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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,352

Unintended Effects of Anti-Cancer Drugs

Drug development is a huge component of healthcare research that continues to grow, however, about 90% of drugs generated fail to make it to clinical trials. Drugs designed to target cancer fail due to many different obstacles including the tumor microenvironment (TME), which is the area surrounding the tumor. The TME is comprised of multiple cells generated to suppress the immune system and allow the tumor to grow. Since there are many mechanisms involved that makeup the TME, it is difficult to prescribe patients anti-cancer drugs that completely kill the tumor. Often a combination therapies are needed, but doctors run the risk of adverse side effects in patients due to toxicity of too many drugs.

Recently, a study published in eLife from Dr. Jennifer Gerton at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Missouri reported one critical reason why patients may experience unexpected side effects on the cellular level.

Bat biotech takes flight

Fascinating discussion of how biotech companies (esp. Paratus) and academic researchers are leveraging the unique immunobiology of bats to find new ways of treating inflammation, cancer, infections, metabolic diseases, and more. Exploration through comparative genomic approaches as well as newly created bat iPSCs is yielding mechanistic discoveries that could inform the medicines of tomorrow. #biotech #molecularbiology #genomics #stemcells

Harnessing the unusual biology of bats, researchers aim to turn drug discovery upside-down.

Immune cell discovery could lead to improved chronic worm treatment

Monash University researchers have uncovered why some intestinal worm infections become chronic in animal models, which could eventually lead to human vaccines and improved treatments.

Parasitic worms, also called helminths, usually infect the host by living in the gut. About a quarter of the world population is afflicted with helminth infections.

They are highly prevalent in developing countries such as sub-Saharan Africa, South America and some tropical countries in Asia. In Australia, they can be a problem in First Nations communities.

DARPA and other federal agencies work on strategies to revive America’s chip industry

Tech executives, researchers and government officials are gathering in Seattle this week to figure out ways to add a new dimension to America’s chip industry — figuratively and literally.

“We’re going to talk about a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reinvent domestic microelectronics manufacturing,” Mark Rosker, director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Microsystems Technology Office, said today at the opening session of the ERI 2.0 Summit at the Hyatt Regency Seattle.

More than 1,300 attendees signed up for the DARPA event, which follows up on a series of Electronics Resurgence Initiative Summits that were conducted before the COVID-19 pandemic.

New gene-editing technique offers path to precision therapies

PNP editing is emerging as a versatile and programmable tool for site-specific DNA manipulations. An innovative genome-editing technique could enhance the delivery, specificity and targeting of gene-modifying tools for treatments.

The KAUST-developed method combines two molecular technologies: a synthetic family of DNA-like molecules known as peptide (PNAs), and a class of DNA-cutting enzymes known as prokaryotic Argonautes (pAgos).

The PNAs first unzip and slip inside the DNA helix. The pAgos, guided by short fragments of genetic material, then bind the loosened helix at specific target sequences and nick each opposing strand of DNA.

Why do we hate the sound of our own voices?

Even though we may actually sound more like our recorded voice to others, I think the reason so many of us squirm upon hearing it is not that the recorded voice is necessarily worse than our perceived voice. Instead, we’re simply more used to hearing ourselves sound a certain way.

A study published in 2005 had patients with voice problems rate their own voices when presented with recordings of them. They also had clinicians rate the voices. The researchers found that patients, across the board, tended to more negatively rate the quality of their recorded voice compared with the objective assessments of clinicians.

So if the voice in your head castigates the voice coming out of a recording device, it’s probably your inner critic overreacting – and you’re judging yourself a bit too harshly.

Eye Scans Can Detect Parkinson’s Years Before Symptoms Emerge

Human eyes are the only natural window we have into a person’s central nervous system.

By looking through them, scientists have found very early signs of Parkinson’s disease, up to seven years before symptoms emerge.

The findings are based on three-dimensional eye scans, which are commonly used by optometrists to examine the health of someone’s retina – the layer of nerve cells at the back of the eye.

Cancer, Mitochondria and Healthy Aging?

I recently just read a post about the “University of Queensland researchers discovered that the protein ATFS-1 aids in cell longevity by balancing new mitochondria creation and repair.”

It reminded me of this:

I recently came across an article about nurturing your mitochondria. One of the benefits to doing this relates to aging — apparently looking after your mitochondria will help counteract much of what we associate with aging, such as declining energy levels.

What I also found fascinating — their suggestions fit very well with many of the methods I’ve been using to fight cancer.

For example:

Stem Cell Therapy Rescues Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

In the study, published August 8, 2023 in Cell Reports, the researchers demonstrate that transplanting hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells was effective in rescuing multiple signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s in a mouse model of the disease. Mice that received healthy hematopoietic stem cells showed preserved memory and cognition, reduced neuroinflammation and significantly less β-amyloid build-up compared to other Alzheimer’s mice.

Future studies will further explore how the healthy transplanted cells produced such significant improvements, and whether similar transplant strategies can be used to alleviate Alzheimer’s symptoms in humans.

“Alzheimer’s disease poses a major emotional and economic burden on our society, yet there is no effective treatment available,” said Cherqui. “We are excited to see such promising preclinical results from hematopoietic stem cell therapy and look forward to developing a new therapeutic approach for this devastating disease.”

Co-authors of the study include: Alexander Silva, Jay Sharma, Jacqueline Nguyen, Donald P. Pizzo and Debashis Sahoo, all at UC San Diego, as well as Denise Hinz at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.

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