Hubble Captures M88 on Journey to Center of Virgo Cluster - UNIVERSE

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy Messier 88 (M88).

ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker

The focus of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is an active spiral galaxy on a journey lasting hundreds of millions of years. The galaxy Messier 88 (M88), also known as NGC 4501, is located about 63 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair). 

M88 is an active galaxy, which means that its center harbors a supermassive black hole that is snacking on gas and dust. Astronomers estimate the black hole is around 100 million times as massive as the Sun, and it appears to be powering outflows of gas from the galaxy’s center.

A population of old, reddish stars around the black hole give M88 its warmly glowing heart. Spreading out from the galaxy’s center are several tightly wound, symmetrical spiral arms, each outlined by sparkling pink and blue star clusters and knotted clouds of dust. We see M88 from an angle that makes it appear elongated, and its spiral arms delicately fan out before it.

M88 is a member of the Virgo Cluster, a collection of more than a thousand galaxies held together by gravity. As this massive galaxy group moves through space, the galaxies themselves are in constant motion as they orbit the cluster’s center of gravity. M88 itself is on a long and somewhat perilous cosmic journey that will bring it to the innermost reaches of the cluster.

As is the case with any epic journey, M88 will be fundamentally changed by its trek to the center of the Virgo Cluster, about two million light-years from where it is today. In 200–300 million years, M88 will make its closest approach to Messier 87, the massive elliptical galaxy that anchors the entire cluster. As it draws close to this gravitational behemoth, M88 will experience intense ram pressure stripping. Ram pressure stripping is a process through which a galaxy’s gas is swept away as it pushes through the ever-present gas between the galaxies in a cluster.

Researchers have already seen this process at work in M88. The galaxy’s swirling disk of gas is truncated and appears compressed on the leading edge of the galaxy, piling up gas and dust like snow before a plough. In fact, M88 appears to have considerably less cold gas — the raw fuel for star formation — than expected for a galaxy of its size, especially in its outer regions. This is a clear sign that M88 will be altered by its journey, which will affect its ability to form stars and alter the course of its evolution.

Astronomers observed M88 with Hubble as part of an observing program (#18103; PI: D. Thilker) dedicated to understanding the lives of spiral galaxies in crowded environments. This program uses Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, which can finely resolve individual star clusters and nebulae in galaxies tens of millions of light-years away. By studying galaxies on these scales, astronomers can understand how a journey through a cluster impacts a galaxy’s evolution and ability to form new stars.

Text credit: ESA/Hubble 

Source: Hubble Captures M88 on Journey to Center of Virgo Cluster - NASA Science 

Beyond Weight Loss: The Week’s Two Biggest Drug Stories You Should Know About

Ozempic and its siblings have dominated medical headlines for years first for diabetes, then for weight loss, then for heart health. This week, two new studies push the story even further, in very different directions.

GLP-1 Drugs May Fight Addiction Too

A massive new study out of Washington University School of Medicine, published in The BMJ, analyzed the health records of more than 600,000 U.S. veterans with type 2 diabetes. The question researchers asked was unusually broad: do GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) reduce substance use disorders, not just for one substance, but across the board?

The answer was yes.

People taking GLP-1 medications were less likely to develop substance use disorders involving alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, cocaine, opioids, and other drugs. Among those already struggling with addiction, GLP-1 users experienced fewer overdoses, hospitalizations, emergency visits, and drug-related deaths.

The study tracked participants for up to three years after they began GLP-1 treatment, comparing them to a control group taking a different diabetes drug. Researchers followed over 524,000 participants without a prior substance use disorder, and more than 81,000 who already had one.

What’s the mechanism? GLP-1 receptor agonists appear to modulate dopamine reward signaling, the same pathway implicated in addiction, which may explain why patients on these drugs have long reported decreased interest in alcohol and nicotine.

Caution is warranted, though. The findings are not yet sufficient to justify choosing GLP-1s over approved addiction treatments like naltrexone. More trials are expected to read out later this year. But the consistency of the effect across every major addictive substance studied is striking, and researchers say it strongly supports the case for dedicated clinical trials.

A New Pill That Works Completely Differently

Meanwhile, researchers at the Karolinska Institutet and Stockholm University published a study in Cell describing a new experimental tablet for type 2 diabetes and obesity, one that takes a fundamentally different approach from anything currently on the market.

Unlike GLP-1 drugs, which work mainly by reducing hunger through signals between the gut and the brain, this new compound targets skeletal muscle directly and activates its metabolism rather than focusing on appetite.

The implications are significant. One of the known downsides of GLP-1 drugs is muscle loss some studies have shown they can reduce lean muscle mass by up to 60% during weight loss, which slows resting metabolism and makes it harder to maintain results long-term. The new pill appears to sidestep this problem entirely.

In animal studies, the medication successfully controlled blood glucose, boosted fat burning, and retained muscle mass. In an early human clinical trial with 48 healthy adults and 25 people with type 2 diabetes, it received high marks for tolerability and safety.

In combination with GLP-1 therapy in animal models, the drug was even able to counteract the muscle loss that typically occurs with incretin-based weight loss treatments, suggesting it could eventually be used alongside Ozempic rather than instead of it.

As one of the lead researchers put it: “Muscles are important in both type 2 diabetes and obesity, and muscle mass is also directly correlated with life expectancy.”

The drug is still early-stage, headed into larger trials. But the underlying approach, boosting the body’s own metabolic engine rather than dialing down appetite — represents a genuinely new direction in a field that has been dominated by one mechanism for years.

Two studies, two very different paths forward. One expands what we thought a diabetes drug could do. The other challenges the assumption that suppressing hunger is the only way forward. Worth watching.

 

Sources

·         GLP-1 receptor agonists and risks of substance use disorders among US veterans with type 2 diabetes — The BMJ

·         GRK-biased adrenergic agonists for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and obesity — Cell

Source: Beyond Weight Loss: The Week’s Two Biggest Drug Stories You Should Know About – Scents of Science