New research has shed fresh light on how the build-up of two proteins in the brain might affect the activity of genes involved in Alzheimer’s disease.
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Some people are annoyingly good at “reading between the lines.” They seem to know, well before anyone else, who is the killer in a movie, or the meaning of an abstract poem. What these people are endowed with is a strong inference capability—using indirect evidence to figure out hidden information.
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As if recovering from surgery wasn’t hard enough, a new study shows that one in five operations could result in an unwelcome surprise: a bill for hundreds or thousands of dollars that the patient didn’t know they might owe.
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Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have shown that two prebiotics, mucin and inulin, slowed the growth of melanoma in mice by boosting the immune system’s ability to fight cancer. In contrast to probiotics, which are live bacterial strains, prebiotics are “food” for bacteria and stimulate the growth of diverse beneficial populations. The study, published today in Cell Reports, provides further evidence that gut microbes have a role in shaping the immune response to cancer, and supports efforts to target the gut microbiome to enhance the efficacy of cancer therapy.
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Not everyone who catches Ebola dies of the hemorrhagic virus infection. Some people mount a robust immune defense and recover fully. Yet risk factors for susceptibility to infection and disease severity remain poorly understood.
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People who live in rural America are vulnerable to heart disease. Breaking down health care barriers for these residents is an inequity problem that needs innovative approaches, according to a new advisory from the American Heart Association.
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A simple mechanism, previously known from bacteria, ensures that the immune system strikes a balance between the rapid expansion of immune cells and the prevention of an excessive self-damaging reaction after an infection. This has now been deciphered by scientists at the University Hospital of Freiburg (Germany) and colleagues from the Netherlands and Great Britain. An infection quickly activates T-cells, which leads to their proliferation. The research team has now shown that these cells are able to perceive each other and—based on their density—jointly determine whether or not they should continue to proliferate. The newly discovered mechanism could also help to improve cancer immunotherapies. The study was published in the scientific journal Immunity on 11 February 2020.
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The major obstacle to curing HIV is a vast reservoir of “latent, replication-competent proviruses,” which have infiltrated the very cells that help orchestrate the immune response.
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Electrospun synthetic cell scaffolds are not only more consistent than animal cells for cancer research, they hold the potential to replace animal testing.
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In order to provide the best medical care for newly diagnosed Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, a method of predicting their cognitive and motor progression, beyond using purely clinical parameters, would have major implications for their management. A novel study published in the Journal of Parkinson’s Disease suggests that a blood test for inflammatory and cell senescence biomarkers may be a reliable predictor of cognitive decline, including identifying those who will develop an early dementia and motor progression in PD patients.
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