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Category: biotech/medical – Page 235

Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common cause of illness-based death throughout the world. According to the World Health Organization, CAD causes 17.9 million deaths per year worldwide, nearly one-third of all illness-based deaths annually.

Coronary angiography is currently the best method of confirming a CAD diagnosis, but it is expensive and invasive, poses risks to patients, and is not suitable for early diagnosis and assessing disease risk.

Seeking a safer, lower-cost and more efficient diagnostic method, a research team from Beijing University of Chinese Medicine’s School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine’s School of Life Science, and Hunan University of Chinese Medicine’s School of Traditional Chinese Medicine has used artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a diagnostic algorithm based on tongue imaging. Their work is published in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine.

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The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on global public health and the economy. Although vaccines and antivirals have provided effective protection and treatment, the development of new small molecule-based antiviral candidates is imperative to improve clinical outcomes against SARS-CoV-2. In this study, we identified UNI418, a dual PIKfyve and PIP5K1C inhibitor, as a new chemical agent that inhibits SARS-CoV-2 entry into host cells. UNI418 inhibited the proteolytic activation of cathepsins, which is regulated by PIKfyve, resulting in the inhibition of cathepsin L-dependent proteolytic cleavage of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein into its mature form, a critical step for viral endosomal escape. We also demonstrated that UNI418 prevented ACE2-mediated endocytosis of the virus via PIP5K1C inhibition. Our results identified PIKfyve and PIP5K1C as potential antiviral targets and UNI418 as a putative therapeutic compound against SARS-CoV-2.

Despite the ongoing threat posed by new viruses following the emergence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which led to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, new antiviral drugs continue to be developed to effectively block viral entry into the human body.

Professor Kyungjae Myung and his research team in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, affiliated with the IBS Center for Genomic Integrity, has discovered UNI418, a compound that effectively prevents the penetration of the coronavirus. This compound works by regulating dielectric homeostasis, thereby inhibiting the virus’s entry into human cells.

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In the present investigation, the SD rats were separated into two groups old control group and the treatment group (n = 8). The treatment group received four injections of E5 every alternate day for 8 days, and eight injections every alternate day for 16 days. Body weight, grip strength, cytokines, and biochemical markers were measured for more than 400 days of the study. Clinical observation, necropsy, and histology were performed. The E5 treatment exhibited great potential by showing significantly improved grip strength, remarkably decreased pro-inflammatory markers of chronic inflammation and oxidative stress, as well as biomarkers for vital organs (BUN, SGPT, SGOT, and triglycerides), and increased anti-oxidant levels. Clinical examinations, necropsies, and histopathology revealed that the animals treated with the E5 had normal cellular structure and architecture. In conclusion, this unique ‘plasma-derived exosome’ treatment (E5) alone is adequate to improve the health-span and extend the lifespan of the old SD rats significantly.

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The Pennsylvania State University in May blocked a prominent professor at the school from doing research and making presentations on its behalf, Retraction Watch has learned.

The professor, Deborah Kelly, has faced mounting scrutiny over her work since a researcher in the United Kingdom noticed apparent data manipulation in a now-retracted article she published in 2017. Kelly earned her third retraction last week following a university probe that found “serious data integrity concerns” in another paper, as we reported at the time.

In comments she made via her legal counsel for that story, Kelly, a biomedical engineer and an expert in electron microscopy, told us:

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The study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found a 26 per cent reduction in non-palliative deaths among patients in St. Michael’s Hospital’s general internal medicine unit when the AI tool was used.

“We’ve seen that there is a lot of hype and excitement around artificial intelligence in medicine. We’ve also seen not as much actual deployment of these tools in real clinical environments,” said lead author Dr. Amol Verma, a general internal medicine specialist and scientist at the hospital in Toronto.

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Model grounded in biology reveals the tissue structures linked to the disorder. A researcher’s mathematical modeling approach for brain imaging analysis reveals links between genes, brain structure and autism.

A multi-university research team co-led by University of Virginia engineering professor Gustavo K. Rohde has developed a system that can spot genetic markers of autism in brain images with 89 to 95% accuracy.

Their findings suggest doctors may one day see, classify and treat autism and related neurological conditions with this method, without having to rely on, or wait for, behavioral cues. And that means this truly personalized medicine could result in earlier interventions.

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