Unlike the rigid skeletons within our bodies, the skeletons within individual cells—cytoskeletons—are changeable, even fluid. And when these cytoskeletons reorganize themselves, they do more than support different cell shapes. They permit different functions. Little wonder, then, that scientists who build artificial cells hope to create synthetic cytoskeletons that act like natural cytoskeletons. Synthetic cytoskeletons capable of supporting dynamic changes in cell shape and function could enable the development of novel drug delivery systems, diagnostic tools, and regenerative medicine applic ..read more

Post-mitotic neurons in the brain that re-enter the cell cycle quickly succumb to senescence, and this cell cycle re-entry and accumulation of resulting senescent neurons is more common in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain than in the normal brain, according to the results of a study headed by Kim Hei-Man Chow, PhD, and colleagues at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The team applied a bioinformatics approach to analyze single nucleotide RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) datasets from human AD brain samples. They found that these senescent cells displayed more proinflammatory, metabolically deregulat ..read more

Chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell and T-cell receptor (TCR) T-cell therapies are promising treatments for a range of cancers, offering hope to patients whose cancers have become refractory to conventional therapeutic options. Speakers at the recent CAR-TCR Summit Europe in London agreed that despite their efficacy, CAR/TCR-T cell therapy faces challenges that can result in high costs, and limited accessibility. “Investment in advanced therapies is dropping so drug developers are restricting their pipeline development to save costs,” noted Qian Liu, PhD, head of plasmid engineering & l ..read more

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