Category Health/Medical

Plasma cells at the center of a novel treatment approach. Researchers from Charité — Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum (DRFZ) Berlin, a Leibniz Institute, have successfully treated two patients with the autoimmune disease systemic lupus erythematosus. Using daratumumab, a monoclonal antibody which targets specific immune cells known as plasma cells, the researchers were able to modulate the abnormal immunological memory processes found in these patients. Treatment induced sustainable clinical responses and resulted in a reduction in systemic inflammation. The results of this research have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The body’s immunological memory enables the immune system to respond more rapidly and effectively to pa...

Two pain blocking peptides were found in the venom from the Venezuelan Pinkfoot Goliath tarantula. Molecules from the venom of one of the world’s largest spiders could help University of Queensland-led researchers tailor pain blockers for people with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).

Researchers screened 28 spiders, with the venom of the Venezuelan Pinkfoot Goliath tarantula — which has a leg-span of up to 30 centimetres — showing the most promise.

The team led by Professor Richard Lewis from UQ’s Institute for Molecular Bioscience in collaboration with Flinders University’s Professor Stuart Brierley and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute hopes to find effective pain relief for chronic intestinal pain.

“All pains are complex but gut pain is particularly ...

A team of researchers from LSU Health New Orleans Neuroscience Center of Excellence and the University of Copenhagen provides the first evidence that patients with ocular hypertension may exhibit superior antioxidant protection that promotes resistance to the elevated intraocular pressure associated with glaucoma. Their findings are published online in the Journal of Clinical Medicine.

In general, glaucoma patients are vulnerable to increased intraocular pressure. However, a particular group of patients has no glaucomatous neurodegeneration despite high intraocular pressure — patients with ocular hypertension.

The paper reports the discovery of a new mechanism to...

Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have developed the world’s smallest ultrasound detector. It is based on miniaturized photonic circuits on top of a silicon chip. With a size 100 times smaller than an average human hair, the new detector can visualize features that are much smaller than previously possible, leading to what is known as super-resolution imaging.

Since the development of medical ultrasound imaging in the 1950s, the co...