Happy Monday! Kick your week off by catching up with the latest updates from the life sciences world with Week in Brief.
How does the microbiome impact health?
A study in mice has shown that gut microbiome composition can influence hormone levels. In addition, the work showed that aspirin could reverse hormone deficiency in mice suffering from hypopituitarism as a result (PLOS Genetics).
Disruption to the circadian rhythm can influence the composition of the gut microbiome, subsequently accelerating the progression of colorectal cancer. This is according to a new study, which showed that microbial dysbiosis can impair the function of the intestinal barrier (Science Advances).
New cancer risk factors have been in the news…
A large-scale phenome-wide study has identified a number of novel cancer risk factors, and confirmed other well-established risk factors. The study, which was published earlier this year, has been in the news this week as the results have been made available online for use by other researchers (Institute of Cancer Research).
A single-cell multi-omics study has revealed why individuals with Down syndrome are at higher risk of leukaemia than the general population (Nature).
Rare disease-causing variants have been in the spotlight…
Scientists have developed a deep learning algorithm that can predict the impact of rare variation. This new information could be crucial in the diagnosis and treatment of a number of conditions (Nature Genetics).
Scientists have made diagnoses of Long QT syndrome by analysing distant ‘relatedness’ in biobank data. This approach could be used to detect carriers of rare disease-causing variants (Nature Communications).
What about drug discovery and development?
A combination therapy has been approved for use by schizophrenia patients. This is the first new pharmacological development approved for the condition for five decades (Wellcome Trust).
Combination treatments have been seen to improve the response to immunotherapy in mice with previously unresponsive lung tumours (Nature Communications).
Researchers have developed an approach to tailor mRNAs to produce more protein than their natural counterparts. This approach could aid in the development of mRNA-based therapies (Nature Biotechnology).
And that’s not all…
Researchers have identified the function of the mutated protein in Huntington’s disease. The huntingtin protein assists in the DNA repair process and is functionally impaired in Huntington’s disease, meaning brain cells cannot repair themselves following damage (PNAS).
A new study has shown that a relatively common variant found in pregnant women can influence the outcome of non-invasive prenatal genetic tests. This is because the variant impacts the properties of cell-free DNA (Cell Reports).
A new genetic variant has been linked to the early onset of Parkinsonism: a range of neurological conditions including Parkinson’s disease and others (Cell Reports Medicine).
Check out last week’s Week in Brief here.
