Biology & Medicine News and Discussions

weatheriscool
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No more annual flu shot? Researchers find new target for universal influenza vaccine
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12- ... uenza.html
by The Scripps Research Institute
Scientists at Scripps Research, University of Chicago and Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a new Achilles' heel of influenza virus, making progress in the quest for a universal flu vaccine. Antibodies against a long-ignored section of the virus, which the team dubbed the anchor, have the potential to recognize a broad variety of flu strains, even as the virus mutates from year to year, they reported Dec. 23, 2021 in the journal Nature.

"It's always very exciting to discover a new site of vulnerability on a virus because it paves the way for rational vaccine design," says co-senior author Andrew Ward, Ph.D., professor of Integrative Structural and Computational Biology at Scripps Research. "It also demonstrates that despite all the years and effort of influenza vaccine research there are still new things to discover."

"By identifying sites of vulnerability to antibodies that are shared by large numbers of variant influenza strains we can design vaccines that are less affected by viral mutations," says study co-senior author Patrick Wilson, MD, who was previously at the University of Chicago and recently recruited to Weill Cornell Medicine as a professor of pediatrics and a scientist in the institution's Gale and Ira Drukier Institute for Children's Health. "The anchor antibodies we describe bind to such a site. The antibodies themselves can also be developed as drugs with broad therapeutic applications."
weatheriscool
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Researcher shows novel drug significantly improves signs and symptoms of generalized pustular psoriasis
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12- ... iasis.html
by The Mount Sinai Hospital

Generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) is a rare, life-threatening skin condition for which there are no approved treatments. It is characterized by episodes of widespread eruptions of painful, sterile pustules (blisters of non-infectious pus). There is a high unmet need for treatments that can rapidly and completely resolve the signs and symptoms of GPP flares. Flares greatly affect a person's quality of life and can lead to hospitalization with serious complications, including heart failure, renal failure, sepsis, and death.

A clinical trial has shown that spesolimab is a novel, humanized, selective antibody that blocks the activation of the interleukin-36 receptor (IL-36R), a signaling pathway within the immune system shown to be involved in the pathogeneses of several autoimmune diseases, including generalized pustular psoriasis. The novel drug demonstrated rapid clearance of pustules in adult patients with generalized pustular psoriasis (GPP) experiencing a flare.

The study met the primary endpoint; 54% of patients had no visible pustules after a single dose of spesolimab, compared to 6% receiving a placebo at week one.

The bottom line appears to be that spesolimab is rapidly effective in the majority of patients within one week of its first intravenous infusion for patients suffering from generalized pustular psoriasis. This is significant because generalized pustular psoriasis is a life-threatening condition that compromises the integrity of the skin. Patients are frequently hospitalized and often die from sepsis or other complications.
weatheriscool
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Newly developed injectable, adhesive surgical gel to prevent scar tissue
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12- ... -scar.html
by Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Translation of Medical 3D Printing Application

Up to 90% of patients who undergo open abdominal or pelvic surgery develop postoperative adhesions, or scar tissue. Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgical approaches can reduce the severity of the adhesions, but the scar tissue still forms. The cellular response to injury—even intentional injury, such as surgery to repair a problem—results in a cascade of molecules pouring to the site to heal the tissue. But the molecules, working quickly to close the wound, often go too far and bind the wound to nearby healthy tissue. Depending on the location, the resulting scar tissue can cause chronic pain, bowel obstruction and even death.

There may be a potential solution available soon, according to researchers from Southern Medical University in China. They have developed an injectable hydrogel that can plug up wounds without sticking to off target tissue, effectively preventing postoperative adhesions.

Their approach, tested in rats and rabbits, was published on Nov. 18 in Advanced Functional Materials.

According to paper author Yaobin Wu, associate professor, Guangdong Engineering Research Center for Translation of Medical 3D Printing Application, Southern Medical University in China, many antiadhesive barriers are hydrogels inspired by mussels, marine animals that can adhere to strongly to other materials. Hydrogels can bond to wet tissue and are typically designed as double-sided adhesive materials, which increases the risk of postoperative adhesions. A class of hydrogels are asymmetric, with only one adhesive side, which reduces the risk of adhesions, but their preparation method makes them uninjectable and unsuitable for laparoscopic surgery, Wu said.
weatheriscool
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Easy-to-take medicine better at suppressing HIV in children
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12- ... ldren.html
by University College London
A once-a-day antiretroviral medicine that is low-cost and easy for children to take is also more effective at suppressing HIV than standard treatments, according to a global trial led by researchers at UCL.

The study, published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, found that dolutegravir-based regimens, which are already widely used to treat adults, reduced the chances of treatment failure among young people aged 3 to 18 by around 40% compared to standard treatments.

The findings were based on a randomized controlled trial called ODYSSEY involving more than 700 children from 29 clinical centers in Africa, Europe and Asia, who were randomly given either dolutegravir or standard anti-HIV drugs, and who were followed up for at least two years.
weatheriscool
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Research team demonstrates MRI scan in an ambulance
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01- ... lance.html
by Medical University of South Carolina

Minutes matter when the brain is being deprived of oxygen.

Doctors at MUSC Health's Comprehensive Stroke Center constantly work with their community hospital colleagues on initiatives to cut down the steps that need to happen between the time a stroke patient is wheeled through the ambulance bay until treatment can begin—for example, by developing a TeleEMS program so emergency medical technicians can consult with stroke specialists while inside a patient's home or the back of the ambulance.

Some things still need to happen at the hospital before treatment can begin, though, like scans of the brain to confirm a stroke and determine what type it is.

But a neuroradiologist with her eyes on the stars wondered if a new portable MRI that she hopes to use in space might also be of use to patients in rural areas of South Carolina.

"I realized that if you have a scanner that can be used in extreme environments such as space, it can also be very useful for patients here on Earth," said Donna Roberts, M.D., who studies how zero gravity and microgravity affect astronauts' brains.

To that end, she got together with Christine Holmstedt, D.O., medical director of the Comprehensive Stroke Center; Sami Al Kasab, M.D., associate medical director of the MUSC Health Teleneuroscience Program; and Michael Haschker, manager of telehealth technologies in the MUSC Health Center for Telehealth, to test the idea.
weatheriscool
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Custom finger clip offers a new way to measure blood pressure, other vitals
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01- ... itals.html
by University of Missouri
Monitoring a person's blood pressure on a regular basis can help health care professionals with early detection of various health problems such as high blood pressure, which has no warning signs or symptoms. However, many things can alter an accurate blood pressure reading, including a patient's nervousness about having their blood pressure taken at a doctor's office, otherwise known as "white coat syndrome."

Now, researchers at the University of Missouri are customizing a commercial finger clip device to provide a rapid, noninvasive way for measuring and continually monitoring blood pressure. The device can also simultaneously measure four additional vital signs—heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, body temperature and respiratory rate, said Richard Byfield, a mechanical and aerospace engineering graduate student in the MU College of Engineering, and the lead author on the study.
weatheriscool
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Autism screenings in early intervention services can increase diagnoses by 60 percent
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01- ... rcent.html
by Boston University School of Medicine

Implementing a multi-stage screening process for autism spectrum disorder in early intervention settings may lead to a significant increase in ASD detection compared to standard care, particularly among Spanish-speaking children.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) typically develops in children before age 3, but less than half of children are accurately diagnosed with ASD before age 4. Although pediatric advocates recommend that children at risk of ASD receive screening through early intervention (EI) services provided by states, the program often lacks effective screening tools to detect and diagnose this disorder.

Now, a new study led by a Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researcher found that implementing a multi-stage screening protocol for ASD in early intervention services may lead to a 60 percent increase in ASD detection, compared to standard screening.

Published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, the study also underscored the importance of monitoring for disparities in ASD. The increased rate of ASD detection was nearly twice as high for Spanish-speaking families as for non-Spanish-speaking families, helping to reduce a well-documented health disparity.

The study is the first comprehensive evaluation of ASD screening in EI settings and includes comparison with non-screened EI settings. Unlike standard approaches to screening, which are often limited to providing questionnaires for parents, the multi-component screening protocol in this study includes input from parents and EI providers in the decision-making process for a child's ASD diagnosis, as well as training for EI providers and ongoing collaboration between the EI providers and the EI sites' program directors and research assistants.
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Researchers develop a method that gives enzymes the ability to catalyze new-to-nature reactions
https://phys.org/news/2022-01-method-en ... ature.html
by Sonia Fernandez, University of California - Santa Barbara

Enzymes are biology's catalytic workhorses, binding molecules together, splitting them apart and reconfiguring them in processes vital to everything from digestion to breathing. Their availability, efficiency and specificity have long made them popular for reactions outside biological systems as well, including those involved in food preservation, detergents and disease diagnostics.

"Enzymes are nature's privileged catalysts," said UC Santa Barbara assistant professor of chemistry Yang Yang. "They can catalyze reactions with amazing selectivity." Efforts over the past three decades have also resulted in the development of customized enzymes—enzymes rapidly evolved for directed purposes, to interact with specific molecules, resulting in a high yield of desired products with unparalleled selectivities.

However, Yang added, the reactions that enzymes can allow for are relatively limited—a somewhat small repertoire for their powerful ability to efficiently make products at lower material, energy and environmental costs.

To bridge that gap and merge the best of both worlds—versatility and selectivity—Yang and his research team have developed a method by which certain enzymes can be coaxed into facilitating useful reactions that were never previously observed in the biological world, thereby widening their repertoire and opening possibilities for processes never before conducted by enzymes.
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Anxiety and PTSD linked to increased myelin in brain's gray matter
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-01- ... brain.html
by University of California - Berkeley
A recent study links anxiety behavior in rats, as well as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in military veterans, to increased myelin—a substance that expedites communication between neurons—in areas of the brain associated with emotions and memory.

The results, reported by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, and UC San Francisco (UCSF), provide a possible explanation for why some people are resilient and others vulnerable to traumatic stress, and for the varied symptoms—avoidance behavior, anxiety and fear, for example—triggered by the memory of such stress.
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To know is essentially the same as not knowing. The only thing that occurs is the rearrangement of atoms in your brain.
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