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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,524

A class of antibiotics heralded as an essential future weapon against drug-resistant superbugs passed an important test. There’s now evidence that they can be used to treat serious infections in live animals (in vivo) without being toxic.

Researchers created simplified, synthetic versions of teixobactin, a protein produced by certain dirt-loving bacteria that was first discovered in 2015. They tested the teixobactin in lab mice whose eyes were infected with one of several germs, including antibiotic-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus. The most successful of these analogues was found to leave animal cells alone while still wiping out more than 99 percent of the bacteria in the infected eye.

The findings were published in January in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry.

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Scientists are increasingly betting their time and effort that the way to control the world is through proteins. Proteins are what makes life animated. They take information encoded in DNA and turn it into intricate three-dimensional structures, many of which act as tiny machines. Proteins work to ferry oxygen through the bloodstream, extract energy from food, fire neurons, and attack invaders. One can think of DNA as working in the service of the proteins, carrying the information on how, when and in what quantities to make them.

Living things make thousands of different proteins, but soon there could be many more, as scientists are starting to learn to design new ones from scratch with specific purposes in mind. Some are looking to design new proteins for drugs and vaccines, while others are seeking cleaner catalysts for the chemical industry and new materials.

David Baker, director for the Institute for Protein Design at the University of Washington, compares protein design to the advent of custom tool-making. At some point, proto-humans went beyond merely finding uses for pieces of wood, rock or bone, and started designing tools to suit specific needs — from screwdrivers to sports cars.

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By Jessica Hamzelou

A newly discovered network of fluid-filled channels in the human body may be a previously-unknown organ, and it seems to help transport cancer cells around the body.

This discovery was made by chance, from routine endoscopies – a procedure that involves inserting a thin camera into a person’s gastrointestinal tract. Newer approaches enable doctors to use this procedure to get a microscopic look at the tissue inside a person’s gut at the same time, with some surprising results.

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Today, we wanted to bring your attention to a new open access paper. The authors here review the role of cellular senescence in the context of the cardiovascular and metabolic diseases of aging. This paper puts special focus on the aging of the vascular system and the role that accumulating numbers of senescent cells play in that process.

What is cellular senescence?

As the body ages, increasing amounts of cells enter a state of senescence. Senescent cells do not divide or support the tissues of which they are a part; instead, they emit a range of potentially harmful signals known collectively as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Senescent cells normally destroy themselves via a programmed process called apoptosis, and they are removed by the immune system; however, as the immune system weakens with age, increasing numbers of these senescent cells escape this process and build up.

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Harvard reminds the biological clock using NAD+ and NaHS!

Investigators at Harvard Medical School have identified the key cellular mechanisms behind vascular aging and its effects on muscle health, and they have successfully reversed the process in animals.

Could reversing the aging of blood vessels hold the key to restoring youthful vitality? If the old adage “you are as old as your arteries” reigns true then the answer is yes, at least in mice.

According to a new study by Harvard Medical School researchers, they have identified the cellular mechanisms that cause the aging of vascular arteries as well as the effects of such aging on the health of muscles. The Medical team was also able to successfully reverse this aging process.

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