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The first blood test to diagnose inflammation of the heart muscle (myocarditis) could be in use in as little as a year, following the discovery of a molecular signal in the blood by Queen Mary University of London researchers. The research, published today in the journal Circulation, offers hope of a quick and cheap way of diagnosing the condition.

Myocarditis is a difficult condition to diagnose. Symptoms include a temperature, fatigue, chest pain and shortness of breath, which can all be easily mistaken for other conditions. The gold standard method for diagnosis is a heart biopsy, an expensive, invasive, and risky procedure which can sometimes still miss signs of the condition. It’s estimated that one young person dies suddenly every week in the UK due to previously undiagnosed myocarditis.

Now, a team of researchers led by BHF Professor Federica Marelli-Berg at Queen Mary University of London have found that the presence of T-cells—a type of white blood cell—expressing a molecule called cMet in the blood strongly indicates that a person has myocarditis. They say that cMet-expressing T cells levels could be detected through a routine blood test that could cost less than £50 with results available within hours.

LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say measles immunization has dropped significantly since the coronavirus pandemic began, resulting in a record high of nearly 40 million children missing a vaccine dose last year.

In a report issued Wednesday, the WHO and the CDC said millions of children were now susceptible to measles, among the world’s most contagious diseases. In 2021, officials said there were about 9 million measles infections and 128,000 deaths worldwide.

The WHO and CDC said continued drops in vaccination, weak disease surveillance and delayed response plans due to COVID-19, in addition to ongoing outbreaks in more than 20 countries, mean that “measles is an imminent threat in every region of the world.”

A research group led by 2014 Nobel laureate Hiroshi Amano at Nagoya University’s Institute of Materials and Systems for Sustainability (IMaSS) in central Japan, in collaboration with Asahi Kasei Corporation, has successfully conducted the world’s first room-temperature continuous-wave lasing of a deep-ultraviolet laser diode (wavelengths down to UV-C region).

These results, published in Applied Physics Letters, represent a step toward the widespread use of a technology with the potential for a wide range of applications, including sterilization and medicine.

Continue reading “Scientists demonstrate world’s first continuous-wave lasing of deep-ultraviolet laser diode at room temperature” »

Researchers say structures made of the cells could potentially be used to clean up uranium from oceans, heal wounds, and more.

Phages probably picked up DNA-cutting systems from microbial hosts, and might use them to fight other viruses.

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified the bacteria most commonly found in severe oral infections. Few such studies have been done before, and the team now hopes that the study can provide deeper insight into the association between oral bacteria and other diseases. The study is published in Microbiology Spectrum.

Previous studies have demonstrated clear links between oral health and common diseases, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease. However, there have been few longitudinal studies identifying which bacteria occur in infected oral-and maxillofacial regions. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now analyzed samples collected between 2010 and 2020 at the Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden from patients with severe oral infections and produced a list of the most common bacteria.

This was a collaborative study that was performed by Professor Margaret Sällberg Chen and adjunct Professor Volkan Özenci’s research groups.

Closing the gap on premature deaths from non-communicable diseases is key to economic prosperity, global health and social justice. Digital tools can help tackle the problem.

Nov. 23 (UPI) — Researchers said Wednesday they found changes in almost all the regions of the brain they investigated via MRI scan data of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Children with ADHD had abnormal connectivity in the brain networks involved in memory processing and auditory processing, a thinning of the brain cortex, and significant white matter microstructural changes, especially in the frontal lobe of the brain.

The results of the new research on brain biomarkers of ADHD — based on analysis of data from MRI exams of 7,805 children — is scheduled to be presented Sunday at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

Giving the anti-clotting drug rivaroxaban to patients for 12 weeks instead of the usual six after a blood clot in the lower leg reduces the risk of further clots developing up to two years after treatment, finds a trial published by The BMJ today.

What’s more, the additional six weeks of treatment did not result in increased bleeding risk, a common side effect of anti-clotting drugs.

Rivaroxaban is an anticoagulant drug. It’s given to people at a high risk of getting dangerous blood clots to help their blood clot (thicken) more slowly.