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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2

‘Bugs delivering drugs’: A new approach to colorectal cancer treatment using common food-borne bacteria

Baylor University researchers have developed a novel approach to fight colorectal cancer, using modified bacteria as a courier to deliver potent cancer-killing proteins into tumor cells. Michael S. VanNieuwenhze, Ph.D., FRSC, University Distinguished Professor and chair of the Department of Biology, along with Baylor doctoral students and a colleague at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, have published their research in Cell Chemical Biology.

Colorectal cancers accounted for the second-most deaths caused by cancer in 2025, according to the National Cancer Institute, highlighting the importance of new strategies for therapy and treatment.

Building on growth in the use of bacteria as a tool in fighting cancer, VanNieuwenhze and his team attached saporin, a known cancer-killing toxin, to the surface Listeria monocytogenes, which delivers the toxin to tumor cells. Listeria, commonly recognized as a food-borne bacteria, can be modified for express therapeutic purposes while maintaining its ability to penetrate human cells—making it, VanNieuwenhze said, a particularly promising agent in the fight against colorectal cancer.

CSF Proteomic Profiles Associated With White Matter Integrity in Cognitively Normal Older Adults With and Without Amyloid Pathology

Background and ObjectivesIncreasing evidence indicates a potential role of white matter (WM) damage in the onset and progression of Alzheimer disease (AD). However, the biological processes underlying in vivo WM imaging biomarkers remain unclear. We…

New Pancreatic Cancer Treatment Wipes Out Tumors and Blocks Drug Resistance

A triple drug approach that blocks the KRAS pathway at three points eliminated pancreatic tumors and prevented resistance in mouse models.

Existing treatments for pancreatic cancer often stop working within a few months because tumors quickly develop resistance to the drugs. Researchers at Spain’s National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) report that they have prevented this resistance in animal studies by using a three-drug combination therapy.

The researchers say their findings “pave the way for the design of combined therapies that may improve survival,” although they caution that this progress will not immediately translate into new treatments for patients. Mariano Barbacid, head of the Experimental Oncology Group at CNIO, emphasizes that “we are not yet in a position to carry out clinical trials with this triple therapy.”

A 3D-printed swallowable robot could perform gastrointestinal procedures

Recent technological advances have opened new possibilities for the development of advanced medical devices, including tiny robots that can safely move inside the human body. Some of these systems could help to simplify complex medical procedures, including delicate surgeries and the targeted delivery of drugs to specific sites.

THE MINIMAX lab at University of Texas (UT) Austin specializes in the development of tiny robots for medical, environmental, and other applications. In a recent preprint paper on arXiv, researchers from this lab introduced a new 3Dprintable and magnetically steerable capsule robot that could potentially help to diagnose and treat some gastrointestinal (GI) conditions.

“My motivation for GI health monitoring is deeply personal,” Fangzhou Xia, director of the MINIMAX lab at UT Austin and senior author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “In 2022, when I was a postdoc at MIT, I experienced a severe GI medical episode involving repeated gallstone-induced bile duct blockage that ultimately required gallbladder removal surgery.

Researcher behind major Alzheimer’s breakthrough: this is my most important advice if you would like to avoid the incurable brain disease

In a lab at Aarhus University in Denmark, researchers have made a discovery that could rewrite textbooks on the severe and fatal Alzheimer’s brain disease. And the discovery once again emphasises that you can do a lot to lower your personal risk significantly.

Lp(a) Explained: Genetics, Risk, and What You Can Actually Do

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Nocturnal Hypertension and Prognosis in Patients of Very Advanced Age

RESEARCH ARTICLE: nocturnal hypertension and prognosis in patients of very advanced age.

BACKGROUND: Nocturnal blood pressure (BP) is a better predictor of health outcomes than office or daytime BP. However, the clinical significance of nocturnal hypertension in patients of very advanced age remains unexplored. We aimed to assess the association between nocturnal hypertension and composite cardiovascular outcomes in this population. METHODS: This was a prospective observational study including Japanese elderly outpatients aged ≥80 years. All patients underwent 24-hour ambulatory BP monitoring at baseline. Nocturnal hypertension was defined as nocturnal systolic BP ≥120 mm Hg or diastolic BP≥70 mm Hg. Daytime hypertension was defined as daytime systolic BP ≥135 mm Hg and diastolic BP ≥85 mm Hg.

Cell death’s ‘beautiful’ rings!

Over the past several decades, researchers have identified the genes and proteins in plants that initiate the cellular self-destruct sequence. During that time, they also found shared elements of this “resistome” at work in mammalian.

Plant nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat (NLR) immune receptors detect pathogen effectors and activate immunity. Coiled-coil NLRs (CNLs) form resistosomes as Ca2+-permeable channels in the plasma membrane (PM). However, the mechanism by which resistosomes activate cell death remains unclear.

The ring, which resembles a wreath or a necklace, the author said, is a combination of proteins that bind to a cell membrane and six channels that orient themselves to run through the membrane. The team made this discovery working with Arabidopsis and Nicotiana bethamaian, popular plant model systems, and a high resolution total internal reflection fluorescence microscope.

The authors show that the CNL SUPPRESSOR OF mkk1 mkk2 2 (SUMM2), unlike canonical CNLs that use a MADA motif to penetrate the PM, tethers to the PM through N-myristoylation, a common feature among many CNLs.

PM targeting via N-myristoylation is essential for SUMM2-induced cell death. Upon activation, SUMM2 promotes the association of the lipase-like proteins ENHANCED DISEASE SUSCEPTIBILITY 1 (EDS1) and PHYTOALEXIN DEFICIENT 4 (PAD4) with the helper NLR-ACTIVATED DISEASE RESISTANCE 1-LIKE 1 (ADR1-L1).

Active SUMM2 induces the clustering of multiple ADR1-L1 resistosomes into a ring-like assembly colocalized with the EDS1–PAD4 complex, and the EDS1–PAD4–ADR1 module is essential for SUMM2-activated cell death.

The finding invites new questions about what exactly the rings do and how they do it. The team’s current hypothesis is that the rings enable communication with nearby cells, sending inflammation signals that can help initiate cell death in a targeted way. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.

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