A new study may have uncovered a previously unknown way to fight melanoma, one of the most deadly forms of skin cancer. A team led by researchers at the Boston University School of Medicine has identified a gene that, when disrupted with a drug compound, can prevent melanoma from developing.
Scientists in Australia are looking at some pretty creative ways to tackle the Zika virus, which continues to pose a risk to millions across Africa, Asia and parts of the Americas. Following a trial last year where researchers were able to decimate disease-spreading mosquitos in the country’s north, scientists have now demonstrated an engineering technique that renders the biggest transmitter of the virus largely immune to it, raising hopes of a new way to control the spread of Zika and other mosquito-borne diseases.
Today, we conclude our ongoing series discussing the Hallmarks of Aging [1] by looking at the hallmark of altered intercellular communication, the change in signals between cells that can lead to some of the diseases and disabilities of aging.
As an integrative hallmark, altered intercellular communication is caused by other hallmarks of aging. As a result, there is some hope that therapies targeting these other hallmarks will be able to treat this one.
There are a wide range of complex intercellular communications associated with aging, but we will focus on the ones discussed in the Hallmarks of Aging paper.
An MIT-led research team has developed a drug capsule that could be used to deliver oral doses of insulin, potentially replacing the injections that people with type 2 diabetes have to give themselves every day.
About the size of a blueberry, the capsule contains a small needle made of compressed insulin, which is injected after the capsule reaches the stomach. In tests in animals, the researchers showed that they could deliver enough insulin to lower blood sugar to levels comparable to those produced by injections given through skin. They also demonstrated that the device can be adapted to deliver other protein drugs.
“We are really hopeful that this new type of capsule could someday help diabetic patients and perhaps anyone who requires therapies that can now only be given by injection or infusion,” says Robert Langer, the David H. Koch Institute Professor, a member of MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, and one of the senior authors of the study.
LEAGUE CITY, Texas (FOX 26) — It was his own illness that got Dr. Steven Dale Garner hooked on stem cell therapy.
“I went into a coma for seven weeks,” said Dr. Garner. “When I woke up from the coma, I myself was paralyzed.”
The veterinarian knew stem cell therapy was being used to treat arthritis in dogs, but could it help the nervous system?
Scientists from ITMO in collaboration with international colleagues have proposed new DNA-based nanomachines that can be used for gene therapy for cancer. This new invention can greatly contribute to more effective and selective treatment of oncological diseases. The results were published in Angewandte Chemie.
“If you’re under 40 reading this article, you’re probably not going to die unless you get a nasty disease.”
Those are the words of esteemed futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson, who told The Sun he believes humans are very close to achieving “immortality” – the ability to never die.
Humans have been trying to find a way to dodge death for years.
