Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog – Page 9

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Stem cell-derived dopamine neurons improve depression-like behaviors in mice

The Institute of Neuroscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences, reports that human stem cell-derived A10-like midbrain dopaminergic neurons integrate into mouse mesocorticolimbic circuits and suppress anxiety and depression behaviors upon activation.

Midbrain regulate voluntary movement, reward, motivation, cognition, and emotions. A10 ventral tegmental area neurons connect with nucleus accumbens, amygdala, olfactory tubercle, and . Dysfunction of the A10 system is implicated in , schizophrenia, and depression.

Human pluripotent stem cells enable fresh production of disorder-relevant neurons, with previous success in enriching A9 neurons for Parkinson’s disease therapy. Efficient differentiation of human A10 dopaminergic neurons remains elusive.

Promising new method could treat inherited diseases

An innovative method that uses modified versions of a bacterial virus effective at delivering treatments to human cells shows promise as a more inexpensive and efficient way to treat some deadly genetic diseases. Researchers from the School of Pharmacy at the University of Waterloo use a modified version of a bacterial virus called M13 to target specific human cells while

New treatment eliminates bladder cancer in 82% of patients

LOS ANGELES — A new drug-releasing system, TAR-200, eliminated tumors in 82% of patients in a phase 2 clinical trial for individuals with high-risk non-muscle-invasive bladder cancer whose cancer had previously resisted treatment.

In the majority of cases, the cancer disappeared after only three months of treatment, and almost half the patients were cancer-free a year later.

“Traditionally, these patients have had very limited treatment options. This new therapy is the most effective one reported to date for the most common form of bladder cancer,” said Sia Daneshmand, MD, director of urologic oncology with Keck Medicine of USC and lead author of a study detailing the clinical trial results published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. “The findings of the clinical trial are a breakthrough in how certain types of bladder cancer might be treated, leading to improved outcomes and saved lives.”#

Rogue Planets Floating in Space Appear to Be Forming Their Own Moons

Free-floating, planetary-mass objects that are just drifting carefree through the galaxy, untethered and starless, appear to be able to generate their own systems of moons, like a planetary system on a miniature scale.

An analysis of new JWST observations on a number of rogue planets – each weighing between five and 10 Jupiters – has revealed the presence of disks with a significant proportion of crystalline silicate, just like those surrounding some baby stars right before their planets start to form.

“These studies show that objects with masses comparable to those of giant planets have the potential to form their own miniature planetary systems,” says observational astronomer Aleks Scholz of the University of St Andrews in the UK.

/* */