by University of Virginia Telemedicine tools developed at UVA Health to battle Ebola have huge potential in the fight against COVID-19, UVA experts report in a new scientific paper. The tools, they say, allow doctors to provide personal, high-quality care while conserving vital personal protective equipment and reducing infection risks. The battle against highly contagious...
Tag: <span>Potential therapeutic</span>
ONE PROTEIN EASES PROBLEMS WHEN CANCER CELLS DIVIDE
Two important functions of the protein RTEL1 during cancer cell division could help pinpoint new cancer treatments, researchers report. One of the body’s most important processes is cell division, which occurs throughout life. Normal cells only have a limited number of divisions, while in cancer cells the cell division goes awry and is uncontrollable. Therefore,...
Inflammation: Smothering the Fire
Inflammation is the alarm system by which cells first respond to potential danger, but in excess, inflammation can be fatal. In COVID-19, for example, overactive inflammation has led to severe complications and even death for many hospitalized patients. Research in mice led by Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital now reveals that the FDA-approved...
Canadian study finds temperature, latitude not associated with COVID-19 spread
Temperature and latitude do not appear to be associated with the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), according to a study of many countries published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) http://www.cmaj.ca/lookup/doi/10.1503/cmaj.200920, but school closures and other public health measures are having a positive effect. “Our study provides important new evidence, using global data from...
FDA approves Farxiga for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has granted approval for Farxiga (dapagliflozin) oral tablets to treat adults with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction, the agency announced Tuesday. Farxiga is the first approved sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor to treat adults with New York Heart Association functional class II to IV heart failure with reduced ejection...
New genetic markers of type 2 diabetes identified in East Asians
In the largest study of its kind in any non-European population, an international team of researchers, including a University of Massachusetts Amherst genetic epidemiologist, has identified new genetic links with type 2 diabetes among 433,540 East Asian individuals. The findings, published in Nature, “provide additional insight into the biological basis of type 2 diabetes,” says...
Preventing metastasis: An antibody with therapeutic potential
by German Cancer Research Center A receptor in the cell layer that lines the blood vessels from the inside stimulates both the formation of new blood vessels in tumors and metastasis. Scientists at the German Cancer Research Center in Heidelberg (DKFZ) and the Mannheim Medical Faculty of the University of Heidelberg have succeeded in blocking...
Neurologists watch for signs that COVID-19 can attack the brain
Neurologists at the University of Alberta are monitoring Edmonton patients diagnosed with COVID-19 for signs that the virus, which can cause deadly respiratory illness, may also attack the brain. “Several manuscripts have been published that suggest patients with severe COVID-19 symptoms also display neurological problems such as confusion, stroke-like attacks, even a hemorrhage in the...
CRISPR-Based ‘Discovery Engine’ for New Cell Therapies to Advance Cancer Treatments
Despite centuries-long efforts to develop cures for cancer, various forms of the disease will kill about 630,000 people in the U.S. in 2020. But hopes are rising for cell therapies – sometimes called “living medicines” – that can boost and adapt the natural cancer-fighting potential of the immune system in ways that conventional cancer treatments...
New bone healing mechanism has potential therapeutic applications
by Baylor College of Medicine Led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, a study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell reveals a new mechanism that contributes to adult bone maintenance and repair and opens the possibility of developing therapeutic strategies for improving bone healing. “Adult bone repair relies on the activation of bone...