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New nanoparticle drug-delivery method may improve treatment for endometriosis

Researchers have engineered a drug treatment that shows rapid effectiveness against endometriosis in early testing, laying the foundation for a potential therapy for an incurable, chronic disease that affects 1 in 10 women. The targeted nanotherapy, developed by a team of scientists at Washington State University, reduced endometriosis symptoms and disease progression after a single dose in a mouse model.

The treatment targets a cell associated with endometriosis with a commonly available drug delivered by a tiny nanoparticle. The results were published in the journal Advanced Healthcare Materials, and the researchers hope to eventually test the drug for human use.

“We found the disease-specific immune cell, and then we had a drug, but we couldn’t target the cell with the drug alone,” said Kanako Hayashi, a professor in WSU’s School of Molecular Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine and a corresponding author of the new publication. “So we used this nanocarrier that delivers the drug specifically to the disease site.”

Low-cost sensor tracks soil pH continuously for months across varied soils

At first glance, a farm field doesn’t seem all that complicated. It’s just dirt and crops.

But among the landscape lies one of Earth’s most complex ecosystems—a bustling network of microbes, nutrients, roots and chemical reactions that quietly govern the health of every harvest.

For years, understanding what’s happening beneath that surface has been one of agriculture’s biggest challenges. Important soil and plant indicators, like pH, microbial activity and plant physiology, are always changing yet notoriously difficult to track in real time.

New ligand design balances radical generation and catalyst regeneration for challenging chemical reactions

Radicals, atoms or molecules that readily react with other substances to form new bonds, are useful tools for building complex substances such as pharmaceuticals. But even when a radical is generated efficiently, the reaction cannot continue unless the catalyst returns to its original state.

A KAIST research team has developed a new strategy that balances radical generation and catalyst regeneration, broadening the possibility of using substrates that are difficult to activate to synthesize complex molecules needed for pharmaceuticals and other applications.

The research team led by Professor Sarah Yunmi Lee of the Department of Chemistry developed a method that uses a ligand, a molecule that attaches to a metal catalyst and controls its properties, to effectively regulate the process by which a copper catalyst generates a radical and then returns to its original state.

Biggest Supernova Dataset Yet Challenges Dark Energy Theory

Nearly 3,000 exploding stars have revealed a startling possibility: the mysterious force accelerating the universe may be changing over time.

The largest catalog of Type Ia supernovae assembled so far is giving astronomers a more detailed record of cosmic expansion. The results add to evidence that dark energy, the unknown component believed to drive that expansion, may evolve rather than remain constant.

Type Ia supernovae occur when white dwarf stars undergo thermonuclear explosions. Because their brightness can be standardized, astronomers use them as cosmic distance markers, comparing how bright they appear with how quickly their host galaxies are receding. Similar observations helped reveal the accelerating expansion of the universe in the late 1990s.

New Study Reveals a Major Shift Behind Rising ADHD and Autism Diagnoses

A study found that children and adolescents diagnosed there today are more similar to the general population than those diagnosed a decade ago.

As ADHD and autism diagnoses rise in Denmark, the children and adolescents receiving them increasingly resemble the broader population in their birth histories, family backgrounds, and other measured characteristics. A new study suggests that understanding the increase requires looking at how the diagnosed population has changed, alongside possible changes in the underlying risk of developing these conditions.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects attention and impulse control, while autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects social communication and patterns of behavior. The study found that several characteristics historically more common among young people with these diagnoses became less distinctive between 2012 and 2022.

Scientists Discover a Key Reason Why the Aging Eye Struggles To Regrow Lost Neurons

Reducing inflammation partially restored the aging retina’s ability to generate new neurons from support cells, offering a possible route to improve experimental regeneration.

To replace nerve cells lost to glaucoma, researchers are looking to cells already living alongside them. Called glia, these cells support and nourish neurons in the retina, the light-sensitive tissue at the back of the eye. The idea is to give them a different job, turning them into new neurons that could replace those lost to disease.

Scientists have managed to do this in young mice. But an approach intended for diseases of aging also needs to work in older tissue. A study from the laboratory of Levi Todd, PhD, at Upstate Medical University found that aging makes that transformation much harder. It also identified a potential way to help, with anti-inflammatory steroids partially restoring the aging retina’s regenerative response.

Fake LastPass Authenticator Installer Abuses Microsoft-Signed Driver to Kill Antivirus and EDR

A fake LastPass Authenticator installer offered on GitHub installs a Windows kernel driver that shuts off antivirus and other security software before a password stealer runs if a victim downloads and runs it, researchers at LastPass and Delphos Labs said on September 17.

Microsoft’s own hardware-compatibility program signs the driver, scored zero detections on VirusTotal when researchers checked it in August, and was not on Microsoft’s list of blocked drivers. LastPass says none of its own systems, services, or customer vaults were touched, and that the attackers only borrowed its name.

The lure is a fake GitHub page (github.com/LastPass-Authenticator) that ranks in search results for terms like “LastPass Authenticator download” and looks like a real LastPass product page.

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