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CLEVELAND - A novel gene therapy clinical trial at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer Center and the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center is showing promising results, garnering funding with a prestigious U01 Grant from the National Cancer Institute. The trial focuses on turning patients with a poor prognosis into those with a good prognosis.

DNA replication is essential for living organisms to faithfully deliver genetic information from parental cells to daughter cells. Many proteins are assembled on the parental DNA to work as replication machineries. Among them, the proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is a key replication protein. This ring-structured molecule encircles chromosomes, thread-like structures where DNA molecules is packed into, during DNA replication. Just like a ring on a string, PCNA-ring is tightly linked to DNA.

Researchers at Tokyo Institute of Technology (Tokyo Tech) and NEC Corporation, Japan, present a 39 GHz transceiver with built-in calibration for fifth-generation (5G) applications. The advantages to be gained include better quality communications as well as cost-effective scalability.

A team of more than 20 researchers at Tokyo Tech and NEC Corporation has successfully demonstrated a 39 GHz transceiver that could be used in the next wave of 5G wireless equipment including base stations, smartphones, tablets and Internet-of-Things (IoT) applications.

A new study conducted by researchers at the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the Abigail Wexner Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital and the Central Ohio Poison Center investigated trends in calls to poison control centers across the country for exposure to liquid laundry detergent packets. It found a modest decrease in calls for children younger than 6 years of age following adoption of a 2015 product safety standard but an increase in calls for older children and adults.

AUGUSTA, Ga. (June 3, 2019) - Nearly half the amplitude typically used in standard electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) seems to be effective at treating suicidal thoughts, investigators report.

The small, randomized pilot study, the first to look at lower-amp ECT for suicidal ideation in patients with major depressive disorder and bipolar depression, included a total of seven patients, three treated with low amplitude ECT at 500 milliamps, and four with a standard amplitude of 900 milliamps, Medical College of Georgia investigators report in the journal Brain Sciences.

The bigger the brain in relation to body size, the more intelligent a living organism is. This means that mammalian species with large brains are smarter than small-brained mammals. However, developing a large brain comes at a price: An infant expends around two-thirds of its energy alone on supplying nourishment to its brain. That huge amount of energy must be continually available in the form of milk and, later on, through the intake of food.

The fight against superbugs could be helped by the discovery of a potential therapy based on the body's natural immune defences.

Scientists have found that a molecule produced by the body - called LL-37 - changes the way cells behave when they are invaded by bacteria.

The molecule acts like a fire alarm, experts say, warning the body's immune system of the infection and the need for urgent action.

At this year's Euroanaesthesia Congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June), doctors present the unique case of a man who suffered a flash fire in his chest cavity during emergency heart surgery caused by supplemental oxygen leaking from a ruptured lung.

More than 15 years after scientists first mapped the human genome, most diseases still cannot be predicted based on one's genes, leading researchers to explore epigenetic causes of disease. But the study of epigenetics cannot be approached the same way as genetics, so progress has been slow. Now, researchers at the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children's Hospital have determined a unique fraction of the genome that scientists should focus on.

Some doctors fear litigation and professional ruin if they are seen to have overprescribed opioids to terminally ill patients, according to a University of Queensland researcher.

Palliative care expert Professor Geoffrey Mitchell said opioid overuse and some states' new assisted dying legislation had put end-of-life care clinicians created a "perfect storm" of fear for clinicians involved in end-of-life care.

Giving patients virtual reality sessions before and during locoregional anaesthesia for orthopaedic procedures substantially reduces pain and the need for intravenous sedation, according to new research being presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June).

Tokyo, Japan - Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have successfully determined the high-resolution three-dimensional structure of proteins inside living eukaryotic cells. They combined "in-cell" nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, a bioreactor system and cutting-edge computational algorithms to determine protein structures in crowded intracellular environments for the first time.

Astrocytes are overtaxed neurons' pit crew.

The brain cells collect damaged lipids secreted by hyperactive neurons, then recycle those toxic molecules into energy, researchers at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Janelia Research Campus report May 23, 2019, in the journal Cell. It's a mechanism to protect neurons from the damaging side effects of overactivity. And it's another important role for astrocytes, which support neurons in various ways.

Performing a procedure on the wrong side of a patient's body, although rare, may be more common than generally thought. More than 80 wrong side error (WSE) incidents were reported across 100 hospitals in Spain over the past decade, according to new research being presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia Congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June).

Nicotine and caffeine withdrawal can cause unnecessary suffering to patients in intensive care units (ICUs), and could be leading to unneeded laboratory testing and diagnostic imaging such as X-rays and MRIs, according to a systematic review of clinical and observational studies involving 483 adults.

The findings are being presented at this year's Euroanaesthesia congress (the annual meeting of the European Society of Anaesthesiology) in Vienna, Austria (1-3 June).