Small Molecules News and Research

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Scientists identify signal essential for blood-brain barrier formation

What makes the vital layer of protective cells around the brain and spinal cord -; the blood-brain barrier -; more or less permeable has been one of the more mystifying questions in neuroscience.

12 Jul 2023

Biomimetic nanocarriers fuse with cell membranes to deliver drugs

In drug delivery, the therapeutic behavior of the nanocarriers is limited by the "foreign" character of their surface.

12 Jul 2023

New atlas offers a way to identify the deep mechanisms of cancer

An atlas that catalogs gene activity and the levels of small molecules called metabolites in tumor samples offers a new way of identifying the deep mechanisms of cancer, according to researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

29 Jun 2023

New nanoparticle could improve the delivery of mRNA-based vaccines

Johns Hopkins Medicine scientists say they have developed a nanoparticle -; an extremely tiny biodegradable container -; that has the potential to improve the delivery of messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based vaccines for infectious diseases such as COVID-19, and vaccines for treating non-infectious diseases including cancer.

28 Jun 2023

Disorientating the malaria parasite to prevent its replication and transmission

With almost 250 million cases a year, 621,000 of them fatal, malaria remains a major public health problem, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.

16 Jun 2023

Heat-damaged DNA in food may contribute to genetic risks

Researchers have newly discovered a surprising and potentially significant reason why eating foods frequently cooked at high temperatures, such as red meat and deep-fried fare, elevates cancer risk. The alleged culprit: DNA within the food that's been damaged by the cooking process.

13 Jun 2023

Thyrotropin-releasing hormone neurons play a key role in the response to fasting and weight loss

Regulation of thyroid hormone (TH) levels is a complex multilevel phenomenon. The paraventricular nucleus (PVN) of the hypothalamus (the region of the brain that controls the involuntary nervous system) has been identified as a direct regulator of thyrotropin (a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland that regulates the production of thyroid hormones).

12 Jun 2023

A SARS-CoV-2 spike-targeting bispecific T-cell engager strategy for controlling SARS-CoV-2 infection

Researchers described a novel strategy for controlling severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.

5 Jun 2023

Scientists study the structure and function of a transporter involved in cancer, immunity

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center studied the structure and function of a transporter involved in cancer and immunity.

24 May 2023

39th Barcelona BioMed Conference focuses on latest advances in proximity induction-based pharmacology

Targeted protein degradation uses different types of "degrading" drugs (degraders) to force proximity between a target protein (for example, a mutated protein that contributes to the development of a disease) and the cellular machinery that directs protein degradation.

23 May 2023

Specially designed capsule gives a fuller picture of normal digestion in healthy people

Using a specially designed capsule, researchers can now voyage through the digestive system, collecting new data about digestion and microorganisms.

10 May 2023

Mount Sinai researchers identify a new therapeutic target for MS and other brain disorders

Cross-talk between brain cells and peripheral immune cells can modulate the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS), Mount Sinai researchers have discovered.

8 May 2023

Anticoronavirals: the development of COVID-19 therapies and the challenges that remain

Researchers highlighted the pace of development of COVID-19 therapies during the pandemic and the challenges that hinder the widespread availability of anticoronavirals.

8 May 2023

New approach addresses the challenge of directly connecting genetic variants to human traits, health

A major challenge in human genetics is understanding which parts of the genome drive specific traits or contribute to disease risk. This challenge is even greater for genetic variants found in the 98% of the genome that does not encode proteins.

5 May 2023

Exploring the World of RNA Chemistry

In this interview conducted at Pittcon 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, we spoke to Philip Bevilacqua from Pennsylvania State University about the world of RNA chemistry.

From Pittcon 5 May 2023

Crohn’s disease: Symptoms, diagnosis, and treatments

Anyone newly diagnosed with Crohn's disease likely has a lot of questions – and probably some anxiety – about having a chronic ailment for which there's no cure.

4 May 2023

Using PandaOmics to identify dual-purpose therapeutic targets to treat aging and glioblastoma

A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 15, Issue 8, entitled, "Identification of dual-purpose therapeutic targets implicated in aging and glioblastoma multiforme using PandaOmics - an AI-enabled biological target discovery platform."

3 May 2023

Researchers develop gene-edited stem cells to reduce arrhythmias in heart attack patients

In a recent study published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, researchers hypothesized that pacemaker-like activity of human pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiomyocytes (hPSC-CMs) resulted in engraftment arrhythmias (EAs), which hampers the clinical use of cell-based therapy using hPSC-CMs for treatment of myocardial infarction (MI).

2 May 2023

A dimensional reduction strategy for enhanced cryopreservation of red blood cells

Small amounts of nanometer-thin metal-organic layers efficiently protect red blood cells during freezing and thawing, as a team of researchers writing in the journal Angewandte Chemie has discovered. The nanolayers, made from metal-organic frameworks based on the metal hafnium, prevent ice crystal formation at very low concentrations. This effective novel cryoprotection mode could be used to develop new and more efficient cryoprotectants for the biosciences.

29 Apr 2023

Researchers develop novel bio-inspired molecules to enhance bone regeneration

People's ability to regenerate bones declines with age and is further decreased by diseases such as osteoporosis.

28 Apr 2023