Eurekalert

Base editing is a novel gene editing approach that can precisely change individual building blocks in a DNA sequence. By installing such a point mutation in a specific gene, an international research team led by the University of Zurich has succeeded in sustainably lowering high LDL cholesterol levels in the blood of mice and macaques. This opens up the possibility of curing patients with inherited metabolic liver diseases.

A pioneering new study led by UCL scientists has revealed, for the first time, a layer of genetic material involved in controlling the production of tau; a protein which plays a critical role in serious degenerative conditions, such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease.

The common skin disease atopic eczema (AE) impacts heavily on the life quality and general health of sufferers. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now evaluated its treatment with internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (iCBT). The study suggests that patients feel better after iCBT compared with a control group who received only traditional treatment. The results, which are published in JAMA Dermatology, might eventually make important care available to a large patient group.

A multidisciplinary team of researchers showed how the "batteries" of cells are highly implicated in whether patients with the chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome develop schizophrenia. The results of the study may eventually lead to targeted prevention and treatment strategies for patients with the condition.

What The Study Did: Racial and ethnic representation among departmental chairs and faculty in academic medicine in the United States from 1980 to 2019 was examined in this study.

What The Study Did: Clinical characteristics and outcomes of patients with multisystem inflammatory syndrome among adults with laboratory-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection at a single U.S. medical center are described in this study.

What The Study Did: SARS-CoV-2 seropositivity wasn't associated with low levels of vitamin D independently of other risk factors.

What The Study Did: This study looked at the use of consumer digital information for COVID-19 control U.S. adults consider to be acceptable and the factors associated with higher or lower approval of using this information.

What The Study Did: Registry data were used to examine the association between living in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area and long-term survival among patients who had their first heart attack at or before age 50.

What The Study Did: Researchers evaluated racial and ethnic diversity among obstetrics and gynecology, surgical and nonsurgical residents in the United States from 2014 to 2019.

Researchers found that even after adjusting for other health risk factors, neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with a 57 percent higher rate of cardiovascular mortality over an approximate 11-year follow-up period.

A new study by a Belgian team using data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope has shown that iron and nickel exist in the atmospheres of comets throughout our Solar System, even those far from the Sun. A separate study by a Polish team, who also used ESO data, reported that nickel vapor is also present in the icy interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. This is the first time heavy metals have been found in the cold atmospheres of distant comets.

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and affects more than 10 million people around the world. To better understand the origins of the disease, researchers from Penn State College of Medicine and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem have developed an integrative approach, combining experimental and computational methods, to understand how individual proteins may form harmful aggregates, or groupings, that are known to contribute to the development of the disease.

The amount of nutrients people get from the crops that they eat is a type of 'postcode lottery', according to new research that has analysed thousands of cereal grains and soils as part of a project to tackle hidden hunger in Malawi and Ethiopia.

Researchers design new experiments to map and test the mysterious quantum realm.

By the end of the first year of the pandemic in metropolitan Stockholm, investigators estimate that one-fifth of adults in the region previously had COVID-19. The findings, which are published in the Journal of Internal Medicine, come from analyses of anti-viral antibody responses in healthy blood donors and pregnant women.

Individuals are often prescribed increasing numbers of medications as they age, and while many of these prescriptions are justifiable, some may be inappropriate. A recent analysis published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology examined the results of all studies investigating associations between potentially inappropriate prescribing--which includes prescribing medications that may not produce benefits relative to harm and not prescribing medications that are recommended--and outcomes of older adults.

In an article published in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing, experts stress that the COVID-19 pandemic presents the "perfect storm" for family violence, where a set of rare circumstances have combined to aggravate intimate partner violence, domestic abuse, domestic violence, and child abuse.

The APP protein is known for its role in Alzheimer's disease, but its contribution to healthy brain function remains largely unexplored. Using a mouse model, a research team led by Heidelberg scientists gained new insights on the physiological functions of the APP protein family. The absence of APP during brain development was shown to result in malformations of brain regions implicated in learning and memory, severely impairing learning in the mice and causing autistic-like behaviour.

The rhythmic motions of hair-like cilia move liquids around cells or propel the cells themselves. In nature, cilia flap independently, and mimicking these movements with artificial materials requires complex mechanisms. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces have made artificial cilia that move in a wave-like fashion when a rotating magnetic field is applied, making them suitable for versatile, climbing soft robots and microfluidic devices.