Curated News: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

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A Phase II clinical trial of poziotinib for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) with epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) exon 20 mutations, led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, found the drug had significant antitumor activity and the efficacy was highly dependent on the location of the exon 20 loop insertion, which may impact future clinical trials for EGFR exon 20 targeted therapies.

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Human immunodeficiency virus 1, more commonly known as HIV-1, is known for its uncanny ability to evade the immune system.

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Two of the most common genetic changes that cause cells to become cancerous, which were previously thought to be separate and regulated by different cellular signals, are working in concert, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. To date, researchers have focused on finding drugs that block one or the other to treat cancer.

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New research shows that parents are open to talking about gun safety measures with their children’s pediatricians and willing to change firearm storage practices

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Areas of the brain vulnerable to neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer’s disease tend to have less dense vascular networks — which supply the brain with energy via blood — than other areas of the brain, according to Penn State researchers.

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The eye’s light-sensing retina taps different circuits depending on whether it is generating image-forming vision or carrying out a non-vision function such as regulating pupil size or sleep/wake cycles, according to a new mouse study from the National Eye Institute (NEI) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

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The eye’s light-sensing retina taps different circuits depending on whether it is generating image-forming vision or carrying out a non-vision function such as regulating pupil size or sleep/wake cycles, according to a new mouse study from the National Eye Institute (NEI) and the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

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UC San Diego researchers found that in mice how much they ate and when altered the nature of their gut microbiome: too much food too frequently resulted in poorer microbial and metabolic health.

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Over $2 million from the NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse will help neuroscientists in the IU Gill Center for Biomolecular Science research the impact of cannabis use during adolescence.

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Scientists have developed a CRISPR-based technology that could offer a safer approach to correcting genetic defects. The new “soft” CRISPR system makes use of natural DNA repair machinery, providing a foundation for novel gene therapy strategies with the potential to cure genetic diseases.

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HIV has an “early and substantial” impact on aging in infected people, accelerating biological changes in the body associated with normal aging within just two to three years of infection.

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Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder and the most common cause of dementia, affecting more than 5.8 million individuals in the U.S. Scientists have discovered some genetic variants that increase the risk for developing Alzheimer’s; the most well-known of these for people over the age of 65 is the APOE ε4 allele.

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Researchers are expanding their understanding of unique immune “memory” cells equipped to remember malicious invaders. They developed an atlas that describes tissue-resident memory cells in diverse settings, boosting prospects for new immune defense strategies at vulnerable infection sites.

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Using brain organoids, UC San Diego researchers discover mutational commonalities between muscular dystrophy type 1 and Rett syndrome, suggesting the potential of a similar treatment for both.

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A recent publication from researchers at the University of Kentucky explains the importance of identifying and understanding how differences between tissues and cells alter gene expression without changing the underlying genetic code.

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An interdisciplinary research team has developed a fast, cost-effective method to detect the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 variants. The approach can augment current surveillance methods that use comprehensive next-generation sequencing of virus samples, helping focus sequencing efforts on samples representing unknown and emerging variants.

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Fish oil triglycerides appear to be effective at reducing instances of inflammation in the brain and preventing post-surgical delirium in mice and tissue engineered human models, according to Duke Health and Duke Biomedical Engineering researchers.

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A new biomedical research tool that enables scientists to measure hundreds of functional proteins in a single cell could offer new insights into cell machinery. Details about the cyclic microchip assay method are published in the journal Nature Communications.

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Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are leading a national study aimed at identifying patients with early-stage lung cancer who are at high risk of having the cancer return, even after surgery and chemotherapy appear to have eliminated their tumors. The research is supported by a $5.3 million grant from the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Tumors are made up of many types of cells, both cancerous and benign. The specific complexity of the cells inside brain tumors has been a trademark of the disease, one that makes treatment extremely difficult. While scientists have long known about the variety of cells within a brain tumor, the ways these tumors grow has relied on the understanding that the cells are static, unmoving and relatively fixed.

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The virus that causes COVID-19 takes over the body’s fat-processing system and boosts cellular triglycerides as it causes disease.

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Researchers identify new mechanism that teaches immune cells-in-training to spare the body’s own tissues while attacking pathogens.

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Brooke Emerling from Sanford Burnham Prebys has been awarded a new grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue her work on cellular signaling in cancer. The four-year, $2.3 million project could accelerate the development of new therapies for a range of cancers, particularly metastatic breast cancer. It also offers an answer to a longstanding mystery in cancer metabolism.

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A team of Moffitt Cancer Center researchers has become the first in the world to visualize the molecular structure of the LAG3 protein. In a new article published in Nature Immunology, they describe the crystal structure of LAG3 and how it interacts with molecules produced by cancer cells.

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Medicare could waste up to $605 million per year on the controversial Alzheimer’s drug aducanumab if it is eventually approved for widespread use because it is supplied in vials containing fixed doses that may not be appropriate for all patients–resulting in the trashing of large volumes of unused drug

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A $10 million grant over four years will support further examination of a national study looking at COVID-19 vaccination safety during pregnancy and immune response pre-and post-delivery for both mom and baby.

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With the end of the pandemic seemingly nowhere in sight, scientists are still very focused on finding new or alternative drugs to treat and stop the spread of COVID-19. In a first-of-its-kind study, researchers at the University of New Hampshire have found that using an already existing drug compound in a new way, known as drug repurposing, could be successful in blocking the activity of a key enzyme of the coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19.

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A new study in mice describes how different cell types in the brain work together to suppress nausea

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Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital identified proteins that help decide T cell fate and used the finding to improve CAR-T cell therapy in a solid tumor model.

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Researchers at Case Western Reserve University and the University of Washington expect to gain valuable new insights into highly aggressive prostate cancer by combining Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered diagnostic imaging with three-dimensional (3D) tissue imaging.

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A researcher at Binghamton University, State University of New York has received a five-year, $2,326,521 grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases to further her research into smart knee replacements.

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A collaborative study from UT Southwestern scientists has identified a new function for a protein called TAO2 that appears to be key to inhibiting replication of the influenza virus, which sickens millions of individuals worldwide each year and kills hundreds of thousands. The findings were published in PNAS.

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Rabies virus kills a shocking 59,000 people each year, many of them children. In a new study, researchers from La Jolla Institute for Immunology and Institut Pasteur share a promising path to better vaccine design.

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A world-class team of researchers assembled and led by Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and its Deputy Director and Chief Scientific Officer Eileen White, PhD, has been awarded a $25 million Cancer Grand Challenges grant to tackle the condition of cancer cachexia.

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The Autoimmune Association supports a recommendation that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) should create an Office of Autoimmune Disease/Autoimmunity Research within the Office of the Director, a key finding from a new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

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Rutgers researcher, Grace Brannigan, has co-authored a study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) that centers around the connection between gene mutations in protein sequences and diseases.

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Researchers have unmasked a component of the cell death process that could play a vital role in a better infection-fighting strategy.

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Advances in nanotechnology have made it possible to fabricate structures out of DNA for use in biomedical applications like delivering drugs or creating vaccines, but new research in mice investigates the safety of the technology.

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New research from UT Southwestern suggests that RNA exosomes – the cellular machines that degrade old molecules of RNA – play a key role in the development of B cells, which are critical to the immune system’s ability to protect against infection. The findings, published in Science Immunology, explain why patients with rare mutations in a gene that codes for this machinery are often immunodeficient and could offer new approaches to treat autoimmune diseases.

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Researchers have developed a mathematical tool to estimate tumor-specific RNA levels from tumor samples with mixed cell types. Using this technique on thousands of samples found that higher mRNA levels are correlated with shorter survival.

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Scientists have reported good news on the pandemic preparedness front: A cocktail of four manufactured antibodies is effective at neutralizing a virus from the Henipavirus family, a group of pathogens considered to be a global biosecurity threat.

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A study led by the Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI) in partnership with Vanderbilt University found no differences in relief of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 symptoms between participants taking ivermectin and participants taking a placebo.

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A new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that treatment with an immunity boosting protein called interleukin 7 (IL-7) after an infusion of genetically modified T cells causes the cancer-fighting CAR-T cells to grow in number and become more effective at killing tumor cells.

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A stress protein that is overactive in many types of tumor cells also has a key role in tumor-supporting cells called fibroblasts, and may be a good target for future cancer treatments, suggests a study from researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

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The University of Kentucky has received a $3.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to find out why people in the Appalachian region of Kentucky have such consistently poor sleep outcomes.

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Male sex hormones interfere with the body’s ability to fight bladder cancer, likely explaining why males experience higher cancer rates and more deadly disease, according to a new study co-led by a Cedars-Sinai Cancer investigator.

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The University of Chicago Medicine hopes to recruit 50,000 people to participate in a new national study designed to explore the causes of cancer and learn more about how to prevent it.

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Albert Einstein College of Medicine researchers have been awarded a five-year, $3.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the effects of COVID-19 on the brains of adults who had mild or asymptomatic infection. Using neuroimaging, cognitive, and immunological tests, the investigators will examine if SARS-CoV-2 infection induces lasting changes in the brain and affects neurocognitive function.