A weekly summary of space life science publications from around the world.

SPACELINE Current Awareness Lists are distributed via listserv and are available on the NASA Task Book website at https://taskbook.nasaprs.com/Publication/spaceline.cfm. Please send any correspondence to Shawna Byrd, SPACELINE Current Awareness Senior Editor, SPACELINE@nasaprs.com.

Call for articles to cite in the weekly lists: Authors at NASA Centers and NASA PIs—do you have an article that has recently published or will publish in the upcoming weeks within a peer-reviewed journal and is in the scope of space life sciences? If so, send it our way! Send your article to the email address mentioned above. Articles received by Wednesday will appear within that week’s list—articles received after Wednesday will appear the following week.

Papers deriving from NASA support:

  1. Flores P, Schauer R, McBride SA, Luo J, Hoehn C, Doraisingam S, Widhalm D, Chadha J, Selman L, Mueller DW, Floyd S, Rupert M, Gorti S, Reagan S, Varanasi KK, Koch C, Meir JU, Muecklich F, Moeller R, Stodieck L, Countryman S, Zea L.Preparation for and performance of a Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm experiment on board the International Space Station.Acta Astronaut. 2022 Jul 14. Online ahead of print.PI: L. ZeaNote: From the abstract: “Here, we describe the test campaign implemented to verify the experiment design and confirm it would enable us to achieve the project’s scientific goals. This campaign ended with the Experiment Verification Test (EVT), from which we present example morphology and transcriptomic results. We describe in detail the sample preparation prior to flight, including cleaning and sterilization of the coupons of six materials (SS316, passivated-SS316, lubricant impregnated surface, catheter-grade silicone with and without a microtopography, and cellulose membrane), loading and integration of growth media, bacterial inoculum, and the fixative and preservative to enable experiment termination on orbit.” This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 2.954

    Funding: “We would like to thank all who have participated and were involved in one way or another in the success of this project. Special thanks to Maggie Kolicko, Joella Delheimer, Rebecca Bryan Melissa Dunivant, Jim Wright, James Orth, Lily Allen, Amir Kalani, Anissa Becerra, Jim Voss, Zeena Nisar, and Shilpi Ganguly. Thanks to Northrop Grumman and SpaceX for the ride up and down to ISS, respectively, the East Virginia Medical School (EVMS) for hosting us during pre-launch integration, and to Prof. George O’Toole for sharing the P. aeruginosa PA14 strain. We acknowledge and appreciate that this material is based upon work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. 80NSSC17K0036.”
  2. Rai AK, Rajan KS, Bisserier M, Brojakowska A, Sebastian A, Evans AC, Coleman MA, Mills PJ, Arakelyan A, Uchida S, Hadri L, Goukassian DA, Garikipati VNS.Spaceflight-associated changes of snoRNAs in peripheral blood mononuclear cells and plasma exosomes-A pilot study.Front Cardiovasc Med. 2022 Jun 24;9:886689.PI: D.A. GoukassianNote: From the article: “This study examined the snoRNA content and space-travel associated changes in their expression in EVs derived from the peripheral blood of five astronauts who flew relatively short (median 12 days long) space Shuttle missions between 1998 and 2001. We provide the first report showing differential snoRNAs packaging in the astronauts’ plasma derived EVs pre- and post-flight.” This article is part of Research Topic “Cardiovascular Adaptation to Extreme Environment” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/19429/cardiovascular-adaptation-to-extreme-environment#overview). This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 5.846

    Funding: “This work was supported by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health FIP0005 and National Aeronautics and Space Administration grant 80NSSC19K1079 to DAG. This work was also partially supported by American Heart Association Career Development Award 18CDA34110277 and startup funds from the Ohio State University Medical Center to VNSG. AKR was supported with the American Heart Association-Post Doctoral Fellowship grant 915681. KSR was supported by Koshland Foundation and Dean of Chemistry, Postdoctoral Excellence Fellowship. Work was also performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344.”
  3. Lalwala M, Koya B, Devane KS, Hsu FC, Yates KM, Newby NJ, Somers JT, Gayzik FS, Stitzel JD, Weaver AA.Simulated astronaut kinematics and injury risk for piloted lunar landings and launches while standing.Ann Biomed Eng. 2022 Jul 11.PI: A.A. WeaverNote: From the abstract: “During future lunar missions, astronauts may be required to pilot vehicles while standing, and the associated kinematic and injury response is not well understood. In this study, we used human body modeling to predict unsuited astronaut kinematics and injury risk for piloted lunar launches and landings in the standing posture. Three pulses (2–5 g; 10–150 ms rise times) were applied in 10 directions (vertical; ± 10-degree offsets) for a total of 30 simulations. Across all simulations, motion envelopes were computed to quantify displacement of the astronaut’s head (max 9.0 cm forward, 7.0 cm backward, 2.1 cm upward, 7.3 cm downward, 2.4 cm lateral) and arms (max 25 cm forward, 35 cm backward, 15 cm upward, 20 cm downward, 20 cm lateral).”

    Journal Impact Factor: 4.219

    Funding: “This study was supported by a NASA Human Research Program Student Augmentation Award to NASA Grant No. NNX16AP89G.”
  4. Drago-Ferrante R, Di Fiore R, Karouia F, Subbannayya Y, Das S, Aydogan Mathyk B, Arif S, Guevara-Cerdán AP, Seylani A, Galsinh AS, Kukulska W, Borg J, Suleiman S, Porterfield DM, Camera A, Christenson LK, Ronca AE, Steller JG, Beheshti A, Calleja-Agius J.Extraterrestrial gynecology: Could spaceflight increase the risk of developing cancer in female astronauts? An updated review.Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Jul 5;23(13):7465. Review.Note: This article is part of Special Issue “Cellular and Molecular Signaling Meet the Space Environment” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms/special_issues/Cellular_molecular_signaling_space). The Special Issue also includes articles from previous Current Awareness Lists #983 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23010075 and #1,002 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23105593 and https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23105489. This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 6.208

    Funding: F. Karouia, A.E. Ronca, J.G. Steller, and A. Beheshti are affiliated with NASA Ames Research Center.
  5. Vahlensieck C, Thiel CS, Pöschl D, Bradley T, Krammer S, Lauber B, Polzer J, Ullrich O.Post-transcriptional dynamics is involved in rapid adaptation to hypergravity in Jurkat T cells.Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Jul 4;10:933984.Note: From the abstract: “The transcriptome of human immune cells rapidly reacts to altered gravity in a highly dynamic way. We could show in previous experiments that transcriptional patterns show profound adaption after seconds to minutes of altered gravity. To gain further insight into these transcriptional alteration and adaption dynamics, we conducted a highly standardized RNA-Seq experiment with human Jurkat T cells exposed to 9xg hypergravity for 3 and 15 minutes, respectively. We investigated the frequency with which individual exons were used during transcription and discovered that differential exon usage broadly appeared after 3 minutes and became less pronounced after 15 minutes.” This article and an article below (Li et al.) in the “Other” section are part of Research Topic “Space Mechanobiology and Medicine – Volume II” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/29064/space-mechanobiology-and-medicine—volume-ii#overview). Additional articles will be forthcoming and may be found in the link to the Research Topic. This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 6.081

    Funding: C.S. Thiel and O. Ullrich are affiliated with NASA Kennedy Space Center.
  6. Madrid PB, Chang PY.Accelerating space radiation countermeasure development through drug repurposing.Life Sci Space Res (Amst). 2022 Jul 14. Online ahead of print.PI: P.Y. ChangNote: This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 2.730

    Funding: “The authors would like to acknowledge NASA support for work under NNX07AV20G, CNS-NSCOR NNJ04HC90G, NNX14AE69G, NIH Contract HHSN272201500013I.”
  7. Ren M, Lin T, Chien JH.Different types of visual perturbation induced different demands and patterns in active control: Implication for future sensorimotor training.Front Physiol. 2022 Jul 13;13:919816.Note: This article is part of Research Topic “Aerospace Health and Safety: Today and the Future” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/10667/aerospace-health-and-safety-today-and-the-future#articles). The Research Topic also includes articles from previous Current Awareness Lists #873 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2019.01366, #893 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00299, #897 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00119, #907 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00837, #910 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00781, #911 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.00960, #918 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00327, #936 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2020.577325, #940 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.643943, #942 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.651977, #969 https://doi.org/10.3389/fphys.2021.712628, and #1,003 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcvm.2022.873597. Additional articles will be forthcoming and may be found in the link to the Research Topic. This article may be obtained online without charge.Journal Impact Factor: 4.755

    Funding: “This study was supported by the NASA Nebraska Space Grant Research Mini-Grant Program (NNX15AK50A), United States.”
  8. Rahman SA, St Hilaire MA, Grant LK, Barger LK, Brainard GC, Czeisler CA, Klerman EB, Lockley SW.Dynamic lighting schedules to facilitate circadian adaptation to shifted timing of sleep and wake.J Pineal Res. 2022;73(1):e12805. Online ahead of print.PIs: G.C. Brainard, E.B. Klerman, S.W. LockleyJournal Impact Factor: 13.007

    Funding: “National Space Biomedical Research Institute through NASA NCC 9‐58-HFP02801 (PI: Lockley, SW), HFP02802 and HFP00006 (PI: Klerman, EB). NASA#NNX09AM68G. SAR and MSH were supported in part by NIH/NHLBI T32‐HL007901. EBK was supported in part by NIH K24‐HL105664, P01‐AG009975, RC2‐HL10134. As Co‐PIs, Drs. Brainard and Lockley were supported, in part, by NASA grant NNX15AC14G. The project described was supported by Grant/Award Numbers: 8 UL1 TR000170, Harvard Clinical and Translational Science Center, from the National Center for Advancing Translational Science and Grant/Award Number: 1UL1TR001102. Drs. Barger and Czeisler were supported, in part, by NIOSH R01OH011773.”
  9. Dwivedi R, Sharma P, Farrag M, Kim SB, Fassero LA, Tandon R, Pomin VH.Inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 wild-type (Wuhan-Hu-1) and Delta (B.1.617.2) strains by marine sulfated glycans.Glycobiology. 2022 Jul 5;cwac042. Online ahead of print.PI: R. TandonNote: This article may be obtained online without charge.

    Journal Impact Factor: 5.954

    Funding: “This work was supported by NIH (grant numbers 1P20GM130460-01A1-7936 and 1R03NS110996-01A1), and the University of Mississippi to V.H.P. NASA award #80NSSC19K1603 and NIH award 1R01DE031928-01A1 supported the work in the laboratory of R.T. M.F is funded by a full scholarship (GM 1110) from the Ministry of Higher Education of the Arab Republic of Egypt.”

Other papers of interest:

  1. Baranov VM, Katuntsev VP, Tarasenkov GG, Khudiakova EP, Sedelkova VA, Alferova IV, Shushunova TG.Studies of the activity of the central respiratory mechanism in long-term space missions.Aviakosm Ekolog Med. 2022;56(3):5-11. Russian.Note: ISS results.
  2. Di Filippo ES, Chiappalupi S, Balsamo M, Vukich M, Sorci G, Fulle S.Preparation of human muscle precursor cells for the MyoGravity project’s study of cell cultures in experiment units for space flight purposes.Applied Sciences. 2022;12(14):7013.Note: This article is part of Special Issue “Advances in Space Biology: Cell Behavior in Microgravity” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/Space_Biology). The Special Issue also includes articles from previous Current Awareness Lists #892 https://doi.org/10.3390/app9194042 and https://doi.org/10.3390/app10062028; #905 https://doi.org/10.3390/app10124309; #906 https://doi.org/10.3390/app10134433; #926 https://doi.org/10.3390/app10228289; #931 https://doi.org/10.3390/app11010041, https://doi.org/10.3390/app11010110, https://doi.org/10.3390/app11010068, and https://doi.org/10.3390/app11073122. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  3. Gushchin VI, Supolkina NS, Shved DM, Yusupova AK, Chekalkina AI, Kotov OV.Use of the content-analysis in studies of cosmonauts’ communication with MCC specialists at various levels of mission workload.Aviakosm Ekolog Med. 2022;56(3):12-8. Russian.Note: From the abstract: “As part of the content space experiment, the communication of space crews with the Mission Control Center (MCC) on days with different flight loads and intensity of work and rest modes was studied by the method of content analysis.”
  4. Pantalone D, Chiara O, Henry S, Cimbanassi S, Gupta S, Scalea T.Facing trauma and surgical emergency in space: Hemorrhagic shock.Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2022 Jul 1;10:780553. Review.Note: This article is part of Research Topic “Wound Management and Healing in Space” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/14877/wound-management-and-healing-in-space#overview). The Research Topic also includes articles from previous Current Awareness Lists #958 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.679650, #972 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.720091, #973 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.720217 and https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2021.716184, #995 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.666434, and #998 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbioe.2022.873384. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  5. Scalia T, Bonventre L, Terranova ML.Devices for cardiovascular control: When space and Earth tackle common challenges.Acta Astronaut. 2022 Jul 8. Online ahead of print.Note: From the abstract: “We review the devices for cardiovascular control and how space scientific and technological experiments contributed to the evolution of terrestrial applications and vice-versa.”
  6. Fujisawa K, Nishimura Y, Sakuragi A, Duponselle J, Matsumoto T, Yamamoto N, Murata T, Sakaida I, Takami T.Evaluation of the effects of microgravity on activated primary human hepatic stellate cells.Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Jul 4;23(13):7429.Note: A 3D clinostat was used in this study. This article is part of Section “Biochemistry” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms/sections/biochemistry). This article may be obtained online without charge.
  7. Han Y, Shao D, Han C, Huang Q, Zhao W.Response of human gut microbiota under simulated microgravity.Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2022 Jul 7.Note: From the abstract: “The present study was conducted to investigate the influence of microgravity on human gut microbiota using 16S rRNA gene sequencing in vitro. The diamagnetic material magnetic levitation method was used to simulate weightless environment. The human gut microbiota was cultured under two different conditions: normal gravity (1 g), and simulated microgravity (0 g), which showed that both the richness (P = 0.04) and diversity (P = 0.0002) of human gut microbiota were significantly altered. As compared to the normal gravity, the simulated microgravity significantly reduced abundance of bacteria related to anti-inflammatory effects, such as Subdoligranulum, Faecalibacterium, Fusicatenibacter, Butyricicoccus, and Lachnospiraceae-NK4A136-0 group (P < 0.05), while significantly increased that of Alistipes and Eubacterium-Ventriosum-group (P < 0.05).”
  8. Li C, Pan Y, Tan Y, Wang Y, Sun X.PINK1-dependent mitophagy reduced endothelial hyperpermeability and cell migration capacity under simulated microgravity.Front Cell Dev Biol. 2022 Jul 7;10:896014.Note: This article and an article below (Vahlensieck et al.) in the “Other” section are part of Research Topic “Space Mechanobiology and Medicine – Volume II” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/29064/space-mechanobiology-and-medicine—volume-ii#overview). Additional articles will be forthcoming and may be found in the link to the Research Topic. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  9. Calcagno G, Ouzren N, Kaminski S, Ghislin S, Frippiat JP.Chronic hypergravity induces a modification of histone H3 lysine 27 trimethylation at TCRβ locus in murine thymocytes.Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Jun 27;23(13):7133.Note: A large radius centrifuge was used in this study. This article is part of Special Issue “Cellular and Molecular Signaling Meet the Space Environment” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms/special_issues/Cellular_molecular_signaling_space). The Special Issue also includes articles from previous Current Awareness Lists #983 https://genelab.nasa.gov
  10. Kuzmenko NV, Rubanova NS, Pliss MG.Adaptability of the cardiovascular system in normotensive rats of various ages at fluctuations of air temperature and atmospheric pressure.Aviakosm Ekolog Med. 2022;56(3):25-32. Russian.
  11. Zhao F, Satyanarayana G, Zhang Z, Zhao J, Ma XL, Wang Y.Endothelial autophagy in coronary microvascular dysfunction and cardiovascular disease.Cells. 2022 Jun 30;11(13):2081. Review.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
  12. Varis N, Leinonen A, Parkkola K, Leino TK.Hyperventilation and hypoxia hangover during normobaric hypoxia training in Hawk simulator.Front Physiol. 2022 Jul 13;13:942249.Note: This article is part of Research Topic “Challenges of High Altitude Aviation: Hypergravity, Hyperoxia & Hypoxia” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/33175/challenges-of-high-altitude-aviation-hypergravity-hyperoxia-hypoxia#overview). Additional articles will be forthcoming and may be found in the link to the Research Topic. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  13. Nikolaev VP.Rate of ascent after a saturation dive to 500 meters on a heliox mixture.Aviakosm Ekolog Med. 2022;56(3):19-24. Russian.Note: From the abstract: “Using a modification of the U.S. Navy’s decompression and stop speed standard, a regime for lifting divers from a depth of 500 m with a duration of 18 days, 12 hours, 35 minutes has been built.”
  14. Hoffmann B, Dehkordi P, Khosrow-Khavar F, Goswami N, Blaber AP, Tavakolian K.Mechanical deconditioning of the heart due to long-term bed rest as observed on seismocardiogram morphology.npj Microgravity. 2022 Jul 12;8(1):25.Note: Bed rest study. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  15. Wang G, Zhang T, Wang A, Hurr C.Topical analgesic containing methyl salicylate and L-menthol accelerates heat loss during skin cooling for exercise-induced hyperthermia.Front Physiol. 2022 Jul 13;13:945969.Note: This article is part of Research Topic “Acute and Long-term health issues of occupational exposure to Heat and High physical loads” (https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/38624/acute-and-long-term-health-issues-of-occupational-exposure-to-heat-and-high-physical-loads#overview). Additional articles will be forthcoming and may be found in the link to the Research Topic. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  16. Heglum HSA, Drews HJ, Kallestad H, Vethe D, Langsrud K, Sand T, Engstrøm M.Contact-free radar recordings of body movement can reflect ultradian dynamics of sleep.J Sleep Res. 2022 Jul 6;e13687. Online ahead of print.Note: This article may be obtained online without charge.
  17. Nemirovskaya TL, Sharlo KA.Roles of ATP and SERCA in the regulation of calcium turnover in unloaded skeletal muscles: Current view and future directions.Int J Mol Sci. 2022 Jun 22;23(13):6937. Review.Note: This article is part of Special Issue “Skeletal Muscle Molecular Signalling in Various Models of Disuse and Unloading” (ps://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijms/special_issues/Skeletal_Muscle_Molecular_Signalling). The Special Issue also includes articles from Current Awareness Lists #972 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms221910444 and #983 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms23010148. This article may be obtained online without charge.
  18. Wang J, Di H.Natural light exposure and circadian rhythm: A potential therapeutic approach for disorders of consciousness.Sleep. 2022 Jul;45(7);zsac094.
  19. Ivanov АV, Kvasovets SV, Bubeev YA.Comprehensive neurocognitive testing in functional state telemonitoring.Aviakosm Ekolog Med. 2022;56(3):71-80. Russian.