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When tested in brain cells and in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease, a new compound significantly reduced the number of amyloid plaques in the brain, lessened brain inflammation and diminished other molecular markers of the disease. The researchers who developed the compound reported their findings in the journal ACS […]

A simple blood test that can detect Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been discovered and validated in a joint effort by a McGill team and researchers in Sweden. Their results are published in the May issue of The Lancet Neurology. An accompanying commentary calls the discovery “transformative.” The blood test accurately measures one of the […]

A new round of support will help a Purdue University-affiliated startup further develop a platform designed to create drugs for people with hard-to-treat cancers. Akanocure Pharmaceuticals, Inc., has received Small Business Innovation Research Phase II funding from America's Seed Fund, powered by the National Science Foundation, to develop chemical tools and platforms to produce valuable […]

Millions of people around the world use acid suppressants called proton pump inhibitors for conditions like heartburn, gastritis and stomach ulcers. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now report how the long-term use of these drugs could increase the risk of developing dementia. Their results are published in the journal […]

Hematopoietic stem cells from a healthy donor can help patients suffering from acute leukemia. However, the side effects of therapies are often severe. A group of researchers led by the University of Zurich have now shown how human healthy and cancerous hematopoietic stem cells can be more selectively eliminated using […]

Killing cells is easy. Killing only the cells that you want to kill, while leaving all other cells untouched, is very much more challenging. The ability to do this is fundamental to much of the future of medicine, however. The aging body contains many cell populations that cause significant harm […]

The ionome is the elemental composition of a tissue, organ, or individual. This composition changes over the course of aging, and may do so in ways that allow the production of an aging clock, a measure of chronological or physiological age. This line of development adds to work on the well-known epigenetic clocks, proteomic […]

For over a decade, Stefania Nicoli, PhD, has used zebrafish to study disease. The remarkable similarities between humans and these tiny freshwater fish provide valuable information about the genetic root of human disease. The Nicoli lab investigates how microRNAs (miRNAs) play a role in the physiology of the cardiovascular system. The lab […]

University of Virginia researchers are pioneering the use of focused ultrasound to defy the brain’s protective barrier so that doctors could, at last, deliver many treatments directly into the brain to battle neurological diseases. The approach, the researchers hope, could revolutionize treatment for conditions from Alzheimer’s to epilepsy to brain […]

Men are more susceptible to COVID-19. However, those who have cancer are even more vulnerable as they face a 1.8-​fold increased risk of COVID-​19 infection compared to the whole male population. Men with cancer also develop more severe symptoms and are harder to treat. However, a new study at the […]

A common feature of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease) is the progressive loss of synapses – the anatomical sites of communication between brain cells – throughout the brain and spinal cord. Typically, synapse loss becomes pervasive before the outward appearance […]

Many nerve cells in the brain region hypothalamus have unexpected origins and go through complex development programs, where millions of neurons assemble into a precisely knit network by birth. That is according to a study by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden and the Medical University of Vienna published in […]