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Zombie cells are the ones that can’t die but are equally unable to perform the functions of a normal cell. These zombie, or senescent, cells are implicated in a number of age-related diseases. And with a new letter in Nature, Mayo Clinic researchers have expanded that list. In a mouse model of brain disease, scientists report that senescent cells accumulate […]
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Stanford University School of Medicine researchers have demonstrated that gene therapy can be effective without causing a dangerous side effect common to all gene therapy: an autoimmune reaction to the normal protein, which the patient’s immune system is encountering for the first time. The researchers showed this in a mouse model that accurately recapitulates Duchenne muscular dystrophy. One in every […]
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Animals that develop epilepsy after an infection can be identified as early as three months prior to their first seizure by measuring interactions between the brain and the heart, according to new research using a mouse model of post-cerebral malaria epilepsy. Published in JNeurosci, this finding could inform efforts to diagnose and treat acquired epilepsy. Cerebral malaria afflicts more than […]
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New research, in mice, indicates that a natural sugar called trehalose blocks glucose from the liver and activates a gene that boosts insulin sensitivity, reducing the chance of developing diabetes. Activating the gene also triggers an increase in calories burned, reduces fat accumulation and weight gain, and lessens measures of fats and cholesterol in the blood. The findings, from researchers […]
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Chemicals produced by vegetables such as kale, cabbage and broccoli could help to maintain a healthy gut and prevent colon cancer, a new study from the Francis Crick Institute shows. The research, published in Immunity, shows that mice fed on a diet rich in indole-3-carbinol—which is produced when we digest vegetables from the Brassica genus—were protected from gut inflammation and […]
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Social behavior in mouse models of autism spectrum disorder normalized when investigators triggered the release of a specific signaling substance, serotonin, in a single part of the animals’ brains, according to a study from the Stanford University School of Medicine. “This points to a previously understudied brain mechanism that contributes to an inability to derive pleasure from social interactions,” said […]
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Alcohol increases the mortality of young but not old mice infected with the tuberculosis-causing bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), and this effect is mediated by the production of a protein called interferon-alpha (IFN-α). The study, led by Deepak Tripathi of the University of Texas Health Science Center, will be published August 2 in the open-access journal PLOS Pathogens. Chronic alcohol consumption […]
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A potentially new way of treating cerebral malaria has been discovered by scientists at the Universities of Manchester and Glasgow, in a study using mice. The authors found that inhibiting a complex called the inflammasome, at the same time as delivering anti-malarial drugs, reduced mortality from experimental cerebral malaria in mice. The research, published in PNAS and funded by the […]
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A team of researchers at the University of Oregon has learned more about the mechanism involved in mouse brain white matter changes as it responds to stimulation. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes the experiments they conducted and what they found. Prior studies of the brain have shown that white matter […]
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Researchers tissue-engineered human pancreatic islets in a laboratory that develop a circulatory system, secrete hormones like insulin and successfully treat sudden-onset type 1 diabetes in transplanted mice. In a study published by Cell Reports, the scientists use a new bioengineering process they developed called a self-condensation cell culture. The technology helps nudge medical science closer to one day growing human […]
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