Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical – Page 574

Turning back the clock on aging immune systems: New treatment rejuvenates elderly defenses

🧬🔬🐁

The effects of aging on the immune system

The aging immune system is associated with reduced lymphopoiesis, increased inflammation, and myeloid diseases due to alterations in self-renewing HSCs. During childhood, bal-HSCs predominate, thereby facilitating lymphopoiesis and adaptive immune responses.

Age increases my-HSCs, which reduces lymphopoiesis and enhances myelopoiesis. Myeloid-HSC origin and possible interconversions are unclear; however, removing my-HSCs in aged mice may reverse the aging phenotype.

New Alzheimer’s treatment slows disease with nanoparticles

Alzheimer’s is the most common form of dementia, affecting an estimated 6.7 million people in the US. Researchers seeking an effective treatment for the affliction have, over the last 30 years, focused their efforts on a protein known as amyloid beta (A-beta), which form clumps in the brain.

These clumps of A-beta proteins attack nerve cells, resulting initially in short-term memory impairment and later in the loss of judgment, language and thought processes.

Other researchers have previously developed an antibody which can identify and attach itself to A-beta proteins and delay the progression of Alzheimer’s in patients with early-to-mild cognitive impairment by up to 36%.

Artificial Intelligence tool successfully predicts ventricular arrhythmia from standard heart tracings: Study

In a Leicester study that looked at whether artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to predict whether a person was at risk of a lethal heart rhythm, an AI tool correctly identified the condition 80 per cent of the time.

The findings of the study, led by Dr Joseph Barker working with Professor Andre Ng, Professor of Cardiac Electrophysiology and Head of Department of Cardiovascular Sciences at the University of Leicester and Consultant Cardiologist at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, have been published in the European Heart Journal-Digital Health.

Ventricular arrhythmia (VA) is a heart rhythm disturbance originating from the bottom chambers (ventricles) where the heart beats so fast that blood pressure drops which can rapidly lead to loss of consciousness and sudden death if not treated immediately.

Probiotic Therapy Shows Promise in Treating Autoimmune Diseases

Autoimmune diseases pose significant challenges in healthcare, affecting millions worldwide. Recent research has suggested a potential link between gut microbiota and autoimmune conditions, paving the way for innovative therapeutic approaches. A study published in BMC Medicine aimed to systematically review the efficacy of probiotic therapy in managing various autoimmune diseases. The study was conducted by Zeng L. and colleagues.

Autoimmune diseases, including fibromyalgia, psoriasis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), lupus nephritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, ulcerative colitis, and Crohn’s disease, result from dysregulation of the immune system. Genetic, environmental, and microbial factors, particularly gut microbiota, are implicated in their pathogenesis. Probiotics, defined as beneficial microorganisms that colonize the gut and modulate host immunity and metabolism, offer a promising avenue for treatment.

The study conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) evaluating the efficacy of probiotic therapy in autoimmune diseases. Researchers searched multiple databases for eligible trials up to June 2022 and assessed outcomes such as Disease Activity Score at 28 joints (DAS28), Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI), and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Measure (SLEDAI).

Scientists Find a Potential Treatment for a Bone Marrow Disorder

Fanconi anemia is rare genetic disorder that can be caused by changes in the sequence of one of at least 22 different genes. The disease can lead to a variety of symptoms including bone marrow failure, skeletal abnormalities, and increases the risk of cancer in patients. Scientists have long thought that the disease is due to problems with DNA that cause cell death, and disruptions in blood stem cells (also known as hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs), which are crucial for constantly replenishing the body’s supply of blood cells.

When protein-coding genes are expressed, the proteins they encode for start out as strings of amino acids, which have to be properly folded into a three-dimensional shape, or else serious problems can arise. Scientists have now determined that a buildup of miscoded proteins is actually a root cause of Fanconi anemia, and that a bile acid may be useful as a new treatment for the disorder. The research has been reported in Nature Communications.

Researchers Discover Key Metabolic Process Responsible for Rapid Immune Responses

Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) identified a key metabolite in cells that helps direct immune responses and explains at a single cell level why immune cells that most efficiently recognize pathogens, vaccines, or diseased cells grow and divide faster than other cells.

The findings also indicate that a better understanding of this metabolite and its role in immune response could improve the design of immunotherapies and create longer-lived responses against different types of cancer as well as enhance vaccine strategies. The findings were published online by the journal Science Immunology in a paper titled “Single-cell NAD(H) levels predict clonal lymphocyte expansion dynamics.”

Antigens are foreign substances that our immune system recognizes and responds to by producing more T and B cells. These cells each have unique receptors that recognize specific antigens and can respond appropriately, and they can “remember” and respond similarly when exposed to the same antigen again.