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Archive for the ‘health’ category: Page 14

Jul 14, 2024

Space Exploration: A Thriving Industry With Tangible Earthly Rewards

Posted by in categories: economics, education, health, law, space travel

Furthermore, the synergy between educational programs, cultural influences and the tangible benefits derived from space exploration not only enriches our present-day society but also ensures a legacy of continuous innovation and exploration. This ongoing engagement with space inspires future generations to look beyond our planetary boundaries and consider what might be possible in the broader cosmos.

Space exploration presents significant challenges, including costs, astronaut health risks and technological hurdles for interstellar travel. Ethical and legal considerations regarding space colonization, resource utilization and celestial environmental impact require careful consideration and international cooperation.

While Silicon Valley visionaries envision a future among the stars, other voices remind us of our responsibilities to Earth. These are not mutually exclusive goals. By leveraging advancements and opportunities from space exploration, we can better protect and enhance life on Earth. Through economic benefits, scientific advancement and social inspiration, space exploration remains a crucial endeavor for humanity, not as an escape from our problems, but as a way to expand our horizons and solve them on our home planet.

Jul 12, 2024

Frontiers: The current waste management system within the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) consists of a disposable diaper—

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health

The Maximum Absorbency Garment (MAG)—that collects urine and feces during extravehicular activities (EVAs) that last up to 8 h. Such exposure to waste for prolonged periods of time contributes to hygiene-related medical events, including urinary tract infections and gastrointestinal distress. Historically, prior to using the MAG, astronauts have limited their food intake or eaten a low-residue diet before embarking on physically demanding spacewalks, reducing their work performance index (WPI) and posing a health risk. Furthermore, the current 0.95 L In-suit Drink Bag (IDB) does not provide sufficient water for more frequent, longer-range spacewalks, which carry greater potential for contingency scenarios requiring extended time away from a vehicle.

Jul 12, 2024

NASA Thinks This Radical Mars Rocket Could Revolutionize Space Travel

Posted by in categories: health, space travel

NASA has invested $725,000 in a new rocket system that could solve one of the major obstacles standing in our way of sending humans to Mars: travel time.

With current technology, a round-trip to the red planet would take almost two years. For astronauts, spending that much time in spaceflight comes with big health risks.

They’d be exposed to high levels of solar and cosmic radiation, the harmful effects of zero-gravity, and a long period of isolation.

Jul 11, 2024

Liver Cancer: How Tackling a Protein Could Boost Immunotherapy Success

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health

This study presents a discovery in the fight against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) by identifying the protein Schlafen 11 (SLFN11) as a key factor influencing the effectiveness of immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs). Through comprehensive analysis using humanized orthotopic HCC mouse models and in vitro co-culture systems, the research unveils how SLFN11’s deficiency in tumor cells leads to an increase in C-C motif chemokine ligand 2 (CCL2) secretion. This phenomenon promotes the infiltration of immunosuppressive macrophages and leads to immune evasion. The study also showcases the therapeutic potential of blocking CCL2/CCR2 signaling to enhance the efficacy of ICIs in patients with low SLFN11 expression. These findings pave the way for future research to explore additional therapeutic targets within the immune landscape of HCC, offering hope for more effective treatments and improved patient outcomes.

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide, with advanced stages showing dismal survival rates due to limited treatment efficacy. The efforts to improve the situation have focused on immunotherapies, such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), though their success varies significantly among individuals due to the complex interplay of tumor growth and immune evasion within the tumor microenvironment (TME). Previous studies have hinted at the role of tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) and chemokines like CCL2 in the functional remodeling of TAMs. However, a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms driving immune evasion and therapy resistance in HCC has been lacking. This research proposes a solution by identifying SLFN11’s role in modulating the immune landscape of HCC, specifically its influence on macrophage polarization and CCL2 signaling. The outcome offers new avenues for enhancing ICI therapy effectiveness.

Continue reading “Liver Cancer: How Tackling a Protein Could Boost Immunotherapy Success” »

Jul 10, 2024

Nanoparticle-based delivery system could offer treatment for diabetics with rare insulin allergy

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, nanotechnology

Up to 3% of people with diabetes have an allergic reaction to insulin. A team at Forschungszentrum Jülich has now studied a method that could be used to deliver the active substance into the body in a masked form—in the form of tiny nanoparticles.

The insulin is only released in the target organ when the pH value deviates from the slightly alkaline environment in the blood. The molecular transport system could also serve as a platform for releasing other drugs in the body precisely at the target site.

It’s an old dream in pharmacy: To deliver an active ingredient to the exact place in the body where it is most needed—a cancer drug, for example, directly to the tumor tissue. This minimizes its side effects on other organs and ensures that it has its maximum effect at its target.

Jul 10, 2024

Whole exome sequencing analysis identifies genes for alcohol consumption

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing, genetics, health

Over the recent decades, comprehensive genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have indicated the potential influence of genetic factors on one’s alcohol consumption volume and identified over 100 related variants6,7. However, a predominant proportion of the identified variants are localized within noncoding regions, and their effect sizes tend to be small, making interpretation and identification of the causal gene challenging8. In addition, previous GWAS mainly utilized imputed genotype data, which only cover limited regions of the genome, and thus may have missed many potential genes. Furthermore, GWAS studies focused mainly on common variants, and few studies have investigated rare variants associated with alcohol consumption, which yield greater potential to interpret biological function and elucidate mechanisms9. Although there are studies that have attempted to leverage exome chip data to identify rare variants contributing to alcohol consumption, the sample size was small and limited regions of the whole exome were examined10.

The introduction of whole exome sequencing (WES) provides a great chance to overcome the limitations of previous genetic studies on alcohol consumption with a substantially larger amount of rare and ultra-rare protein-coding variants11,12,13. Collapsing of loss-of-function (LOF) variants helps estimate the effect direction of associated genes13,14. When combined with large-scale population cohorts with multi-modal phenotypic data, WES would greatly facilitate our understanding of the genetic underpinnings of alcohol consumption as well as its implication on physical and mental health6. However, to our knowledge, there have been few large-scale WES studies on alcohol consumption, let alone elucidating the potential implications of the identified genes10,15. Meanwhile, as indicated by a previous genome-wide association study, significant genetic associations existed between alcohol consumption and several body health phenotypes7. The application of phenome-wide analysis for alcohol-related genes can help extend and deepen our current comprehension of the association between alcohol consumption and human health.

Hence, aiming to refine the genetic architecture of alcohol consumption, we conduct an exome-wide association study (ExWAS) for alcohol consumption among 304,119 individuals from the UK Biobank (UKB). We also examine the rare-variant associations with genes reported by previous GWAS6,7,16,17. Finally, we provide biological insights into the identified genes via bioinformatics analyses and phenome-wide association analysis (PheWAS).

Jul 10, 2024

Putting the Brakes on Chronic Inflammation

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, neuroscience

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine discovered a previously unknown link between two key pathways that regulate the immune system in mammals — a finding that impacts our understanding of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). This family of disorders severely impacts the health and quality of life of more than 2 million people in the United States.

The immune system has many pathways to protect the body from infection, but sometimes an overactive immune response results in autoimmune diseases including IBD, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Interleukin-23 (IL-23) is one such immune factor that fights infections but is also implicated in many of these inflammatory diseases. However, it was unknown why IL-23 is sometimes beneficial, and other times becomes a driver of chronic disease.

In the study, published June 12 in Nature, the team found that IL-23 acts on group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3s), a family of immune cells that are a first line of defense in mucosal tissues such as the intestines and lungs. In response, ILC3s increase activity of CTLA-4, a key regulatory factor that prevents the immune system from attacking the body and beneficial gut microbiota. This interaction critically balances the pro-inflammatory effects IL-23 to maintain gut health, but is impaired in IBD.

Jul 10, 2024

Dr. Jeffrey DellaVolpe, MD — Saving Lives With Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Technology

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, health, military

Is Medical Director of the Adult Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Program at Methodist Hospital, San Antonio, Texas. He is also the Medical Director of the Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit at Methodist Healthcare System and the Texas IPS Critical Care Service Line (https://texasips.com/jeffrey-dellavol…). He also serves as chair of the Joint Society of Critical Care Medicine/Extracorporeal Life Support Organization Task Force and has created a platform for ECMO training and ECMO transport (https://ecmotransports.com/about/).

ECMO is a form of extracorporeal life support, providing prolonged cardiac and respiratory support to persons whose heart and lungs are unable to provide an adequate amount of oxygen, gas exchange or blood supply (perfusion) to sustain life.

Continue reading “Dr. Jeffrey DellaVolpe, MD — Saving Lives With Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Technology” »

Jul 9, 2024

Thomas Hartung and colleagues | The future of organoid intelligence | Frontiers Forum Deep Dive 2023

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, chemistry, computing, engineering, ethics, health, neuroscience, policy

Eexxeccellent.


Human brains outperform computers in many forms of processing and are far more energy efficient. What if we could harness their power in a new form of biological computing?

Continue reading “Thomas Hartung and colleagues | The future of organoid intelligence | Frontiers Forum Deep Dive 2023” »

Jul 9, 2024

MIT engineers find a way to protect microbes from extreme conditions

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, food, health

Microbes that are used for health, agricultural, or other applications need to be able to withstand extreme conditions, and ideally the manufacturing processes used to make tablets for long-term storage. MIT researchers have now developed a new way to make microbes hardy enough to withstand these extreme conditions.

Their method involves mixing bacteria with food and drug additives from a list of compounds that the FDA classifies as “generally regarded as safe.” The researchers identified formulations that help to stabilize several different types of microbes, including yeast and bacteria, and they showed that these formulations could withstand high temperatures, radiation, and industrial processing that can damage unprotected microbes.

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