Research News

Gene-editing therapy aimed at two targets – HIV-1, the virus that causes AIDS, and CCR5, the co-receptor that helps the virus get into cells – can effectively eliminate HIV infection, new research from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) shows. The study, published online in the journal The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), is the first to combine a dual gene-editing strategy with antiretroviral drugs to cure animals of HIV-1.

What the human genome is lacking compared with the genomes of other primates might have been as crucial to the development of humankind as what has been added during our evolutionary history, according to a new study led by researchers at Yale and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

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FDA approved Qalsody (tofersen) to treat patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) associated with a mutation in the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) gene (SOD1-ALS). Qalsody is an antisense oligonucleotide that targets SOD1 mRNA to reduce the synthesis of SOD1 protein. The approval was based on a reduction in plasma neurofilament light (NfL), a blood-based biomarker of axonal (nerve) injury and neurodegeneration. 

For the over 8 million people around the globe living with Type 1 diabetes, getting a host immune system to tolerate the presence of implanted insulin-secreting cells could be life-changing.

Rice University bioengineer Omid Veiseh and collaborators identified new biomaterial formulations that could help turn the page on Type 1 diabetes treatment, opening the door to a more sustainable, long-term, self-regulating way to handle the disease.

A new test revealed that FDA-approved antibiotics available at your neighborhood pharmacy can effectively treat superbugs. They are not prescribed, however, because the gold-standard test predicts they will not work. The new test may improve the way antibiotics are developed, tested and prescribed  and it is openly available to all.

A new flexible bio-electronic uric acid detecting device has been fabricated that can be used for various applications such as wearable sensors and point-of-care diagnostics.

Arterial stiffness may be a novel risk factor for metabolic syndrome in teens, a paper published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology concludes. The study was conducted in collaboration between the University of Bristol in the UK, the University of Exeter in the UK, and the University of Eastern Finland.

Research molecule of Novartis, Iptacopan improves hemoglobin to near-normal levels, leading to transfusion independence in all treatment-naive paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria patients, as per recent trials.

The trial met its primary endpoint and demonstrated clinically meaningful benefits across secondary endpoints. These data were presented at the 49th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT).

Drinking cranberry juice has long been a mythical prevention strategy for women who develop a urinary tract infection – and new medical evidence shows consuming cranberry products is an effective way to prevent a UTI before it gets started.