The ability to carry out C–H activation at any site on any heteroaromatic scaffold is a holy grail, offering the potential to revolutionize molecule making. Precision editing, activating, and replacin...

The ability to carry out C–H activation at any site on any heteroaromatic scaffold is a holy grail, offering the potential to revolutionize molecule making. Precision editing, activating, and replacin...

Cells have evolved mechanisms to distribute ~10 billion protein molecules to subcellular compartments where diverse proteins involved in shared functions must assemble. Here, we demonstrate that prote...

Olefsky, Rohm and Cunha e Rocha provide a concise overview of the role of small extracellular vesicles in metabolic health and discuss their history, role as biomarkers, mechanisms of action and thera...

Resistance mechanisms in brain tumors, such as medulloblastoma and glioblastoma, frequently involve the entrapment of chemotherapeutic agents within endosomes and the extracellular expulsion of drugs. These barriers to effective treatment are exacerbated in nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems, where therapeutic nanoparticles often remain confined within endosomes, thus diminishing their therapeutic efficacy. Addressing this challenge necessitates the development of novel strategies to enhance the efficiency of cancer therapies. This study tests the hypothesis that external electrical stimuli can modulate intracellular trafficking of chemotherapeutic drugs in common malignant brain tumors in children (medulloblastoma) and adults (glioblastoma) by using gold nanoparticles (GNPs). In our experiments, alternating current (AC) stimulation ranging from 1 kHz to 5 MHz and at a strength of 1 V/cm significantly reduced cell viability in drug-resistant medulloblastoma and enhanced delivery of GNPs in glioblastoma. Low-frequency AC resulted in a 50% increase in apoptosis compared to controls and an 8-fold increase in cell death in cisplatin-resistant medulloblastoma cells, accompanied by a substantial reduction in EC50 from 2.5 to 0.3 μM. Similarly, vincristine-resistant cells demonstrated a 4-fold enhancement in drug sensitivity. Furthermore, high-frequency AC facilitated a significant increase from 20 to 75% in the endosomal escape of GNPs in glioblastoma cells. These findings underscore the potential of AC to selectively disrupt cancer cell resistance mechanisms and bolster the efficacy of nanoparticle-based therapies. The results indicate the effectiveness of AC stimulation in circumventing the limitations inherent in current nanotechnology-based drug delivery systems but also illustrates its transformative potential for treating aggressive, drug-resistant brain tumors.

Scientists have created a new ‘biocooperative’ material based on blood, which has shown to successfully repair bones, paving the way for personalised regenerative blood products that could be used as ...

Scientists have transformed blood into a substance which successfully repaired bones in animals.

Nature has evolved to repair small fractures by leveraging the cellular and molecular components of regenerative hematoma (RH). This study introduces a biocooperative material approach that enables t...

Dr Beth Coyle and her team are investigating this interaction between tumour cells and their environment. Read more here.