Lifeboat Foundation

A common and inexpensive drug may be used to counteract treatment resistance in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), one of the most common forms of blood cancer. This is the conclusion of a study in mice and human blood cells performed at Karolinska Institutet and SciLifeLab and published in the medical journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. The researchers will now launch a clinical study to test the new combination treatment in patients.

Leukemia is a group of blood cancers that results in excess amounts of white blood cells. There are both chronic forms of leukemia that progress slowly over many years and acute types of leukemia that evolve rapidly. AML affects more than 20,000 people in the United States each year, and the mortality rate is high especially in older patients.

One of the most common drugs to treat AML is cytarabine (ara-C), a cytotoxic drug that interferes with DNA replication. However, many patients do not respond to the treatment because their leukemic cells express high levels of the enzyme SAMHD1, which breaks down the active metabolite of cytarabine, ara-CTP. These patients have a significantly worse survival rate than patients with low leukemic levels of SAMHD1. Therefore, one promising strategy to improve the treatment of AML is to inhibit the effects of this enzyme on cytarabine.

Continue reading “Cheap drug may alleviate treatment-resistance in leukemia” »

Marilyn had extensive fusion surgery all the way from her midback to the entire lower back. The surgery was done to fix her curvature in her spine.

Unfortunately, it did not help and she continued to have pain.

Continue reading “Can Stem Cells salvage failed Spinal Fusion Surgeries?” »

The chemicals, known as PFAS, have been associated with cancer, liver damage, and developmental issues.

Advancements in neurotechnology are blurring the line between biology and technology. There is an emerging push to implant electronic devices inside the human body, hardwire them to our brains, and allow us to not only overcome disadvantages or injury but open up entirely new avenues of human experience.

VICE’s Thomas Morton got an inside look at what might be the next evolutionary step for humankind.

Continue reading “How To Hack A Human Brain | VICE on HBO” »

Tau accumulation is associated with disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease. Here the authors use resting state fMRI and tau-PET to demonstrate that baseline connectivity in Alzheimer’s disease is associated with tau spreading.

This article is reprinted by permission from NextAvenue.org.

During the last Alzheimer’s disease support meeting I attended at my mother’s assisted living center, I sheepishly asked if anyone else was worried about their own risk for the disease.

A lot of hands went up.

Continue reading “7 rules to reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s and keep your brain healthy” »

POHANG, South Korea, Jan. 15, 2020 — A research team from Pohang University of Science and Technology in South Korea (POSTECH) developed technology that allows diagnosis of diabetes and treatment of diabetic retinopathy by wearing smart light-emitting diode (LED) contact lenses.

Scientists have created the world’s first living, self-healing robots using stem cells from frogs.

Named xenobots after the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) from which they take their stem cells, the machines are less than a millimeter (0.04 inches) wide — small enough to travel inside human bodies. They can walk and swim, survive for weeks without food and work together in groups.

These are “entirely new life-forms,” said the University of Vermont, which conducted the research with Tufts University.

Continue reading “Meet the xenobot: world’s first living, self-healing robots created from frog stem cells” »

The virus is from the same family as MERS and SARS, which caused deadly international outbreaks.