Dogs are a girls bestfriend

As I was trying to find a topic for this week’s blog I came across an article about dogs. I love dogs more than anything in this world, so of course it caught my eye. As everyone knows dog are said to be a man’s best friend. Well there is a reason for this. 

Researchers came to believe that the connection was caused by a hormone called oxytocin. A little background on oxytocin will help one understand the significance. Oxytocin is a hormone in the body that is believed to help form social relationships. Oxytocin can change its function due to what it binds to within the body. The way oxytocin binds causes the variation in dog’s ability to communicate. 

For this experiment they used 60 golden retrievers as test subjects. Before the experiment was performed the oxytocin level in the dogs was increased. They did this by taking a DNA swab of the dog’s cheek and determining where the oxytocin would bind in that specific dog. From there they sprayed oxytocin in the dog’s nose for the experimental group.  For the control group, the same dogs were used but instead of spraying oxytocin they sprayed salt water. During the experiment they taught the dogs how to remove a lid from a container with a treat inside. After the dog completed this, they gave the dogs a container with a lid that was impossible to open. The point of this test was to see how long it would take for the dog to seek help from their owner. 

The results of the experiment showed that dogs with specific genetic variant of the receptor for oxytocin reacted more than others. It was also found that when sprayed with oxytocin the dogs did have an increase in asking their owners for help during the test from when they were sprayed with salt water. These results show how much dogs have changed from when they were wild to when they were domesticated. They know this because they analyzed DNA from 21 wolves and found the same genetic variation. 

I think it is truly incredible that they found this information. This is why dogs love their humans so much. It’s crazy to think that just one hormone causes such a strong bond between my dog and I. I hope that they continue to do more research over this topic and see how this varies to different breeds of dogs.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170918111833.htm

We aren't zombies

This week I am going to focus on a topic that I find extremely interesting, prion diseases. There is one particular kind of prion disease that I find fascinating that I am going to focus this complete post on. First, I am going to explain what exactly a prion disease is. A prion disease, otherwise known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), is a disorder that is found in both humans and animals. They have long incubation periods and cause neuronal loss. A prion itself is an abnormal pathogenic entity. It causes proteins to fold in an abnormal way which causes these proteins to not function properly. In a whole this type of disease effects the nervous system of and organism and causes many different changes within it. It can lead to problems in mobility, memory, personality, and behavior. Prion diseases themselves are extremely rare, but they do happen. 

When someone does in fact have a prion disease, it is usually due to the PRNP gene. This means that the disease is familial because it can run in the family. The PRNP gene itself is what provides the instructions for the prion protein called PrP. The functions of this protein mostly have to do with the brain and this explains why it causes neuron loss. Many people aren’t familiar with this type of disease being passed around through the family. They are usually more familiar with mad cow disease. This is when someone eats a cow’s brain that has a prion disease and get it themselves. But this is not the specific example that I want to focus on. I want to focus on a type of prion disease called Kuru. A couple of semesters ago, I learned about this topic and have forever found it fascinating. Therefore, I did a little more research on it. 

Kuru is a prion disease that is mostly found in New Guinea. This disease isn’t common today but was common in the 1950-1960s. The name Kuru has two different meanings which are “to shiver” and “to tremble in fear”. Therefore, it is easy to see that this name was given because it was causing people to twitch and tremble when they had the disease. This disease is usually fatal within one year. That was enough back story, now I would like to get to the part about the disease that I find interesting. The way people come about getting the disease Kuru. They get this disease through a funeral ritual. During this ritual, the family and tribe of the dead eat the body of the corpse. They do this because they believe that this helps free the spirit of their loved ones. Therefore, when they are eating the corpse someone is going to be eating the brain causing them to also get the disease if that person had it previously to dying.

I am not going to go into depth on the ritual but it is fascinating how they go about it. Therefore, I will just stick with the main point of this post…..don’t eat brains, you are not a zombie.

https://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/prion-disease#genes

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2581657/

http://www.healthline.com/health/kuru#overview1

A Vampires Favorite Meal

There are over 5 liters of blood in an average person. We know that when we injure ourselves this mysterious red liquid comes flowing out. But, what is our blood made out of? What makes our blood so special? 

In 1840 hemoglobin was discovered by Friedrich Ludwig Hunefeld, who was a member of the German Biochemistry Association. He discovered hemoglobin by looking at the blood of an earthworm. He allowed the blood of the earthworm to dry and crystallize between two glass slides. He looked at the slide under a microscope and he saw sharp bright red structures. He found that these structures were what came to be hemoglobin. Overtime it was found that not only earthworms had this structure, so did most invertebrates. Overtime, it was found that this hemoglobin structure actually transported oxygen throughout the body. Hemoglobin transports oxygen from respiratory organs such as the lungs, and releases it in the tissues to help with cell survival. The iron protein forms an unstable reversible bond with oxygen. Hemoglobin actually forms in the cells of bone marrow and is made of four heme groups surrounding a globin group. This makes it a quaternary structure. Hemoglobin is what gives blood its color and red blood cells their shape.  The human body actually contains three types of hemoglobin. These are Hemoglobin A, Hemoglobin A₂, and Hemoglobin F. Hemoglobin A is the most common type. Hemoglobin A₂ and F are extremely rare. Hemoglobin also has a buffering factor. This protein is what keeps blood at the pH of 7.4. If there is an accumulation of carbon dioxide within the blood, this will cause the pH to decrease. With hemoglobin maintaining the pH, this allows the bodies enzymatic reactions to occur without any problems. Hemoglobin is obviously essential to life itself. If we didn’t have this protein in our body, we would have no way of transporting oxygen from one end of our body to another. 

It is crazy to think something so small is what is keeping our bodies alive. It is even crazier to think that hemoglobin wasn’t even known of until 177 years ago. Our bodies truly are a wonderland. 

http://pediaa.com/what-is-the-function-of-hemoglobin-in-the-human-body/

http://sciencing.com/discovered-hemoglobin-18542.html

https://www.britannica.com/science/hemoglobin