Culture
Research into Alzheimer's disease has long focused on understanding the role of two key proteins, beta amyloid and the tau protein. Found in tangles in patients' brain tissue, a pathological form of the tau protein contributes to propagating the disease in the brain.
In new research from their joint laboratory, Judith Steen, PhD, and Hanno Steen, PhD show for the first time that this pathological tau protein changes its forms over time, which could mean it will take multiple drugs to target it effectively.
New Haven, Conn. -- A drug once used to treat high blood pressure can help alcoholics with withdrawal symptoms reduce or eliminate their drinking, Yale University researchers report Nov. 19 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
In a double-blind study, researchers gave the drug prazosin or a placebo to 100 people entering outpatient treatment after being diagnosed with alcohol use disorder. All of the patients had experienced varying degrees of withdrawal symptoms prior to entering treatment.
Montréal and Québec City, November 19, 2020 - Using the Advanced Laser Light Source (ALLS) facility, the research team of Professor François Légaré of the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) has pushed back the boundaries of high-energy pulse propagation in a nonlinear medium through the observation of high-energy multidimensional solitary states (MDSS). This breakthrough allows the direct generation of extremely short and intense, laser pulses that are highly-stable in time and space. The results of this work were published in Nature Photonics.
Implicit racial attitudes within a community can effectively explain racial disparities seen in rates of COVID-19 in the United States, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by George Cunningham and Lisa Wigfall of Texas A&M University, USA.
Inspired by muscle-powered acceleration in biological jumpers, scientists have designed an elastic-driven strong contractile hydrogel that works by storing and releasing elastic potential energy in a polymer network.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a molecule that protects mice from brain infections caused by Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV), a mosquito-borne virus notorious for causing fast-spreading, deadly outbreaks in Mexico, Central America and northern South America. As the climate changes, the virus is likely to expand its range and threaten more countries in the Americas, including the U.S.
Skoltech researchers and their colleagues from Russia, the US, and Sweden have described an unusual RNA polymerase that helps a poorly studied crAss-like bacteriophage transcribe its genes. They "caught" this enzyme by a tiny -- less than 3% of its size -- portion of the amino acid sequence that was similar to other RNA polymerases. The paper detailing the discovery has been published in the journal Nature.
BOSTON (Nov. 18, 2020, 2:00 p.m. ET)--Researchers at Tufts University School of Medicine have discovered a molecular mechanism that causes a "traffic jam" of enzymes traveling up and down neuronal axons, leading to the accumulation of amyloid beta - a key feature and cause of Alzheimer's disease. The enzyme, BACE1, gets backed up, causing the axons to clog and swell because of the increased production of the toxic amyloid protein.
A high concentration of salt or sugar in the environment will dehydrate microorganisms and stop them from growing. To counter this, bacteria can increase their internal solute concentration. Scientists from the University of Groningen elucidated the structure of a transport protein OpuA, that imports glycine betaine to counter osmotic stress. The protein belongs to the well-known family of ABC transporters, but it has a unique structure and working mechanism. The results were published in Science Advances on 18 November.
For many years, investigators have been trying to pin down the tantalizing connection between vitamin D and cancer. Epidemiological studies have found that people who live near the equator, where exposure to sunlight produces more vitamin D, have lower incidence and death rates from certain cancers. In cancer cells in the lab and in mouse models, vitamin D has also been found to slow cancer progression. But the results of randomized clinical trials in humans haven't yielded a clear answer.
Human females have two X chromosomes, and males only one. This chromosome imbalance also extends to other branches of the animal kingdom. Interestingly, the humble fruit fly has devised a different way to "equalize" these differences. Whereas human and mouse females shut down one of their X chromosomes, in fruit flies it instead the male doing the work.
In 2004, scientists with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer spotted an object unlike any they'd seen in our Milky Way Galaxy: a large, faint blob of gas that seemed to have a star at its center. In the ultraviolet wavelengths used by the satellite, the blob appeared blue -- though it doesn't actually emit light visible to the human eye -- and careful observations identified two thick rings within it, so the team nicknamed it the Blue Ring Nebula.
Lesbian, gay and bisexual -- or LGB -- people are more vulnerable to one of the fastest-growing health concerns in the country: dementia, according to new research from Michigan State University.
"Our study speaks to the unaddressed questions about whether members the LGB community are more likely to develop cognitive impairment at older ages and, if so, what factors contribute to their poorer cognitive health, " said Ning Hsieh, an assistant professor of sociology at MSU and lead author of the study published in the journal, The Gerontologist.
That biofuels can contribute to a cleaner global energy mix is widely accepted, but the net benefits of bioenergy in terms of mitigating greenhouse gases (GHG) are moot. Some argue, for example, that biofuels are not sustainable because the conversion of non-agricultural land to grow energy crops could lead to a significant initial decrease in carbon storage, creating what is known as a "biofuel carbon debt".
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- Cigarette smoking causes more than 480,000 deaths each year in the United States, according to federal government data -- and some smokers find it nearly impossible to quit. Many of these smokers use regular, or combustible, cigarettes.
Physicians and scientists have for many years explored the health benefits and drawbacks of nicotine-based alternatives to cigarettes, and new research offers significant evidence that "pod" e-cigarettes are less damaging to health than traditional cigarettes.