A new study challenges a long-held belief that essential genes change little over time.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,836
Novel analytic approach enhances nuclear magnetic resonance signal detection in previously ‘invisible’ regions
First introduced into wide use in the middle of the 20th century, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) has since become an indispensable technique for examining materials down to their atoms, revealing molecular structure and other details without interfering with the material itself.
“It’s a broadly used technique in chemical analysis, materials characterization, MRI—situations in which you do a non-invasive analysis, but with atomic and molecular details,” said UC Santa Barbara chemistry professor Songi Han. By placing a sample in a strong magnetic field and then probing it with radio waves scientists can determine from the response from the oscillating nuclei in the material’s atoms the molecular structure of the material.
“However, the problem with NMR has been that because it’s such a low-energy technique, it’s not very sensitive,” Han said. “It’s very detailed, but you don’t get much signal.” As a result, large amounts of sample material may be needed relative to other techniques, and the signals’ general weakness makes NMR less than ideal for studying complex chemical processes.
New technology allows more precise view of the smallest nanoparticles
Current state-of-the-art techniques have clear limitations when it comes to imaging the smallest nanoparticles, making it difficult for researchers to study viruses and other structures at the molecular level.
Scientists from the University of Houston and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have reported in Nature Communications a new optical imaging technology for nanoscale objects, relying upon unscattered light to detect nanoparticles as small as 25 nanometers in diameter. The technology, known as PANORAMA, uses a glass slide covered with gold nanodiscs, allowing scientists to monitor changes in the transmission of light and determine the target’s characteristics.
PANORAMA takes its name from Plasmonic Nano-aperture Label-free Imaging (PlAsmonic NanO-apeRture lAbel-free iMAging), signifying the key characteristics of the technology. PANORAMA can be used to detect, count and determine the size of individual dielectric nanoparticles.
Chronic inflammation causes a reduction in NAD+
NAD+ (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide), a key metabolite central to an efficient and healthy metabolism, declines with age. This previously unexplained phenomena is associated with numerous age-related diseases and has spawned the development of many nutritional supplements aimed at restoring NAD+ to more youthful levels. Publishing in Nature Metabolism, researchers at the Buck Institute have identified chronic inflammation as a driver of NAD+ decline. They show that an increasing burden of senescent cells, which is also implicated in the aging process, causes the degradation of NAD via the activation of CD38 (cyclic ADP ribose hydrolase) a protein that is found on the cell membranes both inside and on the surface of many immune cells.
“We are very excited to link two phenomena which have been separately associated with aging and age-related disease,” said Eric Verdin, MD, Buck Institute President and CEO and senior author of the paper. “The fact that NAD+ decline and chronic inflammation are intertwined provides a more holistic, systemic approach to aging and the discovery of CD38 macrophages as the mediator of the link between the two gives us a new target for therapeutic interventions.”
Separate Antiaging Trials for Rapamycin and Metformin
AgelessRx claims that PEARL is the first nationwide telemedicine trial and one of the first large-scale intervention trials on Longevity. The human trial is a stepping stone to the way to bringing rapamycin to the Longevity market. PEARL (Participatory Evaluation of Aging with Rapamycin for Longevity) is a $600,000 trial with the University of California. They will evaluate the safety and effectiveness of rapamycin in 200 healthy adults for Longevity in double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial.
Interested patients will be screened for eligibility using telemedicine. Eligible patients include those aged 50–85 of any sex, any ethnicity, in relatively good health, with only well-managed, clinically stable chronic diseases.
TAME is a separate $75 million trial to clinically evaluate Metformin drugs for Longevity properties. TAME has a composite primary endpoint – of stroke, heart failure, dementia, myocardial infarction, cancer and death. Rather than attempting to cure one endpoint, it will look to delay the onset of any endpoint, extending the years in which subjects remain in good health – their healthspan. A $40 million donation has been combined with a $35 million NIH grant to fund the TAME trial.
Pearls may provide new information processing options for biomedical, military innovations
Pearls have long been favored as objects of beauty. Now, Purdue University innovators are using the gem to provide potential new opportunities for spectral information processing that can be applied to spectroscopy in biomedical and military applications.
The Purdue team demonstrated light transport-assisted information processing by creating a pearl spectrometer.
Spectrometers probe interactions of matter and light as a function of the electromagnetic spectrum and are commonly used in biomedical and military applications. For example, they have been used for diagnostics of various types of cancer and for military gas sensing.
Scientists develop next-generation immunotherapy now entering early phase clinical trials
Cancer Research UK scientists have invented a new experimental drug that aims to harness the full power of the body’s own immune system, launching a two-pronged response against cancer, according to a study published in Nature Cancer today.
In the study, partly funded by Cancer Research UK, the new immunotherapy drug, which targets suppressive ‘regulatory’ immune cells inside a tumor, significantly improved long-term survival in animal models even when used without other drugs.
If this, and larger follow-up trials, are successful, it could lead to a new immunotherapy treatment for people with high numbers of a certain type of immune cell that are found in cancers including melanoma, some lung cancers and head and neck cancer.The drug is now being developed in early phase clinical trials to determine its safety in people with advanced cancer.
Chinese firm turns panda poop into toilet paper
Circa 2017 o.o
When life gave one Chinese company giant panda poop, it decided to make paper — and profits. The Qianwei Fengsheng Paper Company in southwest Sichuan province has teamed up with the China Conservation and Research Center for the Giant Panda to recycle the animal’s faeces and food debris into toilet paper, napkins and other household products, state media reported Wednesday. The goods, soon to be released on the Chinese market, will be marketed as part of a “panda poo” product line decorated with a picture of the bamboo-eating, black-and-white bear. “They’re taking care of our garbage for us,” Huang Yan, a researcher at the giant panda centre, told the Chengdu Business Daily. Huang told Xinhua state news agency that the 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of bamboo poo that adult pandas unleash daily are rich in fibre after absorbing the fructose from the shoots. In addition to their valuable dung, pandas also produce 50 kilograms of food waste every day from the bamboo husks they spit out after chewing. While the process of turning bamboo into paper generally involves the breaking down of fructose to extract fibre, this step naturally occurs in the pandas’ digestive tract, the paper company’s president, Yang Chaolin, told Xinhua. Fengsheng will collect the faeces from three panda bases in Sichuan a couple of times a week. After it is boiled, pasteurised and turned into paper, it will be tested for bacteria before going on sale. Boxes of “panda poo” tissues will be sold at 43 yuan ($6.5) a pop. “Pandas get what they want and we do too,” Yang said. “It’s a win-win.”