TORONTO – An international research team led by Krembil Brain Institute Neurologist and Senior Scientist, Dr. Anthony Lang, has proposed a new model for classifying Parkinson’s disease (PD). In recent decades, researchers have uncovered several biological factors that underlie PD. Key factors include a build up of the protein α-synuclein in the brain, which leads to neuron degeneration, and genetic factors that increase one’s risk of developing the disease. They have also begun to develop reliable methods to test for these factors, called biomarkers, in living patients. Despite these advancements, ...

A team of international researchers, led by UC San Francisco, has completed the first large-scale study of posterior cortical atrophy, a baffling constellation of visuospatial symptoms that present as the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease. These symptoms occur in up to 10% of cases of Alzheimer’s disease. The study includes data from more than 1,000 patients at 36 sites in 16 countries. It publishes in the Lancet Neurology on Jan. 22, 2024.  Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) overwhelmingly ...

The importance of moth caterpillars for common garden birds has been revealed in a new study. Researchers found that years when moth numbers were up resulted in increased population growth for the blue tit. The results, derived from 23 years worth of bird and insect population data, are published today (Tuesday, 23 January) in Ecology Letters. Dr Luke Evans, of the University of Reading, led the research. He said: "Insect abundance directly impacts songbird numbers from year to year. When moth caterpillars are large in number, blue tit parents can easily find food for their demanding chicks. When moth numbers crash it gets much harder for birds to find enough insects and raise ...

MADISON, WI.-- Cleft lip and palate are the most common craniofacial birth defects in humans, affecting more than 175,000 newborns around the world each year. Yet despite decades of research, it’s still not known what causes most cases or what can be done to prevent them. But a recent study from the University of Wisconsin School of Veterinary Medicine (SVM) has uncovered new information about orofacial development in mice that researchers believe could one day help reduce the risk of these birth defects in humans. Published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ...

Critical Path Institute’s (C-Path) Translational Therapeutics Accelerator (TRxA) today announced its 2024 global Request for Proposals for its Breakthrough Research and Innovation in Drug Development Grants, also known as BRIDGe. These BRIDGe awards are designed to support academic researchers in traversing the drug development valley of death by providing funding and defining optimal strategies for advancing new, cutting-edge therapeutics from the lab to patients. Maaike Everts, Ph.D., Executive Director of C-Path’s TRxA, expressed her enthusiasm for this next cycle of awards, stating, “The impactful ...

AUSTIN, Texas — More than half of all melanoma diagnoses among white Americans may be overdiagnosed, according to a new study led by a researcher at Dell Medical School at the University of Texas at Austin. “Cases of cutaneous melanoma have risen significantly in the U.S. over the last 40 years, without an equivalent rise in mortality— which points to overdiagnosis,” said Ade Adamson, M.D., M.P.P., lead author of the study and an assistant professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at Dell Med. “Overdiagnosis happens when a melanoma is diagnosed that is actually harmless. That means the patient ...

Embargoed for release until 5:00 p.m. ET on Monday 22 January 2024   Annals of Internal Medicine Tip Sheet    @Annalsofim   Below please find summaries of new articles that will be published in the next issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. The summaries are not intended to substitute for the full articles as a source of information. This information is under strict embargo and by taking it into possession, media representatives are committing to the terms of the embargo not only on their own behalf, but also on behalf of the organization they represent.   ----------------------------   1. Older adults spend 3 weeks each year receiving ...

The study evaluated recent trends in primary care physicians’ (PCPs) electronic health record (EHR) workload. Prior to and early in the COVID-19 pandemic, PCPs spent more time in the EHR and received more messages than physicians in other specialties, but it is unclear if the pandemic further accelerated the growth of PCPs’ EHR workload. Researchers observed EHR usage of 141 academic PCPs practicing family medicine, internal medicine, and general pediatrics within the University of Wisconsin-Madison health system, which cares for nearly 300,000 primary care patients per year. This longitudinal study compared the amount of time participating ...

This study explored the perspectives of Black birthing people on how better communication with care teams may have improved their birth experiences. Researchers interviewed 30 non-Hispanic Black, English-language–proficient, low-income birthing people in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, area, all of whom were insured by Medicaid. All gave birth to preterm infants before 34 weeks gestation, or before 36 weeks gestation to birthing people with a modifiable risk factor such as high blood pressure. The interviews uncovered three main themes regarding the quality of communication with their care teams and the effect on their experiences: ...

Precarious employment, defined by temporary contracts, unstable employment, or job insecurity, is increasingly common and is associated with inconsistent access to health insurance, lower incomes, and greater exposure to physical hazards and psychological stress. A team of researchers in Toronto, Canada, created and tested a new three-question screening tool to help primary care clinics identify these patients. The screener included the following three questions: 1) non-standard employment (Are you currently employed in a casual, short-term, or temporary position?); 2) violations of occupational health ...

This study considers the perspectives of primary care physicians (PCPs) and urologists on what facilitates and what creates barriers to active surveillance (AS) care for men with low-risk prostate cancer. Researchers conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 19 PCPs (9 female, 4 in community practices, 15 in academic medical centers) and 15 urologists (3 female, 5 in private practice, 3 in academic medical centers) between June 2020 and March 2021. Their goal was to assess interviewees’ knowledge of AS, what factors they felt influence adherence to follow-up ...

This study explores patients’ experiences and perspectives on obtaining telemedicine medication abortions (TeleMAB) through their primary care health system. Researchers conducted in-depth phone interviews with 14 English, Spanish, and/or Portuguese-speaking patients, ranging in age from 26 to 42, who received a TeleMAB between July 2020 and December 2021 from a large primary care safety-net community health system in Massachusetts. Thirteen of the interviewees provided demographic information. All 13 identified as female, and 10 had children ...

Gabapentinoids are commonly prescribed for an array of off-label conditions, including management of chronic pain. Updating their 2015 report on gabapentinoid usage in the U.S., researchers used the 2002–2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS) to investigate the proportion of the adult population using gabapentinoids, medications, and diagnoses associated with users, and the likelihood of starting, stopping, or continuing gabapentinoids. They found that gabapentinoid use has increased from 4.0% in 2015 to 4.7% in 2021. ...

Researchers performed a meta-analysis of randomized trial studies that compared the use of amyloid-reducing monoclonal antibodies (MABs) in patients with Alzheimer dementia at a dose consistent with that used in Phase 3 or FDA approval trials with the use of a placebo. Their purpose was to evaluate clinically meaningful benefits and harms of MABs to these patients. For inclusion in this meta-analysis, the RCT studies had to include adult participants with cognitive impairment or Alzheimer disease of any severity and report at least one clinically relevant benefit or harm to participants after at least one year. The research team identified 19 such publications that evaluated ...

EHR Workload Continues to Grow for Primary Care Physicians The study evaluated recent trends in primary care physicians’ (PCPs) electronic health record (EHR) workload. Prior to and early in the COVID-19 pandemic, PCPs spent more time in the EHR and received more messages than physicians in other specialties, but it is unclear if the pandemic further accelerated the growth of PCPs’ EHR workload. Researchers observed EHR usage of 141 academic PCPs practicing family medicine, internal medicine, and general pediatrics within the University of Wisconsin-Madison health system, which ...

Researchers assessed the development and implementation of a quality improvement learning collaborative’s (QILC) intervention to link high-risk prenatal patients with primary care. The aims of the study were twofold: to identify any quantitative impact of the intervention on postpartum and primary care utilization for high-risk prenatal patients and to explore the Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) participants’ experiences of working with a QI collaborative. Using information from patients’ charts and/or ...

Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), the most common form of polycystic kidney disease, can lead to kidney enlargement and eventual loss of function. The disease affects more than 12 million people worldwide, and many patients end up needing dialysis or a kidney transplant by the time they reach their 60s. Researchers at MIT and Yale University School of Medicine have now found that a compound originally developed as a potential cancer treatment holds promise for treating ADPKD. The drug works by exploiting kidney cyst cells’ vulnerability to oxidative stress — a state ...

A new research perspective was published in Oncotarget's Volume 15 on January 16, 2024, entitled, “Bone marrow adipocytes provide early sign for progression from MGUS to multiple myeloma.” Multiple Myeloma (MM) is the second most common hematological malignancy and is characterized by clonal expansion of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow. In spite of recent advances in the field of MM, the disease has remained incurable. MM is preceded by a premalignant state known as monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS), with a risk of progression to MM of 1% per year. Establishing a scalable approach that refines ...

On January 3, 2024, Mikhail V. Blagosklonny M.D., Ph.D., from Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center published a new brief report in Oncoscience (Volume 11), entitled, “My battle with cancer. Part 1.” “In January 2023, diagnosed with numerous metastases of lung cancer in my brain, I felt that I must accomplish a mission. If everything happens for a reason, my cancer, in particular, I must find out how metastatic cancer can be treated with curative intent. This is my mission now, and the reason I was ever born. In January 2023, I understood the meaning of life, of my life. I was born to write this article. In this article, I argue that monotherapy with ...

In wave-making research recently published in Marine and Coastal Fisheries, a team of researchers, led by biologists at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, has quantified the rate at which great hammerhead sharks are eating Atlantic tarpon hooked by anglers at Bahia Honda, Florida—one of the prime tarpon fishing spots in the Florida Keys. Called the “depredation rate,” the team found that 15.3% of tarpon that were hooked by anglers and fought for more than five minutes were eaten while still on the line. But the researchers also show that this is not necessarily a sign that the ecosystem is out of balance. To the contrary, increased reports ...

Charles Darwin proposed that life could have emerged in a “warm little pond” with the right cocktail of chemicals and energy. A study from the University of Washington, published this month in Communications Earth & Environment, reports that a shallow “soda lake” in western Canada shows promise for matching those requirements. The findings provide new support that life could have emerged from lakes on the early Earth, roughly 4 billion years ago. Scientists have known that under ...

The exponential demand for high computing power is far exceeding the capabilities of current electronic systems; however, engineers at the University of Pittsburgh are shining a light on new solutions.  Nathan Youngblood, principal investigator and assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Pitt’s Swanson School of Engineering, received a $552,166 Faculty Early Career Development Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and a $449,240 award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) through its Young Investigator Program (YIP) to continue his pioneering work in phase-change materials and optical computing.  “Dr. ...

Milano, January 22nd 2024 – It is only a few centimeters in size and can be held between two fingers, but in the micro-channels carved inside it, it’s hidden a three-dimensional and highly faithful model of a biliary tract cancer called cholangiocarcinoma, complete with its tumor microenvironment. This 3D model is built starting from a sample of patient’s cancer cells and thus it represents a patient-specific "organ-on-chip": a technology made possible only through a multidisciplinary approach that merges biomedicine, physics and engineering. The innovative prototype is the result ...

More than 11 million people in the United States take anticoagulation or antiplatelet medications, such as heparin or aspirin, to treat serious conditions like heart attack and stroke. However, these medications also put patients at risk of life-threatening bleeding in the case of injury or during surgery. To improve strategies for reducing blood loss, a team led by investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, developed a porous material that maximizes blood absorption and effectively activates clotting mechanisms, even in patients on anticoagulation or ...

New biomarkers with improved diagnostic performance for early detection of lupus nephritis have been discovered in the University of Houston lab of Chandra Mohan, a pioneer in lupus research. Early identification of renal involvement in lupus and prompt treatment are essential in reducing the pain, suffering and eventual mortality it causes.    Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE), commonly called lupus, is an autoimmune disease that occurs when the body attacks its own tissues and organs. Inflammation from the disease can impact many different parts of the body including joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, brain and heart. Lupus nephritis is one ...