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Category: biotech/medical – Page 430

While trying to slim down a bit for her wedding day, one woman decided to take gray market semaglutide — and it landed her in the emergency room.

That woman, whom Healthline refers to as Amy Jenson to protect her privacy in its report, learned she was nearing prediabetic levels of the hemoglobin A1C at a visit to her naturopathic doctor. The naturopath suggested Jenson try semaglutide, the active ingredient in the Ozempic and Wegovy injectables, to help reach her goal weight and head off full-blown diabetes.

She purchased some semaglutide with B12 shots, which are often sold together in injectable forms from online and in-person pharmacies that operate in a legal grey area, from a compounding facility. She was initially prescribed a low dose that increased by small increments each month.

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“Even primary school students and old farmers can master gene editing,” says [Southern University of Science and Technology, or SUSTech] scientist Zhu Jian-Kang, who has helped develop a new approach that could greatly simplify the difficult and time-consuming process of editing genes in plants.

While conventional methods of heritable gene editing in plants often take months, and in some cases up to a year, this innovative approach could reduce the process to about two weeks, according to [Cao Xuesong, a scientist at SUSTech and a member of Zhu’s team], who is also the first author of the study.

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Aging reversed in dogs face_with_colon_three

Age-related decline in mobility and cognition are associated with cellular senescence and NAD+ depletion in dogs and people. A combination of a novel NAD+ precursor and senolytic, LY-D6/2 was examined in this randomized controlled trial. Seventy dogs were enrolled and allocated into placebo, low or full dose groups. Primary outcomes were change in cognitive impairment measured with the owner-reported Canine Cognitive Dysfunction Rating (CCDR) scale and change in activity measured with physical activity monitors. Fifty-nine dogs completed evaluations at the three-month primary endpoint, and 51 reached the six-month secondary endpoint. There was a significant difference in CCDR score across treatment groups from baseline to the primary endpoint (p=0.02) with the largest decrease in the full dose group. There were no significant differences between groups in changes in measured activity. However, the proportion of dogs that improved in frailty and owner-reported activity levels and happiness was higher in the full dose group than other groups. Adverse events occurred equally across groups. All groups showed improvement in cognition, frailty, and activity suggesting placebo effect and benefits of trial participation. We conclude that LY-D6/2 significantly improves owner-assessed cognitive function and may have broader effects on frailty, activity and happiness as reported by owners.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

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Elon Musk disclosed that a human patient implanted with a brain chip from the company has fully recovered and demonstrated the ability to control a computer mouse using their thoughts.

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Cytotoxic T-lymphocytes are important effectors in the clearance of virally infected and cancerous cells, and defects in their function give rise to many pathologies.

Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are key effectors of the adaptive immune system that recognize and eliminate virally infected and cancerous cells. In naive CD8+ T cells, T-cell receptor (TCR) engagement drives a number of transcriptional, translational and proliferation changes over the course of hours and days leading to differentiation into CTLs. To gain a better insight into this mechanism, we compared the transcriptional profiles of naive CD8+ T cells to those of activated CTLs. To find new regulators of CTL function, we performed a selective clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) screen on upregulated genes and identified nuclear factor IL-3 (NFIL3) as a potential regulator of cytotoxicity. Although NFIL3 has established roles in several immune cells including natural killer, Treg, dendritic and CD4+ T cells, its function in CD8+ CTLs is less well understood. Using CRISPR/Cas9 editing, we found that removing NFIL3 in CTLs resulted in a marked decrease in cytotoxicity. We found that in CTLs lacking NFIL3 TCR-induced extracellular signal-regulated kinase phosphorylation, immune synapse formation and granule release were all intact while cytotoxicity was functionally impaired in vitro. Strikingly, NFIL3 controls the production of cytolytic proteins as well as effector cytokines. Thus, NFIL3 plays a cell intrinsic role in modulating cytolytic mechanisms in CTLs.

CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) are key effectors of the adaptive immune response that precisely recognize and eliminate virally infected and cancerous cells. In naive CD8+ T cells, T-cell receptor (TCR) engagement induces a number of transcriptional, translational and proliferation changes over the course of hours and days leading to differentiation into CTLs [1,2]. TCR ligation of differentiated CTLs drives a rapid response and the formation of a transient area of plasma membrane specialized in signalling and polarized secretion, termed the immune synapse [3]. CTLs undergo rapid rearrangements in microtubule and actin cytoskeletons as the centrosome and microtubule network polarize towards the synapse and cortical actin is transiently depleted [4–7].

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