Sarcopenia, a prevalent condition among the elderly, is characterized by a progressive decline in muscle mass and function, which can significantly diminish quality of life and increase the risk of falls, injuries, and dependency. More research is needed to create effective strategies that enable the aging population to remain healthy and independent. Now researchers from IRB Barcelona report that a protein may be the key to combatting sarcopenia. The findings are published in Authophagy in an article titled, “TP53INP2-dependent activation of muscle autophagy ameliorates sarcopenia and promote ..read more

Scientists from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (MSSM) have published a study that describes the biological mechanism used by a family of proteins called histone deacetylases to activate immune system cells linked to inflammatory diseases. Their work is detailed in a new paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) titled, “Class IIa HDAC4 and HDAC7 cooperatively regulate gene transcription in Th17 cell differentiation.” Eighteen HDACs have been identified in mammals that act as epigenetic regulators and post-transcriptional modifiers. As the PNAS paper ..read more

Long-term daily use of aspirin can help to prevent the development and progression of colorectal cancer (CRC) but the mechanisms involved have been unclear. New research headed by investigators at the University of Padova, has revealed that aspirin may exert these protective effects by boosting certain aspects of the body’s immune response against cancer cells. The team, headed by Marco Scarpa MD, PhD, of the University of Padova, analyzed clinical and pathological data from patients who had undergone surgery for their CRC, and also carried out studies using CRC cell lines. Reporting their fin ..read more

Scientists at Helmholtz Munich and the LMU University Hospital Munich have introduced DELiVR which, they say, offers a new AI-based approach to the complex task of brain cell mapping. The deep learning tool reportedly democratizes advanced neuroscience by eliminating the need for coding expertise. DELiVR was designed to allow biologists to investigate disease-related spatial cell dynamics efficiently, with the goal of developing precision therapies for enhanced patient care. The researchers discuss their work “Virtual reality-empowered deep-learning analysis of brain cells” in Nature Methods ..read more

Boehringer Ingelheim will apply Ochre Bio’s discovery platform to develop novel, first-in-class regenerative treatments for late-stage metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) cirrhosis and other chronic liver diseases (CLDs), through a collaboration that could generate more than $1 billion for the British developer of RNA-based liver treatments. By using Ochre Bio’s combination computational and multi-omic platform, Boehringer aims to identify, characterize, and validate multiple novel regenerative targets for treatments that can prevent or reverse disease progression by enhanc ..read more

Researchers have designed a new method for developing immunotherapy drugs using engineered peptides to elicit a natural immune response inside the body. More specifically, they showed, in antigen presenting cells, that “the hydrophobicity, electrostatic charge, and secondary conformation of helical polypeptides can be optimized to stimulate innate immune pathways via endoplasmic reticulum stress.” In preclinical models of locally advanced and metastatic breast cancer, this method improved tumor control and prolonged survival, both as a monotherapy and in combination with immune checkpoint inhi ..read more

A method has been reported by researchers from Tsinghua University in China, which enables the efficient and high-throughput production of lung cancer assembloids. These assembloids are three-dimensional structures that encapsulate tumor microenvironment cells derived from patients’ tumors and lung cancer organoids within microgels. The lung cancer assembloids not only reproduce the molecular, cellular, and functional diversity of the original tumors, but also accurately mimic the clinical outcomes of patients. This indicates that the cancer assembloid model has the potential to predict person ..read more

Researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University have developed a new approach to harnessing immunostimulatory cytokine proteins as a potential immunotherapy. Unlike previous methods, the new technique ensures that the cytokines, which are tethered to microparticles, effectively localize within the tumors for weeks, minimizing systemic exposure, while preserving cytokine structure and activity. In multiple, hard-to-treat mouse models of cancer, therapy using the particle-anchored cytokines in combination with immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) immunotherapy resulted in tumor re ..read more

Episode 18 (April 19, 2024): Biology’s exploding data streams continue to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) tools to streamline drug development. How do we define AI in drug discovery? Who are notable players in the space? How do humans fit into these growing computational pipelines? This week, Jonathan Grinstein, PhD (Senior Editor, GEN) and Fay Lin, PhD (Senior Editor, GEN Biotechnology) unpack one of the fastest growing topics in the biotech field, AI in drug discovery. Listed below are key references to the GEN stories, media, and other items discussed in this episode of Touching Base ..read more

Liver inflammation, a common side-effect of cancers elsewhere in the body, has long been associated with worse cancer outcomes and more recently associated with poor response to immunotherapy. Now, researchers from the Abramson Cancer Center and Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania believe they know why. The team, which published its study “Hepatocytes coordinate immune evasion in cancer via release of serum amyloid A proteins” in Nature Immunology, discovered that cancer-induced liver inflammation causes liver cells to secrete serum amyloid A (SAA) proteins, which cir ..read more