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Archive for the ‘biotech/medical’ category: Page 395

Nov 1, 2023

Engineering stem cells to treat liver disease

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, engineering

Transplant is the only option now for liver failure, but it’s not for everyone. One Mayo Clinic M.D./Ph. D. student and her mentor are researching ways to regenerate liver cells as a possible treatment for end-stage liver disease.


“Research provides us with the understanding to develop tools to make big changes in clinical problems like those facing patients with liver failure,” says Nguyen. “I want to be on the forefront of developing medical technologies that provide alternatives. I derive a lot of passion for research through thinking about the future patients I will be treating in the clinic.”

Nguyen is a fifth-year M.D.-Ph. D. student in the Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, who is also completing her Ph.D. in regenerative sciences through the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences.

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Nov 1, 2023

Scientists Use CRISPR to Delete Fearful Memories in Rats

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, neuroscience

Year 2020 face_with_colon_three


Ah, Memories! They can be some of our best assets or our most painful tormentors. Good memories give us a sensation of warmth and hope for better times, but bad memories can cause serious trauma.

Nov 1, 2023

Genetic variant in CACNA1C is associated with PTSD in traumatized police officers

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, education, genetics, neuroscience, sex

In this study we aimed to detect epigenetic and genetic loci associated with PTSD in a homogeneous cohort of traumatized police officers. Both a genome-wide and hypothesis-driven replication approach did not result in DMPs between PTSD patients and trauma-exposed controls. GSE analysis on the top 100 DMPs showed, however, a plausible association of the dopaminergic neurogenesis pathway with PTSD. Furthermore, we observed one DMR located at the PAX8 gene suggesting consistent hypermethylation in PTSD patients. Genetic analyses yielded three CpG-SNPs significantly associated with PTSD. Of these, one CpG-SNP, located at the CACNA1C locus, was also significantly associated with PTSD in an independent replication sample of trauma-exposed children. Notably, this result shows that the Illumina 450K array is not restricted to epigenetic surveys but can provide informative genetic data as well.

Although our sample was small, it was highly homogenous as all participants were former or current police officers, and cases and controls were matched for sex, age, education, and years of police service. All participants reported multiple prior traumatic events, without significant group differences in reported types of traumatic experiences. PTSD patients fulfilled current diagnostic criteria for PTSD, while our trauma-exposed controls had minimal PTSD symptoms and did not report lifetime PTSD or other trauma-related psychiatric disorders. Thus our controls were apparently resilient to adverse mental health outcome of trauma. This study design, including extreme phenotypes following similar trauma load, was considered to favor detection of PTSD-associated loci, as also suggested by others [22]. Nevertheless, our genome-wide survey clearly remains limited in statistical power.

Nov 1, 2023

Docetaxel use associated with significant reduction in prostate cancer death in very poor prognostic group

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Men with high-grade prostate cancer and low prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels have a poor prognosis. The question remains as to whether the chemotherapy drug docetaxel, which increases survival in metastatic prostate cancer, can improve the cure rate in these patients.

In a new study by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a meta-analysis of five prospective randomized (RCTs) found that adding docetaxel to standard-of-care (SOC) treatment was associated with a 70% reduction in death from prostate cancer-specific mortality (PCSM). The study was published today in JAMA Network Open.

Investigators performed a of the RCTs evaluating SOC treatment with radiotherapy and androgen deprivation therapy or with versus SOC plus docetaxel. The final study cohort of 2,184 patients included 145 eligible patients (6.6%) across four eligible RCTs.

Nov 1, 2023

Triple-Negative Breast Cancer Approach That Targets Translation Looks Promising

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is an aggressive tumor with a very poor prognosis and limited therapeutic targets. Now, researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and collaborating institutions have discovered in diverse TNBC animal models that targeting the protein elF4A with the small molecule drug Zotatifin suppressed tumor cell proliferation and remodeled the tumor immune microenvironment. The findings may lead to clinical trials to assess the potential patient benefits of this novel approach.

The team published their findings in The Journal of Clinical Investigation in an article titled, “Targeting EIF4A triggers an interferon response to synergize with chemotherapy and suppress triple-negative breast cancer.”

“Protein synthesis is frequently dysregulated in cancer and selective inhibition of mRNA translation represents an attractive cancer therapy,” wrote the researchers. “Here, we show that therapeutically targeting the RNA helicase eIF4A by Zotatifin, the first-in-class eIF4A inhibitor, exerts pleiotropic effects on both tumor cells and the tumor immune microenvironment in a diverse cohort of syngeneic triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) mouse models.”

Nov 1, 2023

At Abundance 360, David Sinclair made quite a number of encouraging comments about the future of aging research, including methods of resetting epigenetics to a youthful state

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical, chemistry, genetics, life extension, Peter Diamandis, robotics/AI

Emmett Short discusses these comments on this episode of Lifespan News.

But first, the mad scientist David Sinclair, this time with Peter Diamandis at Abundance 360, giving more details into human trials for the genetic engineering side of the technology versus the chemical and pill side of the technology. Which would you want more? We’ll also hear David’s thoughts on how AI will affect the advancement of this tech. Spoiler: A lot. I’m going to play the best parts and add my commentary along the way.

Nov 1, 2023

HbA1c: What’s Optimal, What’s My Data?

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, genetics, life extension

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Nov 1, 2023

Study finds pleasurable music and ‘chills’ predict music-induced hypoalgesia

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, media & arts, neuroscience

Music for pain relief and anxiety. I think somewhere else I read it helps heal brain injuries.


Further, subject-preferred music appears to induce a superior effect in relieving pain. This can be approached by allowing participants to select the most pleasant music from a prespecified list of songs or listen to their favorite music during the study. Nevertheless, the richness of emotions, meanings, and associations involved when listening to favorite music is poorly understood, especially regarding pain relief.

About the study

Continue reading “Study finds pleasurable music and ‘chills’ predict music-induced hypoalgesia” »

Nov 1, 2023

Heart failure no longer death sentence for cancer survivors

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

Cancer patients receiving anthracycline chemotherapy have more than twice the risk of developing heart failure compared to their peers without cancer.1The ground-breaking RESILIENCE project aims to prevent heart failure in patients who need anthracyclines to treat their cancer.

International experts and patients from the project gathered yesterday at the European Heart House, home of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), as a unique think tank to improve the healthcare and quality of life for patients with cancer.

It is estimated that four million Europeans are diagnosed with cancer every year.2 Anthracycline chemotherapy has a prominent role in treating many forms of cancer-for example, up to 70% of patients with lymphoma receive an anthracycline regimen. Currently, there is no therapy to prevent anthracycline cardiotoxicity.

Nov 1, 2023

New NK cell engaging immunotherapy approaches to target and potentially treat recalcitrant ovarian cancer

Posted by in categories: bioengineering, biotech/medical

The Wistar Institute’s David B. Weiner and collaborators have engineered novel monoclonal antibodies that engage natural killer (NK) cells through a unique surface receptor that activates the immune system to fight against cancer.

In their publication titled, “Siglec-7 glyco-immune binding MAbs or NK cell engager biologics induce potent anti-tumor immunity against ,” published in Science Advances, the team demonstrates the preclinical feasibility of utilizing these new cancer immunotherapeutic approaches against diverse ovarian cancer types, including treatment-resistant and refractory ovarian cancers—alone or in combination with checkpoint inhibitor treatment.

The research started as a collaboration between Wistar’s Drs. Weiner and Mohamed Abdel-Mohsen, who were exploring the development of new glyco-signaling biologic tools that may be important in the fight against cancer.

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