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Category: biotech/medical – Page 323

Parkinson’s drug reduces symptoms in treatment-resistant depression, clinical trial finds

A drug used for Parkinson’s disease has been shown to be effective in reducing the symptoms of difficult to treat depression, according to a study led by the University of Oxford.

In the largest clinical trial to date, pramipexole was found to be substantially more effective than a placebo at reducing the symptoms of (TRD) over the course of nearly a year, when added to ongoing antidepressant medication.

The trial, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, included 150 patients with treatment-resistant depression, with equal numbers receiving 48 weeks of pramipexole or a placebo, alongside ongoing antidepressant medication.

Highly Scalable, Wearable Surface‐Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

The last two decades have witnessed a dramatic growth of wearable sensor technology, mainly represented by flexible, stretchable, on-skin electronic sensors that provide rich information of the wearer’s health conditions and surroundings. A recent breakthrough in the field is the development of wearable chemical sensors based on surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) that can detect molecular fingerprints universally, sensitively, and noninvasively. However, while their sensing properties are excellent, these sensors are not scalable for widespread use beyond small-scale human health monitoring due to their cumbersome fabrication process and limited multifunctional sensing capabilities. Here, a highly scalable, wearable SERS sensor is demonstrated based on an easy-to-fabricate, low-cost, ultrathin, flexible, stretchable, adhesive, and biointegratable gold nanomesh. It can be fabricated in any shape and worn on virtually any surface for label-free, large-scale, in situ sensing of diverse analytes from low to high concentrations (10–106 × 10−9 m). To show the practical utility of the wearable SERS sensor, the sensor is tested for the detection of sweat biomarkers, drugs of abuse, and microplastics. This wearable SERS sensor represents a significant step toward the generalizability and practicality of wearable sensing technology.

Researchers discover antitumor potential of CD4 T lymphocytes

In the fight against cancer, immunotherapy—which aims to boost the body’s natural defenses against cancer—is experiencing remarkable growth. Most of these treatments are based on CD8 T lymphocytes, “killer cells” able to eliminate diseased cells. A team from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) has explored an alternative approach involving CD4 T lymphocytes.

Long considered mere auxiliary cells, their therapeutic potential has been considered of secondary importance. But the scientists have discovered that they also have a strong killing capacity, while continuing to support other immune cells. Using cell engineering technologies, the team reprogrammed the cells to target a tumor marker found in many cancers, both in adults and children. These results, published in the journal Science Advances, offer hope for a faster therapeutic strategy that could benefit a greater number of patients.

Traditionally considered as auxiliary cells, CD4 T cells produce molecules to support the action of other immune cells by facilitating their functions, migration or proliferation in the organism. The recent work by Camilla Jandus, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Immunology, in the Center for Inflammation Research and in the Translational Research Center in Onco-hematology at the UNIGE Faculty of Medicine, shows that they have been vastly underestimated.

AI matches doctors in mapping lung tumors for radiation therapy

In radiation therapy, precision can save lives. Oncologists must carefully map the size and location of a tumor before delivering high-dose radiation to destroy cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue. But this process, called tumor segmentation, is still done manually, takes time, varies between doctors—and can lead to critical tumor areas being overlooked.

Now, a team of Northwestern Medicine scientists has developed an AI tool called iSeg that not only matches doctors in accurately outlining on CT scans but can also identify areas that some doctors may miss, reports a large new study.

Unlike earlier AI tools that focused on static images, iSeg is the first 3D deep learning tool shown to segment tumors as they move with each breath—a critical factor in planning , which half of all cancer patients in the U.S. receive during their illness.

How a common herpes virus evades the immune system: Study tackles a leading cause of birth defects

New research from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and La Jolla Institute for Immunology, published today in Nature Microbiology, reveals an opportunity for developing a therapy against cytomegalovirus (CMV), the leading infectious cause of birth defects in the United States.

Researchers discovered a previously unappreciated mechanism by which CMV, a that infects the majority of the world’s adult population, enters cells that line the blood vessels and contributes to vascular disease. In addition to using molecular machinery that is shared by all herpes viruses, CMV employs another molecular “key” that allows the virus to sneak through a side door and evade the body’s natural immune defenses.

The finding might explain why efforts to develop prophylactic treatments against CMV have, so far, been unsuccessful. This research also highlights a new potential avenue for the development of future and suggests that other viruses of the herpes family, such as Epstein-Barr and chickenpox, could use similar molecular structures to spread from one infected cell to the next while avoiding immune detection.

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