Curated News: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

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A new method than enables researchers to dial up or tone down the amount of a certain metastatic protein inhibitor (BACH1) within a cell could provide a new path in cancer research that reassesses the effectiveness of protein inhibitors to treat disease.

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In a new study, published in Nature Cell Biology, scientists at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) explored the location, function, gene expression, and metabolism of MAIT cells in the mouse lung.

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The discovery suggests that one possible approach to treat glioblastoma would be a therapy that targets the metabolic process in patients who have that genetic alteration.

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Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital studied how the epigenetic landscape influences the binding of pioneer transcription factors, affecting access to DNA.

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Read about how Scientists at St. Jude determined how the SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complex helps cancer cells remember how to be cancerous after division.

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Taking a daily multivitamin may help slow age-related memory decline, a study has found.

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Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have used artificial intelligence models and machine-learning algorithms to successfully predict which components of amino acids that make up therapeutic proteins are most likely to safely deliver therapeutic drugs to animal eye cells.

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Unfortunately, effective medical therapies do not exist for this population of patients, Dr. Pavan Bhatraju said. In their paper, the investigators proposed a way to classify subpopulations of AKI patients with the aim of identifying therapies specific patient populations.

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Scientists report six structures of the Spns2 transporter, which is linked to cancer and other diseases, including while it is bound to a small molecule inhibitor, thus aiding future therapeutic design.

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Long-awaited outcomes data of transcatheter edge-to-edge procedures to repair patients’ leaky mitral valves revealed the minimally invasive procedure to be safe and effective in nearly 90% of patients, according to Cedars-Sinai physician-scientists.

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UC San Diego scientists develop an interactive software that enables scientists to better investigate the DNA damage response.

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The commonly used U.S version of the Fracture Risk Assessment Tool (FRAX) should not be routinely used to select younger postmenopausal women for bone mineral density testing. But the Osteoporosis Self-Assessment Tool (OST) is excellent at identifying women with osteoporosis-level bone mineral density, which is the goal of these screenings, while FRAX is not.

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Blood vessel abnormalities in the eye are a major factor in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, according to research from Cedars-Sinai investigators published in the peer-reviewed journal Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.

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A UC Davis MIND Institute analysis of 13 studies finds that a common autism screening tool is useful, but a clinician’s judgment is still needed.

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Biologists have used machine learning, a type of AI, to identify “synthetic extreme” DNA sequences with specifically designed functions in gene activation. They tested 50 million DNA sequences and found synthetic DNA sequences with activities that could be useful in biotechnology and medicine.

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Tissue engineering research has shown that a skin cell type could be a new therapeutic target to accelerate the healing of burns and possibly other wounds.

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Decades of research show that experiencing traumatic things as a child -- such as having an alcoholic parent or growing up in a tumultuous home -- puts you at risk for poorer health and survival later in life.

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A study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center suggests that IL-21, a soluble molecule involved in activating the immune system, can be a potential therapeutic target to help reduce endocrine autoimmune side effects caused by checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy.

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Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center have discovered a new nutrient source that pancreatic cancer cells use to grow. The molecule, uridine, offers insight into both biochemical processes and possible therapeutic pathways. The findings, published in Nature, show that cancer cells can adapt when they don’t have access to glucose.

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Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a computational platform capable of discovering tumor antigens derived from alternative RNA splicing, expanding the pool of cancer immunotherapy targets. The tool, called “Isoform peptides from RNA splicing for Immunotherapy target Screening” (IRIS), was described in a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Surviving a stroke can bring many long-term effects – including a much higher risk of dementia. But a study suggests that blood sugar may play a key role in that risk.

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At a glance: Researchers trace the origin of certain breast cancers to genomic reshuffling — rearrangement of chromosomes — that activates cancer genes and ignites disease. The finding offers a long-missing explanation for many cases of the disease that remain unexplained by the classical model of breast cancer development. The study shows the sex hormone estrogen — thus far thought to be only a fuel for breast cancer growth — can directly cause tumor-driving genomic rearrangements.

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A machine learning-based model that enables medical institutions to predict the mortality risk for individual cardiac surgery patients has been developed by a Mount Sinai research team, providing a significant performance advantage over current population-derived models.

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How do our brains become capable of creating specific memories? In one of the first preclinical studies to examine memory development in youth, a research team at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) may have identified a molecular cause for memory changes in early childhood.

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Researchers from Argonne, Michigan State University and Northwestern University used Argonne’s Bionanoprobe beamline to look at the concentration of zinc in egg cells.

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The MGAT5 glycosylation enzyme plays a crucial role in brain development, according to a study by University of California, Irvine researchers, a discovery that may contribute to new therapeutic purposes for neural stem cells.

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Impairments in the lymphatic system may contribute to brain diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. Researchers have found a noninvasive and nonpharmaceutical method to influence glymphatic transport using focused ultrasound, opening the opportunity to use the method to further study brain diseases and brain function.

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Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and the School of Dentistry identified a new metric to articulate the relationship between nerve density and oral cancer.

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Researchers at NIH’s National Eye Institute have published a detailed protocol for making three cell types that are key components to form blood vessels and capillaries.

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The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) today expressed its strong support for President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s nomination of Monica Bertagnolli, MD, as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with the following statement from Geraldine M. Jacobson, MD, MBA, MPH, FASTRO, Chair of the ASTRO Board of Directors.

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Researchers from Sanford Burnham Prebys and the Chinese University of Hong Kong have developed a computational approach to predict whether a person with type 2 diabetes will develop kidney disease. The findings could help doctors prevent or better manage kidney disease in people with type 2 diabetes.

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Corticospinal activity is temporally coded with precise prehension movements in mice. Disrupting this patterned activity impairs movements, highlighting the critical role of corticospinal network modulation in the execution of precision movements.

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Investigators at Cedars-Sinai Cancer found that fatty liver, a condition closely associated with obesity, promotes the spread of colorectal cancer to the liver. Their study, published today in the peer-reviewed journal Cell Metabolism, details the process at the cellular level and could change the way doctors manage the disease in some patients.

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The anti-dementia medication lecanemab and its ancillary costs could add $2 billion to $5 billion in annual Medicare spending if the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) revise their coverage decision. Currently, the medication is covered only for patients who are enrolled in clinical trials.

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Sleep apnea may significantly increase the risk for long COVID in adults, according to a study led by the National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER Initiative and supported by NYU Langone Health as home to the effort’s Clinical Science Core (CSC).

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Researchers from the University of California, Irvine have found that exposure to traffic-related air pollution in Irvine led to memory loss and cognitive decline and triggered neurological pathways associated with the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

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How malaria parasites evolved to evade a major antimalarial drug has long been thought to involve only one key gene. Now, thanks to a combination of field and lab studies, an international research team has shown a second key gene is also involved in malaria’s resistance to the drug chloroquine.

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Van Andel Institute’s Hui Shen, Ph.D., and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis’s Ting Wang, Ph.D., will co-lead a collaborative project supported by the Somatic Mosaicism across Human Tissues (SMaHT) Network, a new $140 million National Institutes of Health-led effort to better understand the genetic differences between individual cells and tissues in the body.

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The goal of every dividing cell is to accurately segregate its genome into two genetically identical daughter cells. However, this process often goes awry and may be responsible for a new class of chromosomal abnormalities found in cancers and congenital disorders, UT Southwestern Medical Center scientists report in a new study. The discovery, published in Nature, sheds light on how cancer cells rapidly evolve genomic changes that fuel their proliferation.

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A new University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center study reveals more about changes that happen to cancer cells when they metastasize and identifies a promising target for the treatment of metastatic breast cancer.Metastasis is when cancer cells spread from the primary tumor to surrounding tissues and distant organs in the body and is the primary cause for breast cancer mortality.

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UCLA researchers have developed an “all-in-one,” next-generation statistical simulator capable of assimilating a wide range of information to generate realistic synthetic data and provide a benchmarking tool for medical and biological researchers who use advanced technologies to study diseases and potential therapies.

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People who have sleep apnea and spend less time in deep sleep may be more likely to have brain biomarkers that have been linked to an increased risk of stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline, according to new research published in the May 10, 2023, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study does not prove that these sleep disturbances cause the changes in the brain, or vice versa. It only shows an association.