NEWS 4: Ariadna Navarro

Treating mosquitoes may be a new way to fight malaria

“People have been exploring ways to control insect pests for an awful long time,” says Joshua Yukich. A strategy that kills malaria-causing parasites in mosquitoes “is pretty exciting.” It may be possible to make insecticide-treated bed nets even more effective by 
adding antimalarial compounds, he says.

Since 2000, an international effort to combat malaria in Africa has prevented an estimated 663 million cases, researchers say, largely thanks to insecticide-treated bed nets. The nets kill mosquitoes and help protect sleepers from bites. But that progress has been threatened with the emergence of insecticide-resistant mosquitoes.

An “autopsy” of the mosquitoes seven to nine days after an infectious blood meal found the insects were parasite free after treatment with certain doses of the drug, the researchers say.

Atovaquone, which is used to treat malaria in people, kills Plasmodium parasites by inhibiting a protein in the mitochondria, the energy factories inside cells. But it’s possible using antimalarial drugs to treat mosquitoes could result in the parasites becoming resistant to the drugs, endangering crucial therapies. So Catteruccia and her colleagues would like to test other compounds that can kill the parasites in mosquitoes.

- Link: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/treating-mosquitoes-drugs-new-way-fight-malaria 

- Date: February 27, 2019

- Scientific scope: medicine

- Glossary: 
- Atovaquone: Atovaquone is a medication used to treat or prevent:

1. For pneumocystis pneumonia (PCP)
2. For toxoplasmosis
3. For malaria
4. For babesia

-Commentary:

I see a bit impossible that using antimalarial drugs to treat mosquitoes could cure malaria not because of mosquitoes could get used to these antimalarial drugs and continue transmitting the disease (this too), its because the majority of persons that have malaria, are poor people who live in Africa and couldnt afford to buy antimalarial drugs for mosquito traps. That means that even if scientist will find a solution for malaria, just the rich people could get the cure and the majority would keep suffering. So when it happens, it would be nice that the governments would create associations to help all the people that can't buy the medicine and malaria wouldnt exist anymore.

NEW 4 // SECOND QUARTER // Caterina Krauchuk

Sleeping in on the weekend can’t make up for lost sleep

Many people (majority young adults) nowadays sleep very low in the workweek, and sleep so much in the weekend to make up for lost sleep. But nevertheless, this method isn't healthy.

Christopher Depner, a sleep physiologist at the University of Colorado Boulder, and his colleagues put three groups of young adults in their mid-20s through different sleep regimens for roughly two weeks. One group slept about eight hours every night; another got roughly five hours a night; the third got around five hours on weeknights and slept whenever and as much as they wanted over a weekend. 

During the workweeks, both groups consumed roughly 400 to 650 Calories in late-night snacks, such as pretzels, yogurt and potato chips. By the end of the experiment, people in both groups had gained on average around 1.5 kilograms. 

But when it came to insulin sensitivity, the two groups diverged. Sensitivity across all body tissues in the weekend recovery group dropped around 27 percent, compared with their baseline sensitivity measured at the start of the experiment. 

Link of reference: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/sleep-recovery-weekend-health

Date: March 1, 2019. 

Scientific scope: Health.

Glossary: Diverged (divergió): increase indefinitely as more of its terms are added.

Commentary: In my experience I can say that this new is completely true. I used to sleep very little from Monday to Friday and I sleept a lot the weekends, like I stayed up until 3 a.m. and woke up approximately 2 p.m. That made me gain a lot of weight because I always woke up hungry and I started to eat lots of food. But also I feelt more tired and I didn't study or do homework because I only stayed on bed. So I think the best option for the society is to make a schedule for your work and sleep well.