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Category: biotech/medical – Page 3,024

Age-Related Inflammation and its Effects on the Generation of Immune Cells

The effects or Inflammation and the effect it has on the immune system are discussed in this article at FightAging!

With age, the immune system falls into a state of ever increasing chronic inflammation, a process known as inflammaging: the immune system is overactive, but nonetheless declines in effectiveness at the same time. Researchers here consider how inflammaging can damage the bone marrow stem cell populations responsible for generating immune cells, possibly the basis for a vicious cycle in which the failures of the immune system feed upon themselves to accelerate age-related damage and dysfunction.

Hematopoiesis is an active, continuous process involving the production and consumption of mature blood cells that constitute the hemato-lymphoid system. All blood cells arise from a small population of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in the bone marrow (BM) that have two unique properties: self-renewing capacity, the ability to generate themselves, and multi-lineage differentiation capacity, the ability to produce all blood cell types. Since, in the steady state, most adult HSCs are in the G0 phase of the cell cycle, i.e., they are quiescent and are estimated to turnover slowly on a monthly time scale, daily hematopoietic production is mainly sustained by highly proliferative downstream hematopoietic progenitor cells (HPCs).

Aging of the hematopoietic system is represented by functional declines in both the adaptive and the innate immune system, an immunosenescence that leads to high susceptibility to infections, low efficacy of vaccinations, and increased vulnerability to the development of autoimmunity and hematologic malignancies. It has been show that (a) B cell production decreases significantly with advancing age, i.e., the naive B cell pool diminishes, while the memory B cell pool expands. Diversity of the B cell repertoire also decreases in association with lowered antibody affinity and impaired class switching. B cells are prone to produce auto-antibodies increasing the incidence of spontaneous autoimmunity; (b) de novo T cell production also declines with aging partially due to thymic involution.

John Glenn, first American to orbit the Earth, dies at 95

John Glenn, who captured the nation’s attention in 1962 as the first American to orbit the Earth during a tense time when the United States sought supremacy over the Soviet Union in the space race, and who rocketed back into space 36 years later, becoming the oldest astronaut in history, died Dec. 8 at a hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Mr. Glenn, who in his post-NASA career served four terms as a U.S. senator from Ohio, was 95.

The death was confirmed by Hank Wilson, communications director at the John Glenn College of Public Affairs at Ohio State University. Mr. Glenn had a stroke after heart-valve replacement surgery in 2014, but the immediate cause was not announced.

Mr. Glenn was one of the seven original astronauts in NASA’s Mercury program, which was a conspicuous symbol of the country’s military and technological might at the height of the Cold War. He was not the first American in space — two of his fellow astronauts preceded him — but his three-orbit circumnavigation of the globe captured the imagination of his countrymen like few events before or since. Mr. Glenn was the last survivor of the Mercury Seven.

Another step closer to artificial blood

Artificial blood takes a big step forward!

(HealthDay)—Artificial blood stored as a powder could one day revolutionize emergency medicine and provide trauma victims a better chance of survival.

Researchers have created an artificial that effectively picks up in the lungs and delivers it to tissues throughout the body.

This can be freeze-dried, making it easier for combat medics and paramedics to keep on hand for emergencies, said senior researcher Dr. Allan Doctor. He is a critical care specialist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

Lab-grown bones successfully transplanted, says Israeli firm

Israel’s Bonus says lab-grown bones successfully transplanted. Jim Drury reports.

A lab-grown, semi-liquid bone graft has been successfully injected into 11 patients’ jaws to repair bone loss. Israeli biotech firm Bonus Biogroup announced the early stage clinical trial results on Monday. SOUNDBITE (English) ORA BURGER, VICE PRESIDENT OF REGULATION AFFAIRS AT BONUS BIOGROUP, SAYING: “What we are announcing to the world is that real success in our clinical study in regenerating new bone in maxillofacial site in the jaws, it was 100 percent successful in all 11 patients.” The injectable bone grafts are made in the company’s Haifa plant, using cells extracted from patients’ fat tissue. They’re grown in sterile clean rooms, on biodegradable 3D scaffolds, before being injected into the voids in the jawbones.

Funding a Cure for Aging

Great news for SENS Research and Rejuvenation Biotechnology.

One of the biggest highlights of the year for us has got to be Internet Entrepreneur Michael Greve committing $10 million to SENS-related research and startups. A list of some of the projects he is supporting can be found at the Forever Healthy Foundation. We are so pleased to have the support of Michael and his team in the mission to bring rejuvenation biotechnology to the world.

“In order to accelerate the access to healthy longevity for all of us we directly fund cutting-edge research on molecular and cellular repair to combat the root causes of aging and support the creation of startups turning that research into therapies for human application.” — Michael Greve.

#aging #sens

Protein that promotes ‘cell-suicide’ could revolutionise eye cancer treatment

More progress with cancer and using a similar approach to senolytics, no surprise really as cancer and senescent cell share a lot of common ground and approach that work with one may well work with the other if they are aimed at inducing apoptosis.

Apoptosis, or , is a rapid and irreversible process to efficiently eliminate dysfunctional cells. A hallmark of cancer is the ability of malignant cells to evade apoptosis.

Dr Luminita Paraoan, from the University’s Department of Eye and Vision Science in the Institute of Ageing and Chronic Disease, has published new findings in the British Journal of Cancer that identify the requirement of a protein called p63 for the initiation of apoptosis in UM.

Chromosome 3 is one of the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans. People normally have two copies of each chromosome. One part of chromosome 3 contains the gene for the protein p63. Unfortunately people with aggressive (resistant to apoptosis) UM do not have this part and therefore do not have the p63 protein.

World Patent Marketing Success Team Announces the Gamete Manipulator, a Medical Invention That Facilitates in Manipulating Micro-Sized Materials

Very cool.

World Patent Marketing, a vertically integrated manufacturer and engineer of patented products, introduces the Gamete Manipulator, a medical invention that will allow people to easily move micro-sized materials.

“The healthcare industry is worth $3 trillion,” says Scott Cooper, CEO and Creative Director of World Patent Marketing. “People still require medical attention even during economic downturns so there is a consistent demand for this industry.”

“Medical practice is extremely difficult and requires years of hard work,” says Jerry Shapiro, Director of Manufacturing and World Patent Marketing Inventions. “It’s important that practitioners have the proper tools for the job. This medical intervention will help will precise procedures.”

Logic of Signaling

Why Synbio computing is where we ultimately want to more and more progress towards especially once the basic infrastructure is updated with technology like QC.

Cells are often likened to computers, running an operating system that receives signals, processes their input, and responds, according to programming, with cellular output. Yet untangling computer-like pathways in cells is anything but simple, say Denise Montell, professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Aviv Regev, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Broad Institute. However, both are eager to try and will outline their latest efforts at the “Logic of Signaling” symposium at the 2016 ASCB Annual Meeting.

“My lab is understanding how cells maintain and build normal tissues. We’re studying cellular behaviors that underlie normal behavior and tumor metastasis, a great unsolved question in cancer,” Montell said. Her lab recently discovered that cells can bounce back from the brink of apoptotic cell death. “This wasn’t known before so now we’re looking at how cells do it, when do they do it, under what circumstances, and what does it mean,” Montell said.

To track these near-death experiences in cells the Montell lab generated a genetically coded sensor in Drosophila. The researchers expected the mechanism to be a stress response, but they found that it was normal during development. “It makes sense retrospectively,” Montell explained, pointing to neuronal development as an example. “You produce way more neurons that you need, and the neurons compete for trophic factors. If a group of cells are competing for trophic factors, then one cell starts to die, but if it gets more trophic factor, it could bounce back.”

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