INFORMATION:
Potential biomarker predicts the risk of kidney transplant rejection in patients
2021-02-24
(Press-News.org) Scientists have found that comparing the ratio of two immune molecules helped predict the likelihood of transplant rejection in 339 patients who received kidney transplants, the only curative treatment for late-stage kidney failure. Their results suggest that monitoring this ratio could help distinguish high-risk patients early on, before long-term organ rejection becomes inevitable, allowing clinicians to intervene accordingly with new treatments. Kidney transplants often grant immediate benefits to patients with end-stage kidney disease, but long-term outcomes are mixed, as 35% of transplant recipients lose their new kidney within 10 years. Researchers theorize this long-term rejection results from a slow, insidious buildup of damage from the immune system in the transplanted kidney, which often cannot be detected until it has become irreversible. Aravind Cherukuri and colleagues investigated whether there might be ways to identify high-risk patients during the initial months after transplant, when long-term damage may still be treatable. They studied kidney biopsies from 244 patients who received kidney transplants and focused their attention on IL-10 and TNFα, two immune molecules that are secreted by B cells. The analysis revealed that patients with a low ratio of IL-10 to TNFα three months after transplant had up to a 74% risk of later rejection within the first year, while patients with high ratios showed only a 5% chance of early or late rejection. The team observed similar patterns in a second group of 95 patients, observing that grafts in high-risk patients had poorer five-year survival rates compared with grafts in low-risk patients. Interestingly, Cherukuri et al. found that treating isolated B cells with antibodies against TNFα restored the IL-10/TNFα ratio to normal levels, suggesting that this strategy may help reduce long-term rejections if given early to high-risk patients.
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
A gearbox for tumor cell identity changes
2021-02-24
Cancer cells can experience stress. They have to contend with attacks by the immune system or with anti-cancer therapeutics. If they attempt to colonize other tissues, they have to break away from the extracellular matrix, enter the bloodstream and survive during the travel through the body. Then exit and start building a new colony. The ability of cells to adapt their properties to face all the challenges they encounter is called plasticity. In epithelial solid tumors, including the very common lung, breast, colon and pancreatic cancers, tumor cells plasticity hijacks a cellular development process known as epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT).
EMT is commonly associated to kinases - enzymes that act like a switch, turning biochemical ...
University of Chicago study uncovers inhibitory role of 'Ter cells' in cancer therapies
2021-02-24
Targeted radiation is often used to study and treat diverse cancer types. A multidisciplinary research team based at the University of Chicago Medicine has recently focused on a type of cell that releases a protein that enhances resistance to cancer therapies and promotes tumor progression.
The study focused on Ter cells, which are extra medullary erythroid precursers that secrete the neuropeptide artemin. In the study, published February 24, 2020, in Science Translational Medicine, the researchers showed that local tumor radiotherapy, systemic immunotherapy or the combination of both treatments were able to deplete Ter cells in the spleen, reduce artemin production and limit tumor progression both in the locally irradiated tumors as well as outside ...
Asteroid dust found in crater closes case of dinosaur extinction
2021-02-24
Researchers believe they have closed the case of what killed the dinosaurs, definitively linking their extinction with an asteroid that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago by finding a key piece of evidence: asteroid dust inside the impact crater.
Death by asteroid rather than by a series of volcanic eruptions or some other global calamity has been the leading hypothesis since the 1980s, when scientists found asteroid dust in the geologic layer that marks the extinction of the dinosaurs. This discovery painted an apocalyptic picture of dust from the vaporized asteroid and rocks from impact circling the planet, blocking ...
Politicized pandemic shaped compliance with social distancing
2021-02-24
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic had a powerful influence over adherence to social distancing guidelines in the United States and why people did, or did not, comply during the lockdown days, a new study has found.
The analysis boiled down to whom study participants trusted most: scientists or President Donald Trump.
"People who expressed a great deal of faith in President Trump, who thought he was doing an effective job of guiding us through the pandemic, were less likely to socially distance," said Russell Fazio, senior author of the study and a professor ...
Ultra-rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 in public workspace environments
2021-02-24
Ultra-fast, cheap LAMP-based COVID tests could be performed by non-experts at work and in public spaces, giving results in under an hour
INFORMATION:
Article Title: "Ultra-rapid detection of SARS-CoV-2 in public workspace environments"
Funding: This project was made possible through the support of a grant from Dynamic Combinatorial Chemistry, LLC, The funder provided support in the form of salaries and supplies for authors OY, ZY, JM, and BO, but did not have any additional role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The specific ...
Improving road safety to tackle crime
2021-02-24
Improving road safety in cities could result in a lower rate of violent crime, according to research from UCL.
Experts analysing crime and car accident data in Mexico City found a surprisingly high level of synchronicity between the two on a weekly cycle, suggesting that applying more resources to prevent road accidents would improve crime rates by enabling more efficient policing.
For the paper, published today in Cities as Complex Systems special issue in PLOS ONE, experts plotted the time and locations of nearly one million car accidents and 200,000 ...
New research at UH Rainbow studies the impact of face masks on heart ra
2021-02-24
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Researchers at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital (UH Rainbow) published new findings today that wearing a face mask - either a cloth mask or a surgical mask - did not impair the ability of subjects to get air in and out of their bodies.
The study measured heart rate, transcutaneous carbon dioxide tension, and oxygen levels in 50 adult volunteers at the conclusion of six 10-minute phases: Sitting quietly and then walking briskly without a mask; sitting quietly and then walking briskly while wearing a cloth mask; and sitting quietly and then walking ...
New technology shows potential to improve potency and durability benefits in gene therapy
2021-02-24
WATERTOWN, Mass. - Gene therapy has traditionally been conceptualized as a one-time, curative treatment option; however, research shows that there may be a need for subsequent doses years after initial treatment. While adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors are a core part of this powerful therapeutic approach, they present two key challenges in gene therapy.
The first challenge is their immunogenicity. In gene therapy, the formation of neutralizing antibodies (Nabs) in response to AAV vector administration precludes retreatment of a patient due to the potentially dangerous immune response that would occur after a second or third administration of the therapy.
The second obstacle relates to their durability. AAV vectors ...
Scientists describe earliest primate fossils
2021-02-24
A new study published Feb. 24 in the journal Royal Society Open Science documents the earliest-known fossil evidence of primates.
A team of 10 researchers from across the U.S. analyzed several fossils of Purgatorius, the oldest genus in a group of the earliest-known primates called plesiadapiforms. These ancient mammals were small-bodied and ate specialized diets of insects and fruits that varied by species. These newly described specimens are central to understanding primate ancestry and paint a picture of how life on land recovered after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago that wiped out all dinosaurs -- except for birds -- and led to the rise of mammals.
Gregory Wilson Mantilla, a University of Washington professor of biology and curator of vertebrate ...
Revive the map: 4D building reconstruction with machine learning
2021-02-24
A research team from Skoltech and FBK (Italy) presented a methodology to derive 4D building models using historical maps and machine learning. The implemented method relies on the geometric, neighbourhood, and categorical attributes to predict building heights. The method is useful for understanding urban phenomena and changes contributing to defining our cities' actual shapes. The results were published in the MDPI Applied Sciences journal.
Historical maps are the most powerful source used to analyze changes in urban development. Nevertheless, maps represent the 3D world ...