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Category: biotech/medical – Page 318

Penn engineers turn toxic fungus into anti-cancer compound

face_with_colon_three year 2025.

Penn-led researchers have turned a deadly fungus into a potent cancer-fighting compound. After isolating a new class of molecules from Aspergillus flavus, a toxic crop fungus linked to deaths in the excavations of ancient tombs, the researchers modified the chemicals and tested them against leukemia cells. The result? A promising cancer-killing compound that rivals FDA-approved drugs and opens up new frontiers in the discovery of more fungal medicines.

“Fungi gave us penicillin,” says Sherry Gao, Presidential Penn Compact Associate Professor in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering (CBE) and in Bioengineering (BE) and senior author of a new paper in Nature Chemical Biology on the findings. “These results show that many more medicines derived from natural products remain to be found.”

How Fat Type Shapes Hypertension Risk

Too much fat can raise blood pressure, but the type matters more than the amount.

Researchers at Rockefeller University uncovered how thermogenic fat keeps blood vessels flexible by shutting down a vessel-stiffening enzyme.

Read more.

Promoting brown fat activity could counteract hypertension by reshaping the molecular signals that govern vascular stiffness.

Scientists turn cells’ most mysterious structures into spies on genetic activity

The barrel-shaped structures found by the thousands in most animal cells are one of biology’s biggest mysteries. But although researchers haven’t figured out the function of these “vaults,” they now report a new use for the puzzling particles.

Enigmatic ‘vaults’ can be engineered to eavesdrop on RNA, aiding cancer studies and more.

A breakthrough in DNA sequencing hints at why most smokers don’t get lung cancer

Breakthrough in DNA sequencing offers clues to why most smokers do not develop lung cancer.

“Our data suggest that these individuals may have survived for so long in spite of their heavy smoking because they managed to suppress further mutation accumulation,” says pulmonologist and genetics researcher Simon Spivack, a co-author on the study. “This leveling off of mutations could stem from these people having very proficient systems for repairing DNA damage or detoxifying cigarette smoke.”

Researchers who study the health effects of cigarette smoke have used all kinds of methods — from giving lab animals high doses of chemicals found in tobacco to combing through archives to determine which diseases smokers get more often — to figure out how the habit affects the body. Those studies have made it clear that cigarettes contain hundreds of harmful chemicals, including dozens of carcinogens.

For decades, researchers didn’t have any way to measure the mutations in lung cells that actually cause lung cancer. Five years ago, researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York found a way to overcome technical limitations that had made it impossible to sequence the genome. That is, they figured out how to determine the exact order of the A, T, C, and G molecules of the DNA within a single cell without introducing too many errors in the process.

Frontline Osimertinib Combo Prolongs Survival in Advanced EGFR+ NSCLC

Among patients with central nervous system (CNS) metastases at baseline, the 36-month OS rate was 57% (95% CI, 48%-66%) with osimertinib/chemotherapy and 40% (95% CI, 31%-49%) with osimertinib alone. The 36-month OS rates among patients without CNS metastases were 67% (95% CI, 59%-74%) vs 58% (95% CI, 50%-65%) in each respective arm. Additionally, the 36-month rates were 54% (95% CI, 44%-63%) vs 42% (95% CI, 32%-51%) among patients with EGFR L858R mutations and 69% (95% CI, 61%-75%) vs 57% (95% CI, 49%-64%) among those with EGFR exon 19 deletions.

When considering patients who discontinued frontline osimertinib following disease progression, 69% (n = 88/127) of patients in the combination therapy arm and 77% (n = 143/185) in the monotherapy arm received subsequent therapy. The most common types of first subsequent therapy in the combination arm included platinum-based chemotherapy (44%) and non–platinum-based chemotherapy (30%). Among patients who received osimertinib monotherapy, the most common kind of subsequent treatment was platinum-containing chemotherapy (72%).

“The combination therapy used in this trial was associated with a higher incidence of grade 3 or higher adverse events and of [AEs] leading to the discontinuation of treatment than osimertinib monotherapy. Most high-grade toxic effects associated with the combination therapy were related to myelosuppressive effects, which are generally dose-related and reversible, with supportive interventions available to ameliorate such effects,” lead study author Pasi A. Jänne, MD, PhD, senior vice president of Translational Medicine and professor in the Department of Medical Oncology at Lowe Center for Thoracic Oncology of Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, wrote with coauthors in the publication.1 “Results from this trial provide evidence that first-line treatment with osimertinib plus platinum/pemetrexed led to significantly longer [OS] than osimertinib monotherapy among patients with EGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC.”

Dual therapy shows promise for childhood brain cancer

Researchers at the Children’s Cancer Institute and UNSW Sydney have tested a new way of treating childhood brain cancer by combining two medicines in lab studies. They found using the two treatments together may work better than using either on its own. The research is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

In the new study, Children’s Cancer Institute and UNSW Sydney researchers lab-tested a combined therapy approach on a group of difficult-to-treat brain tumors: diffuse midline gliomas (DMG). This group includes diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a rare but fatal childhood brain cancer. Children diagnosed with DIPG usually survive for about 12 months.

UNSW Conjoint Professor David Ziegler and UNSW Conjoint Associate Professor Maria Tsoli led the study. They have been working for many years to find better treatments for DIPG.

Clinical features, pedigrees, MRI, and liver pathology of patients carrying heterozygous p.Glu230Lys

This Research Letter describes a new molecular basis for lipodystrophy syndromes.

Abhimanyu Garg & team report on a variant in ACAA2 that causes hepatitis and hypoglycemia during infancy and lipodystrophy during adulthood accompanied by elevated plasma long chain acylcarnitines.

Address correspondence to: Abhimanyu Garg, 5,323 Harry Hines Boulevard, Dallas, Texas 75,390, USA. Phone: 214.648.2895; Email: [email protected].

Find articles by Simha, V. in: | Google Scholar

1Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.

Abstract: Fanning the flames: IFN-γ fuels CAR-T inflammation and cytopenia:

A Commentary by Stefanie R. Bailey & Marcela V. Maus on Payal Goala et al.: https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI194631

1Division of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA.

2Cellular Immunotherapy Program, Mass General Cancer Center, Krantz Family Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts General Hospital, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Masschusetts, USA.

Address correspondence to: Marcela V. Maus, 149 13th Street, Room 3.216, Charlestown, Massachusetts, 2,129, USA. Email: [email protected].

A Hidden Brain Signal Can Predict Alzheimer’s Years Before Diagnosis

A subtle change in brain wave activity could predict Alzheimer’s disease more than two years before diagnosis, according to a new study.

The signal could prove to be a sensitive biomarker of cognitive decline.

Using a noninvasive imaging technique called magnetoencephalography (MEG), neuroscientists at Brown University in the US and Spain’s Complutense University of Madrid and University of La Laguna analyzed the resting brain wave activity of 85 patients diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.

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