A metabolomics signature consisting of a group of eight metabolites in males and 13 metabolites in females was able to diagnose myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) with better than 90 percent accuracy, possibly enabling more accurate diagnosis of a disorder that remains hard to pin down.
Separating delta opioid receptors from the G protein-coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2), which normally associates with it in cell membranes, allowed agonists to have an analgesic effect via the delta receptor.
The lungs are a frequent site of metastases in part because T cells sense oxygen levels and are more tolerant of foreign antigens in high-oxygen environments, scientists reported in the Aug. 25, 2016, advance online issue of Cell.
Targeting the intrinsic clotting pathway may offer a way to reduce the risk of clotting without increasing bleeding risk, which is the tradeoff of all currently marketed antithrombotics.
Edible nanoparticles made from ginger reduced pro-inflammatory cytokines, increased anti-inflammatory cytokines, reduced acute colitis, enhanced intestinal repair and prevented chronic colitis and colitis-associated cancer in mouse models of Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, which together make up inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Chronic pain is an enormous problem, affecting about 10 to 15 percent of the adult population. Another enormous problem? Opioid painkiller addiction, which kills about 30,000 Americans annually.
Dendrimers are highly branched nanoparticles that are being explored in a variety of biomedical settings. They have been tested clinically to deliver chemotherapy and imaging agents, and are being tested preclinically with payloads that include small molecules and nucleic acids. (See BioWorld Today, March 18, 2009, and May 11, 2011.)
As the Exome Aggregation Consortium (Exac) published findings from their deep dive into the genetic well Wednesday, another set of scientists published a cautionary tale illustrating the sort of clinical problem that Exac's Exome Sequencing Project (ESP) can address. (See story in this issue.)
