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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1,855

Merck’s anti-COVID drug molnupiravir moves to phase 3 for prevention

Merck, known as MSD outside the US and Canada, and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics have announced that its MOV-e-AHEAD study has started to enrol its first participants to test antiviral molnupiravir in post-exposure prophylaxis of COVID-19 infection.

The global study will include approximately 1,332 participants who are 18 years or over and reside in the same household as someone with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, has at least one sign or symptom of COVID-19 and has not had those signs and symptoms for more than five days.

Participants will be randomised onto molnupiravir, an investigational oral antiviral therapeutic, or placebo every 12 hours for 5 days. The trial will not look at vaccinated people, those who have had COVID-19 before or anyone showing signs or symptoms of infection.

The MOVe-AHEAD trial will test whether the drug prevents infection in those living in the same household as someone with confirmed COVID-19.

Novel assay finds new mechanism underlying red blood cell aging

Red blood cells are the most abundant cell type in blood, carrying oxygen throughout the human body. In blood circulation, they repetitively encounter various levels of oxygen tension. Hypoxia, a low oxygen tension condition, is a very common micro-environmental factor in physiological processes of blood circulation and various pathological processes such as cancer, chronic inflammation, heart attacks and stroke. In addition, an interplay between poor cellular deformability and impaired oxygen delivery is found in various pathological processes such as sickle cell disease. Sickle red blood cells simultaneously undergo drastic mechanical deformation during the sickling and unsickling process.

The interactions between hypoxia and cell biomechanics and the underlying biochemical mechanisms of the accelerated damage in diseased are well understood, however, the exact biomechanical consequences of hypoxia contributing to red cell degradation (aging) remains elusive.

Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), sought to identify the role of hypoxia on red blood cell aging via the biomechanical pathways. In particular, they examined hypoxia-induced impairment of red blood cell deformability at the single cell level, compared the differences between non-cyclic hypoxia and cyclic hypoxia, and documented any cumulative effect vs. hypoxia cycles, such as aspects that have not been studied quantitatively. Red blood cell deformability is an important biomarker of its functionality.

India’s got the next big thing in tech, and it could be worth $1 trillion

Of India’s 10 SaaS unicorns, six reached that milestone in 2,020 and investors around the world are paying attention. Last year, investors pumped $1.5 billion into Indian SaaS companies, four times more than in 2018 or 2,019 according to the SaaSBoomi report.

More than two decades ago, India began its transformation into a global IT powerhouse, ushering in an era of wealth and job creation never before seen in the country.

Now, Asia’s third largest economy is ready for the next big frontier in tech: Coming up with a new generation of software companies like Zoom or Slack.

The Covid-19 pandemic has forced business around the world to make huge investments in digital infrastructure, furthering the influence of companies providing software-as-a-service, or SaaS. Businesses spent an extra $15 billion per week last year on tech as they scrambled to create safe remote working environments, according to a KPMG survey.

Tapping sewage as a source of useful materials

face_with_colon_three Basically we simply waste chemicals that are sometimes used in compost but actually have literally millions of tons of chemicals gone to waste rather reclaiming these very expensive chemicals. For instance some medicine costs thousands of dollars to make and will not recycle completely even current compost problems are not seeing the literally value of wasted medical refuse dissolved in waste water. Literally possibly trillion dollars or more down the drain from waste but this new reclaiming system will reap the benefits 😗 Even new innovative recycled toilet paper is a new concept but someday even vital chemicals will not be wasted with these new reclaiming systems.

With sometimes offbeat technology, innovators seek to extract certain chemicals from municipal waste by.

Alex Scott

Eight Diseases That CRISPR Technology Could Cure

CRISPR technology offers the promise to cure any human genetic disease with gene editing; which one will be the first?

CRISPR-Cas9 was first used as a gene-editing tool in 2012. In just a few years, the technology has exploded in popularity thanks to its promise of making gene editing much faster, cheaper, and easier than ever before.

CRISPR is short for ‘clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.’ The term makes reference to a series of repetitive patterns found in the DNA of bacteria that form the basis of a primitive immune system, defending them from viral invaders by cutting their DNA.

Salty Diet Helps Gut Bugs Fight Cancer in Mice: Study

Amit Awasthi, an immunologist with the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute in India and corresponding author of the study, says he and his colleagues pursued this line of inquiry because previous research had linked high salt intake with autoimmune diseases, suggesting that increased salt stimulates immune cells. Meanwhile, tumors are well known to grow in immune-suppressive environments.

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In mice, a diet high in salt suppresses tumor growth—but only when gut microbes are there to stimulate immune cells, a September 10 study in Science Advances reports. The findings raise tantalizing questions about the role of diet and gut microbes in human cancers, and may point to new avenues for therapeutic development.

While the study isn’t the first to connect a high-salt diet to shrinking tumors, “[the authors] have shown a unique mechanistic role of high salt induced gut microbiome changes as the central phenomenon behind their observed anti-cancer effect,” writes Venkataswarup Tiriveedhi, a biologist at Tennessee State University who has studied the effect of salt on cancer progression but was not involved in the study, in an email to The Scientist.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey — Changing Priorities in Rejuvenation Technologies — Lifespan.io

Yes he starts with his personal controversy, emerging challenges, TAME, longevity is moving along well but has a long way to go.

Dr. Aubrey de Grey discusses the changing priorities at the forefront of the field of longevity rejuvenation research at Lifespan.io’s 2021 EARD conference. “The crusade is accelerating”, says Dr. De Grey, “but there’s so much still to do.”
De Grey is the author of The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging (1999) and co-author of Ending Aging (2007). He is an international adjunct professor of the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, the American Aging Association, and the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies.

SENS Research Foundation works to develop, promote, and ensure widespread access to therapies that cure and prevent the diseases and disabilities of aging by comprehensively repairing the damage that builds up in our bodies over time.

The annual Ending Age-Related Diseases (EARD) conference by Lifespan.io brings together longevity thought leaders together to exchange research reports, inspire and get inspired with new ideas, find collaborators, supporters, and mentors.

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7 Human Organs on One Chip

Scientists in the U.S. and U.K. have recently grown seven miniature human organs and housed them together on a chip to create a human-on-a-chip, a whole body biomimetic device. These clusters of assembled cells mimic how organs in the body function, both separately and in tandem.

The chip could take the place of animal and tissue testing for drugs in pharmaceutical development, say its creators. It will have to win regulatory approval in each country looking to use it for tests, and it could allow for insights into how organs interact, says Linda Griffith, professor of biological and mechanical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Griffith heads The PhysioMimetics program at MIT, which has collaborated with CN Bio Innovations, a British company that creates live organ-on-a-chip devices. The $26.3-million development program is funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Ancient DNA rewrites early Japanese history —modern day populations have tripartite genetic origin

Ancient DNA extracted from human bones has rewritten early Japanese history by underlining that modern day populations in Japan have a tripartite genetic origin—a finding that refines previously accepted views of a dual genomic ancestry.

Twelve newly sequenced ancient Japanese genomes show that modern day populations do indeed show the genetic signatures of early indigenous Jomon hunter-gatherer-fishers and immigrant Yayoi farmers—but also add a third genetic component that is linked to the Kofun peoples, whose culture spread in Japan between the 3rd and 7th centuries.

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