Cell death plays an important role in normal human development and health but requires tightly orchestrated balance to avert disease. Too much can trigger a massive inflammatory immune response that damages tissues and organs. Not enough can interfere with the body's ability to fight infection or lead to cancer.
Zhigao Wang, Ph.D., associate professor of cardiovascular sciences at the University of South Florida Health (USF Health) Morsani College of Medicine, studies the complex molecular processes underlying necroptosis, which combines characteristics of apoptosis (regulated or programmed cell death) and necrosis (unregulated cell death).
During necroptosis dying cells rupture and release their contents. This sends out alarm signals to the immune system, triggering immune cells to fight infection or limit injury. Excessive necroptosis can be a problem in some diseases like stroke or heart attack, when cells die from inadequate blood supply, or in severe COVID-19, when an extreme response to infection causes organ damage or even death.
Scientists have obtained the first high-resolution 3D image of nebulin, a giant actin-binding protein that is an essential component of skeletal muscle. This discovery has brought to light the chance to better understand the role of nebulin, as its functions have remained largely nebulous due to its large size and the difficulty in extracting nebulin in a native state from muscle. The team of Max Planck researchers, led by Stefan Raunser, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Physiology in Dortmund, in collaboration with Mathias Gautel at King's College London, used electron cryo-tomography to decipher the structure of nebulin in impressive detail. Their findings could lead to novel therapeutic approaches to treat muscular diseases, as genetic mutations in nebulin are accompanied by a dramatic loss in muscle force known as nemaline myopathy.
Skeletal and heart muscles contract and relax upon sliding of parallel filaments of the proteins myosin and actin. Nebulin, another long slender protein, which is present only in skeletal muscle, pairs up with actin, stabilizing and regulating it. Mutations in the gene encoding nebulin can produce an abnormal nebulin that causes nemaline myopathy, an incurable neuromuscular disorder with various degrees of severity, from muscle weakness to speech impediments and respiratory problems.
Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new radio-labeled molecule capable of selectively reacting with certain high-energy radicals that are characteristic of innate immune activity, which may allow a non-invasive approach to monitor inflammation in real time by positron emission tomography (PET) imaging.
The preclinical study, published today in Nature Biotechnology, takes advantage of new chemistry techniques to synthesize 4-[18F]Fluoro-1-Naphthol ([18F]4FN) as a novel reporter of myeloperoxidase (MPO) activity—a key enzyme active in the innate immune response. The molecule may be able to pinpoint areas of inflammation in a variety of clinical settings, such as inflammatory diseases, infections and immunotherapy-related side effects.
"There has been a long-standing interest in imaging inflammation and redox in general, but most current approaches generate high levels of background noise from biological processes that generate lower-energy radicals," said corresponding author David Piwnica-Worms, M.D., Ph.D., chair of Cancer Systems Imaging. "Our molecule is tuned toward inflammation mediated by high-energy radicals, offering the potential to selectively monitor activation of innate immunity."
The innate immune response is the body's first line of defense against invading pathogens. In contrast to the adaptive immune response, innate immunity is nonspecific and acts broadly against infections or foreign agents. Innate immunity is largely driven by myeloid cells, including neutrophils, macrophages and natural killer (NK) cells.
Researchers at Australia's national science agency, CSIRO, have developed a technique that addresses the challenge of transporting temperature-dependent vaccines, which researchers hope may increase access in rural and remote communities in Australia and developing countries.
The World Health Organisation estimates that at least 50 percent of vaccines are wasted globally each year, with a lack of facilities and temperature control the major cause.
Recently published in Acta Biomaterialia, CSIRO researchers encapsulated live virus vaccines with a dissolvable crystalline material called MOFs (metal organic frameworks), which protected the integrity of the vaccines for up to 12 weeks and at temperatures as high as 37 degrees Celsius. Without refrigeration the vaccines would otherwise last only a few days.
CSIRO scientist and immunologist, Dr. Daniel Layton, said the breakthrough science would now focus on proving the approach for other animal and human vaccines, including mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
"Vaccination is undoubtedly one of the most effective medical interventions, saving millions of lives each year, however delivering vaccines, particularly to developing countries, is challenging because they often lack the cold storage supply chains required to keep the vaccine viable," Dr. Layton said.
Autoimmune diseases are triggered when the immune system malfunctions and attacks the body's own structures. Although there is not, as yet, any cure for such diseases, their progression can be slowed down by therapeutic measures. Researchers at MedUni Vienna's Center for Physiology and Pharmacology have now discovered a central signaling pathway in immune cells that may help in the development of a new therapeutic approach. Their study was recently published in the journal Cell Reports.
The immune system protects the body from infections of all kinds and is designed to distinguish between foreign threats and the body's own tissues. T cells, which are deployed at the command of other immune cells, the dendritic cells, are an important component of the immune system. The dendritic cells are not only responsible for activating the T cells but also for deactivating them—primarily to prevent them from attacking the body's own tissues. This mechanism, known as immunotolerance, is the key to the current treatments for autoimmune diseases, whereby certain pharmaceutical agents (JAK inhibitors) are used. The aim is to inhibit T-cell activity against endogenous structures, so as to slow down the progression of the autoimmune disease.
During periods of extreme heat, clinicians should expect to see an increase in patients requiring mental health services, according to a new study led by Boston University School of Public Health researchers.
Published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, the study found that days with higher-than-normal temperatures during the summer season in the United States were associated with increased rates of emergency department (ED) visits for any mental health-related condition, particularly substance use, anxiety and stress disorders, and mood disorders.
The impact of heat on physical health is well documented, but few studies have examined the effects of extreme heat on mental health. This nationwide study is the largest and most comprehensive analysis of daily ambient temperature and mental health-related ED visits among US adults of all ages. As days of extreme heat are expected to increase due to worsening climate change, the findings fill a critical gap in research and provide evidence-based support for proactive interventions and policy solutions that can reduce heat-related crises.
"Emergency department visits represent some of the costliest interactions within the healthcare system," says study lead author Dr. Amruta Nori-Sarma, assistant professor of environmental health at BUSPH. "Addressing the needs of the most vulnerable to preempt some of these visits can have a positive impact on individual health and costs, as well as preserve healthcare resources for other emergencies."
Has eating meat become unfairly demonized as bad for your health? That's the question a global, multidisciplinary team of researchers has been studying and the results are in—eating meat still offers important benefits for overall human health and life expectancy.
Study author, University of Adelaide researcher in biomedicine Dr. Wenpeng You, says humans have evolved and thrived over millions of years because of their significant consumption of meat.
"We wanted to look more closely at research that has thrown a negative spotlight on meat consumption in the human diet," Dr. You says.
"Looking only at correlations of meat consumption with people's health or life expectancy within a particular group, and or, a particular region or country, can lead to complex and misleading conclusions.
"Our team broadly analyzed the correlations between meat eating and life expectancy, and child mortality, at global and regional levels, minimizing the study bias, and making our conclusion more representative of the general health effects of meat eating."
Published in the International Journal of General Medicine today, the study examined the overall health effects of total meat consumption in 170+ countries around the world.
Bioprinting is widely applicable to develop tissue engineering scaffolds and form tissue models in the lab. Materials scientists use this method to construct complex 3D structures based on different polymers and hydrogels; however, relatively low resolution and long fabrication times can result in limited procedures for cell-based applications.
In a new report now available in Nature Asia Materials, Byungjun Lee and a team of scientists in mechanical engineering at Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea, presented a 3D hybrid-micromesh assisted bioprinting method (Hy-MAP) to combine digital light projection, 3D printed micromesh scaffold sutures, together with sequential hydrogel patterning. The new method of bioprinting offered rapid cell co-culture via several methods including injection, dipping and draining. The work can promote the construction of mesoscale complex 3D hydrogel structures across 2D microfluidic channels to 3D channel networks.
Lee et al. established the design rules for Hy-MAP printing via analytical and experimental investigations. The new method can provide an alternative technique to develop mesoscale implantable tissue engineering constructs for organ-on-a-chip applications.
Jimi Olaghere thought he would have to wait decades to be freed from his sickle cell disease - but now scientists have engineered his blood to overcome the disease which left him in constant pain.
"It's like being born again," says Jimi, one of the first seven sickle cell patients to have benefited from a revolutionary new gene-editing treatment being trialled in the US. He says it has changed his life.
"When I look back, it's like, 'Wow, I can't believe I lived with that.'"
Jimi, 36, has lived with sickle cell since childhood. "You always have to be in a war mindset, knowing that your days are going to be filled with challenges."
The disease runs in families. It is caused by a genetic mutation that leads to the body making abnormal haemoglobin. This is the protein that is packed into red blood cells and carries oxygen around the body. Red blood cells are normally round and squishy, but mutated haemoglobin can make them rigid and take on their characteristic sickle shape.
And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future
UCLA researchers have developed a unique design of ultrathin films for highly flexible yet mechanically robust bioelectronic membranes that could pave the way for diagnostic on-skin sensors that fit precisely over the body's contours and conform to its movements.
Science recently published a paper describing the research co-led by Xiangfeng Duan, professor of chemistry and biochemistry; and Yu Huang, professor and chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.
