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Category: biotech/medical – Page 1915

The treatment could hold real promise as coronavirus infections and deaths outside of China continue to swell. “There is only one drug right now that we think may have real efficacy and that’s remdesivir,” said WHO assistant director-general Bruce Aylward during a press conference in Beijing on Monday. The drug is already being enlisted in clinical trials in China.

Gilead’s antiviral remdesivir is being used in the first U.S. clinical trial to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

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Wuhan Coronavirus Pandemic — Washington state: 1 death and 1 community spread case and 1 travel case.

“One case involves a teenager in Everett with no travel history. He is a presumptive positive, meaning tests have come back positive for the virus, while pending confirmation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He is currently in home isolation. Health officials don’t know how or where the teenager was infected, and are working on identifying anyone the teen may have come into contact with. The student attends Jackson High School in the Everett School District.

The second case involves a King County woman in her 50s who recently traveled to Daegu, South Korea. Her status is also presumptive positive and she is in home isolation.”

The first U.S. coronavirus-related death was reported in King County on Saturday, according to the Washington Department of Health.

Continue reading “King County patient first to die in US from coronavirus” | >

Removal of an essential gene was a major contributor to preterm labor, according to recent research.

Researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center started with a pathway linked to the tumor suppressor gene known as transformation-related protein 53 (Trp53), which encodes another protein: p53. Mutations of Trp53 are found in a variety of cancers, but the gene’s function in female reproduction and other normal physiological processes is not well understood. The role of p53, sometimes referred to as the “guardian angel gene,” is to help preserve genetic stability and prevent mutation.

The researchers targeted certain signaling pathways that function both in pregnancy and during the formation of cancerous tumors. During pregnancy, the pathways are usually tightly regulated. In tumor development, however, they can become dysfunctional.

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A dog in Hong Kong has tested positive for the COVID-19 virus that’s killed at least 2,859 humans across the world over the last two months, World Health Organization officials said Friday.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, the technical lead of WHO’s emergencies program, said the canine tested “weakly positive,” meaning low levels of the virus were found.

Hong Kong scientists aren’t sure if the dog is actually infected or if it picked up the virus from a contaminated surface, she said.

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“At the moment, the YITU “Coronavirus Chest CT Smart Evaluation System” can compress the diagnosis of suspected cases to 2–3 seconds. The company also designed a chatbot doctor that can help the public with self-diagnosis through Q&A and recommend nearby hospitals and appointment booking services.”

An article published in medical journal the Lancelet on February 25 finds that reduced medical resource levels will trigger a spike in the coronavirus death rate in the local population beyond the current estimates. The study shows that death rates are over 3 percent in Wuhan city, 2.9 percent in Hubei province, while only 0.7 percent across the rest of China.

Close to 30,000 medical staff from across China have been dispatched to Hubei province to help overworked local medical professionals in the fight against COVID-19. Fast and accurate diagnosis is critical on the front line, and now an AI-powered diagnostic assessment system is helping Hubei medical teams do just that.

Currently, CT lung scans and nucleic acid tests are the two main diagnostic tools doctors use in confirming COVID-19 infections. CT imaging is crucial for diagnosis verification, and also allows doctors to access lung infection severity.

Continue reading “AI Enables Doctors to Diagnose COVID-19 Infection in Seconds” | >

Summary: Vimentin, a cellular filament, helps neural stem cells to clear damaged and clumped proteins, assisting in neurogenesis.

Source: University of Wisconsin Madison

New research by University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists reveals how a cellular filament helps neural stem cells clear damaged and clumped proteins, an important step in eventually producing new neurons. The work provides a new cellular target for interventions that could boost neuron production when it’s needed most, such as after brain injuries. And because clumping proteins are a hallmark of many neurodegenerative diseases, like Alzheimer’s, the new study could provide insight into how these toxic proteins can be cleared away. Assistant Professor of Neuroscience Darcie Moore led the work with her graduate student Christopher Morrow. Their study is available online in the journal Cell Stem Cell.

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