Search

Despite intensive research efforts over the past few decades, the mechanisms underlying the etiology of sporadic Alzheimer's disease (AD) remain unknown. This fact is of major concern because the number of patients affected by this medical condition is increasing exponentially and the existing treatments are only palliative in nature and offer no disease modifying affects. Interestingly, recent epidemiological studies indicate that diabetes significantly increases the risk of developing AD, suggesting that diabetes may play a causative role in the development of AD pathogenesis. Therefore, elucidating the molecular interactions between diabetes and AD is of critical significance because it might offer a novel approach to identifying mechanisms that may modulate the onset and progression of sporadic AD cases. This review highlights the involvement of several novels pathological molecular mechanisms induced by diabetes that increase AD pathogenesis. Furthermore, we discuss novel findings in animal model and clinical studies involving the use of anti-diabetic compounds as promising therapeutics for AD.

Activation of the stimulator of interferon genes (STING) pathway by both exogenous and endogenous cytosolic DNA results in the production of interferon beta (IFN-β) and is required for the generation of cytotoxic T-cell priming against tumor antigens. In the clinical setting, pharmacological stimulation of the STING pathway has the potential to synergize with immunotherapy antibodies by boosting anti-tumor immune responses. We report the discovery of two highly potent cyclic dinucleotide STING agonists, IACS-8803 and IACS-8779, which show robust activation of the STING pathway in vitro and a superior systemic anti-tumor response in the B16 murine model of melanoma when compared to one of the clinical benchmark compounds.

The authors regret an error involving the order of authorship that was missed during the final submission process of our manuscriptrecently published in the Journal Brain Research Bulletin.The updated author list is mentioned above.The authors would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Films of BiSrCaCuO have been deposited on MgO, ZrO 2 , Si, SiO 2 , and sapphire by rf triode sputtering from a single target made by hot-pressing an unreacted powder mixture of Bi 2 O 3 , SrCO 3 , CaO, and CuO. After a two-step post-growth anneal, films of Bi 4 Sr 3 Ca 3 Cu 4 O 16 on (100) MgO are highly oriented with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. These films attain zero resistance at 83K and have critical current densities of 2×10 5 A/cm 2 at 65K.

Films of YBa 2 Cu 3 O y have been prepared on sapphire substrates by rf sputtering from a single nonconducting target made by hot-pressing unreacted powders of Y 2 O 3 , BaCO 3 and CuO and by e-beam deposition of multilayers of Cu, Y and BaF 2 . After post-growth annealing in oxygen, these films exhibited superconducting properties with T c onsets above 90 K and with zero resistances and diamagnetic susceptibilities above 60 K. Resistivity, ac magnetic susceptibility and reverse ac Josephson effect measurements indicate a very weak Josephson coupling between the superconducting grains of these polycrystalline films.