University of Florida researchers have led a multicenter study demonstrating that Automated Imaging Differentiation for Parkinsonism (AIDP), a machine-learning method using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), accurately distinguishes Parkinson’s disease (PD) from atypical parkinsonian disorders. Findings suggest this approach could significantly improve diagnostic precision and clinical care.
An NIAID-sponsored clinical trial of an experimental vaccine to prevent Lassa fever has begun.
Research into immunotherapy against cancer typically focuses on better recognition of cancer cells by the body’s own immune system. Researchers at Amsterdam UMC and Moffitt Cancer Center have taken a different approach.
Antibiotics increase the gut oxygen levels and favor growth of harmful fungi. Chemically restoring intestinal gut hypoxia could deter fungal blooms.
For the first time, scientists have witnessed the very moment DNA begins to unravel, revealing a necessary molecular event for DNA to be the molecule that codes all life. A new study from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), published in Nature, captures the moment DNA begins to unwind, allowing for all the events that follow in DNA replication.
As an initial step, we selected ARDs associated with hallmarks of aging. These included a total of 83 diseases linked to one or more hallmarks of aging, based on the taxonomy put forward in ref. 4 (Supplementary Table 2). Support for this taxonomy comes from multiple sources. Analyses of electronic health records from general practice and hospitalizations identified more than 200 diseases with incidence rates increasing with chronological age6,22. Researchers linked a subset of these ARDs to specific hallmarks of aging using several approaches: mining 1.85 million PubMed abstracts on human aging, identifying shared genes in the genome-wide association study catalog, conducting gene set enrichment analysis and analyzing disease co-occurrence networks within each hallmark4.
We confirmed the co-occurrence of ARDs within each hallmark in 492,257 participants from the UK Biobank study23. The presence of one ARD increased the risk of developing another ARD related to the same hallmark, with clustering coefficients ranging from 0.76 for LOP-specific ARDs to 0.92 for SCE-specific ARDs. These findings corroborated the hallmark-specific clustering of ARDs (Extended Data Figs. 3 and 4)23.
In time-to-event analyses of UK Biobank and FPS participants without these ARDs at baseline (n ranging from 477,325 to 492,294 in the UK Biobank and from 278,272 to 286,471 in the FPS, depending on the social disadvantage indicator and ARD), social disadvantage—indicated by education and adult SES (neighborhood deprivation)—was associated with a higher risk of developing ARDs. In the UK Biobank, the age-, sex-and ethnicity-adjusted hazard ratio for developing any ARD was 1.31 (95% confidence interval (CI) 1.29–1.33) for individuals with low compared with high education. For individuals with high versus low adult SES, the hazard ratio was 1.21 (95% CI 1.20–1.23). In the FPS, the corresponding hazard ratios were 1.28 (95% CI 1.25–1.31) and 1.23 (95% CI 1.20–1.27), respectively.
A research team led by Rice University’s Yang Gao has uncovered new insights into the molecular mechanisms of ADAR1, a protein that regulates ribonucleic acid (RNA) induced immune responses. Their findings, published in Molecular Cell March 17, could open new pathways for treating autoimmune diseases and enhancing cancer immunotherapy.
ADAR1 converts adenosine to inosine in double-stranded RNA, a process essential for preventing unwarranted immune responses, yet the molecular basis of this editing had remained unclear. Through detailed biochemical profiling and structural analysis, researchers found that ADAR1’s editing activity depends on RNA sequence, duplex length and mismatches near the editing site. High-resolution structures of ADAR1 bound to RNA reveal its mechanisms for RNA binding, substrate selection and dimerization.
“Our study provides a comprehensive understanding of how ADAR1 recognizes and processes RNA,” said Gao, assistant professor of biosciences and a Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (CPRIT) Scholar. “These insights pave the way for novel therapeutic strategies targeting ADAR1-related diseases.”
Researchers have corrected a disease-causing gene mutation with a single infusion carrying a treatment that precisely targeted the errant gene.
This was the first time a mutated gene has been restored to normal.
The small study of nine patients announced Monday by the company Beam Therapeutics of Cambridge, Mass., involved fixing a spelling error involving the four base sequences — G, A, C and T — in DNA. The effect was to change an incorrect DNA letter to the right one. The result was a normal gene that functioned as it should, potentially halting liver and lung damage of patients with a rare disorder.
The small study in patients with a rare disorder that causes liver and lung damage showed the potential for precisely targeted infusions.
Scientists at Berkeley Lab are unraveling the mysteries of Bennu, a 4.5-billion-year-old asteroid, using cutting-edge technology.
The asteroid harbors traces of ancient briny water, salty minerals, and even organic molecules – potential clues to life’s origins. Researchers are using X-ray and electron microscopy to analyze these space rocks at the atomic level, revealing how early planetary systems formed. Even more exciting, they’ve found amino acids.
<div class=””> <div class=””><br />Amino acids are a set of organic compounds used to build proteins. There are about 500 naturally occurring known amino acids, though only 20 appear in the genetic code. Proteins consist of one or more chains of amino acids called polypeptides. The sequence of the amino acid chain causes the polypeptide to fold into a shape that is biologically active. The amino acid sequences of proteins are encoded in the genes. Nine proteinogenic amino acids are called “essential” for humans because they cannot be produced from other compounds by the human body and so must be taken in as food.<br /></div> </div>
Experts just discovered massive pools of water that quickly paralyze and kill anything that enters them.
A team of researchers from the University of Miami has discovered deadly deep-sea brine pools in the Red Sea, uncovering a mysterious underwater world where anything that swims in does not survive.
These extreme habitats, found 1.1 miles below the surface, are so salty and oxygen-deprived that they quickly paralyze or kill marine life.
Despite their lethal nature, the outskirts of these pools support unique microbial life, offering scientists new insights into Earth’s climatic history, the origins of life, and even potential extraterrestrial ecosystems. The discovery, published in Nature Communications Earth and Environment, marks the first time such pools have been found so close to shore, making them an invaluable natural archive of past tsunamis, floods, and earthquakes.
S history, these brine pools may also lead to groundbreaking medical advancements. Similar deep-sea microorganisms have previously yielded antibacterial and anticancer compounds, hinting at the potential for new treatments hidden in these depths. Additionally, studying life in such extreme conditions could help scientists understand how organisms might survive on other planets with water-rich environments. This discovery not only expands our understanding of Earth learn more.
Deep-sea brine pools represent hypersaline environments famed for their extremophile microbes. With anoxia entirely excluding bioturbating megafauna, brine pools are also conducive to the pristine preservation of sedimentary sequences. Here we use bathymetric and geophysical observations to locate a complex of brine pools in the Gulf of Aqaba consisting of one 10,000 m2 pool and three minor pools of less than 10 m2. We further conduct sediment coring and direct sampling of the brine to confirm the sedimentary and environmental characteristics of these pools. We find that the main pool preserves a stratigraphy which spans at least 1,200 years and contains a combination of turbidites, likely resulting from flashfloods and local seismicity, and tsunamigenic terrestrial sediment. The NEOM Brine Pools, as we name them, extend the known geographical range of Red Sea brine pools, and represent a unique preservational environment for the sedimentary signals of regional climatic and tectonic events.