LOS ANGELES -- COVID-19 has taken a huge medical, emotional and economic toll on Americans. Now, new Keck Medicine of USC research shows that the pandemic may also have harmful indirect consequences. Alcohol and tobacco sales nationwide rose in the early months of COVID-19, according to a study appearing in the Annals of Internal Medicine today. From April - June 2020, researchers found that sales of these substances increased 34% and 13% respectively when compared to the same months in 2019. "These are significant jumps, and show that the stress, boredom and loneliness caused by the pandemic may have led to increased alcohol and tobacco ...

GALVESTON, Texas -A team from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston (UTMB) focused on drug addiction research have pioneered a new way to study frustration as a factor in substance use disorders. The study was published in the medical journal Psychopharmacology. Traditional addiction research has focused on three aspects of substance use disorders: craving, impulsivity, or habit. Scientists hypothesized that a fourth factor, frustration, could also lead to escalation of drug use and addiction. The Psychopharmacology paper noted that research into the role of frustration and substance use disorders ...

Philadelphia, Pa. -- More than one out of every 10 seniors (10.5%) enrolled in a Medicare Advantage plan, also known as a Medicare managed care option, and living in a rural area, switched to traditional Medicare during 2010-2016. The switch was driven primarily due to low satisfaction with care access, according to a study published this week in Health Affairs from researchers at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health. By contrast, only 1.7% of rural traditional Medicare enrollees made the switch to Medicare Advantage during this period. The findings, among the first to look ...

Early exposure to tough conditions--particularly warmer waters and nightly swings of low oxygen--could leave lasting scars on oysters' ability to grow meaty tissue. A team of biologists at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) reported the discovery in a new study, published online Feb. 26 in the journal Ecological Applications. Eastern oysters in Chesapeake Bay live mostly in shallow tributaries. It's a rough environment for shellfish that can't move. During hotter months, oxygen levels can swing drastically, from perfectly healthy ...

Three studies - one each in Science, Science Translational Medicine, and Science Immunology - reveal the promise of newly engineered bispecific antibodies, including by demonstrating their power against previously inaccessible tumor cell targets for the first time, in two cases. These bispecific antibodies, which simultaneously bind to tumor antigens and T cells, cleared cancer cells without damaging healthy cells in mouse tumor models and/or cell culture experiments, across the three studies. The results highlight the therapeutic potential of this antibody type, which - unlike engineered immune cell therapies like CAR T - does not have to ...

In the middle of the Indian Ocean lies some of the last coral reef wilderness on Earth. The Chagos Archipelago, a collection of atolls, including Earth's largest - the Great Chagos Bank- is home to reefs that have been largely undisturbed by humans for the last 50 years. Some estimates indicate the Chagos Archipelago may contain more than half of the healthy coral reefs remaining in the entire Indian Ocean. These reefs are protected both by their remote location, and in one of the world's largest no-take marine reserves--the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) marine protected area. In 2015, scientists at the Khaled ...

Youth enrollment in Medicaid managed care across all states increased from 65 percent in 2000 to 94 percent in 2017. Across the country, receipt of preventive care for youth in Medicaid managed care increased from 49 percent in 2000 to 59 percent in 2017, falling short of the 80 percent annual goal set by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). Receipt of preventive care for youth in Medicaid managed care showed a significant increase in 17 states, a significant drop in six states, and no change in 28 states. Tennessee had the largest increase in preventive care associated with Medicaid managed care, while North Carolina showed the largest decrease. Nationally, the number of children under age 21 enrolled in Medicaid grew from ...

A school-based cavity prevention program involving nearly 7,000 elementary school students reduced cavities by more than 50 percent, according to a study led by researchers at NYU College of Dentistry. The findings are END ...

White blood cells or lymphocytes are the soldiers of our immune system that patrol the body via the lymphatic system. While their primary role is to protect the body by scavenging invaders, they can sometimes go rogue and become the enemy. Lymphoma, a type of blood cancer, results from the uncontrolled proliferation of lymphocytes. They are classified as Hodgkins and Non-Hodgkins lymphomas on the basis of the cell of origin and clinical characteristics. Of them, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common Non-Hodgkins lymphoma and is highly aggressive and fast-growing. A combination of rituximab plus cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone (R-CHOP) is the standard treatment regimen for ...

In a new commentary for the journal Science, an associate vice president for research at The University of Texas at Arlington argues that emerging protein-based immunotherapies could lead to highly effective "off-the-shelf" cancer treatments for more patients. Jon Weidanz, who also is a professor in the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at UTA, is the author of a perspective regarding the development of cancer immunotherapies. His article, "Targeting cancer with bispecific antibodies," will appear in the March 5 edition of Science. It evaluates the findings of three studies by researchers at Johns Hopkins University and proposes that an emerging ...

In a study published online February 25, 2021 in The New England Journal of Medicine, a repurposed drug used to treat arthritis did not significantly improve the outcomes of patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia. Results of the Phase III clinical trial, conducted by an international team led by senior author Atul Malhotra, MD, research chief of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine at UC San Diego Health, found that tocilizumab did not significantly improve clinical status or mortality rate at 28 days for participants who received it compared to a placebo. "Although our trial was negative based on primary outcomes, we did see some benefits, including an improvement in length of stay of eight days ...

In early 2020, daily life in Northern China slammed to a halt as the region entered a strict period of lockdown to slow the spread of COVID-19. Emissions from transportation and industry plummeted. Emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) from fossil fuels fell by 60 to 70 percent. And yet, environmental researchers noticed that ground-level ozone pollution in Beijing and the Northern China Plain skyrocketed during this time period, despite the decrease of NOx, a component of ozone. The region is no stranger to severe ozone pollution but until about five years ago, most ozone events occurred ...

CORVALLIS, Ore. - Oregon State University research has revealed a crucial mechanism behind one of humankind's most deadly physiological processes: the movement of malignant cells from one part of the body to another. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the study led by OSU biophysicist Bo Sun shows the role that tissues' microscopic geometry plays in cancer metastasis, the internal spreading of the disease that's responsible for 95% of all cancer deaths. To develop drugs that effectively combat metastasis, it's fundamentally important to understand what directs the metastatic process, Sun said. "Our results show the level of tissue fiber alignment, particularly ...

A University of Melbourne led study has established how plants use their metabolism to tell time and know when to grow - a discovery that could help leverage growing crops in different environments, including different seasons, different latitudes or even in artificial environments and vertical gardens. Published in the PNAS journal, Superoxide is promoted by sucrose and affects amplitude of circadian rhythms in the evening, details how plants use their metabolism to sense time at dusk and help conserve energy produced from sunlight during the day. Lead ...

DURHAM, N.C. - Anyone who has ever developed a urinary tract infection (UTI) knows that it can be painful, pesky and persistent. UTIs have a high recurrence rate and primarily afflict women -- as many as 50% of women will experience at least one UTI during their lifetime. However, what if patients could take a vaccine that would prevent future UTIs? In a March 1 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Duke researchers describe a new vaccination strategy that they think could re-program the body to fight off the bacteria that cause urinary tract infections. "Although several vaccines against UTIs have been investigated in clinical trials, they have so far had limited success," said Soman Abraham, Ph.D., Grace Kerby Distinguished Professor of Pathology, Immunology ...

A new study from Boston Children's Hospital and the Massachusetts Department of Health compared one of the latest rapid antigen tests for COVID-19 -- the Abbott BinaxNOW -- with a highly accurate PCR test in a high-volume, drive-thru testing environment. They found that the rapid test detected almost all adults who tested positive by PCR if they had had symptoms lasting seven days or less. In symptomatic children with less than seven days of symptoms, the test picked up about 85 percent of true positive cases. But no matter the age, if the patient had high amounts of virus in their nose, the test caught it 99 percent of the time. It was also able to rule out COVID-19 ...

The human gut consists of a complex community of microbes that consume and secrete hundreds of small molecules--a phenomenon called cross-feeding. However, it is challenging to study these processes experimentally. A new study, published in END ...

Researchers from Skoltech and the University of Cambridge have shown that polaritons, the quirky particles that may end up running the quantum supercomputers of the future, can form structures behaving like molecules - and these "artificial molecules" can potentially be engineered on demand. The paper outlining these results was published in the journal Physical Review B Letters. Polaritons are quantum particles that consist of a photon and an exciton, another quasiparticle, marrying light and matter in a curious union that opens up a multitude of possibilities in next-generation polaritonic devices. Alexander Johnston, Kirill Kalinin and Natalia Berloff, professor at the Skoltech Center for Photonics and Quantum Materials ...

A group of researchers representing four countries summed up the results of the Supertest, a large-scale study of the academic performance of engineering students in Russia, China, India, and the United States. It is the first study to track the progress of students in computer science and electrical engineering over the course of their studies with regard to their abilities in physics, mathematics, and critical thinking and compare the results among four countries. The article about study in Nature Human Behavior. The HSE Institute of Education played a key role not only in collecting and analyzing data from Russia, ...

March 1, 2021 - Benign bone tumors may be present in nearly 20 percent of healthy children, based on a review of historical radiographs in The Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery. The journal is published in the Lippincott portfolio in partnership with Wolters Kluwer. Although that may sound frightening, non-ossifying fibromas and other common benign bone tumors in symptom-free children are harmless and may resolve over time, reports the new study by Christopher D. Collier, MD, of Indiana University School of Medicine and colleagues. "These findings provide unique evidence to answer many commonly encountered questions when counseling patients and their families on benign bone tumors," the researchers write. Study offers reassurance that benign ...

Blocking cell receptors for glucagon, the counter-hormone to insulin, cured mouse models of diabetes by converting glucagon-producing cells into insulin producers instead, a team led by UT Southwestern reports in a new study. The END ...

Boston, MA--Most pregnant women and mothers of children younger than 18 years old say they would receive a COVID-19 vaccine and vaccinate their children, according to a survey conducted by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The research indicated that vaccine acceptance was highest in India, the Philippines, and all sampled countries in Latin America, and it was lowest in Russia, the U.S., and Australia. The results will be published online on March 1, 2021 in the European Journal of Epidemiology. Vaccines for COVID-19 are being distributed around the world, but until ...

SILVER SPRING, Md. - A recent preclinical study by U.S. Military HIV Research Program (MHRP) researchers showed that an experimental therapy combining a TLR7 agonist and two broadly neutralizing antibodies delayed viral rebound in SHIV-infected macaques after antiretroviral therapy (ART) interruption. The experimental combination therapy consisted of TLR7 agonist GS-986 and two broadly neutralizing antibodies (bnAbs), N6-LS and PGT121, targeting different regions of the HIV envelope. The rhesus macaques were initiated on viral suppressive antiretroviral therapy 14 days post infection, a timespan from infection to treatment which mirrors what is feasible in acute HIV infection. Researchers then administered the experimental combination ...

NEW YORK, NY (March 1, 2021)--By harnessing the immune system against cancer, immunotherapies have revolutionized the way some types of cancer are treated. But most patients--across cancer types--do not respond, and in most cases, scientists are at a loss as to why. Researchers at Columbia and MIT have created a new technique that can uncover nearly all of the tricks cancer cells use to evade immunotherapies, which could lead to the development of more effective treatments. The researchers tested their new technique with cancer cells and matching immune cells from melanoma patients and identified previously unknown resistance mechanisms to immune checkpoint ...

Black Americans have a high level of vaccine hesitancy and mistrust of COVID-19 vaccines, including among Black health care workers, according to a new RAND Corporation survey. Those who expressed vaccine hesitancy also showed high levels of overall mistrust in the vaccine, concerns about potential harm and side effects, and lack of confidence in vaccine effectiveness and safety. Participants in the RAND survey reported higher trust in COVID-19 information from health care providers and public health officials than from elected local and federal officials. The findings are based on a survey ...