Researchers at Duke University have identified a region in the central amygdala – more often thought of as a processing hub for emotions – that could suppress pain when activated.
So far, the excitement surrounding “living drugs” is that of pioneer work, with the Carl June and Steve Rosenberg playing the roles of Lewis and Clark or the Wright brothers.
BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Acid test for therapeutic peptides; Designer proteins for RSV vaccine; Subdividing and conquering PDAC; The world according to GARP; Cell competition links hyperinsulinemia to cancer.
CYBERSPACE – At the virtual annual meeting of the American Society of Gene and Cell Therapy, CAR T cells were the subject of both historical overviews and cutting-edge research alike.
By delivering the protein follistatin via gene therapy, researchers at Washington University in St. Louis were able to increase skeletal muscle mass, decrease fat, and reverse obesity-related arthritis in mice who developed osteoarthritis as a result of a high-fat diet.
The climate crisis in the time of COVID-19 illustrates the difference between the important and the urgent. There is, of course, no alternative to focusing on the current pandemic. But at the same time, the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has not changed the fact that the climate crisis is a coming wave whose health consequences will ultimately dwarf those of any single infectious agent.
BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Neutralizing RSV; Insulin cuts both ways in vasculature; Transcriptomic insights into Parkinson’s disease; Restoring synaptic transmission for rare neurodevelopmental disease; Polymerase k and drug resistance; Sphingolipids accumulate in neurodegeneration; How does innate immunity remember? Not via polycomb; Antibiotics affect oxycodone effects; Cabo as next annual shot?
The activity of many proteins is controlled through phosphorylation by kinases and dephosphorylation by phosphatases. Overactive kinases are one of the major drivers of tumors and, as a result, kinase inhibitors are a mainstay of oncology drug development. But “activation of the brakes, the phosphatases, could be equally therapeutically viable for the treatment of a broad range of cancers” to kinase inhibition, Goutham Narla told the audience at the 2020 American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) meeting.
A multi-institutional group led by the University of California at San Francisco’s Quantitative Biosciences Institute (QBI) has identified more than 200 host proteins that interacted with SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins during infection, creating “a blueprint of how SARS-CoV-2 hijacks human cells,” QBI Director Nevan Krogan told reporters. They then used that blueprint to identify 10 drugs, some FDA approved and some in clinical trials, that were able to inhibit viral growth in cell culture assays, marking them for further study as potential antivirals. The work also identified one compound, dextromethorphan, that appeared to facilitate viral growth.
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