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Category: biotech/medical – Page 121

Adjuvant Chemotherapy for HR-Positive, ERBB2-Negative Breast Cancer

Adjuvant chemotherapy use almost doubled in premenopausal patients with node-positive tumors and with a low to intermediate genomic risk from 2019 to 2022 but decreased for patients with node-negative disease.

Question What are the patterns of adjuvant chemotherapy use for early-stage hormone receptor (HR)–positive, ERBB2-negative breast cancer by genomic risk and nodal status?

Findings In this cohort study of 504 937 women, adjuvant chemotherapy use nearly doubled in premenopausal patients with node-positive tumors and low or intermediate 21-gene recurrence score from 2019 to 2022 but decreased for women with node-negative disease.

Meaning The findings highlight the variability in genomic assay use to inform adjuvant systemic therapy recommendations in HR-positive, ERBB2-negative breast cancer.

Natural protein drug may slow neuron death linked to Alzheimer’s disease

Scientists at the University of Colorado Anschutz have discovered that while brain neuron changes, including cell loss, may begin in early life, a drug long-approved for other conditions might be repurposed to slow this damage, offering new hope for those with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other cognition issues.

The study was published today in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.

“This drug improved one measure of cognition and reduced a blood measure of neuron death in people with AD in a relatively short period of time in its first clinical trial,” said the study’s senior author Professor Huntington Potter, Ph.D., director of the University of Colorado Alzheimer’s and Cognition Center at CU Anschutz.

AI-based tool predicts future cardiovascular events in patients with angina

Reduced coronary blood flow, measured with an artificial intelligence-based imaging tool, predicted future cardiovascular events in patients with suspected stable coronary artery disease. These findings were presented at EACVI 2025, the congress of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging (EACVI).

Stable coronary artery disease (CAD) refers to the common syndrome of recurrent, transient episodes of chest symptoms, often manifesting as angina. Coronary computed tomography angiography (CCTA) is a noninvasive heart scan that is used as the first-line investigation for patients with suspected stable CAD.

AI tools and FFR-CT explained While CCTA clearly shows blockages in coronary arteries, it is limited in its ability to estimate reduced blood flow, which is necessary to diagnose angina. An artificial intelligence-based tool has been developed that analyzes CCTA images and provides an estimate of blood flow, termed CT-derived fractional flow reserve (FFR-CT).

Key phospholipid points to potential treatment for vascular dementia

A possible new treatment for impaired brain blood flow and related dementias is on the horizon. Research by scientists at the University of Vermont Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine provides novel insights into the mechanisms that regulate brain blood flow and highlights a potential therapeutic strategy to correct vascular dysfunction.

Their preclinical findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that adding a missing phospholipid back into a person’s circulatory system could restore normal brain blood flow and reduce symptoms of dementia.

“This discovery is a huge step forward in our efforts to prevent dementia and neurovascular diseases,” says principal investigator Osama Harraz, Ph.D., assistant professor of pharmacology at Larner College of Medicine.

Abstract: How can we improve the radiotherapy response?

Chao Wan & team show the mechanism by which gamma delta T cells mediate radioresistance, highlighting IL-17 signaling & CCL20 as potential targets for enhancing radiosensitivity:

The figure reflects tumor growth and survival for lung cancer-bearing mice.

1Cancer Center, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College and.

2Institute of Radiation Oncology, Union Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

3Hubei Key Laboratory of Precision Radiation Oncology, Wuhan, China.

Protein MCL1 links cancer cell survival and energy metabolism

A study by the Mildred Scheel Early Career Center group led by Dr. Mohamed Elgendy at the TUD Faculty of Medicine provides fundamental insights into cancer biology. Published in Nature Communications, the study shows for the first time that the protein MCL1 not only inhibits programmed cell death, but also plays a central role in tumor metabolism.

The researchers have succeeded in tracing two classic hallmarks of cancer—the evasion of apoptosis (a form of programmed cell death) and the dysregulation of energy metabolism—back to a common molecular mechanism.

The study focuses on the protein MCL1, which is strongly overexpressed in many tumor types and has previously been considered primarily an anti-apoptotic factor of the Bcl-2 protein family.

How an antiviral defense mechanism may lead to Alzheimer’s disease

One of the main proteins that contributes to Alzheimer’s disease is called phospho-tau (p-tau). When p-tau gets too many phosphate groups attached to it (a process called hyperphosphorylation), it starts to stick together and form clumps called “tangles” inside of brain nerve cells.

A new study by Mass General Brigham investigators shows that tau hyperphosphorylation may be a consequence of an antiviral response that protects the brain from infection. Results are published in Nature Neuroscience.

“As a geneticist, I always wondered why humans had evolved gene mutations predisposing to Alzheimer’s disease,” said senior author Rudolph Tanzi, Ph.D., Director of the McCance Center for Brain Health and Genetics and Aging Research Unit in the Mass General Brigham Department of Neurology.

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