Culture
People age in different ways. Biological age is a metric that scientists use to predict health risks, the relevance of which can be enhanced by combining different markers. Particularly important markers are frailty and the epigenetic clock, write researchers from Karolinska Institutet in a study published in eLife.
Biological age can differ from chronological age, and the idea of measuring biological age is that it can indicate health risks or the risk of early death - and thus hopefully provide new opportunities for preventative healthcare.
Therapeutic cancer vaccines were first developed 100 years ago and have remained broadly ineffective to date. Before tangible results can be achieved, two major obstacles must be overcome. Firstly, since tumor mutations are unique to each patient, cancer cell antigens must be targeted extremely precisely, which is very hard to achieve. Secondly, a safe system is needed to deliver the vaccine to the right location and achieve a strong and specific immune response.
Researchers at EPFL and MARVEL have developed a novel formulation that describes how heat spreads within crystalline materials. This can explain why and under which conditions heat propagation becomes fluid-like rather than diffusive. Their equations will make it easier to design next-generation electronic devices at the nanoscale, in which these phenomena can become prevalent.
When it comes to memory, immune cells are known as the "bad cops" of the brain. But new research shows they could also be turned into "good cops" to power memory and learning.
Inflammation can send the brain's immune cells into damaging hyperdrive, and this has been linked to neurodegenerative diseases that affect memory, like dementia.
In the new study, researchers at RMIT University found that these same immune cells - known as microglia - can also be activated to have the reverse effect.
The round goby, one of the most common invasive freshwater fish in the world, boasts a particularly robust immune system, which could be one of the reasons for its excellent adaptability. This is the result of genome research by an international team of biologists, coordinated at the University of Basel and published in the journal BMC Biology.
Rabies is still responsible for approximately 60,000 human deaths per year mostly in Asia and Africa and affects especially underserved people. Yet, since the first vaccine developed by Louis Pasteur more than 130 years ago, prophylactic measures have significantly improved. They are now composed of the vaccine allied to purified human or equine rabies immunoglobulins. However, these immunoglobulins are expensive and not easy to reach in developing settings.
Gesture and prosody (stress, rhythm and intonation) play an important role in the development of children's communication skills. Studies have traditionally focused rather on the role played by these elements in the early acquisition of lexical and morphosyntactic elements and less at older ages, when children use prosody and gesture to express pragmatic meanings such as politeness.
People's values of personal choice, su?h as their attitudes towards abortion, divorce, and premarital sex, are usually determined their level of education, age, religiosity, and social status. At least this is the case in many countries such as the US and those in Europe. In a recent study, sociologists from HSE University and Max Planck Institute found that in post-Soviet countries, personal values are most determined by people's level of patriotism.
Amsterdam, NL, February 11, 2020 - To better understand the relationship between physical activity and Parkinson's Disease (PD) investigators in Sweden analyzed medical records of nearly 200,000 long-distance skiers who took part in the Vasaloppet cross-country ski race. They established that a physically active lifestyle is associated with close to a 30% reduced risk for PD, which might be explained by a motor reserve among the physically active, however, this dissipates as individuals age.
Amsterdam, NL, February 12, 2020 - In order to provide the best medical care for newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, a method of predicting their cognitive and motor progression, beyond using purely clinical parameters, would have major implications for their management.
WASHINGTON (Feb. 11, 2020) -- Telehealth interventions are associated with improved obstetric outcomes, according to a review published from physician-researchers at the George Washington University. The article, published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology, presents a systematic review of studies on telehealth interventions that report health outcomes in selected areas in low-risk obstetrics, family planning, and gynecologic conditions.
Patients with lupus who take their medications as prescribed have much lower odds of developing type 2 diabetes, a common complication of the disease, finds a new study from the University of British Columbia.
In particular, those who consistently took antimalarial drugs like hydroxychloroquine had a 39 per cent lower risk compared to those who were less consistent.
A therapeutic intervention for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease, could be on the horizon thanks to unexpected findings by University of Arizona researchers.
ALS is the progressive degeneration of motor neurons that causes people to lose the ability to move and eventually speak, eat and breathe.
Within the neuronal cells of patients with ALS and other neurodegenerative diseases, two proteins - TDP-43 and FUS - are often found in bundles of molecular junk called aggregates, which can accumulate to deadly levels.
Macrophages are part of the innate immune system and essential for brain development and function. Using a novel method, scientists from Jena University Hospital, the University of Bonn and the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York (USA) succeeded in visualizing macrophages that were formed in the bone marrow. In studies on mice, this technology enabled the researchers to observe that shortly after a stroke, numerous macrophages that had migrated from the blood begin to attack dead and adjacent healthy brain tissue.
A new study published by The BMJ adds to evidence that rosiglitazone - a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes - is associated with increased risk of heart problems, especially heart failure.