Culture
Protein therapies are often more potent and selective toward their biochemical targets than other types of drugs, particularly small molecules. However, proteins are also more likely to be quickly degraded by enzymes or cleared from blood by the kidneys, which has limited their clinical use. Now, researchers reporting in ACS Central Science have engineered red blood cell (RBC) carriers that release therapeutic proteins when stimulated by light, with the help of a honey bee peptide.
In a study of older adults admitted to the hospital with influenza and other acute respiratory illnesses during the 2011-2012 flu season, functional decline was common--and for some, this decline was persistent and catastrophic. The findings are published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
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Medicine misuse is a public health issue, but the term has different meanings to people in different settings. A recent analysis of published studies provides a comprehensive overview of the terms and definitions used to characterize medicine misuse. The findings are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.
SAN ANTONIO - Early circulating tumor cell dynamics were associated with overall survival in patients with metastatic breast cancer, according to a meta-analysis presented at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 8-11.
SAN ANTONIO - A large meta-analysis of breast cancer survivors of childbearing age indicated that they are less likely than the general public to get pregnant, and they face higher risk of certain complications such as preterm labor. However, most survivors who do get pregnant deliver healthy babies and have no adverse effects on their long-term survival, according to data presented at the 2020 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium, held Dec. 8-11.
PORTLAND, Oregon | December 9, 2020 -- Across the North Pacific, salmon fisheries are struggling with climate variability, declining fish populations, and a lack of sustainable fishing opportunities. According to a study published today in BioScience from a team of Indigenous leaders and conservation scientists, help lies in revitalizing Indigenous fishing practices and learning from Indigenous systems of salmon management.
The observation of a chemical reaction at the molecular level in real-time is a central theme in experimental chemical physics. An international research team has captured roaming molecular fragments for the first time. The work, under the supervision of Heide Ibrahim, research associate at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), was published in the journal Science.
Scientists have produced a tomato enriched in the Parkinson's disease drug L-DOPA in what could become a new, affordable source of one of the world's essential medicines.
The development of the genetically modified (GM) tomato has implications for developing nations where access to pharmaceutical drugs is restricted.
This novel use of tomato plants as a natural source of L-DOPA also offers benefits for people who suffer adverse effects - including nausea and behavioral complications - of chemically synthesised L-DOPA .
Bacteria is all around us--not just in bathrooms or kitchen counters, but also inside our bodies, including in tumors, where microbiota often flourish. These "small ecologies" can hold the key to cancer drug therapies and learning more about them can help development new life-saving treatments.
Researchers have discovered a new superhighway network to travel through the Solar System much faster than was previously possible. Such routes can drive comets and asteroids near Jupiter to Neptune's distance in under a decade and to 100 astronomical units in less than a century. They could be used to send spacecraft to the far reaches of our planetary system relatively fast, and to monitor and understand near-Earth objects that might collide with our planet.
Membrane technology is widely used in various water treatment processes such as water desalination, sewage treatment, and advanced water treatment for producing clean tap water. The membrane filtration technology is a method that can significantly improve water quality and has been suggested as an alternative that can radically prevent larvae in the tap water that has become a widespread issue in Korea recently.
Despite their excellent auditory capacities, dogs do not attend to differences between words which differ only in one speech sound (e.g. dog vs dig), according to a new study by Hungarian researchers of the MTA-ELTE 'Lendület' Neuroethology of Communication Research Group at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (ELTE) measuring brain activity with non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) on awake dogs. This might be a reason why the number of words dogs learn to recognize typically remains very low throughout their life. The study is published in Royal Society Open Science.
Healthcare workers are 7 times as likely to have severe COVID-19 infection as those with other types of 'non-essential' jobs, finds research focusing on the first UK-wide lockdown and published online in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine.
And those with jobs in the social care and transport sectors are twice as likely to do so, emphasising the need to ensure that essential (key) workers are adequately protected against the infection, say the researchers.
The prevalence of depressive symptoms rose substantially among young children during the UK-wide lockdown in response to the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic, finds research focusing on one region of England and published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.
The effect size was medium to large, indicate the findings, which have implications for future partial or complete school closures, suggest the researchers.
A decade after the birth of the first primates born with the aid of a gene therapy technique designed to prevent inherited mitochondrial disease, a careful study of the monkeys and their offspring reveals no adverse health effects.
Led by scientists at Oregon Health & Science University, the study published Dec. 8 in the journal Human Reproduction.