Category Biology/Biotechnology

Researchers have demonstrated that a fatty acid called dihomogamma-linolenic acid, or DGLA, can kill human cancer cells. DGLA can induce ferroptosis in an animal model and in actual human cancer cells. Ferroptosis is an iron-dependent type of cell death that was discovered in recent years and has become a focal point for disease research as it is closely related to many disease processes.

Jennifer Watts, a Washington State University associate professor and corresponding author on the paper, said this discovery has many implications, including a step toward a potential treatment for cancer.

“If you could deliver DGLA precisely to a cancer cell, it could promote ferroptosis and lead to tumor cell death,” Watts said...

A groundbreaking study published today and led by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen), an affiliate of City of Hope, identifies unique lung cells that may drive Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF), a deadly lung disease that affects hundreds of thousands of Americans, and for which there is no cure.

This is one of the first comprehensive looks at lung cells using a technology called single-cell RNA sequencing. Instead of examining a mash-up of many cells from a tissue sample, single-cell sequencing allowed researchers in this study to closely examine the individual cells that make up the lungs; to identify their function, and ultimately understand the molecular changes that may be driving the disease.

Using this met...

Researchers identify a protein responsible for bacteria’s beneficial behavior. Scientists have discovered that one of the good bacteria found in the human gut has a benefit that has remained unrecognized until now: the potential to reduce the risk for heart disease.

The bacteria’s activity in the intestines reduces production of a chemical that has been linked to the development of clogged arteries. After it’s manufactured in the gut, the chemical enters the bloodstream and travels to the liver, where it is converted into its most harmful form.

The Ohio State University researchers have traced the bacteria’s behavi...

Scientists have engineered natural killer immune cells that not only kill head and neck tumour cells in mice but also reduce the immune-suppressing myeloid cells that allow tumours to evade the immune response, according to a new study in eLife.

The engineered cell therapy could be used as an alternative approach for treating cancer in patients for whom previous immunotherapy based on the activation of T cells has failed. These findings are reported by researchers at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland.

In recent years, treatments called T-cell therapy or CAR-T cell therapy have been approved to treat blood cancers, and many others are now in development for othe...