Category Health/Medical

CAR T cells more powerful when built with CRISPR

Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs): (a) anatomy and evolution of CAR design, and (b) CAR T cells recognize specific antigens on cancer cell surface and trigger T-cell–mediated killing. - See more at: http://www.targetedonc.com/publications/targeted-therapies-cancer/2015/june-2015/engineered-t-cells-for-leukemia-a-review-of-current-approaches-and-applications#sthash.j8qfDAeT.dpuf

Chimeric antigen receptors (CARs): (a) anatomy and evolution of CAR design, and (b) CAR T cells recognize specific antigens on cancer cell surface and trigger T-cell–mediated killing.

Researchers from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center have harnessed the power of CRISPR/Cas9 to create more-potent chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that enhance tumor rejection in mice. The unexpected findings uncover facets of CAR immunobiology and underscore the potential of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing to advance immunotherapies for cancer.

CRISPR is a genome-editing tool that enables scientists to cut and manipulate a cell’s DNA with high precision. In the Nature paper, MSK investigators show that CRISPR technology can deliver the CAR gene to a very specific location in the genome of the T cell...

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Proteins Biomarkers in your Runny Nose could Verify Viral infection from Cold or Flu

Study design and experimental workflow. A two-phased strategy was employed to identify and characterize candidate protein biomarkers of ARV infection from NPL samples collected from participants in four experimental ARV challenge cohorts. For phase 1 discovery analysis, four NPL pools were prepared from H3N2 #1 cohort and analyzed using unbiased 2D-LC-MS/MS. The numbers of subject (N) with samples included in each pool are shown (Uninf = uninfected individuals; Inf = infected individuals; BL = baseline; T = time of maximal symptoms). For phase 2, the original and three additional independent challenge cohorts were assayed by targeted MRM. Quantitative peptide expression data from 80 individuals and 156 total samples were used in the derivation of an NPL ARV classifier, and classification performance was assessed in independent challenge cohorts using LOOCV.

Study design and experimental workflow. A two-phased strategy was employed to identify and characterize candidate protein biomarkers of ARV infection from NPL samples collected from participants in four experimental ARV challenge cohorts. For phase 1 discovery analysis, four NPL pools were prepared from H3N2 #1 cohort and analyzed using unbiased 2D-LC-MS/MS. The numbers of subject (N) with samples included in each pool are shown (Uninf = uninfected individuals; Inf = infected individuals; BL = baseline; T = time of maximal symptoms). For phase 2, the original and three additional independent challenge cohorts were assayed by targeted MRM...

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Longevity-promoting Superstar gets revealed in Caenorhabditis Reproducibility Project

(a–c) Dose response effects on the median lifespan of select C. briggsae strains after treatment with chemicals that exhibited strong positive effects on the C. elegans strains. Dosing was performed only on strains that failed to respond positively in the initial tests (single dose experiments), as we did not attempt to identify peak responses, instead we only sought to identify whether positive effects could be obtained by altering doses. Chemical doses were chosen to center around the effective dose identified for C. elegans strains and were sometimes expanded after preliminary rounds of testing. ThT exhibited a positive effect on strain JU1348 at 25 μM, but was profoundly toxic to all strains at and above 100 μM

(a–c) Dose response effects on the median lifespan of select C. briggsae strains after treatment with chemicals that exhibited strong positive effects on the C. elegans strains. Dosing was performed only on strains that failed to respond positively in the initial tests (single dose experiments), as we did not attempt to identify peak responses, instead we only sought to identify whether positive effects could be obtained by altering doses. Chemical doses were chosen to center around the effective dose identified for C. elegans strains and were sometimes expanded after preliminary rounds of testing. ThT exhibited a positive effect on strain JU1348 at 25 μM, but was profoundly toxic to all strains at and above 100 μM

The amyloid dye Thioflavin T emerged as the superstar when age rese...

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Drug Rx could Combat Hearing Loss

This is a photograph of large clonal colonies of cochlear progenitor cells formed from single cells and converted into high purity colonies hair cells (magenta) with intricate hair bundles (cyan). Credit: Will McLean, Ph.D. Newly formed cochlear hair cells contain intricate hair bundles with many stereocilia (critical for sensing sound) and other components that are critical for proper function and neural transmission. (Credit: Will McLean)

1. photograph of large clonal colonies of cochlear progenitor cells formed from single cells and converted into high purity colonies hair cells (magenta) with intricate hair bundles (cyan). Credit: Will McLean, Ph.D.  2. Newly formed cochlear hair cells contain intricate hair bundles with many stereocilia (critical for sensing sound) and other components that are critical for proper function and neural transmission. (Credit: Will McLean)

Researchers discover a drug combination that can regenerate hair cells. Within the inner ear, thousands of hair cells detect sound waves and translate them into nerve signals that allow us to hear speech, music, and other everyday sounds. Damage to these cells is one of the leading causes of hearing loss, which affects 48 million Americans...

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