Research News

Mayo Clinic researchers and colleagues at the University of Minnesota showed that COVID-19 exacerbates the damaging impact of senescent cells in the body. In preclinical studies, the senolytic drugs discovered at Mayo significantly reduced inflammation, illness, and mortality from COVID infection in older mice. The findings appear in the journal Science.

Scientists working to understand the cellular processes linking high cholesterol to breast cancer recurrence and metastasis report that a byproduct of cholesterol metabolism causes some cells to send out cancer-promoting signals to other cells. These signals are packaged in membrane-bound compartments called extracellular vesicles.

Reported in the journal Endocrinology, the discovery could lead to the development of new anti-cancer therapies, researchers say.

Type 1 diabetes, which arises when the pancreas doesn’t create enough insulin to control levels of glucose in the blood, is a disease that currently has no cure and is difficult for most patients to manage. Scientists at the Salk Institute are developing a promising approach for treating it: using stem cells to create insulin-producing cells (called beta cells) that could replace nonfunctional pancreatic cells.

New research identified a novel interaction between the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and the galectin-3-binding protein (LGALS3BP) which could be a new therapeutic anti-viral target. The research also found the presence of detectable viral RNA in blood in COVID-19 patients is a strong predictor of mortality.

It is 2019 when Prof. Saptarshi Majumdar & Dr. Chandra Shekhar Sharma from the Department of Chemical Engineering has made a proven study about oral nanofibrous AMB to be effective for Kala Azar. This is a first-ever attempt to fabricate nanofibrous oral tablets of Amphotericin B for the potential cure of Leishmaniasis or Kala Azar. With the 2 years of advancement of examination, the researchers are now confident that the technology can be transferred to suitable pharma partners for large-scale production.

Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar in Punjab has developed a first-of-its-kind IoT device AmbiTag that records real-time ambient temperature during the transportation of perishable products, vaccines and even body organs and blood. That recorded temperature further helps to know whether that particular item transported from anywhere in the world is still usable or perished because of temperature variation. This information is particularly critical for vaccines including Covid-19 vaccine, organs and blood transportation.

Researchers world-wide are focused on clearing the toxic mutant Huntingtin protein that leads to neuronal cell death and systemic dysfunction in Huntingtons disease (HD), a devastating, incurable, progressive neurodegenerative genetic disorder. Scientists in the Buck Institutes Ellerby lab have found that the targeting the protein called FK506-binding protein 51 or FKBP51 promotes the clearing of those toxic proteins via autophagy, a natural process whereby cells recycle damaged proteins and mitochondria and use them for nutrition.

Army scientists working as part of an international consortium have developed and tested an antibody-based therapy to treat Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV), which is carried by ticks and kills up to 60 percent of those infected. Their results are published online today in the journal Cell.

Scientists have fabricated a device that can mimic human brain cognitive actions and is more efficient than conventional techniques in emulating artificial intelligence, thus enhancing the computational speed and power consumption efficiency.