Bile News and Research

RSS

Evolutionary history reveals the function of fish and human bitter receptors

To evaluate the chemical composition of food from a physiological point of view, it is important to know the functions of the receptors that interact with food ingredients.

2 Feb 2021

Newly-identified nutrient helps the gut recall prior infections and kill invading bacteria

Scientists studying the body's natural defenses against bacterial infection have identified a nutrient--taurine--that helps the gut recall prior infections and kill invading bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kpn).

16 Jan 2021

Eating avocado as part of daily diet can help improve gut health, shows study

Eating avocado as part of your daily diet can help improve gut health, a new study from University of Illinois shows. Avocados are a healthy food that is high in dietary fiber and monounsaturated fat. However, it was not clear how avocados impact the microbes in the gastrointestinal system or "gut."

16 Dec 2020

Bilayered delivery system offers new solution for treating IBS-C patients

Patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome with constipation (IBS-C) have long needed an upgrade in treatment.

9 Dec 2020

Synthetic biology and machine-learning can speed up maturation of lab-grown organ

Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine have combined synthetic biology with a machine-learning algorithm to create human liver organoids with blood- and bile-handling systems. When implanted into mice with failing livers, the lab-grown replacement livers extended life.

8 Dec 2020

New combination therapy may help fight antimicrobial resistance

An inexpensive, FDA-approved drug -- cholestyramine -- taken in conjunction with an antibiotic prevents the antibiotic from driving antimicrobial resistance, according to new research by scientists at Penn State and the University of Michigan. The team's findings appear today (Dec. 1) in the journal eLife.

2 Dec 2020

Novel targeted therapy blocks metabolic pathways in cancer cells with specific genetic defects

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a novel targeted therapy, called POMHEX, which blocks critical metabolic pathways in cancer cells with specific genetic defects.

23 Nov 2020

Innate immunity key to limiting viral load in COVID-19 cases

As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic continues to cause many difficulties for public health authorities, research is ongoing to understand how the virus can cause fatal effects on those infected and thereby suggest effective preventive and therapeutic measures against it.

8 Nov 2020

Researchers apply a novel technique to improve understanding of liver disease, immune activation

Human cells are encased by a membrane coated with diverse sugar molecules known as glycans. These glycans play many roles in health and disease, making them important to understand.

20 Oct 2020

Persistent-poverty counties face high risk of cancer mortality

Residents of counties that experience persistent poverty face a disproportionately high risk of cancer mortality, according to a study published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

30 Sep 2020

New polygenic risk score to help predict the odds of drugs causing liver damage

The ancient Romans studied the livers of sacrificial animals to read omens and make prophesies. Now researchers at Tokyo Medical and Dental University and Takeda-CiRA program along with a world-wide team of collaborators, have devised a polygenic risk score (PRS) based on liver genomics that can predict the likelihood of medications causing liver damage.

19 Sep 2020

Two discoveries can lead to a new wave of more-complex organoid development

In back-to-back reports published Aug. 27, 2020, in Nature Communications, a team of scientists from Cincinnati Children's and Japan report discoveries that will be vital to a new wave of more-complex organoid development.

27 Aug 2020

Large animals with ailing livers can grow new organ in lymph nodes from their own hepatocytes

Hepatocytes -- the chief functional cells of the liver -- are natural regenerators, and the lymph nodes serve as a nurturing place where they can multiply.

24 Aug 2020

Gastric bypass surgery is the most effective therapy to treat type 2 diabetes

Gastric bypass surgery is the most effective therapy to treat or reverse type 2 diabetes in severely obese patients.

20 Aug 2020

Combination therapy effective for patients with cholangiocarcinoma marked by BRAF mutations

In a Phase II trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the combination of dabrafenib, a BRAF inhibitor, and trametinib, a MEK inhibitor, achieved a 51% overall response rate (ORR) in patients with cholangiocarcinoma marked by the BRAF V600E mutation.

18 Aug 2020

Can SARS-CoV-2 be transmitted via feces?

A new study by researchers at the University of Oxford and the Trip Medical Database and published on the preprint server medRxiv* in August 2020 as part of the ongoing Open Evidence Review on Transmission Dynamics of COVID-19 reports the presence of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in feces and the need for precautions to prevent orofecal spread in the surroundings of confirmed or suspected cases.

12 Aug 2020

Abnormal liver tests associated with poorer COVID-19 outcomes

Researchers at the Yale Liver Center found that patients with COVID-19 presented with abnormal liver tests at much higher rates than suggested by earlier studies.

7 Aug 2020

European Commission approves first drug for hepatitis D

What started off as basic research 25 years ago has now lead to a successfully approved drug: The entry blocker bulevirtide (brand name Hepcludex, formerly known as Myrcludex B), jointly developed by researchers from Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) and the Medical Faculty of Heidelberg, the DZIF and other partners, has now been approved by the European Commission.

5 Aug 2020

Medieval medicine to tackle antibiotic resistance

Biofilm-associated infections are notoriously difficult to treat, and they also play a role in antibiotic resistance as more antimicrobials are urgently needed to treat biofilm-associated infections. These biofilms act as protective layers that prevent the antibiotics from reaching and destroying the targeted bacteria.

29 Jul 2020

Medieval remedy can help treat modern day infections

Antibiotic resistance is an increasing battle for scientists to overcome, as more antimicrobials are urgently needed to treat biofilm-associated infections.

28 Jul 2020