Article Source: CNN

(CNN) -- Doctors are already good at diagnosing Alzheimer's disease in a patient with obvious symptoms, which include memory loss, vision problems and confusion. But the cutting-edge research is looking for the brain mechanisms of the condition at its earliest stages, maximizing the potential for intervention.

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Article Source: The New York Times

That may be about to change, if a powerful new technique for editing the genetic text proves to be safe and effective. At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Carl June and colleagues have used the technique to disrupt a gene in patients’ T cells, the type attacked by the AIDS virus. They have then infused those cells back into the body. A clinical trial is now under way to see if the treated cells will reconstitute a patient’s immune system and defeat the virus.

The technique, which depends on natural agents called zinc fingers, may revive the lagging fortunes of gene therapy because it overcomes the inability to insert new genes at a chosen site. Other researchers plan to use the zinc finger technique to provide genetic treatments for diseases like bubble-boy disease, hemophilia and sickle-cell anemia.

Article Source: BBC

Scientists are to try to develop a treatment to target harmful immune cells in the arteries that are believed to trigger many heart attacks.

It is two decades since it was established a patient's immune system could produce the inflammation in the arteries that leads to an attack.

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Article Source: Mail Online

A bandage that gradually releases infection-fighting drugs and then dissolves once the wound has healed could help thousands of burns victims.

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