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Category: health – Page 12

‘Explainable’ AI cracks secret language of sticky proteins

An AI tool has made a step forward in translating the language proteins use to dictate whether they form sticky clumps similar to those linked to Alzheimer’s disease and around fifty other types of human disease. In a departure from typical “black-box” AI models, the new tool, CANYA, was designed to be able to explain its decisions, revealing the specific chemical patterns that drive or prevent harmful protein folding.

The discovery, published in the journal Science Advances, was possible thanks to the largest-ever dataset on protein aggregation created to date. The study gives new insights about the molecular mechanisms underpinning sticky proteins, which are linked to diseases affecting half a billion people worldwide.

Protein clumping, or amyloid aggregation, is a health hazard that disrupts normal cell function. When certain patches in proteins stick to each other, proteins grow into dense fibrous masses that have pathological consequences.

Skin-based test could improve diagnosis of debilitating neurodegenerative disease

Researchers at the University Health Network (UHN) and the University of Toronto have developed a skin-based test that can detect signature features of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurodegenerative disease that affects body movements, including walking, balance and swallowing.

The test, which the researchers describe in a recent issue of JAMA Neurology, could allow for more accurate and faster PSP diagnosis than current methods.

“This is important for assigning patients to the correct , but it will be even more important in the future as researchers develop targeted, precision treatments for PSP,” says Ivan Martinez-Valbuena, a scientific associate at the Rossy Progressive Supranuclear Palsy Centre at the UHN’s Krembil Brain Institute and U of T’s Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

UCLA Tests Wearable “Brain Booster” for Hard-To-Treat ADHD Cases

Noninvasive therapy seeks to enhance focus and behavior by gently stimulating a nerve associated with attention and executive functioning. Researchers at UCLA Health are initiating the first clinical trial to determine whether a wearable device that provides gentle nerve stimulation during sleep

Prepare for pandemic NOW as new virus spreads to all 50 States

Leading health experts have warned that the US is staring down the barrel of another pandemic as bird flu spirals out of control on US farms.

So far, the H5N1 outbreak has affected nearly 1,000 dairy cow herds and resulted in more than 70 human cases, including the first confirmed death.

The US poultry industry is at significant risk, say experts from the Global Virus Network (GVN), particularly in areas with high-density farming and where personal protective practices may be lacking.

Chemicals released by climbing shoe abrasion could lead to lung issues for climbers in indoor environments

Those who climb indoors are doing something for their health. But climbing shoes contain chemicals of concern that can enter the lungs of climbers through the abrasion of the soles.

In a recent study, researchers from the University of Vienna and EPFL Lausanne have shown for the first time that high concentrations of potentially harmful chemicals from climbing can be found in the air of bouldering gyms. In some cases they are higher than on a busy street. The results have been published in the journal ACS ES&T Air.

A climbing hall is filled with a variety of smells: sweat, chalk dust and a hint of rubber. A research group led by environmental scientist Thilo Hofmann at the University of Vienna has now discovered that rubber abrasion from climbing shoes can enter the lungs of athletes. The shoes contain rubber compounds similar to those used in car tires—including additives suspected of being harmful to humans and the environment.

Molecule can disarm pathogenic bacteria without harming beneficial microbes

A consortium of researchers with multidisciplinary skills, coordinated by INRAE and including the CNRS, the Université Paris-Saclay and Inserm, has identified a molecule capable of “disarming” pathogenic bacteria in the face of the immune system, without any negative effects on the host microbiota, promising a new strategy to combat antibiotic resistance.

These results, already patented and recently published in Nature Communications, are leading to the development of new drugs.

Antibiotic resistance is a major public health issue. According to the WHO, 5 million people die every year worldwide as a result of . This could become the leading cause of death by 2050.

Systemically injectable therapy could prevent heart failure after a heart attack

Scientists at Northwestern University and University of California San Diego have developed a new, potent injectable therapy that can protect the heart from damage after a heart attack.

The therapeutic approach comprises specially designed polymers that act like proteins. These protein-like polymers (PLPs) “grab” onto regulatory proteins, which blunt the body’s natural healing process, in heart tissue. With those proteins out of the way, the healing proteins are free to do their job — preventing stress and inflammation.

Protein-like polymer demonstrated improved heart health in animal experiments.

Heart attacks cause long-term damage that ultimately leads to heart failure. New treatment protects the heart from long-term damage after a heart attack.