Biology & Medicine News and Discussions

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Amid global shortage, study shows how to cut contrast dye use by 83%
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06- ... t-dye.html
by Jess Berthold, University of California, San Francisco

As a worldwide shortage of contrast dye for medical imaging continues, a new UC San Francisco research letter in JAMA quantified strategies medical facilities can employ to safely reduce dye use in computed tomography (CT) by up to 83%. CT is the most common use for the dye.

The three conservation strategies are weight-based (rather than fixed) dosing, reducing contrast dose while reducing tube voltage on scanners, and replacing contrast-enhanced CT with nonenhanced CT when it will minimally affect diagnostic accuracy.

That third strategy—forgoing the dye in some cases of CT when it would result in only small impact on diagnostic accuracy—yielded the most dramatic reduction of dye use: 78%.

"Contrast is essential in any situation where we need to assess the blood vessels—for example, for some trauma patients or those with a suspected acute gastrointestinal bleed—and it is also needed for evaluation of certain cancers, such as in the liver or pancreas," said senior study author Rebecca Smith-Bindman, MD, UCSF professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics.

"However, most CT scans are done for less specific indications such as abdominal pain in a patient with suspected appendicitis," Smith-Bindman added. "These can and should be done without contrast during the shortage, because the loss of information in these patients will be acceptable for most patients."
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Nanoparticle sensor can distinguish between viral and bacterial pneumonia
https://phys.org/news/2022-06-nanoparti ... erial.html
by Sarah McDonnell, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Many different types of bacteria and viruses can cause pneumonia, but there is no easy way to determine which microbe is causing a particular patient's illness. This uncertainty makes it harder for doctors to choose effective treatments because the antibiotics commonly used to treat bacterial pneumonia won't help patients with viral pneumonia. In addition, limiting the use of antibiotics is an important step toward curbing antibiotic resistance.

MIT researchers have now designed a sensor that can distinguish between viral and bacterial pneumonia infections, which they hope will help doctors to choose the appropriate treatment.

"The challenge is that there are a lot of different pathogens that can lead to different kinds of pneumonia, and even with the most extensive and advanced testing, the specific pathogen causing someone's disease can't be identified in about half of patients. And if you treat a viral pneumonia with antibiotics, then you could be contributing to antibiotic resistance, which is a big problem, and the patient won't get better," says Sangeeta Bhatia, the John and Dorothy Wilson Professor of Health Sciences and Technology and of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and a member of MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Institute for Medical Engineering and Science.
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Origami millirobots bring health care closer to precisely targeted drug delivery
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-06-ori ... isely.html
by Stanford University
If you've ever swallowed the same round tablet in hopes of curing everything from stomach cramps to headaches, you already know that medicines aren't always designed to treat precise pain points. While over-the-counter pills have cured many ailments for decades, biomedical researchers have only recently begun exploring ways to improve targeted drug delivery when treating more complicated medical conditions, like cardiovascular disease or cancer.

A promising innovation within this burgeoning area of biomedicine is the millirobot. These fingertip-sized robots are poised to become medicine's future lifesavers—to crawl, spin, and swim to enter narrow spaces on their mission to investigate inner workings or dispense medicines.
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Scientists make breakthrough in understanding serotonin receptors
https://phys.org/news/2022-06-scientist ... ptors.html
by Chen Na, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Serotonin (5-HT) is one of the main neurotransmitters in the human central nervous system and peripheral nervous system. It helps regulate appetite, memory, cognition and mood through serotonin receptors (5-HTR).

A group of international scientists recently made a breakthrough in understanding the structure and function of serotonin receptors. This is the first time researchers have reported the structures of the 5-HT4, 5-HT6, and 5-HT7 receptors, and resolved the structures of all 12 5-HT receptor subtypes.

The study was published online in Molecular Cell on June 16.

Researchers led by H. Eric Xu from the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with researchers from Zhejiang University and the University of Copenhagen, systematically revealed the structural basis for the recognition of serotonin receptor subtypes by the small-molecule ligands 5-HT and 5-CT. They also elucidated the molecular mechanism for the selective coupling of Gs and Gi proteins by serotonin receptors.
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Oral antiviral drug effective against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) identified
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06- ... atory.html
by Georgia State University

An oral antiviral drug that targets a key part of the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) polymerase and inhibits the synthesis of viral genetic material has been identified, a finding that could provide an effective treatment against RSV disease, according to researchers in the Center for Translational Antiviral Research at Georgia State University.

The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, identify AVG-388 as the lead drug candidate, which effectively blocks the activity of the viral RNA polymerase, an enzyme responsible for replication of the viral genome. RSV is a leading cause of lower respiratory infections in infants and immunocompromised individuals, but no efficient therapeutic exists. The virus caused an estimated 33.1 million cases worldwide in 2015 that required 3.2 million hospitalizations and resulted in 59,800 deaths.

Finding effective drugs to fight RSV has been challenging. Through mutations, RSV has escaped advanced candidate classes that prevent the virus from entering a cell. To overcome this issue, recent drug development efforts have focused on the viral RNA-dependent RNA polymerase complex of RSV because of the possible broader window of opportunity to fight the virus during viral genome replication and transcription.
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Small molecule transports iron in mice, human cells to treat some forms of anemia
https://phys.org/news/2022-06-small-mol ... human.html
by Liz Ahlberg Touchstone, University of Illinois Urbana Champaign

A natural small molecule derived from a cypress tree can transport iron in live mice and human cells lacking the protein that normally does the job, easing a buildup of iron in the liver and restoring hemoglobin and red blood cell production, a new study found.

Stemming from a collaboration between researchers at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and the University of Modena in Italy, the study demonstrated that the small molecule hinokitiol potentially could function as a "molecular prosthetic" when the iron-transporting protein ferroportin is missing or defective, offering a potential treatment path for ferroportin disease and certain kinds of anemia.

"This is a really striking demonstration in a whole animal model that an imperfect mimic of a missing protein can reestablish physiology, acting as a prosthesis on a molecular scale," said study co-leader Dr. Martin D. Burke, a professor of chemistry at Illinois and a member of the Carle Illinois College of Medicine, as well as a medical doctor. "The implications are really quite broad with respect to other diseases caused by loss of protein function."
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Researchers uncover brain waves related to social behavior
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06- ... avior.html
by Tohoku University
Researchers at Tohoku University and the University of Tokyo have discovered electrical wave patterns in the brain related to social behavior in mice. They also observed that mice showing signs of stress, depression, or autism lacked these brain waves.

The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and amygdala regions of the brain regulate our emotion, and undergo pathological changes when we experience psychiatric diseases. However, the detailed neuronal processes behind this remain unclear.

Takuya Sasaki from Tohoku University's Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences led a collaborative team who recorded electrical brain signals—so-called brain electrical waves—in the mPFC and amygdala areas of mice. They found that certain brain waves underwent pronounced variations when the mice interacted socially with one another. Specifically, brain waves at the frequency band of theta (4-7 Hz) and gamma (30-60 Hz) decreased and increased, respectively, during socializing.

When the same tests were applied to mice exhibiting poor social skills or symptoms of depression and autism, the brain waves were not present. Notably, artificially replicating social behavior-related brain waves by an optical and genetic manipulation technique in these pathological mouse models restored their ability to interact socially.
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Highly antibiotic resistant strain of MRSA that arose in pigs can jump to humans, scientists say
Tuesday 28 June 2022

A highly antibiotic resistant strain of MRSA that arose in pigs thanks to farming practices can jump to humans, scientists say.

The strain has become the dominant type of MRSA among livestock in Europe over the past 50 years but is now a growing cause of MRSA in humans.

Scientists have been increasingly worried about antibiotic resistance in recent years, and experts last year warned of a "hidden pandemic" following the COVID-19 crisis.

A new study found that the CC398 strain has maintained its antibiotic resistance over decades in pigs and other livestock and is capable of rapidly adapting to human hosts while maintaining that resistance.

"Historically high levels of antibiotic use (on pig farms) may have led to the evolution of this highly antibiotic resistant strain of MRSA," said Dr Gemma Murray, a lead author of the study published in eLife.

The results highlight the potential threat that this strain of MRSA poses to public health.
https://news.sky.com/story/highly-antib ... y-12641726
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weatheriscool
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Early research reveals how a single drug delivers twice the impact in fragile X
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06- ... agile.html
by Emily Boynton, University of Rochester Medical Center
Like many neurological diseases, there's a lot we don't understand about fragile X syndrome. But, after studying the disorder for several years, Lynne Maquat's lab knew two important things: the enzyme AKT, which plays a key role in cell growth and survival, and the quality control pathway known as NMD (nonsense-mediated mRNA decay), are both in overdrive in fragile X.

In a new study in the journal Molecular Cell, the team reveals how these two major players interact, highlighting a complex molecular dance that could inform the development of future treatments for fragile X syndrome.
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Highly effective memory B cells localized in the lungs
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06- ... lized.html
by Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale
How can we increase the efficacy of vaccines used to protect against viral respiratory diseases such as influenza and COVID-19? Scientists from Inserm, CNRS and Aix-Marseille Université at the Center of Immunology Marseille-Luminy are opening up new prospects in the field, with the triggering of memory B cells directly in the lungs looking to be a promising avenue. At present, the vaccines are administered intramuscularly and do not trigger the appearance of these cell populations. This research, which enhances fundamental knowledge in the field of immunology, has been published in the journal Immunity.

Memory B cells are immune cells produced primarily in the lymph nodes and spleen following infection. They persist for a long time in these regions and retain the memory of the infectious agent. If the body is confronted with the same agent in the future, these cells are immediately mobilized and rapidly reactivate the immune system for effective protection of the individual.

Following extensive research into these memory B cells, researchers discovered three years ago that they could also be localized in the lungs. The team led by Inserm researcher Mauro Gaya and his colleagues from the Center of Immunology Marseille-Luminy (AMU/CNRS/Inserm) and the Center for Immunophenomics (AMU/CNRS/Inserm) went further in order to describe the nature and functioning of this specific immune cell population.
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