Body

Move over, murder hornets. There's a new bee killer in town.

CU Boulder researchers have found there is growing evidence that another "pandemic," as they call it, has been infecting bees around the world for the past two decades and is spreading: a fungal pathogen known as Nosema.

A new study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology shows that a University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) community outreach initiative has helped adolescents in Rochester adopt long-acting reversible contraception (LARC) at a rate far higher than the U.S. overall.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The lab of Jeremy Day, Ph.D., at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has used single-nucleus RNA sequencing approaches to compare transcriptional responses to acute cocaine in 16 unique cell populations from a portion of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, or NAc. This molecular atlas is "a previously unachieved level of cellular resolution for cocaine-mediated gene regulation in this region," said Day, an associate professor in the UAB Department of Neurobiology.

In one of the first studies addressing the role of sex hormones' impact on stem cells in the gut, scientists outline new insights showing how a steroidal sex hormone, that is structurally and functionally similar to human steroid hormones, drastically alters the way intestinal stem cells behave, ultimately affecting the overarching structure and function of this critical organ. The authors found that ecdysone, a steroid hormone produced by fruit flies, stimulates intestinal stem cell growth and causes the gut of the female fruit fly to grow in size, and induces other critical changes.

Scientists are ready to trial a new cancer vaccine in humans following the successful outcome of their preclinical studies.

The new vaccine was developed by a Mater Research team based at The Translational Research Institute in collaboration with The University of Queensland.

Lead Researcher Associate Professor Kristen Radford says the vaccine has the potential to treat a variety of blood cancers and malignancies and is a major breakthrough for cancer vaccinations.

Researchers at Kumamoto University, Japan have revealed that DNA methylation occurs in the gene that codes serotonin transporter (SERT), a protein that regulates neurotransmitter transmission, in schizophrenia and bipolar patients. Particularly prominent in males and patients with certain genetic polymorphisms, this methylation is inversely correlated with volume of the amygdala in the brain. This work is expected to lead to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

An experimental drug for a rare, inherited form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has shown promise in a phase 1/phase 2 clinical trial conducted at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and other sites around the world and sponsored by the pharmaceutical company Biogen Inc.

MINNEAPOLIS - A blood biomarker in people who have had concussions may be just as accurate at predicting the severity of the injury and how long it will last as biomarkers that are obtained through more expensive and invasive tests, according to a study published in the July 8, 2020, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

The study looked at a biomarker called neurofilament light chain, a nerve protein that can be detected in the blood and cerebrospinal fluid when nerve cells are injured or die.

A new study led by researchers at Boston Medical Center, in collaboration with Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, shows that value-based incentive programs aimed at reducing health care-associated infections did not improve infection rates in either safety-net or non-safety-net hospitals. Published in JAMA Network Open, these results also demonstrate persistent disparities between infection rates at safety-net and non-safety net hospitals, with higher rates of health care-associated infections in safety-net hospitals.

Scientists at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) in Phoenix, Arizona, have discovered previously unreported genetic and cellular changes that occur in the lungs of people with pulmonary fibrosis (PF).

Their findings, reported Wednesday, July 8, in the journal Science Advances, should aid the search for new ways to treat or prevent this devastating lung-scarring disease, they said.

The German Institute for Quality and Efficiency in Health Care (IQWiG) used an evidence map to investigate to what extent informative evidence exists on the benefit and harm of the diagnostic procedures "non-invasive computed tomography angiography" (CTA) and "stress MRI" in people with suspected coronary heart disease (CHD).

Asian longhorned ticks outside the U.S. can carry debilitating diseases. In the United States and elsewhere they can threaten livestock and pets. The new study, published in the journal Zoonoses and Public Health, sheds new light on the origin of these exotic ticks and how they are spreading across the United States.“While additional samples from the tick’s native range are needed to pinpoint more exactly the source of the U.S.

An important line of defence in the fight against the new corona virus SARS-CoV-2 is the formation of neutralising antibodies. These can eliminate the intruders and have great potential to be used for prevention and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection. A team of researchers led by Prof. Florian Klein (Cologne University Hospital) and the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF) has further elucidated how these antibodies develop and has isolated potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies.