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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,607

University of Maryland scientists discover that match matters: The right combination of parents in nematode worms can turn a gene off indefinitely.

Evidence suggests that what happens in one generation — diet, toxin exposure, trauma, fear — can have lasting effects on future generations. Scientists believe these effects result from epigenetic changes that occur in response to the environment and turn genes on or off without altering the genome or DNA sequence.

But how these changes are passed down through generations has not been understood, in part, because scientists have not had a simple way to study the phenomenon. A new study by researchers at the University of Maryland provides a potential tool for unraveling the mystery of how experiences can cause inheritable changes to an animal’s biology. By mating nematode worms, they produced permanent epigenetic changes that lasted for more than 300 generations. The research was published on July 9, 2021, in the journal Nature Communications.

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Summary: Axonal swelling in the Purkinje cells of mice had no detrimental impact on firing rate or the speed at which axons transmit signals. At peak firing rate, axons with swellings were less likely to fail than those without.

Source: McGill University.

Researchers at McGill University have shown that a brain cell structure previously thought to be pathological in fact enhances cells’ ability to transmit information and correlates with better learning on certain tasks.

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To develop its drug, Vir “deliberately isolated an antibody that binds to a part of the virus that is very difficult for the virus to mutate,” he said. That piece of the virus is “conserved, not only in all the variants, but in SARS-1… and in a whole family of coronaviruses.”

Vir knew the variant onslaught was coming, said the company’s executive vice president of research and chief scientific officer, Herbert “Skip” Virgin, M.D., Ph.D. So far, added Scangos, its premise of targeting a conserved site to maintain efficacy against mutations “seems to be holding true.”

Sotrovimab “appears to retain activity against variants of concern” like alpha, beta, gamma, epsilon and iota, the National Institutes of Health noted in recently updated COVID-19 treatment guidelines. Last week, GSK and Vir provided data suggesting that delta also belongs to that list. Updated lab experiment data posted on the preprint repository bioRxiv showed sotrovimab’s activity against 14 variants including the troubling delta variant—which first surfaced in India and appears to spread more rapidly than the already-speedy alpha—was very similar to that against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus.

While several vaccines now stand tall in the fight against COVID-19, therapies—and antibody drugs in particular—have had a decidedly tougher time. Saddled with access issues and beset by fast-emerging variants, firstcomer Eli Lilly has recently been forced to rethink its tactics. Now, GlaxoSmithKline and Vir Biotechnology are applying those lessons to their solo agent sotrovimab.

Backed by promising phase 3 data and lab results showing efficacy against a suite of virus variants including the lurking delta variant, sotrovimab still has a big role to play in the pandemic, executives from GSK and Vir said in a recent joint interview with Fierce Pharma and Fierce Biotech.

Federal officials seem to agree. Late last week, the U.S. paused the distribution of Eli Lilly’s combo of bamlanivimab and etesevimab until further notice, citing the ascent of the gamma and beta variants stateside. With Lilly’s drug struggling to keep pace with mutations, the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness Response and the FDA urged healthcare providers to switch to other authorized antibodies like sotrovimab and Regeneron’s cocktail REGEN-COV, both of which are “likely to retain activity” against the gamma and beta variants, which now make up more than 11% of sequenced U.S. coronavirus cases, ASPR said in a release.

Continue reading “GSK and Vir, navigating early antibody pitfalls, tout delta variant-busting data for latecomer sotrovimab” | >

Humans are integrating with technology. Not in the future – now. With the emergence of custom prosthetics that make us stronger and faster, neural implants that change how our brains work, and new senses and abilities that you’ve never dreamed of having, it’s time to start imagining what a better version of you might look like.

From reality-enhancing implants to brain-controlled exoskeletons, breakthroughs in bio-tech have fuelled a new fusion of machinery and organic matter.

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World Economic Forum Founder Klaus Schwab opens Cyber Polygon 2021 with a warning: “A lack of cybersecurity has become a clear and immediate danger to our society worldwide.”

Giving the welcoming remarks at Cyber Polygon for the second year in a row, Schwab spoke at length about the World Economic Forum’s (WEF) desire to tackle cybersecurity by bringing together a closer merger of corporations, small businesses, and governments.

Last year, Schwab warned, “We all know, but still pay insufficient attention to, the frightening scenario of a comprehensive cyber attack, which would bring a complete halt to the power supply, transportation, hospital services, our society as a whole.”

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Using CRISPR-Cas9, the researchers subsequently removed the one copy of the Ndn gene from the 15q dup mouse model to generate mice with a normalized genomic copy number for this gene (15q dupΔNdn mouse). Using this model, they demonstrated that the abnormalities observed in 15q dup mice (abnormal spine turnover rate and decreased inhibitory synaptic input) could be ameliorated.

A research group including Kobe University’s Professor TAKUMI Toru (also a Senior Visiting Scientist at RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research) and Assistant Professor TAMADA Kota, both of the Physiology Division in the Graduate School of Medicine, has revealed a causal gene (Necdin, NDN) in autism model mice that have the chromosomal abnormality called copy number variation.

The researchers hope to illuminate the NDN gene’s molecular mechanism in order to contribute towards the creation of new treatment strategies for developmental disorders including autism.

These research results were published in Nature Communications on July 1, 2021.

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The overall response rate in the trial population was 40% (95% CI 29%-51%). Median duration of response was 11.1 months (95% CI 6.9-not evaluable), with nearly two-thirds of patients having a duration of response of at least 6 months.

The FDA approved amivantamab-vmjw (Rybrevant) on Friday as the first treatment for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations.

Amivantamab is a bispecific antibody that targets EGFR and mesenchymal-epithelial transition factor pathways. EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations occur in approximately 2% to 3% of NSCLC patients, and are associated with rapid cell growth.

“Advances in precision oncology continue to facilitate drug development, allowing diseases like lung cancer to be subset into biomarker-defined populations appropriate for targeted therapies,” said Julia Beaver, MD, chief of medical oncology in the FDA’s Oncology Center of Excellence, in a statement. “With today’s approval, for the first time, patients with non-small cell lung cancer with EGFR exon 20 insertion mutations will have a targeted treatment option.”

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