Articles from June 2021

Tel Aviv University‘s groundbreaking technology may revolutionize the treatment of cancer and a wide range of diseases and medical conditions. In the framework of this study, the researchers were able to create a new method of transporting RNA-based drugs to a subpopulation of immune cells involved in the inflammation process, and target the disease-inflamed cell without causing damage to other cells.

The study was led by Prof. Dan Peer, a global pioneer in the development of RNA-based therapeutic delivery. He is Tel Aviv University‘s Vice President for Research and Development, head of the Center for Translational Medicine and a member of both the Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology. The study was published in the prestigious scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology.

“Our development actually changes the world of therapeutic antibodies. Today we flood the body with antibodies that, although selective, damage all the cells that express a specific receptor, regardless of their current form. We have now taken out of the equation healthy cells that can help us, that is, uninflamed cells, and via a simple injection into the bloodstream can silence, express or edit a particular gene exclusively in the cells that are inflamed at that given moment,” explains Prof. Peer.

As part of the study, Prof. Peer and his team were able to demonstrate this groundbreaking development in animal models of inflammatory bowel diseases such as Crohn’s disease and colitis, and improve all inflammatory symptoms, without performing any manipulation on about 85% of the immune system cells. Behind the innovative development stands a simple concept, targeting to a specific receptor conformation. “On every cell envelope in the body, that is, on the cell membrane, there are receptors that select which substances enter the cell,” explains Prof. Peer. “If we want to inject a drug, we have to adapt it to the specific receptors on the target cells, otherwise it will circulate in the bloodstream and do nothing. But some of these receptors are dynamic—they change shape on the membrane according to external or internal signals. We are the first in the world to succeed in creating a drug delivery system that knows how to bind to receptors only in a certain situation, and to skip over the other identical cells, that is, to deliver the drug exclusively to cells that are currently relevant to the disease.”

Source: https://phys.org/

CRISPR gene editing already promises to fight diseases that were once thought unassailable, but techniques so far have required injecting the tools directly into affected cells. That’s not very practical for some conditions. However, there’s just been a breakthrough. NPR reports that researchers have published results showing that you can inject CRISPR-Cas9 into the bloodstream to make edits, opening the door to the use of gene editing for treating many common diseases.

The experimental treatment tackled a rare genetic disease, transthyretin amyloidosis. Scientists injected volunteers with CRISPR-loaded nanoparticles that were absorbed by the patients’ livers, editing a gene in the organ to disable production of a harmful protein. Levels of that protein plunged within weeks of the injection, saving patients from an illness that can rapidly destroy nerves and other tissues in their bodies.

The test involved just six people, and the research team still has to conduct long-term studies to check for possible negative effects. If this method proves viable on a large scale, though, it could be used to treat illnesses where existing CRISPR techniques aren’t practical, ranging from Alzheimer’s to heart disease.

There are some ethical considerations. Some are already wary about the potential for abusing CRISPR for ‘designer babies‘ and other less-than-altruistic purposes. Bloodstream injections would make it that much easier to perform dubious edits. If used properly, however, this new CRISPR method could avoid (or prevent) suffering that was once considered inevitable.

Source: https://www.npr.org/
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https://www.engadget.com/

Nearly all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. now are in people who weren’t vaccinated, a staggering demonstration of how effective the shots have been and an indication that deaths per day — now down to under 300 — could be practically zero if everyone eligible got the vaccine.

An Associated Press analysis of available government data from May shows that “breakthrough” infections in fully vaccinated people accounted for fewer than 1,200 of more than 853,000 COVID-19 hospitalizations. That’s about 0.1%. And only about 150 of the more than 18,000 COVID-19 deaths in May were in fully vaccinated people. That translates to about 0.8%, or five deaths per day on average.

The AP analyzed figures provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC itself has not estimated what percentage of hospitalizations and deaths are in fully vaccinated people, citing limitations in the data.

https://apnews.com/

As Israel is facing a surge in cases driven by the Delta variant, its health officials said as many as half of those are among people who were vaccinated. Fully vaccinated people who were in contact with the Delta variant will now have to quarantine, according to Chezy Levy, the leader of Israel’s Health Ministry‘s director-general.

“Even though the numbers are low, the fact that this is reaching vaccinated people means…that we are still checking how many vaccinated people have also been infected,” Levy said, Haaretz reported Wednesday.

Talking with state broadcaster Kan Bet public radio, Levy said that approximately 40 to 50% of new cases were people who had been vaccinated. The figure is likely to be an estimate, as the ministry is still analyzing data about the cases. On Monday, Levy’s estimate was lower: he said only a third of the new daily cases were people who had been vaccinated.

https://www.businessinsider.fr/

The astonishing success of COVID-19 vaccines may signal a breakthrough in disease prevention technology. Moderna is developing influenza and HIV vaccines using mRNA technology, the backbone of its effective COVID-19 vaccine. The biotech company is expected to launch phase 1 trials for its mRNA flu and HIV vaccines this year. If successful, mRNA may offer a silver lining to the decades-long fight against HIV, influenza, and other autoimmune diseases. Traditional vaccines often introduce a weakened or inactive virus to one’s body. In contrast, mRNA technology uses genetic blueprints, which build proteins to train the immune system to fight off the virus. Since mRNA teaches the body to recognize a virus, it can be effective against multiple strains or variants as opposed to just one.

“The mRNA platform makes it easy to develop vaccines against variants because it just requires an update to the coding sequences in the mRNA that code for the variant,”  said Rajesh Gandhi, MD, an infectious diseases physician at Massachusetts General Hospital and chair of HIV Medicine association.

Future mRNA vaccines have the potential to ward off multiple diseases with one shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  Current mRNA vaccines, as demonstrated in their use against COVID-19, already appear to be less susceptible to new variants. “Based on its success in protecting against COVID-19, I am hopeful that mRNA technology will revolutionize our ability to develop vaccines against other pathogens, like HIV and influenza,” Gandhi says.

An approved mRNA flu vaccine could be administered every other year rather than annually, explained virologist Andrew Pekosz, PhD. This is because mRNA accounts for variants and produces a stronger and longer-lasting immune response than that of the current flu vaccine, he says. The influenza vaccine is similar to the COVID-19 vaccine because the viruses have similar characteristics and necessary treatments, according to Pekosz.

However, a potential concern lies in the level of public immunity prior to receiving a vaccine. Since the flu has been around since the early 1900s, an mRNA vaccine could potentially boost older or less effective antibody responses rather than targeting current strains, Pekosz adds. “There’s no way to answer that question except to do some clinical trials, and see what the results tell us”.

Source: https://www.verywellhealth.com/

One promising possibility when it comes to treating Alzheimer’s is the idea of using non-invasive ultrasound to take out toxic brain plaques, and a group of researchers in Australia have been at the cutting edge of this technology for a number of years. The scientists’ latest investigations have uncovered some surprising new ways this technique can improve cognition in mouse models of the disease, which they believe could have wider implications for restoring cognition in the elderly.

Led by Professor Jürgen Götz at the University of Queensland, the researchers behind this promising ultrasound therapy published some exciting early results in 2015. Initially, the idea was to use ultrasound in combination with gas-filled microbubbles to temporarily open the blood-brain barrier to allow in drugs that take out toxic amyloid and tau brain plaques that destroy synapses and are seen as key drivers of Alzheimer’s disease.

As it turned out, this technique proved an effective way to clear away the brain plaques without the need for any drugs, with the ultrasound activating microglial cells that could digest the plaques all on their own. The scientists then published a study in 2018 demonstrating how this technique could safely clear the toxic brain plaques and restore memory function in mouse models resembling human brains of 80 to 90 years old, and set their sights on human trials.

As they’ve continued to study this technique in mice, the scientists have continued to uncover new information about its effects on the brain, and how it might boost cognition. In newly published research, the team carried out new experiments on mouse models of brains with age-related deterioration, and found that it brought about yet further unexpected changes.

One of the physiological hallmarks of age-related cognitive decline is a deterioration in a type of signaling between neurons called long-term potentiation (LTP), which is associated with memory. The scientists were able to show that combining ultrasound with the microbubbles fully restored LTP in one region of the hippocampus. More interesting still, the ultrasound proved even more effective without the help of the microbubbles, not only restoring LTP but also improving the spatial learning deficits of the elderly mice by improving synaptic signaling and neurogenesis, among other physiological alterations.

Ultrasound may be a way to not just tackle brain plaques associated with Alzheimer’s, but also age-related cognitive decline in the broader population

The team’s ultrasound technique could serve as a two-pronged attack on Alzheimer’s, combining with microbubbles and plaque-busting agents to tackle the condition while simultaneously improving cognition via a separate pathway. And promisingly, the scientists believe the technique may one day prove a viable way to address age-related cognitive decline in the broader population.

“Historically, we have been using ultrasound together with small gas-filled bubbles to open the almost-impenetrable blood-brain barrier and get therapeutics from the bloodstream into the brain,” Professor Götz says. “The entire research team was surprised by the remarkable restoration in cognition. We conclude therapeutic ultrasound is a non-invasive way to enhance cognition in the elderly.”

Source: https://qbi.uq.edu.au/

Google Cloud has tied up with quantum computing startup IonQ to make its quantum hardware accessible through its cloud computing platform. The company’s 11-qubit quantum hardware is available to Google Cloud Platform (GCP) customers, and the company expects to make its 32-qubit system available later this year. Explaining the significance of the announcement in a conversation with Google Cloud, IonQ CEO & President, Peter Chapman suggests that the offering will ensure “democratized access to quantum systems.”

“Making quantum computers easily available to anyone via the cloud demonstrates that quantum is real because now anyone can run a quantum program with a few minutes and a credit card,” says Chapman.

IonQ’s quantum computers are available in the GCP Marketplace and can be immediately provisioned by users. IonQ shares that developers, researchers, and business can access IonQ’s platform with just a few clicks, just like any other platform available on GCP. The company adds that GCP users will be able to program IonQ’s systems using a number of software development kits (SDK), including Cirq, Qiskit, Penny Lane, and tket, or through a custom integration with IonQ’s APIs.

Notably, IonQ’s quantum hardware is also available on Microsoft Azure and AWS.

Source: https://www.techradar.com/

The recent approval of Lumakras (Amgen, AMG 510) by the US Food and Drug Administration as a treatment for non-small cell lung cancer is a breakthrough in cancer therapy. The drug acts as an irreversible inhibitor of KRAS, a mutant protein common to many troubling tumors, including lung, pancreatic and colorectal cancers.

KRAS has been the Moby Dick of cancer therapy. Over the last forty years, its elusive nature has stymied generations of drug developers. Discovered in 1983, it was one of the very first oncogenes ever identified. An oncogene is the mutated form of a normal human gene that often lies at the very origin of many cancers. KRAS is present in 32% of non-small cell lung cancers, 40% of colorectal cancers, and 85% to 90% of pancreatic cancers.

The normal cellular KRAS protein plays a central role in healthy cells by acting as an on/off switch for cell growth. KRAS is activated by binding to guanosine triphosphate (GTP). Once activated, the KRAS protein signals the cell to grow and divide. It is turned off when it converts GTP to guanosine diphosphate (GDP). The mutation that transforms KRAS into an oncogene locks the protein into an active state, permanently bound to GTP, causing cells to grow uncontrollably.

Why has KRAS been such a difficult problem to solve? Most drugs work by binding to sites within the crevices in a protein structure. According to Victor Cee, a research scientist formerly with Amgen,

“There’s almost nowhere that a drug can stick to on that protein.” After screening a subset of chemicals, the team of researchers from Amgen found one that weakly bound to the KRAS molecule resting in a shallow pocket of the protein near the GDP binding site. Structural analysis showed that entry to a deeper crevice below was blocked by a histidine residue. Eventually, they found a family of drugs that could displace the histidine, thus allowing entry to the deeper cleft. Binding to this site alters the conformation of the nearby GDP binding site, fixing the GDP in place and permanently locking KRAS in the inactivated position.

Source: https://www.forbes.com/

The Institut Pasteur de Lille (France) will implement the protocol to perform clinical tests of a promising treatment against Covid-19. An authorization from the National Agency for the Safety of Medicines and Health Products (ANSM) which nevertheless comes eight months after the announcement of the discovery of this molecule by the teams of researchers.

On September 29, the Institut Pasteur de Lille confirmed to 20 Minutes have found an effective molecule against Covid-19.

“It remains to conduct a clinical trial to definitively validate the antiviral activity of this molecule”, then underlined a member of the research team. This molecule had already received marketing authorization from the ANSM under the name Clofoctol for a pathology other than Covid-19. It was therefore a question of “repositioning” it as a Covid-19 treatment since “the in vitro tests have shown the effectiveness of this molecule in inhibiting the replication of the virus”, assures the Institute.

The file presented by Pasteur was validated by the Committee for the Protection of Persons (CPP) and, on Thursday, it also received the approval of the ANSM.

“The clinical trial to test this experimental treatment in the early management of Covid patients, double-blind against placebo” will be able to start, “all the logistics are ready”, continues at Pasteur Lille. This test will take place in Hauts-de-France, in five centers. To be able to be included in this clinical trial, it is necessary to have made “a recent positive test, to be more than 50 years old, to have at least one symptom and not to have been vaccinated”.

If the administration of the drug will be done in the different centers, the patients will not be hospitalized. The follow-up will be provided at home thanks to the collaboration of general practitioners.

Source: https://news.in-24.com/

Researchers from The Australian National University (ANU) have developed new technology that allows people to see clearly in the dark, revolutionising night-vision. The first-of-its-kind thin film, described in a new article published in Advanced Photonics, is ultra-compact and one day could work on standard glasses. The researchers say the new prototype tech, based on nanoscale crystals, could be used for defence, as well as making it safer to drive at night and walking home after dark. The team also say the work of police and security guards – who regularly employ night vision – will be easier and safer, reducing chronic neck injuries from currently bulk night-vision devices.

“We have made the invisible visible,” lead researcher Dr Rocio Camacho Morales said. “Our technology is able to transform infrared light, normally invisible to the human eye, and turn this into images people can clearly see – even at distance.

“We’ve made a very thin film, consisting of nanometre-scale crystals, hundreds of times thinner than a human hair, that can be directly applied to glasses and acts as a filter,  allowing you to see in the darkness of the night.”

The technology is extremely lightweight, cheap and easy to mass produce, making them accessible to everyday users. Currently, high-end infrared imaging tech requires cryogenic freezing to work and are costly to produce. This new tech works at room temperatures. Dragomir Neshev, Director of the ARC Centre for Excellence in Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS) and ANU Professor in Physics, said the new tech used meta-surfaces, or thin films, to manipulate light in new ways.

“This is the first time anywhere in the world that infrared light has been successfully transformed into visible images in an ultra-thin screen,” Professor Neshev said.

Source: https://www.anu.edu.au/