Principle of a minimally invasive procedure using injectable hydrogels. More than one million people in the Netherlands suffer from painful joints. This is due to the wear and tear of cartilage caused by trauma, aging or diseases such as osteoarthritis. Cartilage is the tissue that protects bones when the body is in motion. Wear and...
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Natural experiment, dogged investigation, yield clue to devastating neurological disease
A normal 9-month-old rat has myelin (blue) throughout the brain but the age-matched mutant rat (below) appears to have none. (Scale bar is 1 mm; front of brain is at right.). After a 29-year quest, Ian Duncan, a professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, has finally pinpointed the cause of a...
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A promising target for kidney fibrosis
SMOC2 staining (red) in a sample from a patient with kidney fibrosis. When the kidneys – vital organs for filtering the body’s entire blood supply – become injured, it can set in motion an unfortunate chain of events that leads to a decline in health. Sometimes, in response to chronic injury, the body begins...
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Clearing out old cells could extend joint health, stop osteoarthritis
In a preclinical study in mice and human cells, researchers report that selectively removing old or ‘senescent’ cells from joints could stop and even reverse the progression of osteoarthritis. The findings, published April 24 in Nature Medicine, support growing evidence that senescent cells contribute to age-related diseases and demonstrate that using drug therapies to remove them...
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Diabetes study raises treatment hope for kidney disease patients
Scientists have identified a key molecule linked to kidney disease in people with diabetes. Blocking the protein prevents kidney damage associated with diabetes in rats and mice, the study also found. The findings shed light on the causes of this common diabetes complication and could lead to new therapies, researchers say. Diabetes results in high levels...
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A New Technique Transforms Human Skin Into Brain Cells
IN BRIEF Researchers have developed a method to turn skin cells into pluripotent stem cells which are then reprogrammed to become microglia cells. These brain cells play a crucial role in the development of neurological diseases, like Alzheimer’s disease. Studying them could help scientists discover new treatments. FROM SKIN TO BRAIN The brain is one...
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Can virtual reality help us prevent falls in the elderly and others?
Every year, falls lead to hospitalization or death for hundreds of thousands of elderly Americans. Standard clinical techniques generally cannot diagnose balance impairments before they lead to falls. But researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and North Carolina State University have found evidence that virtual reality (VR) could be a big...
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Impact of total knee replacement practice: cost effectiveness analysis of data from the Osteoarthritis Initiative
Abstract Objectives To evaluate the impact of total knee replacement on quality of life in people with knee osteoarthritis and to estimate associated differences in lifetime costs and quality adjusted life years (QALYs) according to use by level of symptoms. Design Marginal structural modeling and cost effectiveness analysis based on lifetime predictions for total knee...
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A New “CRISPR Pill” Makes Bacteria Destroy Its Own DNA
IN BRIEF An innovative study in the University of Wisconsin-Madison could soon put an end to drug-resistant bacteria by using an edible version of CRISPR. This probiotic could target specific bacteria, making it more effective than antibiotics. TARGETED AND EDIBLE As antibiotic resistance continues to grow, scientists are desperately trying to figure out how to best...
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Scientists ID two molecules that inhibit proteins involved in chronic inflammatory disease
Representative conformations of T23 in TNF and RANKL. Scientists have identified two small molecules that could be pursued as potential treatments for chronic inflammatory diseases. According to a paper published in PLOS Computational Biology, the researchers singled out the molecules using a new drug screening approach they developed. Both molecules, known as T23 and T8, inhibit...