Towards Immunotherapies Targeting Both Amyloid- β and Tau in Alzheimer's Disease
Clearing amyloid-β from the brain has failed to reverse Alzheimer's disease in patients, and this unfortunate outcome is slowly - all too slowly - producing a change in direction in the mainstream of Alzheimer's research. One possible conclusion is that amyloid-β is simply the wrong target, and this has led to a great deal of alternative theorizing in recent years. Even so, the consensus remains that amyloid-β does play a significant role in the condition, albeit not enough of a role in the later stages of Alzheimer's to allow anti-amyloid therapies to work. The jury remains out on whether early reduction in amyloid-β ...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 14, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 30th 2019
This study presents the effects of berberine (BBR) on the aging process resulting in a promising extension of lifespan in model organisms. BBR extended the replicative lifespan, improved the morphology, and boosted rejuvenation markers of replicative senescence in human fetal lung diploid fibroblasts. BBR also rescued senescent cells with late population doubling (PD). Furthermore, the senescence-associated β-galactosidase (SA-β-gal)-positive cell rates of late PD cells grown in the BBR-containing medium were ~72% lower than those of control cells, and its morphology resembled that of young cells. Mechanistically, BBR im...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 29, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Will Your Health Plan Tell You That It Can Save Your Life?
This article originally appeared on Forbes here.
The post Will Your Health Plan Tell You That It Can Save Your Life? appeared first on The Health Care Blog. (Source: The Health Care Blog)
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 26, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Health Policy AHIP Anthem Health insurance Health Plans Matt Eyles Michael Millenson Rajeev Ronaki Source Type: blogs
Towards Small Molecule Therapies to Reverse T Cell Exhaustion
T cells of the adaptive immune system are a vital part of the defense against pathogens and cancers. T cells are not invulnerable, unfortunately. T cell exhaustion is a feature of cancers, persistent viral infections, and aging. Exhausted T cells are characterized by inhibition of replication, reduced secretion of immune signals, and sharply limited activity. The proximate cause is of this state is the expression of immune checkpoint proteins such as PD-1. The cancer research industry has achieved considerable success in the development of checkpoint inhibitors, monoclonal antibodies that bind to and inhibit immune checkpo...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 24, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
RSNA 2019 AI Round-Up
Shah Islam
Hugh Harvey
By HUGH HARVEY, MBBS and SHAH ISLAM, MBBS
AI in medical imaging entered the consciousness of radiologists just a few years ago, notably peaking in 2016 when Geoffrey Hinton declared radiologists’ time was up, swiftly followed by the first AI startups booking exhibiting booths at RSNA. Three years on, the sheer number and scale of AI-focussed offerings has gathered significant pace, so much so that this year a decision was made by the RSNA organising committee to move the ever-growing AI showcase to a new space located in the lower level of the North Hall. In some ways it made sense to offe...
Source: The Health Care Blog - December 10, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Artificial Intelligence Health Tech Start-Ups AI Hugh Harvey Radiology RSNA RSNA 2019 RSNA19 Shah Islam Source Type: blogs
AI Tool to Predict Checkpoint Therapy ’s Effectiveness
Researchers from Case Western Reserve University have developed a new computational tool to predict, based on CT imaging, whether lung cancer patients will benefit from immune-checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy. This is an exciting development for patients suffering from lung cancer, and may one day help inform medical decisions.
Currently, there are no predictive biomarkers to point to whether non-small cell lung cancer (NSLC) patients will benefit from immune-checkpoint inhibitor therapy, a new form of cancer therapy that helps the body’s immune system fight cancer more effectively. Currently, only 1 out of 5 NSLC ...
Source: Medgadget - December 2, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Siavash Parkhideh Tags: Informatics Medicine Source Type: blogs
Gene Delivery Device to Make Engineered Cell Therapies Much Cheaper
Engineered cell treatments, such as CAR-T cell cancer immunotherapies and hematopoietic stem cell gene therapies, are extremely expensive. In large part that is because it’s not easy to grow myriads of precisely engineered cells that are originally sourced from the patient being treated.
Now, researchers at University of California, Riverside and City of Hope National Medical Center have come up with a technology that will make producing engineered cells easier, significantly reducing costs in the process.
The technology, called deterministic mechanoporation (DMP), consists of a microfluidic device that all...
Source: Medgadget - November 27, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Genetics Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, November 25th 2019
This study demonstrates for the first time that senescent cells secrete functional LTs, significantly contributing to the LTs pool known to cause or exacerbate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Against Senolytics
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/11/against-senolytics/
There is no consensus in science that is so strong as to have no heretics. So here we have an interview with a naysayer on the matter of senolytic treatments, who argues that the loss of senescent cells in aged tissues will cause more harm to long-term health than the damage they will do by remaining. To be clear, I think this to be a...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 24, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
The Strategy of mTORC1 Inhibition Fails a Phase III Trial
The worst possible outcome when developing a clinical therapy is not an early failure. It is a late failure, in the final and most expensive phase III clinical trial, in which the therapy interacts with a sizable patient population, and after a great deal of time and funding have been devoted to the program. This result is far more likely for therapies based on mechanisms that have smaller rather than larger effect sizes, and where that smaller effect size varies from individual to individual for reasons that are not well understood - something that describes all too much of the past few decades of efforts to treat age-rel...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 18, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Business Analysts Start to Pay Attention to the Longevity Industry
Larger business analysis concerns are starting to notice that the longevity industry exists. I point out this press release not because the contents are all that interesting or useful - it is very much business as usual in the white paper production community, and the people creating these materials typically have a poor understanding of the biology and the biotechnology - but rather as an indication of progress towards a broader appreciation of the potential to treat aging as a medical condition. Slowly, the eyes of the world are opened.
The global longevity and anti-senescence market will witness rapid growth ov...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 17, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 14th 2019
In conclusion, a polypharmacology approach of combining established, prolongevity drug inhibitors of specific nodes may be the most effective way to target the nutrient-sensing network to improve late-life health.
Deletion of p38α in Neurons Slows Neural Stem Cell Decline and Loss of Cognitive Function in Mice
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/10/deletion-of-p38%ce%b1-in-neurons-slows-neural-stem-cell-decline-and-loss-of-cognitive-function-in-mice/
Researchers here provide evidence for p38α to be involved in the regulation of diminished neural stem cell activity with age. It is thought that the...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 13, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
The Upheaval in Alzheimer's Research and Clinical Development
It seems that the tipping point has been reached in the Alzheimer's research and development community, in the sense that it is becoming more widely accepted that new approaches are needed. The failure to produce significant benefits to patients via clearance of amyloid from the brain by immunotherapy has spurred a great deal of theorizing, and several new and promising lines of work. For example, working on restoring age-related declines in drainage of cerebrospinal fluid might remove all metabolic waste from the brain. Alternatively, a focus on neuroinflammation and the role of dysfunctional microglia is suggested, parti...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 11, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 7th 2019
In conclusion, our findings link the calcification of the vascular tissue with the expression of FGF23 in the vessels and with the elevation of circulating levels this hormone.
Permanently Boosting Levels of Natural Killer Cells in Mice to Increase Cancer Resistance
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2019/09/permanently-boosting-levels-of-natural-killer-cells-in-mice-to-increase-cancer-resistance/
Researchers here demonstrate a very interesting approach to immunotherapy: they introduce engineered stem cells in mice that will give rise to additional natural killer T cells, boosting the capability of the...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 6, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
New Imaging Technique Reveals Deep Tumors, Helps Attack Them
Tumors deep inside the body can be very difficult to spot, track, and study. The brain, being surrounded by a thick skull, is particularly challenging to image using light, so MRI and CT are currently the go-to imaging modalities when looking at deeply seated tissues.
Now, researchers at Stanford University are reporting the development of new nanoparticles that can be used to light up and image tumors located well below the surface of the skin. The nanoparticles should be useful for not only diagnosing and monitoring tumor progression, but also for predicting how individual patients will respond to a given immunotherap...
Source: Medgadget - October 3, 2019 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: Diagnostics Neurology Neurosurgery Oncology Radiology Source Type: blogs
Permanently Boosting Levels of Natural Killer Cells in Mice to Increase Cancer Resistance
Researchers here demonstrate a very interesting approach to immunotherapy: they introduce engineered stem cells in mice that will give rise to additional natural killer T cells, boosting the capability of the immune system for the entire life span of the mouse. Even if this class of treatment is not actually permanent in the same way in humans, and merely long-lasting, it still seems a promising step towards enhancing the immune system at any age, not just trying to repair it when it fails in later life.
They've been called the "special forces" of the immune system: invariant natural killer T cells. Although there...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 30, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
