The genome of the SARS-CoV-2 virus encodes 29 proteins, one of which is an ion channel called E. This channel, which transports protons and calcium ions, induces infected cells to launch an inflammatory response that damages tissues and contributes to the symptoms of COVID-19.

MIT chemists have now discovered the structure of the “open” state of this channel, which allows ions to flow through.

A University of Massachusetts Amherst team has demonstrated in theory that a protein antigen from a childhood vaccine can be delivered into the cells of a malignant tumor to refocus the body’s immune system against the cancer, effectively halting it and preventing its recurrence.

The bacteria-based intracellular delivering (ID) system uses a non-toxic form of Salmonella that releases a drug, in this case a vaccine antigen, after it's inside a solid-tumor cancer cell.

Every year, over 15,500 Australians are diagnosed with bowel cancer, and it is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the country. Over 1,700 (one in ten) of those diagnosed are young Australians aged under 50, and this incidence is increasing.

There is an urgent need to discover more effective treatments and improve bowel cancer screening, particularly for early-onset bowel cancer (those aged 25-49 years).

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a debilitating yet all-too-common condition, which can severely affect quality of life for patients undergoing treatment. For those struggling with CRF, there have been no effective pharmaceutical treatments for the constellation of symptoms that together define the syndrome.

In a new study led by Yale Cancer Center researchers at Yale School of Medicine, the team found that a metabolism-targeting drug called dichloroacetate (DCA) helped alleviate CRF in mice, without interfering with cancer treatments.

Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology has become popular in the last few years due to its use in COVID-19 vaccines. This technology has been so groundbreaking that it recently won the 2023 Nobel Prize in medicine "for discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19." This isn't new technology, however - modified mRNAs have been studied for decades and show significant potential for therapeutic applications.

A team of researchers at the Medical University of Vienna has discovered that dormant tumor cells surviving chemotherapy can be targeted through the inhibition of a specific protein called P-glycoprotein (P-gp). This discovery opens up new possibilities for delaying relapse and is particularly relevant for aggressive triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC), for which there are currently few effective treatments.

Researchers at Boston Medical Center and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute conducted one of the first-ever analyses of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) at single cell resolution, unlocking new insights into this rare and often hard-to-treat cancer. The findings represent a tremendous leap forward in understanding why these tumors are largely resistant to immunotherapy and provide key insights that could lead to future treatments.