The US Food and Drug Administration has approved a pill-sized device for treating rheumatoid arthritis, marking the first time the therapy has been approved for an autoimmune condition
Category: biotech/medical – Page 49
The 0.05% RNA Process That Makes Cancer Self-Destruct
A group of Australian scientists has uncovered a new way to fight some of the toughest cancers by targeting an overlooked cellular process called minor splicing. This tiny but vital mechanism turns out to be essential for the growth of certain tumors, especially those driven by KRAS mutations — a common but hard-to-treat culprit in cancer. By blocking minor splicing, researchers triggered DNA damage and activated the body’s own cancer-defense system, killing cancer cells while sparing healthy ones. The results in animal and human cell models are so promising that drug development is now underway, potentially paving the way for more effective and less toxic treatments across multiple cancer types.
Sugar layer on beta cells prevents immune system from causing type 1 diabetes
Scientific breakthroughs in one disease don’t always shed light on treating other diseases. But that’s been the surprising journey of one Mayo Clinic research team. After identifying a sugar molecule that cancer cells use on their surfaces to hide from the immune system, the researchers have found the same molecule may eventually help in the treatment of type 1 diabetes, once known as juvenile diabetes.
Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune condition in which the immune system errantly attacks pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin. The disease is caused by genetic and other factors and affects an estimated 1.3 million people in the U.S.
In their studies, the Mayo Clinic researchers took a cancer mechanism and turned it on its head. Cancer cells use a variety of methods to evade immune response, including coating themselves in a sugar molecule known as sialic acid. The researchers found in a preclinical model of type 1 diabetes that it’s possible to dress up beta cells with the same sugar molecule, enabling the immune system to tolerate the cells.
Scientists shrink the genetic code of E. coli to contain only 57 of its usual 64 codons
The DNA of nearly all life on Earth contains many redundancies, and scientists have long wondered whether these redundancies served a purpose or if they were just leftovers from evolutionary processes. Both DNA and RNA contain codons, which are sequences of three nucleotides that either provide information about how to form a protein with a specific amino acid or tell the cell to stop (a stop signal) during protein synthesis.
Serotonin receptor signaling insights may pave way for next-gen mental health drugs
In a discovery that could guide the development of next-generation antidepressants and antipsychotic medications, researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have developed new insights into how a critical brain receptor works at the molecular level and why that matters for mental health treatments.
The study, published in the online issue of Science Advances, focuses on the 5-HT1A serotonin receptor, a major player in regulating mood and a common target of both traditional antidepressants and newer therapies such as psychedelics. The paper is titled “Structural determinants of G protein subtype selectivity at the serotonin receptor 5-HT1A.”
Despite its clinical importance, this receptor has remained poorly understood, with many of its molecular and pharmacological properties largely understudied—until now.
The hidden mental health cost of climate distress
A new Stanford-led study sheds light on “an emerging psychological health crisis” that disproportionately affects girls. Published July 30 in The Lancet Planetary Health, the study is among the first to quantify how repeated climate stressors impact the psychological well-being and future outlook of adolescents in low-resource settings.
Researchers from Stanford’s schools of Medicine, Law, and Sustainability partnered with health experts in Bangladesh to survey more than 1,000 teenagers and conduct focus groups across two regions with starkly different flood exposure.
“What we found really lifts the voices of frontline adolescents —a group whose perspectives and health outcomes are so rarely investigated and communicated,” said lead author Liza Goldberg, an incoming Earth system science Ph.D. student in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
Lactate infusion improves cardiac function in a porcine model of ischemic cardiogenic shock
Cardiogenic shock (CS) is associated with high mortality and medical therapies have failed to improve survival. Treatment with lactate is associated with improved cardiac function which may benefit this condition. Comprehensive hemodynamic assessment of lactate administration in CS is lacking, and the mechanisms underlying the cardiovascular effects of lactate in CS have not yet been elucidated. In this study we aimed to study the cardiovascular and cardiometabolic effects of treatment with lactate in experimental ischemic CS.
In a randomized, blinded design, 20 female pigs (60 kg) were studied. Left main coronary artery microsphere injections were used to cause CS, defined as a 30% reduction in CO or mixed venous saturation (SvO2). Subjects were randomized to receive either intravenous exogenous lactate or euvolemic, equimolar saline (control) for 180 min. Positive inotropic control with dobutamine was administered on top of ongoing treatment after 180 min. Extensive hemodynamic measurements were obtained from pulmonary artery and left ventricular (LV) pressure–volume catheterization. Furthermore, endomyocardial biopsies were analyzed for mitochondrial function and arterial, renal vein, and coronary sinus blood samples were collected. The primary endpoint was change in CO during 180 min of treatment.
Arterial lactate levels increased from 2.4 ± 1.1 to 7.7 ± 1.1 mmol/L (P 0.001) during lactate infusion. CO increased by 0.7 L/min (P 0.001) compared with control, due to increased stroke volume (P = 0.003). Notably, heart rate and mean arterial pressure did not differ significantly between treatments. End-systolic elastance (load independent contractility) was enhanced during lactate infusion (P = 0.048), together with LV ejection fraction (P = 0.009) and dP/dt(max) (P = 0.041). Arterial elastance (afterload) did not differ significantly (P = 0.12). This resulted in improved ventriculo-arterial coupling efficiency (P = 0.012). Cardiac mechanical efficiency (P = 0.003), diuresis (P = 0.016), and SvO2 (P = 0.018) were increased during lactate infusion. Myocardial mitochondrial complex I respiration was enhanced during lactate infusion compared with control (P = 0.04).
Potential chemo-induced cognitive changes discovered in cancer survivors
Researchers at The City College of New York have linked chemotherapy treatment to lasting cognitive changes in rats—potentially shedding light, for the first time, on cognitive problems some cancer survivors experience long after treatment ends.
Titled “Chemotherapy treatment alters DNA methylation patterns in the prefrontal cortex of female rat brain,” the study appears in the journal Scientific Reports.
“Our study explored how chemotherapy affects the brain at the molecular level using an animal model,” said Karen Hubbard, professor of biology in CCNY’s Division of Science, who co-led the study.
Blood proteome regulation to control inflammation, age-associated organ dysfunction and mortality in sepsis
The amount of each of the more than a thousand different glycoproteins in your blood varies widely with the 10 most abundant glycoproteins accounting for 90 percent of the total mass. Finding a protein that isn’t in this top 10 is a bit like looking for Waldo if only one rendition of the character remained in a collection of every “Where’s Waldo” comic ever produced.
This range of disparity in protein concentration is termed dynamic range, and it makes it more difficult for scientists to identify less-abundant proteins and their matching receptors.
Scientists published findings in Nature Communications demonstrating a strategy for identifying less-abundant proteins that bind with a specific type of receptor termed an endocytic lectin, and namely the mannose receptor Mrc1 (also known as CD206 and MMR). This approach enabled the research team to uncover hundreds of binding partners that together predicted Mrc1’s roles in our health.
Lipid nanoparticle stereochemistry shapes mRNA delivery safety and efficacy, study reveals
A team from the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Hokkaido University, and Osaka University has discovered that subtle differences in molecular structure can have a major impact on the performance of mRNA-based drugs. Their findings, published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, open the door to the development of safer and more effective vaccines and therapies.
To deliver therapeutic nucleic acids like mRNA into cells, scientists rely on lipid nanoparticles (LNPs)—tiny, fat-based carriers that protect fragile genetic material, enabling it to survive in the body and reach target cells. A key component of these LNPs are ionizable lipids, which help mRNA enter cells and then release it effectively. One such lipid, ALC-315, was notably used in the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, a medical breakthrough that played a critical role in controlling the global pandemic.