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Showing posts from June, 2025

Pausing” Cell Death Could Be the Key to Longevity

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  Necrosis drives aging and disease by triggering damaging inflammation. Interrupting it may offer new treatments for chronic conditions and improve health in space travel. Necrosis, a form of uncontrolled cell death, may hold one of the most promising keys to altering the course of human aging, disease, and even space travel, according to a new study by researchers at UCL, the drug discovery company LinkGevity, and the  European Space Agency  (ESA). Challenging conventional thinking, the paper draws on evidence from cancer biology, regenerative medicine, kidney disease, and space health to argue that necrosis is not just a final stage of cell death, but a major driver of aging—and a potential target for intervention. Dr. Keith Siew, an author of the study from UCL Centre for Kidney & Bladder Health, said: “Nobody really likes talking about death, even cell death, which is perhaps why the physiology of death is so poorly understood. And in a way, necrosis is death. If...

Uncovering the molecular drivers of liver cancer

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  Researchers discover that inflammation and aging contribute to non-viral liver cancer development. Green tea's role in reversing some of the pathway dysregulation that may contribute to the cancer development and other therapies explored. Liver cancer can arise spontaneously from healthy liver tissue. Recently, however, researchers have discovered an increasing correlation between some liver cancers and non-viral chronic liver disease (CLD). One liver cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), is associated with CLD in about 15–25% of cases. While increasing awareness and screening of cancers has improved the ability to detect liver cancer at earlier stages when it is more effectively treated, cancer prevention is always a primary goal of both healthcare providers and biomedical researchers. The increasing prevalence of CLD with HCC suggests that this underlying condition predisposes liver tissue to cancer development. In order to investigate how healthy liver tissue differs from th...

Rationale engineering generates a compact new tool for gene therapy

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  Researchers redesign a compact RNA-guided enzyme from bacteria, making it an efficient editor of human DNA. Scientists at the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard have re-engineered a compact RNA-guided enzyme they found in bacteria into an efficient, programmable editor of human DNA.  The protein they created, called NovaIscB, can be adapted to make precise changes to the genetic code, modulate the activity of specific genes, or carry out other editing tasks. Because its small size simplifies delivery to cells, NovaIscB’s developers say it is a promising candidate for developing gene therapies to treat or prevent disease. The study was led by  Feng Zhang , the James and Patricia Poitras Professor of Neuroscience at MIT who is also an investigator at the McGovern Institute and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and a core member of the Broad Institute. Zhang and his team reported their open-access work this month...

Epigenetic editing expands the reach of gene therapy

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  Gene editing therapies are designed to be a one-and-done fix that cure a genetic disease and last a lifetime. Yet, they have some safety risks — chief among them the potential for off-target effects that permanently alter unrelated genes. Plus, there are ethical questions related to genetic editing of germline cells, as those mutations could be passed down to future generations (1). “Because those risks exist, why not develop alternative approaches that would stand alongside or improve on what classical gene editing can do?” said Daniel Hart, the Head of Platform at Epicrispr Biotechnologies . Rather than cutting and permanently altering the genetic code, Epicrispr Biotechnologies is one of several companies pioneering a new kind of gene therapy — epigenetic editin g. This technology is inspired by a cell’s natural epigenetic mechanisms, which work by modifying chemical tags on DNA to regulate gene expression over time. “The safety aspect is key. If one wer...

Cannabis Leaves Molecular Marks on DNA Linked to Psychosis

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  The research also showed the effect of cannabis use on DNA is different in people experiencing their first episode of psychosis compared to users who have never experienced psychosis, suggesting there could be potential for DNA blood tests to help characterise those cannabis users at risk of developing psychosis to inform preventative approaches.  The study was funded by the Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and the NIHR Exeter BRC. Senior author Marta Di Forti, Professor of Drugs, Genes and Psychosis at King’s IoPPN  said: “With the increasing prevalence of cannabis use and more availability of high potency cannabis, there is a pressing need to better understand its biological impact, particularly on mental health. “Our study is the first to show high potency cannabis leaves a unique signature on DNA related to mechanisms around the immune system and energy production....