News
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April 12th, 2023 - Press notes
The goal of the subject is to sensitize of future medical practitioners to achieve a more human physician-patient relationship, eschewing the distancing that the advancements of technology in the profession entail.
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30th March, 2023 - Press notes
Adding a peptide, a molecule made of several amino acids, to oxaliplatin, a chemotherapy drug used to treat colorectal cancer, avoids the side effects this treatment can have on normal cells, including potential chemotherapy resistance.
This is confirmed by an article published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, led by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute and the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona). This work is the second part of a recent study that explored how platinum accumulation in normal cells promotes platinum resistance in colorectal cancer cells.
This new approach prevents healthy cells surrounding the tumour from accumulating platinum. This avoids the activation of certain genes linked to poor treatment response and tumour progression.
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1st March, 2023 - Press notes
Low levels of a particular protein in squamous cell carcinoma cells indicate that they are preparing to start migrating to other organs, thereby causing the tumour to spread to other areas of the body.
This is according to a study by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, which has just been published in the journal Life Science Alliance.
Tumour cells prepare to migrate by changing their metabolism so that they can consume lipids, in other words, cholesterol molecules. This raises the possibility of studying ways to block this process and prevent tumour metastasis.
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February 21st, 2023 - Press notes
A study led by researchers at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute shows that the oxaliplatin administered in some cases of colorectal cancer accumulates in non-cancerous/healthy cells from the tumor environment.
This accumulation causes healthy cells to produce a protein that further activates them, triggering tumor resistance to treatment and assisting in tumor regeneration. The researchers discovered a marker that can identify these tumors unresponsive to chemotherapy.
The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, paves the way for new strategies enhancing the effects of chemotherapy on cancer cells while avoiding adverse side effects on non-cancerous cells.
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February 14th, 2023 - Press notes
This is the first prospective study worldwide on how chemical pollutants may influence the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease.
The findings, published in Environmental Research, may help explain the wide variation in susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease.
The pollutants that most increased risks are DDT derivatives, lead, thallium, ruthenium, tantalum, manganese and benzofluoranthene.
The study is a joint collaboration between the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, and the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal).
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January, 18th 2023 - Press notes
The Integrated Pharmacology and Systems Neurosciences Research Group of the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute has just published a study in Neurobiology of Disease, in which it highlights the role of the CDK5 protein as a possible marker of early psychosis. Furthermore, this protein is modulated by cannabis use. This paves the way for possible future treatments based on CDK5 expression.
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11th January, 2023 - Press notes
A study led by researchers from the Stem Cell and Cancer Research Group at the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute has revealed the key role a protein plays in identifying patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who will not respond to standard treatment. The study, published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine, shows that combining chemotherapy with an inhibitor for this protein helps to eliminate treatment resistance in an animal model. This is a rare disease, which is diagnosed in around a hundred people each year in Spain, mainly paediatric patients.
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December, 22nd 2022 - Press notes
The Hospital del Mar and the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM) is one of the first eight European centres currently selected to participate in the European Union's DARWIN EU® initiative to carry out multicentre observational studies on medicines. The data available to these partners will be used for studies to generate real-world evidence that will support scientific evaluations and regulatory decision making.
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December, 2nd 2022 - Press notes
The Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute is leading the study that will evaluate whether a new molecule can be used to improve the cognitive performance of people with Down syndrome. The study is part of the ICOD project for the improvement of cognition in Down syndrome, promoted by the European Union, which is funding a project of this type for the first time. The treatment has already passed the trial phase with volunteers without Down syndrome, which sought to certify the safety and tolerability of the medicine. In this new phase, the safety of the treatment in people with Down syndrome will be validated and the first indications of effectiveness will be obtained. It is estimated that results may be available by mid-2023.
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November 16th, 2022 - Press notes
A study led by the Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute, the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Centre (BBRC), a research unit from the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, and the University of Gothenburg, has compared the validity of nine biomarkers for the day-to-day diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in hospital centres. The work involved a cohort of patients from Hospital del Mar with various neurological pathologies.
The researchers analysed the presence of nine variants of the Tau protein in blood samples from these people. Some of these blood markers are just as useful for detecting Alzheimer's as those measured in the reference test used, namely the analysis of cerebrospinal fluid obtained by lumbar puncture.
Less invasive plasma biomarker determinations than those performed after a lumbar puncture may provide a tool for improving the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and determining which individuals should undergo further testing to confirm the diagnosis. The work has been published in the leading journal in this field, Alzheimer's & Dementia.
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