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Summary: Tufts researchers have developed neurotransmitter-lipid hybrids that help transport therapeutic drugs and gene editing proteins across the blood-brain barrier in mice.

Source: Tufts University

Biomedical engineers at the Tufts University School of Engineering have developed tiny lipid-based nanoparticles that incorporate neurotranmitters to help carry drugs, large molecules, and even gene editing proteins across the blood-brain barrier and into the brain in mice. The innovation, published today in Science Advances, could overcome many of the current limitations encountered in delivering therapeutics into the central nervous system, and opens up the possibility of using a wide range of therapeutics that would otherwise not have access to the brain.

Ready for the latest recommended weekly reads in the world of stem cells and the regenerative medicine space including a bunch of important new FDA posts & changes?

This post has quite a lot on the FDA since it had a very big week with several new items of major importance to the cellular and regenerative medicine arena. I’ve linked to each announcement below with the agency’s title of the announcements. Underneath I provide some analysis and ask questions.

I’ve also included some other stem cell news and exciting papers too as usual, which I’ll start with here.

(Reuters) — Moderna Inc said on Sunday it has received an additional $472 million from the U.S. government’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support development of its novel coronavirus vaccine.

People often talk about sugar intake and health 🤔

Researchers have successfully increased cancer cells’ sensitivity to chemotherapy to prevent glucose from entering the cancer cell.

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have successfully increased cancer cells’ sensitivity to chemotherapy by preventing sugar uptake. Their study, “Targeting Glut1 In Acute Myeloid Leukemia To Overcome Cytarabine Resistance,” is published in Haematologica.

Continue reading “Reducing Sugar Uptake Increased Cancer Cells’ Sensitivity to Chemotherapy” »

Low levels of vitamin D may put people at risk for developing COVID-19, a new study by לאומית שירותי בריאות and the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine of Bar-Ilan University.

Vitamin D has long been understood to impact immune response. According to Dr. Milana Frenkel-Morgenstern, leader of the Azrieli Faculty of Medicine research group, as much as 70% of the adult population worldwide is vitamin D insufficient or deficient.

The Leumit and Bar-Ilan scientists analyzed if the risk of developing COVID-19 or becoming hospitalized because of it increases for people who have a low level of vitamin D.

Continue reading “Insufficient vitamin D increases risk of severe COVID-19, says new study” »

North Korea declared a state of emergency on Sunday after one person in the country was suspected of being positive for COVID-19.

On Sunday, local time, state news agency KCNA reported North Korean leader Kim Jong Un Kim Jong UnNorth Korea declares state of emergency due to a suspected COVID-19 case Pompeo downplays chance of summit with North Korea this year Juan Williams: Trump’s silence on Russian bounties betrays America MORE convened an emergency politburo meeting after a person who defected to South Korea three years ago was “suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus.” The person is reported have returned to the North Korean border city of Kaesong, Reuters reported.

Kim declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown in Kaesong, reportedly calling it a “critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country.”

The clues have been mounting for a while. First, scientists discovered patients who had recovered from infection with Covid-19, but mysteriously didn’t have any antibodies against it. Next it emerged that this might be the case for a significant number of people. Then came the finding that many of those who do develop antibodies seem to lose them again after just a few months.

In short, though antibodies have proved invaluable for tracking the spread of the pandemic, they might not have the leading role in immunity that we once thought. If we are going to acquire long-term protection, it looks increasingly like it might have to come from somewhere else.

But while the world has been preoccupied with antibodies, researchers have started to realise that there might be another form of immunity – one which, in some cases, has been lurking undetected in the body for years. An enigmatic type of white blood cell is gaining prominence. And though it hasn’t previously featured heavily in the public consciousness, it may well prove to be crucial in our fight against Covid-19. This could be the T cell’s big moment.

Continue reading “The people with hidden immunity against Covid-19” »

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — Hurricane Hanna roared ashore onto the Texas Gulf Coast on Saturday, bringing winds that lashed the shoreline with rain and storm surge, and even threatening to bring possible tornadoes to a part of the country trying to cope with a spike in coronavirus cases.

The first hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season made landfall twice as a Category 1 storm on Saturday afternoon within the span of little over an hour. The first landfall happened at around 5 p.m. about 15 miles (24 kilometers) north of Port Mansfield, which is about 130 miles (209 km) south of Corpus Christi. The second landfall took place nearby in eastern Kenedy County. Hanna had come ashore with maximum sustained winds of 90 mph (145 kph). As of Saturday night, those winds had weakened to 75 mph (120 kph).

Many parts of Texas, including areas near where Hanna came ashore, have been dealing with a surge in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, but local officials said they were prepared for whatever the storm might bring.

University of Rochester researchers are setting a new standard when it comes to producing ultrafast laser pulses over a broader range of wavelengths than traditional laser sources.

In work published in Physical Review Letters, William Renninger, an assistant professor of optics, along with members of his lab, describe a new device, called the “stretched-pulse soliton Kerr resonator,” that enhances the performance of ultrafast laser pulses. The work has important implications for a range of engineering and biomedical applications, including spectroscopy, frequency synthesis, distance ranging, pulse generation, and others.

The device creates an ultrafast laser pulse—on the order of femtoseconds, or one quadrillionth of a second—that’s freed from the physical limits endemic to sources of laser light—what laser scientists call laser gain—and the limits of the sources’ wavelengths.