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Category: biotech/medical – Page 144

A breakthrough moment: Researchers discover new class of antibiotics

The last time a new class of antibiotics reached the market was nearly three decades ago—but that could soon change, thanks to a discovery by researchers at McMaster University.

A team led by researcher Gerry Wright has identified a strong candidate to challenge even some of the most drug-resistant bacteria on the planet: a called lariocidin. The findings were published in the journal Nature on March 26, 2025.

The discovery of the all-new class of antibiotics responds to a critical need for new antimicrobial medicines, as bacteria and other microorganisms evolve new ways to withstand existing drugs. This phenomenon is called antimicrobial resistance—or AMR—and it’s one of the top global public health threats, according to the World Health Organization.

Critical blood defense receptor CD163 mapped for first time

CD163 might not be the most exciting name in the world, but behind it lies one of the body’s most important defense receptors, which steps in when red blood cells break down and release harmful hemoglobin. Now, researchers at Aarhus University are the first in the world to have mapped how CD163 functions. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.

When infections such as malaria take hold in the body, can be severely affected and risk breaking down. When that happens, hemoglobin is released into the bloodstream, potentially causing oxidative damage.

The damage occurs because cells are exposed to reactive oxygen molecules, which form in the bloodstream when oxygen comes into contact with free hemoglobin. If the body is exposed to excessive , it can cause blood vessel damage, , inflammation, and in vital organs.

Quantum fiber optics in the brain enhance processing, may protect against degenerative diseases

The effects of quantum mechanics—the laws of physics that apply at exceedingly small scales—are extremely sensitive to disturbances. This is why quantum computers must be held at temperatures colder than outer space, and only very, very small objects, such as atoms and molecules, generally display quantum properties.

By quantum standards, are quite hostile environments: they’re warm and chaotic, and even their fundamental components—such as cells—are considered very large.

But a group of theoretical and experimental researchers has discovered a distinctly quantum effect in biology that survives these difficult conditions and may also present a way for the brain to protect itself from like Alzheimer’s.

Abstract: An innovative enabling whole-body PET imaging across several types of malignant tumors!

Lei Xia et al. report on a B7H3-targeting radiotracer for PET imaging of various malignant tumors and for non-invasive screening of B7H3 expression:

The figure shows dynamic PET imaging of selected organs using the radiolabled 68Ga-B7H3-BCH probe.

1Key laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education), Beijing Key Laboratory of Research, Investigation and Evaluation of Radiopharmaceuticals, NMPA Key Laboratory for Research and Evaluation of Radiopharmaceuticals (National Medical Products Administration), Department of Nuclear Medicine, Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Beijing, China and.

2Key Laboratory of Carcinogenesis and Translational Research (Ministry of Education, Beijing), Department of Pathology, Peking University Cancer Hospital and Institute, Beijing, China.

3Department of Nuclear Medicine, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, Guizhou, China.

US: Brain-to-speech breakthrough helps paralyzed people talk again

The key to this development is an AI-powered streaming method. By decoding brain signals directly from the motor cortex – the brain’s speech control center – the AI synthesizes audible speech almost instantly.

“Our streaming approach brings the same rapid speech decoding capacity of devices like Alexa and Siri to neuroprostheses,” said Gopala Anumanchipalli, co-principal investigator of the study.

Anumanchipalli added, “Using a similar type of algorithm, we found that we could decode neural data and, for the first time, enable near-synchronous voice streaming. The result is more naturalistic, fluent speech synthesis.”

Leveraging Preexisting Cardiovascular Data to Improve the Detection and Treatment of Hypertension: The NOTIFY-LVH Randomized Clinical Trial

From JAMA Cardiol ogy: A centralized, population health coordinator-led notification and clinical support pathway improved the initiation of antihypertensive therapy in patients with left ventricular hypertrophy.

Despite the recognition that poorly controlled hypertension leads to adverse cardiovascular events, there are often barriers in care systems that contribute to substandard recognition and treatment.19 Notably, prior work employing trained nonphysicians focused on closing gaps in cardiovascular disease management has yielded significant improvements in disease-specific metrics using remote, centralized interventions.20-25 Similarly, there is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of clinician-directed support systems—often in the form of “nudges”—that have made meaningful advances in a variety of clinical outcomes.26,27 Whether a methodologic approach combining clinician nudges with the support of trained nonphysicians can be applied to LVH-associated diseases—including hypertension—is unknown.

Accordingly, the NOTIFY-LVH pragmatic randomized clinical trial28 sought to determine whether potentially underutilized echocardiogram data could be leveraged to improve patient care by augmenting the traditional ambulatory care framework. Specifically, this study tested whether a centralized clinical support pathway targeting clinicians of patients with LVH on their prior echocardiograms would increase the rate of treatment for hypertension and the earlier diagnosis of LVH-associated diseases.

Re-engineering of acetyl coenzyme A metabolism prevents senescence in budding yeast

Although lifespan has long been the focus of ageing research, the need to enhance healthspan — the fraction of life spent in good health — is a more pressing societal need. Caloric restriction improves healthspan across eukaryotes but is unrealistic as a societal intervention. Here, we describe the rewiring of a highly conserved nutrient sensing system to prevent senescence onset and declining fitness in budding yeast even when aged on an unrestricted high glucose diet. We show that AMPK activation can prevent the onset of senescence by activating two pathways that remove excess acetyl coenzyme A from the cytoplasm into the mitochondria — the glyoxylate cycle and the carnitine shuttle. However, AMPK represses fatty acid synthesis from acetyl coenzyme A, which is critical for normal cellular function and growth. AMPK activation therefore has positive and negative effects during ageing. Combining AMPK activation with a point mutation in fatty acid synthesis enzyme Acc1 that prevents inhibition by AMPK (the A2A mutant) allows cells to maintain fitness late in life without reducing the mortality associated with advanced age. Our research shows that ageing in yeast is not intrinsically associated with loss of fitness, and that metabolic re-engineering allows high fitness to be preserved to the end of life.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Rapid, Efficient Method for Analyzing AAV Empty/Full Ratio

Adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a prominent method for delivering genes in vivo. Therapeutic delivery to target cells is achieved through full capsids containing the gene cargo. However, the presence of empty capsids in the AAV drug product can reduce therapeutic effectiveness, necessitating their detection at various stages of the AAV production process. Traditional methods for assessing the AAV empty/full (E/F) ratio are often slow, labor-intensive, and require significant optimization.

Consider a novel, rapid, and high-throughput approach for determining the AAV E/F ratio using Octet® Biolayer Interferometry (BLI) alongside Octet® AAVX Biosensors. This cutting-edge technique evaluates intact viral capsids and is perfect for screening both crude and purified samples, offering a quicker and more efficient workflow with results available in as little as 30 minutes.

Discover the advantages of this innovative method and enhance your AAV workflow by downloading the technical note.