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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2

Glass cells of atoms offer a new path to smarter, cheaper sensors

More accurate navigation systems and improved wireless communications may not come from traditional electronics, but rather from atoms. Researchers at Penn State and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have developed a new way to build tinier, smarter glass sensors filled with highly precise and stable atoms.

The team’s work, published this week (June 18) in Microsystems and Nanoengineering, centers on a manufacturable, silicon-free version of traditional bulky “vapor cells”—sealed chambers that contain cesium and rubidium atoms—that are commonly used in precision measurement systems, in a gas state. These atoms can act as highly precise sensors because, unlike manufactured components, atoms are fundamentally identical.

“Using atoms for sensing is advantageous because the physics of individual atoms is very well understood, and all the atoms are equal,” said Daniel Lopez, co-lead author of the paper, Liang Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at Penn State and director of the Nanofabrication Lab at the Materials Research Institute (MRI). “That gives you a level of precision that’s very hard to achieve with traditional microfabricated devices.”

Epidemiology of cardiovascular–kidney–metabolic syndrome

The cardiovascular–kidney–metabolic (CKM) syndrome paradigm is aimed at reflecting the complex interactions between chronic kidney disease, cardiovascular disease and metabolic dysfunction. Here, the authors discuss current CKM syndrome epidemiological data, examine key determinants of CKM health and consider the potential clinical implications and limitations of the CKM syndrome framework.

Sirtuin 1 Activation Mitigates Murine Vasculitis Severity by Promoting Mitophagy

BACKGROUND: SIRT1 (sirtuin 1), a nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide–dependent protein deacetylase.

Regulates cardiovascular inflammation by modulating cellular stress, inhibiting NLRP3.

(NLR family, pyrin domain-containing 3) activation, and promoting the clearance of.

Damaged mitochondria. However, its precise role in the pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease.

VR combined with nerve stimulation improves arm and hand function following a stroke

Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna and ETH Zurich have developed a rehabilitation platform for people suffering from the long-term effects of a stroke that combines virtual reality with targeted sensory nerve stimulation. In a randomized feasibility clinical study with stroke patients, recently published in Nature Medicine, the new technology contributed to improvements in arm and hand function, as well as in tactile and body awareness. These results open up the prospect of personalized and more accessible rehabilitation that can support patients’ recovery beyond the limits of conventional therapy.

Stroke is one of the leading causes of long-term disability worldwide. Even after intensive early physiotherapy, many stroke survivors continue to live with reduced arm and hand function, impaired sensation, and altered body awareness long after the initial event. While conventional rehabilitation can improve motor functions, it often focuses primarily on movement training; sensory deficits and body awareness are frequently given insufficient attention. There is therefore a need for more comprehensive rehabilitation strategies.

To address this need, a research team led by Stanisa Raspopovic (Center for Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering, MedUni Vienna) has developed “MultiSensy,” a rehabilitation platform for patients with arm and hand impairments following a stroke that combines immersive virtual reality with transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation. The system turns rehabilitation exercises into interactive virtual tasks designed to train specific arm and hand functions, including reaching, grasping, pinching and forearm rotation.

Survival outcomes and a prognostic nomogram in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer with leptomeningeal metastasis: a real-world cohort study

Leptomeningeal metastasis (LM) carries a poor prognosis in EGFR-mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This study aims to explore clinical features and survival outcomes and develop a nomogram for overall survival (OS) in this population.

We retrospectively enrolled 288 EGFR-mutant NSCLC patients with LM from Fujian Cancer Hospital (January 2019–March 2024). Prognostic variables were selected by LASSO regression followed by multivariable Cox proportional hazards modeling. Internal validation used 1000-iteration bootstrap resampling. Model performance was assessed by the time-dependent area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC), calibration plots, and decision curve analysis.

Median OS was 16.2 months. Before LM, 71.5% of patients received third-generation EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), and 76.7% received third-generation EGFR-TKI therapy after LM. Eight variables were identified by LASSO-Cox regression: ECOG performance status (PS), prior lines of systemic therapy, cranial MRI findings, third-generation EGFR-TKI therapy before and after LM, antiangiogenic therapy after LM, chemotherapy after LM, and CNS radiotherapy after LM. Post-LM third-generation EGFR-TKI therapy was the strongest treatment-associated prognostic factor (HR = 2.23; p 0.001), with survival benefit maintained regardless of prior third-generation EGFR-TKI exposure (prior-exposed: HR = 0.60, p = 0.029; TKI-naïve: HR = 0.18, p 0.001). The nomogram demonstrated good discrimination (AUC: 0.777, 0.778, and 0.742 for 6-, 12-, and 18-month OS; C-index: 0.716).

Bioresorbable implant electrically stimulates organs, nerves and muscles then vanishes after treatment

To treat or manage various heart, gastrointestinal and neurological conditions, including arrhythmias, heart block, gastroparesis, epilepsy and some nerve injuries, doctors rely on a technique known as electrical stimulation. Electrical stimulation entails the delivery of small electrical pulses to target locations to prompt the activation of nerves, muscles or organs.

Many existing approaches for delivering electrical stimulation rely on electronic devices that are permanently or temporarily implanted inside the body. These devices can sometimes fail, cause adverse effects and might need to be surgically removed.

Researchers at Northwestern University, Sungkyunkwan University and other institutes recently developed a new implantable and bioresorbable system that could be used to electrically stimulate specific organs, muscles or nerves inside the body. This stimulator, presented in a paper published in Nature Electronics, could gradually disappear after a treatment is complete, so it would not need to be surgically extracted.

The Role of NAD+ in Regenerative Medicine

The understanding of the molecular and cellular basis of aging has grown exponentially over recent years, and it is now accepted within the scientific community that aging is a malleable process; just as it can be accelerated, it can also be slowed and even reversed. This has far-reaching implications for our attitude and approach toward aging, presenting the opportunity to enter a new era of cellular regenerative medicine to not only manage the external signs of aging but also to develop therapies that support the body to repair and restore itself back to a state of internal well-being. A wealth of evidence now demonstrates that a decline in cellular nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is a feature of aging and may play a role in the process. NAD+ plays a pivotal role in cellular metabolism and is a co-substrate for enzymes that play key roles in pathways that modify aging.

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