Researchers have consistently shown that prenatal exposure to Di (2-ethyhexyl) phthalate harms the reproductive system in male mice and causes fertility defects. In a new study, scientists from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign have shown that the combination of DEHP and a high-fat diet in pregnant mice can cause more damage to pups than each factor alone.  Male reproductive disorders are a growing issue due to the global decrease in sperm count and quality. Concerningly, chemicals like DEHP, which can be found in food storage containers, pharmaceuticals, and building materials, have been ...

ITHACA, N.Y. - After surveying food market retailers in three New York City Chinatown districts, Cornell University researchers have found genetic evidence that some endangered species of sea cucumbers – considered a pricey but nutritious dried delicacy – are being sold to consumers. The researchers collected 103 samples of dried sea cucumbers from retail food shops. By using mitochondrial DNA testing, they successfully identified 74 examples of sea cucumbers. Eight were classified as brown sea cucumbers– which are threatened and found on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List due to overharvesting. “We ...

WHAT: The amount of infectious H5N1 influenza viruses in raw milk rapidly declined with heat treatment in laboratory research conducted by scientists at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. However, small, detectable amounts of infectious virus remained in raw milk samples with high virus levels when treated at 72 degrees Celsius (161.6 degrees Fahrenheit) for 15 seconds—one of the standard pasteurization methods used by the dairy industry. The authors of the study stress, ...

“Elucidating the function of Erk5 in cancer [...] will contribute to a better understanding of cancer pathogenesis and the development of novel therapeutic strategies.” BUFFALO, NY- June 14, 2024 – A new editorial paper was published in Oncoscience (Volume 11) on May 20, 2024, entitled, “Role of Erk5 expressed in bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells on bone homeostasis and its potential applications in cancer treatment.” In their new editorial, researchers Tetsuhiro Horie and Eiichi Hinoi from Kanazawa ...

(MEMPHIS, Tenn. – June 14, 2024) Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital today announced a way to improve molecular scale distance measurements using single-molecule fluorescence resonance energy transfer (smFRET). smFRET quantifies the excitation and emission properties of chemicals called fluorophores.    When an excited electron in the fluorophore relaxes, it emits light after a delay, causing the molecule to glow (fluoresce). However, fluorophores don’t always fluoresce after excitation. Instead, through quantum mechanical ...

SAN ANTONIO, June 14, 2024 – The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio School of Dentistry is preparing to launch its Center for Regenerative Sciences, a new research initiative that aims to position the university at the forefront of regenerative dentistry and medicine. “The center will provide new avenues for interdisciplinary collaborations to accelerate the translation of preclinical discoveries into therapeutic benefit for patients suffering from dental, oral and craniofacial diseases,” said Yong-Hee Chun, DDS, PhD, MS, associate professor of ...

In a major breakthrough for lithium recovery technologies, researchers from the Qingdao Institute of Bioenergy and Bioprocess Technology (QIBEBT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with collaborators, have developed a crystalline carbon nitride membrane that could transform the lithium extraction industry. The innovative design, which mimics biological ion channels, shows remarkable efficiency and durability in separating lithium ions from magnesium ions in salt-lake brine. The study, published in Science Advances on June 14, introduces a ...

KEY TAKEAWAYS Lung cancer is the most diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death globally, representing an urgent need for new and improved treatment options. Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital developed a new nanomedicine therapy that delivers anticancer drugs to lung cancer cells and enhances the immune system's ability to fight cancer. The research must undergo rigorous toxicology studies before moving into clinical testing in patients but represents a potential treatment for patients who have failed to respond to traditional immunotherapy. Researchers at Brigham and ...

Atlanta, GA – June 14, 2024 – Antibiotics in the uppermost water surface, known as the sea surface microlayer, can significantly affect the number of bacteria present and contribute to the adaptation of marine bacteria against widely used antibiotics. In new research presented at ASM Microbe, scientists directly assessed the potential effects of antibiotics on bacterial diversity in Jade Bay, Southern North Sea, Germany. The researchers tested the susceptibility and resistance of marine bacteria to ofloxacin, ...

Atlanta, GA—Sepsis is a life-threatening infection complication and accounts for 1.7 million hospitalizations and 350,000 deaths annually in the U.S. Fast and accurate diagnosis is critical, as mortality risk increases up to 8% every hour without effective treatment. However, the current diagnostic standard is reliant on culture growth, which typically takes 2-3 days. Doctors may choose to administer broad-spectrum antibiotics until more information is available for an accurate diagnosis, but these can have limited efficacy and potential toxicity to the patient. In a study presented at ASM Microbe, a team from Day Zero Diagnostics unveiled a novel approach to antimicrobial susceptibility ...

A team of researchers led by Philip Walther at the University of Vienna carried out a pioneering experiment where they measured the effect of the rotation of Earth on quantum entangled photons. The work, just published in Science Advances, represents a significant achievement that pushes the boundaries of rotation sensitivity in entanglement-based sensors, potentially setting the stage for further exploration at the intersection between quantum mechanics and general relativity. Optical Sagnac interferometers are the most sensitive devices to rotations. They have been pivotal in our understanding of fundamental physics since the early years of the last century, contributing to establish ...

Atlanta, Ga. – June 14, 2023 – Researchers have demonstrated that a new technology could quickly and accurately diagnose bloodstream infections. The study findings were reported at ASM Microbe, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology. “There is a need to be able to rapidly and accurately diagnose bacteremia in newborn babies. They are especially susceptible to long-term morbidities and mortality the longer they go without treatment, or even with inaccurate treatment for bloodstream infections or sepsis,” said presenting study author April Aralar, Ph.D., a ...

Background: We previously demonstrated the successful use of in vivo CRISPR gene editing to delete 4-hydroxyphenylpyruvate dioxygenase (HPD) to rescue mice deficient in fumarylacetoacetate hydrolase (FAH), a disorder known as hereditary tyrosinemia type 1 (HT1). The aim of this study was to develop an ex vivo gene-editing protocol and apply it as a cell therapy for HT1. Methods: We isolated hepatocytes from wild-type (C57BL/6J) and Fah-/- mice and then used an optimized electroporation protocol to deliver Hpd-targeting CRISPR-Cas9 ribonucleoproteins into hepatocytes. Next, hepatocytes were transiently incubated in ...

University of Georgia-based startup CyanVac LLC received federal funding to support a comparative Phase 2b clinical trial of CVXGA, the company’s intranasal vaccine candidates designed to protect against COVID-19. As part of the award from Project NextGen, a federal initiative based in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), CyanVac will sponsor a randomized, double-blind Phase 2b study with 10,000 participants to compare the efficacy and safety of the intranasal vaccine against an FDA-approved mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine. The new vaccine is based on a viral delivery platform developed by He containing modified ...

Patients are less likely to fill prescriptions for naloxone when they face increases in out-of-pocket costs, according to U-M researchers. Patients are less likely to fill prescriptions for naloxone when they face increases in out-of-pocket costs, according to research by the University of Michigan. Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the study utilized data from a national pharmacy transactions database from November 2020 to March 2021. Researchers found that about 1 in 3 naloxone ...

New research by Swansea University and the University of Zurich has found that sharks retained high levels of functional diversity for most of the last 66 million years, before steadily declining over the last 10 million years to its lowest value in the present day. Modern sharks are among the ocean’s most threatened species; yet have notably survived numerous environmental changes in their 250-million-year history. Today, their more than 500 species play many different ecological roles, from apex predators to nutrient transporters. Ecological roles are determined by species’ traits such as body size, ...

Periods of fasting reprogram the immune system’s natural killer cells to better fight cancer, according to a new study in mice from researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK). Fasting and other dietary regimens are increasingly being explored as ways to starve cancer cells of the nutrients they need to grow and to make cancer treatments more effective. Now a team of researchers from MSK’s Sloan Kettering Institute and their collaborators have shown for the ...

Sjögren’s disease is a systemic autoimmune disorder that often causes sicca symptoms – or dryness of the eyes and mouth, alongside many other complications such as fatigue, pain, and neurological manifestations. There are treatments that help with symptoms, but none that address the underlying disease processes.3 One key issue in developing new treatments is that Sjögren’s can differ from person to person – and that makes it hard to measure and compare outcomes in a clinical trial.   NECESSITY is an interventional trial looking at new clinical endpoints in Sjögren’s disease. ...

Inflammatory arthritis describes a group of diseases caused by an overactive immune system. The different types of inflammatory arthritis include rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and ankylosing spondylitis. The most common symptoms are joint pain and stiffness. Pain is the predominant symptom in the majority of people with inflammatory arthritis, which contributes to the global burden of rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions.1 Knowledgeable support can reduce ...

Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (aHSCT) for SSc has been proven the most effective treatment strategy with regard to overall and event free survival in selected patients.2 But a key limitation is its toxicity, and new treatment options are needed. Two abstracts presented at the 2024 EULAR congress in Vienna focused on novel approaches.   Jörg Henes presented on behalf of the AST MOMA investigators. This prospective, open-label, study evaluated the feasibility of aHSCT in patients with impaired lung or heart function, and also ...

BMO in the sacroiliac joint on MRI is present in up to 84% of people with non-radiographic axSpA – but it is also often seen in a non-inflammatory setting, such as in women after childbirth.1,2 As back pain is common after childbirth, differential diagnosis with axSpA is an important issue in clinical practice.1 In axSpA, active inflammatory lesions are likely to progress to structural lesions over time – particularly fat lesions and erosions. But it is not known whether the same is true for BMO induced by mechanical stress. In June 2024, EULAR – The European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology – held its annual congress ...

In 2019, a Swedish prospective birth cohort study of over 15,000 children showed that consuming fish at least once a week during pregnancy and during the first year of life was associated with up to a 5-fold increased risk of JIA, compared to those with fish consumption less than once a week. This increased risk was primarily attributed to elevated exposure to heavy metals.1 Now, new research shared at the 2024 congress of EULAR – The European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology – is investigating ...

SSc is a connective tissue disease with variable clinical presentation. It may affect the skin, blood vessels, heart, lungs, kidneys, gastrointestinal tract, and musculoskeletal system – and this complexity and diversity makes it challenging to treat.2 This clinical heterogeneity in SSc may be partially explained by SSc-specific antibodies, but a better understanding of additional risk factors and patient stratification is still needed. Three abstracts shared at the 2024 EULAR congress present a selection of new clinical research to enrich knowledge ...

In an animal model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Brazilian researchers tested a therapy that combines photobiomodulation using laser light or light-emitting diodes (LEDs) with idebenone, an antioxidant compound investigated for application in neurodegenerative diseases. As reported in an article published in the journal PLOS ONE, the strategy prevented muscle degeneration and improved regenerative capacity in the muscle fibers affected by the disease. Duchenne muscular dystrophy is the most common and most severe form of childhood muscular dystrophy and most often ...

MINNEAPOLIS, June 14, 2024 — NMDPSM, a global nonprofit leader in cell therapy, and the CIBMTR® (Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research®) announced interim results from the ACCESS trial as an oral abstract during the European Hematology Association (EHA) Annual Meeting in Madrid, Spain. The study demonstrated that adults with hematologic malignancies who received peripheral blood stem cell (PBSC) transplant from HLA-mismatched unrelated donors (MMUD) followed by post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) graft-versus-host-disease (GvHD) prophylaxis exhibited a 79% overall survival (OS), the primary ...