Biology & Medicine News and Discussions

[Lilymoon]

The hidden nerve superhighway that turns a chill on your skin into a feeling

We've long known how the nerve endings in our skin detect cold and swiftly relay the information to our brains, but we haven't understood exactly how it works. Scientists have now solved the puzzle, unlocking the mystery of this temperature pathway.

University of Michigan (U-M) researchers set out to investigate how the sensation of enjoyable coolness on our skin is signaled to the brain, hypothesizing that there might be an unknown "wiring route" that relays the message – one separate from other sensory signals like pain, heat and extreme cold.

And while we've known that nerve endings in the skin – TRPM8 sensors – can detect these pleasant cool temperatures, scientists hadn't yet worked out just how those messages got to the brain, uninterrupted by other sensory neuronal firing information to where it's processed and understood.

Now, for the first time, scientists have discovered the complete skin-to-brain neural circuit specifically for cool temperature sensory processing. In their mice study, the researchers found that this circuit senses pleasant coolness through the skin and amplifies the signal in the spinal cord on the way to the brain.

https://newatlas.com/biology/cold-skin- ... onnection/

[Lilymoon]

New targeted rheumatoid arthritis drug delays disease, reduces flare-ups

A new nanoparticle drug has shown preclinical promise in both preventing rheumatoid arthritis and reducing painful flare-ups, offering hope for a targeted, steroid-sparing treatment that calms the immune system without widespread suppression.

Disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs, or DMARDs, have advanced the treatment of the chronic autoimmune disease rheumatoid arthritis (RA), with about half of patients achieving remission or low disease activity in the form of reduced inflammation and slowed joint damage.

Now, in a new study, researchers have tested a new type of nanoparticle-based drug, called Agg-CLNP, to improve the prevention of RA and reduce flare-ups in people who already have the disease.

They created the nanoparticles from biodegradable polymers and coated them with aggrecan (that’s where the Agg in the drug’s name comes from). This peptide is primarily found in cartilage and plays a crucial role in its ability to withstand compressive forces. In RA, the breakdown of aggrecan is one of the earliest events leading to cartilage damage. The nanoparticles were loaded with calcitriol, the active form of vitamin D3; hence, the CLNP part of the drug’s name: calcitriol-loaded nanoparticles.

The researchers had previously found that CLNP helped to regulate immune responses and decrease inflammation in autoimmune joint disease. The previous study had shown that CLNP changed the behavior of dendritic cells, specialized immune cells that act as the immune system’s sentinels, initiating and regulating immune responses. In RA, dendritic cells are found in the synovium, the lining of the joints, where they contribute to the chronic inflammation and joint damage that characterizes the disease.

https://newatlas.com/disease/immunother ... itis-drug/

[Lilymoon]

Just for some one wants read more about this.

A common asthma medication could be the key to preventing life-threatening reactions to food allergies. That's from a multi-year effort by researchers at Northwestern University in Illinois; they identified a previously unknown biological trigger for anaphylaxis, which is most commonly caused by common foods like cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, shellfish, and wheat.

That could be good news the millions of people around the world who suffer from food allergies, and for which there is currently no cure. In the US, nearly 1 in 10 people have a food allergy. The finding has been recorded in mice, and reports from a human trial should become available soon.

https://newatlas.com/medical/zileuton-a ... allergies/

[weatheriscool]

Powerful new oral painkiller blocks signals without sedation or addiction
By Bronwyn Thompson
August 09, 2025

Scientists have shown the efficacy of a new non-opioid oral painkiller known as ADRIANA, the world's first selective α2B-adrenoceptor antagonist – a receptor subtype not previously targeted for analgesics. In clinical trials so far, it has provided powerful pain relief without sedation or risk of addiction.

Researchers at Japan's Kyoto University Scientists have developed an oral medication that targets the α2B adrenoceptor, a little-studied brain receptor that scientists have found actually plays a major role in mechanical pain. This makes it the first-ever α2B-selective painkiller.

This receptor belongs in the adrenergic receptor family – α2A, α2B, α2C – but no approved drug has targeted a2B to inhibit the receptor with high precision. Existing drugs like dexmedetomidine target broad a2 receptors and in this example's case cause sedation and are not oral. This in itself makes this small-molecule drug candidate, also known as compound c545, a potentially new class of pain-relief drug.

"If successfully commercialized, ADRIANA would offer a new pain management option that does not rely on opioids, contributing significantly to the reduction of opioid use in clinical settings," said corresponding author Masatoshi Hagiwara, a specially-appointed professor at Kyoto University.

https://newatlas.com/chronic-pain/non-o ... ely-new-p/

[weatheriscool]

A new type of vaccine is needle-free and doubles as dental floss
By Chelsea Haney
August 09, 2025

In a recent experiment that sounds more sci-fi than science class, researchers have successfully developed a novel vaccine platform that uses ordinary dental floss embedded with tiny dissolvable microneedles. The study, published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, showcases how everyday materials can be reimagined to offer adaptable and accessible vaccine solutions.

Researchers at North Carolina State University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have developed a microneedle-thread platform designed to deliver vaccine antigens through oral mucosal tissue. In preclinical trials, they investigated whether this approach could induce both local and systemic immune responses – a strategy intended to enhance protection against pathogens that enter through the respiratory tract.

This new method targets the junctional epithelium, the “leaky” tissue where gums meet teeth. On any given day, this permeable region serves as an immunological checkpoint, allowing immune cells to surveil for bacteria accumulating along the gumline. Intrigued by its natural permeability, researchers asked a deceptively simple question: could this oral gateway be repurposed to deliver vaccines?

https://newatlas.com/infectious-disease ... tal-floss/

[weatheriscool]

Surgeons could ditch sutures for MIT's light-activated body glue
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
August 09, 2025

https://newatlas.com/medical/mit-light- ... r-tissium/
The sutures used to help close up large cuts and surgical incisions mostly get the job done, but they're far from perfect. A new biocompatible polymer that helps glue and repair tissue without causing damage – initially developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) – might be a better way to heal wounds.

It's been in the works for several years, first as part of a PhD student's research project focused on polymers, and then as a fixation platform that could safely seal holes in the hearts of pigs and rats.

In 2013, the work spun out of MIT into a company called Tissium to build on its capabilities and solve problems for surgeons dealing with decades-old ways to repair tissue like sutures and staples. One of the polymer's standout features is its ability to attach to wet tissue when activated using a blue light for about 30 seconds.

[weatheriscool]

First antidote for carbon monoxide poisoning "cleans" blood in minutes
By Bronwyn Thompson
August 13, 2025

An engineered protein that acts like a molecular sponge has the potential to change how carbon monoxide poisoning is treated, chasing down CO molecules in the bloodstream and helping the body flush them out in just minutes, without the risk of short- or long-term health issues that come with the current frontline treatment, pure oxygen.

Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) were focused on a natural protein known as RcoM, found in the bacterium Paraburkholderia xenovorans. In bacteria, RcoM detects trace amounts of CO in the environment, so the engineers believed this could be harnessed to scavenge for CO molecules attached to red blood cells instead.
The natural protein RcoM

https://newatlas.com/disease/first-anti ... poisoning/

[weatheriscool]

FDA approves landmark fibromyalgia drug that works like no other
By Bronwyn Thompson
August 17, 2025

Following decades of limited treatment options, people living with fibromyalgia will soon have access to a novel therapy designed to tackle the condition’s most elusive symptom: Poor-quality sleep. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved Tonmya, a non-opioid, under-the-tongue bedtime treatment for fibromyalgia in adults, which is expected to be widely available within months. It’s the first drug approved for this complex and debilitating condition in more than 15 years.

Tonmya is a nightly cyclobenzaprine HCl sublingual tablet that's rapidly absorbed after placing it under the tongue, bypassing the digestive system for faster onset of action. In clinical trials, this quick delivery helped improve sleep quality and reduce next-day fibromyalgia pain – offering immediate relief as well as potentially longer-term symptom improvement.

The drug breaks ground as the first and only in a category of non-opioid analgesics to treat fibromyalgia.

“The FDA approval of Tonmya as a first-line treatment for fibromyalgia represents a landmark advancement for the millions of people in the US suffering from the debilitating pain this condition causes,” said Seth Lederman, M.D., Chief Executive Officer of Tonix Pharmaceuticals. “At Tonix, we recognized the transformative potential of pursuing a new approach with Tonmya for fibromyalgia, a chronic overlapping pain condition (COPC), that has gone without innovation for many years. We are hopeful that effectively treating pain with Tonmya could help improve the lives of people with this chronic syndrome.”

https://newatlas.com/chronic-pain/fda-c ... pain-drug/

[weatheriscool]

Drug delivery gets a precision upgrade with ultrasound tech
By Abhimanyu Ghoshal
August 19, 2025

How do you send drugs to specific parts of the body so they do their job and avoid causing side effects elsewhere? According to researchers at Stanford University, the answer is a combination of nanoparticles, a pulse of ultrasound, and sugar.

The team has developed a system to deliver drugs anywhere in the body accurate up to a few millimeters. Radiology professor Raag Airan, senior author of the study that appeared in Nature Nanotechnology this week, explained that this could "maximize the therapeutic effect and minimize the off-target effects” of many drugs we use today.

The researchers tested their approach using ultrasound-responsive drug delivery nanoparticles on rats with two drugs. Up first was a dose of ketamine encapsulated in nanoparticles for precise delivery, with a sugar solution (containing 5% sucrose, to be precise) to stabilize the drug.

https://newatlas.com/medical-tech/drug- ... -stanford/

[weatheriscool]

Laser-free vision correction uses electrical current to reshape eye
By Bronwyn Thompson
August 19, 2025
https://newatlas.com/medical-devices/em ... nea-lasik/

Imagine correcting your vision in under a minute – no lasers, blades or pain. Scientists have developed a novel, non-invasive technique that reshapes the cornea using only a mild electric current and a temporary pH shift. In early trials, it reversed myopia without the need for traditional surgery – and could be the most radical advancement in eyesight correction technology since LASIK.

This emerging method that can remodel the cornea through mild electric potential, known as electromechanical reshaping (EMR), was detailed by researchers from Occidental College and the University of California, Irvine, during the American Chemical Society’s Fall 2025 meeting this week.

The cornea is the clear, dome-shaped surface at the front of the eye, acting as a transparent window that helps focus incoming light. It's made of tightly packed collagen fibers and is designed to be strong and smooth. When light enters the eye, the cornea is the first lens it hits – and it's here that most of light-bending (refraction) occurs in order to focus the light onto the retina at the rear of the eye. However, if the cornea has an irregular curve, it results in conditions such as nearsightedness (myopia) and farsightedness (hyperopia).

[weatheriscool]

Smart skin patch offers a painless, simpler alternative to blood sampling
By Ben Coxworth
August 20, 2025

Nobody likes having blood samples taken, which is why it's always good to hear about possible alternatives. One of the latest takes the form of a self-powered skin patch that painlessly gathers biomarker chemicals for up to 24 hours at a time.

Not only is the blood-sample-drawing process painful – and "icky," for many people – it also only shows which tell-tale biomarkers are present in the bloodstream at the time the sample is taken.

If doctors want to see all of the biomarkers that may come and go throughout the day, they have to draw multiple samples over a 24-hour period. What's more, analyzing those samples can be a complex affair, as it involves separating blood components such as platelets and red blood cells.

https://newatlas.com/medical-devices/mi ... ternative/

[weatheriscool]

New meds-prepping process could make IV drug drips a thing of the past
By Ben Coxworth
August 22, 2025
https://newatlas.com/medical-tech/intra ... injection/

It's a sad and inconvenient fact that many drugs have to be administered in the form of a slow intravenous (IV) drip, as opposed to a single quick injection. That may be about to change, however, thanks to a new take on an existing "spray drying" technique.

Often used to treat maladies such as certain cancers, metabolic disorders and autoimmune diseases, protein-based pharmaceuticals must be administered in high doses in order to have the desired effect.

Unfortunately, if these medications are dissolved in a single-injection amount of carrier liquid at such high concentrations, the protein molecules clump together, resulting in a mixture that is too viscous to be safely injected. Instead, a more diluted dosage must be dripped in by IV over a period of several hours.

[weatheriscool]

[weatheriscool]

FDA approves first implant to treat rheumatoid arthritis
By Bronwyn Thompson
August 26, 2025

The first-ever neuroimmune modulation implant has been approved for people with moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who haven't found relief with traditional medications. It's a potentially life-changing technology that can zap pain by delivering one-minute electrical pulses to the vagus nerve – a key neural pathway that regulates inflammation.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has greenlit the device developed by California's SetPoint Medical, based on positive outcomes from the RESET‑RA clinical trial – a 242-patient, randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study. It showed measurable improvements in disease activity by three months, with sustained benefits at 12 months. Impressively, 75% of participants were using just the implant and no other therapeutics after just 12 months.

We covered earlier trial stages of the device, which is about the size of a vitamin or coffee bean, back in 2021. However, the SetPoint System has been in development for two decades.

https://newatlas.com/chronic-pain/fda-r ... s-implant/

[firestar464]

Around 90% of middle-aged and older autistic adults are undiagnosed in the UK, new review finds

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1096116

[firestar464]

Millions of women rely on contraceptives, but new Rice study shows they may do more than just prevent pregnancy

https://news.rice.edu/news/2025/million ... st-prevent



and then the idiots misinterpreted it; in fact the implications of the study are actually positive

Women on hormonal contraceptives showed stronger emotional reactions compared to naturally cycling women. When they used strategies like distancing or reinterpretation, they remembered fewer details of negative events, though their general memory remained intact. In other words, they could recall the overall event but not all of the specifics. That gap may actually be helpful, allowing women to move on instead of replaying unpleasant details. Strategies like immersion boosted memory for positive images in both groups, making happy moments stick more clearly.

[caltrek]

More Than 1,000 Health Workers Demand RFK Jr.'s Resignation: 'We Swore An Oath'
By Marco Margaritoff
September 3, 2025

Introduction:

(Huffington Post) More than 1,000 past and present Department of Health and Human Services staffers called on Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to resign in an open letter published Wednesday, saying his vaccine policies have endangered the lives of Americans.

“We swore an oath to support and defend the United States Constitution and to serve the American people,” reads the letter, published on the Save HHS website and signed by 1,040 health workers. “Our oath requires us to speak out when the Constitution is violated and the American people are put at risk.”

“Thus, we warn the President, Congress, and the Public that Secretary Kennedy’s actions are compromising the health of this nation, and we demand Secretary Kennedy’s resignation.”

The letter comes two days after former Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials wrote in a New York Times op-ed that Kennedy’s leadership and “unacceptable” ousting of former CDC Director Susan Monarez was “unlike anything we had ever seen.”

Monarez, a trained microbiologist and immunologist, was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in July. In a confirmation hearing a month prior, she said her top priority as head of the CDC would be restoring trust in the agency.

Read more here: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/hhs-emp ... d89cd997

[firestar464]

One mother for two species via obligate cross-species cloning in ants

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09425-w

[weatheriscool]

Futuristic eye implant bypasses cornea to beam images straight to retina
By Paul McClure
September 04, 2025
https://newatlas.com/medical-devices/pr ... blindness/

A tiny implant that beams images straight to the retina, bypassing a damaged cornea altogether, could give sight back to millions living with corneal blindness – no donor tissue required. Human trials may be underway in as little as two years.

The cornea is the most frequently transplanted human tissue. For the millions of people living with corneal blindness, the transplantation of donor tissue has long been the only real hope they have for regaining vision. But even when transplants are possible, many patients remain legally blind.

Now, researchers have unveiled a futuristic workaround: an implant that sidesteps the damaged cornea entirely, projecting images straight onto the retina. Dubai-based deep-tech company Xpanceo and Italian startup Intra-Ker have announced the first successful proof-of-concept for their intracorneal implant.

“With over 12 million people awaiting corneal transplants, we see this as the beginning of a new era, where advanced optics and computation can bridge longstanding gaps in vision care,” said Xpanceo founder, Dr Valentyn Volkov.

[weatheriscool]