July 2024

Oligodendrocytes are an important source of amyloid beta (Aβ) and play a key role in promoting neuronal dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), according to a study published July 23, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Rikesh Rajani and Marc Aurel Busche from the UK Dementia Research Institute at University College London, and colleagues….

USC scientists have discovered a way to turn the body’s B cells into tiny surveillance machines and antibody factories that can pump out specially designed antibodies to destroy cancer cells or HIV, two of medicine’s most formidable foes. The research, published today in Nature Biomedical Engineering, describes a technique for editing the genes of immune…

Newly published research from the University of Houston College of Pharmacy identifies key mechanisms of skeletal muscle regeneration and growth of muscles following resistance exercise. It’s a finding that opens the door to the development of targeted therapies for various muscle disorders, like Muscular Dystrophy, which affect millions of people worldwide. When it comes to…

When it comes to helping patients with high blood pressure get their hypertension under control, a new Tulane University study finds that pharmacists and community health workers have the best success rates. The study, published in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, analyzed data from 100 hypertension trials around the world and compared blood pressure reductions…

Would it be desirable for artificial intelligence to develop consciousness? Not really, for a variety of reasons, according to Dr. Wanja Wiese from the Institute of Philosophy II at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany. In an essay, he examines the conditions that must be met for consciousness to exist and compares brains with computers. He has…

Irish scientists led by a group from Trinity College Dublin have discovered how the dangerous Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) defuses our immune response and, in doing so, they have pinpointed an exciting new target for drug developers. RSV causes a significant disease burden in the global population, with an estimated 33.1 million cases each year,…

Amyloid-beta (A-beta) aggregates are tangles of proteins most notably associated with neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Despite its constant stint in the limelight, however, researchers have been unable to get a good understanding of how A-beta comes together and breaks apart. “The way A-beta behaves in a variety of environments, including the human brain, is elusive,”…

Researcher Samantha Boch has studied the impact of incarceration on child and family health for more than a decade. Her latest research examines the health records and health care use of youth, individuals under age 21, who likely have been involved or whose families have been involved in the justice system. The challenge was identifying…

Understanding how soft materials fail under stress is critical for solving engineering challenges as disparate as pharmaceutical technology and landslide prevention. A new study linking a spectrum of soft material behaviors — previously thought to be unrelated — led researchers to identify a new parameter they call the brittility factor, which allows them to simplify…

Ever hear the old adage that time flies when you’re having fun? A new study by a team of UNLV researchers suggests that there’s a lot of truth to the trope. Many people think of their brains as being intrinsically synced to the human-made clocks on their electronic devices, counting time in very specific, minute-by-minute…

The recent U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of lifileucel, the first commercial tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapy for advanced melanoma, marks a significant breakthrough in cancer therapy. In a new commentary published in Cancer Cell, Moffitt Cancer Center scientists provide a comprehensive overview of the therapy’s development and highlight its transformative potential. “TIL therapy represents…

In a study of several thousand companies in England, mental health training for line managers was associated with organizational-level benefits, including lower levels of long-term mental health-related sickness absence and better business performance, customer service, and staff recruitment and retention. The project was led by Professor Holly Blake of the University of Nottingham and Dr….

Tackling brain cancer is complicated, but groundbreaking new research could help add another tool to the cancer-fighting arsenal. A team from Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech published a paper in APL Bioengineering in May that explores a new option that could one day be used to target glioblastoma, a deadly and fast-growing brain tumor. Supported…

Researchers at the University of Arizona Health Sciences identified a new way to make opioids safer, increasing the pain-relieving properties of opioids while decreasing unwanted side effects through the spinal inhibition of a Heat shock protein 90 isoform. Opioids are the gold standard of chronic pain treatment, but they come with a host of negative…

Siblings of autistic children have a 20% chance of being autistic themselves — about seven times higher than the rate in infants with no autistic siblings. That’s the key finding of a new paper by UC Davis MIND Institute researcher Sally Ozonoff and the Baby Siblings Research Consortium. The consortium is a collection of more…

American diets may have gotten healthier and more diverse in the months following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new study led by Penn State researchers. The study — published in PLOS ONE — found that as states responded to the pandemic with school closures and other lockdown measures, citizens’ diet quality…