BioWorld looks at translational medicine, including: Tau end run prevents memory deficits, but not inflammation; SCLC subtypes have specific vulnerabilities; Turning tsetse fly meal to poison for sleeping sickness control.
A genome-wide look at variants in RNA-binding proteins has revealed that such variants were disproportionately linked to the risk of multiple psychiatric disorders.
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in orthopedics, including: New method heals skeletal injuries with synthetic bone; Designer cytokine makes paralyzed mice walk again; Osteoporosis drug could halve number of redo hip replacement operations.
LONDON – There’s mixed news about emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2, with Pfizer Inc. and Biontech SE reporting their vaccine Comirnaty maintains its protective effect against B 1.1.7, first detected in the U.K., while researchers in South Africa say virus variant 501Y.V2 is able to escape neutralization by both monoclonal antibodies and convalescent plasma from previously infected individuals.
Researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases have shown that optimal control of tuberculosis (TB) infection necessitated immune regulation as well as immune activation – and that PD-1 checkpoint blockers exacerbated TB infections in macaque monkeys by disrupting the balance between the two.
In what is claimed as the first co-authored research between regulatory scientists at the U.S. FDA and a commercial manufacturer of organ-on-a-chip devices, CN Bio's Physiomimix system is shown to perform better than the current standard in vitro liver toxicity tests. In addition to maintaining its function for longer than 2D hepatocyte cultures or 3D spheroids, Physiomimix was found to reproducibly assess toxicity, metabolism and intracellular accumulation of drugs.
LONDON – A new national consortium of virologists has been set up to systematically assess how mutations in SARS-CoV-2 affect key outcomes such as effectiveness of vaccines and therapies, transmissibility of the virus and the severity of COVID-19 infections.
Keeping you up to date on recent developments in oncology, including: Heating up chemotherapy-laden nanoparticles to beat cancer; Mis-spliced RNAs in tumor cells trigger antiviral response; New approach to lung cancer screening promises savings.
Transient gene editing of the herpes simplex virus type 1 using mRNA-based CRISPR was shown for the first time to be effective against herpetic stromal keratitis in mice and blocked HSV-1 replication in human corneas, Chinese researchers reported in the January 11, 2021, online edition of NatureBiotechnology.
Alzheimer’s disease can be divided into multiple subtypes based on gene expression patterns, investigators at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine reported in the Jan. 6, 2021, issue of Science Advances. The work, corresponding author Bin Zhang told BioWorld, is “the first major finding of subtypes in Alzheimer’s disease.”
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