UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SAN FRANCISCO New research from UC San Francisco that tested possible triggers of a common heart condition, including caffeine, sleep deprivation, and sleeping on the left side, found that only alcohol use was consistently associated with more episodes of the heart arrhythmia. The authors conclude that people might be able to...
Month: <span>November 2021</span>
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With antibiotic resistance, ‘we are running out of options’
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT ARLINGTON IMAGE: HANNAH BOVERMANN, LEFT, AND JOSEPH BOLL. CREDIT: UTA/RANDY GENTRY Experts predict that without intervention, the problem of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections could be catastrophic by 2050, killing nearly 10 million people each year. To seek solutions, the National Institutes of Health awarded a five-year, $1.8 million grant to Joseph Boll,...
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Study examines immune responses in patients with kidney failure after receiving different COVID-19 vaccines
Individuals with kidney failure who were on dialysis had an incomplete and delayed antibody response and a blunted cellular immune response following COVID-19 vaccination, compared with people with normal kidney function. Immune responses were substantially stronger with the Moderna mRNA-1273 vaccine than with the PfizerBioNTech BNT162b2 vaccine. A variety of other characteristics also predicted the...
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New findings on bacteria that increase risk of pancreatic cancer
Bacteria from the digestive system seem to have the potential to cause damage to pancreatic cells, increasing the risk of malignant tumours. Now for the first time, live bacteria from cystic pancreatic lesions that are precursors to pancreatic cancer, have been analysed by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The study, which is published in Gut...
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Common medication hindering lung cancer treatment
A common medication used to treat reflux, heart burn, and ulcers could lessen the effectiveness of lung cancer immunotherapy drugs, according to new Flinders University research. Published in Nature’s British Journal of Cancer, the study investigated the impact of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) on patients undergoing treatment for non-small-cell lung cancer, the most common type of...
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Antiviral treatment for hepatitis C virus reduces risk of post-treatment liver cancer progression, study shows
IMAGE: CUMULATIVE INCIDENCE OF TUMOR PROGRESSION (A) AND LIVER-RELATED MORTALITY (B) BY KAPLAN-MEIER ANALYSIS. TUMOR PROGRESSION WAS DEFINED AS WHEN HCC PROGRESSES TO MULTIPLE NODULES IN THE LIVER, PORTAL INVASION OR METASTASIZES TO OTHER PARTS OF THE BODY, BRINGING THE DISEASE FROM EARLY- TO ADVANCED-STAGE HCC, ACCORDING TO THE BARCELONA CLINIC LIVER CANCER STAGING SYSTEM....
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Researchers find new link between a disrupted body clock and inflammatory diseases
The circadian body clock generates 24-hour rhythms that keep humans healthy and in time with the day/night cycle. This includes regulating the rhythm of the body’s own (innate) immune cells called macrophages. When these cell rhythms are disrupted (due to things like erratic eating/sleeping patterns or shift work), the cells produce molecules which drive inflammation....
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Immune cell receptor and ligand regulation: A therapeutic avenue for inflammatory diseases
IMAGE: NEURAMINIDASE SUPPRESSES AUTOIMMUNE ARTHRITIS AND ENCEPHALOMYELITIS BY INHIBITING DENDRITIC CELL AND OSTEOCLAST ACTIVITY THROUGH REMOVAL OF SIALIC ACID, THEREBY EXPOSING ASIALO-BIANTENNARY N-GLYCAN (NA2) AND GENERATING INHIBITORY SIGNALS THROUGH DENDRITIC CELL IMMUNORECEPTOR (DCIR). CREDIT: YOICHIRO IWAKURA FROM TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE Immune cells play a key role in mediating inflammatory responses. Dysregulation in signaling mechanisms...
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Researchers uncover insights into how moles change into melanoma
by Huntsman Cancer Institute Robert Judson-Torres, PhD. Credit: Huntsman Cancer Institute Moles and melanomas are both skin tumors that come from the same cell called melanocytes. The difference is that moles are usually harmless, while melanomas are cancerous and often deadly without treatment. In a study published today in eLife Magazine, Robert Judson-Torres, Ph.D., Huntsman Cancer...
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New framework for analyzing Alzheimer’s disease identifies not one form, but three
by University of Geneva Fig. 1: The probabilistic model of Alzheimer disease. Credit: DOI: 10.1038/s41583-021-00533-w According to the commonly accepted model, Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by an ineluctable sequence, from the accumulation of toxic proteins in the brain to dementia resulting from neurodegeneration. While this deterministic sequence is sometimes true, it does not seem to be...