Scientists have developed tiny metal-oxide particles that push cancer cells past their stress limits while sparing healthy tissue.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 406
Slow-Tempo Music and Delirium/Coma-Free Days Among Older Adults Undergoing Mechanical Ventilation: A Randomized Clinical Trial
A slow-tempo music intervention did not reduce delirium duration, severity, pain, or anxiety in mechanically ventilated older adults in the ICU.
Question Among critically ill, mechanically ventilated older adults in the intensive care unit, does a music-listening intervention reduce delirium, pain, or anxiety?
Findings In this randomized clinical trial of 158 mechanically ventilated older adults, a twice-daily music intervention delivered via noise-canceling headphones and tablets for up to 7 days did not demonstrate a statistically significant decrease in delirium duration, delirium severity, pain, or anxiety.
Meaning A music-listening intervention did not improve delirium, pain, or anxiety among critically ill older adults.
Gene editing creates compact goldenberry plants suitable for large-scale farming
Goldenberries taste like a cross between pineapple and mango, pack the nutritional punch of a superfood, and are increasingly popular in U.S. grocery stores. But the plants that produce these bright yellow-orange fruits grow wild and unruly—reaching heights that make large-scale farming impractical.
Researchers at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI) helped solve that problem. Using CRISPR gene editing, a collaborative team including BTI professor Joyce Van Eck engineered compact goldenberry plants that are 35% shorter than their wild relatives, making them viable for commercial agriculture.
“Goldenberry has tremendous potential as a nutritious crop, but its large, bushy growth habit has hindered commercial production,” said Van Eck. “These new compact plants can be grown at higher density, don’t require extensive staking or trellising, and are much easier to maintain and harvest.”
Study finds virus ‘socializing’ influences effectiveness of antiviral drugs
Interactions among viruses can help them succeed inside their hosts or impart vulnerabilities that make them easier to treat. Scientists are learning the ways viruses mingle inside the cells they infect, as well as the consequences of their socializing.
Ph.D. student Alexander J. Robertson in the Molecular & Cellular Biology program at the University of Washington is among those scientists.
“I study the evolution of antimicrobial resistance through mechanisms which require interaction between microbes,” he explained.
Natural History of Children and Adolescents With Dravet SyndromeA 24-Month Follow-Up
Non-conjugative plasmids limit their mobility to persist in nature.
Sabnis et al. explain why non-conjugative plasmids move at a low rate in nature. While increased mobility can easily evolve by incorporating phage DNA into plasmids, this is disadvantageous because it reduces diversity in populations. This ultimately leaves bacterial populations more vulnerable to being killed, for example by antibiotics.
Neuroimmune Interactions: From the Brain to the Immune System and Vice Versa
In line with the original observation by Selye of an involution of the thymus and other lymphoid organs in response to stress (205) and the subsequent demonstration of the immunosuppressive effects of glucocorticoids (101), glucocorticoids have traditionally been seen as the hormonal mediators of the immunosuppressive effects of stressors. We will not delve into the details of the vast literature on the effects of stress on immunity, as this topic has been reviewed on several occasions and it is not directly relevant to the present review (3, 9, 160, 169, 204, 220).
Glucocorticoids act on their cellular targets by binding to glucocorticoid receptors (GRs). GRs normally reside in the cytosol in the form of a protein complex that brings together heat-shock proteins and FK506 binding protein 52. Upon binding to their ligand, GRs dissociate from this complex to form monomers or dimers and translocate to the nucleus The anti-inflammatory effects of glucocorticoids are mediated by transcriptional repression following nuclear translocation and tethering of monomeric GRs to the glucocorticoid-response elements of transcription factors such as NF-κB, activator protein (AP)-1, and IFN-regulating factor-3 (234). This results in the downregulation of genes coding for inflammatory mediators, enzymes, and adhesion molecules. Although the hypothesis is still controversial, GR dimerization and transactivation are thought to play an important role in the anti-inflammatory activity of glucocorticoids. This phenomenon is illustrated by data obtained in GR(dim/dim) mutant mice that show reduced GR dimerization and increased sensitivity to TNF-induced inflammation, and to experimental models of sepsis induced by LPS or cecal ligation and puncture (123, 235).
Glucocorticoids can be proinflammatory under certain conditions. This effect can be secondary to the selection of corticoid-resistant inflammatory cells, such as pathogenic Th17 cells that overexpress IL-23 receptor and multidrug-resistance protein and that are found in inflamed gut tissue from patients with Crohn’s disease (186). The proinflammatory effect of glucocorticoids may also result from inhibition of the production and release of anti-inflammatory factors, or conversely from enhanced production and release of proinflammatory mediators. In the first case, dexamethasone administered 24 h before LPS was found to enhance the placenta’s proinflammatory cytokine response to LPS as a consequence of the inhibition of lipoxin A4 synthesis (255). In the second case, it is the dose of glucocorticoids that makes the difference: as mentioned above, physiological glucocorticoid levels can be proinflammatory in some circumstances, whereas high or pharmacological levels are anti-inflammatory. For instance, low doses of glucocorticoids increase the production of macrophage migration inhibitory factor, and this effect is sufficient to override glucocorticoid-mediated inhibition of cytokine production and release by LPS-stimulated monocytes (39).
Study maps how psilocybin reshapes brain circuits linked to depression
An international collaboration led by Cornell researchers used a combination of psilocybin and the rabies virus to map how—and where—the psychedelic compound rewires the connections in the brain.
Specifically, they showed psilocybin weakens the cortico-cortical feedback loops that can lock people into negative thinking. Psilocybin also strengthens pathways to subcortical regions that turn sensory perceptions into action, essentially enhancing sensory-motor responses.
The findings were published Dec. 5 in Cell. The lead author is postdoctoral researcher Quan Jiang.