A wearable DNA-based sensor similar to a continuous glucose monitor can accurately and safely detect vancomycin concentrations in the body.
Aptamer-coated microneedle patch can detect amounts of the antibiotic vancomycin in real time for at least 12 hours by Helen Albert, special to C&EN.
Here, Lintao Qu & team illuminate a neuroimmune mechanism in a mouse gout model involving MRGPRX2 signaling in synovial mast cells that drives pain and joint inflammation:
The figure: Mouse knee joint sections show treatment with an antibody against neuropeptide substance P (SP) decreases infiltration of neutrophils (Ly6G) and macrophages (CD68) into the synovium (S) in gout arthritis compared with control.
5Department of Endocrinology, Second Affiliated Hospital, University of South China, Hengyang, Hunan, China.
6College of Pharmacy, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
7Center of Research Excellence in Allergy and Immunology, Research Department, Faculty of Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand.
Now online! Meningeal blood vessel blockage enhances anti-tumor immunity against GBM in preclinical models by expanding dural resident border-associated macrophages, which are equipped with an elevated antigen-presentation function and are poised for effective T cell activation, suggesting a surgical strategy for potentiating GBM immunotherapy.
NEUNew Maximizing Tumor Resection and Managing Cognitive Attentional Outcomes: Measures of Impact of Awake Surgery in Glioma Treatment by Zigiotto et al at “S. Chiara” University-Hospital, Azienda Provinciale per i Servizi Sanitari, Trento, Italy Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS)
including attention. Understanding how AwS and AsS affect attention is crucial, given its pivotal role in supporting various cognitive functions.
METHODS:
We conducted a retrospective analysis on 64 glioma patients treated with AwS or AsS. Attention was assessed with visual search tasks and Trail Making Test Part A before and 1 week and 1 month after surgery. Volumetric T1-weighted and T2/Fluid Attenuated Inversion Recovery MRI sequences before and after surgery were used to delineate the lesion and the surgical cavity. The extent of resection was calculated to determine supramaximal resection for both contrast-enhanced and non–contrast-enhanced tumor regions.
RESULTS:
The study findings also suggest approaches that enhance expression or activity of DMTF1 may have therapeutic potential in reversing or delaying aging-associated decline of neural stem cell function.
While the preliminary findings stemmed mainly from in vitro experiments, the researchers hope to explore if elevating DMTF1 expression can regenerate neural stem cell numbers as well as improve learning and memory under the conditions of telomere shortening and natural aging, without increasing the risk of brain tumors. The long-term objective is to discover small molecules that can enhance DMTF1 expression and activity to improve the function of aged neural stem cells.
“Our findings suggest that DMTF1 can contribute to neural stem cell multiplication in neurological aging,” Dr Liang said. “While our study is in its infancy, the findings provide a framework for understanding how aging-associated molecular changes affect neural stem cell behavior, and may ultimately guide the development of successful therapeutics.”
Scientists can now design bacteria-killing viruses from DNA, opening a faster path to fighting superbugs.
Bacteriophages have been used as treatments for bacterial infections for more than a century. Interest in these viruses is rising again as antibiotic-resistant infections become an increasing threat to public health. Even so, progress in the field has been slow. Most research has relied on naturally occurring phages because traditional engineering methods are time consuming and difficult, limiting the development of customized therapeutic viruses.
A fully synthetic phage engineering breakthrough.
For decades, scientists have tried to answer a simple question: why be honest when deception is possible? Whether it is a peacock’s tail, a stag’s roar, or a human’s résumé, signals are means to influence others by transmitting information and advantages can be gained by cheating, for example by exaggeration. But if lying pays, why does communication not collapse?
The dominant theory for honest signals has long been the handicap principle, which claims that signals are honest because they are costly to produce. It argues that a peacock’s tail, for example, is an honest signal of a male’s condition or quality to potential mates because it is so costly to produce. Only high-quality birds could afford such a handicap, wasting resources growing it, demonstrating their superb quality to females, whereas poor quality males cannot afford such ornaments.
A new synthesis by Szabolcs Számadó, Dustin J. Penn and István Zachar (from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics, University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna and HUN-REN Centre for Ecological Research, respectively) challenges that logic. They argue that honesty does not depend on how costly or wasteful a signal is, but rather on the trade-offs between investments and benefits, faced by signalers.
McGill researchers have developed a diagnostic system capable of identifying bacteria—and determining which antibiotics can stop them—in just 36 minutes, a major advance in the global effort to curb antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Current clinical testing methods typically take 48 to 72 hours, leaving physicians without timely guidance.
The researchers say this innovation arrives at a critical moment due to the urgency of the AMR crisis, which arises from bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics.
“We are losing the race against antimicrobial resistance,” said Sara Mahshid, associate professor in the Department of Bioengineering and lead author on the Nature Nanotechnology study. “Every year, more than one million people die, more than from HIV/AIDS or malaria, and delayed treatment is a major driver. Rapid testing isn’t a luxury; it’s the missing link between diagnosis and survival.”