Master gene makes ‘killer’ cells

“Natural killer” cells form the front-line troops of the immune system. The discovery of the master gene that sends them into action promises a host of new treatments for infections and diseases.

Patrolling the bloodstream, the spleen and the lymph nodes, natural killer cells identify and destroy cells that are cancerous or have been invaded by viruses.

Hugh Brady of Imperial College London and colleagues found that mice lacking a gene called E4BP4 could make all other components of the immune system apart from natural killer cells, proving that the gene is indispensable for making the cells (Nature Immunology).

“Now we know which gene is at the top of the hierarchy; it opens the door to the whole machinery for making them,” says Brady, who is looking for new drugs to boost immunity.

Juggling is good for the brain

Juggling boosts connections between different parts of the brain by tweaking the architecture of “white matter”—a finding that could lead to new therapies for people with brain injuries.

White matter in the brain contains mostly axons—outgrowths of nerve cells that connect different cells. When Jan Scholz and his colleagues at the University of Oxford looked at brain scans of new jugglers, they found that the 24 young men and women had grown more white matter after six weeks of juggling training. The changes occurred in the parietal lobe—an area involved in connecting what we see to how we move (Nature Neuroscience).

After four more weeks without juggling, the extra white matter remained, suggesting that the change is permanent. “It’s like riding a bike,” Scholz says.

Learning itself seemed to matter more than the skill attained, because white matter increased similarly in good and bad jugglers.

Compiled from News wire service sources