Research News

Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have developed a new gene therapy approach that shows promise for treating the dry form of Age Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) – a progressive eye disease that affects up to 10% of adults over 65 years of age and is a leading cause of severe vision impairment and blindness in this age group.

Many tumor cells mist themselves with a protective perfume that disables the immune system. But a drug already approved for other purposes can apparently render this weapon harmless. This is shown in a study by the University of Bonn and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, which has now appeared in the Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. The researchers now want to further optimize the compound. In the medium term, this could pave the way for new anti-cancer drugs.

Novel discovery has revealed how the tau protein, a critical element in the formation of Alzheimers disease, is also involved in normal learning processes in the healthy brain, potentially providing a focal point for future drug therapies.

Employing a sensitive method named proximity labelling, the team aimed to identify all proteins that tau comes in contact with within brain cells, labelling and identifying the whole collection of interacting proteins as they went.

Morphogens are molecules that travel from biological cell to cell to pattern tissues in the embryo. These molecules are important not only for the embryo during development, but also for the adult during tissue repair. However, the way these morphogens are distributed to ensure patterning occurs is still not fully understood.

A historically overlooked rod-like projection present on nearly every cell type in the human body may finally be getting its scientific due: A new study has found that these appendages, called cilia, on neurons in the brain have a key role in ensuring a specific dopamine receptor’s signals are properly received.

A common, economic, and easy method of administering drugs is orally, by swallowing a pill or capsule. But oral administration is the most complex way for the human body to absorb an active pharmaceutical ingredient, because the bioavailability of the drug in the gastrointestinal tract depends on the medication’s ingredients and the stomach’s dynamic physiological environment.

Inflammation is an essential part of the body's healing process. But when it persists, it can contribute to a wide range of complex diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and autoimmune diseases.

Now, world-first genetic research from the University of South Australia shows a direct link between low levels of vitamin D and high levels of inflammation, providing an important biomarker to identify people at higher risk of or severity of chronic illnesses with an inflammatory component.

Scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore have uncovered a mechanism that leads to an advanced form of fatty liver disease—and it turns out that vitamin B12 and folic acid supplements could reverse this process.

These findings could help people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, an umbrella term for a range of liver conditions affecting people who drink little to no alcohol, which affects 25 per cent of all adults globally, and four in 10 adults in Singapore.

The preliminary analysis of Adverse Drug Reaction (ADR) from the PvPI database reveals that Tacrolimus is associated with Gingival Hypertrophy.