https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Scientists from A*STAR Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (A*STAR IMCB) have identified why certain lung cancer cells become highly resistant to treatment after developing mutations in a key gene called EGFR (epidermal growth factor receptor). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-scientists-lung-cancer-bodyguard.html Sun, 25 Jan 2026 11:30:03 EST news688303607 RNA is usually portrayed as a molecule that works deep inside the cell, helping to turn genetic information into proteins. But new research led by Utrecht University scientist Jack Li shows that RNA also plays an active role on the outside of cells. There, it appears to help immune cells recognize their targets. These results may open new perspectives for understanding, and eventually steering immune responses in diseases such as cancer. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-12-rna-cell-immune-responses.html Fri, 19 Dec 2025 12:59:28 EST news685371541 During the first weeks of pregnancy, the developing placenta in a mother's womb undergoes a dramatic change. Individual cells merge, forming a continuous barrier that will spend the next nine months ferrying oxygen and nutrients to the growing fetus while keeping the mother's immune system at bay. When this structure fails to form properly, pregnancies are at higher risk of complications, including preeclampsia and restricted fetal growth. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-11-sugarprotein-interactions-critical-placenta-early.html Wed, 05 Nov 2025 14:52:02 EST news681576714 A research team at Lund University in Sweden has discovered a mechanism that helps acute myeloid leukemia cells to evade the body's immune system. By developing an antibody that blocks the mechanism, the researchers could restore the immune system's ability to kill the cancer cells in laboratory trials and in mice. The discovery is published in Nature Cancer. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-10-surface-protein-discovery-reveals-leukemia.html Fri, 03 Oct 2025 05:00:16 EDT news678637142 A new study, led by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), identified tiny pieces of messenger RNA that are missing in pediatric high-grade glioma tumors but not in normal brain tissues. Preclinical research indicates that these missing RNA fragments can make difficult-to-treat tumors more responsive to immunotherapy. The findings were recently published in the journal Cell Reports. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-08-messenger-rna-fragments-key-immunotherapy.html Fri, 15 Aug 2025 14:12:38 EDT news674485949 Envision this possible future clinical scenario: a breast cancer patient and her physicians are deciding on the best possible treatment. Their decision is informed by a comprehensive molecular profile of the patient's cancer samples that predicts the most likely response of the cancer to treatment. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-reveals-indicators-her2-breast-cancer.html Thu, 05 Jun 2025 13:50:03 EDT news668349378 Effective vaccines dramatically changed the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing illness, reducing disease severity, and saving millions of lives. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-05-ai-clues-virus-evolve-immune.html Thu, 08 May 2025 12:09:04 EDT news665924941 In 2021, research led by Ryan Flynn, MD, Ph.D., and his mentor, Nobel laureate Carolyn Bertozzi, Ph.D., opened a new chapter in biology, characterizing a new kind of player on the cell surface: glycoRNAs. Extending this discovery recently in Cell, Flynn and colleagues showed that glycoRNAs form highly organized clusters with RNA-binding proteins on the cell surface. These clusters appear to regulate communication between cells and their environment. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-druggable-cancer-rna-proteins-cell.html Wed, 23 Apr 2025 05:00:15 EDT news664466821 Researchers have shown that differences in the entire rotavirus genome—not just its two surface proteins—affect how well vaccines work, helping to explain why some strains are more likely to infect vaccinated individuals. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-04-viral-backbone-underlies-variation-rotavirus.html Tue, 08 Apr 2025 11:56:04 EDT news663332161 Our blood consists of many cell types that develop through different stages from a precursor type—the blood stem cell. An international research team led by Universitätsmedizin Frankfurt and Goethe University has now investigated the developmental pathways of blood cells in humans. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-03-stem-cells-calm-body-immune.html Fri, 21 Mar 2025 09:34:04 EDT news661768441 Melbourne-based scientists have, for the first time, discovered how to "switch off" a molecule which is one of the top culprits behind prostate cancer, and is also linked to lung and kidney cancers. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-02-scientists-uncover-method-halt-key.html Wed, 19 Feb 2025 08:31:04 EST news659176262 Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Stanford University have revealed the molecular structure of TRACeR-I, a protein platform for reprogramming immune responses. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-immunotherapy-platform-potential-cancer-cells.html Fri, 13 Dec 2024 05:00:02 EST news653215834 Thirteen proteins linked to brain aging in humans are identified in a Nature Aging paper. Changes in the concentrations of these blood proteins may peak at 57, 70, and 78 years old in humans, and suggest that these ages may be important for potential interventions in the brain aging process. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-12-proteins-strongly-brain-aging.html Mon, 09 Dec 2024 16:53:03 EST news652985581 An experimental vaccine has shown promise in protecting against the sexually transmitted disease chlamydia, researchers report. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-11-chlamydia-vaccine-early-mice.html Fri, 15 Nov 2024 06:50:55 EST news650875848 Cell surface proteins play a crucial role in cell communication and in sensing changes in the extracellular environment. Their ability to respond to external stimuli by altering the internal biological activity of the host cell makes them ideal targets for therapeutic manipulation. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-10-antibody-nerve-cells-pain-relief.html Wed, 09 Oct 2024 16:53:04 EDT news647711581 In studies with genetically engineered mice, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have identified a potentially new biological target involving Aplp1, a cell surface protein that drives the spread of Parkinson's disease-causing alpha-synuclein. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-06-mouse-cancer-drug-protein-spurs.html Mon, 17 Jun 2024 13:03:03 EDT news637848181 A new research paper published in Aging is titled "Characterization of age-associated gene expression changes in mouse sweat glands." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-age-gene-mouse-glands.html Tue, 14 May 2024 16:23:02 EDT news634922581 Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a complex condition that requires individualized care to meet the needs of the patient's current disease state. With available medications sometimes causing serious side effects or losing their efficacy over time, many researchers have been exploring new, more targeted ways of delivering medications or other beneficial compounds, such as probiotics. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-05-potential-treatment-inflammatory-bowel-disease.html Tue, 07 May 2024 12:48:04 EDT news634304882 Clinicians often find limited success in treating patients with traumatic brain injury, a condition long linked to contact sports and military services. A new study, published in the journal Cell Stem Cell, may offer new clues to better solutions. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-04-organoids-reveal-overlooked-protein-role.html Thu, 04 Apr 2024 11:00:02 EDT news631438141 Thanks to an unusual application of game theory and machine learning technology, a large team of scientists led by experts at Cincinnati Children's has published the world's most detailed "atlas" of the many types of stem cells and early progenitors involved in producing human blood from diverse donors. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-atlas-date-human-blood-stem.html Thu, 21 Mar 2024 15:23:04 EDT news630253382 Using data from both mice and humans, a Johns Hopkins Medicine research team has found that a cell surface protein that senses odors and chemicals may be responsible for—and help explain—sex differences in mammalian blood pressure. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-odor-sensor-male-female-differences.html Wed, 20 Mar 2024 14:00:01 EDT news630146943 Researchers from the UoC's Center for Biochemistry at the Faculty of Medicine and the UoC CECAD Cluster of Excellence in Aging Research have discovered that an excessive immune response can be prevented by the intramembrane protease RHBDL4. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-03-regulatory-mechanism-immune.html Thu, 07 Mar 2024 10:13:44 EST news629028821 In experiments with lab-grown brain cells and mouse models, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have discovered that a cell surface protein called Lag3 is not only a biological target for FDA-approved drugs that stimulate the immune system to attack cancer, but also may be a target for a drug designed to clean up "misfolded" Tau proteins linked to Alzheimer's disease. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2024-02-cell-team-links-cancer-drug.html Fri, 23 Feb 2024 10:05:18 EST news627905115 A research team led by Prof. Nancy Ip, the President and The Morningside Professor of Life Science at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), and the Director of the Hong Kong Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (HKCeND), has identified VCAM1, a cell surface protein found on immune cells of the brain, as a therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease (AD), paving the way for developing novel therapeutics to combat this debilitating condition. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-scientists-alzheimer-disease-treatment.html Tue, 28 Nov 2023 10:13:50 EST news620388828 A review paper titled "Targeting Ras with protein engineering" has been published in Oncotarget. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-11-ras-protein.html Mon, 27 Nov 2023 15:37:57 EST news620321874 Previous research has implicated fungi in chronic neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, but there is limited understanding of how these common microbes could be involved in the development of these conditions. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-brain-fungal-infection-alzheimer-disease-like.html Mon, 16 Oct 2023 16:38:20 EDT news616693095 Rabies virus is incurable and almost always fatal once it has invaded the central nervous system, with the victim doomed to suffer a horrible death. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-advanced-rabies.html Thu, 28 Sep 2023 13:11:53 EDT news615125503 A research team at the University of Liverpool has developed a new material that captures coronavirus particles and could transform the efficiency of face masks and other filter equipment to stop the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-material-captures-coronavirus-particles-mask.html Tue, 26 Sep 2023 09:27:50 EDT news614939266 A new cancer therapy developed by Purdue University researchers attacks tumors by tricking cancer cells into absorbing a snippet of RNA that naturally blocks cell division. As reported in Oncogene, tumors treated with the new therapy did not increase in size over the course of a 21-day study, while untreated tumors tripled in size over the same time period. The paper is tiled "A first-in-class fully modified version of miR-34a with outstanding stability, activity, and anti-tumor efficacy." https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-09-first-in-class-microrna-therapy-cancer-tumor.html Mon, 04 Sep 2023 10:06:18 EDT news613040773 Malignant melanoma, a dangerous type of skin cancer, deploys an elegant molecular mechanism to evade natural immune responses and the therapies intended to boost them, according to new work led by scientists at the Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center (HICCC). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-malignant-melanoma-eludes-immune-cells.html Mon, 31 Jul 2023 11:00:11 EDT news610020006