Earth
A common and inexpensive drug may be used to counteract treatment resistance in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), one of the most common forms of blood cancer. This is the conclusion of a study in mice and human blood cells performed at Karolinska Institutet and SciLifeLab and published in the medical journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. The researchers will now launch a clinical study to test the new combination treatment in patients.
In 2017 a paper was published asserting that intravenous vitamin C given to patients with sepsis was literally a life saver. Despite the study only looking at 47 subjects the results garnered international coverage and was adopted in many ICUs worldwide.
The U.N. and other international organizations agree that forest restoration is a critical part of the collective global effort to combat climate change, reduce extinctions, and improve the lives of people in rural communities. Dozens of nations have pledged to restore 230 million hectares of forest so far as part of projects such as the Bonn Challenge and REDD+. The Bonn Challenge goal is to restore 350 million hectares by 2030.
Senescent cells, which stop dividing under stress, are long- recognized drivers of multiple diseases of aging. Mouse studies have shown that targeted removal of these cells and the inflammatory factors they secrete, known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP), has beneficial results on multiple organ systems and functions. Success in the laboratory has given rise to companies and research projects aimed at developing either senolytics, drugs that clear senescent cells, or senomorphics, drugs that suppress the SASP.
An international team of scientists has synthetically engineered mosquitoes that halt the transmission of the dengue virus.
Led by biologists at the University of California San Diego, the research team describes details of the achievement in Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the insects that spread dengue in humans, on January 16 in the journal PLOS Pathogens.
CHAPEL HILL, N.C.-Comparison shopping for airfare, a TV or a car can be straightforward online. The same cannot be said for checking what hospitals charge for a standard radiation treatment for prostate cancer, according to a report published in JAMA Oncology.
Some things we do appear almost automatic, like opening the fridge when feeling hungry or flipping on the air conditioning when the temperature rises. Although such decisions don't seem to take much thought, they are in fact generated by millions of neurons and numerous interactions among several brain regions--a dynamic system so complex that scientists aren't able to observe it fully and in real time, even in simple organisms.
Boston, Mass. - Interoception is the awareness of our physiological states; it's how animals and humans know they're hungry or thirsty, and how they know when they've had enough to eat or drink. But precisely how the brain estimates the state of the body and reacts to it remains unclear. In a paper published in the journal Neuron, neuroscientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) shed new light on the process, demonstrating that a region of the brain called the insular cortex orchestrates how signals from the body are interpreted and acted upon.
Researchers from the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs and the University of Sussex analysed USD 1.3 trillion of research funding around the world.
Between 1990 and 2018, less than 4.59% of the funding was spent on climate-related research.
Only 0.12% of the research funding was spent on a critical issue: how to change societies to mitigate climate change.
Vast funding goes into research on the impact of climate change and adaptation to it, rather than into trying find out how it can be prevented socially.
Cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae, are among the most common organisms on Earth. A research team led by the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and Heidelberg University has now shown for the first time that Cyanobacteria produce relevant amounts of methane in oceans, inland waters and on land. Due to climate change, "Cyanobacteria blooms" increase in frequency and extent, amplifying the release of methane from inland waters and oceans to the atmosphere.
Cell-to-cell contacts are necessary for the survival of human cells under protein-damaging conditions and stress. This was one of the conclusions made by a research team working under the leadership of Lea Sistonen, Professor in Cell and Molecular Biology at Åbo Akademi University. The results of their research were recently published in the Cell Reports journal.
The researchers were surprised by the findings because the molecules they studied are usually linked with other cellular functions.
Optical sensing in the mid to long infrared (5microns - um) is becoming of utmost importance in different fields since it is proving to be an excellent tool for environmental monitoring, gas sensing, thermal imaging as well as food quality control or the pharmaceutical industry, to name a few. The amount of information hidden within this very rich spectral window opens new possibilities for multi or even hyperspectral imaging. Even though there are technologies that can address these challenges, they are very complex and expensive.
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Scientists studying fossils collected 35 years ago have identified them as the oldest-known scorpion species, a prehistoric animal from about 437 million years ago. The researchers found that the animal likely had the capacity to breathe in both ancient oceans and on land.
A massive research effort over more than a quarter century has tried to make personalized blood stem cells for use in treating leukemias, among many other uses. One way researchers have gone about this is to sample a patient's adult cells and then "deprogram" them to create induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which are capable of forming any of the body's cell types, including blood cells. Unfortunately, these iPSCs also have the potential to become cancer.
EAST LANSING, Mich. - When it comes to certain parts of the brain, bigger doesn't necessarily equate to better memory. According to a new study led by Michigan State University, a larger hippocampus, a curved, seahorse-shaped structure embedded deep in the brain, does not always reliably predict learning and memory abilities in older adults.