MRI research suggests a higher muscle-to-visceral-fat ratio may keep the brain biologically younger. Here’s what the findings mean for long-term brain health.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 348
Type 1 diabetes cured in mice with gentle blood stem-cell and pancreatic islet transplant
An “immune system reset” cured autoimmune, or Type 1, diabetes in mice in a Stanford Medicine study. The approach may be useful for other autoimmune conditions as well as organ transplants.
Electric Fields Steer Nanoparticles for Targeted Drug Delivery
Researchers discovered a new way to independently tune a nanoparticle’s speed and direction using different strength electric fields.
The new method could lead to better drug delivery technologies.
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A new method using a combination of strong and weak electric fields to change nanoparticle speed and direction could improve drug delivery and purification systems.
GLP-1 Drug Side Effects May Be Tackled with More Mechanistic Studies
GLP-1 drugs have been transformative for treating obesity, but about 50 percent of patients who were prescribed this treatment ended up stopping due to severe side effects, such as nausea.
At the 2025 Society for Neuroscience meeting, experts presented new findings on how GLP-1 agonists’ action in the brain produced unwanted side effects and how these discoveries can guide future research.
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At the 2025 Society for Neuroscience meeting, scientists discussed the adverse side effects of GLP-1 agonists and new directions for future research.
New possible treatment pathway for Shank3-related autism discovered
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by differences in communication, behavior and the processing of sensory information. Past research has shown that some individuals diagnosed with ASD exhibit specific genetic variants or differences in the regulation of genes.
In some patients, the Shank3 gene was found to be mutated, partially or fully deleted, or not expressed as much. This gene is known to support the creation of junctions at which connected neurons communicate with each other, known as synapses.
Past findings suggest that people diagnosed with ASD who exhibit variants in Shank3 also present abnormalities in the volume, structure and function of white matter. White matter is a brain region filled with a fatty substance known as myelin, which insulates nerves and allows signals to travel faster within the nervous system.
Boosting telomerase activity slows lung cell aging in pulmonary fibrosis study
Pulmonary fibrosis—also known in technical terms as idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF)—is a rare but life-threatening disease. It causes scarring of the connective tissue between the functional tissue of the lungs, leading to increasing shortness of breath. Current treatments can slow the progression of fibrosis, but cannot cure it. The average life expectancy after diagnosis is only four to six years. New therapies are therefore urgently needed.
A research team led by Professor Christian Bär, research group leader at the Institute for Molecular and Translational Therapy Strategies at Hannover Medical School (MHH), and his colleague Dr. Shambhabi Chatterjee has turned its attention to the interior of cells, or more precisely to telomeres. These are protective caps at the ends of chromosomes, the carriers of our genetic information.
With each cell division, the telomeres shorten a little until they reach a critical length and the genes they protect could be damaged. Then the cell stops dividing and the tissue ages.
