Lifeboat Foundation

Despite preventive strategies, cytomegalovirus (CMV) remains a leading cause of disease after solid organ transplantation. Indirect effects of CMV infection include organ-specific complications (e.g., chronic allograft nephropathy, cardiac vasculopathy) as well as more-general effects including excess risk for rejection and death. After lung transplantation, chronic lung allograft dysfunction (CLAD) is the most important limitation to long-term survival. Thus, investigators sought to determine the role of CMV in CLAD.

Among 668 lung transplant recipients, 647 had evaluable data. CLAD developed in 39% and was associated with high-risk (CMV donor positive/recipient negative) serostatus and, to a lesser degree, intermediate-risk (CMV recipient positive) serostatus. CLAD was not associated with CMV DNAemia. By contrast, CMV DNAemia was associated with the combined endpoint of death or re-transplantation, and higher CMV levels were associated with increased risk.

The causes of CLAD remain obscure, frustrating efforts to improve outcomes after lung transplantation. The authors speculate that CMV replication limited to the allograft — and possibly combined with episodes of CMV DNAemia without lung involvement — might explain the association of CLAD with CMV as determined by serostatus but not DNAemia. Further research is necessary to determine if serosorting (i.e., only transplanting lungs from CMV-negative donors into CMV-negative recipients) or life-long CMV prophylaxis in high-risk recipients is justified.

A study involving long-term acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors found certain genetic variants related to the folate pathway, glucocorticoid regulation, and other factors were associated with impaired attention, motor skills, memory, and more. Read the article here:

Genetic predispositions may modulate risk for developing neurocognitive late effects in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) survivors.

Methods.

Continue reading “Genetic variants, neurocognitive outcomes, and functional neuroimaging in survivors of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia” »

The moon lander dubbed Odysseus is “alive and well” but resting on its side a day after its white-knuckle touchdown as the first private spacecraft ever to reach the lunar surface, and the first from the U.S. since 1972, the company behind the vehicle said on Friday.

Tesla has shared its latest clip of the Optimus humanoid robot, once again showing off how smoothly the bot is able to walk around.

The Florida measles outbreak is expanding. On Friday, health officials in Broward County confirmed a seventh case of the virus, a child under age 5.

The patient is the youngest so far to be infected in the outbreak, and the first to be identified outside of Manatee Bay Elementary School in Weston, near Fort Lauderdale.

It’s unknown what connection the youngest measles case has to the school, but the spread beyond school-age kids was expected.

A new study has found red light therapy helps reduce blood sugar levels. Researchers say red light therapy could help people with type 2 diabetes manage their condition.

Scripps Research scientists have developed an antibody that can block the effects of lethal toxins in the venoms of a wide variety of snakes found throughout Africa, Asia and Australia.

The antibody, which protected mice from the normally deadly venom of snakes including black mambas and king cobras, is described in Science Translational Medicine. The new research used forms of the toxins produced in the laboratory to screen billions of different human antibodies and identify one that can block the toxins’ activity. It represents a large step toward a universal antivenom that would be effective against the venom of all snakes.

“This antibody works against one of the major toxins found across numerous snake species that contribute to tens of thousands of deaths every year,” says senior author Joseph Jardine, Ph.D., assistant professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research. “This could be incredibly valuable for people in low-and middle-income countries that have the largest burden of deaths and injuries from snakebites.”

Google Pay, the digital payment app for desktop, mobile apps, and in stores, was pretty much phased out by the introduction of Google Wallet in 2022. Google Wallet, which is a mobile app for Android users, is used five times more than Google Pay, according to the announcement. Since Wallet can also house credit cards for tap-to-pay, as well as digital IDs, and public transit passes, it’s proven to be the more useful alternative.

It’s somewhat typical for Google to launch products only to shut them down or roll them into other products after a few years due to lack of demand or commercial interest. The Google graveyard includes Jamboard, its cloud gaming service Stadia, and Google Play Music. So this is just one of many Google products to bite the dust. But Google Pay users won’t be left stranded.

If you’re a Google Pay user, you can still use the U.S. version of the app until June 4. But you can still transfer funds from your account into your bank account through the Google Pay website after June 4. After that, Google Pay users will no longer be able to send, request, or transfer money through the app.

The engineering of structural deformations in light-sensitive semiconductors can boost the efficiency of solar cells.

The quest for an efficient method to convert solar energy into electricity is crucial in the pursuit of carbon neutrality and environmental sustainability. Traditional solar cells are based on junctions between semiconductors, where a current is produced by photogenerated carriers separated by an electric field at the junction. Efforts to enhance solar-cell performance have focused on refining semiconductor properties and on perfecting devices. Concurrently, researchers are exploring alternative photovoltaic mechanisms that could work in synergy with the junction-based photovoltaic effect to boost solar-cell efficiency. Within this context, the engineering of a strain gradient in the material has emerged as a promising research direction. In this phenomenon, known as the flexophotovoltaic effect, an inhomogeneous strain in the material produces a photovoltaic effect in the absence of a junction [1].