Neutrophils controlled by optical tweezers pave the way for the creation of microrobots that deliver drugs to precise locations in the body.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 1069
Summary: Sleep age, a projected age that correlates to a person’s sleep health, may be a predictor of overall health and mortality risk.
Source: Stanford.
Numbers tell a story. From your credit score to your age, metrics predict a variety of outcomes, whether it’s your likelihood to get a loan or your risk for heart disease. Now, Stanford Medicine researchers have described another telling metric—one that can predict mortality. It’s called sleep age.
Novo Nordisk’s recent growth renaissance has arrived thanks in no small part to semaglutide—the GLP-1 molecule behind the company’s leading marketed trio of Ozempic, Rybelsus and Wegovy.
These days, much of the semaglutide hype surrounds Ozempic’s domination in diabetes, plus Wegovy’s potential to stir the slumbering giant that is the global obesity market. But even as the molecule’s metabolic empire prospers, Novo Nordisk isn’t letting its GLP-1 stay in its comfort zone. Novo is also pitting the drug against a pair of elusive targets: nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and Alzheimer’s disease.
And while CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen is quick to admit the company’s ambitions in these new diseases are among Novo’s “most risky” R&D endeavors, the payoff for patients could be “tremendous,” he said during a recent interview at Novo Nordisk’s headquarters in Plainsboro, New Jersey.
The promising results led to improved not only cognitive function but also brain connectivity.
An Inserm team at the Lille Neuroscience & Cognition laboratory is working with scientists at Lausanne University Hospital to evaluate the effectiveness of GnRH injection therapy in enhancing cognitive functions in a small group of Down syndrome patients, according to a press release published on Eurekalert.
Down syndrome is the most common chromosomal condition in the United States. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in every 6,000 babies born in the U.S. has Down syndrome. It causes various symptoms, such as deterioration in cognitive capacity.
Summary: Fentanyl exposure produces specific EEG signatures in the brain. The findings also revealed the drug impairs people’s breathing four minutes before noticeable changes in alertness.
Source: Mass General.
Fentanyl is used to supplement sedation and to relieve severe pain during and after surgery, but it’s also one of the deadliest drugs of the opioid epidemic.
Summary: A new study reveals a genetic link between Alzheimer’s disease and several gut-related disorders. Researchers report Alzheimer’s patients and those with intestinal disorders have specific genes in common. The findings add to the evidence the gut-brain axis may play a role in the development of neurodegenerative disorders.
Source: Edith Cowan University.
People with gut disorders may be at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease (AD).
Summary: Study reveals a novel mechanism in locus coeruleus neurons caused by the loss of the GPT2 mitochondrial enzyme that is implicated in the development and progression of neurodegenerative diseases.
Source: Brown University.
The locus coeruleus is among the first brain regions to degenerate in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, physicians and scientists have known. But why this area is so vulnerable is less understood.
Summary: Researchers created a form of artificial vision for a blind woman with the aid of a brain implant position in the visual cortex. The results pave the way for the creation of visual brain prosthetics to help the blind to regain sight.
Source: KNAW
Newly published research details how a team of scientists from the University Miguel Hernández (Spain), the Netherlands Institute of Neuroscience (Netherlands) and the John A. Moran Eye Center at the University of Utah (USA) successfully created a form of artificial vision for a blind woman using a brain implant.
Summary: Researchers have developed a cornea implant from the collagen protein of pig skin. The implant restored the vision of 20 people with diseased corneas. The new implant could be a viable alternative to human cornea transplantation.
Source: Linkoping University.
Researchers and entrepreneurs have developed an implant made of collagen protein from pig’s skin, which resembles the human cornea. In a pilot study, the implant restored vision to 20 people with diseased corneas, most of whom were blind prior to receiving the implant.
Summary: A 20-minute session of non-invasive brain stimulation over four days helps to improve both working and long-term memory in those aged 65 and older.
Source: Boston University.
According to the Alzheimer’s Association, an estimated 6.5 million Americans aged 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s in 2022. That figure is predicted to nearly double by 2050.