Biology & Medicine News and Discussions

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Chiral gold nanoparticles increase vaccine efficacy by more than 25%, study suggests
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-chiral-go ... icacy.html
by José Tadeu Arantes , FAPESP
Vaccines can be made over 25% more effective by adding left-handed chiral gold nanoparticles as adjuvants, according to a study by an international collaboration in which Brazilian researchers took part. An article reporting the results is published in Nature.

Three research groups collaborated on the study, one affiliated with the University of Michigan in the United States, and another with Jiangnan University in China. The Brazilian group was led by André Farias de Moura, a professor in the Chemistry Department at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) and a researcher with the Center for Development of Functional Materials (CDMF), one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (RIDCs) funded by FAPESP.

The study did not involve COVID-19 vaccines because it began well before the pandemic. The researchers used vaccines developed to combat a specific influenza virus strain. While this is not the strain that is currently circulating in Brazil, in principle the results can be generalized for any type of vaccine, evidently with case-by-case complementary studies. The reason is that left-handed chiral gold nanoparticles are not the active ingredient, but an adjuvant that potentiates the recipient's immune response.

"The key to understanding the contribution of these nanoparticles is the concept of chirality, which applies to an object or system that can't be superimposed on its own mirror image," Moura told Agência FAPESP.
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Researchers stimulate blind retinas using focused ultrasound technology
https://techxplore.com/news/2022-04-ret ... ology.html
by University of Southern California

The number of Americans with visual impairment or blindness is expected to jump to more than 8 million by the year 2050, according to research lead by the USC Gayle and Edward Roski Eye Institute conducted back in 2016.

With the youngest baby boomers reaching 65 years old by 2029, age-related eye diseases and conditions are expected to swell during what's being called the "silver tsunami".

According to medical experts, it's safe to say many of those cases will be caused by retinal degenerative diseases, the progressive degeneration of the light-sensitive photoreceptors in your retina.

Based on these estimates, there is an unmet need for new technologies that treat vision loss due to diseases of photoreceptor degeneration.

While there are no successful non-invasive therapeutics currently available for the treatment of vision loss, researchers at USC have come up with a new idea to address this growing problem.

Currently, ophthalmologists use electronic technology to directly stimulate retinal neurons by implanting electrode devices inside the eye, a technique that requires expensive and invasive surgery.

The research team in the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Department of Biomedical Engineering is exploring a non-surgical solution that could restore sight by using another of the five senses.

Sound.
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Nanoparticles prove effective against the yellow fever mosquito

by Tatyana Woodall, The Ohio State University
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-nanoparti ... quito.html
Before being accidentally introduced to the New World by the 16th century slave trade, the yellow fever mosquito was a species native only to Africa. Highly adaptable, it has since become an invasive species in North America, but researchers at The Ohio State University may have found a way to squash the pesky population in its juvenile stages.

Recently published in the journal Insects, a new paper describes how mosquitoes have evolved a natural resistance to some chemical insecticides, and offers an alternative called carbon black, a type of carbon-based nanoparticles, or CNPs.

Study co-author and an associate professor of entomology at Ohio State, Peter Piermarini described CNPs as "microscopic" materials made out of organic elements. The study used a modified version of carbon black called Emperor 1800, which is often used to coat automobiles black. While CNPs are a relatively new scientific development, they have been considered as new tools to control various insect and pest infestations, he said.

"If we can learn more about how carbon black works and how to use it safely, we could design a commercially available nanoparticle that is highly effective against insecticide-resistant mosquitoes," Piermarini said.
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A new tool makes high-resolution imaging data on human tissues easier to understand and use

by Catherine Caruso, Harvard Medical School
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04- ... ssues.html
For many of us, Google Maps has become an indispensable daily tool: We pop open a web browser and instantly access a powerful map where we can get directions, zoom in and pan, overlay features like traffic and terrain, and search for specific landmarks. But what if there were a tool with similar functionality to explore an entirely different kind of map? What if we had a Magic School Bus-esque ability to dive deep into the details of tissues that make up the human body?

This is precisely the idea behind Minerva, a software tool developed by Harvard Medical School researchers in the Laboratory of Systems Pharmacology in the Department of Systems Biology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS.

Minerva, available online to anyone, is named after the Roman goddess of wisdom. It allows users to access in-depth maps of tissue samples gathered during research, ranging from cancerous tumors to heart muscle in distress. On each map, users can zoom and pan, overlay features such as immune cells, and explore noteworthy areas. The maps also incorporate the expertise of scientists and medical doctors who can create narratives to guide users through the samples.

The researchers hope that as Minerva's library of tissue samples grows, the tool will be used by other scientists, scientific journals, clinicians, trainees, medical students, or anyone who is simply curious, thus allowing scientific information—and scientific expertise—to be shared more broadly.
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Spinal oxygen sensors—SOS—critical sensors for when the body has low to no oxygen

by University of Calgary
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04- ... -body.html
University of Calgary researchers have identified a new oxygen sensing mechanism in a small population of spinal cord neurons capable of protecting the brain and other vital organs from low oxygen (hypoxia). As blood oxygenation decreases mammals mount a cardiorespiratory response and prioritize oxygen supply to vital organs. The team discovered the kick-start to that rescue response are spinal oxygen sensors (SOS) that trigger activation of the sympathetic and respiratory nervous system.

"Understanding how the central nervous system regulates oxygen supply is of considerable scientific and medical importance," say Dr. Nicole Barioni, Ph.D., first author on the study. "Hypoxia can lead to cognitive decline, memory impairment and in extreme circumstances such as heart attack, stroke or sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), can be fatal."

The study, published in Science Advances, is the first to definitively demonstrate the existence of spinal oxygen sensors. The result of eight years of research by Barioni and principal investigator, Dr. Richard Wilson, Ph.D.
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New miniature heart could help speed heart disease cures
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04- ... sease.html
by Andrew Thurston, Boston University

There's no safe way to get a close-up view of the human heart as it goes about its work: you can't just pop it out, take a look, then slot it back in. Scientists have tried different ways to get around this fundamental problem: they've hooked up cadaver hearts to machines to make them pump again, attached lab-grown heart tissues to springs to watch them expand and contract. Each approach has its flaws: reanimated hearts can only beat for a few hours; springs can't replicate the forces at work on the real muscle. But getting a better understanding of this vital organ is urgent: in America, someone dies of heart disease every 36 seconds, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Now, an interdisciplinary team of engineers, biologists, and geneticists has developed a new way of studying the heart: they've built a miniature replica of a heart chamber from a combination of nanoengineered parts and human heart tissue. There are no springs or external power sources—like the real thing, it just beats by itself, driven by the live heart tissue grown from stem cells. The device could give researchers a more accurate view of how the organ works, allowing them to track how the heart grows in the embryo, study the impact of disease, and test the potential effectiveness and side effects of new treatments—all at zero risk to patients and without leaving a lab.
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Researchers develop IV injection treatment for sepsis
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04- ... epsis.html
by Purdue University
Purdue University researchers in the College of Pharmacy and College of Engineering are developing a patent-pending treatment that could impact millions of American lives each year.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that at least 1.7 million American adults develop sepsis annually; almost 270,000 die as a result. One in three patients who die in a hospital has sepsis. Sepsis occurs when the body's immune response to an infection or injury goes unchecked. Chemicals or proteins released into the blood lead to leaky blood vessels, inflammation and widespread blood clots. These conditions lead to impaired blood flow, which can cause organ damage and death.

Yoon Yeo leads a Purdue team developing biocompatible nanoparticles that treat sepsis systemically through intravenous injection. Yeo is a professor and the associate department head of industrial and physical pharmacy in the College of Pharmacy. She also is a professor in the Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering. The research was published in the Aug. 2021 issue of Science Advances.
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Zeroing in on a new treatment for autism and epilepsy
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04- ... lepsy.html
by Francoise Chanut, Gladstone Institutes

Children with Dravet syndrome, a severe form of epilepsy that begins in infancy, experience seizures, usually for their entire life. They are at high risk of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) and can also develop intellectual disability and autism. Available treatments typically fail to improve these symptoms.

Now, a group of scientists at Gladstone Institutes led by Lennart Mucke, MD, reports new findings in the journal Science Translational Medicine that could guide the development of better therapeutic strategies for Dravet syndrome and related conditions.

The researchers had previously discovered, in a mouse model of Dravet syndrome, that genetically removing the protein tau from the entire body during embryonic development reduces epilepsy, SUDEP, and autism-like behaviors. In the new study, they pinpoint the key cell type in the brain in which tau levels must be reduced to avoid these problems. They also show that lowering tau is still effective in mice when the intervention is delayed until after their birth.

"Our findings provide new insights into the cellular mechanisms by which tau reduction prevents abnormal overexcitation in the brain," says Mucke, director of the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease. "They are also encouraging from a therapeutic perspective, since in humans, initiating treatment after birth is still more feasible than treating embryos in the womb."
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Findings open way for personalized multiple sclerosis treatment
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04- ... tment.html
by Karolinska Institutet
Currently available therapies to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) lack precision and can lead to serious side effects. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now developed a method for identifying the immune cells involved in autoimmune diseases, and have identified four new target molecules of potential significance for future personalized treatment of MS. The results, which are published in Science Advances, have been obtained in collaboration with KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Region Stockholm.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that usually develops between the ages of 20 and 40. The disease is driven by immune cells that mistakenly attack the tissue surrounding neurons in the brain and spinal cord. MS causes neurological symptoms such as sensory disorders, difficulties with walking and balance and impaired vision. There is currently no cure, only treatments that reduce relapse rates and alleviate symptoms.
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Preventing infection with an improved silver coating for medical devices
https://phys.org/news/2022-04-infection ... vices.html
by American Chemical Society
According to folklore, silver bullets kill werewolves, but in the real world, researchers want to harness this metal to fight another deadly foe: bacteria. Recently, scientists have tried to develop a silver coating for implantable medical devices to protect against infection, but they've had limited success. In a study in ACS Central Science, one team describes a new, long-acting silver-ion releasing coating that, in rats, prevents bacteria from adhering to implants and then kills them.

Sometimes medical care requires surgeons to implant a device, such as a tube to drain a wound or the bladder, or to deliver medication directly into the blood. However, bacteria can attach to and collect on the surfaces of these devices, creating a risk for dangerous infections. Researchers have been working to develop bacteria-repelling coatings, including those containing silver, which is known to kill microbes. However, their efforts have faced numerous challenges: Silver can also be toxic to human cells, and it's difficult to make a coating that continually releases small amounts of the metal over long periods, for example. Dirk Lange and Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu wanted to identify a formula that could overcome these and other difficulties.
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