Tiny drones, 'one and done' flu vaccine & the magic in the 'magic mushrooms' | Last Week in Science (21 Jul 2024)

Tiny TU Delft drones

Credit: TU Delft

Researchers at Delft University of Technology have created tiny drones inspired by ants, using a combination of odometry and snapshots for navigation.

Remember the story of Hansel and Gretel in which Hansel kept throwing stones on the path to aid them in finding their way back home? Small insects like ants use a similar strategy to keep track of their path when venturing out a long distance from their home. Instead of throwing stones, they keep taking snapshots of their surroundings with their omnidirectional low-resolution vision. To make this system work, they also count their own steps between these snapshots known as odometry. As an ant walks back home, it counts and moves from one snapshot to the next, adjusting its path to match the surroundings with its mental snapshot so that it does not drift away from the correct path.

These tiny TU-Delft drones weigh only 56 g, are autonomous, and do not require a huge energy supply or large processing power to work. They only need 1.16 kilobytes per 100 m of distance they travel. Such robots can help in tracking inventory in warehouses, finding gas leaks, or monitoring crops in greenhouses.

Reference: Ant insights lead to robot navigation breakthrough

'One and done' flu vaccine

Each year, a new flu vaccine must be developed and administered to individuals with weakened immune systems. Why can't we have a single, lifelong vaccine? This is because the influenza virus keeps evolving, changing its surface proteins. The current vaccines teach the immune cells in our body to identify these surface proteins and kill the virus by producing antibodies. However, when the next season arrives, a new strain of influenza is often present, one which the immune cells are not trained to recognize. This situation also occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even after getting vaccinated, individuals got infected because newer strains of SARS-CoV-2 evolved.

Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University have developed a "one and done" flu vaccine, as they call it. There won't be a need for a new vaccine each season with the rise of new influenza strains. They inserted small pieces of the 100-year-old 1918 flu virus into herpesvirus cytomegalovirus (CMV), which commonly infects humans and causes either mild or no symptoms. They vaccinated monkeys with this "1918 flu" vaccine and then infected them with the avian H5N1 virus. Six of the 11 vaccinated monkeys survived the deadly virus, while none of the unvaccinated monkeys survived the infection.

The vaccine worked because, unlike the traditional flu vaccine, it trained the immune cells to recognize the internal proteins of the flu virus. These internal proteins have not changed much over time, which is why even a 100-year-old viral strain could provide immunity to the monkeys.

Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University are hopeful to bring the "one and done" flu vaccine to humans within the next 5-10 years.

Reference: Study shows promise for a universal flu vaccine

The magic in the 'magic mushrooms'

Psilocybin, the active compound in magic mushrooms has a psychedelic effect, often described as losing all sense of self and reality. While controversial due to its association with drug abuse, psilocybin may be effective in treating mental disorders like depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have now reported that these psychedelic experiences are linked to changes in a specific brain network, potentially paving the way for its use in mental illness treatment.

In the study, seven volunteers were given a high dose of psilocybin. Their brains were imaged using fMRI before, during, and after the administration of psilocybin. The researchers found drastic changes in the activity of the default mode network (DMN), which is responsible for our sense of self and reality. This network is most active during restful times, such as daydreaming, and its activity pattern is unique to each individual, like a fingerprint. The changes in the DMN due to psilocybin were so profound that it seemed as if these individuals had temporarily different identities. While the DMN activity returned to its pre-psilocybin state after the drug's effects wore off, some changes persisted for weeks.

The researchers suggest that the brain network creating our sense of self becomes more receptive to change during the weeks following a psilocybin experience. This period might be a valuable window for altering behaviors in individuals with mental illnesses using talk therapy.

 

Reference: Psilocybin generates psychedelic experience by disrupting brain network