In the news: Memory boost and antibiotics risk

MEMORY BOOST: Playing three-dimensional video games may protect against the dulling of memory that comes with age, a study has found.

Scientists believe 3D gaming could provide a novel treatment for people affected by age-related memory loss or dementia. Student volunteers playing the game Super Mario 3D World boosted their performance in memory tests by around 12% – roughly the amount it normally decreases by between the ages of 45 and 70. But playing a less involving two-dimensional game, Angry Birds did not have the same beneficial effect.

3D games are thought to stimulate the hippocampus, a brain region vital to memory that shrinks with age and is damaged by Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. Previous research has shown that video games can improve eye-to-hand co-ordination and reaction times. The new study is published in The Journal Of Neuroscience.

ANTIBIOTICS RISK: Consumption of antibiotics by animals is now greater than that by humans in many countries around the world. According to a British report, the trend poses a risk that the so-called superbugs will develop and spread, whether through direct contact between humans and animals, consumption of undercooked meat, or from animal waste. Last month researchers in China identified a gene that makes infectious bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E.coli) highly resistant to polymyxins, the last group of antibiotics left after all others have failed.

CANCER CELLS: Cancer cells can “poison” neighbouring cells they come into contact with, causing them to become cancerous. Scientists from the University of Delaware, USA, studied the effect using a three-dimensional cell-culturing system that mimics conditions in the body. They found that cancer cells produce an enzyme that splits a molecule from normal “epithelial” cells that line body cavities and organs. The freed molecule, called soluble E-cadherin, or sE-cad, plays a key role in turning good cells bad. The findings, published in the Journal of Cell Science, open up new areas of cancer research, said the team.