SPACELINE Current Awareness List

NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,124 15 November 2024 (Space Life Science Research Results)

By Keith Cowing
Status Report
NASA
November 18, 2024
Filed under , , , , , ,
NASA Spaceline Current Awareness List #1,124 15 November 2024 (Space Life Science Research Results)
A preflight view of Red Robin dwarf tomato growing in growing in Veggie hardware at the Kennedy Space Center – part of Veg-05 experiment.

The abstract in PubMed or at the publisher’s site is linked when available and will open in a new window.

Papers deriving from NASA support:

  1. Hardy JG.Articular cartilage loss is an unmitigated risk of human spaceflight.npj Microgravity. 2024 Nov 14;10(1):104. Review.Note: From the abstract: “Microgravity and space radiation are hazards of spaceflight that have deleterious effects on articular cartilage. Since it is not widely monitored or protected through dedicated countermeasures, articular cartilage loss is an unmitigated risk of human spaceflight. Spaceflight-induced cartilage loss will affect an astronaut’s performance during a mission and long-term health after a mission. Addressing concerns for cartilage health will be critical to the continued safe and successful exploration of space.” This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 5.1

    Funding: “JH’s work was supported by NASA’s Human Health and Performance Contract (HHPC) as part of the Standard Measures Cross-Cutting Project (SMCCP).”
  2. Piltch O, Flynn-Evans EE, Young M, Stickgold R.Changes to human sleep architecture during long-duration spaceflight.J Sleep Res. 2024 Nov 10;e14345. Online ahead of print.Note: From the abstract: “Both rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement sleep are important for cognitive function and well-being, yet few studies have examined whether human sleep architecture is affected by long-duration spaceflight. We recorded 256 nights of sleep from five crew members before (n = 112 nights), during (n = 83 nights) and after (n = 61 nights) ~6-month missions aboard the Mir space station, using the Nightcap sleep monitor. We compared sleep outcomes (including total sleep time, efficiency, latency, rapid eye movement and non-rapid eye movement) during spaceflight with those on Earth. We also evaluated longitudinal changes over time in space.” This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 3.4

    Funding: “National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Grant/Award Number: NAS 9-19406; National Institute of Mental Health, Grant/AwardNumbers: MH-48, 832; The MacArthur Foundation Mind-Body Network; Healthdyne Technologies; Mary Gordon Roberts Fellowship; NASA Human Research Program.”
  3. Raber J, Chaudhari M, De la Torre A, Holden S, Kessler K, Glaeser B, Lenarczyk M, Leonard SW, Borg A, Kwok A, Patel C, Kronenberg A, Olsen CM, Willey JS, Morré J, Choi J, Stevens JF, Bobe G, Minnier J, Baker J.Effects of 5-ion 6-beam sequential irradiation in the presence and absence of hindlimb or control hindlimb unloading on behavioral performances and plasma metabolic pathways of Fischer 344 rats.Front Physiol. 2024 Nov 12;15:1486767.PI: J. BakerNote: This article is part of Research Topic “Exploring Frontiers: Astroparticle, Space Science and Public Health for Future Crewed Space Missions” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/63490/exploring-frontiers-astroparticle-space-science-and-public-health-for-future-crewed-space-missions/overview). The Research Topic also includes articles from previous Current Awareness Lists #993 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.862598, #1,027 https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2022.949432, and #1,049 https://doi.org/10.3389/fspas.2023.1117811. This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 3.2

    Funding: “This study was supported by NASA (80NSSC19K0498-P0001) and partially by the R21 grant (AG079158). LC-MS/MS instrumentation used in this study was funded by NIH grant S10RR027878.”
  4. Davis CM, Elliott VE, Smith J.Sleep disruption impairs sustained attention in food-restricted rats using a food-reinforced rodent psychomotor vigilance test.Nature and Science of Sleep. 2024 Nov 9;16:1771-7.PI: C.M. DavisNote: This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 3.0

    Funding: “… This work was supported by Space@Hopkins seed grant funding (to CMD) and NASA NNX15AC71G and 80NSSC22K0022 (to CMD). …”
  5. Duzdevich D, Carr CE, Colville BWF, Aitken HRM, Szostak JW.Overcoming nucleotide bias in the nonenzymatic copying of RNA templates.Nucleic Acids Res. 2024 Nov 12;gkae982.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 16.7

    Funding: “This work was supported by the Simons Foundation [290363 to J.W.S.]; the National Science Foundation [2104708 to J.W.S.]; and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration [80NSSC22K0188 to C.E.C.]. The writing of the manuscript was supported in part by a Marie Skłodowska Curie FRIAS COFUND Fellowship to D.D. at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies [European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 754340]. J.W.S. is an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Funding for open access charge: Howard Hughes Medical Institute.”
  6. Li T, Cheburkanov V, Yakovlev VV, Agarwal GS, Scully MO.Harnessing quantum light for microscopic biomechanical imaging of cells and tissues.Proc Natl Acad Sci. 2024 Sep 24;121(45):e2413938121.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 3.2

    Funding: “We would like to thank the Robert A. Welch Foundation (A-1261 and A-1943), the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-20- 1-0366), the NSF (PHY-2013771), and the U.S. Department of Energy (DESC-0023103 and DE-AC36-08GO28308). V.V.Y. received partial funding from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-20-1-0366, FA9550-20- 1-0367, and FA9550-23-1-0599), the NIH (R01GM127696, R01GM152633, R21GM142107, and 1R21CA269099). This material is also based upon work supported by the NASA, Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, NIH, and US Food and Drug Authority, under Contract/Agreement No. 80ARC023CA002.”
  7. Irace PH, Reeves RD, Stephens S, Roberts MS.Transport phenomena research in microgravity via the ISS national lab to benefit life on Earth.Gravit Space Res. 2024 Nov 9;12(1):145-58.Note: From the abstract: “The International Space Station (ISS) National Laboratory provides an ideal platform in persistent microgravity to conduct research in the absence of gravity-induced phenomena (e.g., buoyancy-driven convection and sedimentation), enabling opportunities for breakthrough science. Since 2016, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) Division has partnered with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Spaceâ„¢ (CASISâ„¢), manager of the ISS National Lab, to release an annual joint solicitation in transport phenomena research on the ISS to benefit life on Earth. To date, the NSF-CASIS partnership has yielded 37 NSF-funded research investigations sponsored by the ISS National Lab. This paper highlights a few of the important scientific discoveries that have resulted from the fruitful NSF-CASIS collaboration and offers insight into the importance of expanding collaborations between government agencies to increase access to space and enable groundbreaking research that benefits humanity.”

    Journal Impact Factor: 1.82

    Funding: “The authors thank the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space™ (CASIS™) for supporting this work; the Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems (CBET) Division of the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Engineering Directorate for their fruitful collaborations in transport phenomena research conducted onboard the ISS; and NASA and the ISS Program Office for their support and efforts in facilitating research investigations onboard the ISS.”
  8. Rollock AE, Klaus DM.Characterizing the impact of emergent technologies on Earth communications reliance for crewed deep space missions.Acta Astronaut. 2024 Nov 8. Online ahead of print.Note: From the abstract: “Future human expeditions into deep space will encounter unique design challenges posed by the increasing distance from Earth, one of which is the inability to maintain near-continuous communication with ground support teams. As a result, the habitat and crew will require a higher level of operational self-sufficiency informed by onboard self-awareness and decision-making capabilities to accomplish functions that have historically involved extensive support from mission control personnel. These include, for example, task planning and anomaly detection, diagnosis and correction, as well as monitoring of consumable usage rates and system performance. Novel emergent technologies in the domain of ‘smart’ systems and digital twins can be employed to enable the onboard capabilities needed to function with minimal Earth communication.”

    Journal Impact Factor: 3.1

    Funding: “This effort is supported by NASA under grant number 80NSSC19K1052 as part of the NASA Space Technology Research Institute (STRI) Habitats Optimized for Missions of Exploration (HOME) ‘SmartHab’ Project.”

Other papers of interest:

  1. Kodaira S, Benton E, Iwata Y, Makino T, Miller J, Ohshima T, Uchihori Y, Zeitlin C.Space radiation research with heavy ions at HIMAC.Life Sci Space Res (Amst). 2024 Nov;43:4-12. Review.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge
  2. Mircea AA, Pistritu DV, Fortner A, Tanca A, Liehn EA, Bucur O.Space Travel: The radiation and microgravity effects on the cardiovascular system.Int J Mol Sci. 2024 Nov 3;25(21). Review.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
  3. Aksoyalp Z, Temel A, Karpuz M.Pharmacological innovations in space: Challenges and future perspectives.Pharm Res. 2024 Nov 12. Review.Note: From the abstract: “Since the first human experience in space, the interest in space research and medicine to explore universe is growing day by day. The extreme space conditions mainly radiation and microgravity effects on human physiology, antimicrobial susceptibility, and efficacy, safety, and stability of drugs. Therefore, the aim of this review is to address the impact of extreme space conditions, mainly microgravity and radiation, on human physiology and highlights the need for future approaches by evaluating the effectiveness of strategies to prevent or mitigate health problems.”
  4. Canepa CA, Levin DR, Padaki AS.Comparison of camera-acquired vital signs to conventional vital signs in a space-analog environment.Wilderness Environ Med. 2024 Nov 10;10806032241291994. Online ahead of print.Note: From the abstract: “Vital sign acquisition is a key component of modern medical care. In wilderness and space medical settings, vital sign acquisition can be a difficult process because of limitations on available personnel or lack of access to the patient. Camera-acquired vital signs could address each of these difficulties.”
  5. Zhang X, Zhou X, Tu Z, Qiang L, Lu Z, Xie Y, Liu CH, Zhang L, Fu Y.Proteomic and ubiquitinome analysis reveal that microgravity affects glucose metabolism of mouse hearts by remodeling non-degradative ubiquitination.PLoS One. 2024 Nov 14;19(11):e0313519.Note: Hindlimb unloading study. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  6. Zhou Z, Cheng X, Yang F, Zhang Z, Liu K, Zhang X, Huang H, Wang J.Weightlessness damaged the ultrastructure of knee cartilage and quadriceps muscle, aggravated the degeneration of cartilage.Ann Jt. 2024 Oct 30;9:37.Note: Hindlimb unloading study. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  7. Arndt F, Siems K, Walker SV, Bryan NC, Leuko S, Moeller R, Boschert AL.Systematic screening of 42 vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium strains for resistance, biofilm, and desiccation in simulated microgravity.npj Microgravity. 2024 Nov 13;10(1):103.Note: A 2D clinostat was used in this study. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  8. Romano LE, van Loon J, Vincent-Bonnieu S, Aronne G.Wolffia globosa, a novel crop species for protein production in space agriculture.Sci Rep. 2024 Nov 14;14:27979.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
  9. Du X, Zhang Y, Zhang M, Sun Y.Variations in DNA methylation and the role of regulatory factors in rice (Oryza sativa) response to lunar orbit stressors.Front Plant Sci. 2024 Nov 13;15:1427578.Note: From the abstract: “Deep space flight imposes higher levels of damage on biological organisms; however, its specific effects on rice remain unclear. To investigate the variations in DNA methylation under deep space flight conditions, this study examined rice seeds carried by Chang’e-5.” This article may be obtained online without charge.
  10. DeWitt JT, Raghunathan M, Haricharan S.Nonrepair functions of DNA mismatch repair proteins: New avenues for precision oncology.Trends Cancer. 2024 Oct 25. Online ahead of print.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
  11. Song H, Park J, Rosenberg MD.Understanding cognitive processes across spatial scales of the brain.Trends Cogn Sci. 2024 Nov 4. Review. Online ahead of print.

Astrobiology, space life science, space medicine, microgravity,

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp veteran, (he/him) 🖖🏻