The Cure Products Blog.: 07/02/19

Tuesday, 2 July 2019

Using a common anticonvulsant to counteract inflammation

Serious conditions, including sepsis, stem from inflammation in the body, and there is a lack of effective medication for sepsis. A chromosomal protein called high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1), secreted by immune and dying cells, binds to a specific cellular receptor—receptor for advanced glycation end-products (RAGE)—and triggers the process of inflammation in the body. Through a computer software-based docking study with a structural similarity-based strategy, scientists from Japan, led by senior researcher Prof Sei-ichi Tanuma from Tokyo University of Science (TUS), discovered that the popular anticonvulsant drug papaverine blocks the binding of HMGB1 to this receptor. This kind of "drug repositioning" can be used to find other merits for existing drugs whose safety profiles are known. This novel approach used for the first time here is unique to TUS and is described in the paper published in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications. Prof Tanuma states, "Our research group has been trying to identify compounds, preferably based on existing drugs, that block the binding of irritants to cellular receptors. We want to find novel drugs to treat inflammation-based conditions."

* This article was originally published here

Tiny motor can 'walk' to carry out tasks

Years ago, MIT Professor Neil Gershenfeld had an audacious thought. Struck by the fact that all the world's living things are built out of combinations of just 20 amino acids, he wondered: Might it be possible to create a kit of just 20 fundamental parts that could be used to assemble all of the different technological products in the world?

* This article was originally published here

Cholesterol that is too low may boost risk for hemorrhagic stroke

Current guidelines recommend lowering cholesterol for heart disease risk reduction. New findings indicate that if cholesterol dips too low, it may boost the risk of hemorrhagic stroke, according to researchers.

* This article was originally published here

Robot arm tastes with engineered bacteria

A robotic gripping arm that uses engineered bacteria to "taste" for a specific chemical has been developed by engineers at the University of California, Davis, and Carnegie Mellon University. The gripper is a proof-of-concept for biologically-based soft robotics.

* This article was originally published here

Regenerating human retinal ganglion cells in the dish to inform glaucoma treatment

The capacity of the human central nervous system to regenerate after injury or illness is limited, and the resulting functional impairments carry a vast societal and personal burden. In glaucoma, degeneration of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) - the axons of which form the optic nerve connecting the retina to the brain—leads to permanent blindness; there is currently no effective treatment for RGC degeneration. Now, University of Nebraska Medical Center researcher Iqbal Ahmad and colleagues show that human RGCs can be regenerated in an in vitro setting helped by lessons learned in rodent models. The discovery is detailed in the journal Development.

* This article was originally published here

Smart glasses follow our eyes, focus automatically

Though it may not have the sting of death and taxes, presbyopia is another of life's guarantees. This vision defect plagues most of us starting about age 45, as the lenses in our eyes lose the elasticity needed to focus on nearby objects. For some people reading glasses suffice to overcome the difficulty, but for many people the only fix, short of surgery, is to wear progressive lenses.

* This article was originally published here

Solitude breeds aggression in spiders (rather than vice versa)

Spiders start out social but later turn aggressive after dispersing and becoming solitary, according to a study publishing July 2 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Raphael Jeanson of the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France, and colleagues.

* This article was originally published here