This population-based study showed that patients with cancer had higher risks of mortality after stroke and myocardial infarction, with substantial variations by cancer type.
Background and Objectives.
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Time crystals could be used to build accurate quantum clocks
Once considered an oddity of quantum physics, time crystals could be a good building block for accurate clocks and sensors, according to new calculations.
Large-Scale Proteomics Reveals New Candidate Biomarkers for Late-Onset Preeclampsia
RESEARCH ARTICLE: large-scale proteomics reveals new candidate biomarkers for late-onset preeclampsia.
BACKGROUND: Preeclampsia is classified as either a more severe early onset or a more prevalent late-onset form. Lower PlGF (placental growth factor) and increased sFlt-1 (fms-like tyrosine kinase-1) in maternal circulation are promising biomarkers, yet they lack specificity for preeclampsia. METHODS: We quantified ≈7000 proteins in 673 samples collected from 89 patients with late-onset preeclampsia and 91 controls at T1 (15–22), T2 (22–30), and T3 (30–42) weeks. Elastic net and random forest models were fitted and evaluated by cross-validation. Differential abundance analysis followed by functional profiling, was used to identify and interpret protein changes. RESULTS: An increase in protein differential abundance in late-onset preeclampsia was observed with advancing gestation, reaching 806 proteins at T3 related to angiogenesis, cell adhesion, and extracellular matrix remodeling.
A single oncolytic virus injection may help T cells infiltrate glioblastoma
A team led by investigators at Mass General Brigham and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has shown that a single injection of an oncolytic virus—a genetically modified virus that selectively infects and destroys cancer cells—can recruit immune cells to penetrate and persist deep within brain tumors. The research, which is published in Cell, provides details on how this therapy prolonged survival in patients with glioblastoma, the most common and malignant primary brain tumor, in a recent clinical trial.
“Patients with glioblastoma have not benefited from immunotherapies that have transformed patient care in other cancer types such as melanoma because glioblastoma is a ‘cold’ tumor with poor infiltration by cancer-fighting immune cells,” said co-senior author Kai Wucherpfennig, MD, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Cancer Immunology and Virology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
“Findings from our clinical trial and our mechanistic study show that it is now feasible to bring these critical immune cells into glioblastoma.”
Abstract: Osimertinib (Osi) is first-line treatment for metastatic lung adenocarcinoma with EGFR mutations
Here, Jonathan M. Kurie & team show Osi-resistant cancer secrete effector proteins that increase the metastatic properties of drug-naive cells and influence lung cancer progression through paracrine mechanisms:
The figure shows Osi-resistant (OR) cells show Golgi remodeling compared with drug-naïve (DN) cells.
1Department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas–MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
2Section of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Department of Medicine, Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
3Tulane Cancer Center, Louisiana Cancer Research Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Future Humans: The Coming Diversity of Engineered Bodies and Synthetic Minds
For the first time in Earth’s history, one species can rewrite its own genome, rebuild its own brain, and design entirely new forms of intelligence. That combination makes Homo sapiens look less like evolution’s end point and more like a transitional form: an ancestral species whose descendants may be biological, mechanical, or something in between. The way future humans remember us may depend on how seriously our generation takes its role as the first conscious ancestor.
Imagine a descendant civilization, thousands or millions of years from now, trying to reconstruct its origins. Its members might not have bones or blood. They might be born in free-fall habitats orbiting other stars, or instantiated as software in computational substrates that current engineers can barely imagine. Their analysts would comb through archives from a small blue planet called Earth and conclude that the strange, warlike primates who built the first rockets and the first neural networks were not the culmination of evolution, but an ancestral phase.
That premise — the idea that present-day humans are an ancestral species for future humans and other intelligent beings — is beginning to migrate from science fiction into serious scientific and philosophical discussion. Advances in gene editing, synthetic biology, space medicine, brain–computer interfaces and artificial intelligence all point toward a future in which “intelligent beings” no longer form a single species, or even share a single kind of body. The more that picture comes into focus, the more it forces a rethinking of what “being human” means.
Magnetic Covalent Organic Frameworks (MCOFs): A Sustainable Solution for Emerging Organic Contaminants (EOCs) from the River
Phthalates (PAEs) and bisphenol A (BPA) are significant components in plastic and its derivative industries. They are omnipresent in water sources owing to intensive industrialization and rapid urbanization, hence posing adverse effects on humans and significant environmental issues. Researchers have developed a new magnetic material, called magnetic covalent organic frameworks (MCOFs), that can effectively remove harmful chemicals like PAEs and BPA from water. Made using a special method that prevents clumping, these materials are highly porous, magnetic and reusable up to 15 times. They showed excellent removal efficiency, even at very low pollutant levels found in real river water. The study also revealed that the removal process involves strong chemical bonding. This breakthrough offers a promising, eco-friendly solution for cleaning water contaminated by plastics and industrial waste.
Read the article in Royal Society Open Science.
Abstract. The synthesis and characterization of effective magnetic covalent organic frameworks (MCOFs) are presented for the highly efficient adsorption of dimethyl phthalate (DMP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and bisphenol A (BPA) from the aqueous environment. The novelty of this research lies in the development of MCOFs through a coprecipitation method that incorporates an innovative silica inner shell. This crucial feature not only prevents aggregation of the magnetic core, which is a significant limitation of conventional adsorbents, but also enables robust interactions between the core and the outer covalent organic framework (COF). The synthesized MCOFs were comprehensively characterised using a variety of techniques. Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) analyses confirmed successful synthesis and strong magnetic properties, while field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) revealed the presence of spherical, porous structures with small granules. Energy-dispursive X-ray (EDX) spectrometry analysis further confirmed the successful synthesis, showing a material composition of 58.2% Fe, 33.4% O, 4.8% C, and 3.2% Si. Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) analysis showed the MCOFs possess a high surface area of 128.1 m2 g–1 and a pore diameter of 16.8 nm, indicating abundant active sites for adsorption. Under optimal conditions (pH 7,100 mg adsorbent dosage, and 25-minute contact time) the MCOFs exhibited exceptional adsorption performance, with removal efficiencies of 90.0% for DMP, 86.0% for DBP, and 92.0% for BPA. The kinetic study revealed that the adsorption mechanism follows the pseudo-second-order model, suggesting a significant chemisorption process. Crucially, in situ FTIR analysis provided spectroscopic validation that hydrogen bonding and π–π stacking are the predominant interactions between the MCOFs and the organic contaminants. The developed analytical method achieved low detection limits of 0.0058 mg l−1 for DMP, 0.0079 mg l−1 for DBP and 0.0063 mg l−1 for BPA, indicating high sensitivity for trace-level contaminant detection in real water samples. Furthermore, the adsorbent demonstrated exceptional reusability, maintaining high performance after 15 adsorption–desorption cycles, which is a significant improvement over conventional adsorbents. This study demonstrates that MCOFs with a silica inner shell are a highly promising, stable and sustainable solution for the removal of emerging organic contaminants (EOCs).
Making In Vivo Progress in CAR Therapeutic Development
As scientists work toward moving in vivo CAR methods from concept to clinic, they must ensure that complex, multistep discovery and development workflows yield reliable and biologically meaningful data. In this article, learn more about materials for in vivo CAR discovery and development.
Learn more in this new issue of the TS Digest.
In vivo gene delivery, precise immune profiling, and robust quality controls reshape how researchers develop the next generation of CAR therapies.
A “dormant” brain protein turns out to be a powerful switch
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine report that they have uncovered a promising drug target that could allow scientists to increase or decrease the activity of specific brain proteins. The discovery may lead to new treatments for psychiatric conditions such as anxiety and schizophrenia, as well as a neurological disorder that affects movement and balance. The work was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health.
The proteins at the center of the research are known as delta-type ionotropic glutamate receptors, or GluDs. These proteins are known to play an important role in how neurons communicate with each other. According to the researchers, mutations in GluDs have been linked to psychiatric disorders, including anxiety and schizophrenia. Despite this connection, scientists have struggled for years to understand exactly how these proteins work, making it difficult to design treatments that could regulate their activity.
“This class of protein has long been thought to be sitting dormant in the brain,” says Edward Twomey, Ph.D., assistant professor of biophysics and biophysical chemistry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Our findings indicate they are very much active and offer a potential channel to develop new therapies.”
Physicists challenge a 200-year-old law of thermodynamics at the atomic scale
A long-standing law of thermodynamics turns out to have a loophole at the smallest scales. Researchers have shown that quantum engines made of correlated particles can exceed the traditional efficiency limit set by Carnot nearly 200 years ago. By tapping into quantum correlations, these engines can produce extra work beyond what heat alone allows. This could reshape how scientists design future nanoscale machines.
Two physicists at the University of Stuttgart have demonstrated that the Carnot principle, a foundational rule of thermodynamics, does not fully apply at the atomic scale when particles are physically linked (so-called correlated objects). Their findings suggest that this long-standing limit on efficiency breaks down for tiny systems governed by quantum effects. The work could help accelerate progress toward extremely small and energy-efficient quantum motors. The team published its mathematical proof in the journal Science Advances.
Traditional heat engines, such as internal combustion engines and steam turbines, operate by turning thermal energy into mechanical motion, or simply converting heat into movement. Over the past several years, advances in quantum mechanics have allowed researchers to shrink heat engines to microscopic dimensions.