General anesthesia evokes a dual mystery: How does it disrupt consciousness, including sensory perception, and what might that say about the nature of consciousness. A new study led by researchers at The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT provides evidence in animals that consciousness depends on properly synchronized communication across the brain’s cortex and that the anesthetic drug propofol cancels sensory processing by cutting it off. In the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, researchers report clear evidence that in anesthetized animals, ...

Genetic information collected from seemingly healthy tissue near lung tumors may be a better predictor of whether cancer will come back after treatment than analysis of the tumors themselves, according to new research led by NYU Langone Health and its Perlmutter Cancer Center. The new study focuses on lung adenocarcinoma, a cancer that forms in alveolar epithelial cells and accounts for about a third of all lung cancers in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most patients are cured if tumors are surgically removed early in the disease’s progression, but residual ...

UCLA scientists have developed a new method to engineer more powerful immune cells that can potentially be used for “off-the-shelf” cell therapy to treat challenging cancers. “Off-the-shelf” cell therapy, also known as allogenic therapy, uses immune cells derived from healthy donors instead of patients. The approach can bring cell therapies, like chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy, to more patients in a timelier manner, which is one of the major barriers in getting these life-saving treatments to patients. “Time is often of the essence when it comes to treating people with advanced cancers,” said Lili Yang, associate professor ...

A research team in Japan, led by Nagoya University’s Akira Yokoi, has developed an innovative technique using cellulose nanofiber (CNF) sheets derived from wood cellulose to capture extracellular vesicles (EVs) from fluid samples and even organs during surgery. EVs are small structures from cancerous cells that play a crucial role in cell-to-cell communication. Extracting and analyzing EVs using this new technology has the potential to revolutionize early cancer diagnosis and open the door to personalized medicine. The researchers published their findings in Nature Communications.  Cancer is notorious for its poor prognosis and in many cases goes undetected until its ...

Results from a new clinical trial suggest that a group of brain regions known as the “salience network” is activated after a drug is taken intravenously, but not when that same drug is taken orally. When drugs enter the brain quickly, such as through injection or smoking, they are more addictive than when they enter the brain more slowly, such as when they are taken orally. However, the brain circuits underlying these differences are not well understood. This study offers new information that helps explain what may be causing this difference. The study was published in Nature Communications and led by researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and the National ...

The last 40 years have witnessed a deep transformation in our views of animal development. From seeing development a multicellular black box where over time a mass of cells acquires shape to form organs and tissues, we now have a detailed account of this process in terms of gene expression, multicellular activity, and morphogenesis.  This new point of view has raised questions about the relationships between genes, cells, and organisms. These questions are impacting our thinking about evolution, ...

Buprenorphine is a medication approved for pain and opioid dependence. New findings published in The American Journal on Addictions indicate that a transmucosal dose (which dissolves in the mouth) of buprenorphine followed by an injection of extended-release buprenorphine (BUP‐XR) may be an effective treatment for individuals with opioid use disorder who use fentanyl. The results come from a recent secondary analysis of an open-label study in which 24 participants received a single 4 mg dose of transmucosal buprenorphine followed by an injection ...

In an analysis of published prospective studies of people of all ages with confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection who were followed for at least 12 months, pre-existing allergic conditions were linked to higher risks of experiencing long-term symptoms associated with COVID-19, or Long-COVID.   The analysis, which is published in Clinical & Experimental Allergy, identified 13 relevant studies (with a total of 9,967 participants) published between January 1, 2020 and January 19, 2023. Although the data as a whole from the studies suggested that individuals with asthma or rhinitis might be at increased risk of Long-COVID after SARS-CoV-2 ...

In an analysis published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society that included older US women, caregiving was associated with a lower risk of death over an average follow-up of 17.5 years. In the analysis of 158,987 women aged 50–79 years when enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative (a long-term national health study), 31.8% of women died during follow-up, and women who reported being a caregiver over 2 assessments 10 years apart had a 9% lower risk of dying from any cause compared with non-caregivers. Caregiving was also associated with lower risks of death from cardiovascular disease ...

A systematic review that analyzed the results of published studies concluded that school-based law enforcement (SBLE)—having sworn law enforcement officers stationed in schools on at least a part-time basis—is likely ineffective for keeping schools safe, and it may even have detrimental consequences. The research, which is published in Campbell Systematic Reviews, included 32 studies that examined the relationship between SBLE presence and school-related outcomes including crime and behavior problems, perceptions of school, and student learning. The studies compared outcomes in schools with SBLE to those without SBLE, ...

Previous research has identified genetic variants associated with insomnia and sleep duration in adults. Now a study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry has found that these variants also likely affect sleep quality and quantity in children. In the study of 2,458 children of European ancestry, children who were genetically predisposed to insomnia (based on a polygenic risk score developed for adults) had more insomnia-like sleep problems such as frequent awakenings or difficulty initiating sleep, as reported ...

In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience Research, psychological assessments indicated that people who regularly use cannabis, or marijuana, tend to have a greater understanding of the emotions of others. Brain imaging tests also revealed that cannabis users’ anterior cingulate—a region generally affected by cannabis use and related to empathy—had stronger connectivity with brain regions related to sensing the emotional states of others within one’s own body. The study included ...

Wildlife management decisions and practices face increasing ethical scrutiny. In research published in the Journal of Wildlife Management, investigators have developed a framework for incorporating ethical considerations into decisions in a systematic way. The framework includes 3 domains: moral theory, which focuses on consequences and outcomes; principle- and rule-based approaches that deal with what is considered right or wrong; and virtue ethical therapy, which considers factors such as character, virtue, and aesthetics. Wildlife ...

From a seasonal cold to a stomach bug, nobody likes catching a virus — and epidemics can be devastating. We need safe, sustainable antiviral options to treat the outbreaks of the future. Scientists in Finland have now shown that an extract of willow bark — a plant which has already provided several medicines, including the precursor to modern aspirin — has a broad-spectrum antiviral effect in cell sample experiments. The extract worked both on enveloped coronaviruses, which cause colds as well as Covid-19, and non-enveloped enteroviruses, which cause infections such as flu and meningitis. There are no clinically approved drugs which work against enteroviruses directly, ...

The trend among younger children to frequently drink caffeinated soda may indicate higher risk of alcohol consumption in the future, new research suggests.   In a study of over 2,000 US children, aged between just nine to ten, those who reported drinking caffeinated soda daily, were found a year later twice as likely to state they had sipped alcohol. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Substance Use & Misuse, the results of the study also demonstrate that daily drinkers of caffeinated soda were more impulsive and have a poorer working memory. Each of the findings took into consideration other factors such as family history of drug use and low parental ...

WASHINGTON — Reducing health disparities in incidence and mortality for major types of cancers can be aided by sophisticated computer modeling efforts, according to new, wide-ranging perspectives from researchers at Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues around the country. The collection of articles appears in the November 8, 2023, special issue of JNCI and are devoted to outlining a path forward in cancer disparities modeling.   The issue was edited by Georgetown Lombardi’s Jeanne ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. – Analyses of U.S. national forests led by Oregon State University scientists shows that increased protections for two Alaskan forests is a key to meeting climate and biodiversity goals. In a paper published in AGU Advances, OSU College of Forestry researchers make the case that greater conservation efforts in the Tongass and Chugach national forests in southern Alaska are crucial because of their landscape integrity, high carbon stocks and wildlife habitat extent. “More thoroughly safeguarding those forests ...

PRESS RELEASE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE AND FORESTRY ENGLAND EMBARGOED UNTIL 00:01 GMT/LONDON TIME ON WEDNESDAY 8 NOVEMBER 2023 A copy of the paper is available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oj1uPIh_R0D_SA9wHtaaoz_NG26SicI4?usp=drive_link      A team of experts from across Europe has produced a list of 15 over-looked and emerging issues that are likely to have a significant impact on UK forests over the next 50 years. This is the first ‘horizon scanning’ exercise – a technique to identify relatively unknown threats, opportunities, and new trends – ...

Giving children a virtual/augmented (mixed) reality playkit to use ahead of an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scan seems to ease both their and their parents’ anxieties about this procedure, suggest preliminary findings published in the open access journal BMJ Innovations. Reducing the need to put a child to sleep, because of the noise and time required to keep still while in the MRI tunnel, could not only boost patient safety, but also cut costs and waiting times, suggest the researchers. MRI has emerged as an important diagnostic tool in children’s healthcare because of the high quality images produced and lower radiation ...

The number of very premature babies (22 weeks) given respiratory life support  (survival focused care) and/or admitted to neonatal units in England and Wales has increased 3-fold, following changes in 2019 to national guidance, finds research published in the open access journal BMJ Medicine. While the proportion of these babies surviving to discharge has also increased, overall survival remains low, and there are “major implications for additional resource needs,” highlight the researchers. The updated national guidance from the British Association of Perinatal Medicine focuses on a risk based approach, setting out various pregnancy and ...

Some unexpected shark strandings and subsequent surprises following autopsies have, ironically, taken marine biologists millions of years back in time as they look to the future with concern. Adding chapters to an evolutionary tale involving the infamous megalodon shark (the “Meg”), they think their work suggests there are more warm-blooded sharks out there than previously believed, and – based on the Meg’s demise – these species may be at great risk from warming seas. Some of the most ...

Brussels, 8 November 2023 – New international research on the economic burden of urinary incontinence reveals that the cost of continence care will reach an estimated €69.1 billion in 2023. These costs include the impact of incontinence on individuals’ health, the costs of medical consultations and products such as continence pads, incontinence-related absenteeism at work, nursing home admissions, and the environmental impact of incontinence care. If no action is taken to support continence health, the economic burden could rise by 25% in 2030, to €86.7 billion. This economic burden becomes considerably higher when including caregiver costs. Some 55-60 million ...

ATLANTA — New research at ACR Convergence 2023, the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) annual meeting, shows that a deep learning system could accurately identify and predict joint space narrowing and erosions in hand radiographs of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) (Abstract #0745). Radiographs are the most commonly used imaging technique for detecting and monitoring RA in the hand. Radiologists frequently use the well-validated Sharp/van der Heidje (SvH) method to evaluate joint space ...

ATLANTA - Researchers will present the first-ever study of fractures and calcium pyrophosphate deposition disease at ACR Convergence 2023, the American College of Rheumatology’s (ACR) annual meeting. They report a doubled risk of fractures in patients with acute calcium pyrophosphate crystal arthritis compared to those without the disease (Abstract #0235). Calcium pyrophosphate deposition (CPPD) disease occurs when calcium pyrophosphate (CPP) crystals form near cartilage cells, and sometimes leads to joint inflammation, pain, and swelling. It has often been called pseudogout because ...

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Better education for cat owners, more communication from veterinarians, increased drug choices and cheaper, rapid diagnostic tools can help improve antimicrobial use in cats, which has important implications for rising antimicrobial resistance in animals and humans, according to two new papers by Cornell researchers. Antimicrobial resistance threatens up to 10 million human lives a year and may cost the global economy trillions of dollars, with resistant pathogens moving easily between humans and animals, according to the papers’ authors. In one paper, “Divergent Veterinarian and Cat ...