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Category: biotech/medical – Page 493

NMDA Stabilizes Brain Activity

Summary: Researchers have discovered that the NMDA receptor (NMDAR), known for its role in learning and memory, also stabilizes brain activity by setting baseline neural network activity. This stabilization supports the brain’s adaptability amid constant environmental and physiological changes.

The study revealed that blocking NMDARs disrupted this baseline, highlighting their critical role in maintaining neural homeostasis. Findings may revolutionize treatments for conditions like depression, Alzheimer’s, and epilepsy by leveraging NMDAR’s role in brain stability.

AI Outpaces Humans in Rapid Disease Detection

Summary: A deep learning AI model developed by researchers significantly accelerates the detection of pathology in animal and human tissue images, surpassing human accuracy in some cases. This AI, trained on high-resolution images from past studies, quickly identifies signs of diseases like cancer that typically take hours for pathologists to detect.

By analyzing gigapixel images with advanced neural networks, the model achieves results in weeks instead of months, revolutionizing research and diagnostic processes. The tool is already aiding disease research in animals and holds transformative potential for human medical diagnostics, particularly for cancer and gene-related illnesses.

U.S. Antibiotic Awareness Week (USAAW)

‘Go Purple’ anytime during November 18–24 to show how we all play a role in fighting #AntimicrobialResistance. Learn how you can ‘Go Purple’ and encourage others to do the same for #USAAW24

  • Use the daily themes and key messages to guide your activities during the week.
  • Copy and share our sample social media messages and graphics.
  • Learn more about Go Purple for USAAW and how you can participate.
  • Use the hashtag #USAAW24 when sharing any USAAW related content.
  • See how you can participate in CDC and other organization’s activities.
  • Promote our resources to share important information about appropriate antibiotic and antifungal use, antibiotic stewardship, and antimicrobial resistance.

CDC is inviting families, friends, organizations, and communities to shine a spotlight on antimicrobial resistance by participating in Go Purple for USAAW. This nationwide effort encourages individuals to wear purple and bring purple to their social media and invites organizations, healthcare facilities, and municipalities to light up buildings and landmarks purple to bring awareness to the role everyone has in combating antimicrobial resistance.

Quantifying Brain Aging in Diabetes Type 2 Patients

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have recently discovered several prominent biomarkers that allow for the early diagnosis of dementia and/or mild cognitive impairment (MCI). In a recently published article, evidence has been presented that patients with diabetes type 2 exhibited more changes to their brains than healthy controls, including the shrinking of certain brain areas. These changes occurred earlier in life, and some of the patients developed MCI sooner than others.

The Older Controls at Risk for Dementia (BIOCARD) study is a long-term trial which has been conducted for the past 27 years with the goal of determining how medical conditions and other factors might be impacting cognitive function and perhaps even affecting the biological age of the brain as a whole. BIOCARD was originally a National Institutes of Health initiative, which began in 1995 and later continued at Johns Hopkins University from 2015 to 2023. The cohort consisted of 185 participants, with an average age of 55 years and normal cognitive function.

The trial subjects received routine brain scans and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests for 20 years, in order to measure changes in brain structures and levels of proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Scientists have been increasingly using CSF to attempt to uncover early signs of neurodegenerative disease, since it is a minimally-invasive procedure which is inexpensive and widely available.

How Vitamin D Deficiency can Lead to Autoimmune Diseases

As Canadians brace for “vitamin D winter”—months when the sun’s angle is too low to produce the vitamin in the skin—a McGill University study explains why vitamin D deficiency early in life is associated with a higher risk of autoimmune diseases.

During childhood, the thymus helps train immune cells to distinguish between the body’s own tissues and harmful invaders. A vitamin D deficiency at that stage of life causes the thymus to age more quickly, the researchers discovered.

The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

UChicago scientists develop new nanomedicine approach to improve cancer treatment

Researchers at the University of Chicago Medicine Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a nanomedicine that increases the penetration and accumulation of chemotherapy drugs in tumor tissues and effectively kills cancer cells in mice.

The study, published in Science Advances, addresses a…

Research effectively used nanoparticles to deliver chemo drugs directly to tumors in mice.

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