A discovery by a team of B.C. researchers may lead to improved COVID-19 treatment options that are effective against several variants of the disease. Researchers at the University of British Columbia say they've found a "weak spot" in COVID-19 variants, including in the latest Omicron subvariants. Their findings were published in Nature Communications on [...]
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for fast-produced and adaptable vaccines that could be equally distributed around the world. Developing an efficient mRNA vaccine that is effective, thermostable, and has fewer side effects strongly depends on lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) which preserve and deliver mRNA to cells. Lipid nanoparticles appear to be the sole solution [...]
Engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) have found their applications in various technologies and consumer products. Manipulating chemicals at the nanoscale range introduces unique characteristics to these materials and makes them desirable for technological applications. With the increasing production of ENMs, there have been adverse effects on the environment. Moreover, it is unfeasible to estimate the risks [...]
Although chemotherapy can be a lifesaving treatment for patients with cancer, some of these medications can damage the heart. A team led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) recently developed a nanoparticle probe that can detect an indicator of heart damage from chemotherapy. Experiments with the probe also revealed that in mice with [...]
When the autumn booster programme begins next month, many people are likely to receive Moderna’s new bivalent vaccine, designed to protect against the original Covid strain and the more transmissible Omicron variant. As Covid continues to evolve, so will vaccination strategies. Here we look at some of the developments in the pipeline. Variant-specific boosters In [...]
Scientists of the department of Advanced Organ Bioengineering and Therapeutics (TechMed Centre) recently published a novel cancer immune therapy in the scientific journal Nature Communications ("Cancer immune therapy using engineered ‛tail-flipping’ nanoliposomes targeting alternatively activated macrophages"). In their research, Prof Dr Jai Prakash and his team developed newly designed nanoparticles which can target the body’s immune [...]
Scientists from the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation (TIBI) have developed a contact lens that can capture and detect exosomes, nanometer-sized vesicles found in bodily secretions which have the potential for being diagnostic cancer biomarkers (Advanced Functional Materials, "A microchambers containing contact lens for the non-invasive detection of tear exosomes"). The lens was designed with [...]
Among the total number of deaths caused by different types of cancer, esophageal cancer is the sixth most significant. Several conventional treatments, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and surgery have multiple side effects, including off-target toxicity and multidrug resistance (MDR). Another strategy for esophageal cancer treatment is chemo-photodynamic therapy, the efficacy of which is limited [...]
Cell membrane-coated nanoparticles, applied in targeted drug delivery strategies, combine the intrinsic advantages of synthetic nanoparticles and cell membranes. Although stem cell-based delivery systems were highlighted for their targeting capability in tumor therapy, inappropriate stem cells may promote tumor growth. A review published in the journal Materials Today Bio summarized the role of stem cell membrane-camouflaged [...]
When babies in the African countries of Guinea Bissau and Uganda were given the tuberculosis vaccine, something remarkable happened. Instead of the vaccine only protecting against the target bacteria – Myocbacterium tuberculosis – the tuberculosis vaccine offered broad protection against a range of unrelated infections, including respiratory infections and serious complications such as sepsis. Australian researchers have now pinpointed the biological mechanism behind the [...]
