.

A French hostage employed by a French catering company said he had hidden in his room for 40 hours under the bed before he was rescued by Algerian troops, relying on Algerian employees to smuggle him food with a password.

"I put boards up pretty much all round," Alexandre Berceaux told Europe 1 radio. "I didn't know how long I was going to stay there ... I was afraid. I could see myself already ending up in a pine box."

The captors said their attack was a response to the French military offensive in neighbouring Mali. However, some U.S. and European officials say the elaborate raid probably required too much planning to have been organised from scratch in the single week since France first launched its strikes.

Paris says the incident proves its decision to fight Islamists in neighbouring Mali was necessary.

Security in the half-dozen countries around the Sahara desert has long been a preoccupation of the West. Smugglers and militants have earned millions in ransom from kidnappings.

The most powerful Islamist groups operating in the Sahara were severely weakened by Algeria's secularist military in a civil war in the 1990s. But in the past two years the regional wing of Al Qaeda gained fighters and arms as a result of the civil war in Libya, when arsenals were looted from Muammar Gaddafi's army.

Al Qaeda-linked fighters, many with roots in Algeria and Libya, took control of northern Mali last year.

The apparent ease with which the fighters swooped in from the dunes to take control of an important energy facility, which produces some 10 percent of the natural gas on which Algeria depends for its export income, has raised questions over the value of outwardly tough Algerian security measures.

Algerian officials said the attackers may have had inside help from among the hundreds of Algerians employed at the site.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said those responsible would be hunted down: "Terrorists should be on notice that they will find no sanctuary, no refuge, not in Algeria, not in North Africa, not anywhere. ... Those who would wantonly attack our country and our people will have no place to hide."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/foreigners-still-trapped-sahara-hostage-crisis-083141930--finance.html

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Analysis: Obama's home state offers a lesson on path to gun laws

CHICAGO (Reuters) - The failure of President Barack Obama's home state of Illinois to pass new restrictions on guns could prove instructive for Obama's own fledging campaign to enact stricter national gun laws.

Within days after a gunman killed 20 first-graders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, some Illinois state legislators sought to capitalize on the national outcry about gun violence to launch a new broadside on the availability of guns.

The Illinois proposals were similar to the plan unveiled by Obama on Wednesday to ban so-called assault weapons and ammunition clips that permit rapid firing of multiple bullets.

But even in Illinois, a so-called blue state that went for Obama in the November presidential election, the gun proposals faltered early in the process, done in by the state's urban-rural divide and opposition from the country's powerful gun lobby, the National Rifle Association.

Although the bills were approved by an Illinois Senate panel, with Democrats in favor and Republicans against, the plan never made it to a vote on the floor of the state Senate -- despite a Democratic majority.

The measures were seen as too restrictive, and some doubted they would work. Lawmakers were distracted by other issues, also a factor in Washington.

"It is hard to overstate how touchy people are on that issue," Christopher Mooney, a political science professor at the University of Illinois-Springfield, said.

That said, New York has proven that tighter gun restrictions can be passed. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, this week signed into law one of the nation's gun-control measures and the first to be enacted since the Newtown massacre. And that in a state with its own urban-rural divide and a Senate controlled by Republicans.

URBAN VS RURAL

The party-line committee vote in Illinois belied a more subtle force: regional demographics. Despite the weight of Chicago in state politics, outside the state's northeastern corner the wide area known as Downstate Illinois is a speckling of towns, small and mid-sized cities and vast rural stretches. And the divide on gun control crosses party lines, with many Democrats as well as Republicans staunch supporters of gun ownership.

Chicago is suffering a wave of gang-related shootings, and its murder rate is up sharply. Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel was so frustrated by the lack of action in Springfield that on Thursday he introduced gun limits in the City Council.

"Democrats in Chicago certainly want to get rid of guns," said state Representative Jack Franks, a self-described moderate Democrat from an ex-urban and rural area west of Chicago. "Democrats who live Downstate, that's part of our culture."

With neither Illinois' Downstate, mostly Republican bloc nor solidly Democratic Chicago and its nearest suburbs having enough votes for a majority in the state Senate, the more distant Chicago suburbs and ex-urbs form the key battleground over gun control, with some lawmakers strong supporters of gun control and others guarded, political analysts said.

Mooney, the political science professor, said Democrats in Illinois could probably cobble together a coalition of Chicago and suburban votes to pass some gun controls but at the risk of alienating Downstate.

"They are reluctant to go to the mat on that," Mooney said of the state's Democratic leaders.

IN THE MIDDLE

Franks is the sort of elected official in the political middle who proponents of gun control would need to convince to pass new gun restrictions.

He is a gun owner and supporter of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the right to bear arms. "But I don't think we need Uzi machine guns to go hunt," Franks said.

Asked if he would have voted for the Illinois gun proposal as presented earlier this month, he said: "The devil is in the details. It was much too broad. They were overreaching."

The Illinois proposal would have banned the possession, delivery, sale and purchase of semi-automatic weapons, assault weapon attachments, .50 caliber rifles and .50 caliber cartridges. It included a long list of makes and models of guns covered, including Kalashnikov, Uzi and AR-15, the type of weapon used by the gunman in the Newtown school shooting.

New York's new gun restrictions ban assault weapons with certain military features rather than listing them by name, an approach that a sponsor of the bill said was because gun makers simply change the model number or weapon name to avoid laws that list types.

CONFISCATING GUNS

The proposal in Illinois drew immediate opposition from gun lobbyists.

The Illinois State Rifle Association, which is aligned with the National Rifle Association, issued an "alert" to members. It said in a statement that the law would have covered 83 percent of guns and would cause them to be confiscated.

NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermyde criticized the proposals at the state capitol in Springfield, saying even some hunting rifles would be banned. "This is an attempt to shame law-abiding gun owners... treat them like sex offenders," he said.

Lawmaker Franks said he received hundreds of emails and phone calls from supporters of gun ownership.

Gun control supporters said the confiscation assertion was hyperbole. The text of the proposal said that assault weapons already possessed by Illinois residents were excluded provided that they were registered with the state police.

Some Illinois lawmakers were distracted by financial and economic issues and preferred not to deal with gun legislation. A higher priority for them was the state's fiscal crisis, which threatens a downgrade of the state's already low debt rating, an echo of the debt ceiling debate looming over Obama and Congress.

Proponents of control have already vowed to try again later in the year.

"Teddy bears are more regulated than guns. That's got to change," said state Senator Dan Kotowski, a Democrat from suburban Chicago and a sponsor of one of the gun control proposals.

(Additional reporting by Joanne von Alroth, Barbara Goldberg and James B. Kelleher; Editing by Leslie Adler)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/analysis-obamas-home-state-offers-lesson-path-gun-191817411.html

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