Body
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have demonstrated the use of stem-cell-derived "mini-brains" to detect harmful side effects of a common drug on the developing brain. Mini-brains are miniature human brain models, developed with human cells and barely visible to the human eye, whose cellular mechanisms mimic those of the developing human brain.
Lyme disease, also called borreliosis, is the most common vector-borne disease in the Northern hemisphere. It is caused by the spirochete (corkscrew-shaped) bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi and close relatives and mainly spread through the bite of infected ticks.
Diabetes affects more than 400 million people worldwide and is a major public health problem. Although commonly referred to as a single disease, it actually constitutes a group of metabolic disorders with hyperglycaemia as a common feature. Of all its forms, monogenic diabetes - due to a mutation in one of the genes involved in the management of blood sugar levels - affects 1% to 4% of all cases of diabetes. Often confused with type 1 or type 2 diabetes, more than 90% of monogenic cases are misdiagnosed.
Surgical treatment of obesity is as effective for individuals who developed the disorder early, by the age of 20, as for those who have developed obesity later in life, a study from the University of Gothenburg shows.
The results, published in the journal Diabetes Care, are based on data from the Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) study. Started in 1987, this study is led and coordinated from Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg.
Life expectancy in the United States has been in decline for the first time in decades, and public health officials have identified a litany of potential causes, including inaccessible health care, rising drug addiction and rates of mental health disorders, and socio-economic factors. But disentangling these variables and assessing their relative impact has been difficult.
New Haven, Conn. -- According to the results of a large, global study led by Yale Cancer Center researchers, even a tiny amount of a biomarker known as PD-L1 (programmed death-ligand1) can predict a long-term survival benefit from using pembrolizumab (Keytruda). The drug is one of the first checkpoint inhibitors to be developed and used in cancer treatment. The findings are published online today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
LOS ANGELES (Feb. 20, 2020) -- When a newborn suffers lack of oxygen before or during birth, doctors have very little time to save precious brain tissue. The only proven effective way to treat babies with hypoxic brain injuries is by reducing body temperature through controlled cooling. In a new study, Children's Hospital Los Angeles neonatologist Tai-Wei Wu, MD, uses leading-edge imaging to measure temperature deep in the brains of these patients.
DALLAS - Feb. 14, 2020 - An experimental drug already shown to be safe and help some patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma, a deadly form of kidney cancer, effectively disables its molecular target. The finding from a team of researchers at the UT Southwestern Medical Center's Kidney Cancer Program, published in the Feb. 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research, reveals a weakness in this cancer that could be further exploited with other targeted treatments in the future.
The Biophotonics Imaging Lab at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology has developed imaging techniques that investigate tissues without using any staining or labels. The researchers created a unique system using a laser source that can capture more information about a tissue compared to traditional imaging techniques.
Using a machine-learning algorithm, MIT researchers have identified a powerful new antibiotic compound. In laboratory tests, the drug killed many of the world's most problematic disease-causing bacteria, including some strains that are resistant to all known antibiotics. It also cleared infections in two different mouse models.
The computer model, which can screen more than a hundred million chemical compounds in a matter of days, is designed to pick out potential antibiotics that kill bacteria using different mechanisms than those of existing drugs.
CHICAGO--February 20, 2020--Patients who have taken antidepressants for years should consider coming off the medication. However, researchers say they will likely face difficult and even dangerous withdrawal symptoms due to a physical dependence.
The best process is to follow a tapering schedule while consulting with a physician, according to research in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association. Stopping medication outright is almost never advisable.
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers have revealed a new vulnerability in lymphomas that are driven by one of the most common cancer-causing changes in cells.
The team revealed that the protein MNT is required for the survival of lymphoma cells that are driven by the protein MYC. Up to 70 per cent of human cancers - including many blood cancers - have high levels of MYC, a protein which forces cells into abnormally rapid growth.
Huntington's disease is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder caused by a gene of chromosome 4 that affects a very important area of the brain, the striatum. People are born with the defective gene but symptoms do not appear until the age of 30 or 40.
This disease, in addition to motor impairments, cognitive and affective problems, also involves changes in language. A study shows that the first symptoms of the disease are revealed through linguistic changes in spontaneous speech.
About 8 percent of West Virginia newborns are exposed to alcohol two to four weeks before birth, according to a new study.
A new study in the journal Family Practice shows that intensive behavioral therapy from dietitians may be a very effective ways for older Americans to lose weight.
Some 39.8% of the general adult population is obese. The economic consequences of obesity are high, with estimated $1,429 greater annual healthcare expenditures per obese person and $147 billion overall per year. Obesity is also associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, stroke, certain cancers, and cardiovascular disease.