The Medical Futurist, 18 March 2022 Social companion robots are getting increasingly popular, more widely used and accepted. This might have happened anyway, but the pandemic accelerated the pace of their “deployment”. Not so surprising, many social workers have experienced that COVID restrictions took a huge toll on elderly people living alone. The loneliness of the ageing...
by University of Otago Figure 1. Experimental setups for three different models. (A) Hippocampal slice experiments. Schematic of hippocampal slice shows location of electrical field stimulating electrode (Stim) in area CA3, and whole cell intracellular recording electrode (Rec) in area CA1. Femtosecond pulses (Laser) were applied via the use of a 2-Photon microscope. Expanded schematic...
by Bob Yirka, Medical Xpress Substitutants are presented at the cell surface and activate T cells. Credit: Nature (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04499-2 An international team of researchers has found that some cancer cells are able to make up for a loss of tryptophan by conducting codon reassignments that allow for the production of phenylalanine “substitutants” (a word they...
By Nick Lavars March 21, 2022 New research has shown how leading an active life can preserve the populations of key muscle cells in later life Depositphotos The benefits of leading an active lifestyle are wide-ranging and increasingly well-established, but there is still plenty we can learn by drilling into the details of its long-term...
by University of Oklahoma Associate Professor Christian H. Lemon, Ph.D. (center) with Jinrong Li, Ph.D. (left) Md Sams Sazzad Ali (right) in Lemon’s lab at the University of Oklahoma. Credit: University of Oklahoma If you have eaten a chili pepper, you have likely felt how your body reacts to the spicy hot sensation. New research...
by Diana Yates, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Researchers found a compound that reduces the excitability of neurons in the hippocampus and reduces epileptic seizures in mice. Credit: Michael Vincent. Researchers studying epileptic seizures of the temporal lobe—the most common type of epilepsy—discovered a compound that reduces seizures in the hippocampus, a brain region where...
Pam Harrison February 17, 2022 The majority of Americans are not aware that alcohol consumption causes a variety of cancers, and especially do not consider wine and beer to have a link with cancer, suggest the results from a national survey. “Alcohol is a leading modifiable risk factor for cancer yet most Americans are unaware that alcohol...
Pauline Anderson March 18, 2022 Misaligned eyes in children are associated with an increased prevalence of mental illness, results of a large study suggest. Investigators found children with strabismus or “crossed eyes” had up to a twofold increased risk of developing anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia compared to their counterparts without the eye condition....
Saima May Sidik Two doses of an mRNA vaccine such as that made by Pfizer–BioNTech provide similar protection against two subvariants of SARS-CoV-2.Credit: Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times via Getty The Omicron subvariant BA.2 is replacing its sister version, BA.1, as the dominant form of SARS-CoV-2 in many countries, which has led scientists to wonder whether...
by Brigham and Women’s Hospital Credit: CC0 Public Domain Inhaled cortical steroids (ICS) can help patients manage asthma symptoms, and recent updates to asthma treatment guidelines have expanded recommended, low-dose treatment. But concerns persist that ICS may reduce production of the steroid hormone cortisol in the body leading to adrenal suppression. While initial adrenal suppression...
