Lifeboat Foundation

A common oral bacteria has been found to release a molecule that accelerates the growth of colorectal cancers. The impressive new research could lead to new cancer treatments as well as offer a valuable biomarker to help doctors identify potentially aggressive cancers.

Scripps Research scientists have discovered a compound that potently and selectively kills the stem-like cells that make glioblastoma brain cancers so deadly.

In a study published this week in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Scripps Research scientists found that the new compound, which they dubbed RIPGBM, kills glioblastoma stem-like cells cultured from patients’ tumors with more than 40 times the potency of the standard GBM drug temozolomide. They found too that RIPGBM is highly selective, sparing other types of brain cells, and that it powerfully suppresses the growth of GBM tumors in a mouse model of the disease.

“Our discovery of this compound and the cellular pathways it affects offers a promising new strategy for treating glioblastoma,” says principal investigator Luke Lairson, PhD, an assistant professor of chemistry at Scripps Research.

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How to keep your assets intact if you’re revived through cryonics.

Traditionally, welding has been limited to materials that share similar properties, so it’s tough to make even aluminum and steel join forces. But now, scientists from Heriot-Watt University are claiming a breakthrough method that can weld together materials as different as glass and metal, thanks to ultrafast laser pulses.

Five years ago, French aeronautical engineer Edwin Van Ruymbeke successfully crowdfunded his Bionic Bird – it’s a remote-control model that flies by flapping its wings, just like a real bird. Now he’s back, with the insect-inspired MetaFly.

The research contradicts a major assumption in physics.

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We could use lasers to conceal the Earth from observation by an advanced extraterrestrial civilization by shining massive laser beams aimed at a specific star where aliens might be located — thus masking our planet during its transit of the Sun, suggest two astronomers at Columbia University in an open-access paper in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

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Alzheimer’s disease may soon be spotted through a simple eye test, after scientists discovered tell-tale alterations in the retina and blood vessels when dementia is present.

Currently diagnosing Alzheimer’s is tricky, requiring an expensive brain scan, a risky spinal tap or in most cases a behavioural assessment by a doctor based on symptoms.

But US scientists at the Duke Eye Centre in North Carolina, wondered if changes might also be visible in the retina, which is an extension of the brain and so could offer a window into what is happening behind the skull.

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A nasal spray that could alleviate symptoms of depression in just a few hours has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – though the decision has attracted its share of criticism and controversy. The new drug, called esketamine, is a molecular variation of ketamine, which is already being used as an anesthetic, an antidepressant, and a party drug.

Esketamine will be sold as a spray called Spravato and is intended for patients with treatment-resistant depression, meaning they have failed to respond to at least two other types of antidepressant. Because of ketamine’s mind-altering effects and high potential for abuse, patients will be required to take Esketamine in a doctor’s office or clinic and remain under medical supervision for two hours after administration.

Most people with a diagnosis of depression are prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac. These ensure that neurons have access to an increased amount of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which is a key emotional regulator. However, it is thought that around one-third of people with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not respond to conventional medications for the condition, which is why researchers are hunting for alternative treatments.

Continue reading “FDA Approves New Fast-Acting Ketamine-Derived Antidepressant Spray” »