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Category: biotech/medical – Page 177

DNA-loaded lipid nanoparticles are poised to bring gene therapy to common chronic diseases

A breakthrough in safely delivering therapeutic DNA to cells could transform treatment for millions suffering from common chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.

A new process that transports DNA into cells using tiny fat-based carriers called lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) developed by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania improved the process of turning on the DNA’s instructions in mice to make proteins inside cells, which is crucial in fighting disease. Signs also point to an improvement in reducing treatment risks, such as immune reactions, as compared to older DNA transfer techniques.

The team’s findings were recently published in Nature Biotechnology.

How necrotic cells contribute to the body’s regeneration process

Researchers have shed new light on how tissues in the body are repaired following the damage and premature death of tissue cells.

Their study in fruit flies, which first appeared in eLife as a Reviewed Preprint and is now published as the final version, describes what the editors call fundamental discoveries with solid evidence for how dying (or necrotic) cells contribute to through a previously uncharacterized mechanism. It suggests that these cells play a role in signaling for the body to produce other types of cells that are involved in controlling natural and inflammation, with findings that may have implications for wound repair and tissue regeneration.

As our bodies grow and develop, cells naturally die off where they are no longer needed, in a process called apoptosis. On the other hand, cells can be damaged and die prematurely due to injury, infectious diseases or other factors, in a process known as necrosis.

Study shows that some voices are more memorable than others, irrespective of who is listening to them

The term “memorability” refers to the likelihood that a particular stimulus, such as an object, face or sound, will be remembered by those exposed to it. Over the past few years, some psychology studies have been exploring the extent to which some stimuli are intrinsically more memorable than others, or in other words, whether people are generally more likely to remember them compared to other stimuli of the same type.

Researchers at the University of Chicago recently set out to specifically investigate the memorability of voices. Their findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, suggest that some voices are more memorable than others and their memorability can be consistently predicted across different listeners.

“Research on intrinsic memorability—the consistencies in what people remember and forget—is a fairly new but active area of cognitive psychology,” Cambria Revsine, first author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “Many studies from our lab and others have extensively explored this phenomenon over the past decade, finding that participants tend to remember the same images of faces, scenes, objects, and much more. However, no prior study to our knowledge has investigated the memorability of auditory stimuli.”

Marathon runners undergo reversible reductions in myelin in the brain during a race, study reveals

A team of neurologists, neuroradiologists and biomaterials specialists affiliated with several institutions in Spain has found that marathon runners undergo a reversible reduction in myelin in the brain during a race. In their study published in the journal Nature Metabolism, the group analyzed MRI scans of marathon runners before and after a race and then at later intervals to learn more about how participating in long races impacts the brain.

The at the journal have published a Research Briefing that outlines the work in the same issue and suggest that the team’s findings could influence the understanding of brain metabolism.

The researchers recruited 10 runners—eight male and two female—and performed MRI scans of their brains before they ran a 42K marathon. They administered a second scan 24 to 48 hours later. Two of the runners received an MRI two weeks later, and six runners were scanned two months after the race as a follow-up.

National study finds one in four adults misusing prescription stimulants

Research conducted by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that 1 in 4 adults using prescription stimulants engaged in misuse, and nearly 1 in 10 met the criteria for prescription stimulant use disorder (PSUD).

Findings show that amphetamine users were more likely to experience PSUD than those prescribed methylphenidate. Increased prescribing rates, particularly among middle-aged women, were observed, yet this demographic exhibited lower rates than younger .

Concerns over stimulant misuse have grown as prescribing rates for these medications, commonly used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), have increased. Clinical practice guidelines for adult ADHD remain absent, leading to variations in diagnosis and treatment. Questions about appropriate use persist as research indicates both the protective benefits of ADHD pharmacotherapy and its potential risks, including misuse, overprescription, and development of use disorders.

Japanese scientists pioneer nonviral gene delivery in primates

Genetic engineering in non-human primates has long been limited by the need for virus-based gene delivery methods. Recently, researchers in Japan successfully used a nonviral system to introduce a transgene—that is, a gene that has been artificially inserted into an organism—into cynomolgus monkeys, which is a species of primate closely related to humans. The paper is published in the journal Nature Communications.

Small animal models such as mice do not fully replicate the complexity of human diseases, particularly in areas like infectious disease and neuropsychiatric disorders. This limitation has made non-human primates an essential model for .

However, genetic modification of these primates has been challenging. For example, conventional virus-based methods require specialized containment facilities and are limited in terms of the size of transgenes that the viruses can carry. Also, these methods do not allow for precise selection of modified embryos before implantation.

Transplant-Free Salvage Therapy for Low-Risk Relapsed Pediatric Hodgkin Lymphoma: A Nonrandomized Clinical Trial

This nonrandomized clinical trial reports outcomes for children with low-risk relapsed Hodgkin lymphoma treated with second-line chemotherapy and involved-field radiotherapy without autologous stem cell transplant.

Diagnostic technology achieves near 100% accuracy in pathogen identification within three hours

A joint team of professors—Hajun Kim, Taejoon Kwon, and Joo Hun Kang—from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNIST has unveiled a novel diagnostic technique that utilizes artificially designed polymers known as peptide nucleic acid (PNA) as probes. The research is published in the journal Biosensors and Bioelectronics.

The fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique works by detecting fluorescent signals generated when probe molecules bind to specific genetic sequences in bacteria. This innovative FISH method employs two PNA molecules simultaneously. By analyzing the of 20,000 bacterial species, the research team designed PNA sequences that specifically target the ribosomal RNA of particular species.

The method is significantly faster and more accurate than traditional bacterial culture and (PCR) analysis, and it holds promise for reducing mortality rates in critical conditions such as sepsis, where timely administration of antibiotics is crucial.