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CHAPEL HILL, NC - May 26, 2020 - How hepatitis A virus (HAV) manages to enter liver cells called hepatocytes and initiate infection had remained a mystery for fifty years until now. University of North Carolina School of Medicine researchers designed experiments using gene-editing tools to discover how molecules called gangliosides serve as de facto gatekeepers to allow the virus entry into liver cells.
The COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the social, educational and health care disparities already plaguing the nearly 40 million Americans the U.S. Census Bureau estimates are living in poverty.
Coordination Compounds Lab of Kazan Federal University started researching prebiotic peptide synthesis in 2013 with the use of the ASIA-330 flow chemistry system. Many lab projects are devoted to the problem of selectivity and specificity of processes in living nature.
When a new virus emerges, biologists rush to reconstruct its genome - a prerequisite for future diagnostic and vaccine development. The challenge with viral sequencing during an outbreak is that a sample from a patient, like saliva from a COVID-19 patient that was used for the very first SARS-COV-2 coronavirus sequencing effort, contains genomes of many other, often harmless, viruses. Not to mention hundreds of much larger bacterial genomes that live in our mouth and make it difficult to find the viral sequences among them.
The hypothesis that blood clotting disorders may explain some of the worst symptoms of COVID-19, including respiratory failure and pulmonary fibrosis, was suggested in mid-April by researchers in Brazil affiliated with the University of São Paulo’s Medical School (FM-USP) via an article accepted for publication by the Journal of Thrombosis.
The Milky Way, the whiteish strip of light which is prominent in both the summer and the winter skies, is the densest part of the disc of the Galaxy which we are inside. However, over very long periods it has not always looked the same, and its evolution is a challenge to current astrophysics.
To study this evolution, ESA's Gaia mission is measuring the luminosities, positions, motions, and the chemical composition of a large number of individual stars in our Galaxy.
Stem cell researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed a new research model of the early embryonic brain. The aim of the model is to study the very earliest stages of brain to understand how different regions in the brain are formed during embryonic development. With this new insight, researchers hope to be able to produce different types of neural cells for the treatment of neurological diseases more efficiently. The study is published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
Below please find a summary and link(s) of new coronavirus-related content published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. The summary below is not intended to substitute for the full article as a source of information. A collection of coronavirus-related content is free to the public at http://go.annals.org/coronavirus.
1. Loss of Smell and Taste in 2013 European Patients With Mild to Moderate COVID-19
Beneficial strains of bacteria residing in our guts, genital tracts, and skin have been shown to play a role in human health, and now, researchers publishing May 26 in the journal Cell Reports suggest that some of these "good" bacteria also have a niche in our noses. They found that people with chronic nasal and sinus inflammation had fewer lactobacilli in their upper respiratory tract than healthy controls and were able to identify a specific strain of the bacteria that has evolved to better survive the oxygen-rich environment of the nose.
What The Study Did: The fit and filtration efficiency of disposable N95 masks after sterilization by cobalt-60 gamma irradiation are examined in this quality improvement study.
Authors: Avilash Cramer, M.S., of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology in Charlestown, Massachusetts, is the corresponding author.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.9961)
Bottom Line: The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has concluded that current evidence is insufficient to make a recommendation regarding primary care-based behavioral counseling interventions to prevent illicit drug use (including nonmedical use of prescription drugs) in children, adolescents and young adults. The USPSTF routinely makes recommendations about the effectiveness of preventive care services and this recommendation is consistent with its 2014 statement, although it now includes young adults ages 18-25.
What The Study Did: This randomized clinical trial evaluated the effect of a workplace wellness program that included health screenings, wellness activities and financial incentives on employee health, health beliefs and medical use after 12 and 24 months among 4,800 employees at a large U.S. university.
Authors: David Molitor, Ph.D., of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, is the corresponding author.
The UK has the highest level of obesity in Europe, in fact it's estimated half the population could be obese by 2050. Obesity is a significant risk factor for increased morbidity and mortality
Fasting, has been a trend in recent years to maintain a healthy weight, the body responds to fasting using autophagy, a cellular self-recycling process
The proteins required for autophagy to work during fasting have been identified by researchers from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Warwick
WASHINGTON, May 26, 2020 -- Affecting up to 4% of patients older than 65 years, atrial fibrillation ranks among the most common heart conditions. Described by health professionals as an "irregularly irregular" heart rhythm, episodes of atrial fibrillation continue to prove difficult to predict.
Early Muslim communities in Africa ate a cosmopolitan diet as the region became a trading centre for luxury goods, the discovery of thousands of ancient animal bones has shown.
Halal butchery practices became common when Islam spread through Ethiopia as vibrant communities developed because of the import and export of products around the Red Sea, and to Egypt, India, and the Arabian Peninsula, archaeologists have found.