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Artificial intelligence can increase the effectiveness of drug repositioning or repurposing research, according to a study published in Translational Psychiatry. In the study, which was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation – FAPESP, Brazilian researchers correlated information on genes associated with psychiatric and neurological disorders and drugs approved for use in treating other diseases that might potentially inhibit or activate these genes. The study identified 63 [...]

A group of researchers from Brazil, Denmark, Italy and Spain analyzed 884 samples of fungi of the genus Candida collected from 16 hospitals and found a significant number of clusters in more than one hospital. Clusters are groups of fungal isolates with identical DNA sequences. The discovery may point to the presence of more virulent and drug-resistant varieties. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, was supported by São Paulo Research [...]

Researchers affiliated with the University of São Paulo's Ribeirão Preto Medical School (FMRP-USP) in Brazil have demonstrated the potential of a leukemia drug, arsenic trioxide, to treat medulloblastoma, a type of brain cancer most common in children. When they tested arsenic trioxide on cells taken from one of the most aggressive subgroups of this type of tumor, they obtained promising results in terms of tumor cell death. The drug also made the tumor cells more sensitive to [...]

An international group of researchers have discovered that inhibiting AHR (aryl hydrocarbon receptor)—a protein with roles in regulating immunity, stem cell maintenance and cellular differentiation—enables the immune system to combat replication of zika virus in the organism far more effectively. In experiments performed at the University of São Paulo’s Biomedical Sciences Institute (ICB-USP) in Brazil, the antiviral therapy proved capable of preventing the development [...]

Researchers at Biolinker, a biotech startup based in São Paulo, Brazil, are developing a low-cost high-performance COVID-19 diagnostic test using only locally sourced inputs. Biolinker is incubated at the University of São Paulo's Center for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Technology (CIETEC), jointly run by the University of São Paulo (USP) and the Nuclear and Energy Research Institute (IPEN). The project was one of the first to be selected in a call for [...]

The hypothesis that blood clotting disorders may explain some of the worst symptoms of COVID-19, including respiratory failure and pulmonary fibrosis, was suggested in mid-April by researchers in Brazil affiliated with the University of São Paulo's Medical School (FM-USP) via an article accepted for publication by the Journal of Thrombosis. One of the first scientists to report the "thrombotic nature" of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) was Elnara [...]

Shortly after the explosion in microcephaly cases caused by Zika virus in Brazil in 2015-16, several scientific studies were published with evidence that the pathogen is capable of crossing the human placenta, the organ that keeps the fetus connected to the mother's body during pregnancy. From then on, the states began following a protocol established by the National Ministry of Health requiring collection of placental samples to help diagnose the disease in women with symptoms during [...]

Autism has long been associated only with behavioral and environmental factors, but the role of genetics in its development is now increasingly evident. Some 100 genes have been found to play a role in autism spectrum disorder, and another thousand are being studied to the same end. The diagnosis and treatment of the disorder on a genomic basis are hindered by this variability. However, a new study conducted at the University of São Paulo's Institute of Biosciences (IB-USP) in [...]

  This study shows that patients develop alterations in a type of leukocyte at the initial stage of the disease. This discovery paves the way for the enhanced diagnosis and treatment of this type of tumor (comparative image between different profiles of protein CD163 expression in tumor-associated macrophages (TAM) differentiated from monocytes of breast cancer patients [left]; detailed image showing different levels of TAM infiltration detected in tissue microarray [right]. Credit: [...]