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Scientists have mapped the genomes of four species of tapeworm, identifying new potential drug targets including some on which existing pharmaceuticals may act.

The genomes also offer insights into the evolution of parasitism. Tapeworms are distantly related to blood flukes and have metabolism that is finely tuned to rely on nutrients scavenged from their hosts.

Scientists have shown that it is possible to grow teeth from adult gum cells.

Cells were isolated from adult gum tissue and then combined with mouse embryonic tooth cells. Teeth with developing roots were produced, which contained dentin and enamel of human origin.

It is likely to be more than a decade before it is possible to engineer a whole tooth suitable for implantation, and adult sources of large numbers of human epithelial and mesenchymal cells need to be found.

A small study showed that only 12 hours of playing action video games improved the reading abilities of children with dyslexia.

Attentional skills also improved during action video game training. It has been demonstrated that action video games efficiently improve attention abilities, and the new study showed that this attention improvement can directly translate into better reading ability.

A small study of 23 pregnant women found that babies of obese mothers have thicker artery walls.

Commenting on the research, the British Heart Foundation said,

These results could suggest a direct link between a mother’s weight during pregnancy and her child’s risk of cardiovascular disease.

However, this was a very small study of just 23 women and we would need to see research on a much larger scale to make any firm conclusions. Also, since the babies were only examined at one week old, we don’t know what these findings may mean for their heart health as their life continues.

Insufficient sleep and circadian rhythm disruption are associated with health problems including obesity, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive impairment. Analysis of blood RNA samples showed that after just one week, 711 genes are affected by insufficient sleep.

The affected genes were associated with circadian rhythms, sleep homeostasis, oxidative stress, and metabolism. Biological processes affected included chromatin modification, gene-expression regulation, macromolecular metabolism, and inflammatory, immune and stress responses.

A large study has found that caffeine intake is associated with decreased birth weight, and that coffee consumption was associated with marginally increased gestational length.

The research was based on the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study and included more than 59000 women. The main caffeine source was coffee, but tea and chocolate were the main sources in women with low caffeine intake.

Even caffeine consumption below the currently recommended maximum (200mg/day) was associated with an increased risk of the fetus being small for gestational age. Caffeine passes the placental barrier; the fetus does not express the main enzymes that inactivate it, and caffeine metabolites have been found to accumulate in the fetal brain.