Category Biology/Biotechnology

A team of researchers with the Institute for Integrative Nanosciences in Germany has tested the possibility of using sperm cells to deliver drugs to cancerous tumors in female patients. The group describes how such a technique might work, their initial test results and what they learned from their experiments. In this new effort, they looked into the idea of using a natural carrier to deliver helpful drugs to specified targets—sperm cells delivering drugs guided to tumors and other problem sites in the female reproductive tract...

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Dendritic cell vaccine supports further study in larger trials. A phase 1 study of 11 patients with glioblastoma who received injections of an investigational vaccine therapy and an approved chemotherapy showed the combination to be well tolerated while also resulting in unexpectedly significant survival increases, researchers at the Duke Cancer Institute report. Patients treated with the study drug (dose-intensified temozolomide and vaccines) were continuously monitored for toxicity and adverse events. Study patients experienced known side effects with temozolomide, including nausea, lymphopenia, thrombocytopenia and fatigue.

There were no treatment limiting a...

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A Texas A&M University team has uncovered a physical mechanism that may help answer one of the major questions concerning the origin of life, “How did the building blocks form?” Scientists have long known that the building blocks of life – amino acids, nucleobases and sugars – were present in the early ocean, but they were very low in concentration. In order for life to emerge, these building blocks needed to be combined and enriched into long-chain macromolecules.

“In the early ocean, those building blocks were present in the environment,” Ugaz said. “They were there, but they were so dilute; there is a question about how they combined...

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The gene responsible for generating acylceramide, the key lipid in forming the skin barrier that protects us from pathogens, allergens and other harmful substances. This finding could prove crucial in developing medicines for treating atopic dermatitis and ichthyosis. Defects of the skin barrier can trigger skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis, which afflicts ~10% of the population in some developed countries. Acylceramide, a lipid only found in skin, plays a pivotal role in forming this barrier. Although most of the genes needed to generate this special lipid have been recently identified, the gene responsible in the final step to produce acylceramide has been missing...

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