Bio and Medicine

More than 4 million people in the U.S. have glaucoma, a group of eye diseases that can damage the optic nerve and lead to vision loss. It’s the second-leading cause of blindness worldwide and there’s currently no cure, but there’s a way to help prevent vision loss through early detection and treatment.

A spoonful of sugar might actually help medicine go down, according to recent research from the University of Mississippi. And it could reduce the harmful side effects of cancer treatment. Instead of a literal spoonful of sugar, however, the researchers tried using glycopolymers—polymers made with natural sugars like glucose—to coat tiny particles that deliver cancer-fighting medication directly to tumors. They found that glycopolymers help keep proteins from sticking to the nanoparticles, reducing the body’s immune response to the treatment.

While toxic in high concentrations, copper is essential to life as a trace element. Many tumors require significantly more copper than healthy cells for growth—a possible new point of attack for cancer treatment.

A team of researchers from Nanjing University has introduced an innovative approach to cuproptosis therapy by depleting copper levels in tumor cells, challenging the current paradigm that focuses on copper overproduction.

Cell-to-cell communication through nanosized particles, working as messengers and carriers, can now be analyzed in a whole new way, thanks to a new method involving CRISPR gene-editing technology.