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Category: biotech/medical – Page 10

Clinician–scientists identify brain network linked to deadliest childhood brain cancer

A human brain network associated with survival in children with diffuse midline glioma (DMG), the deadliest childhood brain cancer, has been identified by UCL clinician-scientists, raising the possibility of entirely new treatment approaches. The researchers found that DMG tumors seem to exploit the brain’s existing neural circuitry to drive tumor growth and progression. Tumors that were more strongly connected to this network were associated with significantly shorter patient survival.

The study, published in Nature, builds on pioneering work in the field of cancer neuroscience, which shows that brain tumors, including DMG, dynamically interact with the otherwise healthy brain.

The study was led by Dr. Jai Sidpra and Dr. Valentina Lind, medical students enrolled in the MBPhD Program within the UCL Division of Medicine and senior author Professor Darren Hargrave’s group at the UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health.

Scientists Mapped Every Neuron in a Fruit Fly and the Brain Wasn’t Running the Show

Scientists have created the first complete brain-to-body wiring map of a fruit fly, revealing that complex behavior may arise from distributed neural teamwork rather than a central controller. A large international research team led by labs at Harvard Medical School and Princeton University has r

A ‘Useless’ Organ That Doctors Often Remove May Actually Fight Cancer

There’s a small fatty gland that sits behind your sternum and is often said to be ‘useless’ in adulthood.

Research, however, suggests the thymus gland is not nearly as expendable as experts once thought.

Although not all scientists agree on this.

In a study in 2023, US researchers found that those who get their thymus removed face an increased risk of death from any cause in the five years following the surgery.

New imaging technique measures single scramblase proteins, revealing lipid transport rates

A new single-protein analysis technique gives researchers an unprecedented ability to study proteins called scramblases, which have critical roles in biology. The development of the new technique, in a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine and Ruhr University Bochum in Germany, expands the toolkit available to cell biologists and biophysicists and could someday be useful in devising new strategies against multiple diseases.

Scramblases operate within cell membranes to rearrange the fat-related molecules, known as lipids, that make up those membranes. Their disruption of the usual layered organization of the membrane is essential for many important biological processes. In the study, published in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, the researchers developed a fluorescence imaging-based technique—the first of its kind—for measuring the activity rates of individual scramblase proteins. Their demonstrations of the technique uncovered new findings on key scramblases and showcased the technique’s broad applicability.

“I’m excited about this new platform as it is versatile and provides unprecedented information on exactly how fast a single scramblase works,” said study co-senior author Dr. Anant Menon, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at Weill Cornell Medicine.

Reliable Detection of SGLT2 Protein by Knockout-Based Antibody Characterization

BACKGROUND: SGLT2 (sodium-glucose cotransporter 2) mediates renal glucose reabsorption, and its pharmacological inhibition exerts cardio-and renoprotective benefits. Despite widespread clinical interest, reliable detection of SGLT2 protein remains challenging due to concerns regarding antibody specificity. METHODS: Eight commercially available anti-SGLT2 antibodies were evaluated by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting using kidneys and hearts from genetically engineered Sglt2-deficient mice and rats. Human kidney tissues, including renal cell carcinoma samples, were also examined. RESULTS: Among the antibodies tested, ab306558 and HPA041603 showed specific immunostaining in rodent kidneys, with minimal background in wild-type tissues and complete absence of staining in Sglt2-deficient samples. However, ab306558 was unsuitable for human samples because of nonspecific staining.

Autonomous Immunity Model of Aging And Disease

Aging involves a decline in physiological functions and increased disease susceptibility, with the immune system playing a pivotal role. Recent research reveals that nonimmune structural cells, such as fibroblasts, epithelial cells, and neurons, develop immune-like properties crucial for stress response and tissue integrity. However, with aging, these organized, nonimmune cells in multicellular organisms gradually lose their identity and organization. They may exhibit unicellular properties, acquire macrophage-like characteristics, or enter a state of senescence, contributing to chronic inflammation.

Interferon-Stimulated Genes and Immune Metabolites as Broad-Spectrum Biomarkers for Viral Infections

The type I interferon (IFN-I) response is a critical component of the immune defense against various viral pathogens, triggering the expression of hundreds of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs). These ISGs encode proteins with diverse antiviral functions, targeting various stages of viral replication and restricting infection spread. Beyond their antiviral functions, ISGs and associated immune metabolites have emerged as promising broad-spectrum biomarkers that can differentiate viral infections from other conditions. This review provides an overview of the diagnostic potential of ISGs at transcript and protein levels, as well as their immune metabolites. We focus on their clinical applications and the sensitivity and specificity of these biomarkers through receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis.

Brain circuit needed to incorporate new information may be linked to schizophrenia

One of the symptoms of schizophrenia is difficulty incorporating new information about the world. This can lead people with schizophrenia to struggle with making decisions and, eventually, to lose touch with reality.

MIT neuroscientists have now identified a gene mutation that appears to give rise to this type of difficulty. In a study of mice, the researchers found that the mutated gene impairs the function of a brain circuit that is responsible for updating beliefs based on new input.

This mutation, in a gene called grin2a, was originally identified in a large-scale screen of patients with schizophrenia. The new study suggests that drugs targeting this brain circuit could help with some of the cognitive impairments seen in people with schizophrenia.

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