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Category: biotech/medical – Page 468

Study: Brain’s Reward System Could Help Heart Attack Recovery

Researchers at the Technion – Israel Institute of technology in Haifa have shown that boosting a person’s mental state could help them recover from a heart attack.

The researchers focused on the reward system – a network in the brain that is activated when a person is motivated or in a positive emotional state – in order to ascertain its impact on recovery from a heart attack, formally known as an acute myocardial infarction (AMI).

They found that activating this system in mice led to better clinical outcomes and reduced scarring of the heart tissue. And while the science behind the link between the brain and the heart is still undefined, the Technion said the study raises hopes of improved treatment for heart disease.

Child Patient Receives World’s First Brain Implant For Rare Form Of Epilepsy

A 13-year-old boy named Oran Knowlson has become the world’s first patient to test out a brain stimulation implant to treat severe epilepsy.

Knowlson was sometimes having hundreds of seizures per day before the device was fitted. His family has stated that he’s already seeing positive changes compared to his condition before implanting the device.

Editor’s pick: Tome Biosciences

An exciting overview of progress made by the startup Tome Biosciences towards clinical application of the PASTE technology, a way of using CRISPR and integrases (or ligases) to programmably insert very long DNA sequences into the human genome.

Each year, Nature Biotechnology highlights companies that have received sizeable early-stage funding in the previous year. Tome Biosciences inserts large DNA sequences into precise genomic locations, overcoming limitations of base and prime editing.

Cognitive rejuvenation in old rats by hippocampal OSKM gene therapy

Several studies have indicated that interrupted epigenetic reprogramming using Yamanaka transcription factors (OSKM) can rejuvenate cells from old laboratory animals and humans. However, the potential of OSKM-induced rejuvenation in brain tissue has been less explored. Here, we aimed to restore cognitive performance in 25.3-month-old female Sprague–Dawley rats using OSKM gene therapy for 39 days. Their progress was then compared with the cognitive performance of untreated 3.5-month-old rats as well as old control rats treated with a placebo adenovector. The Barnes maze test, used to assess cognitive performance, demonstrated enhanced cognitive abilities in old rats treated with OSKM compared to old control animals. In the treated old rats, there was a noticeable trend towards improved spatial memory relative to the old controls.

AI Model Enhances Heart Scan Analysis

This post is also available in: עברית (Hebrew)

Experts from the Universities of East Anglia, Sheffield, and Leeds have developed a new groundbreaking AI method that improves the accuracy and efficiency of analyzing MRI heart scans. This innovation could provide a way for faster, more accurate, and non-invasive diagnosis of heart failure and other cardiac conditions, thus saving valuable time and resources for the healthcare sector.

According to Innovation News Network, the research team used data from 814 patients at Sheffield and Leeds Teaching Hospitals to train an AI model, which was then tested using scans and data from 101 patients at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals to ensure accuracy.

Startup Fights Superbugs, Antibiotic Resistance With Rapid Testing

To tackle this issue, Israeli medical technology startup NanoSynex has developed a rapid personalized diagnostic test, which will enable doctors to prescribe the correct antibiotics at the moment they are needed most.

“There is a clear issue of misuse and overuse of antibiotics, and one of the ways to address this crisis, other than developing new antibiotics, is to better use existing antibiotics, by boosting the development of rapid and reliable diagnostic solutions, which is what we are doing at NanoSynex,” Diane Abensur, CEO and co-founder of NanoSynex, tells NoCamels.

NanoSynex offers laboratories better and faster solutions to determine the best treatment plan by providing rapid and accurate results for Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST), tests that are used to determine which specific antibiotics a particular bacteria or fungus is sensitive to.

Study unveils complexity of zoonotic transmission chains

Researchers from the Complexity Science Hub and the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna have dissected the complex interactions involved in zoonoses, which annually affect over two billion people worldwide. They introduce the concept of a “zoonotic web,” a detailed network representation of the relationships between zoonotic agents, their hosts, vectors, food sources, and the environment.