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Category: biotech/medical – Page 891

‘Pause Button’ Molecule Uncovered in Human Embryos

Mamma bears press pause on their early pregnancies, so that their cubs are born closer to a food filled spring. Researchers led by a team in Germany have now found this same pregnancy pause button exists in human cells too.

“Although we have lost the ability to naturally enter dormancy, these experiments suggest that we have nevertheless retained this inner ability and could eventually unleash it,” says molecular geneticist Nicolas Rivron from the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA).

“Triggering a dormant state during an IVF procedure could provide a larger time window to assess embryo health and to synchronize it with the mother for better implantation inside the uterus.”

Bioengineered enzyme can produce synthetic genetic material, advancing development of new therapeutic options

A research team led by the University of California, Irvine has engineered an efficient new enzyme that can produce a synthetic genetic material called threose nucleic acid. The ability to synthesize artificial chains of TNA, which is inherently more stable than DNA, advances the discovery of potentially more powerful, precise therapeutic options to treat cancer and autoimmune, metabolic and infectious diseases.

New antibody targeting nerve cells offers long-lasting pain relief

Cell surface proteins play a crucial role in cell communication and in sensing changes in the extracellular environment.

Professor Akihiko Ito and Dr. Fuka Takeuchi from the Department of Pathology at Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, Japan, set out to seek answers to this critical question. They investigated the impact of anti-CADM1 antibodies on neuronal activity, and their findings were made available online on 22 August 2024 and published in the journal Life Sciences on 11 September 2024. the study.

The team injected 3E1, the anti-CADM1 ectodomain antibody, under the mouse skin to study its localization on nerve fibers. Immunohistochemical and immunofluorescence studies revealed that the injected 3E1 was exclusively localized on peripheral nerves in the dermis. The lead author of the study, Prof. Ito highlights, “As CADM1 can recruit neuronal receptors to the plasma membrane, we hypothesized that this accumulation of 3E1 may blunt neuronal sensitivity, i.e., have an analgesic effect, via altering the expression of CADM1 on nerve fibers. However, to our knowledge, there have been no studies that attempted to develop drugs in terms of inhibiting CADM1 in nerves.”

Analgesic effects were tested using a formalin-induced chemical-inflammatory pain test and video-recorded behavior analysis at 6-, 12-, and 24-hours post-injection. Mice injected with 3E1 exhibited less pain-related behaviors when compared with controls, with analgesic effects lasting up to 24 hours, which is significantly longer than the duration of 5 to 8 hours reported for the local anesthetic levobupivacaine.

Improved prime editing system makes gene-sized edits in human cells at therapeutic levels

“It’s exciting to see the high efficiency and versatility of eePASSIGE, which could enable a new category of genomic medicines,” added Gao. “We also hope that it will be a tool that scientists from across the research community can use to study basic biological questions.”

Prime improvements

Many scientists have used prime editing to efficiently install changes to DNA that are up to dozens of base pairs in length, sufficient to correct the vast majority of known pathogenic mutations. But introducing entire healthy genes, often thousands of base pairs long, in their native location in the genome has been a long-standing goal of the gene-editing field. Not only could this potentially treat many patients regardless of which mutation they have in a disease-causing gene, but it would also preserve the surrounding DNA sequences, which would increase the likelihood that the newly installed gene is properly regulated, rather than expressed too much, too little, or at the wrong time.

Aston University develops novel bone cancer therapy which has 99% success rate

Bioactive glasses, a filling material which can bond to tissue and improve the strength of bones and teeth, has been combined with gallium to create a potential treatment for bone cancer.

Tests in labs have found that bioactive glasses doped with the metal have a 99 percent success rate of eliminating cancerous cells and can even regenerate diseased bones.

The research was conducted by a team of Aston University scientists led by Professor Richard Martin who is based in its College of Engineering and Physical Sciences.

How Brain Cells Identify Smells and Related Images

Summary: A recent study reveals that specific brain cells respond not only to smells but also to images and written words related to those scents, providing deeper insight into human odor perception. Researchers found that neurons in the olfactory cortex and other brain regions, like the hippocampus and amygdala, distinguish between different smells and associate them with visual cues.

This research, using data from epilepsy patients, bridges a gap between animal and human studies on olfactory processing. Remarkably, individual neurons responded to scent, image, and word, suggesting that smell processing integrates visual and semantic information early on. These findings could lead to future innovations in “olfactory aids.” The study emphasizes the interconnected nature of smell and visual memory in the human brain.

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