News by Subject Medicine & Health

In proof-of-concept experiments, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have highlighted a potential therapy for a rare but potentially deadly blood-clotting disorder, TTP. The researchers deliver this therapeutic enzyme via the cellular equivalent of a Trojan Horse, using tiny blood cell platelets as their protective delivery vehicle, with a key enzyme hidden inside.

Diabetes is not the only disease on which insulin has an effect, it appears. In a new study that involved tests on mice researchers from the University of Copenhagen, among others, have discovered a new method for treating chronic colitis with regular insulin. The researchers have set up a company with a view to testing the treatment and hopefully making it available to patients.

A naturally occurring antibiotic called kanglemycin A is effective against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacteria that cause tuberculosis, even in drug-resistant strains, according to an international team of researchers who used chemistry, molecular biology, microbiology, and X-ray crystallography to show how the compound maintains its activity.

Using a bioinformatics approach, University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers found that CD4+ T cell's binding partner, a molecule called MHC-II, may have even more influence on emerging tumors than MHC-I, the better known partner of CD8+ T cells. The finding, published September 20 in Cell, may help researchers improve cancer immunotherapies and predict which patients will respond best.

A novel study indicates promising avenues in an innovative approach for developing a vaccine against Plasmodium vivax, the most prevalent human malaria parasite outside sub-Saharan Africa. The study, led by researchers from the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, indicates the possibility of using small vesicles (or exosomes) secreted by immature red blood cells as a vaccine platform against malaria. The paper, carried out in collaboration with IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute, was published in Scientific Reports.