The body has a veritable army constantly on guard to keep us safe from microscopic threats from infections to cancer. Chief among this force is the macrophage, a white blood cell that surveils tissues and consumes pathogens, debris, dead cells, and cancer. Macrophages have a delicate task. It's crucial that they ignore healthy cells while on patrol, otherwise they could trigger an autoimmune response while performing their duties.

Natural killer (NK) cells engineered to express interleukin-21 (IL-21) demonstrated sustained antitumor activity against glioblastoma stem cell-like cells (GSCs) both in vitro and in vivo, according to new research from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

The preclinical findings, published in Cancer Cell, represent the first evidence that engineering NK cells, a type of innate immune cell, to secrete IL-21 resulted in strong activity against glioblastoma, a cancer type in need of more effective treatment options.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced positive top-line safety and immunogenicity results from substudy B of the ongoing pivotal Phase 3 clinical trial ( NCT05842967) MONeT (RSV I Mmunizati ONStudy for Adul Ts at Higher Risk of Severe Illness), evaluating two doses of ABRYSVO vaccine in immunocompromised adults aged 18 and older at risk of developing severe respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)-associated lower respiratory tract disease (LRTD).

The natural world is rich in chemical compounds with remarkable medicinal properties. A notable example is penicillin, discovered by chance from the Penicillium mold. This discovery revolutionized the treatment of bacterial infections and highlighted the potential of natural compounds in medicine. Since then, the identification, isolation, and synthesis of novel bioactive compounds from plants, fungi, and bacteria have become fundamental to drug development.

Novartis today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted accelerated approval for Fabhalta® (iptacopan), a first-in-class complement inhibitor for the reduction of proteinuria in adults with primary immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) at risk of rapid disease progression. This is generally defined as a urine protein-to-creatinine ratio (UPCR) ≥1.5 g/g(1). Fabhalta specifically targets the alternative complement pathway of the immune system.

By recruiting the immune system to combat tumor cells, immunotherapy has improved survival rates, offering hope to millions of cancer patients. However, only about one in five people responds favorably to these treatments.

With a goal of understanding and addressing immunotherapy's limitations, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis have found that the immune system can be its own worst enemy in the fight against cancer.

Vorasidenib has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with Grade 2 gliomas with IDH1 or IDH2 mutations.

Based on evidence from the INDIGO clinical trial, a global phase 3, double-blinded, randomized clinical trial, vorasidenib more than doubled progression-free survival and delayed the need for treatment with radiation and chemotherapy for patients with Grade 2 IDH-mutant glioma after surgery to remove the tumor.

Northwestern University scientists have developed a new bioactive material that successfully regenerated high-quality cartilage in the knee joints of a large-animal model.

Although it looks like a rubbery goo, the material is actually a complex network of molecular components, which work together to mimic cartilage's natural environment in the body.

Fewer side effects, improved chances of healing: the goal of precision medicine is to provide patients with the most individualized treatment possible. This requires a precise understanding of what is happening at the cellular level. For the first time, researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have now succeeded in mapping the interactions of 144 active substances with around 8,000 proteins. The results could help to identify previously unknown potential benefits of existing drugs.

Vividion Therapeutics, Inc. (Vividion), a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company utilizing novel discovery technologies to unlock high-value, traditionally undruggable targets with precision therapeutics for devastating cancers and immune disorders, announced it will expand its global innovation capabilities with a new research and development (R&D) center and corporate headquarters in San Diego, California. Vividion is a wholly owned and independently operating subsidiary of Bayer AG.

In a hopeful sign for demand for more safe, effective antibiotics for humans, researchers at The University of Texas at Austin have leveraged artificial intelligence (AI) to develop a new drug that already is showing promise in animal trials.

Publishing their results in Nature Biomedical Engineering, the scientists describe using a large language model - an AI tool like the one that powers ChatGPT - to engineer a version of a bacteria-killing drug that was previously toxic in humans, so that it would be safe to use.

A new study from the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center finds that giving a fatty acid inhibitor alongside chemotherapy could improve the treatment efficacy for patients with brain metastases from triple negative breast cancer. The findings appear in npj Breast Cancer.

Previous work has shown that the brain microenvironment has very limited lipids available for cancer cells, making it critical for cancer cells to generate their own lipids to survive.

A team of researchers at the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center has designed a molecule that impairs signaling mediated by two key drivers of cancer therapy resistance. The design and preclinical evaluation of the inhibitor, MTX-531 was published in Nature Cancer.

Researchers, led by Judith Sebolt-Leopold, Ph.D., discovered MTX-531, a kinase inhibitor with the ability to selectively block both epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and phosphatidylinositol 3-OH kinase (PI3K).

Researchers from Kyushu University have identified a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of advanced multiple sclerosis (MS), a potentially disabling condition associated with the central nervous system. In their latest study, conducted using an experimental mouse model of MS, they explored the role of connexin 43 (Cx43), a protein involved in cellular communication and cardiac function, and examined whether targeting this protein with specific blockers could improve MS symptoms.

A recent study from China has reported that Cordyceps sinensis (CS), a traditional Chinese medicinal fungus, can ameliorate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) in mice by inhibiting mitochondrion-mediated oxidative stress. The research, conducted by a team led by Huan Tang and Jigang Wang from the Institute of Chinese Materia Medica at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, was published in Wiley's MedComm-Future Medicine.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) today announced positive topline results from the Phase 3 AFFINE study (NCT04370054) evaluating giroctocogene fitelparvovec, an investigational gene therapy for the treatment of adults with moderately severe to severe hemophilia A.

The AFFINE study achieved its primary objective of non-inferiority, as well as superiority, of total annualized bleeding rate (ABR) from Week 12 through at least 15 months of follow up post-infusion compared with routine Factor VIII (FVIII) replacement prophylaxis treatment.

Data from the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer's (A4) study, the first and largest clinical trial of pre-symptomatic Alzheimer's disease, is now widely available to researchers studying the condition. The comprehensive dataset has already yielded key insights about Alzheimer’s disease, which affects nearly seven million people in the United States, and sharing the data opens avenues for further progress.

Antibiotics are crucial in modern medicine, but their widespread use has led to antibiotic-resistant bacteria, posing a serious public health threat. A new study highlights the potential of random antimicrobial peptide mixtures to significantly reduce the risk of resistance evolution compared to single peptides. These findings support the development of new antimicrobial strategies, emphasizing the need for innovative solutions to outpace bacterial resistance and safeguard public health.

Relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a so-called blood cancer, has an extremely poor prognosis because of resistance to anti-cancer drugs and frailty of the patient’s organ functions. A type of anti-tumor immunotherapy called allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, which can exert anti-cancer effect accompanied by severe toxicity, is often performed for patients who are hard to treat with chemotherapy, but relapse still remains.

Peek inside the human genome and, among the 20,000 or so genes that serve as building blocks of life, you’ll also find flecks of DNA left behind by viruses that infected primate ancestors tens of millions of years ago.

These ancient hitchhikers, known as endogenous retroviruses, were long considered inert or 'junk' DNA, defanged of any ability to do damage. New CU Boulder research published July 17 in the journal Science Advances shows that, when reawakened, they can play a critical role in helping cancer survive and thrive.