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Category: biotech/medical – Page 152

Nanoparticle vaccine prevents multiple cancers and stops metastasis in mice

A study led by University of Massachusetts Amherst researchers demonstrates that their nanoparticle-based vaccine can effectively prevent melanoma, pancreatic and triple-negative breast cancer in mice. Not only did up to 88% of the vaccinated mice remain tumor-free (depending on the cancer), but the vaccine reduced—and in some cases completely prevented—the cancer’s spread.

The study is published in Cell Reports Medicine.

“By engineering these nanoparticles to activate the immune system via multi-pathway activation that combines with cancer-specific antigens, we can prevent with remarkable survival rates,” says Prabhani Atukorale, assistant professor of biomedical engineering in the Riccio College of Engineering at UMass Amherst and corresponding author on the paper.

Bird flu persists in raw milk cheese, study demonstrates

Raw milk cheese products contained infectious avian influenza virus when made with contaminated raw milk, creating potential health risks for consumers, according to a new study.

At the same time, no virus was detected in test samples of highly acidic raw milk cheese. Feta cheese is an example of a more acidic variety.

The study is published in Nature Medicine.

Novel immunotherapy combination destroys colorectal liver metastases

Advanced colon cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related death in young American men and the second highest worldwide. In the majority of these patients, as the cancer advances it metastasizes to the liver. Despite progress in surgical therapies aimed at eradicating the cancer, many of these patients will have tumor recurrence in the liver.

Now, researchers from UC San Francisco (UCSF), have discovered that a novel combination of immunotherapies can reprogram the immune environment of colon cancer tumors that spread to the liver. In preclinical models, this therapy often eliminated tumors entirely, offering a potential new path for treating patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

Their study appears in Science Advances.

Scientists are collecting toenail clippings to reveal radon exposure and lung cancer risk

At 47 years of age, Emi Bossio was feeling good about where she was. She had a successful law practice, two growing children and good health. Then she developed a nagging cough. The diagnosis to come would take her breath away.

“I never smoked, never. I ate nutritiously and stayed fit. I thought to myself, I can’t have lung cancer,” says Bossio. “It was super shocking. A cataclysmic moment. There are no words to describe it.”

Bossio had to give up her law practice to focus on treatment and healing. As part of that journey, she’s taken on a new role as an advocate to increase awareness about lung cancer. She still has no idea what caused her lung cancer. Trying to answer that question is how Bossio became interested in the research Dr. Aaron Goodarzi, Ph.D., is doing at the University of Calgary.

Synaptic Dysfunction in Dementia Can Be Modelled in Patient-Derived Neurons

Neurons produced from frontotemporal dementia patients’ skin biopsies using modern stem cell technology recapitulate the synaptic loss and dysfunction detected in the patients’ brains, a new study from the University of Eastern Finland shows.

Frontotemporal dementia is a progressive neurodegenerative disease affecting the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain. The most common symptoms are behavioral changes, difficulties in understanding or producing speech, problems in movement, and psychiatric symptoms. Often, frontotemporal dementia has no identified genetic cause, but especially in Finnish patients, hexanucleotide repeat expansion in the C9orf72 gene is a common genetic cause, present in about half of the familial cases and in 20 per cent of the sporadic cases where there is no family history of the disease. However, the disease mechanisms of the different forms of frontotemporal dementia are still poorly understood, and there are currently no effective diagnostic tests or treatments affecting the progression of the disease in clinical use.

Brain imaging and neurophysiological studies have shown that pathological and functional changes underlying the symptoms occur at synapses, the connections between brain neurons, in frontotemporal dementia patients. PET imaging studies have shown significant synapse loss in the brain, and transcranial magnetic stimulation, on the other hand, has indicated disturbed function of both excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitter systems, leading to deficient neurotransmission. Often, drugs affecting the different neurotransmitter systems are used to mitigate the symptoms of frontotemporal dementia patients.

Chinese medicine extract tetrandrine’s precise mechanism of action opens new avenues for drug discovery

With this discovery, the researchers propose that tetrandrine can be used to disrupt processes critical to the survival and replication of viruses, such as Ebola and COVID-19, by targeting LIMP-2 to alter lysosomal calcium release.

Importantly, these findings highlight lysosome-related mechanisms as a new frontier for , offering novel strategies for treating diseases caused by calcium imbalance, including neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, as well as certain metastatic cancers.

Prof. Ko said, “This is the first time a function of LIMP-2 in calcium signaling has been uncovered. From a cell biology perspective, our study has revealed a completely new pathway for NAADP-regulated calcium signaling, through LIMP-2 and sphingosine. From an anti-viral treatment perspective, the study has identified LIMP-2 as a key target of tetrandrine for the treatment of Ebola virus infection, with broader applications in other antiviral therapies.”

Enhancing the industrial relevance of alcohol dehydrogenase enzymes by exploiting their ‘hidden reactivity’

Amides and thioesters are ubiquitous compounds in chemistry, used for the production of medicines, natural products, and advanced materials. Traditionally, their synthesis is a messy business, involving wasteful reagents, toxic metals, or energy-intensive conditions.

MIT and Harvard Build “Invisible” Immune Cells That Obliterate Cancer

MIT and Harvard scientists have created engineered CAR-NK cells that can hide from the immune system and more effectively destroy cancer.

The cells are designed to suppress immune-rejection signals and enhance tumor-killing power. Tested in humanized mice, they wiped out cancer while avoiding dangerous immune reactions.

A major breakthrough in immune engineering.

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