Research News

Usually diagnosed in children, teens and young adults, type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks and destroys insulin-secreting β-cells in the pancreas. As a result, people with type 1 diabetes can’t regulate their blood sugar levels and require insulin treatment for survival. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have reversed new-onset type 1 diabetes in mice with pyramid-like DNA molecules called tetrahedral framework nucleic acids (tFNAs).

The mechanism which allows β-lactam antibiotics, including penicillin, to kill MRSA has been revealed for the first time.

An international team of researchers led by the University of Sheffield discovered that β-lactam antibiotics kill MRSA (Methicillin Resistant S. aureus) by creating holes in the cell wall which enlarge as the cell grows, eventually killing the bacteria.

An increasing number of studies suggest a link between a neighborhoods built environment and the likelihood that its residents will develop chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes (T2D), and certain types of cancers. A new nationwide study led by researchers from NYU Grossman School of Medicine published online October 29 in JAMA Network Open suggests that living in neighborhoods with higher availability of fast-food outlets across all regions of the United States is associated with higher subsequent risk of developing T2D.

When you clicked to read this story, a band of cells across the top of your brain sent signals down your spine and out to your hand to tell the muscles in your index finger to press down with just the right amount of pressure to activate your mouse or track pad.

A slew of new studies now shows that the area of the brain responsible for initiating this action — the primary motor cortex, which controls movement — has as many as 116 different types of cells that work together to make this happen.

Research led by scientists at the National Institutes of Health has identified two distinct ways that people with HIV can control the virus for an extended period after stopping antiretroviral therapy (ART) under medical supervision. This information could inform efforts to develop new tools to help people with HIV put the virus into remission without taking lifelong medication, which can have long-term side-effects.

Systemic lupus erythematosis (SLE) is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system targets tissues of the body, causing widespread inflammation and affecting multiple organs such as the kidney and the brain. The gut microbiome all the micro-organisms that live in the human gut is known to be altered in SLE patients. Now, a research team at Osaka University has comprehensively profiled the associations between the gut microbiome and SLE.

Antibodies in the airways quickly wane after SARS-CoV-2 infection, but vaccination results in a strong increase in antibody levels, especially after two doses, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published in the journal JCI Insight. The results suggest that having a second dose of vaccine also after recovering from COVID-19 may be important for protecting against re-infection and to prevent transmission.

Availability of injectable insulin formulation has been a major breakthrough in diabetes management. However, insulin needs to be kept in a refrigerator, which, otherwise after some hours becomes unfit for use due to fibrillation (some kind of ‘solidification’). Its prolonged storage even in normal refrigerator is also not good. Therefore, its thermal instability and fibrillation at non-refrigerated temperatures demands storage and maintenance of cold chain, making it expensive.

A drug commonly used to treat cancer can restore memory and cognitive function in mice that display symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, new UBC research has found.