“There are no heroes who fall from the sky. Thanks to the medical team of the Children’s Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine (ZUCH)!” Congcong’s mother shared this message on the Wechat to express her gratitude on the 15th International Rare Disease Day after her son successfully received the ultrasound-guided intrathecal injection of Nusinersen, the first disease-modifying therapy for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). Congcong has suffered from SMA for 13 years. With no medic...

Stretch, as a form of mechanical force, plays a crucial role in regulating cell behaviors, preventing injuries and repairing tissues such as lung, heart, brain and skeletal system. Among them, stretch in bone tissues has captured the most immense attention in clinical applications, for bone tissues are continuously exposed to stretch stimulation during physiological activities. The structure and function of bone tissues relies on a proper amount of stretch stimulation, while lack of exercises te...

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM), characterized by left ventricular hypertrophy and fibrosis, is the most common monogenic cardiovascular disorder with global distribution and diverse clinical spectrum. The disease prevalence has been estimated at approximately 1:500 in the general population and even higher (1 case per 200) when both clinical and genetic diagnoses are taken into accounts. Patients with HCM are predisposed to heart failure, outflow tract obstruction and arrhythmias. The most vi...

Uncontrolled cell proliferation is a hallmark of cancer. To sustain the ceaseless cell division, cancer cells rewire metabolic pathways in order to provide sufficient nutrient and energy for mitotic progression. Metabolic reprogramming of cancer cells is usually orchestrated by dysregulation of metabolic enzymes. It is generally thought that dysregulated metabolic enzymes contribute to cell cycle progression mainly by providing essential metabolites to meet the cellular needs for biosynthesis an...

Leukemia, the blood cancer, is a group of hematopoietic malignancies. Many types of leukemia are associated with poor outcome. Unfortunately, during the past a few decades, the first-line leukemia therapy has long been traditional chemotherapy with high cytotoxicity and low selectivity, such as the “7+3” strategy, i.e., a combination of cytarabine and doxorubicin. Also, side effects of such intensive chemotherapies are often severe, especially in elder patients. Therefore, it is in urgent need...

Diabetes has become the leading metabolic disease threatening human health. Meanwhile, the association between exposure to harmful environmental factors and the occurrence of diabetes has always been a hot spot of public health and environmental medicine.A recent study conducted by Dr. ZHOU Zhou’s lab at the Department of Environmental Medicine, the Zhejiang University School of Medicine elucidated the Cd perturbed metabolomic signature in pancreatic beta cells and human urine. The origina...

Metabolomics involves the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the unique chemical fingerprints that specific physiological and pathological processes leave behind. Due to its uniqueness of closely linking to the phenotypes, metabolomics is applied to a variety of stages in drug discovery (such as drug target identification, lead compound discovery, drug metabolism analysis, drug response and resistance), and expected to significantly accelerate the development of new drug. However, the succ...

In the human body, there is a soft spot- Achilles tendon. As its name suggests, the Achilles tendon is one of the most powerful and fragile tendons in the body. The Achilles tendon can endure a load close to 8 times the body weight during exercise, making it extremely vulnerable to injury. Furthermore, due to the unique nature of tendons, failing to consult a doctor soon after an injury can lead to chronic tendon disease, which is characterized by pain, swelling, and movement problems. Tendo het...

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is two to five times more common in men than in women. An in-depth analysis of the mechanisms underlying the gender heterogeneity of HCC may contribute to the identification of key HCC suppression mechanisms physiologically present in women, thus benefiting the HCC cohort.A cytochrome P450 family member with female-preferential expression blocking hepatocarcinogenesisAgainst this backdrop, Prof. JI Junfang at the Zhejiang University Life Sciences Institute&nbs...

Drug-free macromolecular therapies can induce cell apoptosis by clustering non-internalizing cell-surface receptors. These show enormous promise in tumor treatment, particularly in terms of non-specific toxicities when compared with low-molecular-weight drugs. However, most reported drug-free macromolecular therapies involve a ‘two-step’ administration manner and there is a paucity of in vivo research. On December 23, 2021, the research team led by Prof. DU Yongzhong at the Coll...