News by Subject Medicine & Health

The Marburg virus, a relative of Ebola, likewise causes a dangerous and often fatal disease. In a study co-led by the University of Pennsylvania's Ronald Harty, an experimental antiviral drug, which prevents the virus from exiting host cells and spreading to new cells, showed promising results. The researchers are also encouraged by similarities in the drug's response against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

To make drugs and their development safer for children, researchers at Aalto University and the pharmaceutical company Novartis have developed a method that could help determine safe drug doses more quickly. In their study, the team created a model of how organs develop that is more data-driven and consequently less prone to bias.

mRNA can be used to produce much more than just vaccines. Around 50 different procedures for the treatment of diseases including cancer are already being studied in clinical trials. Scientists from the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, with the support of neutron researchers from Forschungszentrum Jülich, have now discovered how the subcutaneous administration of mRNA can be improved. The goal is for chronically ill patients to be able to self-administer the medication on a regular basis.

The ability to turn on and off a physical process with just one photon is a fundamental building block for quantum photonic technologies. Realizing this in a chip-scale architecture is important for scalability, which amplifies a breakthrough by CCNY researchers led by physicist Vinod Menon. They've demonstrated for the first time the use of "Rydberg states" in solid state materials (previously shown in cold atom gases) to enhance nonlinear optical interactions to unprecedented levels in solid state systems.

Psychedelic drugs have shown promise for treating neuropsychiatric disorders like depression and posttraumatic stress disorder. However, due to their hallucinatory side effects, some researchers are trying to identify drugs that could offer the benefits of psychedelics without causing hallucinations. In the journal Cell on April 28, researchers report they have identified one such drug through the development of a genetically encoded fluorescent sensor--called psychLight--that can screen for hallucinogenic potential.

Drugs used to treat hepatitis C render remdesivir 10 times better at inhibiting the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in cell cultures, according to a new study in Cell Reports.