by Flinders University Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain The rare blood clot side-effect associated with some COVID-19 vaccines could be the result of genetics, new research has found, paving the way for a potential genetic screening test. Vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), a rare disorder causing thrombosis (blood clotting) and thrombocytopenia (low blood platelet counts), was early...
Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease of the central nervous system and the most common cause of neurological impairment in young adults. In MS, the patient’s own immune system attacks the brain and spinal cord, resulting in cumulative neurological deficits such as damaged sight, sensory disturbances, motor deficits (e.g. limiting the ability to...
by Lancaster University Some of these genetic changes cause neurodevelopmental problems and dramatically increase someone’s risk of developing disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and Tourette’s syndrome. Credit: Lancaster University Drugs to increase insulin signaling may be effective for treating autism say Lancaster University researchers, who have discovered how a genetic change impacts on insulin signaling...
A Stanford Medicine-led research team has identified a common genetic profile that predicts severe, potentially fatal reactions to four powerful immune-suppressing drugs. The genetic profile is found in about 20% of the general population. Pills. Image credit: Ajale via Pixabay The drug reactions, reported in a study published online in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases, were identified...
Three-quarters of biobank volunteers who were carrying genetic risks for cancer and heart disease had never been tested. Array-based testing produced false results in 45 percent of samples and missed 72 percent of those carrying dangerous risk variants for treatable conditions when compared to sequencing. Image credit: Piqsels, free public domain licence More than 120,000...
by University of Oxford Structural study of antibiotic opens the way for new TB treatments Credit: Shutterstock Using cutting-edge genomic sequencing techniques, researchers at the University of Oxford have identified almost all the genomic variation that gives people resistance to 13 of the most common tuberculosis (TB) drug treatments. The Comprehensive Resistance Prediction for Tuberculosis International...
by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center A new Cedars-Sinai study suggests that genes are more likely to cause high blood pressure in women than in men. Credit: Cedars-Sinai. Researchers from the Smidt Heart Institute suggest that, contrary to common belief, the risk of developing high blood pressure has more to do with genetics in women than in men....
PLOS IMAGE: THE BEAUTY OF OLD AGE CREDIT: VINOTH CHANDAR, FLICKR People often get sicker as they grow older, but new research from Gil McVean of the University of Oxford and colleagues finds that the impact of a person’s genes on their risk of getting sick actually wanes with age. The researchers published their new...
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS Neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and epilepsy have had some treatment success with deep brain stimulation, but those require surgical device implantation. A multidisciplinary team at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a new brain stimulation technique using focused ultrasound that is able to turn specific types of...
By Reginald Davey Reviewed by Sophia Coveney, B.Sc. Hereditary conditions cause those who suffer from them to live shorter lives with traumatic health issues. Because of this, researchers in the field of genetics are constantly exploring and developing gene therapies to cure them or alleviate the worst of their effects. This article will explore one...
