by University of Michigan If cancer is a series of puzzles, a new study pieces together how several of those puzzles connect to form a bigger picture. One major piece is the immune system and the question of why certain immune cells stop doing their job. Another piece involves how histones are altered within immune...
Tag: <span>inhibitors</span>
Imaging an estrogen related enzyme may help to predict obesity, self-control issues
by Stony Brook University Findings from a positron emission tomography (PET) brain imaging study of the amygdala reveals that low levels of the enzyme aromatase, which catalyzes estrogen biosynthesis, are associated with a higher body mass index (BMI) and lower self-control, as measured by a standard personality test. Published in PNAS, the study is led...
Researchers identify nanobody that may prevent COVID-19 infection
IMAGE: FROM LEFT: LEO HANKE, BEN MURRELL AND GERALD MCINERNEY, RESEARCHERS AT THE DEPARTMENT OF MICROBIOLOGY, TUMOR AND CELL BIOLOGY AT KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified a small neutralizing antibody, a so-called nanobody, that has the capacity to block SARS-CoV-2 from entering human cells. The researchers believe this nanobody has...
Cancer cells stock up in lymph vessels to survive
A cellular condition called oxidative stress can kill cancer cells. The finding that skin cancer cells evade such destruction using lipids acquired while passing through lymphatic vessels reveals a mechanism that boosts cancer spread. Barbara M. Grüner & Sarah-Maria Fendt PDF version The spread of cancer to distant parts of the body, such as to...
New therapy targets breast cancer metastases in brain
Combination therapy reduces tumor size, dramatically improves survival in mice NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY CHICAGO — When breast cancer spreads to the brain, the prognosis is grim. Patients only have about six months to live. Women with HER2-positive breast cancer tend to develop brain metastases in up to 55% of cases. Chemotherapy drugs targeting breast cancer cells...
What to know about shockwave therapy for ED
There are several ways to treat erectile dysfunction (ED). Shockwave therapy could serve as a long-term treatment for underlying physical causes of ED. Aside from penile implants and lifestyle changes, techniques that include medication and injections represent on-demand treatment options. Shockwave therapy could be an alternative. Inadequate blood supply to the penis is a common...
Why young and female patients don’t respond as well to cancer immunotherapy
Tumor cells in younger and female patients accumulate cancer-causing mutations that are more poorly presented to the immune system, better enabling tumors to escape detection and clearance UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SAN DIEGO DUE TO A PROCESS KNOWN AS IMMUNO-EDITING, YOUNGER AND FEMALE PATIENTS WITH CANCER HAVE CANCER-CAUSING GENETIC MUTATIONS THAT ARE LEAST VISIBLE TO...
Two existing drugs point to a potential new target against COVID-19
by Alice McCarthy, Harvard Medical School Researchers have found that an existing drug, apilimod, prevented infection of human cells with the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Credit: Tomas Kirchhausen New lab-based studies show that two existing drugs, including one developed by a researcher at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, inhibit SARS-CoV-2—the virus that causes COVID-19—from infecting...
Diabetes medication could help reducing one of the worst effects of aging
Aging is just not fun. At the later stages of your life you are more likely to encounter some serious health problems, such as Alzheimer’s disease. Once you hear this diagnosis, you know you’re in for a bad ending, because it is incurable. However, now scientists at the University of Toronto and the Sunnybrook Research...
No increased skin cancer risk with topical immunosuppressant ointments
BOSTON – Adults with the chronic skin condition atopic dermatitis can rest easy in the knowledge that two topical immunosuppressant medications commonly prescribed to treat the condition do not appear to increase the risk for the most common forms of skin cancer, despite package label warnings to the contrary, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)...