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Category: biotech/medical – Page 865

Why do we hate the sound of our own voices?

Even though we may actually sound more like our recorded voice to others, I think the reason so many of us squirm upon hearing it is not that the recorded voice is necessarily worse than our perceived voice. Instead, we’re simply more used to hearing ourselves sound a certain way.

A study published in 2005 had patients with voice problems rate their own voices when presented with recordings of them. They also had clinicians rate the voices. The researchers found that patients, across the board, tended to more negatively rate the quality of their recorded voice compared with the objective assessments of clinicians.

So if the voice in your head castigates the voice coming out of a recording device, it’s probably your inner critic overreacting – and you’re judging yourself a bit too harshly.

Eye Scans Can Detect Parkinson’s Years Before Symptoms Emerge

Human eyes are the only natural window we have into a person’s central nervous system.

By looking through them, scientists have found very early signs of Parkinson’s disease, up to seven years before symptoms emerge.

The findings are based on three-dimensional eye scans, which are commonly used by optometrists to examine the health of someone’s retina – the layer of nerve cells at the back of the eye.

Cancer, Mitochondria and Healthy Aging?

I recently just read a post about the “University of Queensland researchers discovered that the protein ATFS-1 aids in cell longevity by balancing new mitochondria creation and repair.”

It reminded me of this:

I recently came across an article about nurturing your mitochondria. One of the benefits to doing this relates to aging — apparently looking after your mitochondria will help counteract much of what we associate with aging, such as declining energy levels.

What I also found fascinating — their suggestions fit very well with many of the methods I’ve been using to fight cancer.

For example:

Stem Cell Therapy Rescues Symptoms of Alzheimer’s Disease

In the study, published August 8, 2023 in Cell Reports, the researchers demonstrate that transplanting hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells was effective in rescuing multiple signs and symptoms of Alzheimer’s in a mouse model of the disease. Mice that received healthy hematopoietic stem cells showed preserved memory and cognition, reduced neuroinflammation and significantly less β-amyloid build-up compared to other Alzheimer’s mice.

Future studies will further explore how the healthy transplanted cells produced such significant improvements, and whether similar transplant strategies can be used to alleviate Alzheimer’s symptoms in humans.

“Alzheimer’s disease poses a major emotional and economic burden on our society, yet there is no effective treatment available,” said Cherqui. “We are excited to see such promising preclinical results from hematopoietic stem cell therapy and look forward to developing a new therapeutic approach for this devastating disease.”

Co-authors of the study include: Alexander Silva, Jay Sharma, Jacqueline Nguyen, Donald P. Pizzo and Debashis Sahoo, all at UC San Diego, as well as Denise Hinz at the La Jolla Institute for Immunology.

HuidaGene Therapeutics creates world’s first ‘G to Y’ DNA base-editor

However, there is currently no base editor to directly edit G or T, since deamination of G rarely causes base conversion, while T lacks amino groups, making it a challenge to overcome the limitation and develop a new class of base editors. Therefore, there is still a need to edit G or T in many cases.

HuidaGene Therapeutics, a clinical-stage genome-editing company, says the National Science Review has published data from its study of the world’s first DNA base editor converting guanine to cytosine/thymine (pyrimidine), or G-to-Y.

The company has filed an international patent application for the glycosylase-based guanine base editor (gGBE) and owns the exclusive global rights to the underlying patent.

Current widely-used DNA base editors mainly integrate programmable DNA binding proteins (Cas9, Cas12, or TALE protein variants) with base deaminases (cytidine deaminase or adenosine deaminase variants). There are mainly two types of base editors: ABE (adenine base editor) and CBE (cytosine base editor), which can realize A-to-G and C-to-T transition between bases 1–2.

Study shows potential for generative AI to increase access and efficiency in healthcare

A new study led by investigators from Mass General Brigham has found that ChatGPT was about 72 percent accurate in overall clinical decision making, from coming up with possible diagnoses to making final diagnoses and care management decisions. The large-language model (LLM) artificial intelligence chatbot performed equally well in both primary care and emergency settings across all medical specialties. The research team’s results are published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research.

Our paper comprehensively assesses decision support via ChatGPT from the very beginning of working with a patient through the entire care scenario, from differential diagnosis all the way through testing, diagnosis, and management. No real benchmarks exists, but we estimate this performance to be at the level of someone who has just graduated from medical school, such as an intern or resident. This tells us that LLMs in general have the potential to be an augmenting tool for the practice of medicine and support clinical decision making with impressive accuracy.

Full Y Chromosome Mapped for the First Time

Summary: Researchers successfully sequenced the entire Y chromosome, previously considered the most elusive part of the human genome.

This feat enhances DNA sequencing accuracy for this chromosome, aiding the identification of genetic disorders. Using state-of-the-art technologies, the team pieced together over 62 million letters of genetic code.

This breakthrough, in tandem with the previous reference genome T2T-CHM13, offers the first complete genome for those with a Y chromosome.

Magnetic nano-boost can supercharge antitumor treatment for an alternative cancer therapy

A new efficient system of cancer treatment using vitamin k3 (Vk3)-loaded copper zinc ferrite nanoparticles having therapeutic capabilities, could benefit millions of cancer patients worldwide.

With the ever-increasing prevalence of cancer cases worldwide, newer approaches to cancer therapy are increasingly needed to tackle the problem. Since conventional cancer therapies such as chemotherapy, radiation therapy and surgery have significant drawbacks such as resistance to chemotherapeutic drugs, adverse effects and lower efficacy, development of nanotherapies that can target hypoxic (when oxygen is not available in sufficient amounts at the tissue level) tumors, with minimum side-effects is necessary.

At present, magnetic hyperthermia-based cancer therapy (MHCT) therapy has been shown to be therapeutic. However, in most cases, it is not as effective due to the generation of lower levels of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in a hypoxic tumor microenvironment (TME) and low heat transmission.

Shattering Conventional Wisdom — Surprising Discovery Could Transform the Future of Electrochemical Devices

Researchers from the University of Cambridge have unveiled a surprising discovery that holds the potential to reshape the landscape of electrochemical devices. This new insight opens the door for the creation of cutting-edge materials and paves the way for enhancements in sectors like energy storage, neuromorphic computing, and bioelectronics.

Electrochemical devices rely on the movement of charged particles, both ions, and electrons, to function properly. However, understanding how these charged particles move together has presented a significant challenge, hindering progress in creating new materials for these devices.

In the rapidly evolving field of bioelectronics, soft conductive materials known as conjugated polymers are used for developing medical devices that can be used outside of traditional clinical settings. For example, this type of material can be used to make wearable sensors that monitor patients’ health remotely or implantable devices that actively treat disease.