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Scientists at St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute and the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen have shown that immunotherapy after stem cell transplantation effectively combats certain nerve tumors in children. Crucially, stem cells from a parent provide children with a new immune system that responds much better to immunotherapies. These results of an early clinical trial were published in the prestigious Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Childhood tumors of the nervous system, known as neuroblastomas, are associated with an unfavorable prognosis if the tumor is classified as a high-risk type. The chances are particularly poor for patients in the relapsed stage. In this case, immunotherapy following stem cell transplantation is now associated with long-term survival in a substantial proportion of the patients included in a recent study. Compared to an earlier study the survival rate was increased.
“After the transplantation of stem cells from a parent, the patients are equipped with a new immune system. This enables a better immune response to the subsequent immunotherapy and clearly improves the outcome,” explains Prof. Ruth Ladenstein, MD, head of the Studies & Statistics group for Integrated Research and Projects (S2IRP) at St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute and professor at the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at MedUni Vienna, who played a key role as co-first author.
What happens in femtoseconds in nature can now be observed in milliseconds in the lab.
Scientists at the university of sydney.
The University of Sydney is a public research university located in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1,850, it is the oldest university in Australia and is consistently ranked among the top universities in the world. The University of Sydney has a strong focus on research and offers a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate programs across a variety of disciplines, including arts, business, engineering, law, medicine, and science.
A biological pathway through which myelin, the protective coating on nerve fibers, can be repaired and regenerated has been discovered in a new study. The ramifications of this finding could be far-reaching for those with neurological diseases affecting myelin, many of which are currently untreatable.
If the axons that shoot out from the cell bodies of neurons are like electrical wires, you can think of the myelin sheath as the insulating plastic outer coating. In the brain, these sheathed nerve fibers make up most of the tissue known as white matter, but axons throughout the body are also coated in myelin.
The myelin sheath’s main functions are to protect the axon, to ensure electrical nerve impulses can travel quickly down it, and to maintain the strength of these impulses as they travel over what can be very long distances.
Researchers at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) have found how stem cells’ surrounding environment controls them to differentiate into functional cells, a breakthrough critical for using stem cells to treat various human diseases in the future.
Stem cells play a crucial role in supporting normal development and maintaining tissue homeostasis in adults. Their unique ability to replicate and differentiate into specialized cells holds great promise in treating diseases like Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease and type I diabetes by replacing damaged or diseased cells with healthy ones.
Despite their potential therapeutic benefits, one of the major challenges for cell therapies lies in efficiently differentiating stem cells into functional cells to replace damaged cells in degenerative tissue. This task is particularly difficult due to the limited understanding of the underlying molecular mechanism by which the tissues around stem cells, known as the stem cell niche, guide stem cell progeny to differentiate into proper functional cell types.
Cell therapy company BlueRock Therapeutics has revealed promising results from the Phase 1 clinical trial of bemdaneprocel, an investigational stem cell therapy designed to treat Parkinson’s disease. BlueRock, a wholly owned independently operated subsidiary of pharma giant Bayer, is creating a pipeline of cell therapy treatments for neurological, cardiovascular, immunological, and ophthalmic conditions.
Bemdaneprocel is a stem cell therapy developed to replace dopamine-producing neurons that are lost in Parkinson’s disease. Derived from pluripotent stem cells, the therapy involves implanting neuron precursors into the brains of patients to potentially restore neural networks and improve motor and non-motor functions.
“The need for new therapies to help patients struggling with Parkinson’s disease is clear,” said Ahmed Enayetallah, Head of Development at BlueRock Therapeutics. “We are excited to be sharing the results of this Phase 1 and look forward to advancing bemdaneprocel to the next stage of clinical testing.”
Quantum computing is on the verge of catapulting the digital revolution to new heights.
Turbocharged processing holds the promise of instantaneously diagnosing health ailments and providing rapid development of new medicines; greatly speeding up response time in AI systems for such time-sensitive operations as autonomous driving and space travel; optimizing traffic control in congested cities; helping aircraft better navigate extreme turbulence; speeding up weather forecasting that better prepares localities facing potential disaster, and optimizing supply chain systems for more efficient delivery times and cost savings.
But we’re not there yet. One of the greatest obstacles facing quantum operations is error-correction.
The incidence of cancer increases exponentially as we age. Unlike most age-related diseases, which generally cause cell and tissue degeneration and loss of function, cancer cells must acquire different, albeit aberrant, functions to progress to lethal disease. One link between age-related cancer and degeneration could be an inflammatory tissue environment driven by MTOR in senescent cells.
In her groundbreaking 2010 research perspective paper, The Senescence-Associated Secretory Phenotype: The Dark Side of Tumor Suppression, Dr. Judith Campisi from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging highlighted the tumor-promoting aspects of senescent cells. Campisi’s research showcased the significant ability of senescent cells to reshape the cellular landscape around them, crafting what scientists term the ‘microenvironment.’
Far from being an inert backdrop, this microenvironment serves as a dynamic stage upon which cells interact and potentially pave the way for disease progression, particularly cancer.
The recent surge in generative artificial intelligence (AI) technology is boosting the tech industry after growth slowed across the sector earlier this year.
As federal interest rates rose and the tech industry was coming off a pandemic-induced high, the once-vibrant sector suffered through lower earnings and layoffs throughout the year.
Britain’s state-run national health service will be the first in the world to offer an injection that treats cancer to hundreds of patients in England which could cut treatment times by up to three quarters.
Following approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), NHS England said on Tuesday (Aug 29) hundreds of eligible patients treated with the immunotherapy, atezolizumab, were set to have “under the skin” injection, which will free up more time for cancer teams.
“This approval will not only allow us to deliver convenient and faster care for our patients, but will enable our teams to treat more patients throughout the day,” Dr Alexander Martin, a consultant oncologist at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust said.
