TUESDAY, July 6, 2023 (HealthDay News) — The widely used immunotherapy drug nivolumab (Opdivo) is safer and more effective in treating adults and children with advanced Hodgkin lymphoma than the targeted therapy now used as standard care is, new clinical trial results show.
Nivolumab outperformed the drug brentuximab vedotin (Adcetris), extending progression-free survival by 94% at one year compared to 86%, said lead researcher Dr. Alex Herrera, a hematologist-oncologist at City of Hope in Duarte, Calif.
Nivolumab also produced significantly fewer side effects than brentuximab vedotin, which was the first novel therapy developed for Hodgkin lymphoma, Herrera said in a presentation Sunday at the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago.
Back in 1956, Denham Harman proposed that the aging is caused by the build up of oxidative damage to cells, and that this damage is caused by free radicals which have been produced during aerobic respiration [1]. Free radicals are u nstable atoms that have an unpaired electron, meaning a free radical is constantly on the look-out for an atom that has an electron it can pinch to fill the space. This makes them highly reactive, and when they steal atoms from your body’s cells, it is very damaging.
Longevity. Technology: As well as being generated in normal cell metabolism, free radicals can be acquired from external sources (pollution, cigarette smoke, radiation, medication, &c) and while the free radical theory of aging has been the subject of much debate [2], the understanding of the danger free radicals pose led to an increase in the public’s interest in superfoods, vitamins and minerals that were antioxidants – substances that have a spare electron which they are happy to give away to passing free radicals, thus removing them from the danger equation.
But before you reach for the blueberries, it is important to know that, as so often in biology, the story is not black and white. Like a misunderstood cartoon villain, free radicals have a beneficial side, too – albeit in moderation. Free radicals generated by the cell’s mitochondria are beneficial in wound-healing, and others elsewhere act as important signal substances. Used as weapons by the body’s defense system, free radicals destroy invading pathogenic microbes to prevent disease.
There’s a bouncer in everyone: The blood-brain barrier, a layer of cells between blood vessels and the rest of the brain, kicks out toxins, pathogens and other undesirables that can sabotage the brain’s precious gray matter.
When the bouncer is off its guard and a rowdy element gains entry, a variety of conditions can crop up. Barrier-invading cancer cells can develop into tumors, and multiple sclerosis can occur when too many white blood cells slip pass the barrier, leading to an autoimmune attack on the protective layer of brain nerves, hindering their communication with the rest of the body.
“A leaky blood-brain barrier is a common pathway for a lot of brain diseases, so to be able to seal off the barrier has been a long sought-after goal in medicine,” said Calvin Kuo, MD, PhD, the Maureen Lyles D’Ambrogio Professor and a professor of hematology.
Cedars-Sinai investigators have identified several steps in a cellular process responsible for triggering one of the body’s important inflammatory responses. Their findings, published in the journal Science Immunology, open up possibilities for modulating the type of inflammation associated with several infections and inflammatory diseases.
Specifically, the investigators have improved understanding of the steps that lead to the production of IL-1 beta, a potent inflammatory protein signal released during many inflammatory responses.
“We now have a clearer understanding of the stepwise process that leads to the production of IL-1 beta,” said Andrea Wolf, Ph.D., assistant professor of Biomedical Sciences and Medicine at Cedars-Sinai, and a senior and corresponding author on the new study. “By understanding the process, we hope to one day find a treatment for diseases associated with this inflammatory response.”
A cell’s identity is based on the genes it expresses, and scientists have been studying gene expression mechanisms for many years. But the process involves molecules that are too small to see, until the recent development of a technique called expansion microscopy. With expansion microscopy, scientists preserve tissue, and then enlarge it; this can make very small structures much easier to see. Researchers have now improved the technology, and even after increasing the size of zebrafish embryonic cell nuclei by 4,000 times, they were able to see the influence of individual molecules on gene expression. The findings, which have enhanced our understanding of gene regulation, have been reported in Science.
With this technique, investigators can now visualize the fundamental processes of the cell that form the basis of life. “We can see processes that we could only imagine before,” said co-senior study author Antonio Giraldez, Ph.D., Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Genetics at Yale School of Medicine.
Developing Novel DNA-Based Mechano-Technologies For Human Health — Dr. Khalid Salaita, Ph.D. — Emory University
Dr. Khalid Salaita, Ph.D. (https://www.salaitalab.com/salaita) is a Professor of Chemistry at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), program faculty in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory, program member of Cancer Cell Biology at Winship Cancer Institute, and most recently is the recent winner Future Insight Prize given by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany (https://www.emdgroup.com/en/research/open-innovation/futurei…aming.html) for his cutting edge work in the area of mechanobiology.
Dr. Salaita earned his B.S. in Chemistry, from Old Dominion University, his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University, completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, and then started his own lab at Emory University, investigating the interface between living systems and engineered nanoscale materials. To achieve this goal, his group has pioneered the development of tools like molecular force sensors, DNA mechano-technology, smart therapeutics, and nanoscale mechanical actuators to help manipulate living cells.
In recognition of his work, Dr. Salaita has received a number of awards, most notably: the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship, the Camille-Dreyfus Teacher Scholar award, the National Science Foundation Early CAREER award, and the Kavli Fellowship.
Dr. Salaita is currently a member of the Enabling Bioanalytical and Imaging Technologies (EBIT) study Section and an Associate Editor of Smart Materials. His program has been supported by NSF, NIH, and DARPA.
Summary: Deep-sleep brain waves could be a significant factor in regulating blood sugar. The research shows that a combination of sleep spindles and slow waves can predict an increase in insulin sensitivity, subsequently lowering glucose levels.
This discovery highlights sleep as a potential lifestyle adjustment to improve blood sugar control and manage diabetes. Furthermore, these deep-sleep brain waves could also be used to predict an individual’s next-day glucose levels, proving more accurate than traditional sleep metrics.
Objective: This study describes the expression profiles and roles of cardiac pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) during cardiac development.
Methods: Gene datasets from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database were used to analyze the correlation between cardiac PEDF expression and heart disease. Western blotting.
Immunohistochemistry, histological staining and echocardiography were used to assess the expression patterns and functions of PEDF during cardiac development.
