Month: July 2017

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is an inherited genetic disorder typically afflicting boys.  DMD is a severe type of muscular dystrophy, that causes progressive irreversible muscular weakness over the entire body.  There are treatments that help minimally control symptoms of this neuromuscular disorder, but this horrible disease that affects 1 in 5,000 boys, currently can’t be cured. Researchers from Genethon, the AFM-Telethon laboratory, Inserm (UMR 1089, Nantes) and the University of London (Royal Holloway) have worked for many years to find an effective gene therapy treatment for DMD. The team of researchers led by Dr. Dickson, designed a gene therapy drug combining an “adeno-associated virus”...

A new study published in Nanoscale outlines a new process to target and destroy treatment-resistant neuroblastoma tumor cells, using nanoparticles laced with curcumin.  Neuroblastomas is a type of cancer that starts in early nerve cells (called neuroblasts) of the sympathetic nervous system, and are often found in the small glands on top of the kidneys (adrenal glands).  This horrible cancer occurs most often in very young children and 700 new cases of neuroblastoma are confirmed each year just in the United States.  Neuroblastoma can be quick or slow growing and may require surgery and chemotherapy treatment.  Later stages of this disease are very difficult to...