Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University are searching for a new treatment target for a common complication of diabetes that can cause retinal blood vessels to break down, leak, or become blocked. Diabetic retinopathy is a serious eye disease and a leading cause of blindness that results when diabetes’ sustained high blood sugar levels cause damage to the retina – the part of the eye that detects light – over time. That can happen in a number of ways, from inflammation to overgrowth ...

Prescribing rates for stimulants that treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have increased significantly over the past decade, with some of the largest increases reported during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new study of adult emergency department admissions at Mass General Brigham, led by McLean Hospital researchers, found that individuals who are taking high doses of amphetamine (e.g. Adderall) face more than a five-fold increased risk for developing psychosis or mania. Findings were published September 12th in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Overall, individuals with past-month prescription amphetamine use had a greater likelihood of new-onset psychosis or mania ...

With flu season just around the corner and COVID-19 cases on the rise, a new nationwide survey from The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center reveals hesitancy around vaccines this fall. The new data comes just as this year’s flu shot rolls out and following the FDA’s approval of an updated round of COVID-19 vaccines. The national poll of 1,006 people found more than one-third (37%) have gotten vaccines in the past but do not plan to this year. The same percent of respondents said they don’t need any of the vaccines surveyed in the poll, including flu, COVID-19, pneumococcal and respiratory ...

Scientists from Sun Yat-sen University's School of Biomedical Engineering have developed groundbreaking tubular scaffolds made from electrospun membranes, which significantly enhance bone regeneration in critical skull defects. These scaffolds, designed to mimic natural bone structures, create an ideal environment for adipose-derived stem cells (rADSCs) to thrive and accelerate healing. By integrating advanced materials like polycaprolactone, PLGA, and nano-hydroxyapatite, the researchers achieved remarkable results in both lab and animal studies, ...

Nobel laureate Pierre Agostini, winner of the 2023 prize in physics, will headline a special two-day event hosted by the University of Tokyo on Sept. 26-27. The keynote lecture by Agostini, renowned for this pioneering work in attosecond science, will be part of a larger symposium bringing together researchers from around the world to celebrate the university’s planned Attosecond Laser Facility (ALFA), and discuss the latest developments and future directions of attosecond science. Have you taken a photo of a fast-moving animal or vehicle and noticed how blurry the subject can be? This is likely because the faster a moving subject is, the faster the camera’s shutter needs ...

Toronto, ON, September 11, 2024 — A single dose of the Modified vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic (MVA-BN) was 58% effective in protecting again mpox infection, according to a new study published in BMJ.  Researchers from ICES, Public Health Ontario, and the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital of Unity Health Toronto have conducted a target trial emulation to estimate the effectiveness of the mpox vaccine.  During the mpox outbreak in 2022, Ontario, Canada introduced the vaccine ...

One dose of modified vaccinia Ankara-Bavarian Nordic (MVA-BN) smallpox vaccine is moderately effective in preventing mpox infection and should be made available to communities at risk, finds a study published by The BMJ today. With mpox infections rising again across the globe, the researchers say these findings “strengthen the evidence that MVA-BN is effective at preventing mpox infection and should be made available and accessible to communities at risk.” No randomised clinical trials of vaccination against mpox have been conducted. Estimates of the effectiveness of a single dose of vaccination from observational studies range from ...

More than half of the experts on the UK government’s nutrition advisory panel have links to the food industry, reveals an investigation by The BMJ today. At least 11 of the 17 members of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) have conflicts of interest with the likes of Nestle, sugar manufacturer Tate and Lyle, and the world’s largest ice cream producer, Unilever, reports freelance journalist Sophie Borland. And at least six out of the 11 members of SACN’s Subgroup on Maternal and Child Nutrition have ties to food firms, including baby food manufacturers and formula milk brands. SACN ...

Giving higher doses per fraction of radiation therapy over a shorter time after breast cancer surgery significantly reduces the risk of side effects and improves quality of life compared with a conventional schedule, finds a study published by The BMJ today. Although survival and recurrence rates were similar, this approach, known as hypofractionation, is safer, more convenient for patients, and reduces costs for healthcare systems, and should be the preferred treatment option, say the researchers. Conventional fractionation radiation therapy has been the standard of care for most patients with breast ...

Obesity treatments are being restricted by cash poor local services across England with many patients being denied specialist drugs, surgery and support, an investigation by The BMJ has found. Patients in nearly half the country can’t get appointments with specialist teams for weight loss support and care, including treatment with drugs such as semaglutide. And in nearly one in five local health areas, patients don’t have access to a bariatric surgery service, reports Elisabeth Mahase. The government estimates that obesity costs the NHS in England around £6.5bn a year and is the second biggest preventable cause ...

Laughter may be as effective as eye drops in improving symptoms of dry eye disease, finds a clinical trial from China published by The BMJ today The researchers suggest that laughter exercise could be an initial treatment for relieving symptoms of dry eye disease. Dry eye disease (DED) is a chronic condition estimated to affect around 360 million individuals worldwide. Common symptoms include uncomfortable, red, scratchy or irritated eyes. Evidence suggests that laughter therapy alleviates depression, anxiety, stress, and chronic pain, while strengthening immune ...

Earth will only remain able to provide even a basic standard of living for everyone in the future if economic systems and technologies are dramatically transformed and critical resources are more fairly used, managed and shared, according to an international research team including scientists from The Australian National University (ANU). The report, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, outlines how cities and businesses have the power to play a crucial role and become the “stewards” of critical Earth ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has enabled researchers to show that a long course of radiotherapy given before surgery may be a better treatment for avoiding surgery, preserving the rectum and anus, and preventing regrowth of the primary tumour than a short course of radiotherapy for patients with rectal cancer – a type of bowel cancer. However, the overall survival and survival free of recurrence of the disease remained the same for both treatments.   These findings are from a new study published in ...

As more people with type 2 diabetes (T2D) are taking medications to help manage blood sugar levels and weight loss, concerns about whether these drugs are safe have emerged. Now real-world evidence from the FDA Adverse Event Reporting System (FAERS) database reveals a reassuring safety profile for tirzepatide (TZP). The findings to be presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Madrid (9-13 Sept), and published in the The Journal of Endocrinological Investigation (link below) reveal that, compared to the widely used class of glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), TZP has similar gastrointestinal ...

All doses of tirzepatide, a medication approved in the EU to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, consistently reduced body weight in women and men, but women experienced greater weight loss, according to new post hoc research to be presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Madrid (9-13 Sept). The post hoc analysis, which included the four SURMOUNT trials [1], compared tirzepatide with a placebo for up to 72 to 88 weeks in 4,677 adults (2,999 females, 1,678 males) living with obesity, highlighting potential sex differences in the response. Tirzepatide, a once-weekly glucose-dependent ...

Swiftly achieving glycaemic control after a diagnosis of gestational diabetes can bring the baby’s risk obesity in childhood down to a level similar to that of children whose mothers did not have gestational diabetes, new research being presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) in Madrid, Spain (9-13 September), has found. Gestational diabetes, a type of diabetes that can develop during pregnancy, affects 14% of pregnant women globally and is becoming more common, with those who are living with obesity, have a family ...

The anti-obesity medication semaglutide may help to prevent heart attacks, strokes, and other major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) as well as death in adults with overweight or obesity who don’t have diabetes, whether or not they also have impaired kidney function, according to new research to be presented at this year’s Annual Meeting of The European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), Madrid (9-13 Sept). The results are based on a pre-specified analysis of the SELECT trial which found that adults with overweight or obesity but not diabetes taking semaglutide for more than 3 years had a 20% lower risk of MACE or ...

The phase 3 SURPASS-4 trial published in 2021 established that tirzepatide lowers blood sugar and supports weight loss better than insulin glargine (a long-acting insulin) for type 2 diabetes (T2D) [1]. Now new research examining a broad range of potential predictors of sustaining blood sugar control and weight loss indicates that greater weight loss, better β-cell function, and a greater decrease in low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C or “bad cholesterol”) during the first year of tirzepatide therapy are the most ...

Avian influenza A(H5N1) virus, which spread to cattle and infected 14 people this year, was detected using virome sequencing in the wastewater of 10 Texas cities by researchers at UTHealth Houston and Baylor College of Medicine. The virome is the collection of viruses in a sample, in this case a wastewater sample. The information was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Until March 2024, H5N1 had not been detected in 1,337 wastewater samples analyzed by the team. But from March 4 to July 15 (the end of data collection for this article), H5N1 was ...

Harvard stem cell biologists have pioneered a groundbreaking 3D organoid culture method for generating large numbers of adult skeletal muscle satellite cells, also known as muscle stem cells, in vitro. The ability to efficiently make functional muscle stem cells in this way is expected to accelerate understanding of and treatments for disorders of skeletal muscle, including those that are neuromuscular in origin. The new technique, detailed in Nature Biotechnology, also provides a powerful tool for studying muscle biology. "People will be able to do all these engraftment and regeneration experiments because suddenly, you have millions of cells,” said co-author and Harvard research ...

A new convergent manufacturing platform, developed in only five months at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, is debuting at the International Manufacturing Technology Show, or IMTS, in Chicago, Sept. 9–12, 2024. The technology, called Future Foundries, opens the door for hundreds of thousands of small- and medium-sized companies to join the convergent manufacturing revolution, according to ORNL researchers. It is a cutting-edge platform that integrates multiple advanced manufacturing systems into a single, agile platform. “The democratization ...

New findings from McGill University researchers could help clinicians understand the course of delusions in youth and young adults that signal the need for a timely intervention to prevent a full relapse of psychosis. Delusions — strong beliefs that don't align with commonly accepted reality— are a defining symptom of psychosis but are not sufficiently understood. For the first time, researchers studied whether delusion themes, such as paranoia or grandiosity, stay the same or shift between psychotic episodes in youth and young adults undergoing early intervention treatment. The importance of timely ...

As the world tries to mitigate agriculture’s effect on the environment, much of the story can be found in the soils, which stores and cycles nutrient elements of carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus. Biogeochemistssuch as Andrew Margenot, Associate Director of the Agroecosystem Sustainability Center, are set to find answers, but for Margenot and other biogeochemistry experts who specialize in studying phosphorus cycling, the challenge is first being able to accurately measure where phosphorus has accumulated in the <100 years since humans began to increase ...

A team of doctors and researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) have identified a new, rare type of small cell lung cancer that primarily affects younger people who have never smoked. Their findings, which include a detailed analysis of the clinical and genetic features of the disease, also highlight vulnerabilities that could help doctors make better treatment decisions for people diagnosed with it. “It’s not every day you identify a new subtype of cancer,” says Natasha Rekhtman, MD, PhD, an MSK pathologist specializing in lung cancer and the first author of a paper published August 26 in Cancer Discovery presenting ...

Outdoor light at night could be a significant risk factor in Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research from Rush. While light pollution is associated with increased risk of some disorders and diseases, this is the first time it had been associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The study was conducted at Rush University System for Health and published in Frontiers in Neuroscience. “Our research shows that there is an association in the U.S. between Alzheimer’s disease prevalence and exposure to light at night, particularly in those under the age of 65,” said lead investigator, Robin Voigt-Zuwala, PhD, an associate professor at Rush. “Nightly ...