Biomedicine Daily · Sunday, 13 September 2026

Obinutuzumab or Tacrolimus in Primary Membranous Nephropathy.

Obinutuzumab outperformed tacrolimus for inducing complete remission in primary membranous nephropathy in a phase 3 trial of 142 adults. At week 104, complete remission occurred in 26 of 71 patients given obinutuzumab versus 4 of 70 given tacrolimus (37% vs. 6%; adjusted difference, 31 percentage points; P<0.001). Grade 3 or higher adverse events were similar, at 22% and 19%. The finding positions obinutuzumab as an effective alternative to tacrolimus in this disease.

Hydrogen-rich water combined with traditional Chinese medicine compound in the treatment of kidney stones: a randomized controlled prospective clinical trial

Adding hydrogen-rich water to Ye-Shi-Shi-Lin-Formula improved outcomes in kidney stone patients in a randomized controlled trial of 100 patients treated for 12 weeks. Total effective rates were 28% in the blank group, 76% with Chinese medicine alone, 80% with hydrogen-rich water plus Chinese medicine, and 32% with hydrogen-rich water alone. The combination showed superior effects on oxidative stress, blood uric acid, urinary stone-related metabolic factors, and renal tubular function.

STAT+: Scholar Rock wins FDA approval for first drug to target SMA muscle loss

The FDA has approved Scholar Rock's Isembyld, the first therapy to target muscle loss in spinal muscular atrophy, for adults and children aged 2 and older already receiving SMA therapies that target SMN2. In a late-stage trial, Isembyld combined with an SMN2-targeting drug improved young patients' motor skills over a year while placebo recipients declined, a statistically significant difference. Approval was granted on Friday.

GSK prepares frontline FDA bid for Jideytro, its first lung cancer drug

GSR Identified as Common Metabolic and Immune Regulator of Ferroptosis and Cuproptosis in Tumors

Glutathione reductase (GSR) controls tumor cell susceptibility to both ferroptosis and cuproptosis, and shapes the immunogenicity of these two forms of regulated cell death. Genome-wide CRISPR screening, combined with genetic, pharmacological and in vivo experiments, showed that loss of GSR disrupts glutathione-dependent redox homeostasis and markedly increases sensitivity to ferroptosis and cuproptosis across multiple tumor models.

Effective tumor kinetics inferred from single routine H&E biopsies enable counterfactual virtual radiotherapy trials

Patient-specific proliferation and diffusion rates of a reaction-diffusion model can be inferred from a single routine H&E biopsy by fitting cell-nucleus point patterns, validated across eleven multicenter cohorts. The derived dispersion length and front velocity stratified progression-free and overall survival independent of routine covariates. A virtual glioblastoma trial allocating hypofractionation to faster-growing tumors and dose intensification to slower-growing ones added 96.7 days of restricted mean progression-free survival over standard of care (permutation p < 0.001).

Strain-resolved metabolomic chemotyping identifies tryptophan and γ-glutamyl peptides as MGO-AGEs breaking postbiotic compounds for carbonyl stress mitigation

A strain-resolved activity metabolomics framework screened 177 intracellular metabolite extracts from 113 bacterial strains for methylglyoxal advanced glycation end-product (MGO-AGEs) breaking activity, revealing functional differences among Limosilactobacillus fermentum chemotypes hidden at species level. The selected postbiotic extract LFEAN031, enriched in tryptophan, asparagine and three γ-glutamyl peptides, restored colon length shortening, raised colonic ZO-1, and lowered serum IL-6 and cortisol in MGO-stressed mice, with improved depressive- and anxiety-like behaviors and shifts toward protective tryptophan metabolites.

Analysis of the electrogastrokinetic changes in a hyperthermia model of rat

Hyperthermia shifts gastric electrical activity toward spike-pattern waves in rats. Five rats kept at 42 ± 1 °C for 60 minutes showed more spike pattern waves on electrogastrography than five room-temperature controls (p < 0.01), with FFT analysis of full-length and five 15-minute segments. The finding links heat stress to altered autonomic activity and irregular gastric electrical activity.

High levels of nitric oxide and peroxynitrite with protein nitration: a new therapeutic target for gliomas

Nitric oxide and peroxynitrite (ONOO-) drive tyrosine nitration of key proteins in the gap junction signaling pathway, disrupting intercellular communication linked to glioma progression. Nitroproteomics shows gap junction is one of the significantly enriched nitroprotein pathways in glioma, and nitration produces proteoforms with different functional states across glioma subtypes. The review proposes targeting gap junction communication activators, nitration inhibitors and specific nitroproteins, combined with chemotherapy or immune checkpoint inhibitors, as a therapeutic strategy.

Accurate somatic small variant discovery for multiple sequencing technologies with DeepSomatic.

DeepSomatic, a deep-learning method, detects somatic small nucleotide variations and insertions and deletions from both short-read and long-read data, with modes for whole-genome and whole-exome sequencing and support for tumor-normal, tumor-only and FFPE samples. To enable training and benchmarking, the authors generated the openly available CASTLE dataset of six matched tumor-normal cell line pairs sequenced with Illumina, PacBio HiFi and Oxford Nanopore Technologies. Across cell line and patient-derived samples and across sequencing technologies, DeepSomatic consistently outperforms existing callers.