Researchers find losartan is not effective in reducing hospitalization from mild COVID-19

Left hands and right hands are almost perfect mirror images of each other. But whatever way they are twisted and turned, they cannot be superimposed onto each other. This is why the left glove simply won't fit the right hand as well as it fits the left. In science, this property is referred to as chirality. Just like hands are chiral, molecules can be chiral, too. In fact, most molecules in the cells of living organisms, such as DNA, are chiral. Unlike hands, however, that usually come in pairs of left and right, the molecules of life almost exclusively occur in either their "left-handed" or their "right-handed" version. They are homochiral, as researchers say. Why that is, is still not clear. But ...

SAN ANTONIO (June 18, 2021) -- Researchers from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UT Health San Antonio) and colleagues worldwide describe a new science-based intervention for hiccups in a research letter published June 18 in the journal JAMA Network Open. In the publication, the scientists coined a new term for the intervention: the "forced inspiratory suction and swallow tool," or FISST. The team also reported the results of a survey of 249 users who were asked whether it is superior to hiccup home remedies such as breathing into ...

An international team led by researchers at Princeton University has uncovered a new pattern of ordering of electric charge in a novel superconducting material. The researchers discovered the new type of ordering in a material containing atoms arranged in a peculiar structure known as a kagome lattice. While researchers already understand how the electron's spin can produce magnetism, these new results provide insights into the fundamental understanding of another type of quantum order, namely, orbital magnetism, which addresses whether the charge can spontaneously flow in a loop and produce magnetism dominated by extended orbital motion of electrons in a lattice of atoms. Such orbital currents can produce unusual quantum ...

Cancer cells have an uncanny ability to evolve and adapt to overcome the treatments used against them. While patient survival has been extended by modern drugs that block the production or action of male hormones that fuel prostate cancer -- androgen receptor inhibitors such as enzalutamide, apalutamide, darolutamide, and abiraterone -- eventually these drugs stop working. At that point, a patient's disease is considered incurable, or what doctors call metastatic, castration-resistant prostate cancer. In a new study, a team of researchers led by Joshi Alumkal, M.D., who ...

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Will a reduction in tau protein in brain neurons protect against Parkinson's disease and Lewy body dementias? A new study, published in the journal eNeuro, suggests the answer is no. If this is borne out, that result differs from Alzheimer's disease, where reducing endogenous tau levels in brain neurons is protective for multiple models of the disease -- which further suggests that the role of tau in the pathogenesis of Lewy body dementias is distinct from Alzheimer's disease. Both Parkinson's disease dementia and Lewy body dementia are characterized by intracellular aggregates of misfolded alpha-synuclein protein in brain neurons, and the two diseases together are the second most common cause of neurodegenerative dementia after ...

Lake Victoria, which came under the spotlight in 2004 by the documentary "Darwin's nightmare", is not only suffering from the introduction and commercialisation of the Nile perch. A study lead researchers from the University of Liège (Belgium) has highlighted other worrying phenomena, particularly climatic ones, which have an equally important impact on the quality of the lake's waters. Located in East Africa, just south of the Equator, Lake Victoria is the source of the Nile and is the largest tropical lake in the world. With a surface area of 68,800 km² (twice the size of Belgium), it is considered to be one of the largest water and fishery resources in East Africa, supporting more than 47 million people in the three neighbor countries ...

Colorado State University Professor of Psychology Silvia Sara Canetto has spent many years researching patterns and meanings of suicide by culture, trying to make sense of the variability in women's and men's suicide mortality around the world. Suicide rates are generally higher in men than in women, but not everywhere - which suggests cultural influences. Canetto and colleagues have completed a new study that provides insight into what may contribute to men's suicide vulnerability. The study tests Canetto's theory that men's suicide mortality ...

Scientists at Sanford Burnham Prebys have gained a deeper insight into the intricacies of autophagy, the process in which cells degrade and recycle cellular components. The findings, published in Current Biology, describe how the "trash bags" in a cell--called autophagosomes--are tagged to direct their movement to the cellular "recycling plants" where waste is processed. The research opens new paths to understanding the relationship between autophagy and age-related diseases such as cancer and neurological disorders. "Our latest study identifies how a chemical modification (phosphate-related ...

Food has become one of the major challenges of the 21st century. According to a study carried out by CNRS scientists1, an organic, sustainable, biodiversity-friendly agro-food system, could be implemented in Europe and would allow a balanced coexistence between agriculture and the environment. The scenario proposed is based on three levers. The first would involve a change in diet, with less consumption of animal products, making it possible to limit intensive livestock farming and eliminate feed imports. The second lever would require the application of the principles of agroecology, with the generalization of long, diversified crop rotation systems2 incorporating nitrogen-fixing legumes, making it possible to do without synthetic nitrogen fertilizers and ...

What The Study Did: Researchers reviewed access to COVID-19 vaccination sites in Brooklyn, the most populated borough in New York, to better understand disparities in vaccination. Authors: Natasha Williams, Ed.D., M.P.H., of the New York University Grossman School of Medicine in New York, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.13937) Editor's Note: The article includes funding/support disclosures. Please see the article for additional information, including other authors, author contributions and affiliations, conflict of interest and financial disclosures, and funding and support. INFORMATION: Media advisory: The ...