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Category: biotech/medical – Page 174

Excessive oleic acid, found in olive oil, shown to drive fat cell growth

Eating a high-fat diet containing a large amount of oleic acid—a type of fatty acid commonly found in olive oil—could drive obesity more than other types of dietary fats, according to a study published in the journal Cell Reports.

The study found that oleic acid, a monounsaturated fat associated with obesity, causes the body to make more fat cells. By boosting a signaling protein called AKT2 and reducing the activity of a regulating protein called LXR, high levels of oleic acid resulted in faster growth of the precursor cells that form new fat cells.

“We know that the types of fat that people eat have changed during the obesity epidemic. We wanted to know whether simply overeating a diet rich in fat causes obesity, or whether the composition of these fatty acids that make up the oils in the diet is important. Do specific fat molecules trigger responses in the cells?” said Michael Rudolph, Ph.D., assistant professor of biochemistry and physiology at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine and member of OU Health Harold Hamm Diabetes Center.

DNA ‘glue’ could help prevent and treat diseases triggered by ageing

Macquarie University researchers have discovered a naturally occurring protein found in human cells plays a powerful role in repairing damaged DNA — the molecule that carries the genetic instructions for building and maintaining living things.

The discovery, published in the journal Ageing Cell, could hold the key to developing therapies for devastating age-related diseases such as motor neuron disease (MND), Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease.

Hope: Dr Sina Shadfar, pictured, and colleagues discovered a protein which they have shown for the first time acts like a ‘glue’, helping to repair broken DNA, which is widely accepted as one of the main contributors to ageing and the progression of age-related diseases.

The research, conducted by neurobiologist Dr Sina Shadfar and colleagues in the Motor Neuron Disease Research Centre, reveals a protein called protein disulphide isomerase (PDI) helps repair serious deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage. This breakthrough opens new possibilities for therapies aimed at boosting the body’s ability to fix its own DNA — a process that becomes less efficient as we age.

Molecular markers found to influence meat quality in Nelore cattle

Researchers at São Paulo State University (UNESP) in Brazil have identified a robust set of genetic markers associated with meat quality in the Nelore cattle breed (Bos taurus indicus) genome. The results pave the way for substantial progress in the genetic enhancement of the Zebu breed, which accounts for about 80% of the Brazilian beef herd.

The research has direct implications for the productivity and quality of Brazilian beef, reinforcing the country’s standing as a major beef exporter. The results are published in the journal Scientific Reports.

In previous studies, the group had identified genes and proteins by studying meat and carcass characteristics separately using different techniques. For the current study, however, the researchers integrated these techniques and examined multiple characteristics using data from 6,910 young Nelore bulls from four commercial genetic improvement programs.

Next leap in mode-locked lasers: Tunable pulse duration in ultranarrow bandwidth

Lasers have widespread applications as a light source in a variety of fields, including manufacturing, medicine, high-speed communications, electronics, and scientific research.

In recent years, the demand for lasers with increased control over their output has grown significantly. In particular, ultranarrow mode-locked lasers, which can produce extremely short laser pulses (short bursts of light) ranging from picoseconds to nanoseconds, have received considerable attention. Such are extremely beneficial for many applications—from diamond cutting to semiconductor manufacture. However, these applications can be further improved with the incorporation of lasers with tunable pulse duration.

A laser works by reflecting light back and forth between a highly reflective and a selective reflective mirror inside a cavity, and then amplifying it using a material called the gain medium. Conventional continuous-wave lasers emit a continuous beam of light waves (modes) with different wavelengths and random phases.

Mushrooms Are Associated With A Younger Biological Age

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Scientists can now target the cells at the center of ALS

ALS is a cruel disease. It robs the body of its ability to control itself—the ability to move, the ability to communicate. While there are currently no effective treatments to reverse its debilitating symptoms, Allen Institute researchers have opened a window of hope.

For the first time ever, scientists have developed a precise genetic toolkit that can target the exact nerve cells destroyed by the disease and potentially deliver therapies where they are needed most—a discovery that could dramatically speed up the quest for a cure. The findings were recently published in the journal Cell Reports.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive and devastating disease that gradually kills off motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement. As these neurons die, people with ALS lose the ability to move, speak, and eventually breathe. Despite decades of research, there’s still no effective treatment or cure. Unlike many other brain cells, motor neurons in the spinal cord have been extremely hard to reach with genetic tools. This has slowed down research and made it hard to test new treatments in the cells that matter most.

Doctors Find They Can Detect Cancer in Blood Years Before Diagnosis

Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have discovered that cancer can be detected in the bloodstream a full three years before it’s spotted by doctors for an official diagnosis.

As detailed in a partially government-funded study published in the journal Cancer Discovery last month, the team found that genetic material being shed by cancer tumors can show up in the bloodstream far earlier than previously thought, paving the way for promising new cancer screening methods that could potentially head off the disease long before it gets more serious.

In some cases, the advanced detection could make the difference between being able to beat the cancer or not, according to the researchers.

New Enzyme Target Strategy Offers Hope for Neuroblastoma Therapy

Neuroblastoma, a pediatric cancer of the nervous system, remains the leading cause of cancer-related death in young children, particularly when the disease has spread. Despite aggressive treatment regimens that include surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy, metastatic neuroblastoma often proves incurable, largely because the cancer can evade or resist standard therapies.

One approach, known as differentiation therapy, attempts to coax immature neuroblastoma cells into developing into mature, noncancerous nerve cells. But current differentiation treatments, such as retinoic acid (RA), are only partially effective: many patients fail to respond, and nearly half of those who do eventually relapse due to resistance.

Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Lund University in Sweden have identified an alternative approach—targeting the antioxidant enzymes PRDX6 and GSTP1—that may sidestep the limitations of RA. The study, “Combined targeting of PRDX6 and GSTP1 as a potential differentiation strategy for neuroblastoma treatment,” published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that dual inhibition of these enzymes not only kills some neuroblastoma cells but also transforms others into healthy, active neurons.

Profiles in Versatility

During her uncle’s treatment in 2003, Green experienced what she refers to as a “divine download”—an electrifying idea inspired by her college internships at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Institute of Optics. “If a satellite in outer space can tell if a dime on the ground is face up or face down, and if a cell phone can target just one cell phone on the other side of the planet,” she recalls thinking, “surely we should be able to harness the technology of lasers to treat cancer just at the site of the tumor, so we won’t have all of these side effects.”

In the nearly two decades that followed, Dr. Green rerouted her career, earned a physics PhD from the University of Alabama at Birmingham—the second Black woman to do so—and dove into cancer treatment research, with physics as her guide. In 2009, she developed a treatment that uses nanoparticles and lasers in tandem: Specially designed nanoparticles are injected into a solid tumor, and, when the tumor is hit with near infrared light, the nanoparticles heat up, killing the cancer cells. In a preliminary animal study published in 2014, Green tested the treatment on mice, whose tumors were eliminated with no observable side effects.

When Hadiyah-Nicole Green crossed the stage at her college graduation, she felt sure about what would come next. She’d start a career in optics—a good option for someone with a bachelor’s degree in physics—and that would be that.

Life, though, had other plans. The day after she graduated from Alabama A&M University, she learned that her aunt, Ora Lee Smith, had cancer. Smith and her husband had raised Green since she was four years old, after the death of Green’s mother and then grandparents.

Her aunt “said she’d rather die than experience the side effects of chemo or radiation,” says Green, now a medical physicist and founder and CEO of the Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation.

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