By restoring some functions to intact brains from deceased donors, the startup Bexorg hopes to create a better drug development test bed for neurodegenerative diseases
Category: biotech/medical – Page 159
Could Telomeres Reverse Aging?
What if aging isn’t just “getting older” but the gradual breakdown of the biological systems protecting our DNA? Scientists are now exploring therapies designed to directly lengthen telomeres, the protective caps linked to cellular aging itself. The future of longevity may be far more programmable than we thought.
Scientists just discovered what coffee is really doing to your gut and brain
C Decaf even improved learning and memory, while caffeine boosted focus and reduced anxiety. Together, they show coffee works through multiple pathways beyond just caffeine.
Researchers at APC Microbiome Ireland, a leading research center at University College Cork, have taken a major step toward understanding how coffee benefits the body. For the first time, scientists have closely examined how coffee interacts with the gut-brain axis, the communication network that links the digestive system and the brain.
The findings, published in Nature Communications and supported by the Institute for Scientific Information on Coffee (ISIC), show that regularly drinking both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee can shape the gut microbiome and influence mood and stress.
Reversing Humanity’s #1 Killer
Heart disease still kills nearly 20 MILLION people every year worldwide — roughly 1 person every 1.5 seconds. — But what if medicine could move beyond simply slowing plaque buildup…and actually REMOVE toxic oxidized cholesterol from arteries? — Dr. Matthew “Oki” O’Connor, CEO and Co-Founder, Cyclarity Therapeutics.
In the time it will take you watch this episode, over 2,000 people around the world will die from diseases driven by arterial plaque. But what if we could actually remove the toxic cholesterol already trapped inside arteries?
Today we’re diving into one of the biggest unsolved problems in medicine and aging: how do you actually remove arterial plaque instead of merely slowing its progression?
Cardiovascular disease remains the world’s leading killer, despite decades of statins, anti-inflammatory drugs, and newer RNA-based therapies. Most existing treatments help manage cholesterol and reduce risk, but very few directly target the toxic debris already embedded inside plaques.
But what if we could literally extract some of the most dangerous oxidized cholesterol molecules from the body?
Multiplexed MRI provides a comprehensive view of the human brain
New multiplexed imaging technology using standard clinical MRI systems can simultaneously map more than 20 biomarkers in high resolution, providing a comprehensive view of the brain with a single scan.
Researchers demonstrated the multiplexed MRI technology, or MRx, by characterizing brain tumors and multiple sclerosis lesions — revealing different structural, physiological and molecular changes within the diseases. The team reported its findings in the journal Nature.
“MRx can be a powerful tool for noninvasive tissue characterization, helping to advance personalized, precision and predictive medicine,” the author said. “By providing rich, multidimensional biomarkers to capture disease progression and treatment response, this capability could open new opportunities for more precise diagnosis, individualized treatment planning and improved patient outcomes.”
Recurrent Limitations of CAR-T Therapy in Gliomas: Evidence from Preclinical and Phase I Clinical Studies
In recent years, the development of new immunotherapy strategies has been a significant breakthrough in cancer treatment. Among these, engineered T cell therapy with chimeric antigen receptors (CAR-T) has produced notable clinical results, especially in hematological malignancies. This success has sparked growing interest in extending the application of CAR-Ts to solid tumors, including gliomas. Gliomas—in particular, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM)—are among the most aggressive primary brain tumors, associated with a poor prognosis and a median survival of approximately one year after diagnosis. However, the translation of CAR-T therapy to gliomas presents significant challenges, related to factors such as tumor heterogeneity, presence of the blood–brain barrier (BBB), and a strongly immunosuppressive tumor environment.
Neurotransmitter Systems in Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the leading cause of global dementia, is a multifactorial process that goes beyond the accumulation of β-amyloid (Aβ) plaques and tau protein tangles, including glia cell-mediated neuroinflammation, vascular dysfunction, metabolic alterations, and synaptic loss. Its complex etiology also involves oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction. Multiple neurotransmitter systems involved in the pathogenesis and the various cognitive and non-cognitive symptoms of AD are thus altered. The cholinergic system, historically the first to be associated with AD, suffers early degeneration and loss of neurons/receptors, correlating with cognitive impairment. The glutamatergic system, the main excitatory system, exhibits excitotoxicity due to increased extracellular glutamate and alterations in NMDA/AMPA receptor distribution, exacerbating neuronal damage.
A new light-based sensor could help make ultrasensitive disease testing more portable
When we think about highly sensitive medical testing, we often imagine a hospital laboratory filled with large instruments, trained technicians, and carefully controlled conditions. This is especially true for optical biosensing, where scientists try to detect extremely small changes caused by biomolecules binding to a sensor surface.
These tiny changes can carry important information about disease, treatment response, or biological function. But detecting them often requires precise spectrometers, stable light sources, and carefully aligned instruments. This makes many advanced biosensing technologies powerful in the laboratory, but difficult to use in smaller clinics, remote regions, or point-of-care settings.
In our recent study, now published in Nature Photonics, we asked a simple question: Can we make high-performance label-free biosensing smaller, more robust, and easier to scale, without sacrificing sensitivity?