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[chubtoad]

Nanobacteria revelations provoke new controversy

Some claim they are a new life form responsible for a wide-range of diseases, including the calcification of the arteries that afflicts us all as we age. Others say they are simply too small to be living creatures.

Now a team of doctors has entered the fray surrounding the existence or otherwise of nanobacteria. After four years' work, the team, based at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, has come up with some of the best evidence yet that they do exist.

Cautiously titled "Evidence of nanobacterial-like structures in human calcified arteries and cardiac valves", the paper by John Lieske and his team describes how they isolated minuscule cell-like structures from diseased human arteries.
 
A question of size
These particles self-replicated in culture, and could be identified with an antibody and a DNA stain. "The evidence is suggestive," is all Lieske claims.

Critics are not convinced. "I just don't think this is real," says Jack Maniloff of the University of Rochester in New York. "It is the cold fusion of microbiology." John Cisar of the National Institutes of Health is equally sceptical. "There are always people who are trying to keep this alive. It's like it is on life support."

full article: http://www.newscient...p?id=ns99995009

[kevin]

Link: http://www.scienceag...trunc_sys.shtml

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Nanobacteria A Problem For Space Travellers, Says NASA

While scientists debate whether nanobacteria are acutally biological in nature, researchers at NASA are calling for a major initiative to further investigate these tiny, self replicating agents. These same researchers are authors of a study published in Kidney International that says nanobacteria could be a potential cause of rapid kidney stone formation in astronauts on space missions.

While scientists agree that these self-replicating, mineralizing agents exist, there is little agreement as to whether nanobacteria are actually alive, or indeed whether they carry anything resembling a DNA sequence. Nanobacteria were identified in the 1990s and have been found in the calcium phosphate centers of kidney stones. They have also been detected in other conditions, including Alzheimer's disease, heart disease, prostatitis, and some cancers.

"The concept that nanobacteria are living organisms is still controversial because the research on their putative nucleic acid has not been completed yet," said lead researcher Neva Ciftcioglu. However, the group's research provides additional clues to understanding nanobacteria and its link to pathologic calcification-related diseases.

In the published study, trials were conducted at NASA to observe nanobacteria in a bioreactor chamber which simulates conditions of space travel. In this microgravity environment, nanobacteria were found to multiply five times faster compared to normal gravity on Earth, supporting earlier discoveries that microbes have radically different behavior in weightless environments. Nanobacteria were also shown to possibly be an infectious risk for crew members living in close quarters. "Hopefully, eradication or treatment of these diseases will be possible in the near future. We need more research and support to solve this puzzle, but we feel that we are close," concluded Ciftcioglu.