In a unique experiment of its kind, the unique conditions of space flight were used to examine how the cells remain healthy or succumb to infection with human cells. At 3:21 am PDT on April 5, researchers at the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, will see their latest experiment launched into Earth orbit on mission STS-131 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. The objectives of the research team led by Dr Cheryl Nickerson provide a new fundamental insight in the process of infectious diseases and, furthermore, analyze and disseminate to other degenerative diseases, including immune system disorders and cancer.
The knowledge gained from this study may help in developing new treatments for infectious diseases, which remain a major cause of human morbidity and mortality worldwide. The study results will also be used to help mitigate the risks of infectious diseases crews, who are particularly vulnerable to infection due to the reduction with immune function that occurs during space flight missions.
“The key to this investigation,” Nickerson said, is to see how human cells can adapt and respond to the unique microgravity environment of space flight. In response to microgravity, the cells have important biological properties that are directly relevant to human health and disease, including changes in immune function, stress responses and virulence. These conditions are not seen with traditional experimental approaches in our planet “.
This is the third time that Nickerson and his team have “blown” their experiments funded by NASA aboard a space shuttle. His previous research aboard space shuttle Atlantis and Endeavour were the first to demonstrate that spaceflight induces significant changes in gene expression and virulence of the pathogen Salmonella food (see reference). These changes are due, at least in part, to the unique way that the extracellular fluid flows around the surface of cells. This physical disruption of the cell surface caused by the surrounding fluid flow induces unique cellular responses, both in bacteria (like Salmonella) and in human cells.
The current mission will be the first time that human cells subjected to infection by a pathogen in spaceflight. Specifically, this thirteen-day experiment will characterize the effect of microgravity on intestinal cell responses before and after infection with foodborne pathogen, Salmonella typhimurium. The results of this study will be discussed in a collaborative effort between the Nickerson lab and his co-investigator Mark Ott, a researcher at Johnson Space Center of NASA.
The objectives of these experiments are two 1) better understand the effect of spaceflight on human cells before and after infection with pathogenic bacteria invasive – information vital to ensure the safety of astronauts, and 2) Compare and examine the responses of human cells and pathogens in both space and in their usual environment in the human body on Earth. I’ll be well aware to tell in bioBlogia when brought to light the results of the experiment.
