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Category: biotech/medical – Page 375

NEW ORLEANS, March 18, 2024 — Doctors have long prescribed exercise to improve and protect health. In the future, a pill may offer some of the same benefits as exercise. Now, researchers report on new compounds that appear capable of mimicking the physical boost of working out — at least within rodent cells. This discovery could lead to a new way to treat muscle atrophy and other medical conditions in people, including heart failure and neurodegenerative disease.

The researchers will present their results today at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Spring 2024 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in person March 17–21; it features nearly 12,000 presentations on a range of science topics.

“We cannot replace exercise; exercise is important on all levels,” says Bahaa Elgendy, the project’s principal investigator who is presenting the work at the meeting. “If I can exercise, I should go ahead and get the physical activity. But there are so many cases in which a substitute is needed.”

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In a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, a team of scientists from the United States (U.S.) and Canada evaluated the performance of a blood-based testing method that uses cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) to screen for colorectal cancer.

Study: A Cell-free DNA Blood-Based Test for Colorectal Cancer Screening. Image Credit: Connect world/Shutterstock.com.

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Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine have discovered that unique bacteria colonize the gut shortly after birth and make the neurotransmitter serotonin to educate gut immune cells that help in preventing allergic reactions to food and the bacteria themselves during early development.

The study published in the journal Science Immunology on March 15, 2024, revealed that bacteria abundant in the guts of newborns produce serotonin, which promotes the development of immune cells called T-regulatory cells or Tregs. These cells suppress inappropriate immune responses to help prevent autoimmune diseases and dangerous allergic reactions to harmless food items or beneficial gut microbes.

“The gut is now known as the second human brain as it makes over 90 percent of the neurotransmitters in the human body. While neurotransmitters such as serotonin are best known for their roles in brain health, receptors for neurotransmitters are located throughout the human body,” explained the study’s senior author, Dr. Melody Zeng, an assistant professor of immunology in the Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children’s Research and the Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine.

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Scientists are embarking on a £1.1 million project aimed at revolutionising drug production by using food by-products to develop new antimicrobial drugs.

Led by the University of Strathclyde in collaboration with the University of Surrey and GSK, the research endeavours to make antimicrobial production more cost-effective and sustainable, thereby addressing the pressing global challenge of antimicrobial resistance.

The project seeks to leverage bacteria, particularly Streptomyces, known for their potential to produce various drugs including antimicrobials. By harnessing food by-products, the team is aiming to device a less carbon-intensive process for biomanufacturing, which could pave the way for a range of medications including anti-parasitic, anti-cancer, anti-fungal, and immunosuppressant drugs.

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Researchers in the UC Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering are introducing a groundbreaking catheter-based device that could revolutionize heart attack and stroke prevention by enhancing intravascular imaging of dangerous plaques.

Researchers in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Davis, have developed a new catheter-based device that combines two powerful optical techniques to image the dangerous plaques that can build up inside the arteries that supply blood to the heart. By providing new details about plaque, the device could help clinicians and researchers improve treatments for preventing heart attacks and strokes.

Atherosclerosis occurs when fats, cholesterol and other substances accumulate on the artery walls, which can cause these vessels to become thick and stiff. A heart attack or stroke may occur if an atherosclerotic plaque inside the blood vessels ruptures or parts of it break off.

“Atherosclerosis, leading to heart attacks and strokes, is the number one cause of death in Western societies — exceeding all combined cancer types — and, therefore, a major public health issue,” said Laura Marcu, research team member leader and professor of biomedical engineering at UC Davis. “Better clinical management made possible by advanced intravascular imaging tools will benefit patients by providing more accurate information to help cardiologists tailor treatment or by supporting the development of new therapies.”

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Space travel is associated with an increased incidence of headaches among astronauts, emphasizing the need for further research and improved treatment methods.

Space travel and zero gravity can take a toll on the body. A new study has found that astronauts with no prior history of headaches may experience migraine and tension-type headaches during long-haul space flight, which includes more than 10 days in space. The study was published in the March 13, 2024, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Understanding Space-Induced Headaches

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Cellulose is the primary component of the cell walls of plants, making it the most common polymer on Earth. It’s responsible for the properties of materials like wood and cotton and is the primary component of dietary fiber, so it’s hard to overstate its importance to humanity.

Given its ubiquity and the fact that it’s composed of a bunch of sugar molecules linked together, its toughness makes it very difficult to use as a food source. The animals that manage to extract significant calories from cellulose typically do so via specialized digestive tracts that provide a home for symbiotic bacteria—think of the extra stomachs of cows and other ruminants.

Amazingly, humans also play host to bacteria that can break down cellulose—something that wasn’t confirmed until 2003 (long after I’d wrapped up my education). Now, a new study indicates that we’re host to a mix of cellulose-eating bacteria, some via our primate ancestry, and others through our domestication of herbivores such as cows. But urban living has caused the number of these bacteria to shrink dramatically.

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A soft brain implant that unfurls under the skull could give doctors a less invasive way to monitor patients’ brain activity — and maybe allow people to directly control technology with their minds.

The challenge: Placing an electrode array on the surface of the brain allows scientists to see neural activity in far more detail than is possible with electrodes outside of the skull.

Known as “electrocorticography,” this technology was initially developed to treat people with epilepsy, but it’s also been used in research for other types of neurological disorders and in the development of brain-computer interfaces.

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