Lidocaine - often used as numbing agent for outpatient medical procedures - activates certain bitter taste receptors through two unique mechanisms that result in cancer cell death, according to researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Their findings, published in Cell Reports, pave the way for a clinical trial to test the addition of lidocaine to the standard of care therapy for patients with head and neck cancers.

Infections with antibiotic-resistant bacteria are a growing global problem. Part of the solution may lie in copying the bacteria's own weapons. The research environment in Tromsø has found a new bacteriocin, in a very common skin bacterium. Bacteriocin inhibits the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria that are often the cause of disease and can be difficult to treat.

It has been uncertain how Mycobacterium tuberculosis deflects the immune response in humans, though evidence has pointed to host immunometabolism - the intrinsic link between metabolism in immune cells and their immune function. The pathogen M. tuberculosis is known to disrupt a metabolic pathway called glycolysis in infected myeloid cells, which include macrophages, through an unclear mechanism.

Vitamin B12 is a well-known micronutrient that has long been acknowledged for its essential role in maintaining nerve function, supporting red blood cell production, and facilitating DNA synthesis, all vital processes for overall health. Researchers led by Dr. Manuel Serrano at IRB Barcelona have now revealed that vitamin B12 also plays a pivotal role in cellular reprogramming and tissue regeneration.

A nationwide programme to reduce the risk of developing diabetes in the UK is proven beyond reasonable doubt to work, a new study reveals.

The positive effects observed in the NHS Diabetes Prevention Programme - the largest such project in the world helping people across the UK to lose weight and control their blood sugar levels - may have relevance globally for tackling the diabetes epidemic.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is on the rise. Until now, AI applications generally have "black box" character: How AI arrives at its results remains hidden. Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bajorath, a cheminformatics scientist at the University of Bonn, and his team have developed a method that reveals how certain AI applications work in pharmaceutical research.

An investigational therapy for solid tumors could be especially effective when combined with immunotherapy to target a specific kind of cancer cell, a research team at Duke and Harvard have found.

Led by Lee Zou, Ph.D., chair of Duke’s Department of Pharmacology & Cancer Biology, the researchers focused on the way some cancer cells impede normal DNA repair to fuel tumor formation. This phenomenon is known as defective DNA mismatch repair.