Gene-editing technologies for cancer and blood disorders are maturing a little more than a year after the first CRISPR drug was approved.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 429
Scientists Crack Cancer’s Hidden Defense With a Breakthrough Protein Discovery
Scientists have discovered a key protein that helps cancer cells avoid detection by the immune system during a type of advanced therapy.
By creating a new drug that blocks this protein, researchers hope to make cancer treatments more effective, especially for hard-to-treat blood cancers. This breakthrough could lead to better survival rates and fewer relapses for patients.
Scientists at City of Hope, one of the leading cancer research and treatment centers in the U.S., have uncovered a key factor that allows cancer cells to evade CAR T cell therapy.
Giant virus encodes key piece of protein-making machinery of cellular life
Researchers at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa have discovered that a virus, FloV-SA2, encodes one of the proteins needed to make ribosomes, the central engines in all cells that translate genetic information into proteins, the building blocks of life. This is the first eukaryotic virus (a virus that infects eukaryotes, such as plants, animals, fungi) found to encode such a protein.
The research is published in the journal npj Viruses.
Viruses are packets of genetic material surrounded by a protein coating. They replicate by getting inside of a cell where they take over the cell’s replication machinery and direct it to make more viruses. Simple viruses depend almost exclusively on material and machinery provided by the host cell, but larger, more complex viruses code for numerous proteins to aid in their own replication.
AI Approach Builds Genomenon’s Database of Clinically Relevant Genomic Data
As the amount of genomic data grows, so too does the challenge of organizing it into a usable database. Indeed, the lack of a searchable database of genomic information from the literature has posed a challenge to the research community. Now, Genomenon’s AI-based approach—the Genomenon Genomic Graph (G3) knowledgebase—combines patient and biological data from nearly all published scientific and medical studies, including demographics, clinical characteristics, phenotypes, treatments, outcomes, and disease-associated genes and variants.
Training of the underlying large language model for G3 uses Genomenon’s proprietary, curated genomic datasets. The knowledgebase will power AI-driven predictive models for clinical diagnostics and drug development applications.
The Ann Arbor, MI, based Genomenon—a provider of genomic intelligence solutions—notes that this advancement represents the first time that content from the entire corpus of clinically relevant literature will be captured in a single, searchable knowledgebase.
CAR T-Based Therapies in Lymphoma: A Review of Current Practice and Perspectives
📝 — Sheikh, et al.
In this paper, the authors summarize the current practice and the latest progress of CD19 auto-CAR T cell therapy and the management of specific toxicities and discuss the place of allogeneic CAR T development in this setting.
Full text is available 👇
While more than half of non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) can be cured with modern frontline chemoimmunotherapy regimens, outcomes of relapsed and/or refractory (r/r) disease in subsequent lines remain poor, particularly if considered ineligible for hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Hence, r/r NHLs represent a population with a high unmet medical need. This therapeutic gap has been partially filled by adoptive immunotherapy. CD19-directed autologous chimeric antigen receptor (auto-CAR) T cells have been transformative in the treatment of patients with r/r B cell malignancies. Remarkable response rates and prolonged remissions have been achieved in this setting, leading to regulatory approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of four CAR T cell products between 2017 and 2021.
A Potential New Treatment Option for Chemotherapy-Refractory Gastric Cancer
Regorafenib.
For patients with metastatic esophagogastric adenocarcinoma, inhibition of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) pathway via the anti–VEGFR-2 antibody ramucirumab increases response, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) when combined with second-line treatment with paclitaxel. The multitargeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor regorafenib targets VEGFR and other pathways and has effectiveness in chemotherapy-refractory colorectal cancer.
Investigators now report results of the industry-sponsored, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled INTEGRATE IIa trial evaluating regorafenib (160 mg daily for 21 days of 28-day cycles) in patients with chemotherapy-refractory esophagogastric adenocarcinoma. Of the 251 patients enrolled, 63% were treated in Asia; 73% had gastric primaries; 42% had received a prior VEGF inhibitor; 59% had received two and 40% had received three or more lines of prior chemotherapy. For the analysis of OS, the primary endpoint, results were pooled with those from INTEGRATE I, a prior randomized, placebo-controlled, phase II trial in 147 patients.
At a median follow-up of 48 months, OS was improved with regorafenib over placebo in the pooled cohort (hazard ratio, 0.70; P=0.001) and in the INTEGRATE IIa cohort (HR, 0.68; P=0.006). In the INTEGRATE IIa cohort, 1-year OS was improved with regorafenib (19% vs. 6%), whereas median OS was similar (4.0 and 4.5 months). PFS was improved with regorafenib (HR, 0.53; P0.0001). The disease control rate was higher with regorafenib than placebo (21.3% vs. 4.9%) and the antitumor response was limited (2.4% vs. 0%). Adverse events related to regorafenib, including palmar–plantar erythrodysesthesia, mucositis, hypertension, and diarrhea, were manageable.
Physicists measure quantum geometry for first time
Mapping the geometry of quantum worlds: measuring the quantum geometric tensor in solids.
Quantum states are like complex shapes in a hidden world, and understanding their geometry is key to unlocking the mysteries of modern physics. One of the most important tools for studying this geometry is the quantum geometric tensor (QGT). This mathematical object reveals how quantum states “curve” and interact, shaping phenomena ranging from exotic materials to groundbreaking technologies.
The QGT has two parts, each with distinct significance:
1. The Berry curvature (the imaginary part): This governs topological phenomena, such as unusual electrical and magnetic behaviors in advanced materials.
2. The quantum metric (the real part): Recently gaining attention, this influences surprising effects like flat-band superfluidity, quantum Landau levels, and even the nonlinear Hall effect.
While the QGT is crucial for understanding these phenomena, measuring it directly has been a challenge, previously limited to simple, artificial systems.
A breakthrough now allows scientists to measure the QGT in real crystalline solids. Using an advanced technique involving polarization-, spin-, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, researchers have reconstructed the QGT in a material called CoSn, a “kagome metal” with unique quantum properties like topological flat bands. This metal forms patterns resembling a woven basket, hosting quantum effects that were previously only theorized.
New tongue-stimulating implant offers hope to millions with sleep apnoea in UK first
The most common form – obstructive sleep apnoea – happens when the walls of the throat relax and narrow or close, with symptoms including choking noises, loud snoring and waking up a lot.
The three-hour procedure to fit Nyxoah’s Genio implant was carried out by medics at University College London Hospitals NHS foundation trust (UCLH) this month.
One of the two patients, Natalie Boller, 63, was feeling better within days and will return to the clinic to have the device activated in the coming weeks.
AI Protein Discovery Unlocks Secrets of Life’s Beginning
Research utilizing AI tool AlphaFold has revealed a new protein complex that initiates the fertilization process between sperm and egg, shedding light on the molecular interactions essential for successful fertilization.
Genetic research has uncovered many proteins involved in the initial contact between sperm and egg. However, direct proof of how these proteins bind or form complexes to enable fertilization remained unclear. Now, Andrea Pauli’s lab at the IMP, working with international collaborators, has combined AI-driven structural predictions with experimental evidence to reveal a key fertilization complex. Their findings, based on studies in zebrafish, mice, and human cells, were published in the journal Cell.
Fertilization is the first step in forming an embryo, starting with the sperm’s journey toward the egg, guided by chemical signals. When the sperm reaches the egg, it binds to the egg’s surface through specific protein interactions. This binding readies their membranes to merge, allowing their genetic material to combine and create a zygote—a single cell that will eventually develop into a new organism.