General – Page 292 – Innovita Research
February 14, 2018

Current PSA Monitoring Ignores Risk to Some Prostate Cancer Survivors

Prostate cancer survivors make up the largest group, 41 percent, of male cancer survivors. In these survivors, early detection of recurrence can lead to life-saving interventions, but in older men who survived low-risk cancer and have limited life expectancy, those same interventions may do more harm than good. However, when UC San […]
February 14, 2018

Cancer-Killing Virus Acts by Alerting Immune System

A new UC San Francisco study has shown that a cancer-killing (“oncolytic”) virus currently in clinical trials may function as a cancer vaccine – in addition to killing some cancer cells directly, the virus alerts the immune system to the presence of a tumor, triggering a powerful, widespread immune response […]
February 14, 2018

Apalutamide Delays Progression of Nonmetastatic, Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer

Treatment with an investigational androgen receptor inhibitor significantly delayed the development of metastasis in patients with prostate cancer that had become resistant to standard androgen-deprivation therapy. The results of a multi-institutional, phase 3 clinical trial of apalutamide – led by investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and University of California […]
February 14, 2018

A Map App to Track Stem Cells

New imaging tool for recording changes over time, space and function Researchers who work with stem cells have ambitious goals. Some want to cure cancer or treat heart disease. Others want to grow the tissues and organs that patients need for transplants. Some groups are even working to develop highly […]
February 13, 2018

Light-activated cancer drugs without toxic side effects: fresh insight

Future cancer drugs that are activated by light and don’t cause the toxic side-effects of current chemotherapy treatments are closer to becoming a reality, thanks to new research made possible by the Monash Warwick Alliance, an intercontinental collaboration between the University of Warwick (UK) and Monash University (Australia). Led by […]
February 13, 2018

Positive attitudes about aging reduce risk of dementia in older adults

Research has shown that older persons who have acquired positive beliefs about old age from their surrounding culture are less likely to develop dementia. This protective effect was found for all participants, as well as among those carrying a gene that puts them at higher risk of developing dementia, a […]
February 13, 2018

Researchers develop novel immunotherapy to target colorectal cancer

A Yale-led research team has developed an antibody that blocks tumors in animal models of colorectal cancer. If the finding is confirmed in clinical trials, the antibody-based treatment could become an effective weapon against colorectal cancer, and possibly other cancers, that resist current immunotherapies, the researchers said. The study was published […]
February 13, 2018

Scientists Crack Structure of Enzyme Complex Linked to Cancer

A research team led by a biochemist at the University of California, Riverside has solved the crystal structure for an enzyme that plays a key role in DNA methylation, the process by which methyl groups are added to the DNA molecule. DNA methylation alters gene expression. This fundamental cellular mechanism […]
February 12, 2018

Asthma drug potential treatment for aortic aneurysm

“Our results are exciting and open the way for a medical treatment of this serious vascular disease,” says Professor Jesper Z. Haeggström at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics. An aortic aneurysm occurs when the wall of the body’s largest artery, the aorta, weakens and swells. The disease progresses slowly and […]
February 12, 2018

A new kind of homing beacon targets cancerous cells and other diseases

But this insidious killer has an Achilles’ heel. Many leukemia cells are betrayed by a molecule on their exterior surfaces known as CD19. When activated, CD19 will kill the cancer cell to which it is attached. To cancer biochemists, CD19 is like a tiny radio signal broadcasting to the world, […]
February 12, 2018

Inhibiting the growth of pancreatic cancer

The study, funded by the charity Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund, suggests that the new technique could potentially become a promising new treatment for patients with the aggressive disease, and could be combined with existing chemotherapy to improve chances of survival. Dr Stella Man, from BCI, said: “We’ve shown for the […]
February 12, 2018

Cancer ‘vaccine’ eliminates tumors in mice

Injecting minute amounts of two immune-stimulating agents directly into solid tumors in mice can eliminate all traces of cancer in the animals, including distant, untreated metastases, according to a study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The approach works for many different types of cancers, including those that […]
February 12, 2018

Study tracks therapy to slow idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis

Investigators in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary and Critical Care have launched a pilot study to see if patients with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) can tolerate the addition of a commonly used antiviral drug to standard IPF treatments. The research team believes the drug may ultimately help slow progression of […]
February 12, 2018

High exposure to radiofrequency radiation linked to tumor activity in male rats

High exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR) in rodents resulted in tumors in tissues surrounding nerves in the hearts of male rats, but not female rats or any mice, according to draft studies from the National Toxicology Program (NTP). The exposure levels used in the studies were equal to and higher […]
February 9, 2018

Stem cell divisions in the adult brain seen for the first time

Scientists from the University of Zurich have succeeded for the first time in tracking individual stem cells and their neuronal progeny over months within the intact adult brain. This study sheds light on how new neurons are produced throughout life. The generation of new nerve cells was once thought to […]
February 9, 2018

Research is Changing the Game for Melanoma Treatment

Wilmot Cancer Institute patients with advanced melanoma (stage III) now have more options for treatment, thanks to research co-authored by a University of Rochester Medical Center surgical oncologist and published in Lancet Oncology. The study involved comparing two treatment approaches for high-risk melanoma patients with a BRAF gene mutation in their cancer: standard […]
February 9, 2018

Another piece to the puzzle in naked mole rats’ long, cancer-free life

With their large buck teeth and wrinkled, hairless bodies, naked mole rats won’t be winning any awards for cutest rodent. But their long life span—they can live up to 30 years, the longest of any rodent—and remarkable resistance to age-related diseases, offer scientists key clues to the mysteries of aging […]
February 9, 2018

Precisely Timed Brain Stimulation Improves Memory

Precisely timed electrical stimulation to the left side of the brain can reliably and significantly enhance learning and memory performance by as much as 15 percent, according to a study by a team of University of Pennsylvania neuroscientists published  in Nature Communications. It is the first time such a connection has been made […]
February 9, 2018

UCSF study points to immune system's role in neural development

Between the ages of two and four, the human brain has an estimated one quadrillion synapses – the electrical connections between neurons. As we age, pruning out extraneous synapses enables existing ones to run more efficiently and is just as important as forming new cellular connections. An imbalance between synapse […]
February 9, 2018

Creation of New Brain Cells May Be Limited, Mouse Study Shows

It used to be that everyone knew that you are born with all the brain cells you’ll ever have. Then UC San Francisco’s Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, PhD, and other neuroscientists discovered in birds and mice that stem cells in certain parts of the brain do produce new neurons throughout the animal’s life. […]
February 9, 2018

Memory loss identified years before Alzheimer's symptoms appear

Experts from the University of Exeter and University College London(UCL) have developed a cognitive test to detect subtle memory deficits years before Alzheimer's disease symptoms develop, set out in a paper published in The Lancet Neurology. The study involved 21 people who carry the mutation for early onset Alzheimer's disease who have not shown any […]
February 9, 2018

Efficient Technique Discovered for Isolating Embryonic Stem Cells in Cows

For more than 35 years, scientists have tried to isolate embryonic stem cells in cows without much success. Under the right conditions, embryonic stem cells can grow indefinitely and make any other cell type or tissue, which has huge implications for creating genetically superior cows. In a study published in […]
February 9, 2018

Study reveals molecular mechanisms of memory formation

MIT neuroscientists have uncovered a cellular pathway that allows specific synapses to become stronger during memory formation. The findings provide the first glimpse of the molecular mechanism by which long-term memories are encoded in a region of the hippocampus called CA3. The researchers found that a protein called Npas4, previously […]
February 9, 2018

Surprise Finding Points to DNA’s Role in Shaping Cells

As a basic unit of life, the cell is one of the most carefully studied components of all living organisms. Yet details on basic processes such as how cells are shaped have remained a mystery. Working at the intersection of biology and physics, scientists at the University of California San […]
February 8, 2018

Biomimetics can replace dysfunctional body cells

One of the many ways science is going to find new solutions is biomimetics – also called bionik – where you try to imitate or restore nature's amazing properties all the way down to the molecular level. On the nanotechnical scale, researchers are working to produce artificial body cells and […]
February 7, 2018

Self-assembled “Hairy” Nanoparticles Could Give a Double Punch to Cancer

“Hairy” nanoparticles made with light-sensitive materials that assemble themselves could one day become “nano-carriers” providing doctors a new way to simultaneously introduce both therapeutic drugs and cancer-fighting heat into tumors. That’s one potential application for a new technology that combines water-repelling yet light-sensitive and water-absorbing materials into polymeric nano-reactors for […]
February 7, 2018

Half of all dementias, including Alzheimer’s, start with damaged ‘gatekeeper cells’

SC research sheds new light on how a breakdown in the brain’s vascular system predates the accumulation of toxic plaques and tangles in the brain that bring about Alzheimer’s disease. The research suggests an earlier target for preventing dementia and Alzheimer’s. Nearly 50 percent of all dementias, including Alzheimer’s, begins […]
February 7, 2018

FLUCS – microscopy becomes interactive

Simple motion inside biological cells, such as the streaming of cytoplasm – the liquid cell interior – is widely believed to be essential for cells and the development of complex organisms. But due to the lack of suitable tools, this intracellular motion could so far not be tested as hypothesized. […]