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Category: biotech/medical – Page 80

One injection reversed osteoarthritis in weeks

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder, CU Anschutz, and Colorado State University have developed a set of experimental treatments that may help aging and damaged joints repair themselves in a matter of weeks. The therapies have shown promising results in animal studies, where they reversed signs of osteoarthritis and restored joint health.

The new approaches include a regenerative injection designed to be administered directly into a joint, as well as a biomaterial-based repair system that encourages the body’s own cells to rebuild damaged cartilage.

The work recently received a major boost from the federal Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H), which announced that the team will move forward to the next stage of a project worth up to $33.5 million. The research is part of the ARPA-H Novel Innovations for Tissue Regeneration in Osteoarthritis (NITRO) program, led by ARPA-H Program Manager Dr. Ross Uhrich.

Scientists engineer personalized cartilage graft for infants with life-threatening airway narrowing

A study led by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) demonstrates a new method of using decellularized cartilage with patient-specific cells to help enlarge pediatric airways narrowed as a result of severe subglottic stenosis. Researchers demonstrate that this new method is faster, more effective and able to overcome issues associated with the current standard grafts, such as donor site morbidity, insufficient tissue volume and a delayed timeline. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

Severe subglottic stenosis is a narrowing of the airway below the vocal cords and above the trachea. An estimated 20,000 infants per year are affected by this condition. The most severe cases require laryngotracheal reconstruction (LTR), an open-airway surgery used to enlarge the airway by implanting cartilage taken from the rib cage.

While LTR is used to successfully treat thousands of children with subglottic stenosis, in many cases, young children lack enough costal cartilage—the cartilage connecting the ribs to the sternum—for these grafts. As a result, operations often need to be delayed, leaving the child attached to a tracheostomy tube until they are older, and there is a higher risk of needing follow-up surgery because the airway is at risk of narrowing again.

Brain–computer interface detects hidden awareness in unresponsive patients

A new approach for identifying signs of hidden awareness in people who cannot speak or move after severe brain injury has been demonstrated by researchers at the University of Bath in the U.K.

The system detects patterns of brain activity through a wearable headset using an advanced application of brain-computer interface (BCI) technology.

Across multiple experimental sessions, the researchers uncovered signs of consciousness that were previously undetected in unresponsive patients.

Therapeutic inhibition of telomeric DNA damage response rescues hematopoietic dysfunction driven by telomere shortening and aging

Oppezzo and colleagues report that therapeutically blocking telomeric DNA damage signaling reduces senescence and inflammation and restores hematopoietic function in telomerase-deficient and physiologically aged mice.

The first early human eggs from stem cells

Conception’s mission is to turn stem cells into human eggs and redefine fertility.

We want to share an exciting update that we have generated the first early human egg cells (‘primary oocytes’) derived from stem cells. After performing a simple blood draw, we converted blood cells into stem cells, and then coaxed those stem cells into becoming miniature human ovaries that contain the early eggs.

While there is still work ahead to grow these eggs to full maturity, we think this is a major scientific advance.

Lab-grown retinal cells show promise for new eye therapies

Biomedical engineers at Duke University have used induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to grow specialized blood vessel cells critical to retinal health for the first time. When injected into mouse models of retinal disease, these “retinal endothelial cells” integrated into the damaged tissue to regenerate blood vessels and restore retinal function. Researchers also demonstrated the cells’ ability to form functional retinal vascular tissue in a lab-grown environment, providing a pathway to model and research various eye diseases.

The results, published in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, point toward the potential of using these retinal cells and models to develop new methods for treating vision loss and researching eye disorders.

“Retinal vascular diseases affect millions of people in the US, but our understanding remains limited, hindering our ability to discover and develop new therapeutics,” said Sharon Gerecht, the Paul M. Gross Distinguished Professor and chair of biomedical engineering at Duke. “Using human stem cells, we generated the cells found in retinal blood vessels, paving the way for new therapeutic approaches.”

Long-term outcomes and late effects of surgery and radiotherapy in adult intracranial ependymoma patients

To evaluate progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), local control (LC), and radiotherapy-related toxicities in the treatment of adult intracranial ependymoma.

A retrospective analysis was performed of WHO grade 2–3 adult intracranial ependymoma patients (≥ 18 years) treated with surgery alone or surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy between 2000 and 2024. Kaplan-Meier analyses were used to estimate PFS and OS. Acute and late treatment-related toxicities were characterized.

Fifty-eight patients met the inclusion criteria. Median age was 39 years (interquartile range [IQR] 25–51), and median follow-up was 51 months (IQR 23–103). Overall, 76% were WHO grade 2, 74% had posterior fossa location, gross total resection was achieved in 60%, 88% received adjuvant local radiotherapy, and 5% received adjuvant chemotherapy. Five and 10-year PFS rates were 80% and 64%, respectively; 5 and 10-year OS rates were 92% and 85%, respectively. There were 13 (22%) recurrences: The location of first failure was local in nine, distant in two, and both local and distant in two. The 5-year LC rate was 82% (95% CI 67–90%), and the 10-year LC rate was 72% (95% CI 53–84%). The median time to local failure was 5.4 years. Ten (22%) patients experienced at least one grade ≥ 2 late treatment-related toxicity. One potential secondary glioma (grade 5) occurred after nine years.

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