Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition in which amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles accumulate in the brain. In addition to genetic factors, DNA damage and epigenetic alterations also play a key role in the pathogenesis and progression of this disease, altering gene expression, the functioning and maintenance of brain cells. DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) and chromatin accessibility are two hallmarks of AD whose study could reveal new ways of approaching this disease.
New single-step genome editing techniques that enable the insertion, inversion or deletion of long DNA sequences at specified genome positions have been demonstrated in bacteria.
Breast cancer is a common cause of brain metastases and new research has shown that metastatic cells can invade the meninges not by entering the circulation and crossing the blood-brain barrier, but by traveling along the outer surface of the blood vessels that connect the vertebral bone marrow and the skull.
New single-step genome editing techniques that enable the insertion, inversion or deletion of long DNA sequences at specified genome positions have been demonstrated in bacteria.
Senescence is a hallmark of aging, and senescent cells have a reputation to match. They are ‘zombie cells,’ sort of dead themselves but alive enough to poison their surroundings through senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). The reality, though, is more complex.
New single-step genome editing techniques that enable the insertion, inversion or deletion of long DNA sequences at specified genome positions have been demonstrated in bacteria. The advance opens the door to the development of programmable methods for rearranging DNA, using recombinase enzymes guided by RNA. The two different approaches to using insertion sequences (IS) – some of the simplest and most compact mobile genetic elements – are described in two papers published in Nature and Nature Communications.
A new approach against non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has combined immunotherapy with molecularly targeted therapy to activate the immune response and inhibit oncogenic pathways, which prevented tumor progression and eliminated cancer cells. Brigham and Women’s Hospital scientists have developed nanoparticles loaded with antibody conjugates that could deliver large amounts of treatment to the tumor tissue. This new strategy could improve the results of conventional immunotherapy in these patients and reduce toxicity of existing treatments.
The adverse effects of PD-1 blockers on the CNS observed in cancer patients could occur through their effects on an enzyme that activates microglia. Pharmacological inhibition of the enzyme in mice reduced microglial activation and cognitive deficit without altering the antitumor capacity of the immunotherapy.
The adverse effects of PD-1 blockers on the CNS observed in cancer patients could occur through their effects on an enzyme that activates microglia. Pharmacological inhibition of the enzyme in mice reduced microglial activation and cognitive deficit without altering the antitumor capacity of the immunotherapy.
Scientists from the Karolinska Institute have found two different types of cells that give rise to the fibroblasts that form fibrotic scars after spinal cord injury (SCI) depending on their location. In a study in mice, the researchers observed that pericytes acted in lesions that affect the gray matter and perivascular fibroblasts acted in the white matter.
