by Ingrid Fadelli, Medical Xpress Credit: Marshall et al, Nature Neuroscience (2022). DOI: 10.1038/s41593-022-01165-8 When humans and other mammals perform voluntary movements, a series of neural processes take place. The cerebral cortex, the outer region of the brain, sends signals to motor units (i.e., neurons) in the spinal cord, which in turn activate individual muscles. Past neuroscience...
by University College London Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain A large-scale comparison of direct oral anticoagulants (blood thinners), commonly prescribed for irregular heartbeats, has identified the drug associated with the lowest risk of bleeding, in a new study led by UCL researchers. In the paper published in Annals of Internal Medicine, the researchers report that one of...
by Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University Dr. Waaqo Daddacha. Credit: Michael Holahan, Augusta University In the tough war against glioblastoma, scientists are taking a cue from viruses on how to make the aggressive cancer more vulnerable to treatment. Their target is SAMHD1, a protein which can protect us from viral infections by destroying an essential...
by Federico Graciano, Duke-NUS Medical School Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell Reports Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.xcrm.2022.100793 The total magnitude of the T-cell responses induced by mRNA and inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccines are comparable; however, the similarity ends here, according to a new study led by Duke-NUS Medical School scientists. They found that the inactivated vaccines, which expose the immune system to...
by Hokkaido University In IL-34-expressing tumors, blood vessels were observed only in the outer layer, whereas in IL-34-deficient tumors, blood vessels were observed in the whole area (modified from Nabeel Kajihara, et al. Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. September 14, 2022) Credit: Nabeel Kajihara, et al. Cancer Immunology, Immunotherapy. September 14, 2022 Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) tumors...
by NYU Langone Health SARS-CoV-2 infection causes gut microbiome alterations in mice. K18-hACE2 mice were infected intranasally with 0 or 104 PFU of SARS-CoV-2. Fecal samples for microbiome analyses were collected daily from day 0 (before infection) until sacrifice; mice were sacrificed on days 5–7. Results show pooled data from three independent experiments with n = 3–5 mice...
by American College of Physicians Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A study of 50 adult patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) has found that challenged urine bicarbonate excretion may offer a new, simple, and safe quantification of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) function and the extent of its pharmacologic improvement. The study is published in Annals of...
by Harry Perkins Institute of Medical Research Graphical abstract. Credit: Cell (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.09.039 Australian scientists have developed a world-first map showing gene activity changes in diverse human brain cell types from pre-birth to adulthood. By having this map of normal brain cell development, researchers will now be able to identify altered states more accurately in neurological...
by University of Turku Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain A new test has been developed in Turku, Finland, that helps in separating heart attack patients from those whose cardiac troponin values are elevated due to renal insufficiency. Blood sample tests for cardiac troponins are an important cornerstone in the diagnostics of heart attack, but the result...
by Bob Yirka, Medical Xpress Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain An international team of researchers has used mRNA technology to develop an influenza vaccine that targets four proteins that tend to change little across viral strains. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their approach to developing a new...
