Feed aggregator

Findings from a study published today [6 July] in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) have prompted new World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations to use interleukin-6 antagonists in patients with severe or critical COVID-19 along with corticosteroids.

Paleontologists from St Petersburg University have been the first in the world to describe all the structures in the braincase of present-day crocodylians and to assign a single individual name to each of its components. Additionally, during the work, the researchers managed to find new evolutionary traits in the animal's braincase and figure out through what developmental mechanisms it acquired its current structure.

Most biological traits are inherited through genes, but there are exceptions to this rule. Two teams from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have been investigating the location of centromeres - specific sites on chromosomes that are essential for cell division. They found that in the small worm Caenorhabiditis elegans, the transmission of the correct location of these sites to the offspring is not mediated by genes, but by an epigenetic memory mechanism.

The health outcomes of preterm babies can be significantly improved by timely and appropriate interventions in women presenting with preterm labor. However, the non-specific nature of presenting signs and symptoms of preterm labor make it challenging to diagnose, and unnecessary overtreatment is both common and costly. A study published in PLOS Medicine by Sarah Stock at the University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom and colleagues suggests that a newly developed risk prediction model may improve the prediction of impending preterm births.

A new modeling study suggests that significant variation in virus dynamics from person to person may be a contributing factor to inconsistent findings reported in clinical trials for antiviral COVID-19 drugs.

Clinical studies on drug candidates for COVID-19 may generate more robust results by ensuring randomization, early patient recruitment and treatment initiation, a new model shows.

New research in the June 2021 issue of JNCCN--Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network assesses the quality of cancer care delivered through extended sites coordinated by some of the country's largest cancer centers.

The death of cells is well regulated. If it occurs too much, it can cause degenerative diseases. Too little, and cells can become tumours. Mitochondria, the power plants of cells, play a role in this programmed cell death. Scientists from the University of Groningen (the Netherlands) and the University of Pittsburgh (U.S.) have obtained new insights in how mitochondria receive the signal to self-destruct. Their results were published in the Journal of Molecular Biology.

Two climate model studies document the probability of climate tipping in Earth subsystems. The findings support the urgency of restricting CO2 emissions as abrupt climate changes might be less predictable and more widespread in the climate system than anticipated.

Scientists at the University of Leeds have developed an approach that could help in the design of a new generation of synthetic biomaterials made from proteins. The biomaterials could eventually have applications in joint repair or wound healing as well as other fields of healthcare and food production.  

"Superagers" who performed a challenging memory task in an MRI scanner were able to learn and recall new information as well as 25-year-old participants. Neurons in the visual cortex of brains of superaging older adults retain their selective and efficient ability to process visual stimuli and create a distinct memory of the images. In the future, interventions to train specific areas of the brain to be more efficient may enable normal aging adults to enhance memory and other cognitive functions.

Soils are one of the most diverse habitats on the planet. There are more than thousand microbial species per gram that significantly influence numerous environmental processes.

During neuropsychological assessments, participants complete tasks designed to study memory and thinking. Based on their performance, the participants receive a score that researchers use to evaluate how well specific domains of their cognition are functioning.

Researchers at IRB Barcelona's Development and Growth Control lab have revealed the mechanisms by which cells enter senescence because of an imbalance in the number of chromosomes. Chromosomal instability is a common trait in most solid tumours, such as carcinoma, and fully understanding its relationship with cancer can help identify new therapeutic targets. The results have been published in the journal Developmental Cell.

There is no clinical evidence that the monoclonal antibody aducanumab is beneficial to patients with cerebral amyloid angiopathy, according to a Massachusetts General Hospital neurologist and other officers with the International Cerebral Amyloid Angiography Association. In a letter in The Lancet Neurology, the group cited concerns over safety and efficacy in recommending that aducanumab not be prescribed off-label by physicians for the treatment of cerebral amyloid angiopathy.

The onset of the Indian summer monsoon has been predicted three months ahead for the last 40 years with the highest precision up until today. The result indicates longer seasonal forecasts based on machine learning may be a way to mitigate the consequences of an erratic monsoon system under future global warming.

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has a major impact on the lives of affected patients and families. But it doesn't necessarily lead to an increased risk of marital instability, as two-thirds of patients with TBI are still married to the same partner 10 years after their injury, reports a study in the July/August issue of the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation (JHTR). The official journal of the Brain Injury Association of America, JHTR is published in the Lippincott portfolio by Wolters Kluwer.

By analyzing the genomes of 99 species of vinegar flies and evaluating their chemical odor profiles and sexual behaviors, researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology show that sex pheromones and the corresponding olfactory channels in the insect brain evolve rapidly and independently. The new study is a valuable basis for understanding how pheromone production, their perception and processing in the brain, and ultimately the resulting behavior drive the evolution of new species.

Historically most scientists thought that once a satellite galaxy has passed close by its higher mass parent galaxy its star formation would stop because the larger galaxy would remove the gas from it, leaving it shorn of the material it would need to make new stars.

https://doi.org/10.15212/bioi-2021-0011Announcing a new article publication for BIO Integration journal. In this article the authors Xiao'en Shi, Xu Zhang, Xinlu Zhang, Haizhen Guo and Sheng Wang from Tianjin University, Tianjin, China discuss the integration of reactive oxygen species generation and prodrug activation for cancer therapy.