A confocal micrograph of mouse retina depicting optic fiber layer. Using the gene-editing tool CRISPR/Cas9, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Shiley Eye Institute at UC San Diego Health, with colleagues in China, have reprogrammed mutated rod photoreceptors to become functioning cone photoreceptors, reversing cellular degeneration and restoring visual...
Category: <span>Pharmaceutical Updates</span>
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A cure for chlamydia? Scientists discover key genes that control our immune response to the infection and could pave the way for new treatments
‘Switching off’ two key genes makes immune cells more susceptible to infection The genes could be a useful target for new chlamydia therapies, helping to combat antibiotic resistance that increasingly limits STI treatment options The researcher’s model demonstrates how chlamydia interacts with our immune system, which could also have important implications for other infections Scientists may...
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Plant powder snatches malaria victims from death’s door
Weathers has made several high-producing versions of the plant using tissue cultures When 18 malaria patients in the Congo failed to respond to conventional treatments and instead continued to head toward terminal status, doctors knew they had to act fast – and try something different. So instead of turning to more synthetic drugs, they turned instead...
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Savior of T-cells may be enemy of liver immune cells
With the signaling molecule caspase-1, OX40 proteins induce inflammatory cell death inside the liver blood vessel (red dots inside white section in the middle) and cause damage to liver cells (hepatocytes), altering their radiant structure. Researchers at Houston Methodist demonstrated that a surface protein called OX40, responsible for keeping one type of immune system...
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Suggests a novel treatment approach that may protect against diabetic kidney disease
George King, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Joslin Diabetes Center and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. More than 660,000 people in the United States suffer from end-stage kidney disease, which can only be treated by dialysis or kidney transplantation. Almost half of these patients develop the condition as a complication of diabetes....
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microRNA may reduce stroke risk
The molecule microRNA-210 stabilises deposits in the carotid artery and can prevent them from tearing. Thus, it may prevent dangerous blood clots from forming. This is what scientists headed by Prof. Lars Mägdefessel, Professor of Vascular Biology at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and head of a junior scientist group in the German Centre...
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Scientists find evidence that ALS and SMA could be treated with a common drug
SMN protein (red) is necessary for the survival of spinal cord neurons (motor neurons) responsible for breathing and all movement. Harvard researchers have found a compound that stabilized this protein in mouse and human motor neurons. This …more Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) researchers have identified a compound that helps protect the cells destroyed by...
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Fibrosis reversed when ‘don’t eat me’ signal blocked, study finds
A chest radiograph of a patient with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Credit: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0 Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a pathway that, when mutated, drives fibrosis in many organs of the body. The pathway underlies what have been considered somewhat disparate conditions, including scleroderma, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, liver cirrhosis, kidney...
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RUNX1 may play role in proliferative diabetic retinopathy
(HealthDay)—The Runt-related transcription factor 1 (RUNX1) gene may play a role in human proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR), and upregulation may be a marker of aberrant retinal angiogenesis, according to a study published online April 11 in Diabetes. Noting that PDR affects those with type 1 and 2 diabetes, and is a common cause of blindness in...
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Peptide reverses cardiac fibrosis in a preclinical model of congestive heart failure
Fibrosis researchers Stanley Hoffman, Ph.D. and Dhandapani Kuppuswamy, Ph.D. of the Medical University of South Carolina are authors on the Laboratory Investigation article. Cardiac fibrosis, an abnormal thickening of the heart wall leading to congestive heart failure, was not only halted but also reversed by a caveolin-1 surrogate peptide (CSD) in a preclinical model, report researchers...