Ulefnersen, an RNA-targeted therapy being developed by Ionis Pharmaceuticals and Otsuka Pharmaceutical, improved measurements of functional impairment and survival in patients with a rare, genetic ALS subtype in a Phase 3 trial.
Type 1 diabetes isn’t an overnight attack against the body’s ability to make insulin. It can be a sustained campaign over years that relentlessly targets insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. Scientists have not fully understood why this autoimmune attack—when the body’s immune system mistakenly destroys its own healthy cells—persists so long rather than petering out.
Researchers from City of Hope have developed a new “plug-and-play” technology that adds engineered molecules to chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells after treatment, allowing scientists to better control the cells and redirect them to attack different types of cancer. Published in Cancer Immunology Research, the preclinical study offers a more flexible way to help CAR T cells keep pace with mutating tumors.
A UCLA research team has engineered a new type of immune cell that attacks atherosclerotic plaques—the fatty buildup inside artery walls that drives most heart attacks and strokes. These engineered cells work by recognizing three harmful cell types within plaques. The paper is published in the journal Circulation Research.
E. coli in uncooked meat can cause diarrhea and food poisoning. Scientists, however, have found a way to turn the bacterium into a delivery agent that takes drugs straight to a tumor and transforms it into a tiny cancer drug dispensary.
A single blood draw that screens for more than 50 cancers substantially increased cancer detection when added to standard screening, identifying cancers that otherwise might have gone undetected until later stages, according to a new study from the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Cancer Institute.
Cornell researchers have developed a portable diagnostic test that can simultaneously detect and distinguish Ebola and Lassa.
Tumors require a blood supply to grow and survive. The blood vessels that nourish tumors can have different characteristics across cancer types and could be connected to patient survival and outcomes. Researchers from Mass General Brigham Cancer Institute, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a prospective cohort study using advanced imaging techniques to microscopically characterize colorectal tumor vessels.
Bone marrow transplants offer an unexpected way for diseased cells in the heart and brain to get replacement parts, a Stanford Medicine-led study has shown. The finding offers hope for the first effective treatment of mitochondrial disorders, a group of genetic diseases in which cells’ motors, called mitochondria, are dysfunctional.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia worldwide. Although the APOE ε4 allele is the strongest genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease, not all carriers develop dementia, indicating that other genetic factors can modify disease risk. In recent years, PLCG2 has emerged as one of the most important protective genes associated with Alzheimer’s disease.