Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical – Page 1303

An artificial intelligence-based method for identifying patients who are at risk for atrial fibrillation has been developed by a team led by researchers at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.

Atrial fibrillation — an irregular and often rapid heart rate — is a common condition that often leads to the formation of clots in the heart that can travel to the brain to cause a stroke. The study was published in Circulation.

The investigators developed the artificial intelligence-based method to predict the risk of atrial fibrillation within the next five years based on results from electrocardiograms (noninvasive tests that record the electrical signals of the heart) in 45,770 patients receiving primary care at MGH.

Read more | >

It is designed to activate white blood cells found in the lymph nodes on the sides and back of the neck to migrate to the brain and trigger clearance of beta-amyloid plaques — one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s. I-Mab Biopharma (I-Mab) and Jiangsu Nhwa Pharmaceutical (NHWA) are responsible for the development, manufacturing and commercialization of Protollin.

The trial represents the culmination of nearly 20 years of research led by Dr. Howard L. Weiner, co-director of the Ann Romney Center for Neurologic Diseases at the Brigham.

“The launch of the first human trial of a nasal vaccine for Alzheimer’s is a remarkable milestone,” said Weiner. “Over the last two decades, we’ve amassed preclinical evidence suggesting the potential of this nasal vaccine for AD. If clinical trials in humans show that the vaccine is safe and effective, this could represent a nontoxic treatment for people with Alzheimer’s, and it could also be given early to help prevent Alzheimer’s in people at risk.”

Read more | >

The short-term effectiveness of a two-dose regimen of the BioNTech/Pfizer mRNA BNT162b2 severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine was widely demonstrated. However, long term effectiveness is still unknown. Leveraging the centralized computerized database of Maccabi Healthcare Services (MHS), we assessed the correlation between time-from-vaccine and incidence of breakthrough infection between June 1 and July 27, the date of analysis. After controlling for potential confounders as age and comorbidities, we found a significant 1.51 fold (95% CI, 1.38−1.66) increased risk for infection for early vaccinees compared to those vaccinated later that was similar across all ages groups. The increased risk reached 2.26-fold (95% CI, 1.80−3.01) when comparing those who were vaccinated in January to those vaccinated in April. This preliminary finding of vaccine waning as a factor of time from vaccince should prompt further investigations into long-term protection against different strains.

The duration of effectiveness of SARS-CoV-2 vaccination is not yet known. Here, the authors present preliminary evidence of BNT162b2 vaccine waning across all age groups above 16, with a higher incidence of infection in people who received their second dose early in 2021 compared to later in the year.

Read more | >

This is why researchers trained computers to predict what designer drugs will emerge onto the scene before they hit the market, according to a recent study published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence.

With highly-addictive drugs flooding regions throughout the U.S., this program could save countless lives. But it could also unlock an entire “dark matter” world of unknown psychoactive possibilities.

Read more | >

As the scientists reported Monday in Annals of Internal Medicine, they didn’t find any. Which means that the woman, who they are calling the “Esperanza Patient” to protect her privacy, appears to have eradicated the deadly virus from her body without the help of drugs or a bone marrow transplant — which would make her only the second person believed to have cured herself of HIV, without drugs or any other treatment.

“This gives us hope that the human immune system is powerful enough to control HIV and eliminate all the functional virus,” said Xu Yu, an immunologist at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT, and Harvard and senior author on the new report. “Time will tell, but we believe she has reached a sterilizing cure.” The discovery, which was previously announced at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in March, could help identify possible treatments, researchers said.

Read more | >

Several Covid-19 vaccines under development in Israel hold out promise for their ability to protect against variants of the virus that are challenging existing vaccines.

Back in May 2020, research groups across the world were racing to formulate vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

Realizing it was not going to win that race, Israel purchased millions of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA vaccines from the United States and led the world in getting eligible citizens vaccinated.… See more.

Injectable and oral vaccines under development in Israel may prove significant in protecting people from mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

Continue reading “Will an Israeli vaccine be the solution to new variants?” | >

LifeArc scientists, in collaboration with researchers in the UK and Germany, have developed a promising new approach to potentially treat Alzheimer’s disease – and also vaccinate against it.

Both the antibody-based treatment and the protein-based vaccine developed by the team reduced Alzheimer’s symptoms in mouse models of the disease. The research is published today in Molecular Psychiatry.

LifeArc and researchers in the UK & Germany have developed a promising new approach to potentially treat Alzheimer’s.

Read more | >