A new study shows that when specific human brain cells are transplanted into animal models of multiple sclerosis and other white matter diseases, the cells repair damage and restore function. The study provides one of the final pieces of scientific evidence necessary to advance this treatment strategy to clinical trials….
Reprogramming inner ear to regrow hair cells promising target for hearing loss treatments
A new discovery from a team led by Massachusetts Eye and Ear researchers may bring scientists a step closer to developing treatments that regrow the missing cells that cause hearing loss. In a new study, published online December 4, 2019, in Nature Communications, scientists report a new strategy to induce…
New screening method identifies potential anticancer compounds that reawaken T cells
Scientists at Scripps Research have developed a method for rapidly discovering potential cancer-treating compounds that work by resurrecting anti-tumor activity in immune cells called T cells. Cancerous tumors often thrive because they render T cells dysfunctional or “exhausted.” The new method uncovers medicinal compounds that can restore the function of…
Safety evaluation of conditionally immortalized cells for renal replacement therapy
A research team assessed the safety of conditionally immortalized proximal tubule epithelial cells for bioartificial kidney application, by using in vitro assays and athymic nude rats. They demonstrate that these cells do not possess key properties of oncogenically transformed cells, including anchorage-independent growth, lack of contact inhibition and apoptosis-resistance. Taken…
Killing brain cells believed to fight Alzheimer's could delay disease
Alzheimer’s could be halted with treatment which eliminates immune cells in the brain, scientists claim Tangled tau protein in the brain is a recognised tell-tale of an Alzheimer’s patient When tau becomes knotted, immune brain cells known as microglia attack it But in doing so, the microglia actually damages the…
Engineered T cells may be harnessed to kill solid tumor cells
There is now a multitude of therapies to treat cancer, from chemotherapy and radiation to immunotherapy and small molecule inhibitors. Chemotherapy is still the most widely used cancer treatment, but chemotherapy attacks all the rapidly dividing cells that it locates within the body, whether they’re ultimately harmful or beneficial. A…
Meet the molecule that helps stressed cells decide between life and death
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists have identified a molecule that plays a pivotal role in determining the fate of cells under stress, much like a Roman emperor deciding the fate of gladiators in the coliseum. The findings appear today in the journal Nature and suggest a possible new approach…
Simple protocol for assessing maturation of HPCs from induced pluripotent stem cells
Researchers have developed a guide to help labs standardize the production of mature hepatic-like cells (HPCs) from stem cells and easily compare gene expression of HPCs to actual human liver tissue. This moderately high throughput protocol can enable a relatively quick assessment of the efficacy of stem cell differentiation and…
Immune cells determine how fast certain tumors grow
Tumors arise when cells shake off their restraints and start to multiply out of control. But how fast a tumor grows does not depend solely on how quickly the cancer cells can divide, a new study has found. By examining brain tumors in mice, researchers at Washington University School of…
Newly generated nerve cells in dentate gyrus found to impact older nerve cells in two ways
A team of researchers affiliated with several institutions in the U.S. reports that newly generated nerve cells in the brain’s dentate gyrus impact older nerve cells in two ways. In their paper published in the journal Science, the group describes their study of neurogenesis in mouse models and what they…
Diabetes: Drug duo helps body replenish its insulin-producing cells
They have created a new drug cocktail that can induce insulin-producing cells to regenerate at a rate that is fast enough to work in human treatments. The recent study by researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, NY, reveals how a novel combination…