Biology & Medicine News and Discussions

weatheriscool
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Researchers identify important factors for regulating the body's immune response

by Christina Griffiths, Indiana University School of Medicine
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06- ... ponse.html
Researchers at Indiana University School of Medicine are learning more about how special regulatory T cells can impact the immune system's response and how those cells could be manipulated for potential treatments for food allergies and autoimmune diseases.

In a study recently published in Science Immunology, researchers focused on regulatory T cells, or Treg cells, that regulate immune responses in the body and keep the immune system in order while fighting pathogens. In some cases, the immune system becomes overly responsive, leading to autoimmune diseases, such as Type 1 diabetes or lupus, food allergies or other issues. Researchers were able to identify the differences in isoforms that control Treg cells and how that affects the body's immune function.

"There is a particular gene that controls this regulatory group of T cells, which controls immune response," said Baohua Zhou, Ph.D., lead author of the study and associate professor of pediatrics for IU School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics. "Treg cells can help maintain the right balance to help the immune system not respond too strongly or too weakly."
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Cancer drug shows potential as treatment for muscular dystrophy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06- ... cular.html
by University of British Columbia
Researchers at the University of British Columbia's School of Biomedical Engineering have discovered that an existing cancer drug could have potential as a treatment for muscular dystrophy.

The researchers found that the drug—known as a colony-stimulating factor 1 receptor (CSF1R) inhibitor—helped slow the progress of Duchenne muscular dystrophy in mice by increasing the resiliency of muscle fibers.

The findings were published today in Science Translational Medicine.

"This is a class of drug that is already being used in clinical trials to treat rare forms of cancer," says Dr. Farshad Babaeijandaghi, a postdoctoral fellow at UBC and first author on the study. "To find that it could potentially serve a double purpose as a treatment for muscular dystrophy is incredibly exciting. It shows a lot of promise, and with further testing, could help extend and improve quality of life for patients."

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a severe genetic disorder that leads to progressive muscle weakness and degeneration due to disruptions to the protein dystrophin, which helps keep muscle cells intact. It is the most common congenital disease in Canada, affecting about one out of every 3,500 males, and in rarer cases, females.
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New universal flu vaccine offers broad protection against influenza A virus infections, researchers find
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-07- ... uenza.html
by Georgia State University
A new universal flu vaccine constructed with key parts of the influenza virus offers broad cross protection against different strains and subtypes of influenza A viruses in young and aged populations, according to a new study by researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University.

The researchers developed the universal flu vaccine by genetically linking two highly conserved (relatively unchanged over time) portions of the virus—the extracellular domain of matrix 2 (M2e) and the stalk protein found in influenza A H3N2 viruses. The findings, published in the journal npj Vaccines, show that M2e-stalk protein vaccination induced broad protection against different influenza virus strains and subtypes by universal vaccine-mediated immunity in adult and aged mice.

Scientists have faced obstacles in the development of effective vaccines for influenza viruses because the head portion of the influenza virus is constantly changing. When comparing the H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses, particular challenges exist in H3N2 subtypes because of stalk mutations in circulating strains and the unstable structure of stalk proteins for H3N2 viruses. These drawbacks have been difficult to overcome in developing effective H3 stalk-based vaccines.

Vaccine effectiveness against H3N2 was low during the past decade, only about 33 percent, and dropped to 6 percent during the 2014–2015 flu season. New mutations of H3N2 variants emerged with increased virulence. Also, the outbreak of H7N9, another influenza A subtype, caused concern for potential pandemics. Therefore, developing an effective vaccine to protect against these viruses is a high priority.
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
weatheriscool
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his soft, electronic ‘nerve cooler’ could be a new way to relieve pain
The device uses evaporative cooling to block pain signals, experiments in rats suggest
a flexible clear implant with a wavy design in the center, held up by tweezers
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/ner ... ic-implant
This flexible, dissolvable implant relieves pain by using evaporative cooling on nerves.

Northwestern University

By Meghan Rosen

June 30, 2022 at 2:00 pm

A flexible electronic implant could one day make pain management a lot more chill.

Created from materials that dissolve in the body, the device encircles nerves with an evaporative cooler. Implanted in rats, the cooler blocked pain signals from zipping up to the brain, bioengineer John Rogers and colleagues report in the July 1 Science.

Though far from ready for human use, a future version could potentially let “patients dial up or down the pain relief they need at any given moment,” says Rogers, of Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.
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Development of new biomaterial with super strength inspired by limpets
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-biomateri ... mpets.html
by University of Portsmouth
An interdisciplinary team of biologists, chemists and engineers from the University of Portsmouth have become the first to successfully grow a limpet inspired biomaterial with extreme strength.

The small aquatic snail-like mollusks use a tongue bristling with tiny microscopic teeth to scrape food off rocks and into their mouths. These teeth contain a hard yet flexible composite, which in 2015 was found to be the strongest known biologically occurring material, far stronger than spider silk and comparable to man-made substances, including carbon fiber and Kevlar.

The team has now successfully mimicked limpet tooth formation in a laboratory and used it to create a new composite biomaterial. The study, published today in the journal Nature Communications, suggests it has the potential to be upscaled into something that could rival the strength and flexibility of synthetics, but be disposed of without generating harmful waste products.

Lead author Dr. Robin Rumney, from the University's School of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, said, "Fully synthetic composites like Kevlar are widely used, but the manufacturing processes can be toxic, the materials difficult and expensive to recycle.

"Here we have a material which potentially is much more sustainable in terms of how it's sourced and made, and at the end of its life can be biodegraded."
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caltrek
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Don't mourn, organize.

-Joe Hill
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Universal influenza B vaccine induces broad, sustained protection, researchers find

by Georgia State University
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-07- ... ained.html
A new universal flu vaccine protects against influenza B viruses, offering broad defense against different strains and improved immune protection, according to a new study by researchers in the Institute for Biomedical Sciences at Georgia State University.

The double-layered protein nanoparticle vaccine, which is constructed with a stabilized portion of the influenza virus (the hemagglutinin (HA) stalk), induced broadly reactive immune responses and conferred robust and sustained cross-immune protection against influenza B virus strains of both lineages. The findings are published in the journal Biomaterials.

Influenza epidemics pose a major threat to public health, and type B influenza has coincided with several severe flu outbreaks. About one-fourth of clinical infection cases are caused by influenza B viruses each year. Influenza B viruses are sometimes the dominant circulating strains during influenza seasons, such as the 2019-20 U.S. flu season when influenza B caused more than 50 percent of the infections.
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caltrek
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Spirituality Linked with Better Health Outcomes

July 12, 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) Boston, MA—Spirituality should be incorporated into care for both serious illness and overall health, according to a study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital.

“This study represents the most rigorous and comprehensive systematic analysis of the modern day literature regarding health and spirituality to date,” said Tracy Balboni, lead author and senior physician at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center and professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School. “Our findings indicate that attention to spirituality in serious illness and in health should be a vital part of future whole person-centered care, and the results should stimulate more national discussion and progress on how spirituality can be incorporated into this type of value-sensitive care.”

“Spirituality is important to many patients as they think about their health,” said Tyler VanderWeele, the John L. Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Professor of Epidemiology in the Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Harvard Chan School. “Focusing on spirituality in health care means caring for the whole person, not just their disease.”

The study, which was co-authored by Balboni, VanderWeele, and senior author Howard Koh, the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at Harvard Chan School, will be published online in JAMA on July 12, 2022. Balboni, VanderWeele, and Koh are also co-chairs of the Interfaculty Initiative on Health, Spirituality, and Religion at Harvard University.

According to the International Consensus Conference on Spiritual Care in Health Care, spirituality is “the way individuals seek ultimate meaning, purpose, connection, value, or transcendence.” This could include organized religion but extends well beyond to include ways of finding ultimate meaning by connecting, for example, to family, community, or nature.
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/958455
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Scientists identify mechanism responsible for fruit and seed development in flowering plants
https://phys.org/news/2022-07-scientist ... -seed.html
by University of Maryland

With rising global temperatures and dwindling pollinator populations, food production has become increasingly difficult for the world's growers.

A new study from researchers at the University of Maryland's Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics addresses this issue, providing insight into exactly how flowering plants develop fruits and seeds.

"Understanding this process is especially important because common food crops—such as peanuts, corn, rice and strawberries—are all fruits and seeds derived from flowers," said Zhongchi Liu, the study's senior author and a professor of cell biology and molecular genetics at UMD. "Knowing how plants 'decide' to turn part of their flowers into fruit and seed is crucial to agriculture and our food supply."

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications on July 9, 2022.

In the study, Liu and her team aimed to discover how fertilization—or pollination—triggers a flowering plant to start the fruit development process. The team suspected that an internal communication system was responsible for signaling the plant to develop fruit, but the researchers were unsure how that system was being activated by fertilization or pollination.
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