Culture
Researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) and their colleagues have determined a key factor as to why COVID-19 appears to infect and sicken adults and older people preferentially while seeming to spare younger children.
Children have lower levels of an enzyme/co-receptor that SARS-CoV-2, the RNA virus that causes COVID-19, needs to invade airway epithelial cells in the lung.
The findings, published today in the
Journal of Clinical Investigation, support efforts to block the enzyme to potentially treat or prevent COVID-19 in older people.
Given that phages are able to destroy bacteria, they are of particular interest to science. Basic researchers from the Leibniz-Forschungsinstitut für Molekulare Pharmakologie (FMP) in Berlin are especially interested in the tube used by phages to implant their DNA into bacteria. In collaboration with colleagues from Forschungszentrum Jülich and Jena University Hospital, they have now revealed the 3D structure of this crucial phage component in atomic resolution. The key to success was combining two methods - solid-state NMR and cryo-electron microscopy.
Embargoed until 12:10 p.m. CT/1:10 p.m. ET, Friday, Nov. 13, 2020
DALLAS, Nov. 13, 2020 -- Patients who were hospitalized with acute heart failure and had iron deficiency were less likely to return to the hospital if given intravenous iron replacement, according to late-breaking research presented today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2020. The virtual meeting is Friday, November 13 - Tuesday, November 17, 2020. It is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science for health care.
The rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib can block viral entry and reduce mortality in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, according to translational research by an international team coordinated by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, support the continuation of ongoing randomized clinical trials.
A clinical study involving 601 patients in Italy and Spain suggests that the JAK inhibitor drug baricitinib may enhance survival rates of patients with severe COVID-19, primarily by blunting the runaway immune inflammation known as "cytokine storm." While the authors are careful to note that their study was not a fully randomized trial with a placebo control group, the drug nonetheless had a notable effect, particularly in the Spanish treatment cohort, composed entirely of elderly patients over the age of 70.
The Barbegal watermills in southern France are a unique complex dating back to the 2nd century AD. The construction with 16 waterwheels is, as far as is known, the first attempt in Europe to build a machine complex on an industrial scale. The complex was created when the Roman Empire was at the height of its power. However, little is known about technological advances, particularly in the field of hydraulics, and the spread of knowledge at the time.
Melatonin is used as a dietary supplement to promote sleep and get over jet lag, but nobody really understands how it works in the brain. Now, researchers at UConn Health show that melatonin helps worms sleep, too, and they suspect they've identified what it does in us.
Our bodies produce melatonin in darkness. It's technically a hormone, but you can readily buy melatonin as a supplement in pharmacies, nutrition stores, and other retail shops. It's widely used by adults and often in children as well.
A type of arthritis drug may reduce the risk of dying for elderly patients with COVID-19.
This is the finding of a new international study, led by scientists at Imperial College London and the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, published in the journal Science Advances.
LOS ANGELES (Nov. 13, 2020) -- New research presented today at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions suggests neither vitamin D nor the omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil prevent the development of atrial fibrillation, a potentially serious heart rhythm disturbance.
Researchers from SWOG Cancer Research Network, a cancer clinical trials group funded by the National Cancer Institute's (NCI) Division of Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment (DCTD), part of the National Institutes of Health, have shown that the immunotherapy combination of ipilimumab and nivolumab shrinks rare angiosarcoma tumors in 25 percent of all patients, with some having an even stronger response to the drug combination.
Embargoed until 11:05 a.m. CT/12:05 p.m. ET, Friday, Nov. 13, 2020
It's a decision being made thousands of times over inside hospitals all around the country: is it time to place a patient struggling to breathe on a ventilator? For all of the attention ventilators have received during the COVID-19 pandemic, deciding when to place patients on them--and when to take them off--is complex. Michigan Medicine researchers have been investigating best practices for mechanical ventilation for years, never knowing how applicable their work would become.
BOSTON - A public health strategy that combines contact tracing and community-based screening with isolation and quarantine centers can substantially reduce infections, hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19 while being cost-effective in low-and-middle-income countries like South Africa, a study by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has found.
As almost any new parent will attest, the issue of infant sleep can be a nightmare. But the challenges and consequential health effects of infant sleep problems may, like so many other health disparities, disproportionately affect families of different racial/ethnic backgrounds and household socioeconomic statuses. A new study led in part by researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital takes a look at 24-hour sleep-wake cycles for infants across racial/ethnic and socioeconomic categories.