by University of Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers have created a biodegradable nerve guide—a polymer tube—filled with growth-promoting protein that can regenerate long sections of damaged nerves, without the need for transplanting stem cells or a donor nerve. So far, the technology has been tested in monkeys, and the results of those...
Post
Arginine depletion as a starting point for potential rheumatoid arthritis treatments
by Medical University of Vienna Just like other multinuclear giant cells, osteoclasts require enhanced energy metabolism for bone breakdown. The findings of this study now demonstrate that increases in osteoclast metabolism cannot be achieved in the absence of arginine. Rheumatoid arthritis is a common inflammatory joint disease. A feature of this disease is the increased...
Post
Preventing metastasis by stopping cancer cells from making fat
by Université catholique de Louvain Olivier Feron, a researcher at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research, seeks to understand how metastases form from a tumor. He previously demonstrated that the most aggressive cancer cells use significant amounts of lipids as energy sources. Now, Prof. Feron has discovered that cancer cells...
Post
Proteins that protect against joint inflammation identified
Endogenous proteins that play a vital part in allergies and parasitic infection can prevent the immune system from wrongly attacking the body and causing inflamed joints, a study from Karolinska Institutet published in the scientific journal PNAS reports. The researchers hope that the results will give rise to new drugs for rheumatoid arthritis. In protecting...
Post
First treatment for pain using human stem cells a success
by University of Sydney Researchers at the University of Sydney have used human stem cells to make pain-killing neurons that provide lasting relief in mice, without side effects, in a single treatment. The next step is to perform extensive safety tests in rodents and pigs, and then move to human patients suffering chronic pain within...
Post
A novel pill to treat bleeding from uterine fibroids aims for FDA approval
by Marie McCullough A new drug called elagolix cut blood loss by half over six months in the overwhelming majority of women who participated in two clinical trialspublished Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine. Elagolix, being developed by AbbVie, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2018 under the brand...
Post
A rat had basically no brain—but it could still see, hear, smell and feel
by Aria Bracci, Northeastern University One day, a scientist in Craig Ferris’s lab was scanning the brains of very old rats when he found that one could see, hear, smell, and feel just like the other rats, but it was walking around with basically no brain—and likely had been since birth. Psychology professor Craig Ferris,...
Post
While promoting diseases like cancer, these enzymes also cannibalize each other
GEORGIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY Like motley bandits, certain enzymes implicated in cancer and other diseases also annihilate each other. A new study reveals details of their mutual foils in the hopes that these behaviors can be leveraged to fight the enzymes’ disease potential. The bandits are cathepsins, enzymes that normally dispose of unneeded protein in...
Post
Discovery of new T-cell raises prospect of ‘universal’ cancer therapy
by Cardiff University Researchers at Cardiff University have discovered a new type of killer T-cell that offers hope of a “one-size-fits-all” cancer therapy. T-cell therapies for cancer—where immune cellsare removed, modified and returned to the patient’s blood to seek and destroy cancer cells—are the latest paradigm in cancer treatments. The most widely used therapy, known...
Post
Dozens of non-oncology drugs can kill cancer cells
by Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard “We thought we’d be lucky if we found even a single compound with anti-cancer properties, but we were surprised to find so many,” said Todd Golub, chief scientific officer and director of the Cancer Program at the Broad, Charles A. Dana Investigator in Human Cancer Genetics at Dana-Farber,...