A new screening method that can test the effectiveness of therapeutic molecules designed to 'glue' proteins together in the body has been developed by researchers at the University of Birmingham and the University of Leicester. The research paves the way for drug developers to screen large numbers of potential new drug compounds to discover new treatments for diseases such as breast cancer and Parkinson's disease. The ways in which proteins interact with each other are fundamental to all cell functions. These interactions underpin every function of a healthy body, with any slight change in these interactions resulting in disease. A handful ...

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have identified rare genetic variants - carried by one in 3,000 people - that have a larger impact on the risk of developing type 2 diabetes than any previously identified genetic effect. Type 2 diabetes is thought to be driven in part by inherited genetic factors, but many of these genes are yet unknown. Previous large-scale studies have depended on efficient 'array genotyping' methods to measure genetic variations across the whole genome. This approach typically does a good job at capturing the common genetic differences between people, though individually these each confer only small increases in diabetes ...

DALLAS, July 7, 2021 -- Myocarditis in children is a rare yet challenging condition to treat. Diagnosis and treatment includes multiple options, and many cases of myocarditis resolve on their own, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association, "Diagnosis and Management of Myocarditis in Children," published today in Circulation, the Association's flagship journal. The scientific statement writing group reviewed the latest research to develop guidance in diagnosis and treatment for myocarditis in children. Myocarditis is inflammation of the middle layer of the wall of the heart muscle, the myocardium, and it ...

The newly developed method lets researchers rapidly and accurately measure stress hormones in snow leopards without the need for bulky equipment or specialised knowledge. It uses widely available equipment that can be carried into the field, allowing hormone extraction from faecal samples and analysis to be done on site. This differs from existing approaches to hormone monitoring in wild animals, where faecal samples must be taken to laboratories for hormone extraction and analysis. These approaches are particularly limiting in remote locations, such as the Himalayas. "Because conventional hormone monitoring methods require frozen and refrigerated chemical reagents, and laboratory equipment, it is almost impossible to use them on-site." explained ...

CLEVELAND, Ohio (July 7, 2021)--Estrogen has been thought to play a role in a woman's risk of developing Alzheimer disease (AD). A new study has taken a different approach to identifying risk factors for AD by examining the association between a woman's reproductive life span as an indicator of endogenous estrogen exposure and levels of cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers. Study results are published online in Menopause, the journal of The North American Menopause Society (NAMS). Alzheimer disease represents 60% to 70% of all dementia diagnoses, making it the most common form of dementia. Approximately ...

A new study in the Journal of the European Economic Association, published by Oxford University Press, finds that electoral districts with a larger gender pay gaps show favoritism toward male political candidates in Parliamentary elections, with fewer female candidates on the ballot. The researchers here gathered data for seven parliamentary elections in France between 1988 and 2017. Researchers studied candidates from the Left and Right political coalitions, which account for 80% of elected members of Parliament. The researchers consulted administrative and web data on candidates and electoral outcomes, survey data on ...

Oncotarget published "Association between miRNA signatures in serum samples from epidermal growth factor inhibitor treated patients and skin toxicity" which reported that on average 70% of patients treated with EGFRIs suffer from skin toxicity. Studies showed a correlation between overall survival and the appearance of a skin rash, which is used as a biomarker for therapy efficacy. In this study, the authors searched for associations of miRNA expression profiles in serum, with the severity of skin rash, in order to identify tentative therapy predictive biomarkers. In this cohort of patients treated with EGFR inhibiting monoclonal antibodies, miR-21 and miR-520e serum concentrations were negatively correlated with severity of skin rash whereas for miR-31, a positive correlation was ...

A research team consisting of Tsutomu Kobayashi, Ichiro Hasuo, Fuyuki Ishikawa, and Shinya Katsumata at the National Institute of Informatics (NII, Japan) and Rick Salay and Krzysztof Czarnecki at University of Waterloo (Canada) developed a method that automatically transforms models of controller software into models that satisfy safety requirements even when there is uncertainty in sensing the state of the environment. In addition to the transformation, the method generates formulas that represent the degree of uncertainty that the controller software can tolerate. The method can be applied to various controller systems that interact with the external environment, ...

In the line-up of wild African fruits, the marula is the best known. For thousands of years, people have depended on the trees for food, medicines, and more. It is also exported globally as the rockstar ingredient of a cream liqueur. The fruit is a success story far beyond the savannas and bushveld where the trees grow. But there is a whole choir of other wild, indigenous fruits in Southern Africa. And some exceed daily nutritional values recommended by the WHO and others. Research from the University of Johannesburg uncovers a variety of building blocks for protein in the fruit of 14 species. Several are analyzed for ...

Coastal communities across the world are increasingly facing up to the huge threats posed by a combination of extreme storms and predicted rises in sea levels as a result of global climate change. However, scientists at the University of Plymouth have developed a simple algorithm-based model which accurately predicts how coastlines could be affected and - as a result - enables communities to identify the actions they might need to take in order to adapt. The Forecasting Coastal Evolution (ForCE) model has the potential to be a game-changing advance in coastal evolution science, allowing adaptations in the shoreline to be predicted over timescales of anything from days to decades and beyond. This broad range of timescales means that the model is capable of predicting ...

Philadelphia, July 7, 2021 - Tourette syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder, causes motor and phonic "tics" or uncontrollable repeated behaviors and vocalizations. People affected by Tourette syndrome can often suppress these tics for some time before the urges become overwhelming, and researchers have long wondered at the neural underpinnings of the suppression effort. Now, in a new study using a non-invasive technique to measure brain activity called high-density electroencephalography (hdEEG), researchers at Yale School of Medicine have assessed the impact of tic suppression on functional ...

Frailty is a better predictor than factors such as age when determining how older adults fare one year after receiving critical care. A team led by researchers from the University of Waterloo analyzed data from more than 24,000 community-dwelling older adults receiving home care in Ontario who were subsequently admitted into an intensive-care unit (ICU). They applied three different measures for baseline frailty and found that an individual's level of frailty was linked to survival one year later. The most frail ICU survivors had only a one in five chance of living to one year after discharge. Clinical frailty is age-related and characterized ...

The UK public is likely to take the COVID-19 pandemic less seriously once restrictions are lifted, according to new research led by Cardiff University. Psychologists found lockdown in itself was a primary reason why so many people were willing to abide by the rules from the start - believing the threat must be severe if the government imposes such drastic measures. The team from Cardiff and the universities of Bath and Essex examined the reasons behind headline polling support for COVID-19 measures. They carried out two UK surveys*, six months apart, during 2020. Their findings are published today in the journal Royal Society Open Science. Lead author Dr Colin Foad said: "Surprisingly, we found that people judge the severity ...

An unknown methane-producing process is likely at work in the hidden ocean beneath the icy shell of Saturn's moon Enceladus, suggests a new study published in Nature Astronomy by scientists at the University of Arizona and Paris Sciences & Lettres University. Giant water plumes erupting from Enceladus have long fascinated scientists and the public alike, inspiring research and speculation about the vast ocean that is believed to be sandwiched between the moon's rocky core and its icy shell. Flying through the plumes and sampling their chemical makeup, the Cassini spacecraft detected a relatively high concentration of certain molecules associated with hydrothermal vents on the bottom of Earth's oceans, specifically dihydrogen, ...

Using artificial intelligence, UT Southwestern scientists have identified thousands of genetic mutations likely to affect the immune system in mice. The work is part of one Nobel laureate's quest to find virtually all such variations in mammals. "This study identifies 101 novel gene candidates with greater than 95% chance of being required for immunity," says END ...

Five Simon Fraser University scholars are among international scientists sounding an alarm over the "pervasive social and ecological consequences" of the destruction and suppression of the knowledge systems of Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Their paper, published today in the Journal of Ethnobiology, draws on the knowledge of 30 international Indigenous and non-Indigenous co-authors, and highlights 15 strategic actions to support the efforts of Indigenous Peoples and local communities in sustaining their knowledge systems and ties to lands. Study co-lead, SFU archaeology professor Dana Lepofsky, says, "We ...

AMHERST, Mass. - Researchers at the University of Massachusetts Amherst recently discovered that the ability of agricultural grasses to withstand drought is directly related to the health of the microbial community living on their stems, leaves and seeds. "Microbes do an enormous amount for the grasses that drive the world's agriculture," says Emily Bechtold, a graduate student in UMass Amherst's microbiology department and lead author of the paper recently published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. "They protect from pathogens, provide the grass with nutrients such as nitrogen, supply hormones to bolster the plant's health and growth, protect from UV radiation ...

Veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, have found that a cat's DNA alters how it responds to a life-saving medication used to treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, a heart disease that affects 1 in 7 cats. The END ...

A new national study published in Psychiatric Services finds that over a quarter of US adults with depression or anxiety symptoms reported needing mental health counseling but were not able to access it during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers analyzed data from nearly 70,000 adults surveyed in the US Census Household Pulse Survey in December 2020. "Social isolation, COVID-related anxiety, disruptions in normal routines, job loss, and food insecurity have led to a surge in mental illness during the pandemic," said lead author, END ...

Des Plaines, IL - The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM) is pleased to announce the release of the first publication in a series of Guidelines for Reasonable and Appropriate Care in the Emergency Department (GRACE), which focuses on low-risk chest pain. The article, titled " END ...

People who receive mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are up to 91 percent less likely to develop the disease than those who are unvaccinated, according to a new nationwide study of eight sites, including Salt Lake City. For those few vaccinated people who do still get an infection, or "breakthrough" cases, the study suggests that vaccines reduce the severity of COVID-19 symptoms and shorten its duration. Researchers say these results are among the first to show that mRNA vaccination benefits even those individuals who experience breakthrough infections. "One of the unique things about this study is that it measured the secondary benefits of the vaccine," says END ...

When traffic is clogged at a downtown intersection, there may be a way to reduce some of the congestion: Eliminate a few left turns. According to Vikash Gayah, associate professor of civil engineering at Penn State, well-placed left-turn restrictions in certain busy intersections could loosen many of the bottlenecks that hamper traffic efficiency. He recently created a new method that could help cities identify where to restrict these turns to improve overall traffic flow. "We have all experienced that feeling of getting stuck waiting to make a left turn," Gayah said. "And ...

Using simple blood tests could help researchers identify children who have been misidentified as having severe malaria, according to a study published today in eLife. Researchers are working to develop better ways to treat severe malaria, which kills about 400,000 children in Africa each year. The discovery could help expedite such research by helping them more accurately identify children with severe malaria. It also reinforces the importance of the World Health Organization's recommendation that all children being treated for severe malaria also receive antibiotics to ensure any misdiagnosed children receive life-saving care. Diagnosing severe malaria in children in Africa is challenging because the ...

HOUSTON - (July 6, 2021) - A small fungal enzyme could play a significant role in simplifying the development and manufacture of drugs, according to Rice University scientists. The Rice lab of chemical and biomolecular engineer Xue Sherry Gao and collaborators isolated a biocatalyst known as CtdE after identifying it as the natural mechanism that controls the chirality -- the left- or right-handedness -- of compounds produced by the native fungal host. The open-access study appears in Nature Communications. Two chiral things are, like hands, alike in structure but cannot perfectly ...

Researchers from HSE University and Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences have discovered how the theta rhythm of the brain and the gender differences in attitudes to risk are linked. In an article published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, the researchers addressed which processes can be explained by knowing this connection. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnins.2021.608699/full By transmitting signals, the brain's neurons generate electromagnetic fields. The multiplicity of neurons makes these fields strong enough to be recorded on the surface of the head using magneto- and electroencephalography techniques. ...