Category Biology/Biotechnology

CDK4/6 inhibition inhibits cancer metastasis.

Breast cancer metastasis, the process by which cancer spreads, may be prevented through the new use of a class of drugs already approved by the FDA. Mayo Clinic researchers have identified that a key drug target, CDK4/6, regulates a cancer metastasis protein, SNAIL, and drugs that inhibit CDK 4/6 could prevent the spread of triple-negative breast cancer. CDK4/6 inhibitors are approved for treating estrogen positive breast cancer, but not triple-negative breast cancer.

For this study, Dr. Lou and his colleagues focused on triple-negative breast cancer, which is difficult to treat, because it does not exhibit receptors for estrogen, progesterone or the HER-2/neu gene, which are targets for many current breast cancer treatments...

Speedy mini-apps are designed to address depression and anxiety

A novel suite of 13 speedy mini-apps called IntelliCare resulted in participants reporting significantly less depression and anxiety by using the apps on their smartphones up to 4 times a day, reports a new Northwestern Medicine study. The apps offer exercises to de-stress, reduce self-criticism and worrying, methods to help your life feel more meaningful, mantras to highlight your strengths, strategies for a good night’s sleep and more. Most apps designed for mental health typically offer a single strategy to feel better or provide too many features that make them difficult to navigate.

But participants robustly used the IntelliCare interactive apps an average of 195 times for 8 weeks of the study...

1. The northern clingfish (Gobiesox maeandricus) lives in Pacific Northwest waters, where it seeks out prey in the crashing waves of the intertidal Credit: Petra Ditsche 2. Credit: Christina Linkem

To create prototype suction cups that are capable of glomming onto rough, wet surfaces and staying there, Ditsche has found inspiration in clingfish. On the rocky shores of Washington State, clingfish maneuver over rocks to prey on limpets – dime-sized, snail-like invertebrates. A limpet is covered by a shell shield that hides soft organs, which are fair game if the predatory clingfish can pop it off the rock. Yet the clingfish faces its own foe: heavy forces from incoming waves that threaten to slosh it off the rocks as it searches for food...

Paola Sebastiani, Bharat Thyagarajan, Fangui Sun, Nicole Schupf, Anne B. Newman, Monty Montano, Thomas T. Perls. Biomarker signatures of aging. Aging Cell, 2017; DOI: 10.1111/acel.12557

Levels of specific biomarkers can be combined to produce patterns that signify how well a person is aging and his or risk for future aging-related diseases, according to a new study by researchers at the Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine and Boston Medical Center. The study used biomarker data collected from the blood samples of almost 5,000 participants in the Long Life Family Study, funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

A large number – about half – had an average “signature,” or pattern, of 19 biomarkers...