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Category: biotech/medical

Pearls & Oy-sters: Reversible Leukoencephalopathy and Parkinsonism Due to CNS Involvement in Cryoglobulinemia

What is metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease?

Metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) involves accumulation of fat in the liver and may progress to liver inflammation and scarring.

The main risk factors for MASLD are obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Usually people with MASLD show no symptoms but some may feel tired or have pain or discomfort in the upper right side of their abdomen.

Eating a low-carbohydrate, low-fat, and low-calorie diet; avoiding alcohol; and exercise are the first-line of treatment for MASLD. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission https://sciencemission.com/What-Is–MASLD

This JAMA Patient Page describes metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) and its risk factors, symptoms and complications, diagnosis, and treatment.

Continue reading “Pearls & Oy-sters: Reversible Leukoencephalopathy and Parkinsonism Due to CNS Involvement in Cryoglobulinemia” | >

Smart fluorescent molecules provide cheaper path to sharper microscopy images

Multiphoton microscopy is used in biomedical research to study cells and tissues. Today, so-called two-photon microscopy is used to study processes within cells, but the technique has limitations in terms of image resolution. Four-photon microscopy provides images with higher resolution. However, such instruments are very expensive and, when studying biological material, the powerful laser light required can damage samples.

“In this project, we have developed molecules to visualize molecular-level details and monitor processes using the more common two-photon microscopy technique. These molecules have the capacity to achieve higher resolution than with four-photon microscopy, although two-photon microscopy is used,” says the project coordinator Joakim Andréasson, Professor at the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Chalmers University of Technology.

“In the long term, results from studies of this kind may provide new insights into diseases, pharmaceuticals and the very smallest building blocks of life.”

A rewritable DNA hard drive may help solve the growing data storage crisis

Around the world, scientists are exploring an unexpected solution to the growing data crisis: storing digital information in synthetic DNA. The idea is simple but powerful—DNA is one of the most compact, durable information systems on Earth. But one issue has held the field back. Once data is written into DNA, it can’t be changed.

Now, researchers at the University of Missouri are helping to solve that problem by transforming DNA from a one-time medium into a rewritable digital hard drive. Their research is published in the journal PNAS Nexus.

“DNA is incredible—it stores life’s blueprint in a tiny, stable package,” said Li-Qun “Andrew” Gu, a professor of chemical and biomedical engineering at Mizzou’s College of Engineering. “We wanted to see if we could store and rewrite information at the molecular level faster, simpler and more efficiently than ever before.”

Humanization and engineering of protective antibodies targeting severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus Gn protein

Ren et al. humanize and structurally optimize a chimeric anti-SFTSV antibody, generating variants with markedly enhanced neutralization potency by strengthening binding to recombinant Gn and intact virions, providing full in vivo protection and establishing a generalizable framework for therapeutic antibody engineering.

Chemotherapeutic drugs: Cell death- and resistance-related signaling pathways. Are they really as smart as the tumor cells?

Cancer is characterized by the uncontrolled cell proliferation, invasion, and check-point evasion of abnormal cells that are mostly nonfunctional. Cancer can arise due to diet insufficiencies, inherited mutations, and tobacco consumption, to say the least [1, 2]. Cancer’s incident is increasing due to the sedentary lifestyle, overpopulated, polluted megacities, and individuals’ growing desire for consuming processed foods containing preservatives additives [3], [4], [5]. Since cancers might not manifest symptoms in their early onset, it would be difficult or even improbable to treat them when they are diagnosed in their late stage. By and large, tumors are composed of two main parts, including the proliferating cells and stroma, which contains connective tissue and blood supply [6]. Chemotherapy has been among our best options against malignancies.

Chemotherapy is defined by the administration of numerous drugs and chemicals either alone or in combination to kill the cancer cells. Chemotherapeutic drugs kill cancer cells or control their progression all over the patient’s body, while radiation-and surgery-based treatments are directed to a particular site. Cure, control, and palliation are the three objectives of chemotherapies. Killing cancer cells by implementing chemotherapy drugs means “Cure”, whereas “Control” defines the situation that full remission seems far-fetched; therefore, the objective of the therapy would be to decrease the tumor size or to diminish the growth rate and angiogenesis. Palliation aims to alleviate the pain, symptoms, and medical conditions arisen due to cancer. It is mostly accomplished when cancer is in the advanced stages and cannot be eradicated; therefore, our aim would be to improve the quality of life.

The chemotherapy prescription approaches rely on various elements, including the cancer’s type, the cancer’s stage, the patient’s age, the patient’s general health status, the other concurrent health issues, and the history of receiving chemotherapies. Since chemotherapeutic drugs cannot distinguish normal cells against cancerous cells, the prescribed dosage is the other crucial aspect toward achieving the best possible response. The administration dosage depends on the patient’s weight, body surface area, age, nutrition status, history of radiation therapy, and blood cell count. Besides, a suitable drug administration schedule might help obtain the most efficient anti-cancer activity and minimum side effects [7, 8].

Abstract: Review: Molecular stress and neurovascular injury in the diabetic retina

Chuanyu Guo & Akrit Sodhi explore how molecular stress (i.e., glucose dysregulation, dysmetabolism, oxidative stress, and inflammation) promotes retinal vascular cell and neuronal injury in patients with diabetes mellitus.

Address correspondence to: Akrit Sodhi, Wilmer Eye Institute, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, 400 N. Broadway St., Smith Building, 4,039, Baltimore, Maryland 21,287, USA. Email: asodhi1@jhmi.edu.

Find articles by Guo, C. in: | Google Scholar |

Wilmer eye institute, johns hopkins university school of medicine, baltimore, maryland, USA.

Genetic sequencing has aided in the discovery of novel mutations in inborn errors of immunity, but their clinical relevance often remains unclear

In this Research Article, Marcus Altfeld & team identify a TLR8 gene mutation causing immune overactivation and inflammation in two siblings, linking genetic change to immune system dysfunction and disease: Immunology.

14 Hamburg Center for Translational Immunology;

15 German Center for Child and Adolescent Health (DZKJ), partner site Hamburg; and.

16 Institute of Medical Microbiology, Virology and Hygiene, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Cell-free DNA offers early warning for bloodstream infections in kids with leukemia

Researchers have identified a promising way to predict bloodstream infections in children with high-risk leukemia days before the infection would be diagnosed using current standards of care. The test, named plasma microbial cell-free DNA sequencing (mcfDNA-Seq), detected infection-causing pathogens days before standard blood cultures, offering a potential approach to protecting vulnerable patients by allowing treatment to start before the patient gets sick. The study is published in The Lancet Microbe.

Bloodstream infections are a major threat to children undergoing treatment for leukemia. Chemotherapy weakens the immune system, making even common bacteria or fungi potentially life-threatening. These infections can quickly lead to sepsis, prolonged hospital stays, delayed chemotherapy and, in some cases, early mortality. Catching these infections early is critical, yet clinicians currently have no reliable method to identify infections before symptoms appear.

“We’re not good at predicting or preventing infections in children with cancer, and the consequences can be deadly, causing lasting damage or delaying chemotherapy, which reduces the chances of successful treatment,” said first and corresponding author Joshua Wolf, Ph.D., MBBS, St. Jude Department of Infectious Diseases. “Many infections still happen even with the best prevention strategies we have, so what we really need is a way to detect infections before they start, so we can treat kids earlier and save lives.”

Insufficient Sleep in Adolescents and the Need for System Changes

💬 Editor’s Note by JAMA Editorial Fellow Randi Bates and JAMA Deputy Editor Tracy Lieu: Adolescents face increasing rates of insufficient sleep, driven by early school start times and digital media use, undermining cognitive and mental health.

Insufficient sleep is one of the most common health risks in adolescents and is associated with worse cognitive performance and academic achievement, as well as depression, other mental health conditions, and physical concerns. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine and American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommend adolescents aged 13 to 18 years sleep for 8 to 10 hours each night.1 Yet, studies have found that adequate sleep eludes most adolescents.2

In this issue of JAMA, Bommersbach and colleagues report worsening trends in insufficient sleep duration among US high school students based on an analysis of the national Youth Risk Behavior Survey.3 Insufficient sleep increased from 68.9% in 2007 to 76.8% in 2023, largely from increases in very short sleep durations of less than or equal to 5 hours per night. This trend was observed in all demographic groups and was generally consistent across subgroups characterized by behavioral risk factors.

These sweeping patterns suggest that structural and environmental factors may be driving increases in insufficient sleep at the population level. Although some studies have focused on changing individual behavior to increase sleep, such interventions may have limitations in adolescents whose self-regulatory and decision-making abilities are still maturing. Additionally, adolescents may lack sufficient agency to overcome school or social system barriers that limit sleep.

Structures of hantavirus glycoprotein tetramers

This surface protein complex for the Andes virus is a mushroom-shaped structure called a Gn-Gc tetramer. To map the 3D structures, the team first produced virus-like particles that mimic a real virus, but without the genome that makes a virus infectious. They then used a cryo-electron microscope—which shines an electron beam through a frozen sample and detects the shadows created by molecules—to reconstruct the three-dimensional structures of the Gn-Gc tetramers on the surface of the virus-like particles.

But there was a twist: To obtain extremely high-resolution structures, the researchers painstakingly identified and isolated shadows from only the tetramers that were pointing sidewise relative to the electron beam and ignored those pointing in other directions. This allowed them to borrow a reconstruction method typically used on individual proteins.

The resulting structures have an extremely high resolution of 2.3 angstroms, meaning details the size of just a couple of atoms were effectively captured. That’s enough to represent a transformational improvement over another team’s model of the tetramer from a few years ago, at a resolution of 12 angstroms, still tiny but large enough to produce some key inaccuracies – ones effectively corrected with the newer method and resulting structure.

These latest structures show the Gn-Gc tetramer in a particular state before it has infected a cell. For vaccines or antibody therapies to be most effective against a hantavirus, mimicking surface proteins at this pre-infection stage is essential. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.

Hantaviruses, transmitted from rodents to people, have a death rate approaching 40%. They’re found around the world, and because there are no approved vaccines or treatments, they’re among the pathogens of highest concern for future pandemics. They made news in the United States last year when Betsy Arakawa, the wife of actor Gene Hackman, died from a hantavirus infection in New Mexico in March.

New findings published in the journal Cell about the Andes virus, a hantavirus endemic to the southwestern U.S. and other parts of North and South America, represent a crucial first step towards much-needed vaccines and antibody therapies for this and other hantaviruses.

Continue reading “Structures of hantavirus glycoprotein tetramers” | >

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