Category Biology/Biotechnology

Biomarker test may improve risk assessment for HPV-related throat cancer

Dr Catherine Haring with a HPV biomarker test sample

Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center—Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC—James) are advancing the understanding of a promising blood test that could personalize treatment and surveillance for patients with human papillomavirus (HPV)-associated throat cancer. The research, published in JAMA Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery, explores how a blood-based test, circulating tumor HPV DNA (ctDNA), changes before and after surgery. The study explores how tumor biology and patient factors influence ctDNA levels. The findings provide important new insight into how this ctDNA test can be used along with pathology reports to improve risk assessment and personalize treatment plans.

“We know that more than 90% ...

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Long COVID is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease

Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images

People with long COVID are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in eClinicalMedicine. The results show that the risk of conditions such as cardiac arrhythmias and coronary artery disease is higher even among those who were not hospitalized during the acute infection.

Long COVID has become an increasingly significant health problem worldwide, and a growing number of studies suggest that the condition can lead to secondary cardiovascular diseases. To date, research has mainly focused on people who were hospitalized, while the risks for those who stayed at home or were treated at a GP are less well known...

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Organ-on-a-chip technology replicates decades of human aging in just four days

An array of microfluidic chips with circuit-like patterns on a metal wafer, illuminated in blue, pink, and yellow light.
A prototype wafer shows various configurations that the Stahl lab tested before settling on their current design. UC Berkeley photo by Mathew Burciaga

Over one billion people worldwide are over 60, and the population is projected to more than double by 2050. But as more people live into their 60s, 70s, and 80s, health care systems across the globe may face new challenges as they attempt to manage associated increases in age-related disease.

Metabolic biologist Andreas Stahl and preeminent longevity researcher Irina Conboy argue that the graying of the global population underscores the need to understand aging as a biological process, and how it might be slowed or reversed...

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Boosting good gut bacteria population through targeted interventions may slow cognitive decline

Boosting good gut bacteria population through targeted interventions may slow cognitive decline
Microbiota-targeted interventions are associated with improvements in memory, executive function, and global cognition. Credit: Darryl Leja, National Human Genome Research Institute, National Institutes of Health

The origin of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s or dementia isn’t limited to the brain. The state of your gut can quietly set off a cycle of chronic, system-wide inflammation that nudges the brain toward cognitive decline. But how does the pathogenesis of a disease that seems purely brain-based begin in the gut—an organ that is mostly busy producing chemicals for digesting food?

It turns out these two entities are linked by the gut-brain axis, a two-way communication superhighway that constantly sends signals between the digestive tract and the central nervous s...

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