CAR natural killer T cells that co-express GD2 and interleukin-15 were found to be safe and to demonstrate evidence of in vivo expansion and localization to metastatic sites in patients with stage IV relapsed/refractory neuroblastoma.
Scientists modify CAR T-Cell therapy, making it more effective and less toxic, for possible use in solid tumors such as neuroblastoma.
Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy — CAR T — has revolutionized leukemia treatment. Unfortunately, the therapy has not been effective for treating solid tumors including childhood cancers such as neuroblastoma. Preclinical studies using certain CAR T against neuroblastoma revealed toxic effects. Now, a group of scientists at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have developed a modified version of CAR T that shows promise in targeting neuroblastoma, spares healthy brain tissue and more effectively kills cancer cells. Their study was published today in Nature Communications. While this work is in the preclinical phase, it reveals potential for lifesaving treatment in children and adults with solid tumors.
Shahab Asgharzadeh, MD, a physician scientist at the Cancer and Blood Disease Institute of CHLA, is working to improve the lifesaving CAR T-cell therapy, in which scientists take a patient’s own immune system T-cells and engineer them to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
“The CAR T therapy works in leukemia,” he says, “by targeting a unique protein (or antigen) on the surface of leukemia cells. When the treatment is given, leukemia cells are killed. CAR T turns the patient’s immune system into a powerful and targeted cancer-killer in patients with leukemia. This antigen is also on normal B cells in the blood, but this side effect can be treated medically.”
Imagine filling up your gas tank with 10 gallons of gas, driving just far enough to burn a half gallon and discarding the rest. Then, repeat. That is essentially the practice that the U.S. nuclear industry is following.
Spent nuclear fuel from power plants still has 95% of its potential to produce electricity. Current plans are to dispose of the spent nuclear fuel in a geologic repository. So, why is it not recycled? It turns out that separating usable versus unusable parts of spent nuclear fuel is complicated.
“Spent nuclear fuel contains roughly half of the periodic table. So, from a chemistry standpoint, there’s a lot going on,” said Gregg Lumetta, PNNL chemist and laboratory fellow. “And to reduce proliferation risk, it is best if pure plutonium is not produced at any point in the separation process.”
Liftoff is at 1:42 p.m. EDT (1742 GMT).
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — United Launch Alliance (ULA) will launch an Atlas V rocket into space today (May 17), and you can watch the action live online.
The two-stage rocket will blast off from Space Launch Complex 41 here at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida at 1:42 p.m. EDT (1742 GMT), carrying with it a missile-warning satellite for the U.S. Space Force. The launch was initially aimed to launch 7 minutes earlier, but ULA pushed it back “to avoid launching too close to object already in space,” company officials said in an update on Twitter.
Even when you pay for a decryption key, your files may still be locked up by another strain of malware.
Did you know your Pixel had this? Did you know any phone had this? Google now wants you to know about it.
The Latest Research
Two active forms of vitamin B12 offer support to the aging brain. Preclinical data shows one of the forms protects dopamine levels.
By Michael Downey.
Not the usual medical or science, but it may help someone.
Windows 10 comes with its own baked-in antivirus solution called Windows Defender, and it is enabled by default when setting up a new PC. At the very least, that affords you some basic protection against the many malware threats out in the wild. But did you know there is an added optional layer that can keep your pictures, videos, work documents, and other files safe in the event of a ransomware infection? The caveat is that you have to manually enable ransomware protection in Windows 10.
Or more specifically, a feature called ‘Controlled folder access.’
And cells from people with mutations in KMT2D, which results in Kabuki syndrome, showed similar patterns of activity to the EHMT1 cells. Kabuki syndrome often results in intellectual disability but is not typically linked to autism.
Cells that carry mutations in ARID1B showed a distinct pattern of network activity, with short, small bursts occurring at an unusually high rate.
Moving forward, Nadif Kasri and his colleagues plan to test other genes that increase a person’s likelihood of being autistic. They also plan to explore how these activity patterns compare at the individual level, and how they relate to other autism-linked traits, he says.
Tzar Labs, a molecular diagnostic company, and Mumbai-based Epigeneres Biotechnology, have claimed a breakthrough with their RNA-marker based technology for early detection of cancer rooted in stem cell biology. The blood tests, which can help determine whether cancer is absent, imminent, or present and also detect the different stages of the disease; will be launched by the end of this year.
Ashish Tripathi, founder and CEO of Tzar Labs, said that they are awaiting the regulatory approvals, and are building the first laboratory in Mumbai now. “We want to have labs in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad to begin with. To scale this, we need to add more labs and collection centres. We plan to launch the test in the market by the last quarter of 2020 calendar year.” Tripathi added that they would keep prices low, but did not divulge how much it could cost the end-user.
The blood test gives results in 72 hours now and can tell if one has cancer or has a chance of getting it. It is also able to say where the cancer is growing. They do an RNA mutation analysis for any organ in the body from a blood test. The company has recently conducted 1000 person clinical study, which has been peer reviewed by Stem Cell Reviews and Reports (SCRR), one of the leading global science journals in Stem Cell technology, published by Springer Science.