Towards Better Cancer Vaccines via Identification of Important Neoantigens and T Cell Populations
Tumor cells have identifying surface markers that the immune system can in principle attack, but vaccination against those surface markers in order to encourage an anti-tumor immune response has been hit and miss. Researchers here dig deeper into the mechanisms that may explain this variability in response, and thus allow a more viable approach to patient-specific cancer vaccines that will more effectively rouse the immune system to target cancerous cells.
When cells begin to turn cancerous, they start producing mutated proteins not seen in healthy cells. These cancerous proteins, also called neoantigens, can aler...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 28, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
American Primary Care is a Big Waste of Time (When …)
By HANS DUVEFELT
Before Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1450, books in Europe were copied by hand, mostly by monks and clergy. Ironically, they were often called scribes, the same word we now use for the new class of healthcare workers employed to improve the efficiency of physician documentation.
Think about that for a moment: American doctors are employing almost medieval methods in what is supposed to be the era of computers. Why aren’t we using AI for documentation?
The pathetically cumbersome methods of documentation available (required) for our clinical encounters is only one of several a...
Source: The Health Care Blog - September 27, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: Medical Practice Physicians Primary Care Hans Duvefelt Source Type: blogs
4 Reasons to Support Sustainability
When President Biden entered office, he enhanced the national sustainability standards. As we develop an eco-friendly infrastructure, we adopt new technologies and systems that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Society may accept the alterations without understanding the expansive benefits.
By exploring sustainability’s advantages, individuals are more likely to support the transition away from fossil fuels. Utilizing electric appliances, adopting an eco-friendly diet, eliminating fast fashion purchases and more can shrink one’s carbon footprint while enhancing savings. Over time, sustainable commercial and individua...
Source: PickTheBrain | Motivation and Self Improvement - September 2, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Kara Reynolds Tags: featured money and finance self-improvement success sustainability the environment Source Type: blogs
Libertarians Have Been Right about Marijuana Legalization Thus Far
Lachlan MerskyIn anarticle National Review published this month, the author chronicles the alleged negative effects of marijuana legalization, yet his claims are dubious. Marijuana is only legal in18 states, and it is still a federally illegalSchedule I substance, so it is far too early to make any conclusions on legalization. That said, the preliminary data we do have can tell us a lot about what marijuana legalization might look like on a broader scale, and given what we know, this article missed the mark.The author ’s primary argument for prohibition is that “weed is unhealthy,” citing evidence...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 26, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Lachlan Mersky Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 23rd 2021
In this study, we used the UK Biobank (n = 440,185) to resolve previous ambiguities in the relationship between serum IGF-1 levels and clinical disease. We examined prospective associations of serum IGF-1 with mortality, dementia, vascular disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and cancer, finding two generalized patterns.
First, IGF-1 interacts with age to modify risk in a manner consistent with antagonistic pleiotropy; younger individuals with high IGF-1 are protected from disease, while older individuals with high IGF-1 are at increased risk for incident disease or death. Second, the association between IGF-1 and risk ...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 22, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Improved Manipulation of " Eat Me " and " Don't Eat Me " Markers in the Context of Cancer
One of the more interesting discoveries of the past few decades in cancer research has been the identity of surface markers such as CD47 that normally act to protect important cells from being attacked and destroyed by immune cells - a "don't eat me" signal. Cancers abuse such mechanisms in a variety of ways, both directly, in cancerous cells, and indirectly, via subversion of regulatory immune cells that are protected by such surface markers, in order to suppress the immune response to the cancer. Targeting CD47 has proven a promising approach to the treatment of cancer, but it has side-effects. There are always necessary...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 19, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 2nd 2021
This study aimed to determine the association between: (i) cognitive decline and bone loss; and (ii) clinically significant cognitive decline on Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) over the first 5 years and subsequent fracture risk over the following 10 years. A total of 1741 women and 620 men aged ≥65 years from the population-based Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study were followed from 1997 to 2013. Over 95% of participants had normal cognition at baseline. After multivariable adjustment, cognitive decline was associated with bone loss in women but not men. Approximately 13% of participants experienced sign...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 1, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Peptide Coated Nanoparticles as a Basis for a Non-Invasive Test for Cancer
A reliable, low-cost means of early detection of cancer would be of great benefit. Approaches to the treatment are advancing to the point at which very early stage cancer has a high rate of survival, and the side-effects of treatments for early stage cancer are becoming less onerous. In the ideal world, a yearly physical would include a low-cost cancer screen that robustly detects even small volumes of cancerous tissue. Various approaches are under development, such as those based on identification of signal molecules in the bloodstream. The alternative approach noted here, based on the use of engineered nanoparticles, is ...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 27, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Causality in Medicine: Moving Beyond Correlation in Clinical Practice
A growing body of research suggests it ’s time to abandon outdated ideas about how to identify effective medical therapies.Paul Cerrato, senior research analyst and communications specialist, Mayo Clinic Platform, and John Halamka, M.D., president, Mayo Clinic Platform, wrote this article.“Correlation is not causation.” It’s a truism that researchers take for granted, and for good reason. The fact that event A is followed by event B doesn’t mean that A caused B. An observational study of 1,000 adults, for example, that found those taking high doses of vitamin C were less like ly to develop lung cancer doesn’t p...
Source: Life as a Healthcare CIO - July 23, 2021 Category: Information Technology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 14th 2021
In conclusion, a number of high-income countries, changes in health expectancies over time have not kept pace with the growth in life expectancy. That is, people are living longer but disability and poor health are occupying an increasing proportion of later life. Our findings suggest that countries still need to make significant progress to achieve the WHO's Decade of Healthy Ageing goal of healthier, longer lives for all.
Progress on Understanding Why Human Growth Hormone Receptor Variants are Associated with Greater Longevity
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2021/06/progress-on-understanding-why-human-gr...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 13, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
The Mainstream Media is Slowly Becoming Less Skeptical of Work to Extend the Healthy Human Life Span
One can't maintain dismissive skepticism forever in the face of scientific and medical development communities that are ever more engaged in the development of therapies to address the mechanisms of aging. To pick one example, senolytic treatments that clear senescent cells from aged tissues are producing consistently amazing data in mice: rejuvenation, extension of healthy life, reversal of measures of many specific age-related diseases. We'll soon know how well the more viable senolytics perform in human trials, as the preliminary data from the use of dasatinib and quercetin shows that it does selectively destroy senesce...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 11, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Epistemology VI: Epidemiology
Epidemiology originally largely meant studying how infectious diseases spread, and that ' s still a major concern of epidemiologists. However, it also includes the study of any and every environmental or behavioral factor affecting human health. For example, the finding that smoking tobacco causes lung cancer (not to mention a bazillion other diseases) is an epidemiological finding. Epidemiology is largely an observational science, given the ethical prohibition against exposing humans to potentially hazardous conditions for experimental purposes. That ' s not to say it hasn ' t been done, with the victims being ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - May 17, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Health insurance in this country leaves a lot to be desired
I was an ICU nurse for 17 years, and it was during my last two years of my career when I was diagnosed with lung cancer. Going into and out of the hospital for my chemo sessions. Going into and out of the clinic for my follow-up appointments with my oncologist was the most harrowing […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 13, 2021 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/ton-la-jr" rel="tag" > Ton La, Jr., JD < /a > < /span > Tags: Policy Public Health & Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, April 12th 2021
In conclusion, the MR exhibited the protective effects against age-related behavioral disorders, which could be partly explained by activating circulating FGF21 and promoting mitochondrial biogenesis, and consequently suppressing the neuroinflammation and oxidative damages. These results demonstrate that FGF21 can be used as a potential nutritional factor in dietary restriction-based strategies for improving cognition associated with neurodegeneration disorders.
Senescent T Cells Cause Changes in Fat Tissue that are Harmful to Long-Term Health
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2021/04/senescent-t-cells-cause...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 11, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Accelerating the Development of Tests for Endometriosis and Cancer
NIGMS’ Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program works toward more effective methods for patient screening, diagnosis, and treatment.
Translating lab discoveries into health care products requires large investments of time and resources. Through the STTR Regional Technology Transfer Accelerator Hubs for IDeA States program, NIGMS helps researchers interested in transitioning their discoveries and/or inventions into products. Here are the stories of three researchers working with the XLerator Hub, which funds projects in the southeastern United States and Puerto Rico.
Ending Diagnostic Delays for Endomet...
Source: Biomedical Beat Blog - National Institute of General Medical Sciences - April 7, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Chrissa Chverchko Tags: Being a Scientist Injury and Illness Cancer Diseases Profiles Scientific Process Source Type: blogs
