MIT News: In the 1920s, German chemist Otto Warburg discovered that cancer cells don’t metabolize sugar the same way that healthy cells usually do. Since then, scientists have tried to figure out why cancer cells use this alternative pathway, which is much less efficient. MIT biologists have now found a possible answer to this longstanding question. In a study appearing in…
Tag: immune cells
Biomarker of Alzheimer’s Found To Be Regulated By Sleep Cycles
Following a 2018 study demonstrating how disrupted sleep can accelerate the buildup of toxic plaques associated with the disease, scientists from Washington University School of Medicine (WUSM) in St. Louis have now identified a protein implicated in the progression of the disease that appears highly regulated by the circadian rhythm, helping them join the dots and providing a potential new therapeutic…
Drug Reverses Age-Related Mental Decline Within Days
The University of California San Francisco issued this glowing announcement of some new research: Just a few doses of an experimental drug can reverse age-related declines in memory and mental flexibility in mice, according to a new study by UC San Francisco scientists. The drug, called ISRIB, has already been shown in laboratory studies to restore memory function months after traumatic…
Immunity To the Coronavirus May Last Years, New Data Hint
How long might immunity to the coronavirus last? Years, maybe even decades, according to a new study — the most hopeful answer yet to a question that has shadowed plans for widespread vaccination. From a report: Eight months after infection, most people who have recovered still have enough immune cells to fend off the virus and prevent illness, the new data…
What’s in wildfire smoke and why it’s so bad for your lungs
The health impact of wildfire exposure depends in part on the fire itself and how much smoke a person breathes in, how often and for how long. Source: https://earthsky.org/human-world/what-is-in-wildfire-smoke…
A New Theory Asks: Could a Mask Be a Crude ‘Vaccine’?
Iwastheone shares a report from The New York Times: As the world awaits the arrival of a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, a team of researchers has come forward with a provocative new theory: that masks might help to crudely immunize some people against the virus. The unproven idea, described in a commentary published Tuesday in the New England Journal of…
Oxford vaccine prompts immune response, shows promise in early results
The Oxford vaccine triggered participants to build up immune cells against the virus without causing any severe reactions. Source: https://www.livescience.com/coronavirus-oxford-vaccine-shows-early-promise.html
BCG vaccine helps fight infections by boosting immune cell production
The BCG tuberculosis vaccine boosts the production of immune cells and this may explain how it protects newborns from dying of sepsis Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2242866-bcg-vaccine-helps-fight-infections-by-boosting-immune-cell-production/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Eating too much salt seems to impair body’s ability to fight bacteria
High salt intake seems to impair the immune cells in humans that fight bacteria because of a side effect of the hormones that help get rid of salt Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2238629-eating-too-much-salt-seems-to-impair-bodys-ability-to-fight-bacteria/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
CRISPR cancer trial finds that gene-edited immune cells are safe
Three people with advanced tumours received a dose of CRISPR gene-edited immune cells and had no serious side effects, paving the way for more trials using this technique Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2232722-crispr-cancer-trial-finds-that-gene-edited-immune-cells-are-safe/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…