A Japanese study has discovered a new means of regulating endogenous gene expression in the CNS, using systemically administered antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) in rodents, which facilitates development of ASO-based therapies for patients with neurological diseases requiring prolonged treatment.

Scientists at Cleveland-based Case Western Reserve University have used artificial intelligence (AI) to identify biomarkers contained in naturally occurring collagen that could predict whether breast cancer will return after treatment. Identified from standard tissue biopsy slides of early-stage breast cancer, collagen-based assays could also be less expensive than gene expression-based assays typically conducted at highly specialized labs in California.

A multi-omics analysis led by Chinese scientists at Tsinghua University in Beijing has demonstrated that aberrant metabolism of the co-enzyme nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) was responsible for microcephaly induced by Zika virus infection during pregnancy.

Organ transplantation is often a life-saving intervention whose success is mediated by the host's immune system. Immune-mediated rejection of an organ transplant destroys the transplanted organ or tissue and can be fatal.

Sometimes highly impactful serendipitous discoveries are made when performing genetic loss-of-function studies that were initially focused on putative tumor suppressors or other hypotheses.

A proportion of patients with COVID-19 develop neurological symptoms, including headaches, encephalopathy and seizures, but it is unknown to which extent.

Resveratrol-triggered genetic switches, which can control in vivo tumor-targeted chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR T) therapy, have been developed by Chinese researchers, who demonstrated that the new tools enabled maximized in vivo immunotherapeutic efficacy while minimizing toxicity.

LONDON – Swedish researchers have devised a method for binding insoluble antibiotics to graphene coatings, in an advance that could prevent the formation of biofilms on medical implants. In comparison to other long-winded methods for loading antibiotics onto implant surfaces, they say the way in which they bind active molecules to graphene is simple and could easily be integrated into manufacturing processes.

Researchers have shown that glucocorticoids, a type of steroid hormones, target both neuroplasticity-related genes and genes related to ciliary function in the brain. However, the effects on the different processes are mediated via different receptors, and in response to different stimuli. A study investigated the specific targets of glucocorticoids, giving new insights into the biological mechanisms of stress adaptations, and how they are linked to neural plasticity.

It's a good news, bad news scenario for exhausted T cells in chronic infections. Multiple groups of investigators reported in the July 26, 2021, online issue of Nature Immunology that even after a chronic hepatitis C virus infection was cured, T cells that had become dysfunctional during the infection retained epigenetic "scars" that prevented them from becoming fully functional memory T cells.