The findings suggest a role for assessment of variant-carrying status to predict disease progression in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
Category: biotech/medical – Page 7
Plant virus triggers immune response that targets and destroys cancer cells
A virus that typically infects black-eyed peas is showing great promise as a low-cost, potent cancer immunotherapy—and researchers are uncovering why.
In a study published in Cell Biomaterials, a team led by chemical and nano engineers at the University of California San Diego took a closer look at how the cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV), unlike other plant viruses, is uniquely effective at activating the body’s immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells.
The study is titled “Comparative analyses for plant virus-based cancer immunotherapy drug development.”
Injured once, triggered forever? How the brain rewrites stress responses
A wound can leave a lasting imprint—even after it has healed. A new study in Current Biology finds that past injuries can quietly prime the body to overreact and be more sensitive to stress, pain and fear long after the damage is gone.
These findings may help explain how early injuries or trauma can set the stage for chronic pain conditions, where the nervous system remains hypersensitive long after the initial damage has healed. can set the stage for chronic pain conditions, where the nervous system remains hypersensitive long after the initial damage has healed.
Researchers at the University of Toronto Mississauga discovered that mice with a history of injury responded more intensely to the scent of a predator, an extremely stressful event for mice. These mice showed exaggerated fear and developed long-lasting pain in both hind paws, including the uninjured side. Strikingly, the symptoms lasted more than six months, long after the original injury had physically healed.
Washington People
They look like futuristic eyewear. But the goggles developed by Samuel Achilefu, PhD, and his team at the School of Medicine have a much greater purpose: They help surgeons see and remove cancer. Achilefu discusses his journey from childhood to the development of the goggles, to what he hopes is yet to come.
Imaging Copper Levels during Life in the Brain and beyond Using a Fluorescent Copper Sensor with Multimodal Capacity
Copper is an essential trace element for normal development and function throughout the body, including the central nervous system (CNS). Alterations to cellular copper levels result in severe neurological consequences and are linked to a range of CNS disorders, positioning treatments that restore copper balance as promising therapies for these disorders. However, despite the clear relationship between copper balance and CNS health, there are limited tools to measure copper levels in vivo in humans. This constitutes a significant challenge for both diagnosing disorders of copper imbalance and monitoring the efficacy of copper-altering treatments for these disorders. Here we report the synthesis and characterization of Fluorine-labeled Naphthalimide Copper sensor 1 (F-NpCu1), a fluorescent sensor for copper that contains a fluorine atom for future radiolabeling for clinical application. We demonstrate that the probe exhibits good stability and is highly selective for copper above other transition metals present in biological tissues. Copper binding promotes covalent bond formation between the sensor and proximal cellular proteins. F-NpCu1 is nontoxic and can be measured using fluorescence microscopy in living cells and fixed tissue sections from both mouse brain and pancreas. Furthermore, F-NpCu1 exhibits good blood-brain-barrier permeability and can report differences in brain copper levels induced by copper modulating therapies in living mice using intravital fluorescence microscopy. This study represents a promising advance toward the development of the first clinical tool for measuring copper in living humans, including in the CNS, with radiolabeling studies underway to develop 18F-NpCu1 for PET imaging of copper in vivo.
GENETIC ENGINEERING, a Journey into the Future
This is a sci-fi documentary looking at the future of genetic engineering and how it applies to space exploration, astronauts, terraforming planets and even Earth.
What is DNA, and how can it be engineered. What is CRISPR, and the future technology used in genetic engineering and biotechnology.
Personal inspiration in creating this video came from: Jurassic Park (the book), and The Expanse TV show (the protomolecule).
Other topics in the video include: how genetic engineering can change food allergies, cryosleep astronauts using hibernation biology borrowed from bears, squirrels and hedgehogs, engineering plants for terraforming other planets, and entries from The Encyclopedia of the Future.
PATREON
The third volume of ‘The Encyclopedia of the Future’ is now available on my Patreon.
Visit my Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/venturecity.
Scientists develop tissue-healing gel using milk-derived extracellular vesicles
Researchers from Columbia Engineering have established a framework for the design of bioactive injectable hydrogels formulated with extracellular vesicles (EVs) for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine applications.
Published in Matter, Santiago Correa, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Columbia Engineering, and his collaborators describe an injectable hydrogel platform that uses EVs from milk to address longstanding barriers in the development of biomaterials for regenerative medicine.
EVs are particles naturally secreted by cells and carry hundreds of biological signals, like proteins and genetic material, enabling sophisticated cellular communication that synthetic materials cannot easily replicate.
Hormone found to suppress immune cells, allowing cancer to evade detection
Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered how a hormone interacts with a receptor on the surface of immune cells to shield cancer cells from the body’s natural defenses.
The findings, published in Nature Immunology, could lead to new immunotherapy approaches for treating cancer as well as potential treatments for inflammatory disorders and neurologic diseases.
“Myeloid cells are among the first group of immune cells recruited to tumors, but very quickly these tumor-fighting cells turn into tumor-supporting cells. Our study suggests that receptors on these myeloid cells get stimulated by this hormone and end up suppressing the immune system,” said Cheng Cheng “Alec” Zhang, Ph.D., Professor of Physiology and a member of the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center at UT Southwestern. Dr. Zhang co-led the study with first author Xing Yang, Ph.D., a postdoctoral researcher in the Zhang Lab.