Culture
In an aging society, one of the most important and urgent tasks of scientific research is to counteract the decline in motor function and muscle weakness that accompanies the aging process.
A research group led by Professor Yuji Yamanashi of the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo, conducted experiments using aged mice to demonstrate that muscle denervation at the neuromuscular junction (NMJ, *1) could be appreciably offset by an NMJ formation-enhancing treatment that strengthened the motor function and muscle of aged mice.
The simultaneous stimulation of the motor nerves of the brain and limbs (paired associative stimulation) has yielded promising research results. Research conducted at the BioMag Laboratory, operated by the University of Helsinki, Helsinki University Hospital and Aalto University, has previously demonstrated that simultaneous transcranial magnetic stimulation of the brain and electrical stimulation of the limb nerves constitute a useful method of motor rehabilitation in patients suffering from spinal cord injuries.
Sea trout get no peace. They're constantly exposed to new diseases and ailments, many of which are due to climate change and human activity.
Now researchers want to find out which diseases are affecting the fish in order to know how to help them. The researchers plan to explore the entire coast of Norway, but have started on a smaller scale.
With potential application diagnosing cancer or predicting how viruses, such as HIV, attack human cells, machine learning is opening promising new areas of application for bioinformatics - the data science of molecular biology. Dr Pengyi Yang from the Charles Perkins Centre and School of Mathematics and Statistics with colleagues has summarised the latest developments in this emerging field in a review article in Nature Machine Intelligence.
Lack of Continuing Research Into Infectious Disease Epidemics Endangers Pandemic Responses, According to Ben-Gurion University Researchers
BEER-SHEVA, Israel, August 17, 2020 - While the volume of research of infectious coronavirus diseases is very high after an outbreak, it drops substantially upon containment, which prevents a full understanding of coronavirus management and prevention, according to a new study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev researchers.
Neutron stars are the smallest and densest astrophysical objects with visible surfaces in the Universe. They form after gravitational collapses of the iron nuclei of massive (with masses about ten solar masses) stars at the end of their nuclear evolution. We can observe these collapses as supernovae explosions.
DA has become an important component of the methodology of ESS and has improved the observability and predictability of the Earth system. The rigorous and beautiful mathematical framework of DA reflects the harmony between reason and experience.
Antibodies targeting the normal PrP version of the prion protein have been found in humans selected at random with no history of any associated transmissible spongiform encephalopathies. The significance is that prion proteins can be converted into a disease-causing infectious particle like PrPSc, an aggregated version or isoform resistant to degradation by protease enzymes. Resulting prion diseases, like other neurodegenerative syndromes such as Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, are associated with accumulation of misfolded and aggregated proteins in the central nervous system.
A novel receptor protein that binds to the SARS-CoV-2 virus and prevents it from entering cells may hold promise for treating COVID-19 and other coronavirus-related diseases, according to research published online Aug. 4 in the journal SCIENCE.
Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) scientists have discovered a previously unknown method used by bacteria to evade immune responses.
The study, published in Nature Microbiology, points to potential new ways of countering bacterial infections, which are becoming increasingly resistant to antibiotics.
First author Dr Pankaj Deo said researchers in Dr Thomas Naderer's laboratory took a different approach to understanding the process by which bacteria release toxins that disarm the 'power-house' mitochondria in immune cells.
Cancer is a group of diseases characterised by uncontrolled cell growth caused by mutations, and other alterations in the genome of cells. A tumour can present from hundreds to thousands of mutations, but only a few are vital for its tumorigenic capacity. These key mutations affect the function of cancer driver genes. Finding the genes that harbour this cancer driver mutations is one of the main goals in cancer research.
Remarkable progress in our understanding of phosphate metabolism has been made over the last two decades, and this in turn has led to significant advances in the knowledge and management of diseases such as hypo- and hyperphosphatemia and tumour-induced osteomalacia, among other related disorders.
The prevalence of the highly infectious coronavirus disease, COVID-19, has caused massive health and socio-economic upheavals worldwide. Major slumps in industrial production due to stringent lockdown measures and export restrictions have led to severe logistical challenges and drastic disruptions to the global supply chains. Rising to the challenges and unprecedented demands, the 3D printing technology has demonstrated operational resilience with timely and innovative responses to help in the global supply efforts.
Stroke, Parkinson's disease and depression - these medical illnesses have one thing in common: they are caused by changes in brain functions. For a long time, research has therefore been conducted into ways of influencing individual brain functions without surgery in order to compensate for these conditions.
The development of chemotherapeutic agents with selective anti-cancer activities is increasingly unattractive due to the emergence of resistance, poor targeting of cancer tissues, and subsequent metastasis. Among tumor characteristic cell types, cancer stem cells are increasingly associated with cancer progression and metastasis, reflecting self-renewal and their propensity to enter the circulation.