Motorized molecules activated by light target and drill through highly antibiotic resistant bacteria and kill them within minutes. The molecules can open bacteria to attack by drugs they previously resisted. The strategy could be applied to bacterial infections or diseases on the skin, in the lungs or in the gastrointestinal tract.

Colon cancer cells deficient in p53, one of the most important control proteins in cell growth, activate a particular metabolic pathway to adapt to the lack of oxygen and nutrients inside the tumor. Statins, which are often prescribed to lower cholesterol, block this metabolic pathway and cause the cancer cells to die, as scientists have now discovered. The researchers now intend to investigate this potential treatment strategy in more detail in cancer cells and animal experiments.

A computational study by chemists showed the dynamics of tumor formation don’t necessarily correlate with clinical data on lifetime cancer risks. It suggests biomarkers may someday be able to help predict when mutations in cells will turn cancer-prone cells into full-blown cancer.

In the last decade, scientists discovered that blocking a key regulator of the immune system helped unleash the body’s natural defenses against several forms of cancer, opening up a new era of cancer immunotherapy. Now scientists have essentially flipped this script and found that when impaired a molecularly similar regulator can cause the damaging immune system attacks on skin and organs that are the hallmark of the autoimmune disease lupus.

Scientists from Australia and the US have discovered and identified the genetic cause of a previously unknown human autoinflammatory disease. The researchers determined that the autoinflammatory disease, which they termed CRIA (cleavage-resistant RIPK1-induced autoinflammatory) syndrome, is caused by a mutation in a critical cell death component called RIPK1. The discovery suggests that compounds that inhibit cell death might be useful in treating autoinflammatory diseases.

A team has developed a ’scar in a dish‘ model that uses multiple types of cells derived from human stem cells to closely mimic the progressive scarring that occurs in human organs. The researchers used this model to identify a drug candidate that stopped the progression of and even reversed fibrosis in animal models.

Participants who ate a diet high in red and processed meat, fried food, refined grains and high-fat dairy were three times more likely to develop late-stage age-related macular degeneration.

A new study reveals the mechanism that helps pancreatic cancer cells avoid starvation within dense tumors by hijacking a process that pulls nutrients in from their surroundings.

In a new study conducted in Japan, even light to moderate alcohol consumption was associated with elevated cancer risks.

A prescription of short-term exercise for patients with advanced prostate cancer could help to reduce the side-effects of hormone therapy, according to new research. The trial aimed to reduce the adverse side-effects of hormone therapy such as weight gain and an increased risk of heart problems. The results show that a three month programme of aerobic and resistance training intervention prevented adverse changes in cardiopulmonary fitness and fatigue

Taking a baby aspirin every day to prevent a heart attack or stroke should no longer be recommended to patients who haven’t already experienced one of these events, new research suggests.

Scientists report they have created a tiny, nanosize container that can slip inside cells and deliver protein-based medicines and gene therapies of any size — even hefty ones attached to the gene-editing tool called CRISPR.

A person’s risk of developing cancer is affected by genetic variations in regions of DNA that don’t code for proteins, previously dismissed as ‚junk DNA‘, according to new research. This new study shows that inherited cancer risk is not only affected by mutations in key cancer genes – known as oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes – but that variations in the DNA that controls the expression of these genes can also drive the disease.

A simple health questionnaire could be a highly effective tool to pre-screen people for early signs of esophageal cancer, enabling much earlier diagnosis and treatment, finds a new study.

For the first time, researchers have used a chip-based sensor with an integrated laser to detect very low levels of a cancer protein biomarker in a urine sample. The new technology is more sensitive than other designs and could lead to non-invasive and inexpensive ways to detect molecules that indicate the presence or progression of a disease.

Scientists found that women who use permanent hair dye and chemical hair straighteners have a higher risk of developing breast cancer than women who don’t use these products. The study suggests that breast cancer risk increased with more frequent use of these chemical hair products.

The use of high-dose-rate brachytherapy to treat elderly patients with common skin cancers offers excellent cure rates and cosmetic outcomes, according to a new study.

Scientists have developed a method for rapidly discovering potential cancer-treating compounds that work by resurrecting anti-tumor activity in immune cells called T cells. Cancerous tumors often thrive because they render T cells dysfunctional or ‚exhausted.‘ The new method uncovers medicinal compounds that can restore the function of these T cells, making cancers vulnerable to them again.

Of the many marvels of the human immune system, the processing of antigens by the class I proteins of the major histocompatability complex (MHC-I) is among the most mind-boggling. Exactly how these proteins carry out their crucial functions has not been well understood. Now, however, researchers have worked out the details of key molecular interactions involved in the selection and processing of antigens by MHC-I proteins.

Research on immune cells ‚exhausted‘ by chronic viral infection provides clues on how to refine cancer immunotherapy. The Immunity paper defines a transitional stage in between stem-like and truly exhausted cells.

Artificial intelligence (AI) provides an automated and accurate tool to measure a common marker of heart disease in patients getting chest CT scans for lung cancer screening, according to a new study.

Researchers have developed a new treatment for glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive form of brain cancer.

Researchers have achieved photon up-conversion, the emission of light with energy higher than the one that excites the material, using carefully designed structures containing silicon nanocrystals and specialized organic molecules. The accomplishment brings scientists one step closer to developing minimally invasive photodynamic treatments for cancer. The advance could also hasten new technologies for solar-energy conversion, quantum information, and near-infrared driven photocatalysis.

A study suggests a new approach, or, possibly two new approaches against prostate cancer bone metastases: While targeted therapies and anti-cancer immunotherapies have not been especially successful against primary prostate cancers, the study suggests that both these approaches may be effective against the bone metastases that grow from primary prostate cancers, and, in fact, the type of bone metastasis may dictate which targeted therapies and immunotherapies work best.

Researchers have observed how stem cell mutations quietly arise and spread throughout a widening field of the colon until they eventually predominate and become a malignancy.