In the largest genetic analysis of depression to date, Veterans Affairs researchers identified many new gene variants that increase the risk for depression. The groundbreaking study helps researchers better understand the biological basis of depression and could lead to better drug treatments. The study involved genetic data on more than 300,000 participants of VA's Million Veteran Program (MVP), along with more than a million subjects from other biobanks, including 23andMe. With such a large participant pool, the researchers were able to spot trends in genetic risk of depression not previously known. Co-primary investigator Dr. Joel Gelernter, a researcher with the VA Connecticut Healthcare System and Yale University School of Medicine, explained ...

Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago are a step closer to discovering why it is so difficult for people to withdraw from some antidepressant medications. The paper "Antidepressants produce persistent Gαs associated signaling changes in lipid rafts following drug withdrawal," published in the journal Molecular Pharmacology, addresses the molecular and cellular mechanisms that cause antidepressant withdrawal syndrome. The study's authors, Mark Rasenick, distinguished professor of physiology and biophysics and psychiatry at UIC and research career scientist at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, and Nicholas ...

Higher percentage of patients treated with nivolumab and ipilimumab in clinical trial reach the six-and-a-half-year survival mark than those treated with either drug alone. BOSTON - In the longest follow-up results from a clinical trial of combination immunotherapy for metastatic melanoma, investigators report that nearly half the patients who received the drugs nivolumab and ipilimumab were alive a median of six and a half years after treatment. The results, stemming from the CheckMate 067 clinical trial, represent a new landmark in survival rates for patients with melanoma treated with immune checkpoint inhibitor drugs. F. ...

URBANA, Ill. - As the owner of a human body, you're carrying trillions of microbes with you everywhere you go. These microscopic organisms aren't just hitching a ride; many of them perform essential chemical reactions that regulate everything from our digestion to our immune system to our moods. One important set of reactions relates to fat absorption via bile acids. Our livers make these acids to help digest fats and fat-soluble vitamins as they travel through the small intestine. Near the end of the small intestine, microbes convert the acids into new forms, which can either be beneficial or ...

Over the past 20 years, first-principles simulations have become powerful, widely used tools in many, diverse fields of science and engineering. From nanotechnology to planetary science, from metallurgy to quantum materials, they have accelerated the identification, characterization, and optimization of materials enormously. They have led to astonishing predictions--from ultrafast thermal transport to electron-phonon mediated superconductivity in hydrides to the emergence of flat bands in twisted-bilayer graphene-- that have gone on to inspire remarkable experiments. The current push to complement ...

WASHINGTON -- Researchers have developed a new technique that allows microscopic fluorescence imaging at four times the depth limit imposed by light diffusion. Fluorescence microscopy is often used to image molecular and cellular details of the brain in animal models of various diseases but, until now, has been limited to small volumes and highly invasive procedures due to intense light scattering by the skin and skull. "Visualization of biological dynamics in an unperturbed environment, deep in a living organism, is essential for understanding the complex biology of living organisms ...

Five years on from the first discovery of gravitational waves, an international team of scientists, including from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav), are continuing the hunt for new discoveries and insights into the Universe. Using the super-sensitive, kilometre-sized LIGO detectors in the United States, and the Virgo detector in Europe, the team have witnessed the explosive collisions of black holes and neutron stars. Recent studies, however, have been looking for something quite different: the elusive signal from a solitary, rapidly-spinning neutron star. Take a star similar in size to the Sun, squash it down to a ball about ...

The hunt for the never before heard "hum" of gravitational waves caused by mysterious neutron stars has just got a lot easier, thanks to an international team of researchers. Gravitational waves have only been detected from black holes and neutron stars colliding, major cosmic events that cause huge bursts that ripple through space and time. The research team, involving scientists from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration (LSC), Virgo Collaboration and the Centre for Gravitational Astrophysics (CGA) at The Australian National University (ANU), are now turning their eagle eye to spinning neutron stars to detect the waves. Unlike the massive bursts caused by black holes or neutron stars colliding, the researchers ...

AMHERST, Mass. - New research by University of Massachusetts Amherst astronomer Daniel Wang reveals, with unprecedented clarity, details of violent phenomena in the center of our galaxy. The images, published recently in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, document an X-ray thread, G0.17-0.41, which hints at a previously unknown interstellar mechanism that may govern the energy flow and potentially the evolution of the Milky Way. "The galaxy is like an ecosystem," says Wang, a professor in UMass Amherst's astronomy department, whose findings are a result of more than two decades of research. "We know the centers of galaxies are where the action is and play an enormous role in their evolution." And yet, whatever has ...

Individuals with genetic high cholesterol, heart disease or both, who were infected with COVID-19 had more heart attacks according to new research by the FH Foundation. While previous studies have speculated about poorer outcomes if a person with genetic high cholesterol - called familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) contracts COVID-19, this study from the FH Foundation's national healthcare database is the first to demonstrate higher heart attack rates in the real world. Published online in the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology, the study also importantly confirms that COVID-19 increases heart attack rates in individuals with established atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). The FH Foundation performed an analysis of 55,412,462 individuals, separating groups into six ...

Leesburg, VA, May 27, 2021--According to an open-access Editor's Choice article in ARRS' American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), accurate prenatal diagnosis of severe placental accreta spectrum (PAS) disorder by imaging could help guide maternal counseling and selection between hysterectomy and uterine-preserving surgery. "The findings suggest strong performance of placental bulge in diagnosing severe PAS on both ultrasound and MRI, with potentially relatively stronger performance on MRI," wrote corresponding author Manjiri Dighe from the department of radiology at the University of Washington School of Medicine. "Nonetheless, interobserver agreement remains suboptimal on both modalities." On ultrasound and MRI alike, the placental bulge sign represents ...

A small Japanese fishing community devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011 managed to recover from the disaster through cooperative community activity despite the propensity for individualist-competitive behavior within fisheries - cooperative activity that continued many years later. A social scientist who spent years interviewing fishers in the fishing hamlet of Isohama has discovered a long-standing continuum of competitive and collective endeavor amongst fishers, with potential ramifications for how government policy can better promote resilience in the wake of natural disasters and other calamities. The findings appear in the journal of Disaster ...

Using the circular vibration of surface acoustic waves, a collaborative research group have successfully controlled the magnetization of a ferromagnetic thin film. Their research was published in the journal Nature Communications on May 10, 2021. Essentially, acoustic waves are waves of atomic vibrations in a substance. When the waves propagate across the surface of a material, the vibration becomes circular. This circular motion, known as angular momentum, can help measure rotational motion. Surface acoustic waves are utilized in bandpass filters in cell phones. The bandpass allows certain frequencies ...

New Orleans, LA - A review study led by Maria D. Sanchez-Pino, PhD, an assistant research professor in the departments of Interdisciplinary Oncology and Genetics at LSU Health New Orleans' School of Medicine and Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, advances knowledge about the connection between obesity-associated inflammation and cancer. The researchers suggest that inflammatory cells with immunosuppressive properties may act as a critical biological link between obesity and cancer risk, progression, and metastasis. The paper is published in the June 2021 issue of Obesity, available here. Despite evidence showing that ...

The study, which is published in the journal PLOS Biology, represents the most comprehensive mapping performed to date between neural activity recoded in vivo and identified neuron types. This major breakthrough may enable biologically meaningful computer modeling of the full neuronal circuit of the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in memory function. Circuits of the mammalian cerebral cortex are made up of two types of neurons: excitatory neurons, which release a neurotransmitter called glutamate, and inhibitory neurons, which release GABA (gamma-aminobutanoic acid), the main inhibitor of the central nervous system. "A balanced dialogue between the 'excitatory' and 'inhibitory' activities is critical for brain function. ...

Exploiting the unusual metal-reducing ability of the iron-breathing bacterium Geobacter sulfurreducens, KAUST researchers have demonstrated a cheap and reliable way to synthesize highly active single-atom catalysts. The innovation, which could dramatically improve the efficiency and cost of hydrogen production from water, highlights the role nature can play in the search for new energy systems. Many chemical reactions require a catalyst as a reactive surface where atoms or molecules are brought together with the right amount of energy to spark a chemical change. Water, for example, can be split into hydrogen and oxygen atoms by reacting on a pair of electrodes made of platinum and iridium oxide. The efficiency of the reaction, however, depends largely ...

Water freezes and turns to ice when brought in contact with a cold surface - a well-known fact. However, the exact process and its microscopic details remained elusive up to know. Anton Tamtögl from the Institute of Experimental Physics at TU Graz explains: "The first step in ice formation is called 'nucleation' and happens in an incredibly short length of time, a fraction of a billionth of a second, when highly mobile individual water molecules 'find each other' and coalesce." Conventional microscopes are far too slow to follow the motion of water molecules and so it is impossible to use them to 'watch' how molecules combine on top of solid surfaces. Findings turn previous understanding of ice formation upside down With the help ...

DURHAM, N.C. -- What makes preschoolers eat their veggies? Raise their hand? Wait their turn? "Because I say so" is a common refrain for many parents. But when it comes to getting kids to behave, recent research suggests that the voice of adult authority isn't the only thing that matters. Around age three, fitting in with the group starts to count big too. That's the finding of a new study by Duke University researchers showing that, by their third birthday, children are more likely to go along with what others say or do for the sake of following the crowd, rather than acting out ...

Malignant tumour cells undergo mechanical deformation more easily than normal cells, allowing them to migrate throughout the body. The mechanical properties of prostate cancer cells treated with the most commonly used anti-cancer drugs have been investigated at the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow. According to the researchers, current drugs can be used more effectively and at lower doses. In cancer, a key factor contributing to the formation of metastasis is the ability of the neoplastic cells to undergo ...

Although vaccination programmes against pertussis are very effective in Europe, new Finnish study shows that the disease is still very common among middle-aged adults in various European countries. At the same time, the results show that the disease is underdiagnosed as the annually reported figures are considerably lower than those discovered in the study. The primary cause of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is the Bordetella pertussis agent which spreads through the respiratory mucosa and produces toxins that damage the mucous membrane. These toxins incapacitate the body's ...

The first ever vaccine target for trypanosomes, a family of parasites that cause devastating disease in animals and humans, has been discovered by scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute. By targeting a protein on the cell surface of the parasite Trypanosoma vivax, researchers were able to confer long-lasting protection against animal African trypanosomiasis (AAT) infection in mice. The study, published today (26 May 2021) in Nature, is the first successful attempt to induce apparently sterile immunity against a trypanosome parasite. A vaccine was long thought impossible due to the sophisticated ability of the parasites to evade the host immune system. As well as a strong ...

NEW YORK (May 26, 2021) -- About 12,000 bacteria and viruses collected in a sampling from public transit systems and hospitals around the world from 2015 to 2017 had never before been identified, according to a study by the International MetaSUB Consortium, a global effort at tracking microbes that is led by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. For the study, published May 26 in Cell, international investigators collected nearly 5,000 samples over a three-year period across 60 cities in 32 countries and six continents. The investigators analyzed the samples using a genomic sequencing ...

May 26, 2021 - Social media sites - especially Instagram - have revolutionized the way plastic surgeons market their practice. These platforms allow surgeons to post testimonials, educational videos, and before-and-after photos. This information can help to guide patients in making decisions about whether to undergo cosmetic surgery and which plastic surgeon to choose, based on factors like the surgeon's experience and results achieved. However, patient perceptions of plastic surgeons' skills may also be affected by implicit bias - based solely on the ethnicity of the surgeon's name. "In our survey of responses to otherwise-identical Instagram ...

Threads of superheated gas and magnetic fields are weaving a tapestry of energy at the center of the Milky Way galaxy. A new image of this new cosmic masterpiece was made using a giant mosaic of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. The new panorama of the Galactic Center builds on previous surveys from Chandra and other telescopes. This latest version expands Chandra's high-energy view farther above and below the plane of the Galaxy - that is, the disk where most of the Galaxy's stars reside - than previous imaging campaigns. In the image featured in our main graphic, X-rays from Chandra are orange, green, blue and purple, showing different X-ray energies, and the ...

Children with ADHD are generally treated with medication and/or behavioral treatments. However, medication-alone is insufficient in a quarter to a third of the children. For that reason, the scientists investigated whether a mindfulness-based intervention (MBI) would have a positive effect on children who did not respond sufficiently to other ADHD treatments. MBIs can elicit positive effects on psychological symptoms and behavior of children and parents. In the study, two groups of children between the ages of eight and sixteen were compared. One group received only regular care (CAU, care-as-usual), and the other group also received MYmind, the mindfulness-based intervention ...