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A new study from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine shows that selectively removing senescent cells—cells that no longer divide—from brains with a form of Alzheimer’s disease can reduce brain damage and inflammation and slow the pace of cognitive decline. These findings, say researchers, add to evidence that senescent cells contribute to the damage caused by Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our results show that eliminating these cells may be a viable route to treat Alzheimer’s disease in humans,” says Mark Mattson, a professor of neuroscience at the School of Medicine and a senior investigator in the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging.

A report on the work was published April 1 in Nature Neuroscience.

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Focused ultrasound (FUS) can be used to help drugs pass from the bloodstream into the brain, but the technique’s effectiveness depends on the ultrasound pressure and the size of the drug molecules. Michael Valdez and colleagues at the University of Arizona measured how thoroughly differently sized molecules diffused into mouse brains under a range of ultrasound intensities, and found that the largest molecules could not be delivered under any safe FUS regime. The results set a limit on the types of drugs that might one day be used to treat neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease (Ultrasound Med. Biol. 10.1016/j.ultrasmedbio.2019.08.024).

Usually, the brain is isolated from substances circulating in the bloodstream by the blood–brain barrier (BBB), a semipermeable layer of cells that permits only certain molecules to pass. This restricts the range of drugs that can be used in the brain to small, hydrophobic molecules (such as alcohol and caffeine), other small drugs like psychotropics and some antibiotics. Extending that range would open the door to new therapeutic possibilities, says Theodore Trouard, who led the team. “The ability to temporarily and safely open the BBB to allow drugs into the brain would help address a number of neurological diseases for which there is currently no effective treatment.”

Previous research has shown that such opening can be achieved by focusing an ultrasound beam in the brain while gas microbubbles circulate in the blood. The microbubbles – perfluorocarbon-filled lipid shells about 1 µm across – are inert while they move around the body, but rapidly expand and contract in the local pressure fluctuations caused by the ultrasound field. Mechanical forces exerted by this phenomenon create temporary gaps in the layer of cells that make up the BBB, giving larger molecules a chance to breach the brain’s defences.

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Authorities in China have approved a drug for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, the first new medicine with the potential to treat the cognitive disorder in 17 years.

The seaweed-based drug, called Oligomannate, can be used for the treatment of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s, according to a statement from China’s drug safety agency. The approval is conditional however, meaning that while it can go on sale during additional clinical trials, it will be strictly monitored and could be withdrawn should any safety issues arise.

In September, the team behind the new drug, led by Geng Meiyu at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said they were inspired to look into seaweed due to the relatively low incidence of Alzheimer’s among people who consume it regularly.

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Visit http://TED.com to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized Talk recommendations and more.

Exactly when and where did life on Earth begin? Scientists have long thought that it emerged three billion years ago in the ocean — until astrobiologist Tara Djokic and her team made an unexpected discovery in the western Australian desert. Learn how an ancient rock found near a hot volcanic pool is shifting our understanding of the origin-of-life puzzle.

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Continue reading “This ancient rock is changing our theory on the origin of life | Tara Djokic” | >

Everis, an NTT DATA company and one of Spain’s largest managed service providers (MSP), had its computer systems encrypted today in a ransomware attack, just as it happened to Spain’s largest radio station Cadena SER (Sociedad Española de Radiodifusión).

While the ransomware attacks were not yet publicly acknowledged by the company, the ransom note left on Everis’ encrypted computers has already leaked and BleepingComputer can confirm that the MSP’s data was infected using the BitPaymer ransomware.

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From raindrops rolling off the waxy surface of a waterlily leaf, to the efficiency of desalination membranes, interactions between water molecules and water-repellent “hydrophobic” surfaces are all around us. The interplay becomes even more intriguing when a thin water layer becomes sandwiched between two hydrophobic surfaces, KAUST researchers have shown.

In the early 1980s, researchers first noted an unexpected effect when two hydrophobic surfaces were slowly brought together in water. “At some point, the two surfaces would suddenly jump into contact—like two magnets being brought together,” says Himanshu Mishra from KAUST’s Water Desalination and Reuse Center. Mishra’s lab investigates water at all length scales, from reducing water consumption in agriculture, to the properties of individual water molecules.

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When the first smartphones arrived, few people understood how they would change our reality. Today, our internet-connected mobile device maps our travel, manages our finances, delivers our dinner, and connects us to every corner of human knowledge. In less than a generation, it has become almost an extension of our central nervous system — so indispensable that we can’t imagine leaving home without it to guide us.

We are about to embark on another journey even more important to every individual and to human society. We are entering the age of genomics, an amazing future that will dramatically improve the health outcomes of people across the planet. Soon, we won’t be able to imagine a time when we left home without knowledge of our genome to guide us.

But this future isn’t a generation away. As early as 2020, I believe we will be living in a world where software uses knowledge of our personal genome to guide us, like a health GPS, toward choices that are appropriate for us as individuals. From the foods we choose to eat to the medicines we take to prevent or cure disease, from helping us avoid exposure to environmental risks to eradicating thousands of genetic diseases, genomics will reveal such immense possibilities that it will feel as if we can see and hear for the first time.

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