MIT and Harvard scientists have created engineered CAR-NK cells that can hide from the immune system and more effectively destroy cancer.
The cells are designed to suppress immune-rejection signals and enhance tumor-killing power. Tested in humanized mice, they wiped out cancer while avoiding dangerous immune reactions.
A major breakthrough in immune engineering.
Acute or short-lived pain, despite its bad reputation, is usually a lifesaver. It acts as a transient negative sensory experience that helps us avoid danger. Touch a hot stove, stub a toe, or bonk your head on a low branch, and the nervous system cues up an “Ow!” Over time, the sting fades, the wound heals, but the lesson sticks.
Chronic pain is different; the alarm keeps blaring long after the fire is out, and then the pain itself becomes the problem. Nearly 50 million people in the United States live with chronic pain, an invisible and often untreatable condition that can linger for decades. “It’s not just an injury that won’t heal,” says neuroscientist at the University of Pennsylvania J. Nicholas Betley, “it’s a brain input that’s become sensitized and hyperactive, and determining how to quiet that input could lead to better treatments.”
Now, research led by Betley and collaborators at the University of Pittsburgh and Scripps Research Institute has identified a key to regulating long-term pain states: a group of cells called Y1 receptor (Y1R)-expressing neurons in the brainstem’s lateral parabrachial nucleus (lPBN). These neurons are activated during enduring pain states, but they also integrate information about hunger, fear and thirst, allowing for pain signals to be modulated by other brain circuits signaling more urgent needs.
Analysis of preserved feces and intestinal tissue has revealed specific types of bacteria that were present in the microbiome of a young adult man who lived in Mexico about 1,000 years ago, prior to Spanish colonization. Santiago Rosas-Plaza of Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México and colleagues present these findings in PLOS One.
The human gut microbiome consists of microorganisms, including bacteria, that naturally live in people’s intestines. Certain types of bacteria are widely associated with the human gut microbiome, but a person’s particular mix of bacteria may vary depending on factors such as age, diet, health, and where they live. Studying ancient microbiomes using mummies and human remains can therefore deepen understanding of ancient populations and show how the human microbiome may have changed over time.
A growing number of ancient microbiomes have been revealed, including for an ancient Incan person and Germany’s “Tyrolean Iceman.” To further expand the field, Rosas-Plaza and colleagues analyzed the exceptionally well-preserved remains of a man discovered in a rock shelter in Zimapán, Mexico. Prior analyses suggest the “Zimapán man” was most likely a seasonal seminomadic hunter-gatherer who was part of the ancient Mesoamerican Otopame culture and died about 1,000 years ago between the ages of 21 and 35.
Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a protein that acts like a traffic controller for DNA, preventing damage during cell division—a discovery that could lead to new cancer therapies, according to a study published in Nature.
“DNA is the code of life. It’s critical for how a cell functions, but it’s also critical for our own being and defines what we are,” says Zhenkun Lou, Ph.D., the Swanson/Schmucker Endowed Professor to Support Health and Cancer Research at Mayo Clinic and the senior author of the new study.
When cells divide, DNA must be copied from one cell to the next—a process called replication. Dr. Lou’s research team discovered that a protein called KCTD10 plays a surprising role in protecting DNA during this critical stage. Acting like a built-in sensor, KCTD10 helps shield the DNA replication machinery from damage.
The prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is approximately two times higher in African Americans (AA) compared to white/European-ancestry (EA) individuals living in the U.S. Some of this is due to social determinants of health such as disparities in health care access and quality of education, biases in testing and higher rates of AD risk factors such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes in those who identify as African American.
Although many studies have examined differences in gene expression (a measure of the amount of protein encoded by a gene) in brain tissue from AD cases and controls in EA or mixed ancestry cohorts, the number of AA individuals in these studies was unspecified or too small to identify significant findings within this group alone.
In the largest AD study conducted in brain tissue from AA donors, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine have identified many genes, a large portion of which had not previously been implicated in AD by other genetic studies, to be significantly more or less active in tissue from AD cases compared to controls. The most notable finding was a 1.5 fold higher level of expression of the ADAMTS2 gene in brain tissue from those with autopsy-confirmed AD.
One of the newest weapons that scientists have developed against cancer is a type of engineered immune cell known as CAR-NK (natural killer) cells. Similar to CAR-T cells, these cells can be programmed to attack cancer cells.
MIT and Harvard Medical School researchers have now come up with a new way to engineer CAR-NK cells that makes them much less likely to be rejected by the patient’s immune system, which is a common drawback of this type of treatment.
The new advance may also make it easier to develop “off-the-shelf” CAR-NK cells that could be given to patients as soon as they are diagnosed. Traditional approaches to engineering CAR-NK or CAR-T cells usually take several weeks.
People who sleep poorly are more likely than others to have brains that appear older than they actually are. This is according to a comprehensive brain imaging study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the journal eBioMedicine. The paper is titled “Poor sleep health is associated with older brain age: the role of systemic inflammation.”
Increased inflammation in the body may partly explain the association.
Poor sleep has been linked to dementia, but it is unclear whether unhealthy sleep habits contribute to the development of dementia or whether they are rather early symptoms of the disease.
Abdominal pain is a hallmark of many digestive disorders, including inflammatory bowel disease and irritable bowel syndrome. In an effort to develop targeted treatments for gut pain, scientists have discovered a new enzyme in gut bacteria and are using nanoparticles to deliver drugs inside cells.
Currently, there are no treatments specifically for gut pain, and existing painkillers are often insufficient at managing symptoms. These drugs—including opioids, NSAIDs, and steroids—also come with side effects, some of which directly harm the digestive system.
In two new studies published in Cell Host & Microbe and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers focused on PAR2, a receptor involved in pain signaling that has been shown to play a role in gastrointestinal diseases marked by inflammation and pain. Found on the lining of the gut and on pain-sensing nerves in the gut, PAR2 is activated by certain enzymes called proteases and is a promising target for treating gut pain—in numerous ways.