Allergic diseases affect up to one third of the world's population, and their prevalence is on the increase. In order to develop more targeted and effective therapies, research is mobilizing to better understand the biological and cell mechanisms involved in the onset of allergies. Mast cells – a type of immune cell – is of particular interest to scientists and doctors, but there is little data about them at...
For the first time, researchers from Institut Curie, the CNRS and Inserm have uncovered a previously unknown chain of biochemical reactions. This chain involves copper and leads to metabolic and epigenetic alterations that activate inflammation and tumorigenesis. But there is more; the research team developed a “drug prototype” capable of mitigating both the mechanisms of inflammation and the processes potentially involved in metastatic spread.
Scientists from the Institut Pasteur, CNRS and Inserm have discovered that administration of the GDF11 protein, which is known to regenerate murine neural stem cells, improves cognitive abilities and reduces the depressive state in aged mice. They also demonstrated the mechanism of action of this protein in different mouse models. The scientists then investigated these results further in relation to depression, and showed that in humans, the levels of...
Emulsifiers are food additives that are used to improve texture and extend shelf life. They are found in many processed products (ice cream, packaged cakes, sauces, etc.) despite having demonstrated harmful effects on intestinal balance. In a new study, scientists from Inserm, CNRS and Université Paris Cité at Institut Cochin in Paris sought to counteract these effects by using Akkermansia muciniphila, a bacterium naturally present in the intestine, to...
Today, around 1 in 8 couples seek help because they are struggling to conceive. Infertility has therefore become a public health problem, and the scientific community is rallying in response.
Researchers are now able to edit the genome with precision using the "gene editing scissors" of CRISPR-Cas9, which is a highly promising tool for gene therapy. The technical challenge now is to get this tool into the genome of certain cells. With this in mind, a joint team from Inserm, the CNRS, the Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, and the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, working within the International...
