Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have developed a new approach to quantify tumor-specific total mRNA levels from patient tumor samples, which contain both cancer and non-cancer cells. Using this technique on tumors from more than 6,500 patients across 15 cancer types, the researchers demonstrated that higher mRNA levels in cancer cells were associated with reduced patient survival.   The study suggests this computational approach could permit large-scale analyses of tumor-specific total mRNA...

The path to cancer prevention is long and arduous for legions of researchers, but new work by Rice University scientists shows that there may be shortcuts. Rice chemist Anatoly Kolomeisky, lead author and postdoctoral researcher Hamid Teimouri and research assistant Cade Spaulding are developing a theoretical framework to explain how cancers caused by more than one genetic mutation can be more easily identified and perhaps stopped.   Essentially, it does so by identifying and ignoring transition pathways that don’t contribute...

Doctors at Houston Methodist Neuroscience & Spine Center at Sugar Land continue to advance neurological care with new technologies that improve patient treatment and safety.   “We are seeing rising numbers of stroke patients across the country, due to a variety of factors,” said Tsz Lau, M.D., a board-certified neurosurgeon at Houston Methodist Sugar Land Hospital. “We need to be able to treat more patients, faster, to ensure that we are protecting brain function and...

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have identified a novel strategy to reduce immune-related adverse events from immunotherapy treatment by targeting the cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6). The study establishes a proof of concept for combining immune checkpoint blockade with cytokine blockers to inhibit inflammatory autoimmune responses selectively. While combination immunotherapy with anti-PD-1 and anti-CTLA-4 agents has revolutionized treatment for multiple cancer types, it also has high toxicity rates, which can affect the...

Researchers at the University of Texas Medical Branch recently confirmed the presence of neutralizing antibodies to SARS–COV-2 in a common subcutaneous antibody therapy (Hizentra) used to treat immunocompromised or immunodeficient patients, citing its protective benefits to the immunocompromised patient community. An immune deficiency can be a result of a variety of factors, including a genetic disorder or the medication a patient takes. That can leave a patient with a weakened immune system that is unable...

Researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have discovered that two distinct classes of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAFs) accumulate in the pancreatic tumor microenvironment and play opposing roles to promote and restrain pancreatic cancer development.   The preclinical findings suggest that appropriately targeting these unique CAF populations may offer strategies to improve the use of other treatments, such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy.   “Cancer-associated fibroblasts are known to regulate cancer progression, but targeting these cells in pancreatic cancer has largely...

Scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch have developed a vaccine showing promising protection against the Nipah virus, a zoonotic virus that has a mortality rate as high as 70 percent and that is considered to be a pathogen of pandemic potential.   Scientists working in the Biosafety Level 4 Lab at the Galveston National Laboratory developed the rapid-acting vaccine using a harmless recombinant Vesicular stomatitis virus vector to deliver a piece of the Nipah...

Rice University bioengineering students are making a critical procedure easier for airway managers and safer for patients with a simplified, high-tech intubation device.   The Gateway to Airway team at Rice, working with an anesthesiologist, has developed a sleek laryngoscope that simplifies intubating patients for scheduled or emergent procedures.   The handheld, 3D-printed device contains a miniature wireless camera. Clinicians can use a switch on the comfortable handle to adjust the light from an LED near the camera, which...

Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center discovered that treatment resistance in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is caused by two distinct classes of stem cells and identified possible therapeutic approaches that target these cells. Their findings could have significant benefits for patients with disease progression. This research, which spans preclinical and clinical studies, represents the largest analysis to date of MDS patient samples. If further validated in larger clinical trials, the data...

Details about variants hiding in the deluge of genetic SARS-CoV-2 sequences would be good to know, if only researchers a new program developed by Rice University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering will make it possible, at least for “intrahost variants,” those that appear in genome data from the same COVID-19-positive person. A Rice team led by computer scientist Todd Treangen and graduate student Yunxi Liu has developed Variabel, which accurately identifies “low-frequency variants” of the virus that causes COVID-19....