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Category: biotech/medical – Page 71

Drug combo extends life of frail male mice by ‘remarkable’ 73%, scientists find

“Compared to other established lifespan-extending interventions, Oxytocin+A5i demonstrates unique outcomes, such as significantly (over 70 per cent) increased life expectancy from the start of this therapy in old and frail male mice, and a robust decrease in mortality risk,” they wrote.

The latest study also found that the Oxytocin+A5i treatment reduced chaotic levels of some circulating blood proteins, which are key markers of ageing, bringing their levels back to a more youthful state.

However, after four months of continuous treatment, only male mice showed sustained improvement in these protein levels.

Serotonin produced by gut bacteria provides hope for a novel IBS treatment

Research from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, clarifies the complex interaction between gut bacteria and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Experiments demonstrate that gut bacteria can produce the important substance serotonin. The finding may lead to future treatments.

IBS is a common gastrointestinal disorder, more common in women, with symptoms such as abdominal pain, constipation or diarrhea. The cause of the disease is not clear, but the intestinal environment, including the gut microbiota and serotonin, appear to be important factors.

Serotonin is best known as a neurotransmitter in the brain, but over 90% of the body’s serotonin is produced in the gut, where it controls bowel movements via the enteric nervous system, sometimes called the “gut–brain.”

A quest to find probiotics with immune benefits

Kirin has now worked LC-Plasma into a range of non-beer products including yoghurt beverages, green tea and other drinks. In 2020, these became the first ‘functional’ food or beverages in Japan to be allowed to be marketed as containing potentially immune-boosting ingredients.

“A food or beverage that might help improve immune function had been highly sought after in Japan for almost 30 years. But none succeeded in spite of much effort and expense,” Fujiwara says. “We conducted lots of studies and finally succeeded in meeting government requirements in 2020.”

Researchers at Kirin and NIID/JIHS have also been exploring in laboratory and animal studies the effects of LC-Plasma against various infectious diseases, including influenza, dengue fever, SARS-CoV-2 and common colds.

Merck Videos

Strategic Investments To Improve Patients’ Lives — Joel Krikston — Managing Director Venture Investments, [#Merck](https://www.facebook.com/watch/hashtag/merck?__eep__=6%2F&__cft__[0]=AZWHa0kseUKzVNcB3y0qk8cwqKXrjPP9UHHhebflI6mZJnviQw17L_42P2gl-qGy_e2nvTkuEHEy3wU-ru0SkJ7BqaUNULXHPS8QJnyFad71Ur_o9bODPNd_7Qk9jcnY_ftbVN0gZHTGyveR05k3WGcA8J2Vm_cyhkoo0w0kkbPi0qgSkNThFHMOi_ERtUgFhJqdO4otO9uKSoxgc4Joq0xf&__tn__=*NK-R) Global Health Innovation Fund / Co-Founder, [#MSD](https://www.facebook.com/watch/hashtag/msd?__eep__=6%2F&__cft__[0]=AZWHa0kseUKzVNcB3y0qk8cwqKXrjPP9UHHhebflI6mZJnviQw17L_42P2gl-qGy_e2nvTkuEHEy3wU-ru0SkJ7BqaUNULXHPS8QJnyFad71Ur_o9bODPNd_7Qk9jcnY_ftbVN0gZHTGyveR05k3WGcA8J2Vm_cyhkoo0w0kkbPi0qgSkNThFHMOi_ERtUgFhJqdO4otO9uKSoxgc4Joq0xf&__tn__=*NK-R) Idea Studios, joins me on Progress, Potential, And Possibilities.

Merck | 22K people are posting about this.

Scientists Can Now “See” Aging Through Your Eyes

The small blood vessels in the eye could reveal important clues about a person’s risk of heart disease and the rate at which they are biologically aging, according to scientists from McMaster University and the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) – a joint institute of Hamilton Health Sciences and McMaster.

Published in the journal Science Advances, the research suggests that retinal scans may eventually become a simple, non-invasive way to assess the body’s vascular health and aging process. This approach could pave the way for earlier detection of health issues and more effective preventive care.

“By connecting retinal scans, genetics, and blood biomarkers, we have uncovered molecular pathways that help explain how aging affects the vascular system,” says Marie Pigeyre, senior author of the study and associate professor with McMaster’s Department of Medicine.

Chemists discover antibiotic for drug-resistant bacteria ‘hiding in plain sight’

Chemists from the University of Warwick and Monash University have discovered a promising new antibiotic that shows activity against drug-resistant bacterial pathogens, including MRSA and VRE

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the world’s most urgent health challenges, with the WHO’s new report showing there are ‘too few antibacterials in the pipeline. Most of the ‘low-hanging fruit’ has already been found, and the limited commercial incentives deter investment in antibiotic discovery.

In a study published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, researchers from the Monash Warwick Alliance Combating Emerging Superbug Threats Initiative have discovered a promising new antibiotic—pre-methylenomycin C lactone.

Why does ALS take away body movement? The hidden burden that seals the fate of motor neurons

ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is among the most challenging neurological disorders: relentlessly progressive, universally fatal, and without a cure even after more than a century and a half of research. Despite many advances, a key unanswered question remains—why do motor neurons, the cells that control body movement, degenerate while others are spared?

In a study appearing in Nature Communications, Kazuhide Asakawa and colleagues used single-cell–resolution imaging in transparent zebrafish to show that large spinal —which generate strong body movements and are most vulnerable in ALS—operate under a constant, intrinsic burden of protein and organelle degradation.

These neurons maintain high baseline levels of autophagy, proteasome activity, and the , suggesting a continuous struggle to maintain protein quality control.

In-utero exposure to maternal diabetes and DNA methylation alterations in the Next Generation birth cohort

The incidence of type 2 diabetes (T2D) in youth is increasing and in-utero exposure to maternal diabetes is a known risk factor, with higher risk associated with pregestational T2D exposure compared to gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) exposure. We hypothesize this differential risk is reflected in DNA methylation (DNAm) changes induced by differential timing of in-utero exposure to maternal diabetes, and that exposure to diabetes throughout pregnancy (T2D) compared to exposure later in development (GDM), induces different DNAm signatures and different T2D risk to offspring. This study presents an epigenome-wide investigation of DNAm alterations associated with in-utero exposure to either maternal pregestational T2D or GDM, to determine if the timing of prenatal diabetes exposure differentially alters DNAm.

We performed an epigenome-wide analysis on cord blood from 99 newborns exposed to pregestational T2D, 70 newborns exposed to GDM, and 41 unexposed to diabetes in-utero from the Next Generation birth cohort. Associations were tested using multiple linear regression models while adjusting for sex, maternal age, BMI, smoking status, gestational age, cord blood cell type proportions and batch effects.

We identified 27 differentially methylated sites associated with exposure to GDM, 27 sites associated with exposure to T2D, and 9 common sites associated with exposure to either GDM or T2D (adjusted p value 0.01). One site at CLDN15 and two unannotated sites were previously reported as associated with obesity. We also identified 87 differentially methylated regions (DMRs) associated with in-utero exposure to GDM and 69 DMRs associated with in-utero exposure to T2D. We identified 23 DMR sites that were previously associated with obesity, three with T2D and five with in-utero exposure to GDM. Furthermore, we identified six CpG sites in the PTPRN2 gene, a gene previously associated with DNAm differences in blood of youth with T2D from the same population.

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