Eva Amsen is a science writer in London. Her articles about biology, chemistry, environmental sciences and the overlap of science and the arts have appeared in Undark, The Observer (Guardian), Nature, Hakai, Nautilus, Forbes.com and other publications.
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Astronauts may struggle to reproduce in outer space, study suggests — what does that mean for the future of space colonization?Chinese lander reveals giant 'cavity' of radiation between Earth and the moon — and it could change how lunar exploration is donePlanet EarthColorectal cancer is now the most common cause of cancer deaths in the US for people under 50 A new mouse study shows that a molecule in pig semen could have promising results for an eye cancer found in children.Unlock instant access to exclusive member features.Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsSign up for the latest discoveries, groundbreaking research and fascinating breakthroughs that impact you and the wider world direct to your inbox.Feed your curiosity with an exclusive mystery every week, solved with science and delivered direct to your inbox before it's seen anywhere else.Sign up to our free science & technology newsletter for your weekly fix of fascinating articles, quick quizzes, amazing images, and moreSign up to our monthly entertainment newsletter to keep up with all our coverage of the latest sci-fi and space movies, tv shows, games and books.Discover this week's must-see night sky events, moon phases, and stunning astrophotos. Sign up for our skywatching newsletter and explore the universe with us!Scientists have found a way to get treatment for a rare type of cancer into the back of the eye without damaging the nearby structures: by using a molecule derived from pig semen. The approach, which was tested in mice, targets a cancer called retinoblastoma and takes advantage of sperm's ability to penetrate barriers. If the new technique can be demonstrated as safe and effective in people, it could help retinoblastoma patients, who are mostly young children, receive chemotherapy without having to face painful and potentially eye-damaging injections. "Given that the majority of affected patients are young children, eye-preserving and toxicity-minimizing therapies are critically important for their lifelong well-being," said study co-author Yu Zhang, a pharmaceutics researcher at Shenyang Pharmaceutical University inIVF hormones could be delivered with painless 'microneedle' patch someday, early study hints A single injection of mRNA-like treatment healed heart muscle after a heart attack in mice and pigs. Could it work in humans too?, the tumor is at the very back of the eye. For a drug treatment to get there, it needs to pass through either the cornea — the protective layer at the front of the eye — or the side of the eyeball. Chemotherapy for this condition is usually injected, but this can damage the eye. To get around this problem, Zhang's team wanted to design a safer, painless way to deliver chemotherapy to the retina. They considered what natural biological systems were particularly good at getting material across barriers and found inspiration in sperm exosomes. This led us to explore whether semen-derived exosomes also possess the ability to penetrate ocular barriersExosomes are tiny fat bubbles that cells use to send proteins or other materials from a cell's interior to its outer membrane. In semen, exosomes are carried in the seminal fluid and ferry proteins that help the sperm cell pass through the protective layer of cells around the egg to fertilize it. Even though the cells in the eye are very different, the mechanics of passing this biological barrier appeared similar to Zhang's team."This led us to explore whether semen-derived exosomes also possess the ability to penetrate ocular barriers," Zhang told Live Science. They tested this with pig semen, because pigs are already widely used in biology research and material from pigs is generally safe to use in clinical research. Zhang's team gave mice eye drops with pig seminal extracellular vesicles , or exosomes, and showed that they could deliver a potential retinoblastoma treatment to the back of the eye.Get the world’s most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox.Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors This proof-of-concept delivery system was used to ferry carbon dots, or nanostructures made of carbon atoms, to the back of the mouse eye. Carbon dots are not routinely used in cancer treatment yet, but other researchers have studied how these tiny structures could be used to kill tumor cells by producing high levels of"reactive oxygen species," which destroy the cells' DNA. To ensure that the exosomes targeted tumor cells and not healthy eye cells, their lipid layer included additional molecules that ramped up reactive-oxygen-species production in the presence of, Zhang and colleagues showed that the eye drops permeated the layers of the mouse eye to kill tumor cells. After 30 days, the tumors were only 2-3% of the size of those in untreated mice., an expert in extracellular vesicles at Loughborough University in the U.K., told Live Science in an email. But he noted that other types of exosomes, such as those derived from Zhang, for his part, thinks exosomes could be used to deliver other treatments for eye conditions beyond retinoblastoma, such as, an ophthalmologist at the Rabin Medical Center of Tel Aviv University who was not involved in the study, agreed, saying in an email that the new technique"holds genuine transformative potential." However, she cautioned that this would still require extensive testing to show if it can be used to treat other diseases and any potential applications would have to go through human clinical trials.Zhao, J., Yin, T., Deng, Y., Liu, H., Wei, M., Chu, C., Liang, X., Bi, X., He, H., Gou, J., Tang, X., & Zhang, Y. . Harnessing semen-derived exosomes for noninvasive fundus drug delivery: A paradigm for exosome-based ocular fundus therapeutics. Science Advances, 12, eadw7275. Eva Amsen is a science writer in London. Her articles about biology, chemistry, environmental sciences and the overlap of science and the arts have appeared in Undark, The Observer Forbes.com and other publications. Eva has won an Association of British Science Writers award in the Opinion/Essay category in 2020, and that same year received a journalism grant from Falling Walls. She has a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Toronto.Health A single injection of mRNA-like treatment healed heart muscle after a heart attack in mice and pigs. Could it work in humans too?Space ExplorationMystery medical episode that left astronaut unable to speak shows one of NASA's biggest risks as moon missions ramp upFarthest, fastest and most diverse: 6 major records the Artemis II astronauts will smash as NASA returns to the moonNASA announces moon base, Iran war releases staggering carbon, why weed gives people munchies, and Artemis II preps for liftoff. Farthest, fastest and most diverse: 6 major records the Artemis II astronauts will smash as NASA returns to the moon Tudor Heart: A Renaissance gold necklace featuring a French-English pun on the love between Henry VIII and his first wife, Katherine of Aragon AI systems are enabling mass surveillance in the US, and there is no national law that 'meaningfully limits' the use of this data
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