Lifeboat Foundation

Progression independent of relapse activity (PIRA) has been increasingly recognized in people with multiple sclerosis (MS; NEJM JW Neurol May 24 2022 and JAMA Neurol 2022; 79:682). To learn more about PIRA, investigators used data from the Italian MS Register on 16,130 patients with relapsing-remitting MS, including 1,383 with pediatric-onset MS (POMS; median age at onset, 16), 14,113 with adult-onset MS (AOMS; median age at onset, 29), and 634 with late-onset MS (LOMS; median age at onset, 52).

Compared with patients with POMS, patients with LOMS had the highest incidence of PIRA (hazard ratio

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, 2.98), followed by those with AOMS (HR, 1.42). Compared with the POMS patient group, the LOMS patient group had the lowest risk for relapse-associated worsening (HR, 0.69), followed by the AOMS group (HR, 0.88). Cumulative PIRA incidence was 1.3% of patients at age 20 years, increased rapidly between ages 21 and 30 (9%), and rose progressively from 40 to 70 (from 22% to 79%). Cumulative incidence of relapse-associated worsening showed a different pattern of increases over time (e.g., 0.5% at age 20; 7.8% at age 40; 14.4% at age 50; 24.1% at age 60; 27.7% at age 70).

These authors provide data supporting the notion that MS pathophysiology is different between patients with PIRA and those with relapse-associated worsening. While relapse-associated worsening seems to increase gradually and reach a plateau, PIRA begins in the 20s and continues to increase. PIRA encompasses accumulating neurodegenerative processes, supporting the concept that a subset of patients experience progression even within the relapsing-remitting phase of the disease.

People may be more than two times likelier to develop schizophrenia-related disorders if they owned cats during childhood than if they didn’t:

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Living with cats as a child has once again been linked to mental health disorders, because our furry friends apparently can’t catch a break.

In a new meta-analysis published in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin, Australian researchers identified 17 studies between 1980 and 2023 that seemed to associate cat ownership in childhood with schizophrenia-related disorders — a sample size narrowed down from a whopping 1,915 studies that dealt with cats during that 43-year time period.

Continue reading “Childhood Cat Exposure Once Again Linked to Schizophrenia” »

Researchers have come one step closer to answering why, in some patients, a type of lymphoma changes from indolent to aggressive, and in particular, they are closer to identifying which patients are at high risk of this change happening.

Part of the answer lies in the protein expression in the tumor, explains Associate Professor Maja Ludvigsen from the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University. Maja is one of the authors of a new study on the subject, which has just been published in the journal Blood Advances.

Follicular lymphoma is an incurable lymphoma. But unlike many other cancers, it is not always aggressive from the start. This means that patients with the disease have to live with the uncertainty of when—and how—the cancer will develop. It also means frequent visits to the hospital to monitor any acute developments.

Self-propelled nanoparticles could potentially advance drug delivery and lab-on-a-chip systems — but they are prone to go rogue with random, directionless movements. Now, an international team of researchers has developed an approach to rein in the synthetic particles.

Led by Igor Aronson, the Dorothy Foehr Huck and J. Lloyd Huck Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Mathematics at Penn State, the team redesigned the nanoparticles into a propeller shape to better control their movements and increase their functionality. They published their results in the journal Small (“Multifunctional Chiral Chemically-Powered Micropropellers for Cargo Transport and Manipulation”).

A propeller-shaped nanoparticle spins counterclockwise, triggered by a chemical reaction with hydrogen peroxide, followed by an upward movement, triggered by a magnetic field. The optimized shape of these particles allows researchers to better control the nanoparticles’ movements and to pick up and move cargo particles. (Video: Active Biomaterials Lab)

Scientists have discovered how our DNA can use a genetic fast-forward button to make new genes for quick adaptation to our ever-changing environments.

During an investigation into DNA replication errors, researchers from Finland’s University of Helsinki found that certain single mutations produce palindromes, which read the same backward and forward. Under the right circumstances, these can evolve into microRNA (miRNA) genes.

These tiny, simple genes play a significant role in regulating other genes. Many miRNA genes have been around for a long time in evolutionary history, but scientists discovered that in some animal groups, like primates, brand-new miRNA genes suddenly appear.

Conditioning the lungs with interferon-gamma, a natural immune system protein (cytokine) best known for fighting bacterial infections, appears to be a strong antiviral for SARS-CoV-2, according to National Institutes of Health scientists and colleagues. Their new study, published in Nature Communications, shows in two different mouse models that when a bacterial infection triggers the release of interferon-gamma in the lungs, those animals subsequently are protected from infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The investigators further report that using recombinant interferon-gamma in the nose of study mice at the time of viral exposure substantially reduces SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID disease.

The lead project scientists suggest testing interferon-gamma further, alone and in combination with other treatments, to limit early SARS-CoV-2 infection in people. They also hypothesize that people with prior bacterial infections that naturally release interferon-gamma in their lungs may be less susceptible to COVID-19.

NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) led the project with collaborators at Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in New Zealand.

😀 Amazing breakthrough face_with_colon_three

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A group of Spanish researchers have developed a brain-computer interface based on electroencephalograms that allowed a group of 22 users to play a simple multiplayer game. The interface was 94% accurate in translating players’ thoughts into game moves, with each move taking just over 5 seconds. The study was published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

A brain-computer interface is a technology that enables direct communication between the human brain and external devices, such as computers or prosthetic limbs. Brain-computer interfaces work by detecting and interpreting neural signals, typically through electrodes placed on the user’s head. These signals are then translated into actionable commands, allowing individuals to control computers, devices, or applications using their thoughts.

Continue reading “New brain-computer interface allows people to play a game using their thoughts” »

FDA approval for revolutionary Sickle Cell Disease gene-editing treatment promises a bright future.

Scientists have grown a tiny brain-like organoid out of human stem cells, hooked it up to a computer, and demonstrated its potential as a kind of organic machine learning chip, showing it can quickly pick up speech recognition and math predictions.

As incredible as recent advances have been in machine learning, artificial intelligence still lags way behind the human brain in some important ways. For example, the brain happily learns and adapts all day long on an energy budget of about 20 watts, where a comparably powerful artificial neural network needs about 8 million watts to achieve anything remotely comparable.

What’s more, the human brain’s neural plasticity, its ability to grow new nervous tissue and expand existing connective channels, has granted it an ability to learn from noisy, low-quality data streams, with minimal training and energy expenditure. What AI systems accomplish with brute force and massive energy, the brain achieves with an effortless elegance. It’s a credit to the billions of years of high-stakes trial and error that delivered the human brain to the state it’s in today, in which it’s chiefly used to watch vast numbers of other people dancing while we’re on the toilet.