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Category: biotech/medical – Page 119

Abstract: BreastCancer stem cells drive resistance to standard therapies in triple-negative breast cancer

Here, Qing Zhang & team show targeting kinesin family member KIF20A in vitro and in mice sensitizes stem-like TNBC cells to standard chemotherapy.

1Department of Pathology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.

2Department of Breast and Endocrine Surgery, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan.

3Jinfeng Laboratory, Chongqing, China.

4Quantitative Biomedical Research Center, Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.

AlphaFold Changed Science. After 5 Years, It’s Still Evolving

Until AlphaFold’s debut in November 2020, DeepMind had been best known for teaching an artificial intelligence to beat human champions at the ancient game of Go. Then it started playing something more serious, aiming its deep learning algorithms at one of the most difficult problems in modern science: protein folding. The result was AlphaFold2, a system capable of predicting the three-dimensional shape of proteins with atomic accuracy.

Its work culminated in the compilation of a database that now contains over 200 million predicted structures, essentially the entire known protein universe, and is used by nearly 3.5 million researchers in 190 countries around the world. The Nature article published in 2021 describing the algorithm has been cited 40,000 times to date. Last year, AlphaFold 3 arrived, extending the capabilities of artificial intelligence to DNA, RNA, and drugs. That transition is not without challenges—such as “structural hallucinations” in the disordered regions of proteins—but it marks a step toward the future.

To understand what the next five years holds for AlphaFold, WIRED spoke with Pushmeet Kohli, vice president of research at DeepMind and architect of its AI for Science division.

Dr. Edward Holland & Robert Dempsey — Co-Founders — Holland Foundation for Sight Restoration

Restoring Sight For Those In Need — Dr. Edward J. Holland, M.D. & Robert Dempsey — Co-Founders — Holland Foundation For Sight Restoration

Dr. Edward Holland is a world-renowned leader in corneal transplantation and severe ocular surface disease, and is the Co-Founder of the Holland Foundation for Sight Restoration (HFSR — https://www.hollandfoundationforsight… is a 501©(3) nonprofit organization, dedicated to transforming the lives of individuals affected by these conditions, including limbal stem cell deficiency (LSCD) – a rare and devastating condition that can result in chronic pain, profound vision loss, and blindness.

Through this HFSR initiative, Centers of Excellence (COEs) focused on the advanced sight restoration procedures of Ocular Surface Stem Cell Transplantation (OSST) are being launched across the country. As part of its mission, the foundation is also committed to broadening education and training so that more physicians nationwide can learn and implement The Cincinnati ProtocolTM for the management of these patients.

Dr. Holland is also the Director of Cornea Services at Cincinnati Eye Institute (https://www.cincinnatieye.com/doctors…) and Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Cincinnati (https://med.uc.edu/landing-pages/prof…).

Dr. Holland attended the Loyola-Stritch School of Medicine in Chicago and trained in Ophthalmology at the University of Minnesota. He completed a fellowship in cornea and external disease at the University of Iowa and then completed a second fellowship in ocular immunology at the National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland.

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Framework can improve Alzheimer’s treatment efficacy by tracking anti-Aβ therapy response

In the last few years, progress has been made in the fight against Alzheimer’s disease with a class of therapies called anti-amyloid antibodies (anti-Aβ). These monoclonal anti-Aβs are proteins made in a laboratory to stimulate the immune system to slow the progression of the disease by targeting amyloid plaques in the brain that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s.

Biomarkers, such as measures derived from PET scans that reflect amyloid plaques in the brain, were instrumental in FDA approval of anti-Aβ therapies, like lecanumab (Leqembi) and donanemab (Kisulna), and have been shown to reduce plaques in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients. Yet despite FDA approval, there is still a clinical need to better understand how to monitor the efficacy and safety of these treatments.

To this end, the Alzheimer’s Association convened a workgroup of scientists and clinicians with experience in Alzheimer’s disease, including clinical trials of anti-Aβ therapies and biomarkers, to propose a framework to characterize the response of patients receiving these treatments.

Nerve Damage Can Disrupt Immunity Across the Entire Body

Preclinical research from McGill University suggests that nerve injuries may lead to long-lasting changes in the immune system, and these effects appear to differ between males and females.

Nerve damage is relatively common and can result from stretching, pressure, or cuts. These injuries often cause lasting problems, including chronic pain. While the immune system usually plays a role in healing damaged tissue, new findings indicate that nerve injuries can interfere with immune activity throughout the entire body.

Blood samples taken from mice showed signs of widespread inflammation following nerve injury. Researchers were surprised to find that male and female mice responded in very different ways.

Text messages could be key to helping TB patients quit smoking, according to study

Tuberculosis (TB) patients who smoke will recover far more quickly if they can quit—and help could come from their mobile phones, according to new research.

As part of the trial, patients were sent encouraging and supportive text messages to see if it would help them to quit smoking more quickly.

The results, published in the JAMA, revealed that nearly three times the number of participants who received text messages quit smoking for six months, compared to participants receiving the standard printed information.

Frameshift and Copy Number Variants in SACS-Related Neuropathy

This study delineates the genetic and clinical spectrum of SACS-related inherited peripheral neuropathy/Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease in Japan, highlighting a higher prevalence of frameshift variants and a notable occurrence of entire SACS gene deletions.

Background and Objectives.

Key enzyme controls both weight gain and cholesterol levels in animal models

Obesity is a global epidemic and a major cause of morbidity and mortality because it increases the risk for comorbidities, including heart disease and fatty liver disease (MASLD). Rates of these disorders have risen as the world increasingly adopts energy-dense diets and sedentary lifestyles.

Nitric oxide is a gas molecule with pleiotropic actions in the body. These effects of nitric oxide are carried out through its binding to proteins. Too much or too little nitric oxide binding (to key proteins) causes disease.

In a study published in Science Signaling, a research team from University Hospitals and Case Western Reserve University discovered a novel enzyme (SCoR2) that removes nitric oxide from proteins controlling fat build up. Removal of nitric oxide turned on fat synthesis, establishing that SCoR2 is needed to make fat.

Neurovascular dynamics in the spinal cord from development to pathophysiology

The spinal cord vasculature in development and pathophysiology.

In brain, retina, and spinal cord the vasculature plays an active role as regulator of homeostasis and repair, but vascular cells adopt region-specific traits.

However, vascular organization and properties of spinal cord remain understudied.

Although it is assumed that spinal cord and brain neurovascular systems are built and function in the same way, the researchers challenge this view by examining specific properties underlying spinal cord vascular development, physiology, and pathology.

They highlight unique angioarchitecture and homeostatic mechanisms, and discuss how neurovascular disruption contributes to spinal disorders and regenerative failure after injury. https://sciencemission.com/Neurovascular-dynamics-in-the-sc

Ruiz de Almodóvar et al. review the unique properties of spinal cord vasculature and its interactions with neural tissue across development, physiology, and disease, highlighting future directions to address open questions in neurovascular biology and translation.

Continue reading “Neurovascular dynamics in the spinal cord from development to pathophysiology” | >

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