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Semaglutide ameliorates osteoarthritis progression through a weight loss-independent metabolic restoration mechanism

Weight loss-independent mechanism to ameliorate osteoarthritis by semaglutide.

Occurrence and progression of osteoarthritis (OA) is linked to metabolic disorders but molecular mechanism is not clear.

The researchers in this study demonstrate chondroprotective effects of a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor (GLP-1R) agonist, semaglutide, in obesity-related osteoarthritis.

Mechanistically, these effects are independent of body weight loss and involve metabolic reprogramming of chondrocyte via the GLP-1R-AMPKPFKFB3 signaling axis. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission https://sciencemission.com/Semaglutide-ameliorates-osteoarthritis

Qin et al. demonstrated the chondroprotective effects of semaglutide in obesity-related osteoarthritis. Mechanistically, these effects are independent of body weight loss and involve metabolic reprogramming of chondrocyte via the GLP-1R-AMPK-PFKFB3 signaling axis.

Advancing the Manufacture of Patient Accessible Cell and Gene Therapies at Place-of-Care

A partnership involving a medical school, a non-profit organization, and a biotech company have formed a partnership for the development and manufacture of an accessible and commercially viable hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) manufacturing platform for diseases like sickle cell disease (SCD). The alliance combines Trenchant BioSystems’ technology for automating patient-specific cell and gene therapy (CGT) processes, the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School’s expertise on blood stem cell processes, and Caring Cross’s expertise in increasing patient access.

The collaboration will focus on developing a gene-modified stem cell manufacturing process with Trenchant’s AutoCell automated CGT manufacturing platform that is designed to be scalable and operate at place-of-care in an ISO class 7 environment to increase efficiencies and decrease costs.

A key reason Trenchant BioSystems’ automated CGT manufacturing platform was selected is its use of a microbubble separation approach as an alternative to immunomagnetic bead-based separation for stem cell gene therapies, point out officials at Caring Cross and Chan Medical School. In addition, AutoCell has a small footprint and significantly fewer facility requirements, important factors for lowering the cost of these therapies, adds Jon Ellis, CEO, Trenchant BioSystems.

Artemis II live updates: Crew enters high Earth orbit, NASA says they are in ‘great spirits’

Artemis II will make history, taking astronauts around the moon for the first time in more than 50 years. The four-person crew will launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, for a 10-day journey.

The trip will pave the way for future Artemis missions intended to eventually see astronauts set foot on the moon, and the building of a permanent lunar base.

Read more here about what you need to know regarding the Artemis II mission, including how long it will take, who the astronauts are and how to watch.

Lift off! Artemis II mission sends humans to the Moon — opening a new era of exploration

Hope, inspiration, and wonder. Making science fiction into reality. I salute all of the brave and brilliant people who have contributed to this vital mission. 3 An article on the Artemis II launch.

Four people are on their way to the Moon — for the first time since Apollo astronauts stepped off the lunar surface more than 50 years ago. They launched successfully this evening from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on NASA’s Artemis II mission, and, if everything goes to plan, they will travel farther from Earth than any human has before.

“Humanity’s next great voyage begins,” said NASA launch commentator Derrol Nail as the rocket cleared the launch tower.

The astronauts will now orbit Earth for about 24 hours to perform checks on their spacecraft, and then fire their rocket engines to set them on course for the Moon. The voyage there will take three days, the lunar surface growing ever larger in the capsule’s windows as they approach. On arrival, they will slingshot around the Moon’s far side, glimpsing lunar regions no human has ever seen by eye, and then make the three-day journey back home (see ‘Artemis II trajectory’).

Therapeutic, nasally delivered DNA vaccine fuses two genes to help fight tuberculosis

In a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, a research team at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reports developing a therapeutic intranasal (nose-delivered) DNA vaccine against tuberculosis (TB) that fuses two genes with the goal of directing the immune system to fight drug-tolerant bacterial “persisters” that can survive prolonged antibiotic therapy and contribute to disease relapse.

A scourge for at least the past 6,000 years, TB is estimated by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be a latent, symptom-free infection in about one-quarter of the world’s population, approximately 2 billion people. In 2024 alone, WHO reported that more than 10 million people worldwide developed active TB disease, with 1.2 million deaths recorded. This makes TB the leading cause of death from a single infectious disease.

In recent years, WHO has called for therapeutic vaccines that can be used alongside drug therapies to shorten TB treatment regimens and improve outcomes, particularly because long multidrug courses are difficult to complete, and drug-resistant TB strains continue to emerge. The vaccine described in the new Johns Hopkins study shows promise for meeting that need.

Gravitational waves suggest a ‘forbidden zone’ for stellar-origin black holes

An international team led by Monash University has uncovered evidence of a rare form of exploding star, helping to shed light on one of the most cataclysmic events in the universe. At the end of their lives, most massive stars collapse into black holes—objects with gravity so strong that not even light can escape.

Some very massive stars, however, are expected to become so hot that they are blown apart in a pair-instability supernova—an explosion so intense that the star is completely disrupted, leaving behind no black hole.

First predicted in the 1960s, pair-instability supernovae are challenging to distinguish from more common stellar explosions that leave behind black holes.

The neuroscience of hypocrisy points to a communication breakdown in the brain

Half of the participants received actual stimulation aimed at the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. The other half received a fake version of the treatment, known as a sham stimulation. After the procedure, all participants completed the same card game and judgment exercises.

The people who received the real brain stimulation showed a wider gap between their behavior and their judgments. By disrupting the normal function of the brain region, the researchers successfully made people more hypocritical. This proved that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex directly controls moral consistency.

These results suggest that moral consistency is not an automatic trait. It is a biological process that relies on the brain’s ability to sync up different types of information. “Our findings suggest that we should treat moral consistency like a skill that can be strengthened through deliberate decision making,” says senior author Hongwen Song of the University of Science and Technology of China.

Scientists find a new therapeutic target present on up to half of all tumors

For five decades, scientists have known about a notorious cancer-causing enzyme called SRC. But they always assumed it only appeared on the inside of cells, where it sent signals that fueled tumor growth and stayed hidden from the immune system. But now researchers at UC San Francisco have discovered that the SRC enzyme also appears like a flag on the surface of bladder, colorectal, breast, pancreatic and probably many other tumor cells.

As cancer cells furiously divide, they produce a lot of garbage. In healthy cells, the trash gets broken down. But in tumors, the recycling system gets overwhelmed, and the cells expel some of their trash. This pushes the SRC onto the surface of the cell, where it is visible to potential therapies, like antibodies.

Researchers targeted SRC with antibodies that carried radioactive payloads or summoned immune cells. This killed the cancer cells, shrinking tumors in mice. The new target could apply to up to half of all tumors.

AI search robot uses 3D maps and internet knowledge to find lost items

A robot that can locate lost items on command, the latest development at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), combines knowledge from the internet with a spatial map of its surroundings to efficiently find the objects being sought. The new robot from Prof. Angela Schoellig’s TUM Learning Systems and Robotics Lab looks like a broomstick on wheels with a camera mounted at the top. It is one of the first robots that not only integrates image understanding but also applies it to a clearly defined task.

To find a pair of glasses misplaced in the kitchen, for example, the robot has to look around and build a three-dimensional image of the room. The camera initially provides two-dimensional images, but these pixels also contain depth information. This creates a spatial map of the environment that is accurate to the centimeter and is constantly updated. A laptop also provides the robot with information about which objects are visible in the image and what significance they have for humans.

“We have taught the robot to understand its surroundings,” says Prof. Schoellig. The head of the Robotics Lab at the TUM Chair of Safety, Performance and Reliability for Learning Systems aims to develop robots that can navigate any environment independently. Humanoid robots working in factories or robots in care settings in private homes require this newly developed basic understanding, which, as Schoellig explains, “is important for all robots that move in spaces that are constantly changing.” A paper introducing the technology is published in the journal IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

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