Rats fed a sugar syrup early in life develop an unusual gut microbiome that seems to worsen the rodents’ memories by changing the way their brains work.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 1708
The first black US Drone company has created a new drone training program to help people re-tool their careers in a post-Covid-19 world.
Scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine have found types of cells in the brain that are most susceptible to inherited genetic variants linked to schizophrenia. As a result, their work reveals a shortlist of the variants that most likely impact disease risk.
Details of the scientists’ analysis, published April 17, 2020, in Genome Research, compared human genetic studies with data on how DNA is folded in mouse cells, including a diversity of brain cells.
“Every common disease has a major genetic component at its root,” says Andrew McCallion, Ph.D., professor of genetic medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “Studying genomes across human populations helps us find the genetic landmarks that are linked to disease, but these often don’t give us the biological insight that pinpoints the cells in which that variation acts to impact disease risk.”
Summary: Iron accumulation in the brain’s neocortex has been linked to cognitive decline in people with Alzheimer’s disease.
Source: RSNA
Researchers using MRI have found that iron accumulation in the outer layer of the brain is associated with cognitive deterioration in people with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the journal Radiology.
But for every insight into COVID-19, more questions emerge and others linger. That is how science works. To mark six months since the world first learnt about the disease responsible for the pandemic, Nature runs through some of the key questions that researchers still don’t have answers to.
From immunity to the role of genetics, Nature looks at five pressing questions about COVID-19 that researchers are tackling. Six months into the outbreak, Nature looks at the pressing questions that researchers are tackling.
The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria presents an ominous threat for humankind, with these so-called superbugs projected to kill millions of people annually by midway through the century. Scientists at the University of Exeter have developed a promising technique that could help us keep these crafty foes in check, by quickly illuminating bacteria when antibiotics have had the desired effect.
Such is the seriousness of superbug dilemma that one UK government report recently found they could kill 10 million people a year by 2050 unless some new solutions are found. These are bacteria that have evolved to become resistant to our very best drugs, and they could possibly cast the world back into the dark ages of medicine if they are simply left to do their thing.
While this resistance occurs naturally as bacteria evolve, one of the major contributing factors to its acceleration is the overuse of antibiotics. Prescribing antibiotics for humans and having them take drugs either for the wrong condition or consume more than they need, creates more opportunities for the bacteria to evolve, ramping up the overall trend.
This looks quite interesting: MMR vaccines might be beneficial against #Covid19
PDF | Published epidemiological data suggests a correlation between patients who receive measles-rubella containing vaccines such as the commonly… | Find, read and cite all the research you need on ResearchGate.
Even before the pandemic, public health agencies around the world were struggling to counter increasingly sophisticated efforts to turn people against vaccines. With vaccination rates against measles and other infectious diseases falling in some locations, the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2019 listed “vaccine hesitancy” as one of 10 major global health threats.
To stop the pandemic, the world’s public health experts must win the coming “story war” over vaccine misinformation.
Well this is interesting:
A Henry Ford Health System study shows the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine helps lower the death rate of COVID-19 patients, the Detroit-based health system said Thursday.
Officials with the Michigan health system said the study found the drug “significantly” decreased the death rate of patients involved in the analysis.
The study analyzed 2,541 patients hospitalized among the system’s six hospitals between March 10 and May 2 and found 13% of those treated with hydroxychloroquine died while 26% of those who did not receive the drug died.
Heads of the Michigan health system said Thursday the study found the drug “significantly” decreased the death rate of patients.
What if your seat on the subway could fight off coronavirus? A French company has designed a new type of ‘decontaminating’ fabric, which is already equipping local metro trains.