Roche technology measures Parkinson’s disease fluctuations
This is another fine example of how smartphones could be used to good effect in modern day medicine. Roche Pharma Research & Early Development (pRED) has developed a smartphone-based monitoring system for those with Parkinson’s disease (PD) that complements the traditional physician-led assessments with automated tests that continuously measure their symptom fluctuations. This could be the first time that such a technology has been used to measure disease and symptom severity in a medicine development program in Parkinson’s disease.
Therapeutic targeting of macrophages enhances chemotherapy efficacy by unleashing type I interferon response
Recent studies have revealed a role for macrophages and neutrophils in limiting chemotherapy efficacy; however, the mechanisms underlying the therapeutic benefit of myeloid-targeting agents in combination with chemotherapy are incompletely understood. Here, we show that targeting tumour-associated macrophages by colony-stimulating factor-1 receptor (CSF-1R) blockade in the K14cre;Cdh1F/F;Trp53F/Ftransgenic mouse model for breast cancer stimulates intratumoural type I interferon (IFN) signalling, which enhances the anticancer efficacy of platinum-based chemotherapeutics.
