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Category: biotech/medical – Page 32

An experimental Alzheimer’s drug shows promise targeting a different brain protein, new study shows

WASHINGTON (AP) — An experimental drug might help slow early Alzheimer’s disease in a markedly different way than today’s treatments — by lowering levels of a brain protein called tau, researchers reported Tuesday.

Tau is one part of a toxic duo fueling Alzheimer’s but prior attempts to develop drugs that can target the protein have failed. Two Alzheimer’s drugs, lecanemab and donanemab, try to clear buildup of the better-known amyloid protein and can modestly slow cognitive decline.

The new findings suggest Biogen’s diranersen did more than lower tau levels. The study of about 400 people found signs that it also slowed cognitive decline, in one small subset enough to be comparable to amyloid therapy, according to results presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London. Biogen is planning a larger study to try to prove the drug’s benefit.

Scientists discover molecular mechanism behind anesthesia-induced unconsciousness

Researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Birkbeck, University of London, have identified a site where a commonly used anesthetic binds to sodium ion channels, revealing a molecular mechanism that may explain how these drugs dampen communication between neurons. Ion channels are proteins that regulate the flow of charged particles across cell membranes, enabling neurons to generate electrical signals. By reducing this signaling, inhaled anesthetics help suppress brain activity, producing unconsciousness and immobility during surgery.

The findings, published June 19 in Nature Communications, shed light on a longstanding mystery: For 175 years, doctors have safely used inhaled anesthetics to render patients unconscious, but didn’t fully understand how these drugs work.

“Sodium channels are critical for communication between neurons in the brain, and anesthesia breaks down that communication,” said Dr. Hugh Hemmings, senior associate dean for research and chair of the Department of Anesthesiology at Weill Cornell, who co-led the research. “So, there’s good reason to believe that the unconsciousness produced by volatile anesthetics is related to their effects on sodium channels.”

New cancer drug shows promise in mesothelioma trial

Mesothelioma is a rare but aggressive cancer, usually caused by exposure to asbestos. Inhaled asbestos fibers become lodged in the lungs, causing inflammation that can lead to tumor formation decades later. Worldwide, about 30,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year.

Current treatments—immunotherapy and chemotherapy—offer limited benefit. Patients—often men who worked in shipbuilding, oil refining and asbestos manufacturing—face a median survival of approximately 12 months and a five-year survival rate of around 10%.

“It’s a disease of a significant unmet medical need,” says Brian Cunniff, a professor at the University of Vermont.

Signs of sugar detected near centre of the Milky Way

Astronomers have detected signs of a type of sugar in gas clouds near the centre of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Sugars provide energy and are key building blocks of life on Earth, such as DNA, but how they got here is a mystery.

It is not uncommon to find sugar in the cosmos — simple sugars such as ribose and glucose have been previously discovered on asteroids in our Solar System.

Ultrasound-based pacemaker noninvasively steadies the heart

MIT engineers have developed a noninvasive pacemaker that stimulates the heart using ultrasound. The design could one day provide a surgery-free alternative to traditional cardiac implants.

The new device is designed as a small sticker that can be worn on the chest. Tiny transducers on the sticker send ultrasound pulses through the chest to stimulate the heart. The ultrasound waves trigger the opening of certain ion channels in heart cells, an effect the researchers amplified through genetic engineering. When the channels open, they let in calcium, which signals a heart cell to squeeze and beat.

In experiments in the lab, the researchers applied ultrasound waves to engineered human cardiac cells and found that the pulses effectively maintained the cells’ healthy contractions. They also tested the ultrasound sticker on rats and found the device quickly, safely, and noninvasively corrected arrhythmias and restored normal, regular heart contractions.

AI tool improves prediction of who will respond to cancer immunotherapy drugs

Cancer immunotherapy drugs known as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) can be miracle drugs for cancer patients, curing some and turning deadly disease into a manageable chronic condition in others. But these drugs work for only a subset of patients, with few indications why—a knowledge gap that has detrimental effects on patient prognosis, clinical trial recruitment and research that could lead to new therapies.

A new artificial intelligence model called COMPASS, developed by Harvard Medical School researchers and their colleagues, improves prediction of which patients are most likely to respond to ICIs. Using data from patients treated in the past, the model outperformed the best existing approaches by 8.5%. It makes its predictions based on patients’ tumor gene activity and provides a rationale for its output.

If these results are validated in a future clinical trial, COMPASS could lead to better personalized medicine for cancer patients, more efficient trial enrollment for new therapies and new drug targets for researchers to explore.

Solving a 30-year-old puzzle about a mysterious superconducting material

A material made from yttrium, barium and copper oxide (better known as YBCO) has intrigued scientists since its discovery in 1987, largely because it retains its superconductive properties at a higher-than-normal temperature. However, it is extremely brittle, which makes it tricky to put to practical use.

But researchers can still learn much from it. For instance, its unusual properties can provide insight into designing possible room-temperature superconductors —that is, materials that conduct electricity with no resistance at room temperature. Doing so would have a huge impact on power transmission, medical imaging and fusion reactor magnets.

One thing about YBCO that has mystified researchers is that doping it with praseodymium, a rare earth element, completely kills the material’s superconductive properties. That is unusual because adding other rare earth elements to YBCO does not have the same effect.

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