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Psilocybin has antidepressant-like effects and can improve cognitive function in a rat model of depression induced by chronic stress, according to new research published in Psychedelic Medicine. The findings provide new insights into the potential therapeutic applications of psychedelic substances and highlight the need for further research in this area to fully comprehend the underlying mechanisms.

Psilocybin is a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in certain species of mushrooms, often referred to as “magic mushrooms” or “shrooms.” In recent years, there has been a growing interest in studying psilocybin and other psychedelics for their potential therapeutic effects. Psychedelics have shown promising rapid and persistent antidepressant effects in humans and animals. However, the exact mechanism behind these effects is not fully understood.

To investigate the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the antidepressant effects of psychedelics, the researchers used an appropriate animal model of depression. They chose a chronic stress-based model for greater translational value, as chronic stress is known to be a significant factor in depression. They specifically focused on female rats, as women are more susceptible to depression than men.

The lack of a universal platform for PROTAC development remains a major bottleneck. Here, the authors report modular DNA framework-based PROTACs (DbTACs) that enable precise control of the linker length and selective degradation of diverse targets in different cellular compartments using various warheads.

Researchers have used 3D nanotechnology to successfully grow human retinal cells, opening the door to a new way of treating age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness in the developed world.

In age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the macula, the part of the retina that controls sharp, straight-ahead vision, deteriorates and causes blurring in the central field of vision.

There are two types of AMD, ‘dry’ and ‘wet.’ Dry AMD is where the RPE cells in the macula break down, causing vision loss over time. It’s the most common type and mostly affects older people. In the rarer wet AMD, abnormal blood vessel growth into the macula causes fluid and blood leakage, damaging the retina and destruction of the RPE cells, leading to a rapid loss of vision.

On a rush-hour train or a crowded flight, you might draw your limbs in close, shrinking as people fill the space. As it turns out, living cells behave similarly in confinement, adjusting their size while growing alongside other cells in sheets of tissue.

John Devany, then a graduate student in the lab of biophysicist Margaret Gardel, had been studying epithelial monolayers—sheets of cells that form barriers in skin and coat internal organs —when he noticed something interesting about how the cells were dividing.

“The way people think about division is that a cell will grow to twice its size, divide, and repeat the cycle,” says Devany, the first author of the study, published in Developmental Cell. But in the epithelial tissue he was observing, division was proceeding as usual, but the daughter cells were ending up smaller than the mother. The team, collaborating with researchers from New York University, decided to investigate the mechanisms that control cell growth and cycle duration in tissue and discovered that the two processes are not directly coupled.

The results of the study, Nadim II, from the Spanish Lung Cancer Group (GECP), have been published in the “New England Journal of Medicine” and endorse the great benefit of chemo-immunotherapy with nivolumab before operating on lung tumours in stage 3.

Nivolumab is a type of monoclonal antibody therapy, which works by stimulating the immune system to kill cancer cells.

Lung Cancer Treatment Breakthrough In Spain Could Increase Survival Rates by 20%.

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Revolutionizing Cancer Research: The Power of Nanobiotechnology|Role of nanotechnology in Cancer.

#cancer #biotechnology #nanotechnology #nanobiotechnology #cancerbiology #cancerresearch #biology #molecularbiology #molelixirinformatics.

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There is typically no discomfort or sensation during the actual radiation treatment. Most pediatric patients have few, or very mild, side effects from proton therapy. If your child does experience any side effects, they can be managed with medications in most cases. Depending on your child’s diagnosis, treatments are usually given five days a week for a period of four to eight weeks.

The time spent actually delivering the protons to the tumor is about one minute, but a pediatric cancer treatment session can range from 20 to 90 minutes, depending on the patient’s needs. Sedation is available if needed to help keep your child still during the treatment. Most children are able to participate in normal activities before and after treatment.

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Researchers identified a tumor protein signature that predicts chemotherapy sensitivity and favorable clinical outcomes.

Every person starts as just one fertilized egg. By adulthood, that single cell has turned into roughly 37 trillion cells, many of which keep dividing to create the same amount of fresh human cells every few months.

But those cells have a formidable challenge. The average dividing cell must copy — perfectly — 3.2 billion base pairs of DNA, about once every 24 hours. The cell’s replication machinery does an amazing job of this, copying genetic material at a lickety-split pace of some 50 base pairs per second.