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Category: biotech/medical

New Insight into Bone Immunity in Marrow Cavity and Cancellous Bone Microenvironments and Their Regulation

Bone immunity represents a dynamic interface where skeletal homeostasis intersects with systemic immune regulation. We synthesize emerging paradigms by contrasting two functionally distinct microenvironments: the marrow cavity, a hematopoietic and immune cell reservoir, and cancellous bone, a metabolically active hub orchestrating osteoimmune interactions. The marrow cavity not only generates innate and adaptive immune cells but also preserves long-term immune memory through stromal-derived chemokines and survival factors, while cancellous bone regulates bone remodeling via macrophage-osteoclast crosstalk and cytokine gradients. Breakthroughs in lymphatic vasculature identification challenge traditional views, revealing cortical and lymphatic networks in cancellous bone that mediate immune surveillance and pathological processes such as cancer metastasis.

🧠 The Emotional Brain Under Stress: How the Amygdala Connects Chronic Stress to Chronic Disease

We often think of stress as something that just “gets on our nerves,” but what if it’s actually reshaping our brain — and our long-term health?A recent scientific review published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy by Juhyun Song (2023) highlights a fascinating and urgent connection between the brain’s emotional hub — the amygdala — and our rising burden of metabolic diseases, dementia, and mental health disorders. This tiny almond-shaped structure deep in our brain does more than generate fear or

Fluorescent probe lights up centrioles and cilia in living cells across species

Scientists at EPFL have developed CenSpark, a fluorescent probe that makes centrioles and cilia visible inside living cells, helping researchers study cell division, development, and immunity like never before.

Inside every human cell lies a world of microscopic structures that control movement, division, and communication. Among them are centrioles and cilia, crucial components of cell signaling, motility, and division.

Centrioles organize cellular architecture and guide cell division, while cilia act as sensory and motile antennae. Defects in their formation or function are associated with a wide range of diseases, including ciliopathies and cancer.

Bile Acids in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: From Pathophysiology to Treatment

💡Check out this Highly Cited Paper: 🧬 by Bai, S. H., et al. (2024). Biomedicines, 12(12), 2910.

📖Read the full text: https://brnw.ch/21x1SkJ 🔍 Key highlights This review explores the role of bile acids in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease and highlights their potential as therapeutic targets. It discusses emerging treatments, including bile acid receptor agonists, dietary interventions, probiotics, and stem cell therapies, which may reduce disease activity and improve patient outcomes.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic condition that affects about 7 million people worldwide, and new therapies are needed. Understanding the complex roles that bile acids (BAs) play in IBD may lead to the development of novel IBD treatments independent of direct immunosuppression. This review discusses the latest discoveries in the roles BAs play in IBD pathogenesis and explores how these discoveries offer promising new therapeutic targets to treat IBD and improve patient outcomes. Several therapies discussed include specific BA receptor (BAR) agonists, dietary therapies, supplements, probiotics, and mesenchymal stem cell therapies that have all been shown to decrease IBD disease activity.

The long-lived immune system of centenarians

What is unique about the immune system of people who live to extreme old age? Here the authors describe that centenarians may achieve such longevity through several mechanisms, including limiting the pathological effects of inflammageing and immunosenescence, preservation of immune surveillance, sustained gut microbial diversity and maintenance of intestinal barrier integrity.

‘Eventually, it becomes you’: Inventors of new ‘living’ knee replacement describe why this tech is desperately needed and how it works

Live Science spoke with the developers of a living knee implant that could help more patients in need of knee replacements get them.

DNA Can Be Built in a Way We’ve Never Seen Before, Study Finds

Scientists have just discovered an entirely new way that DNA can be synthesized.

The business of constructing DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid, to give it its full name) usually requires a template that builder proteins called enzymes can work from.

But now, a team from Stanford University has found that a type of enzyme known as a polymerase can work without a blueprint. Its shape itself acts as a mold that new DNA can be synthesized from, with no external reference materials required.

Three-Year Patient-Reported Outcomes From Bimekizumab for Plaque Psoriasis: The BE RADIANT Randomized Clinical Trial With Open-Label Extension

In a phase 3b randomized clinical trial with open-label extension, bimekizumab demonstrated rapid and sustained improvement in patient-reported outcomes and clinical measures for individuals with moderate to severe PlaquePsoriasis.

By week 4 and through 3 years, a majority of patients reported no itching, skin pain, or scaling, and achieved Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI) scores reflecting minimal or no impact on daily life.

Patients switching from secukinumab to bimekizumab at 1 year experienced improvements in perceived symptoms and quality of life comparable to those continuously treated with bimekizumab.

This randomized clinical trial with an open-label extension assesses patient-reported and clinical outcomes among patients with moderate to severe plaque psoriasis treated with bimekizumab.

Clinical Utility of Deep Learning–based Multiple Arterial Phase MRI in Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosis relies heavily on well‑timed arterial phase MRI, yet single arterial phase scans often miss the optimal late arterial phase, especially with hepatobiliary contrast agents that are prone to motion artifacts and narrow timing windows. These limitations can compromise image quality and reduce detection of key features such as arterial phase hyperenhancement.

In a study recently published in Radiology: Imaging Cancer, researchers led by Kai Liu, BS, Zhongshan Hospital at Fudan University in Shanghai, compared conventional single phase imaging with an ultrafast, deep learning-based multiphase MRI technique, which can rapidly acquire six high-resolution arterial phases in a single breath hold.

In a cohort of 236 participants, the deep learning–based multiphase MRI technique markedly improved late arterial capture, boosted overall image quality and enhanced detection of lesions and HCC for both extracellular and hepatobiliary agents. The method achieved a late arterial capture rate of 98% (vs. 81% to 85% with single phase imaging) and showed strong performance in identifying small tumors.

“These findings support the potential of deep learning-based multiphase arterial MRI to streamline HCC diagnosis,” the authors conclude.

Read the full article, “Clinical Utility of Deep Learning–based Multiple Arterial Phase MRI in Hepatocellular Carcinoma.”

Microfluidic device tracks cell ‘squishiness’ faster and more reliably than standard methods

Researchers from Brown University and their collaborators have developed a new way to measure the properties of cells—an important development, they say, because accurate measurements of changes in cell elasticity can be used to better understand diseases, diagnose patient symptoms and provide more accurate prognoses.

For example, cancer cells from tumors typically soften as they become more dangerous and likely to spread, while blood diseases like malaria and sickle cell can cause red blood cells to stiffen. Mechanical changes on a cellular level are also seen in neurodegenerative, cardiovascular and chronic inflammatory illnesses.

As detailed in a study in the journal Lab on a Chip, the researchers developed what they call a “mechanophenotyping cytometer”—a microfluidic device designed to measure a cell’s physical size and squishiness, known as its mechanical phenotype.

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