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Category: biotech/medical – Page 5

Breast cancer remodels lymphatic vessels to accelerate its spread, research reveals

Breast cancer is able to modify the lymphatic vessels through which it travels to the draining lymph nodes. From there, it can then spread to other parts of the body. A new finding by Finnish researchers may help develop targeted therapies that could prevent this spread.

The findings have been published in Nature Communications.

The most dangerous feature of breast cancer is its ability to spread elsewhere in the body. Usually, the first sign of metastasis is that cancer cells are also found in the lymph nodes draining the tumor area. The first lymph nodes that cancer cells can reach via the lymphatic vessels are located in the armpit.

Extracellular Vesicles as Novel Biomarkers for Tumor Association in Intermediate-Risk Paraneoplastic Neurologic Syndromes

Class IV evidence that higher circulating blood levels of extracellular vesicles can distinguish between tumor-associated paraneoplastic neurologic syndrome (PNS) from suspected PNS without tumor.

Background and Objectives.

New bioadhesive strategy can prevent fibrous encapsulation around device implants on peripheral nerves

Peripheral nerves—the network connecting the brain, spinal cord, and central nervous system to the rest of the body—transmit sensory information, control muscle movements, and regulate automatic bodily functions. Bioelectronic devices implanted on these nerves offer remarkable potential for the treatment and rehabilitation of neurological and systemic diseases.

However, because the body perceives these implants as foreign objects, they often trigger the formation of dense fibrotic tissue at bioelectronic device–tissue interfaces, which can significantly compromise device performance and longevity.

Self-adapting fiber component tackles heat challenges in high-power fiber lasers

Thulium fiber lasers, operating at a wavelength of 2 micrometers, are valued for applications in medicine, materials processing, and defense. Their longer wavelength makes stray light less damaging compared to the more common ytterbium lasers at 1 micrometer.

Yet, despite this advantage, thulium lasers have been stuck at around 1 kilowatt of output power for more than a decade, limited by nonlinear effects and heat buildup. One promising route to break this barrier is inband pumping—switching from diode pumping at 793 nm to laser pumping at 1.9 µm. This approach improves efficiency and reduces heat, but it introduces new challenges for fiber components, especially the cladding light stripper (CLS).

The ‘silent’ brain cells that shape our behaviour, memory and health

Researchers peered through microscopes, hooked up electrodes, and built entire careers around one cell type: neurons. These electrically active cells were clearly the brain’s protagonists, zipping signals through our heads at lightning speed to create thoughts, memories, and movements. Everything else—especially the star-shaped cells called astrocytes that outnumber neurons—was dismissed as mere scaffolding. Glial cells, they were called: “glue.”

Inbal Goshen, a memory researcher at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, remembers feeling like an outsider when she started investigating astrocytes in the early 2010s. “Oh, that’s the weird one who works on astrocytes,” she imagined colleagues whispering at conferences. The skepticism was palpable. Yet new molecular tools had finally given her a way to peek into these mysterious cells, and what she found was too intriguing to ignore.

Unlike neurons, astrocytes don’t fire electrical signals. They were “electrically silent,” which is why they’d been ignored. But they were whispering in another language entirely: calcium. Using advanced imaging, researchers discovered that astrocytes communicate through slow, rhythmic waves of calcium signals—more like a gentle tide than neuron’s lightning strike. And their reach is astonishing: a single human astrocyte can touch up to two million synapses, the junctions where neurons meet. Their bushy tendrils fill every crevice of the brain, each cell nestling against neurons and blood vessels, creating an intimate, three-way relationship.

Memory research revealed another layer. Goshen’s team watched astrocytes in mice navigating toward water rewards. As the animals approached familiar prize locations, astrocyte activity slowly ramped up—but showed no response in new environments. The cells were encoding spatial memories, not just supporting them. Other labs found that astrocytes help stabilize and recall fear memories, their slow calcium signals perfectly suited to bridge the gap between learning something and remembering it days later. As neuroscientist Jun Nagai describes it, “Think of them as the brain’s long-exposure camera: they capture the trace of meaningful events that might otherwise fade too fast.”

Astrocytes make up one-quarter of the brain, but researchers are only now realizing their true value.

Pegcetacoplan—the ‘closest thing to a cure’ for rare, severe kidney disease

A rare and life-threatening kidney disease in children finally has an effective therapy, thanks in large part to pioneering research and clinical leadership from University of Iowa Health Care Stead Family Children’s Hospital.

The disease, known as C3 glomerulopathy (C3G), is an ultra-rare condition that primarily affects children and young adults. Only around 5,000 Americans have C3G, which causes progressive kidney damage, with more than half of patients reaching end-stage kidney failure within a decade of diagnosis.

Unlike previous treatments for C3G that aimed to alleviate the damaging inflammatory process of the disease, the new, first-of-its-kind drug directly targets the root cause of C3G dysfunction in the body’s complement system, a part of the immune response.

Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s in mice with new nanotechnology

face_with_colon_three nanomachines could also be used for aging control to prevent aging symptoms.

Scientists used a new nanotechnology strategy to reverse Alzheimer’s disease in mice by helping reduce amyloid-beta in the brain by 50–60%.

Abstract: 1 Institut de Neurociències, and

1 Institut de Neurociències, and.

2Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra, Barcelona Spain.

3Institute of Neuroscience, CSIC-UMH, Alicante, Spain.

4Neurodegenerative Diseases Research Group, Vall d’Hebron Research Institute-Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED), Barcelona, Spain.

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