JACOBS UNIVERSITY BREMEN GGMBH IMAGE: PROFESSOR NIKOLAI KUHNERT AND HIS TEAM WERE ABLE TO SHOW THAT A COMPOUND IN COFFEE INHIBITS THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE SPIKE PROTEIN AND THE ACE-2 RECEPTOR. (SOURCE: JACOBS UNIVERSITY) CREDIT: JACOBS UNIVERSITY Could consuming a cup of coffee be an effective way to protect yourself against infection with coronavirus? What...
Tag: <span>Protection</span>
‘Elite sleeper’ genes could offer protection from neurodegenerative diseases
by University of California, San Francisco Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Some people are gifted with genes that pack the benefits of slumber into an efficient time window, keeping them peppy on only four or six hours of sleep a night, according to researchers at UC San Francisco. In addition, the scientists said, these “elite sleepers”...
Behind a good mutation: How a gene variant protects against Alzheimer’s
by University of California, Irvine Credit: CC0 Public Domain While the word “mutation” may conjure up alarming notions, a mutation in brain immune cells serves a positive role in protecting people against Alzheimer’s disease. Now University of California, Irvine biologists have discovered the mechanisms behind this crucial process. Their paper appears in the journal Alzheimer’s and...
Inside the lungs, a new hope for protection against flu damage
INSTITUTO GULBENKIAN DE CIENCIA IMAGE: NEW HOPE TO MODULATE THE DAMAGE THE FLU WRECKS ON THE LUNGS CREDIT: JOANA CARVALHO, IGC 2021 The seasonal flu kills up to 600 000 people a year worldwide and has a century-long history of pandemics. Examples include the Spanish flu in the late 1910s or the H1N1 in 2009,...
Elderly people protected against respiratory infections by BCG vaccine
However, the effect of the vaccine specifically against COVID-19 has not been demonstrated RADBOUD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER The BCG vaccine has a broad, stimulating effect on the immune system. This gives it an effective preventive action against various infections – possibly also against COVID-19. New studies are investigating that. BCG is frequently given to children,...
Vaccine against grass pollen allergy as potential treatment for chronic hepatitis B
by Johannes Angerer, Medical University of Vienna Chronic hepatitis B infections represent a global health problem that could hitherto only be treated by chemotherapy. A team of researchers led by Rudolf Valenta from MedUni Vienna’s Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology has now demonstrated that a protein contained in the BM32 vaccine against grass pollen...
How to use ventilation and air filtration to prevent the spread of coronavirus indoors
by Shelly Miller, The Conversation The vast majority of SARS-CoV-2 transmission occurs indoors, most of it from the inhalation of airborne particles that contain the coronavirus. The best way to prevent the virus from spreading in a home or business would be to simply keep infected people away. But this is hard to do when...
Can sleep protect us from forgetting old memories?
Computational models examine how sleep encodes new memories while preventing damage to old ones UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA – SAN DIEGO From lowering your risk of obesity and cardiovascular disease to improving your concentration and overall daily performance, sleep has been proven to play a critical role in our health. In a new study, researchers at...
Iron deficiency during infancy reduces vaccine efficacy
About 40 percent of children around the globe suffer from anemia because they do not consume enough iron. Now, studies by ETH researchers show that iron deficiency also reduces the protection provided by vaccinations. Despite the fact that global immunization programs are now reaching more people than ever, about 1.5 million children still die every...
Pulse pressure: A game changer in the fight against dementia
Promoting blood brain barrier health by reducing elevated pulse pressure in blood could be a promising new preventative solution and/or treatment for dementia. A recent paper published in Frontiers in Neuroscience, outlines a pulse-pressure-induced pathway of cognitive decline that sheds light on why previous treatments for dementia may have failed and proposes promising new directions...