Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI) have demonstrated how cancer-fighting T cells can be engineered to clear tumors without succumbing to T cell exhaustion, a phenomenon that results in T cells giving up the antitumor fight after prolonged periods of overactivity. The newly reported findings demonstrated the key role of the transcription factor BATF in the cellular pathway that triggers T cell exhaustion, and showed how increasing levels of BATF in these cells boosts their cancer-fighting ability, with the help of another transcription factor IRF4. The results suggest a potential approach to increasing the effectiveness of CAR T cell-based immunotherapy against tumors, which is important because T cell exhaustion plagues even the most cutting-edge cancer immunotherapies.

“The idea is to give the cells a little bit of armor against the exhaustion program,” said LJI professor Patrick Hogan, PhD. “The cells can go into the tumor to do their job, and then they can stick around as memory cells.” The LJI team, headed by Hogan and LJI professor Anjana Rao, PhD, report on their studies in Nature Immunology, in a paper titled, “BATF and IRF4 cooperate to counter exhaustion in tumor-infiltrating CAR T cells.”

Fighting a tumor is a marathon, not a sprint. For cancer-fighting CD8+ T cells, the race is sometimes just too long, and they quite fighting. “CD8+ T cells that encounter antigen together with effective costimulatory signals mount strong effector responses that are able to clear pathogen-infected cells and tumor cells,” the team wrote. “In contrast, CD8+ T cells that infiltrate solid tumors and are exposed to prolonged antigen stimulation in the absence of adequate costimulation enter a hyporesponsive (exhausted or dysfunctional) state in which they do not effectively destroy tumor cells.”

Replacing Aging — Dr. Jean M. Hebert, Ph.D. Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Dr. Jean M. Hebert, Ph.D. (https://einsteinmed.org/faculty/9069/jean-hebert/) is Professor in the Department of Genetics and in the Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience, at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

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To date, there are no effective antidotes against most virus infections. An interdisciplinary research team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has now developed a new approach: they engulf and neutralize viruses with nano-capsules tailored from genetic material using the DNA origami method. The strategy has already been tested against hepatitis and adeno-associated viruses in cell cultures. It may also prove successful against corona viruses.

“Our studies in mice revealed how genes co-operate to cause cancer in different organs. We identified main players, the order in which they occur during tumor progression, and the molecular processes how they turn normal cells into threatening cancers. Such processes are potential targets for new treatments”.

Why do alterations of certain genes cause cancer only in specific organs of the human body? Scientists at the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and the University Medical Center Göttingen have now demonstrated that cells originating from different organs are differentially susceptible to activating mutations in cancer drivers: The same mutation in precursor cells of the pancreas or the bile duct leads to fundamental different outcomes. The team discovered for the first time that tissue specific genetic interactions are responsible for the differential susceptibility of the biliary and the pancreatic epithelium towards transformation by oncogenes. The new findings could guide more precise therapeutic decision making in the future.

There have been no major improvements in the treatment of pancreatic and biliary tract cancer in the last decades and no effective targeted therapies are available to date. “The situation for patients with pancreatic and extrahepatic bile duct cancer is still very depressing with approximately only 10% of patients surviving five years,” says Dieter Saur, DKTK Professor for Translational Cancer Research at TUM’s university hospital Klinikum rechts der Isar, DKTK partner site Munich.

Continue reading “Why identical mutations cause different types of cancer” »

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – Scientists at the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health have developed a vaccine that could be effective against COVID-19, its variants — and a future coronavirus pandemic.

While no one knows which virus may cause the next outbreak, coronaviruses remain a threat after causing the SARS outbreak in 2003 and the global COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a study published June 22 in Science, the vaccine designed at UNC-Chapel Hill protected mice from the current SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, plus a group of coronaviruses known to make the jump from animals to humans.

The world is in urgent need of a vaccine that protects against all coronaviruses, even those we’ve not met yet, warn scientists, as plans for human trials of potential candidates ramp up.

Pulsechain has raised $25000, 000 for antiaging medical research after 5 days of a 14 day fundraiser. You must follow the SENS.org PulseChain instructions. Sacrifices to SENS.org during the sacrifice phase earn 25% less points compared to sacrifices at Pulse.info. SENS.org can also accept stocks and bank wires. Once the sacrifice phase is over, the total sacrifice points for each sacrificer’s address’s points (at the same metamask address) are totaled up across all the supported chains and the SENS.org report. This creates a list of sacrificers ranked by total points from largest to smallest.

SENS Research Foundation has been working to develop, promote, and ensure widespread access to therapies that cure and prevent the diseases and disabilities of aging by comprehensively repairing the damage that builds up in our bodies over time. SENS is redefining the way the world researches and treats age-related ill health, while inspiring the next generation of biomedical scientists. Aubrey dr Grey and SENS have been the leading proponents of repairing aging damage to reverse aging effects. They have been leading the research effort for aging damage repair for over 20 years.

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Summary: Newly synthesized compounds can halt the degradation of neurons in a range of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, researchers say.

Source: Ural Federal University

Russian scientists have synthesized chemical compounds that can stop the degeneration of neurons in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other severe brain pathologies. These substances can provide a breakthrough in the treatment of neurodegenerative pathologies.

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“In this study, for the first time, we see evidence that events which were always assumed to be occurring in the same manner, regardless of sex, may actually be completely different in males compared to females. The fact that these differences involve astrocytes, which have traditionally been ignored in neuroscience but have recently become a hot topic for study, makes them all the more intriguing.”

Summary: Thrombospondin-2, a protein with cell adhesion properties usually secreted by astrocytes, prompted a strong increase in synapses in male-derived neurons but showed no effect in females.

Source: Marshall University

Continue reading “Non-Neuronal Cells Drive Sex Differences in Early Brain Development” »