NIBIB-funded researchers have transformed T cells into drug factories engineered to find cells carrying specific diseases in the body—and then produce therapeutic proteins localized to the diseased cells. Senior author Parijat Bhatnagar, Ph.D., director of cell-based medicine at the SRI International Center for Chemical Biology, Menlo Park, California, and his colleagues engineered the T-cell “biofactories”...
Category: <span>biological sciences</span>
Post
Consuming caffeine from coffee reduces incident rosacea
Suyun Li, Ph.D., from the Qingdao University in China, and colleagues conducted a cohort study involving 82,737 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II to examine the correlation between the risk for incident rosacea and caffeine intake. (HealthDay)—Caffeine intake from coffee is inversely associated with the risk for incident rosacea, according to a study published online Oct. 17 in JAMA Dermatology....
Post
Mucus, cough and chronic lung disease: New discoveries
As a cold end, a severe mucus cough starts. Sound familiar? Two studies now give explanations: First, crucial mechanisms of the mucus in both diseased and healthy airways; second, what happens in such chronic lung diseases as cystic fibrosis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). IMAGE: THIS IS GUNNAR C. HANSSON, PROFESSOR OF MEDICAL BIOCHEMISTRY AT SAHLGRENSKA ACADEMY, UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG. CREDIT: JOHAN WINGBORG “This is new knowledge, but there are...
Post
Molecular details of protein reveal glimpse into how kidney stones form
Penn study shows that 3D structure of ion channel protein could inform drug discovery UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE PHILADELPHIA – Kidney stones–solid, pebble-like grit that forms when too much of certain minerals like calcium are in the urine–can strike men, women, and increasingly, children, and the presence and pain of stones afflicts more than 12...
Post
Clues to lupus’s autoimmune origins in precursor cells
DN2 B cells expanded in SLE patients EMORY HEALTH SCIENCES In the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus or SLE, the immune system produces antibodies against parts of the body itself. How cells that produce those antibodies escape the normal “checks and balances” has been unclear, but recent research from Emory University School of Medicine sheds light...
Post
No ‘reservoir’: detectable HIV-1 in treated human liver cells found to be inert
Novel study suggests HIV-1 still detectable in human liver macrophages unlikely to stay infectious after long-term antiretroviral therapy JOHNS HOPKINS MEDICINE In a proof-of-principle study, researchers at Johns Hopkins report that a certain liver immune cell called a macrophage contains only defective or inert HIV-1 copies, and aren’t likely to restart infection on their own...
Post
Phage therapy draws renewed interest to combat drug-resistant microbes
The married professors were spending their Thanksgiving holiday in Egypt when the husband, Thomas L. Patterson, Ph.D., got very sick very quickly, experiencing fever, nausea and a racing heartbeat. By the time Patterson was accurately diagnosed with a highly multi-drug resistant bacterial infection, he was near death. His wife, Steffanie Strathdee, Ph.D., promised to “leave...
Post
The ‘dynamic duo’ of enzymes in the development of cancer
Mutated helicase enzymes shown to work together to disrupt telomere homeostasis and regulation of cell division. All strands of DNA have a non-coding region at the end of the strand known as the telomere. During each replication of the gene, when the cell divides, small nucleotides are lost leading to the gradual shortening of the telomere. In...
Post
Analysis reveals genomic effects of a new cancer treatment now in clinical trials
PHILADELPHIA -A twist on the molecular mechanism of how a new cancer drug works could aid in better identifying the best treatments for patients for an array of cancers. The finding is described in Molecular Cell in a study led by Eric J. Brown, PhD, an associate professor of Cancer Biology in the Perelman School of Medicine...
Post
Study overturns what we know about kidney stones
Current treatments for kidney stones are limited and sometimes painful. Research is changing what we thought we knew about their composition and behavior, suggesting that one day, we may fully dissolve them “right in the patient’s kidney.” In the United States, an estimated 1 in 11 people have kidney stones. They affect more men than women; more...