Jason Mast Editor Novavax and Oxford’s Jenner Institute have spent the last 16 months making headlines for their Covid-19 vaccines. But, quietly, the two groups have also spent that time working on an inoculation for a different deadly pathogen: malaria. That effort has now brought its first major result. In The Lancet Friday, investigators reported that their...
Month: <span>April 2021</span>
Post
Anti-aging compound improves muscle glucose metabolism in people
by Washington University School of Medicine Senior investigator Samuel Klein, MD, (left), in the laboratory with Adewole Okunade, PhD. Klein’s team found that NMN improved the ability of insulin to increase glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. Credit: Matt Miller A natural compound previously demonstrated to counteract aspects of aging and improve metabolic health in mice has...
Post
A new method for fighting ‘cold’ tumors
by Greg Glasgow, CU Anschutz Medical Campus Credit: CC0 Public Domain Not all cancerous tumors are created equal. Some tumors, known as “hot” tumors, show signs of inflammation, which means they are infiltrated with T cells working to fight the cancer. Those tumors are easier to treat, as immunotherapy drugs can then amp up the immune...
Post
Experimental drug shows potential against Alzheimer’s disease
ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE IMAGE: ANA MARIA CUERVO, M.D., PH.D. CREDIT: ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE April 22, 2021–(BRONX, NY)–Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have designed an experimental drug that reversed key symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in mice. The drug works by reinvigorating a cellular cleaning mechanism that gets rid of unwanted proteins by digesting...
Post
Less is more for the next generation of CAR T cells
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE PHILADELPHIA–When researchers from Penn Medicine found that many patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with the investigational chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy targeting the CD22 antigen didn’t respond, they went back to the drawing board to determine why. They discovered that less is more when it comes to the...
Post
Researchers design micro-sized capsules for targeted drug delivery — inspired by Russian pelmeni
SKOLKOVO INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (SKOLTECH) An international team led by a Skoltech researcher has developed a method of fabrication for biodegradable polymer microcapsules, made more efficient by turning to an unusual source of inspiration – traditional Russian dumpling, or pelmeni, making. The two papers were published in Materials and Design and ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces....
Post
Sapped: Exploring potential connections between devitalizing anemia and insomnia
CACTUS COMMUNICATIONS A good night’s sleep is essential for a healthy body and mind, for when we sleep is when the body resets, repairs, and refreshes itself. A lot of people, however, have trouble falling or staying asleep, a condition known as insomnia that affects up to 30% of the population. It is usually caused...
Post
More belly weight increases danger of heart disease even if BMI does not indicate obesity
by American Heart Association Credit: CC0 Public Domain People with abdominal obesity and excess fat around the body’s mid-section and organs have an increased risk of heart disease even if their body mass index (BMI) measurement is within a healthy weight range, according to a new Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association published today in...
Post
Artificial intelligence model predicts which key of the immune system opens the locks of coronavirus
by Aalto University Credit: Jani Huuhtanen, Biorender.com With an artificial intelligence (AI) method developed by researchers at Aalto University and University of Helsinki, researchers can now link immune cells to their targets and for example uncouple which white blood cells recognize SARS-CoV-2. The developed tool has broad applications in understanding the function of immune system in infections, autoimmune disorders, and...
Post
Scientists find new point of access for targeting eating disorders and obesity
by Emily Kagey, University of Michigan Melanocortin 3 receptor (MC3R; green), agouti-related protein (AgRP; red), and vesicular GABA transporter (VGAT; blue) mRNA expression in the arcuate nucleus of a mouse. MC3R is coexpressed in a high percentage of both AgRP and VGAT neurons in the arcuate nucleus, a brain region that is known to control feeding...