A wave of epigenetic therapies is offering hope as ways to cure chronic hepatitis B — a lingering liver infection that is caused by the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and affects more than 250 million people around the world. Currently available drugs often fail to eradicate the virus from the body. Gene-editing therapies — which
The most formidable barrier in medicine is the one that separates the brain from the bloodstream. Some small, simple chemical compounds such as paracetamol can cross the blood–brain barrier, but for larger molecules, such as proteins and messenger RNA, it is completely impermeable. There is a good reason for this — toxins and pathogens swimming
Credit: Keith Chambers/SPL Symptoms for 16 people with multiple sclerosis or other autoimmune conditions improved after receiving a treatment that produced disease-fighting immune cells inside their bodies, according to results1 from a small clinical trial. Researchers say the results are exciting but the treatment needs to be tested in more people. The latest trial, published
A microscope image of a mitochondrion, artificially coloured in green and red. The organelles were extracted for a retinal transplant from the person’s own leg muscles. Credit: K. R. Porter/SPL Scientists have extracted mitochondria from a woman’s leg muscles and injected them into the vitreous fluid of her eyes in an attempt to treat severe
