DISCOVERIES

April 2024

AI tool predicts responses to cancer therapy using information from each cell of the tumor

Sanju Sinha, Ph.D., along with Eytan Ruppin, M.D., Ph.D., and Alejandro Schaffer, Ph.D., at the National Cancer Institute, described a first-of-its-kind computational tool to systematically predict patient response to cancer drugs at single-cell resolution.

Dubbed PERsonalized Single-Cell Expression-Based Planning for Treatments in Oncology, or PERCEPTION, the new artificial intelligence–based approach dives deeper into the utility of transcriptomics—the study of transcription factors, the messenger RNA molecules expressed by genes that carry and convert DNA information into action.

“Our goal is to create a clinical tool that can predict the treatment response of individual cancer patients in a systematic, data-driven manner. We hope these findings spur more data and more such studies, sooner rather than later,” says Sinha.

Common HIV treatments may aid Alzheimer’s disease patients

Jerold Chun, M.D., Ph.D., conducted a study that suggests that medications commonly used to treat HIV—called reverse transcriptase (RT) inhibitors—may also offer potential treatment opportunities for Alzheimer’s disease.

The study builds on Chun's landmark Nature paper in 2018 that described how the brain appears to have its own RTs that are different from those in viruses, and the research team wondered if inhibiting brain RTs with HIV drugs actually helps Alzheimer's patients.

Chun's team analyzed anonymized medical records with prescription claims from more than 225,000 control and HIV-positive patients, and found that RT inhibitor exposure was associated with a statistically significant reduced incidence and prevalence of Alzheimer's.

"The clear next step for our lab is to identify which versions of RTs are at work in the Alzheimer's brain so that more targeted treatments can be discovered, while prospective clinical trials of currently available RT inhibitors on persons with early Alzheimer's should be pursued,” says Chun.

Tiny brain bubbles carry complete codes

A new study led by Jerold Chun, M.D., Ph.D., demonstrated that vesicles traveling between cells in the brain carry more complete instructions for altering cellular function than previously thought.

The tiny brain bubbles under scrutiny in this study, called small extracellular vesicles (sEVs), are biological water balloons produced by most cells in the body to ferry a wide variety of proteins, lipids and by-products of cellular metabolism, as well as RNA used by recipient cells to construct new proteins.

Because this biologically active cargo can easily elicit changes in other cells, scientists are interested in brain sEVs as a medium for passing along normal as well as bungled instructions for misfolded proteins that accumulate in the brain as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease progress.

Debanjan Dhar looks at links among liver cancer, heart health and kidney function

Debanjan Dhar, Ph.D., was drawn to science from a young age due to an innate curiosity about how things work and how diseases develop. He was determined to apply his interest in research to benefit cancer patients after seeing his family members and their physicians struggle when his grandmother was diagnosed with the disease.

“My grandmother suffered from liver cancer, and basically people were helpless—there were no treatments,” says Dhar. “Looking beyond my own story, it’s very difficult to find someone whose family or friends have not experienced the pain of cancer, either directly or indirectly."

As an associate professor at Sanford Burnham Prebys, Dhar will focus specifically on liver cancer.

Science in Pictures

A polarized light micrograph (magnified 25 times) depicts caffeine crystals. Image courtesy of Stefan Eberhard, University of Georgia.

In the News

Opinion: Mistakes and misconduct in science are not synonymous; there are remedies for both

In his latest San Diego Union-Tribune essay, David Brenner explores skepticism and distrust toward science, and questions the role sensationalized media headlines play in fostering this mistrust.

Philanthropy

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