news

The most common form of colorectal cancer, microsatellite-stable colorectal cancer (MSS CRC), can currently only be treated to a limited extent with modern immunotherapies. A research team led by MedUni Vienna has now identified the possible cause of treatment failure and thus found a way to improve treatment for patients.

An international research group led by MedUni Vienna and IMBA - Institute of Molecular Biotechnology, Vienna, has made significant progress in understanding the mechanisms that influence the sensation of pain after surgery. Currently available treatment methods for post-operative pain can cause considerable side effects and are often only partially effective.

Hepatitis C can be cured in almost all cases with modern medication. However, if advanced liver damage is already present at the time of cure, there is still a residual risk of liver cancer and complications of portal hypertension, such as abdominal fluid, bleeding from the digestive tract and confusion.

The nuclear pore basket is a filamentous structure attached to the nucleoplasmic side of the nuclear pore complex (NPC), crucial for regulating transport between the nucleus and cytoplasm. In a paper published in Nature Cell Biology, Edvinas Stankunas and Alwin Köhler revealed the structural basis of the basket filaments and their docking mechanism to the main body of the NPC.

New practical guidelines provide an overview of senescence markers in rodent tissues, transgenic models, non-mammalian systems, human tissues and tumors and their use in the identification and specification of senescent (aging) cells. The guidelines provide a unified, modern and accessible set of tools to improve the understanding of cellular senescence in vivo.

The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has led to severe humanitarian crises, including widespread food shortages. According to the United Nations World Food Programme, an estimated 11 million Ukrainians - about one-third of the populationwere at risk of hunger in 2023. This crisis, exacerbated by supply chain disruptions and extreme weather events, could increase diabetes prevalence not only in Ukraine but globally, argue Peter Klimek and Stefan Thurner from the Complexity Science Hub in a commentary published in the journal "Science".

In a recent study, researchers at the Medical University of Vienna have investigated the cellular and molecular basis of idiopathic subglottic tracheal stenosis (ISGS) and identified specific cells that contribute to disease development. ISGS is a rare disease which mainly affects women and leads to a narrowing of the upper trachea due to scar formation.

A research team led by MedUni Vienna has shown in a study that purely optical measurements of the viscosity of blood plasma may provide information about the severity and progression of COVID-19. The employed technique, Brillouin light scattering spectroscopy, can analyse the smallest amounts of plasma in less than a second, making it a promising method for monitoring severely ill patients.

A MedUni Vienna study has investigated gender-specific differences in the diagnosis of systolic heart failure in patients with type 2 diabetes. The results, recently published in the specialist journal "Cardiovascular Diabetology", show that the current methods are less reliable in women than in men.

Surgical removal of the tumour is considered the basis for curing gastric cancer. However, 40 per cent of patients who have undergone surgery suffer a relapse within two years. A research team led by MedUni Vienna has now investigated a prognostic marker that can be used to identify patients with a high risk of tumour recurrence.

A new combined cell therapy for kidney transplants can help to reduce the donor-specific reaction against the transplanted organ without the need for maintenance triple immunosuppression. The overall diversity of the T-cell receptor repertoire, which is important for immune defence, is preserved. This is shown by an international study led by MedUni Vienna, which was recently published in the journal eBioMedicine of the Lancet Discovery Science series.

Targeted therapies are a powerful weapon against skin cancer, but their side effects can severely impact a patient's quality of life. A new study shows that some targeted therapies manipulate signaling events in cells that line blood vessels and result in a weaker vascular barrier. This knowledge sheds some light on possible mechanisms leading to side effects and it can contribute to the development of better therapies for skin cancer.

In a study recently published in the renowned journal "Allergy", a MedUni Vienna research team shows that COVID-19 leads to considerable long-term changes in the immune system, even in mild cases. The findings could help to better understand the long-term consequences of an infection with SARS-CoV-2.

New research from the Medical University of Vienna in collaboration with Stanford University and the University of California, San Francisco, gives unprecedented insights into the dynamic remodeling of immune cells in the metastatic niche starting from early tumor development up to late-stage metastasis.

The artificial intelligence (AI) model GPT-4, known from its application in ChatGPT, shows impressive capabilities in biomedical research and can be used in many ways for simulations. A simulator developed at MedUni Vienna and based on GPT-4 shows increased accuracy in classifying the importance of genes in cancer cells, as well as in the prognosis of cancer patients.

An international study in which MedUni Vienna played a key role has shown that women are more likely to experience bypass graft failure after coronary bypass surgery than men, which increases their risk of heart attack. The research recently published in the prestigious "Journal of the American College of Cardiology" is the most comprehensive scientific evaluation of bypass graft failure in women to date and emphasises the need for sex-specific treatment measures.

Despite the significant increase in sexually transmitted diseases in recent years, there is currently no vaccine available against common bacterial pathogens such as chlamydia. In the search for ways to prevent infection, a research team from MedUni Vienna and the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine has identified the active substance pentamidine as a promising candidate for the prophylaxis of chlamydial infections and possibly other bacterial sexually transmitted diseases.

Despite enormous progress over the past two decades, patients have not yet been able to feel a bionic prosthesis in a natural, intuitive way. Now a research team led by Oskar Aszmann from MedUni Vienna has made significant progress in sensitising the artificial extremities: By developing a new type of interface between man and machine, the feeling of the lost limb has been restored for the first time.

In a study recently published in the "British Journal of Cancer", a research team led by Mario Mikula from MedUni Vienna has shown that human skin organoids can be used to study the growth of malignant melanoma. The investigations using this instrument, which is extremely valuable for basic research, revealed that the loss of the neuronal protein NLGN4X in melanoma is associated with the progression of the disease, and that the loss of the neuronal protein NLGN4X is associated with the progression of the disease.

Advanced liver disease is the second most common cause of lost working years, as it disproportionately affects young patients. A scientific team from MedUni Vienna has been able to determine a threshold value for a simple blood test that can be used to identify people with an increased risk of complications, even without special testing.