Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical – Page 525

Why a New Inhalable Lung Cancer Treatment Is So Promising

Cells in the human body chat with each other all the time. One major way they communicate is by releasing tiny spheres called exosomes. These carry fats, proteins, and genetic material that help regulate everything from pregnancy and immune responses to heart health and kidney function.

Now, a new Columbia University study in Nature Nanotechnology demonstrated that these “nanobubbles” can deliver potent immunotherapy directly to tough-to-treat lung cancer tumors via inhalation.

“Exosomes work like text messages between cells, sending and receiving information,” said lead researcher Ke Cheng, PhD, professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia. “The significance of this study is that exosomes can bring mRNA-based treatment to lung cancer cells locally, unlike systemic chemotherapy that can have side effects throughout the body. And inhalation is totally noninvasive. You don’t need a nurse to use an IV needle to pierce your skin.”

The RNA Revolution Is Changing Our Understanding of Biology

Scientists have recently discovered thousands of active RNA molecules that can control the human body.

By Philip Ball

Thomas Gingeras did not intend to upend basic ideas about how the human body works. In 2012 the geneticist, now at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York State, was one of a few hundred colleagues who were simply trying to put together a compendium of human DNA functions. Their ­project was called ENCODE, for the Encyclopedia of DNA Elements. About a decade earlier almost all of the three billion DNA building blocks that make up the human genome had been identified. Gingeras and the other ENCODE scientists were trying to figure out what all that DNA did.

Scientists discover the Cellular Functions of a Family of Proteins Integral to Inflammatory diseases

In a scientific breakthrough, Mount Sinai researchers have revealed the biological mechanisms by which a family of proteins known as histone deacetylases (HDACs) activate immune system cells linked to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other inflammatory diseases.

This discovery, reported in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), could potentially lead to the development of selective HDAC inhibitors designed to treat types of IBD such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease.

“Our understanding of the specific function of class II HDACs in different cell types has been limited, impeding development of therapies targeting this promising drug target family,” says senior author Ming-Ming Zhou, PhD, Dr. Harold and Golden Lamport Professor in Physiology and Biophysics and Chair of the Department of Pharmacological Sciences at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Through our proof-of-concept study, we’re unraveling the mechanisms of class II HDACs, providing essential knowledge to explore their therapeutic potential for safer and more effective disease treatments.”

Multi-scale, nanomaterial-based ice inhibition platform enables full-cycle cryogenic protection for mouse oocytes

Safe and high-quality fertility preservation is of growing significance for women in clinical trials. Current primary methods for cryopreserving human oocytes are slow freezing and vitrification, but existing techniques pose risks of biochemical toxicity and are restricted in large-scale clinical practice.

SamuelSchmidgall/AgentClinic: Agent benchmark for medical diagnosis

From Stanford, Albert Einstein, & Johns Hopkins U: a multimodal agent benchmark to evaluate AI in simulated clinical environments.

From stanford, albert einstein, & johns hopkins U

AgentClinic: a multimodal agent benchmark to evaluate AI in simulated clinical environments abs: https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.07960 project page: https://agentclinic.github.io code: https://github.com/samuelschmidgall/agentclinic.

A new multimodal agent…

Agent benchmark for medical diagnosis. Contribute to SamuelSchmidgall/AgentClinic development by creating an account on GitHub.

Cannabis compound’s neuroprotective properties revealed — could be key to treating Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

Currently, treatments are largely limited to symptomatic relief rather than addressing the underlying disease progression. Given this gap in treatment options, there is a significant need for new therapies that can protect brain cells and potentially reverse damage.

Cannabinol (CBN), a compound derived from the cannabis plant, has emerged as a candidate for such treatments due to its neuroprotective properties, which are evident without the psychoactive effects associated with other cannabinoids like THC.

Previous studies indicated that CBN could help preserve mitochondrial function in brain cells, an essential factor for cell survival and energy production. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a common feature in several neurodegenerative diseases, often leading to cell death. By focusing on CBN and its derivatives, researchers aimed to develop new pharmacological strategies to prevent or mitigate the cellular mechanisms that lead to neurodegeneration.