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Metabolic processes inside living organisms involve a large variety of bio-molecules . These molecules are produced by specific enzymatic reactions. One example of such a bio-molecule is glucose-6-phosphate, a metabolite that is involved in important metabolic processes. It is central in the degradation of carbohydrates and can also be converted further into specific molecules responsible for storing energy within an organism. If such bio-molecules can be produced directly inside living cells, new perspectives in the treatment of disease would open up. Nanocapsules produce glucose-6-phosphate Researchers led by Prof. Cornelia Palivan from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Basel have designed bio-catalytic capsules that contain the active enzyme phosphoglucomutase and can produce and release glucose-6-phosphate. To start the reaction, the substrate required for the reaction has to be able to enter the capsule. The researchers thus inserted a pore protein synthesi...

"With the new treatment, we could offer significantly better protection against fractures and could thereby help many patients with severe osteoporosis," says co-author of the study Mattias Lorentzon, Professor of Geriatrics at the Institute of Medicine, Sahlgrenska Academy, and Senior Physician at Sahlgrenska University Hospital. Many patients with severe osteoporosis and a high risk of fractures often cannot regain their original bone strength. They continue to have fractures even with treatment according to current standards with alendronate in tablet form every week. Alendronate increases bone density by slowing the breakdown of bone and thereby decreasing the risk of fractures by 20-50 per cent. Many people with osteoporosis, especially elderly women, nonetheless continue to suffer broken bones, sometimes just by falling from a standing position. The fractures lead to disability and suffering, and with hip and vertebral fractures, often premature death. The curr...

Mind exercise close to the core space of the seizure and at bigger distances. Credit score: Picture courtesy of College of Twente An epileptic seizure could also be extremely native, but it surely additionally influences mind exercise at a distance of over ten centimeters from the core. This, in flip, impacts the energetic space, scientists of the College of Twente and the College of Chicago present within the  Proceedings of the Nationwide Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The realm wherein an epileptic seizure begins within the mind, could also be small but it surely reaches different components of the mind at distances of over 10 centimeters. That distant exercise, in flip, influences the epileptic core, in keeping with mathematicians and neurologists of the C...