Is this the breakthrough in treatment of glioblastoma that has been evading us now for decades? Despite very good and well-justified efforts to challenge, for example, 3-D cultures of patient-derived tumor stem cells with the battalion of approved drugs used in cancer therapy nothing has worked. The debate has raged.. Is it the failure to […]
Exciting research published recently in the journal Science sheds new and important light on the presence of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in the circulation as a potential aid to diagnosis for malignant disease. Led by Prof. Bethan Psaila, University of Oxford, the multi-centre team describe the significant presence of cfDNA sequestered in platelets using microscopy and […]
A gut-on-chip model that generates human intestinal tubules has been used to demonstrate the detectable effect of cytokine exposure, an effect of inflammation in vivo, that causes complex changes in the intestinal epithelial barrier. This cytokine-induced barrier dysfunction was measured by TEER (trans-epithelial electrical resistance), combined compromised cell health (DRAQ7) and cytoskeleton changes (actin) and by lipid […]
A team at IGM Biosciences Inc., led by Kevin Hart and Bruce Keyt demonstrate the improved performance of an engineered IgM anti-CD20 antibody to achieve complement-dependent cytotoxic cell killing for B-cell lymphoma over IgG alternatives. Due to the development of resistance to the traditional IgG-based therapies such novel antibody alternatives are required. The IgM gives better […]
A team at the Univ of Cologne, led by Manolis Pasparakis, sheds new light on the complexity of RIPK1 and its downstream regulation of cell death and inflammation. This is shown in the context of dermal inflammation and the dysregulatory effects of mutations at the sites of autophosphorylation and how these sites contribute to the […]
Ferroptosis has become a promising target for cancer therapy. This regulated non-apoptotic cell death process is described as an iron-dependent lipid peroxidation, specifically necessitating peroxidation of polyunsaturated fatty acid-containing phospholipids. The protective mechanism in healthy cells is for the resulting lipid hydroperoxides to be converted to the corresponding lipid alcohols by glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) […]
Features with MDS need to be better defined to be robust indicators of disease. Disease experts from Lund University and Skåne Regional Laboratories show that Imaging Flow Cytometry (IFC) can provide the statistical discrimination of cellular features that are cellular hallmarks of MDS. Notably they used DRAQ5 to trigger cellular events, widely used elsewhere. However, […]
Two new papers utilizing DRAQ5 to facilitate high quality cell sorting to downstream single cell RNA sequencing to unpick the molecular backdrop to atherosclerotic plaque cell biology. In the first of these, from Muredach Reilly’s lab at Columbia University, fibroblasts were profiled. Four distinct subpopulations were identified – all of which diminished in number upon […]
It has proved difficult to predict the likelihood of progression of disease in MS. New work shows that there is a complex relationship between ependymal cells at the tissue interface with CSF and extrinsic factors and also with cell-intrinsic factors that provide new avenues for prognostic and perhaps therapeutic advantage. A team led by Dr […]
A team lead by scientists at Thomas Jefferson University have demonstrated a new opportunity for intervening in ALS/FTD. They worked on the hypothesis that aberrant arginine-rich dipeptide repeat (R-DPR) proteins are a key toxicity, aggregating with RNA binding proteins. They demonstrated that it was possible to disrupt the aggregation, though initially at the cost of […]