Like humans, some golden retrievers develop Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), a hereditary muscle wasting condition that begins early in life. Using gene therapy, scientists were able to restore muscle function in dogs with the disease, according to a study published today (July 25) in Nature Communications. Researchers injected microdystrophin, a shortened version of the dystrophin gene that individuals with...
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Boosting immune cell memory to improve vaccines and cancer immunotherapy
Vaccines and cancer immunotherapies do essentially the same thing: They boost a person’s immune system, better enabling it to fight an offender, be it microbe or malignancy. Both approaches focus on CD8+ T cells, a type of immune cell that can either kill immediately or commit the offender to “memory,” providing long-term protection. In mouse...
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Finding what fuels the ‘runaway train’ of autoimmune disease
A newly-unveiled discovery, which has been four years in the making, has the potential to change the way we look at autoimmune diseases and understand how and why immune cells begin to attack different tissues in the body. “Once your body’s tolerance for its own tissues is lost, the chain reaction is like a runaway...
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Thoracic kyphosis in those over 50 may not be a predictor of physical decline
BOSTON — A recently published study in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society has found that using CT scans to evaluate early signs of hyperkyphosis (extreme forward curvature of the upper spine) in people over age 50 does not help to identify those at risk of subsequent physical function decline. The article’s conclusions are based on...
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Study identifies miR122 target sites in liver cancer and links a gene to patient survival
A new study of a molecule that regulates liver-cell metabolism and suppresses liver-cancer development shows that the molecule interacts with thousands of genes in liver cells, and that when levels of the molecule go down, which often happens during liver-cancer development, the activity of certain cancer-promoting genes goes up. The findings could one day help...
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Telomere length prognostic in hepatocellular carcinoma
Li-Jie Ma, from Fudan University in Shanghai, and colleagues used telomere-specific fluorescence in situ hybridization and quantitative polymerase chain reaction to assess telomere length in HCC cell lines, tumor tissues, and nontumor cells within the tumor. The researchers found that, compared with their normal counterparts, significant telomere attrition was found in tumor cells and cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs), but...
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Use of brain-computer interface, virtual avatar could help people with gait disabilities
Non-invasive method can help people re-learn to walk Researchers from the University of Houston have shown for the first time that the use of a brain-computer interface augmented with a virtual walking avatar can control gait, suggesting the protocol may help patients recover the ability to walk after stroke, some spinal cord injuries and certain...
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In new leap for AI: computer chips that can smell
Nigerian neuroscientist Oshiorenoya Agabi may have found a way to solve one of life’s puzzling dilemmas: how to make air travel pleasant again. What if you could skip tedious airport security lines, while a special device able to sniff out explosives works silently in the background? This is only one of the possible uses of...
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Nutlin-3, a p53-Mdm2 antagonist for nasopharyngeal carcinoma treatment
Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a common epithelial squamous cell head and neck cancer which is strongly associated with gamma herpes Epstein-Barr virus infection and the intake of salted fish. NPC incidence remain significantly high among men in the populations of Southern China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Northern Africa and Southeast Asia. It has claimed many thousands...
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VCP protein inhibitor found to help virus kill liver tumors
Medical Xpress)—A team of researchers with members from several institutions in China has found that combining a VCP protein inhibitor with a virus that naturally targets liver cancer tumors made the virus much more potent. In their paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the group describes their search for a way to improve the...