Latest news with #RadboudUniversity
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Fungal infections are getting harder to treat
Fungal infections are getting harder to treat as they grow more resistant to available drugs, according to research published Wednesday in The Lancet Microbe. The study focused on infections caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, a fungus that is ubiquitous in soil and decaying matter around the world. Aspergillus spores are inhaled all the time, usually without causing any problems. But in people who are immunocompromised or who have underlying lung conditions, Aspergillus can be dangerous. The fungus is one of the World Health Organization's top concerns on its list of priority fungi, which notes that death rates for people with drug-resistant Aspergillus infections range from 47%-88%. The new study found that the fungus' drug resistance is increasing. On top of that, patients are typically infected with multiple strains of the fungus, sometimes with different resistance genes. 'This presents treatment issues,' said the study's co-author, Jochem Buil, a microbiologist at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Buil and his team analyzed more than 12,600 samples of Aspergillus fumigatus taken from the lungs of patients in Dutch hospitals over the last 30 years. Of them, about 2,000 harbored mutations associated with resistance to azoles, the class of antifungals used to treat the infections. Most of them had one of two well-known mutations, but 17% had variations of the mutations. Nearly 60 people had invasive infections — meaning the fungi spread from the lungs to other parts of the body — 13 of which were azole-resistant. In those people, nearly 86% were infected with multiple strains of the fungi, making treatment even more complicated. 'It is an increasingly complicated story and physicians may have trouble identifying whether or not they are dealing with a drug-resistant fungal infection,' said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who wasn't involved with the research. Before treating an Aspergillus fungal infection, doctors look for resistance genes that can give them clues about which drugs will work best. If someone is infected with multiple strains of the same type of fungus, this becomes much less clear-cut. Oftentimes, different strains will respond to different drugs. 'Azoles are the first line of treatment for azole-susceptible strains, but they do not work when a strain is resistant. For those, we need to use different drugs that don't work as well and have worse side effects,' Buil said, adding that some people will require treatment with multiple antifungal drugs at the same time. The findings illustrate a larger trend of growing pressure on the few drugs available to treat fungal infections — there are only three major classes of antifungal drugs, including azoles, that treat invasive infections, compared with several dozen classes of antibiotics. Resistance to such drugs is growing, and new ones are uniquely difficult to develop. Humans and fungi share about half of their DNA, meaning we're much more closely related to fungi than we are to bacteria and viruses. Many of the proteins that are essential for fungi to survive are also essential for human cells, leaving fewer safe targets for antifungal drugs to attack. 'The big problem for all of these fungal species is that we don't have a lot of antifungals,' said Jarrod Fortwendel, a professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, who was not involved with the research. 'Typically the genetic mutations that cause resistance don't cause resistance to one of the drugs, it's all of them, so you lose the entire class of drugs.' Further complicating matters, the vast majority of azole resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus stems from agriculture, which widely uses fungicides. The fungicides typically have the same molecular targets as antifungal drugs. Farmers spray them on crops, including wheat and barley in the U.S., to prevent or treat fungal disease. (The first instance of azole resistance was documented in the Netherlands, where antifungals are widely used on tulips.) Aspergillus fungi aren't the target, but exposure to the fungicides gives them a head start developing genes that are resistant to the targets, sometimes before an antifungal drug with the same target even hits the market. This was the source of the vast majority of the drug resistance analyzed in the study. Fortwendel noted that fungal resistance is increasingly found around the world. 'Basically everywhere we look for drug-resistant isotopes, we find them,' he said. 'We are seeing this azole drug-resistance happening throughout the U.S. Those rates will likely climb.' Any individual person's risk of having an azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus is low, Casadevall said. Infections typically affect people who are immunocompromised and amount to around a few thousand cases per year in the U.S., Casadevall said. While relatively uncommon, the bigger risk is the broader trend of drug-resistant fungal infections. 'The organisms that cause disease are getting more resistant to drugs,' he said. 'Even though it's not like Covid, we don't wake up to a fungal pandemic, this is a problem that is worse today than it was five, 10 or 20 years ago.' This article was originally published on
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Fungal infections are getting harder to treat
Fungal infections are getting harder to treat as they grow more resistant to available drugs, according to research published Wednesday in The Lancet Microbe. The study focused on infections caused by Aspergillus fumigatus, a fungus that is ubiquitous in soil and decaying matter around the world. Aspergillus spores are inhaled all the time, usually without causing any problems. But in people who are immunocompromised or who have underlying lung conditions, Aspergillus can be dangerous. The fungus is one of the World Health Organization's top concerns on its list of priority fungi, which notes that death rates for people with drug-resistant Aspergillus infections range from 47%-88%. The new study found that the fungus' drug resistance is increasing. On top of that, patients are typically infected with multiple strains of the fungus, sometimes with different resistance genes. 'This presents treatment issues,' said the study's co-author, Jochem Buil, a microbiologist at Radboud University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. Buil and his team analyzed more than 12,600 samples of Aspergillus fumigatus taken from the lungs of patients in Dutch hospitals over the last 30 years. Of them, about 2,000 harbored mutations associated with resistance to azoles, the class of antifungals used to treat the infections. Most of them had one of two well-known mutations, but 17% had variations of the mutations. Nearly 60 people had invasive infections — meaning the fungi spread from the lungs to other parts of the body — 13 of which were azole-resistant. In those people, nearly 86% were infected with multiple strains of the fungi, making treatment even more complicated. 'It is an increasingly complicated story and physicians may have trouble identifying whether or not they are dealing with a drug-resistant fungal infection,' said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, chair of molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who wasn't involved with the research. Before treating an Aspergillus fungal infection, doctors look for resistance genes that can give them clues about which drugs will work best. If someone is infected with multiple strains of the same type of fungus, this becomes much less clear-cut. Oftentimes, different strains will respond to different drugs. 'Azoles are the first line of treatment for azole-susceptible strains, but they do not work when a strain is resistant. For those, we need to use different drugs that don't work as well and have worse side effects,' Buil said, adding that some people will require treatment with multiple antifungal drugs at the same time. The findings illustrate a larger trend of growing pressure on the few drugs available to treat fungal infections — there are only three major classes of antifungal drugs, including azoles, that treat invasive infections, compared with several dozen classes of antibiotics. Resistance to such drugs is growing, and new ones are uniquely difficult to develop. Humans and fungi share about half of their DNA, meaning we're much more closely related to fungi than we are to bacteria and viruses. Many of the proteins that are essential for fungi to survive are also essential for human cells, leaving fewer safe targets for antifungal drugs to attack. 'The big problem for all of these fungal species is that we don't have a lot of antifungals,' said Jarrod Fortwendel, a professor of clinical pharmacy at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, who was not involved with the research. 'Typically the genetic mutations that cause resistance don't cause resistance to one of the drugs, it's all of them, so you lose the entire class of drugs.' Further complicating matters, the vast majority of azole resistance in Aspergillus fumigatus stems from agriculture, which widely uses fungicides. The fungicides typically have the same molecular targets as antifungal drugs. Farmers spray them on crops, including wheat and barley in the U.S., to prevent or treat fungal disease. (The first instance of azole resistance was documented in the Netherlands, where antifungals are widely used on tulips.) Aspergillus fungi aren't the target, but exposure to the fungicides gives them a head start developing genes that are resistant to the targets, sometimes before an antifungal drug with the same target even hits the market. This was the source of the vast majority of the drug resistance analyzed in the study. Fortwendel noted that fungal resistance is increasingly found around the world. 'Basically everywhere we look for drug-resistant isotopes, we find them,' he said. 'We are seeing this azole drug-resistance happening throughout the U.S. Those rates will likely climb.' Any individual person's risk of having an azole-resistant Aspergillus fumigatus is low, Casadevall said. Infections typically affect people who are immunocompromised and amount to around a few thousand cases per year in the U.S., Casadevall said. While relatively uncommon, the bigger risk is the broader trend of drug-resistant fungal infections. 'The organisms that cause disease are getting more resistant to drugs,' he said. 'Even though it's not like Covid, we don't wake up to a fungal pandemic, this is a problem that is worse today than it was five, 10 or 20 years ago.' This article was originally published on
Yahoo
25-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Blue Earth Therapeutics: SNMMI Presentation of Results from Lutetium (177Lu) rhPSMA-10.1 Injection Phase 1 Clinical Trial
− Results show delivery of high radiation doses to tumours compared with normal organs.− Observed normal organ absorbed dosimetry results may allow administration of a high cumulative radioactivity.− Ongoing Phase 2 study is testing the impact of administering a greater proportion of administered radioactivity during early treatment cycles. OXFORD, United Kingdom, June 25, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Blue Earth Therapeutics today announced radiation dosimetry results for its radiohybrid lutetium labelled, PSMA targeted, investigational radioligand therapy at the Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) annual meeting. The Phase 1 clinical trial results were presented by Professor James Nagarajah of Radboud University Medical Centre, the Netherlands. Data were evaluated from 34 cycles of treatment across 13 metastatic castrate resistant prostate cancer patients in the radiation dosimetry portion of a Phase 1/2 clinical trial (NCT05413850) of Lutetium (177Lu) rhPSMA-10.1 Injection. The abstract can be found here: The data presented analysed tumour, kidney, salivary gland, and other healthy organ-absorbed radiation doses, and calculated tumour-to-kidney (T:K) and tumour-to salivary gland (T:S) ratios. These data used a tumour dosimetry methodology in which PET or SPECT scans identified lesions for evaluation that is in line with those reported in the literature for other radioligand therapies. Mean tumour-absorbed dose was 8.87 Gy/GBq Mean kidney-absorbed dose was 0.30 Gy/GBq Mean salivary gland-absorbed dose was 0.13 Gy/GBq The tumour:kidney ratio was 32.09 The tumour:salivary gland ratio was 73.19 An additional "anatomy-based" dosimetry evaluation was also performed, which used tumour volumes defined only on CT scan by a blinded radiologist, thereby capturing all regions of the tumour irrespective of uptake of the drug. In this analysis, the T:K and T:S ratios were 9 and 19, respectively. David Gauden DPhil, CEO of Blue Earth Therapeutics, said, "Numerous studies across various cancer types have shown the therapeutic value of delivering high radiation doses to tumours. At the same time, due to the risk of normal organ toxicity, one cannot simply administer unlimited amounts of radioactivity to patients. The solution is to develop therapeutic agents that improve the tumour:normal organ ratios so that the proportion of injected radioactivity reaching the tumors is scaled up to maximise efficacy. The Phase 1 dosimetry data being presented here at SNMMI is an important validation of the concept that improved agents are possible. We look forward to the clinical efficacy results from the ongoing Phase 2 portion of the trial. In this phase, we may begin to see benefits driven by the unique properties of the rhPSMA molecule. Additionally, the novel dosing regimen, which is designed to deliver higher cumulative doses of radioactivity with front-loading in the early treatment cycles, could provide further therapeutic advantage." About metastatic prostate cancer In 2025 it is estimated that there will be 50,055 new cases of metastatic prostate cancer in the United States (de novo diagnoses plus recurrence from earlier stage diagnoses).1 Five-year survival for newly diagnosed metastatic prostate cancer is low, 36.6%.2 While death rates from prostate cancer have declined over the past three decades2, there is still considerable room to improve patient outcomes. About Radiohybrid Prostate–Specific Membrane Antigen (rhPSMA) rhPSMA compounds are referred to as radiohybrid ("rh"), as each molecule possesses four distinct domains. The first consists of a Prostate–Specific Membrane Antigen–targeted receptor ligand. It is attached to two labelling moieties which may be radiolabeled with diagnostic isotopes such as 18F or 68Ga for PET imaging, or with therapeutic isotopes such as 177Lu or 225Ac for radioligand therapy, all of which are joined together by a modifiable linker which can be used to modulate important pharmacokinetic characteristics. Radiohybrid PSMA offers the potential for targeted treatment for men with prostate cancer and originated at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. Blue Earth Diagnostics acquired exclusive worldwide rights to rhPSMA diagnostic imaging technology from Scintomics GmbH in 2018, and therapeutic rights in 2020, and has sublicensed the therapeutic application to its sister company Blue Earth Therapeutics. About Blue Earth Therapeutics Blue Earth Therapeutics is a clinical stage company dedicated to advancing next-generation targeted radiotherapeutics to treat patients who have cancer and has been incubated within the Bracco family of companies. With proven management expertise across the spectrum of radiopharmaceutical and oncology drug development, as well as biotechnology start–up experience, the Company aims to innovate and improve upon current technologies and rapidly advance new targeted therapies for serious diseases. Blue Earth Therapeutics has an emerging pipeline initially focused on prostate cancer. For more information, please visit: About Bracco Imaging Bracco Imaging S.p.A., part of the Bracco Group, is a world–leading diagnostic imaging provider. Headquartered in Milan, Italy, Bracco Imaging develops, manufactures and markets diagnostic imaging agents and solutions. It offers a product and solution portfolio for all key diagnostic imaging modalities: X–ray imaging (including Computed Tomography–CT, Interventional Radiology, and Cardiac Catheterization), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Contrast Enhanced Ultrasound (CEUS), and Nuclear Medicine through radioactive tracers and novel PET imaging agents to inform clinical management and guide care for cancer patients in areas of unmet medical need. Our continually evolving portfolio is completed by a range of medical devices, advanced administration systems and dose–management software. In 2019 Bracco Imaging enriched its product portfolio by expanding the range of oncology nuclear imaging solutions in the urology segment and other specialties with the acquisition of Blue Earth Diagnostics. In 2021, Bracco Imaging established Blue Earth Therapeutics as a separate, cutting–edge biotechnology vehicle to develop radiopharmaceutical therapies. Visit: Gallichio L et al, JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst (2022) 114(11): djac158 SEER 22 database, Contact: For Blue Earth TherapeuticsRobert Dann, Vice President, Strategy & Planning+1 (617) UKBET-rh-2500018 | June 2025 View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Blue Earth Therapeutics LTD Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
21-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Which animals can hold their breath underwater the longest?
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Getting enough oxygen in the water can be hard work. While fish and many other aquatic animals take air directly from the water through gills, other animals find ingenious ways to drag air bubbles down from the surface or trap air around their bodies. But others do it the hard way and hold their breath to dive, before coming up to the surface for air — and then repeat this process again and again. Some of these animals can stay submerged for staggering lengths of time. But which animal can hold its breath the longest? And what characteristics enable it to do this? Although diving times can reveal how long species typically stay underwater, the duration can vary depending on why they are staying submerged. "There is a difference between surviving under water (how long before they die) and breath holding (how long do they voluntarily stay submerged)," Wilco Verberk, an associate professor of ecology at Radboud University in the Netherlands, told Live Science in an email. For example, some animals could find themselves trapped below water. Some ants were seen to survive for multiple hours when forcibly submerged, but even specialized diving ants would not voluntarily dive for more than a minute, Philip Matthews, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia who studies insect respiration, told Live Science. Secondly, for animals to hold their breath, they need lungs, said John Spicer, a marine zoologist at the University of Plymouth in the U.K. "Holding breath only applies to animals with lungs and even then lunged animals that don't have gills as well (like lungfish) and/or breathe through their skin (like frogs)," Spicer told Live Science in an email. Related: How do marine mammals sleep underwater? The absolute champions for lunged animals staying submerged are certain freshwater turtles, such as the Blanding's turtle (Emydoidea blandingii). These reptiles practice brumation — a form of hibernation for reptiles — at the bottom of rivers and lakes during winter and can stay underwater for months at a time, which helps them survive when they are trapped beneath a layer of ice. Turtles are ectothermic, or cold-blooded, so during cold periods, their metabolism slows down, enabling them to conserve more energy and use less oxygen. "Many freshwater turtle species as the environmental temperature decreases switch everything off, and can stay submerged literally for months," Spicer said. "If brumation counts as holding your breath, then the freshwater turtles wipe the (river/lake) floor with everything else." However, these turtles cheat by taking in small amounts of oxygen in the water through their butts — or technically, their cloacae, which are multipurpose openings that are also used for sexual reproduction and egg-laying, as well as expelling waste. Size plays a crucial part in how long an animal can hold its breath, Verberk said. "Body size is a key trait, with larger animals being able to hold their breath for longer," Verberk said. "This is because oxygen stores tend to be larger in larger animals, also in relation to the rate at which they deplete them (larger animals tend to have lower mass specific demands for oxygen)." This means the competition for breath holding is between large mammals and large ectotherms such as crocodiles and sea turtles, he noted. The record dive by a mammal was completed by a Cuvier's beaked whale (Ziphius cavirostris), which stayed submerged for 222 minutes, or 3.7 hours. Other whales have also put in impressive dives: The record Arnoux's beaked whale dive (Berardius arnuxii) lasted 153 minutes, and a sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) managed 138 minutes, according to Verberk, Spicer and team's 2020 study. Whales accomplish this feat thanks to a number of key adaptations. These include slowing down their heart rate and or metabolism; redirecting blood flow away from parts of the body, temporarily shutting down organs such as the liver and kidneys; "and good oxygen storage capacity and release, from and in the large amounts of respiratory proteins in the muscles (myoglobin) and the blood (haemoglobin)," Spicer explained. In addition, these animals can switch to anaerobic metabolism and generate energy without using oxygen, Spicer added. "It is very inefficient in its conversion of food stuffs to energy, it is slow in doing so, and it produces a 'poison' lactic acid — so it's an emergency response for us," Spicer explained. "Diving mammals also resort to anaerobic metabolism and generate lactate but seem to be [a] bit better at putting up with it — and buffering the effect of the acid build up." Elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris and Mirounga leonina) have also recorded impressive dives lasting two hours. However, this is not typical; it happens only when they are near predators, Spicer said. While whales triumph as the longest-diving mammals and endotherms, or warm-blooded animals, big ectotherms have registered the longest-lasting dives of any species. The freshwater crocodile (Crocodylus johnstoni) clocked up 402 minutes, or 6.7 hours, underwater when it perceived a threat near the water's surface. But the record holder is the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta), with a winning dive of about 610 minutes, or 10.2 hours, according to a 2007 study, while other studies have recorded maximum dive durations of 480 minutes, or eight hours. RELATED MYSTERIES —Can fish and other marine animals drown? —How do animals breathe underwater? —Do fish get thirsty? These ectotherms have many of the same oxygen-saving adaptations as mammals, but they can also save energy by not needing to warm themselves. "Their running costs can be half of a similar sized marine mammal just because they don't use physiological means to keep themselves warm," Spicer said. "It is the effect of temperature on metabolism that makes the main difference. Leatherback turtles [Dermochelys coriacea] I know can dive deeper than most whale species. And in cold waters they can turn down their metabolism pretty dramatically … enough that they can lie on the sea bottom for hours, or rest in underwater caves," he added.
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Our Galaxy's Monster Black Hole Is Spinning Almost as Fast as Physics Allows
The colossal black hole lurking at the center of the Milky Way galaxy is spinning almost as fast as its maximum rotation rate. That's just one thing astrophysicists have discovered after developing and applying a new method to tease apart the secrets still hidden in supermassive black hole observations collected by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). The unprecedented global collaboration spent years working to give us the first direct images of the shadows of black holes, first with M87* in a galaxy 55 million light-years away, then with Sgr A*, the supermassive black hole at the heart of our own galaxy. These images are incredible – but also difficult to interpret. So, to figure out what we're looking at, scientists turn to simulations. They build a bunch of virtual characteristics, and figure out which of them most resemble the observational data. This technique has been used a lot with the EHT images, but now it's been kicked up a notch. A team led by astronomer Michael Janssen of Radboud University in the Netherlands and the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Germany used high-throughput computing to develop millions of simulated black holes. Then, they used that data to train a neural network to extract as much information as possible from the data, and identify the properties of the black holes. Their results show, among other things, that Sgr A* is not only spinning at close to its maximum speed, but that its rotational axis is pointed in Earth's direction, and that the glow around it is generated by hot electrons. Perhaps the most interesting thing is that the magnetic field in the material around Sgr A* doesn't appear to be behaving in a way that's predicted by theory. M87*, they discovered, is also rotating rapidly, although not as fast as Sgr A*. However, it is rotating in the opposite direction to the material swirling in a disk around it – possibly because of a past merger with another supermassive black hole. "That we are defying the prevailing theory is of course exciting," Janssen says. "However, I see our AI and machine learning approach primarily as a first step. Next, we will improve and extend the associated models and simulations. And when the Africa Millimetre Telescope, which is under construction, joins in with data collection, we will get even better information to validate the general theory of relativity for supermassive compact objects with a high precision." The team has detailed their methodology and findings in three papers published in Astronomy & Astrophysics. They can be found here, here, and here. Did a Passing Star Cause Earth to Warm 56 Million Years Ago? A Game-Changing Telescope Is About to Drop First Pics. Here's How to Watch. Trailblazing Satellite Mission Delivers Its First Artificial Solar Eclipse
