This case report describes a 2-year-old girl with congenital ptosis of the left eye, large-angle exotropia, adduction deficit of the left eye, and abduction deficit of the right eye.
Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.
Longevity-linked APOE2 gene variant helps neurons repair DNA and resist aging
People who carry the APOE2 version of the apolipoprotein E gene are more likely to live to advanced age and are partly protected against Alzheimer’s disease, but scientists have struggled to explain why. A new study from the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, now published in Aging Cell, offers a mechanistic answer: APOE2 helps human neurons keep their DNA intact and resist becoming senescent, a damaged, dysfunctional state that accumulates with age and contributes to neurodegeneration.
The findings shift attention away from APOE’s well-known role in cholesterol transport and toward a previously underappreciated function of the gene: shaping how brain cells maintain the integrity of their genome as they age.
“We’ve known for years that APOE2 carriers tend to live longer and have a lower risk of Alzheimer’s, but the protective mechanism has been a black box,” says senior author Lisa M. Ellerby, Ph.D., professor at the Buck Institute. “Our work shows that APOE2 neurons are better at preventing and repairing DNA damage, and they resist the cellular aging program that drives so much of late-life decline. Our findings point to entirely new therapeutic directions.”
Researchers 3D print key components for a point-of-care mass spectrometer
Year 2024
Caption :
MIT researchers have 3D printed a miniature ionizer, which is a key component of a mass spectrometer. The new miniature ionizer could someday enable an affordable, in-home mass spectrometer for health monitoring. Pictured are parts of the new device, including a green printed circuit board (PCB) with orange casing on top. Under the casing is a black rectangle where the electrospray emitter is located.
New MRI sensors detect target molecules in the brain and body with high sensitivity
When doctors and scientists want to see inside a body, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a powerful tool. MRI can noninvasively capture detailed images of the body’s muscles, organs, and bones. It can monitor blood flow to generate a map of brain activity. And with new sensors developed by bioengineers at MIT, MRI can track the kinds of molecules that make our brains and bodies work.
In the May 13 issue of the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering, a team led by Alan Jasanoff, the Eugene McDermott Professor in the Brain Sciences and Human Behavior at MIT, reports on their new sensors, which can brighten or dim MRI signals in response to specific molecular targets. The probes are designed to amplify the effect that each target molecule has on MRI signal, dramatically improving sensitivity over previous small-molecule sensors.
Jasanoff, who is also an associate investigator at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, says the approach his team used should enable the development of MRI sensors that detect neurotransmitters and other important molecules in the brain.
Nanofiber implant delivers three drugs, doubles survival in glioblastoma mice
Researchers with the University of Cincinnati and Johns Hopkins Medicine developed a potential treatment for brain cancer that uses nanofibers embedded with a combination of drugs that work in concert to target tumors. The drugs proved more effective in combination than when administered alone and can provide both immediate and long-lasting doses to kill cancer cells.
“In our study, a three-drug combination showed strong synergistic effects across multiple glioblastoma models and significantly improved survival in animal studies,” said Daewoo Han, an assistant professor in UC’s College of Engineering and Applied Science and lead author of the paper published in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.
Han and Distinguished Research Professor Andrew Steckl incorporated the drugs into electrospun fiber membranes, creating a nanofiber drug delivery system. Steckl’s NanoLab at the University of Cincinnati is a leading developer of this technology that uses an electric field to create a multilayered fiber mesh for drug delivery, among other uses. “This combination is pretty powerful,” Steckl said.
Cancer jab can eradicate entire tumours in patients, trial shows
In an international trial spanning 11 countries, the injection was offered to patients whose cancer had spread or come back and whose disease had failed to respond to other treatments.
The jab, called amivantamab, shrank the tumours of more than a third of patients, with dramatic changes seen within weeks. In 15 of them, doctors found the drug had melted away their tumours altogether.
Kevin Harrington, professor in biological cancer therapies at the Institute of Cancer Research, London (ICR), said: These are unprecedentedly strong responses in patients whose disease has become resistant to both chemotherapy and immunotherapy.