Reviewed by Lily Ramsey, LLM In a small study, researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found that positron emission tomography (PET) scans of the heart may identify people who will go on to develop Parkinson’s disease or Lewy body dementia among those at-risk for these diseases. The findings, published in the Journal of...
Month: <span>December 2023</span>
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Study Looks at RNA’s Solo Act on the Ever-Changing Stage of Cellular Dynamics
RNA has been in the limelight for its starring role in cutting-edge vaccine technology, but RNA molecules are also key players in the inner workings of cells. Researchers have found that RNA molecules can undergo phase separation in a temperature-dependent manner, and this phase behavior is supported by magnesium ions in solution. Here, CAG-repeat RNA...
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New machine learning technique found to be 30% better at predicting cancer cure rates
by University of Texas at Arlington Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public DomainWith the rapid development in computing power over the past few decades, machine-learning (ML) techniques have become popular in medical settings as a way to predict survival rates and life expectancies among patients diagnosed with diseases such as cancer, heart disease, stroke, and more recently, COVID-19....
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Is Novavax, the latecomer COVID vaccine, worth the wait?
by Amy Maxmen, KFF Health News Credit: CC0 Public DomainErin Kissane, a co-founder of the COVID Tracking Project, rolled up her sleeve for the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine in mid-October soon after it was finally recommended in the United States. Like many people with autoimmune diseases, she wants to protect herself from a potentially devastating COVID...
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Prevalence of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease set to increase to 34.3% in 2050
by Elana Gotkine The burden of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is predicted to continue increasing, according to a study presented at The Liver Meeting, the annual meeting of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, held from Nov. 10 to 14 in Boston. Phuc Le, Ph.D., M.D., from the Cleveland Clinic, and...
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Cannabis Use Linked to Epigenetic Changes, Scientists Reveal
ByREBECCA DYER (Marshall Pitman/Canva Pro)Using cannabis may cause changes in the human body’s epigenome, a study of over 1,000 adults suggests. The epigenome functions like a set of switches, activating or deactivating genes to change how our bodies function. “We observed associations between cumulative marijuana use and multiple epigenetic markers across time,” Lifang Hou, a...
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Single Injection Reduces Blood Pressure for 6 Months: KARDIA-1
Sue Hughes November 20, 2023 A single injection of the investigational antihypertensive agent zilebesiran (Alnylam Pharmaceuticals) effectively lowered blood pressure in adults with mild to moderate hypertension for up to 6 months, with what appeared to be an encouraging side-effect profile, in the phase 2 dose-ranging KARDIA-1 study. “Our study demonstrates that either quarterly or...
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New study is first to find brain hemorrhage cause other than injured blood vessels
by University of California, Irvine t-BHP-treated RBC stall in cerebral blood vessels and impair cerebral blood flow velocity shown by in vivo high-resolution two-photon imaging in mice. Schematic of the experimental design (A). RBC were collected from FVB/NJ mice, treated with control PBS or the oxidative stressor t-BHP, then labeled with the PKH26 fluorescent dye...
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Scientists discover new Achilles heel of leukemia cells
by Goethe University Frankfurt am Main Graphical abstract. Credit: iScience (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.107844Leukemia is the most common type of cancer in children. Treatment involves intensive chemotherapy, which has severe side effects due to its non-specific mode of action. A team from the Department of Pediatrics and the Institute for Experimental Pediatric Hematology and Oncology at...
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Weight-loss drugs will be sold as pills, with just as many side effects and cost issues
by Madison Muller, Bloomberg News Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public DomainNovo Nordisk A/S and Eli Lilly & Co. are touting pill versions of their blockbuster weight-loss drugs that could come as soon as next year. But if you’re expecting something cheaper and with fewer side effects, think again. Obesity pills under development have some major shortcomings in...