And simpson querrey lung institute for translational science (SQ LIFTS), northwestern university feinberg school of medicine, chicago, illinois, USA.
Category: biotech/medical
Promising drug can inhibit aggressive breast cancer
New research reveals a drug developed by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University may develop into a new treatment for an especially aggressive form of breast cancer.
A new molecule developed by researchers at Oregon Health & Science University offers a promising avenue to treat intractable cases of triple-negative breast cancer —a form of cancer that is notoriously aggressive and lacks effective treatments.
In a study published today in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, researchers describe the effect of a molecule known as SU212 to inhibit an enzyme that is critical to cancer progression. The research was conducted in a humanized mouse model.
Magnetic materials discovered by AI could reduce rare earth dependence
Researchers at the University of New Hampshire have harnessed artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of new functional magnetic materials, creating a searchable database of 67,573 magnetic materials, including 25 previously unrecognized compounds that remain magnetic even at high temperatures.
“By accelerating the discovery of sustainable magnetic materials, we can reduce dependence on rare earth elements, lower the cost of electric vehicles and renewable-energy systems, and strengthen the U.S. manufacturing base,” said Suman Itani, lead author and a doctoral student in physics.
The newly created database, named the Northeast Materials Database, helps to more easily explore all the magnetic materials which play a major role in the technology that powers our world: smartphones, medical devices, power generators, electric vehicles and more. But these magnets rely on expensive, imported, and increasingly difficult to obtain rare earth elements, and no new permanent magnet has been discovered from the many magnetic compounds we know exist.
Coordinated brain network activity during emotional arousal may explain vivid, lasting memories
Past psychology studies suggest that people tend to remember emotional events, such as their wedding, the birth of a child or traumatic experiences, more vividly than neutral events, such as a routine professional meeting. While this link between emotion and the recollection of past events is well-established, the neural mechanisms via which emotional states strengthen memories remain poorly understood.
Researchers at the University of Chicago and other institutes carried out a study aimed at better understanding these mechanisms. Their findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, suggest that emotional states facilitate the encoding of memories by increasing communication between networks of brain regions.
“Emotional experiences tend to be ‘sticky,’ meaning that they endure in our memories and shape how we interpret the past, engage with the present, and anticipate the future,” Yuan Chang Leong, senior author of the paper, told Medical Xpress.
Gut-to-brain signaling restricts post-illness protein appetite, researchers discover
When we get sick, with the flu, say, or pneumonia, there can be a period where the major symptoms of our illness have resolved but we still just don’t feel great.
“While this is common, there’s no real way to quantify what’s going on,” says Nikolai Jaschke, MD, Ph.D., who recently completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Yale School of Medicine (YSM) in the lab of Andrew Wang, MD, Ph.D., associate professor of internal medicine (rheumatology). “And unfortunately, we lack therapeutic tools to support people in this state.”
Jaschke noticed this while taking care of patients recovering from acute illnesses and, when he joined Wang’s lab, he began studying what was happening in the body during recovery. Through this work, Jaschke, Wang, and their colleagues uncovered a gut-to-brain signaling pathway in mice that restricts appetite—specifically for protein—during recovery. They published their findings on Nov. 4 in Cell.
Acetate from tumor-associated macrophages fuels liver cancer metastasis
@The researchers have revealed a mechanism that triggers metastasis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)—the most common type of primary liver cancer—through the production of acetate by tumor-associated macrophages.
Acetate is important to cancer metastasis because it promotes the synthesis of acetyl-coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA), which is a pivotal metabolic intermediate in the catabolism of glucose, lipids, and amino acids, as well as the biosynthesis of lipids and the TCA cycle. Acetyl-CoA also functions as a signaling molecule due to its role in lysine acetylation. Increased acetyl-CoA production is characteristic of metastatic cancers.
Researchers have known that acetate levels in the blood are significantly lower than in cancer tissues, suggesting the presence of acetate-producing cells within the cancer microenvironment. However, the exact source of acetate in the cancer microenvironment was previously unclear.
The researchers have now identified a key acetate source by revealing how HCC cells trigger acetate secretion by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) through a metabolic interaction involving lactate and the lipid peroxidation–aldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) pathway.
A toast to BRD4: How acidity changes the immune response
It started with wine. Or more precisely, a conversation about it. “My colleagues and I were talking about how some people think drinking wine may be anti-inflammatory,” recalls Xu Zhou, Ph.D., from the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Boston Children’s Hospital. “There’s no scientific ground for that, but we know wine is acidic.”
Around the same time, Zhou and his team were exploring a broader blind spot in immunology: the role of the tissue microenvironment (such as pH, oxygen, and salt concentration) in shaping immune function. While most research had focused on cellular messengers like cytokines, Zhou was curious about how the physical and chemical makeup of tissues might influence immune cells, especially in disease.
Inspired by their wine conversation and intrigued by these overlooked components, Zhou’s team launched a study to investigate how acidity affects immune cells. Their findings, published in Cell, show that a drop in pH can suppress immune responses by disrupting a protein called BRD4—an important regulator of gene activity in immune cells. That small chemical shift could have big implications for treating inflammation-related diseases.
Overcoming resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors remains a major objective in cancer
Here, Richard Bucala & team show combined anti-MIF and anti–PD-1 reduces tumor growth and improves survival in melanoma and colorectal cancer mouse models:
The figure shows tumor regions of necrosis, immune infiltration, and reduced tumor volume in mice treated with MIF and PD-1.
1Yale Cancer Center, Department of Internal Medicine, and.
2Section of Rheumatology, Allergy & Immunology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.
3Department of Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.