Category Biology/Biotechnology

This is an illustration depicting EKG readings before, during and after the use of light — optogenetic deffibtillation — to restore a normal heartbeat to an arrhythmic heart. Credit: Patrick M. Boyle/Johns Hopkins University

Using high-tech human heart models and mouse experiments, scientists at Johns Hopkins and Germany’s University of Bonn have shown that beams of light could replace electric shocks in patients reeling from a deadly heart rhythm disorder. The findings could pave the way for a new type of implantable defibrillators. Current devices deliver pulses of electricity that are extremely painful and can damage heart tissue. Light-based treatment should provide a safer and gentler remedy for patients at high risk of arrhythmia that can cause sudden cardiac death within minutes.

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The amygdala of the human brain is placed somewhat strategically at dorsomedial part (above and inside) of temporal lobe, anteriorly (in front) of the hippocampus and close to the tail of the caudate nucleus.

Training the brain to treat itself is a promising therapy for traumatic stress. The training uses an auditory or visual signal that corresponds to the activity of a particular brain region, called neurofeedback, which can guide people to regulate their own brain activity. However, treating stress-related disorders requires accessing the amygdala that is difficult to reach with typical neurofeedback methods. This activity has only been measured using fMRI, which is costly and poorly accessible.

“The major advancement of this new tool is the ability to use a low-cost and accessible imag...

Researchers have discovered that the drug pioglitazone, used to treat diabetes, shows some ability to halt the overexpression of the protein NAF-1, which has been associated with the proliferation of breast cancer. (Credit: Illustration by Fang Bai/Rice University)

Dialing down the level of the protein NAF-1 and the activity of the iron-sulfur clusters it transports may be key to halting tumor growth. The researchers suggest a drug that is typically used to treat type 2 diabetes, pioglitazone, has proven effective at controlling NAF-1 levels. They also discovered that a single mutation to NAF-1 almost completely blocked the ability of cancer cells to proliferate, a result they said supports the idea that lowering NAF-1 expression can help stop tumors...

Killer T cells surround a cancer cell. Credit: NIH

New research from The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai identifies a protein that may be an unexplored target to develop new cancer therapies. The protein, known as kinase suppressor of Ras, or KSR, is a pseudoenzyme that plays a critical role in the transmission of signals in the cell determining whether cells grow, divide, or die. The findings show that targeting KSR could have important therapeutic implications, potentially improving outcomes in many aggressing cancers such as lung and pancreatic cancer.

Ras is the most frequently mutated human cancer gene (oncogene), yet despite recent breakthroughs, therapeutic options to target Ras-dependent cancers remain limited...