Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have uncovered a surprising way in which harmful bacteria prepare to attack their hosts. The discovery, led by Ph.D. students Lior Aroeti, Netanel Elbaz under the guidance of Prof. Ilan Rosenshine from the Faculty of Medicine could one day help researchers find new ways to fight infectious diseases.

At the heart of this study, now published in Nature Communications, is a protein called CsrA, which acts like a switchboard operator inside bacterial cells. It helps bacteria decide which of their genes to turn on or off—especially the genes that make them dangerous to humans.

Researchers have long known that CsrA plays a central role in bacterial virulence—the ability of bacteria to cause disease. But the new study shows that CsrA doesn’t work alone. Instead, it gathers in a special, droplet-like structure inside the cell. This structure has no membrane, making it a “membraneless compartment,” which scientists now believe is crucial in regulating how bacteria behave.

A ready-made version of a cutting-edge cancer immunotherapy can effectively defeat blood cancers, a new study says.

Researchers have prepared an off-the-shelf version of CAR immune cell treatment that can be administered more easily to patients with blood cancers.

The new treatment, which uses a type of immune cell called natural killer cells, promoted complete remission in several patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), researchers said in a presentation at an American Association for Cancer Research’s (AACR) meeting in Chicago.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment provides long-term relief for patients suffering from late radiation-induced injuries after treatment of cancer in the lower abdominal area. Five years after hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the positive effects remain. This has been shown in a study conducted at the University of Gothenburg.

Radiation therapy is a component of many cancer treatments in organs such as the prostate, colon, ovaries and cervix. While tumor cells are destroyed, 5%–10% of patients experience severe side effects due to healthy tissue being affected by the radiation therapy.

Symptoms may include urinary incontinence, bleeding and severe pain in the lower abdomen that becomes both physically and socially disabling. These problems can occur several years after radiation therapy and cause chronic and increasing discomfort.

Many animals show signs of high intelligence, including strong memory, self-awareness and communication skills.

Technology is giving us more options for plastic waste, but new methods are still far from perfect.

The magnetization-prepared rapid gradient-echo (MP-RAGE) T1-weighted high resolution structural MRI is a mainstay tool used to identify morphometric biomarkers of disease conditions, progression and treatment effects despite a critical limitation: the relaxation signal on which inferences are based is nearly indistinguishable for gray matter vs. blood flow (Lu et al., 2004; Wright et al., 2008). Thus, apparent reported morphometric findings might be at least partially related to transient changes in blood flow or other physiological signals.

Consistent with this technical limitation, using a standard analysis technique, voxel based morphometry (VBM), we recently reported that a single dose of a medication had “apparent” effects on T1-weighted MRIs (Franklin et al., 2013). Specifically, we observed medication-induced decreases in gray matter volume in the anterior cingulate and other regions that overlapped with changes in brain blood flow (perfusion). Similarly, others have shown effects of medication on T1-weighted scans that are likely transient. For example, acute levodopa administration altered gray matter indices on T1-weighted images in the midbrain (Salgado-Pineda et al., 2006). Further, in a well-controlled longitudinal VBM study of patients with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Hoekzema et al.

Objectives: Proximal median nerve (PMN) neuropathies are caused by lesions proximal to the carpal tunnel, which include the forearm, elbow, upper arm, and brachial plexus. Differentiating between carpal tunnel syndrome and PMN neuropathies is important to guide management and is based on clinical, electrodiagnostic (EDX), and ultrasound (US) findings. This study describes the clinical, EDX, and US features in 62 patients with PMNs.

Methods: All patients underwent EDX studies, and 52 (83.9%) had a US study. The patients were assigned to one of the following four localization zones of PMN neuropathies based on clinical and EDX criteria: Zone 1: extends from the fascicles in the brachial plexus contributing to the median nerve to the innervation of the pronator teres (PT); Zone 2: distal to the branch to the PT and proximal to the origin of the anterior interosseous nerve (AIN); Zone 3: involves the origin of the AIN; and Zone 4: distal to the origin of the AIN and proximal to the carpal tunnel. The localization was based on the pattern of muscle weakness, topography of EMG abnormalities, and US study findings.

Results: The anatomical locations of the PMN neuropathies based on clinical, EDX, and US findings were as follows: Zone 1 in 38 patients (61.3%), Zone 2 in 6 patients (9.7%), Zone 3 in 7 patients (11.3%), and Zone 4 in 11 patients (17.7%). The most common etiology among all 62 patients was iatrogenic injury (30 [48.4%]), followed by non-iatrogenic trauma (20 [32.2%]). The following EDX findings were noted: prolonged distal motor latency (29 [46.8%]), decreased motor nerve conduction velocity in the forearm (22 [35.5%]), low amplitude or absent compound muscle action potentials (50 [80.6%]), and abnormal or absent sensory nerve action potentials (50 [80.6%]). Of the 52 (83.9%) patients who underwent US studies, a total of 22 (42.3%) patients showed an increased cross-sectional area of the median nerve.

Surgical robots can assist in medical procedures or autonomously perform surgical tasks. This Review explores the design and application of passive, interactive, teleoperated and autonomous surgical robots within the framework of computer-assisted and integrated surgical workflows.

Researchers have identified a biomarker in spinal fluid that can detect Parkinson’s disease in its early stages with over 90% accuracy.

Tiny self-powered Janus particles navigate tight spaces, showing promise for health and environmental problem-solving.