Tag: hold

Could bats hold the secret to healthy ageing?

In the fictional links he drew between immortal vampires and bats, Dracula creator Bram Stoker may have had one thing right. “Maybe it’s all in the blood,” says Emma Teeling, a geneticist studying the exceptional longevity of bats in the hope of discovering benefits for humans. The University College Dublin researcher works with the charity

Stem cells may hold a key to developing new vaccines against COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 may have the ability to reactivate dormant tuberculosis (TB). In a novel study, scientists report in The American Journal of Pathology that infection with a specific coronavirus strain reactivated dormant Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) in mice. This knowledge may help to develop new vaccines for COVID-19 and avoid a potential

Could your smartphone hold clues to early Alzheimer’s disease?

The development of a wearable to detect early Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases years before symptoms show has taken a step closer to reality today, as UK charity Alzheimer’s Research UK announces a partnership with Boston University that will see the first digital data flowing into its global Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases (EDoN) initiative.

Green tea could hold the key to reducing antibiotic resistance

Scientists at the University of Surrey have discovered that a natural antioxidant commonly found in green tea can help eliminate antibiotic resistant bacteria. The study, published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology, found that epigallocatechin (EGCG) can restore the activity of aztreonam, an antibiotic commonly used to treat infections caused by the bacterial pathogen Pseudomonas

Muscle-building proteins hold clues to ALS, muscle degeneration

Toxic protein assemblies, or “amyloids,” long considered to be key drivers in many neuromuscular diseases, also play a beneficial role in the development of healthy muscle tissue, University of Colorado Boulder researchers have found. “Ours is the first study to show that amyloid-like structures not only exist in healthy skeletal muscle during regeneration, but are

Mushrooms of the Far East hold promise for anti-cancer therapy

Mushrooms from the Far East contain natural chemical compounds that could be used for the design of the novel drugs with highly specific anti-tumor activities and low toxicity. These compounds may offer new avenues for oncology, providing physicians with either standalone alternatives to chemotherapy, chemopreventive medicines, or drugs to be used in combination with other

Control of the iRhom2 protein may hold the key to preventing Alzheimer’s disease

It is known that the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with the accumulation of Amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides in small molecular clusters known as oligomers. These trigger the formation of so-called ‘neurofibrillary tangles’ within neurons hamper their workings, ultimately causing cell death and so significant cognitive decline. Very large Aβ oligomers which form