Cancer therapy in recent times relies on the use of several drugs derived from biological sources including different bacteria and viruses, among others. However, these bio-based drugs get easily degraded and therefore inactivated on administration into the body. Thus, effective delivery to and release of these drugs at target tumor…
Hope for children with rare heart condition: Novel stem cell therapy to save the day
Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is a condition caused by the weakening of the heart muscle, affecting the ventricles (chambers in the heart that push blood around the body as it contracts). If allowed to progress unchecked, DCM can lead to heart failure and death, especially in children. The only cure, at…
Double Trouble! Hope Solo, Jerramy Stevens Welcome Twin Babies
Rainbow babies! Hope Solo and her husband, Jerramy Stevens, became first-time parents to twin babies on Thursday, April 23. The new mom shared a photo of her newborns on Instagram, writing, “Vittorio Genghis Stevens Lozen Orianna Judith Stevens,” followed by the date they were born. “3/4/2020,” she concluded. The professional…
New insights provide hope for new hair growth in adults
We are born with all the hair follicles that we will ever have in our lives, because after birth the skin loses the ability to create new hair follicles. If our skin is severely damaged it cannot form new hair follicles or associated sebaceous glands essential for keeping the skin…
Recent advances in addressing tuberculosis give hope for future
In September 2018, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the NIH, issued its Strategic Plan for Tuberculosis Research, which outlined research priorities to reduce and ultimately end the burden of tuberculosis (TB). TB is a bacterial disease that has claimed the lives of more than…
Genetically engineered animals offer fresh hope to heart valve patients
Scientists have cloned a genetically engineered bull which they hope will help heart valve transplant patients lead better quality lives and benefit people with red meat allergies. Every year, about 300,000 people worldwide receive a new heart valve. Whenever possible, doctors use valves made of tissue from cows or pigs,…
Hope for an HIV vaccine as scientists tweak immune system to fight it
Hope for an HIV vaccine as scientists ‘re-engineer’ the human immune system to fight the virus The human body rarely produces antibodies to fight HIV on its own On the rare occasion it does, it usually also recognizes them as as danger and shuts them down Scientists at Duke University and Boston…
One-two punch drug combination offers hope for pancreatic cancer therapy
Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute have identified a combination of two anti-cancer compounds that shrank pancreatic tumors in mice—supporting the immediate evaluation of the drugs in a clinical trial. U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved versions of the compounds are used today to treat certain leukemias and…
New hope for treating reduced exercise capacity caused by heart failure
A group of Hokkaido University scientists and collaborators have developed a method that could be used to treat heart failure patients whose exercise capacity has been impaired. The finding is expected to help develop drugs that enable such patients to regain exercise capacity and improve their prognosis. The procedure was…
A new hope in treating neurodegenerative disease
Korean researchers have identified the inhibition of autophagy in microglia, brain immune cells. It is expected to help develop treatments for Alzheimer’s disease which occur due to the inhibition of autophagy. Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most representative degenerative brain disease, accounting for 60 to 80 percent of all dementia…