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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,197

Circa 2021 Secretomes of human pluripotent stem cell-derived smooth muscle cell progenitors upregulate extracellular matrix metabolism in the lower urinary tract and vagina.

Adult mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have been studied extensively for regenerative medicine; however, they have limited proliferation in vitro, and the long culture time induces cell senescence. MSCs also contribute to tissue repair through their paracrine function. In this study, we sought to examine the paracrine effects of human smooth muscle cell progenitors (pSMC) on the urethra and adjacent vagina of stress urinary incontinence rodents. We use human pluripotent stem cell (PSC) lines to derive pSMCs to overcome the issue of decreased proliferation in tissue culture and to obtain a homogenous cell population.

Three human PSC lines were differentiated into pSMCs. The conditioned medium (CM) from pSMC culture, which contain pSMC secretomes, was harvested. To examine the effect of the CM on the extracellular matrix of the lower urinary tract, human bladder smooth muscle cells (bSMCs) and vaginal fibroblasts were treated with pSMC-CM in vitro. Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) was induced in rats by surgical injury of the urethra and adjacent vagina. SUI rats were treated with pSMC-CM and monitored for 5 weeks. Urethral pressure testing was performed prior to euthanasia, and tissues were harvested for PCR, Western blot, and histological staining. Kruskal-Wallis one-way ANOVA test and Student t test were used for statistical comparisons.

pSMC-CM upregulated MMP-2, TIMP-2, collagen, and elastin gene expression, and MMP-9 activity in the human bladder and vaginal cells consistent with elastin metabolism modulation. pSMC-CM treatment in the SUI rat improved urethral pressure (increase in leak point pressure compared to intact controls, p 0.05) and increased collagen and elastin expression in the urethra and the adjacent vagina.

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In what appears to be a very promising breakthrough for the treatment of rectal cancer, a small drug trial conducted in the US found every patient treated in the experiment had their cancer successfully go into remission.

The medication given, called dostarlimab and sold under the brand name Jemperli, is an immunotherapy drug used in the treatment of endometrial cancer, but this was the first clinical investigation of whether it was also effective against rectal cancer tumors.

The early results reported so far suggest it is surprisingly effective, with the research team saying the successful cancer remission seen in every trial patient may be unprecedented for a cancer drug intervention.

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Promising. Very early yet, but promising nonetheless.

It was a small trial, just 18 rectal cancer patients, every one of whom took the same drug.

But the results were astonishing. The cancer vanished in every single patient, undetectable by physical exam; endoscopy; positron emission tomography, or PET scans; or MRI scans.

Dr. Luis A. Diaz Jr. of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, an author of a paper published Sunday in the New England Journal of Medicine describing the results, which were sponsored by drug company GlaxoSmithKline, said he knew of no other study in which a treatment completely obliterated a cancer in every patient.

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(CNN)A weekly dose of a medication recently approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat type 2 diabetes may help adults without diabetes lose weight as well, a new study found.

A recently approved drug for diabetes that helped users lose weight was also tested on overweight people without diabetes, with “impressive” results that rival weight loss surgery, experts say.

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Researchers built a 3D model and tested it on young mice who were not yet capable of producing sperm – and after 5–7 weeks, sperm cells in the process of developing were discovered in the model, marking the success of the experiment.

“This system may also serve as an innovative platform for examining the effect of drugs and toxins on male fertility” Prof. Mahmoud Huleihel, BGU’s Faculty of Health Sciences

“This study opens up a new horizon in the process of creating sperm cells in a culture,” says study co-author Prof. Mahmoud Huleihel from BGU’s Faculty of Health Sciences. “It enables the implementation of microfluidic-based technologies in future therapeutic strategies for infertile men and in the preservation of fertility for children undergoing aggressive chemotherapy/radiotherapy treatments that may impair their fertility in puberty.”

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“Ultrasonic frequencies are already being used in destructive procedures like laser ablation of tissues and tumours,” said Prof. Muthukumaran Packirisamy, who led the study along with Dr. Mohsen Habibi and PhD student Shervin Foroughi. “We wanted to use them to create something.”

For instance, utilizing the technique, aircraft mechanics could conceivably 3D-print repairs onto internal components, without opening the plane’s fuselage. It’s even possible that implants could be 3D printed within a patient’s body, without the need for surgery.

Besides the PDMS resin, the scientists have also successfully used DSP to print objects made of ceramic material. They now plan on experimenting with polymer-metal composites, followed by pure metal.

3D printing typically involves depositing layers of molten plastic, laser-melting powdered metal, or using UV light to harden gelatinous resin. A new technique takes yet another approach, however, by utilizing sound waves.

Developed by a team of scientists at Canada’s Concordia University, the technology is known as direct sound printing (DSP).

In the current version of the technique, a transducer is used to send focused pulses of ultrasound through the sides of a chamber, into liquid polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) resin contained within. Doing so produces ultrasonic fields, which cause rapidly oscillating microscopic bubbles to temporarily form at specific points in the resin.

Continue reading “New type of 3D printing uses sound waves to build up objects” | >

Observer, backup youthful copy, playing the right piano notes, quantum states oh my.

Dr David Sinclair explain about through his lab experiments, why he thinks there is an observer/backup copy for our youthfulness and what are the possible identities he can think of in this clip.

David Sinclair is a professor in the Department of Genetics and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Aging at Harvard Medical School, where he and his colleagues study sirtuins—protein-modifying enzymes that respond to changing NAD+ levels and to caloric restriction—as well as chromatin, energy metabolism, mitochondria, learning and memory, neurodegeneration, cancer, and cellular reprogramming.

Dr David Sinclair has suggested that aging is a disease—and that we may soon have the tools to put it into remission—and he has called for greater international attention to the social, economic and political and benefits of a world in which billions of people can live much longer and much healthier lives.

Dr David Sinclair is the co-founder of several biotechnology companies (Life Biosciences, Sirtris, Genocea, Cohbar, MetroBiotech, ArcBio, Liberty Biosecurity) and is on the boards of several others.

Continue reading “WHO Is The OBSERVER That Holds The Key For OUR YOUTHFULNESS? | Dr David Sinclair Interview Clips” | >

Alzheimer’s disease has long thwarted our best efforts to pinpoint its underlying causes. Now, a new study in mice suggests that ‘poisonous flowers’ bulging with cellular debris could be the root source of one hallmark of the wretched disease and a beautifully sinister sign of a failing waste disposal system inside damaged brain cells.

The study, led by neuroscientist Ju-Hyun Lee of New York University (NYU) Langone, challenges the long-standing idea that the build-up of a protein called amyloid-beta between neurons is a crucial first step in Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia.

Instead, it suggests that damage to neurons may take root inside cells well before amyloid plaques fully form and clump together in the brain, a finding which could provide new therapeutic possibilities.

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