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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Governments need to set clear rules for vaccinating health care workers against COVID-19

An analysis undertaken by Faculty of Law professors and a physician-researcher from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa feels provincial and territorial governments should set clear rules for vaccinating health care workers against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in public and private settings. Mandatory vaccination for health care workers: an analysis of law and policy, published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ), describes legal precedents from attempts to mandate influenza vaccines for health care workers and ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Finding a way to stop chemotherapy from damaging the heart

COLUMBUS, Ohio - There could be an intervention on the horizon to help prevent heart damage caused by the common chemotherapy drug doxorubicin, new research suggests. Scientists found that this chemo drug, used to treat many types of solid tumors and blood cancers, is able to enter heart cells by hitchhiking on a specific type of protein that functions as a transporter to move a drug from the blood into heart cells. By introducing another anti-cancer drug in advance of the chemo, the researchers were able to block the transporter protein, effectively stopping the delivery of doxorubicin to those cardiac ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Impact of patient-reported symptom information on lumbar spine MRI Interpretation

Leesburg, VA, January 25, 2021--According to an open-access article in ARRS' American Journal of Roentgenology (AJR), in lumbar spine MRI, presumptive pain generators diagnosed using symptom information from brief electronic questionnaires showed almost perfect agreement with pain generators diagnosed using symptom information from direct patient interviews. "Using patient-reported symptom information from a questionnaire, radiologists interpreting lumbar spine MRI converged on diagnoses of presumptive pain generators and distinguished these from incidental abnormalities," wrote Rene Balza of the ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

When -- not what -- obese mice ate reduced breast cancer risk

Restricting eating to an eight-hour window, when activity is highest, decreased the risk of development, growth and metastasis of breast cancer in mouse models, report researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Moores Cancer Center and Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System (VASDSH). The findings, published in the January 25, 2021 edition of Nature Communications, show that time-restricted feeding -- a form of intermittent fasting aligned with circadian rhythms -- improved metabolic health and tumor circadian rhythms in mice with obesity-driven postmenopausal breast cancer. "Previous research has shown that obesity increases the risk of a variety of cancers by negatively affecting how the body ...

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Science25 Jan 2021

Major discovery helps explain coral bleaching

Corals, like all animals, must eat to live. The problem is that most corals grow in tropical waters that are poor in nutrients, sort of like ocean deserts; it's this lack of nutrients that makes the water around coral reefs so crystal clear. Because food is not readily available, corals have developed a remarkable feeding mechanism that involves a symbiotic relationship with single-celled algae. These algae grow inside the corals, using the coral tissue as shelter and absorbing the CO2 that the corals produce. In exchange, the algae provide corals with nutrients they produce through photosynthesis. These algae contain a variety of pigments, which give the coral reefs the ...

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Environment25 Jan 2021

Light pollution linked to preterm birth increase

Scientists conducted the first study to examine the fetal health impact of light pollution based on a direct measure of skyglow, an important aspect of light pollution. Using an empirical regularity discovered in physics, called Walker's Law, a team from Lehigh University, Lafayette College and the University of Colorado Denver in the U.S., found evidence of reduced birth weight, shortened gestational length and preterm births. Specifically, the likelihood of a preterm birth could increase by approximately 1.48 percentage points (or 12.9%), according to the researchers, as a result of increased nighttime brightness. Nighttime brightness is characterized by being able to see only one-fourth ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Most patients find teledermatology appointments suitable alternative to office visits

WASHINGTON (Jan. 25, 2021) - The majority of dermatology patients surveyed find telehealth appointments to be a suitable alternative to in-person office visits, according to a survey study from researchers at the George Washington University (GW) Department of Dermatology. The results are published in the Journal of Drugs in Dermatology. The COVID-19 pandemic changed many aspects of everyday life, including how patients interact with the health care system and seek medical care. Social distancing and stay-at-home orders have led to a move from in-office to virtual visits. While many specialties had to shift to the virtual format because ...

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Science25 Jan 2021

Special Issue, Volume 10 of Inter Faculty - Resonance

The Special Issue, Volume 10, of Inter Faculty takes up the theme of resonance in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic and its ensuing societal shifts. For, the pandemic this year (2020) reminded us more than ever that we live in 'VUCA' - volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. Many things that used to be taken for granted up until a year ago crumbled abruptly and globally. The pandemic struck many aspects or our societies such as public health, economy and social bonds thereby uncovering the vulnerability of the modern society. Universities are no exception to this. Just as one nation by itself cannot tackle these global challenges, neither can these challenges be solved ...

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Physics25 Jan 2021

Biomarkers in mother's plasma predict a type of autism in offspring with 100% accuracy

Using machine learning, researchers at the UC Davis MIND Institute have identified several patterns of maternal autoantibodies highly associated with the diagnosis and severity of autism. Their study, published Jan. 22 in Molecular Psychiatry, specifically focused on maternal autoantibody-related autism spectrum disorder (MAR ASD), a condition accounting for around 20% of all autism cases. "The implications from this study are tremendous," said Judy Van de Water, a professor of rheumatology, allergy and clinical immunology at UC Davis and the lead author of the study. "It's the first time that machine learning has been used to identify with 100% accuracy MAR ASD-specific patterns as potential biomarkers of ASD risk." Autoantibodies are immune proteins ...

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Environment25 Jan 2021

Increasing ocean temperature threatens Greenland's ice sheet

Irvine, Calif., Jan. 25, 2021 -- Scientists at the University of California, Irvine and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have for the first time quantified how warming coastal waters are impacting individual glaciers in Greenland's fjords. Their work is the subject of a study published recently in Science Advances. Working under the auspices of the Oceans Melting Greenland mission for the past five years, the researchers used ships and aircraft to survey 226 glaciers in all sectors of one of Earth's largest islands. They found that 74 glaciers situated in deep, steep-walled valleys accounted for nearly half of Greenland's total ice loss between 1992 and 2017. Such fjord-bound glaciers were discovered to be the ...

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Science25 Jan 2021

Domino effects and synchrony in seizure initiation

Epilepsy, a neurological disease that causes recurring seizures with a wide array of effects, impacts approximately 50 million people across the world. This condition has been recognized for a long time -- written records of epileptic symptoms date all the way back to 4000 B.C.E. But despite this long history of knowledge and treatment, the exact processes that occur in the brain during a seizure remain elusive. Scientists have observed distinctive patterns in the electrical activity of neuron groups in healthy brains. Networks of neurons move through states of similar behavior (synchronization) and dissimilar behavior (desynchronization) ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

SARS-CoV-2 reacts to antibodies of virus from 2003 SARS outbreak, new study reveals

A new study demonstrates that antibodies generated by the novel coronavirus react to other strains of coronavirus and vice versa, according to research published today by scientists from Oregon Health & Science University. However, antibodies generated by the SARS outbreak of 2003 had only limited effectiveness in neutralizing the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Antibodies are blood proteins that are made by the immune system to protect against infection, in this case by a coronavirus. The study published today in the journal Cell Reports. "Our finding has some important implications concerning immunity toward different strains of coronavirus infections, ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Newly discovered subset of brain cells fight inflammation with instructions from the gut

Astrocytes are the most abundant type of cells within the central nervous system (CNS), but they remain poorly characterized. Researchers have long assumed that astrocytes' primary function is to provide nutrients and support for the brain's more closely scrutinized nerve cells; over the years, however, increasing evidence has shown that astrocytes can also actively promote neurodegeneration, inflammation, and neurological diseases. Now, a team led by researchers from Brigham and Women's Hospital, has shown that a specific astrocyte sub-population can do the opposite, instead serving a protective, anti-inflammatory function within the brain based on signals regulated by the bacteria that reside in ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Adagio publishes preclinical data on lead coronaviruses antibody

-Data demonstrate ADG2 binds to all known variants of SARS-CoV-2 and is not impacted by known circulating resistance mutations- -Company expects to begin clinical studies for a half-life extended version of ADG2 for the treatment and prevention of COVID-19 in early 2021- Waltham, MA - January 25, 2021- Adagio Therapeutics, Inc., a biotechnology company developing best-in-class antibodies to broadly neutralize coronaviruses, today published in vitro and in vivo data in Science on its lead antibody candidate, ADG2, which demonstrated similar or higher potency against SARS-CoV-2 compared to other monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) in clinical development and strong binding to all known ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

In preclinical models, antiviral better inhibits COVID-19 than Remdesivir; further studies warranted

Working in preclinical models, researchers report that plitidepsin, a drug with limited clinical approval for the treatment of multiple myeloma, is more potent against SARS-CoV-2 than remdesivir, an antiviral that received FDA emergency use authorization for the treatment of COVID-19 in 2020. The results suggest plitidepsin should be further evaluated as a COVID-19 therapy, the authors say; because it targets a host protein rather than a viral protein, if treatment proves successful in humans, the SARS-CoV-2 virus won't be easily able to gain resistance ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Mapping mutations that escape antibodies against COVID-19 suggests prior mapping incomplete

A new approach to mapping viral mutations that "escape" leading clinical antibodies has revealed mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus that allow it to evade treatments, including a single amino-acid mutation that fully escapes Regeneron's antibody cocktail. These maps, say the authors, demonstrate that prior characterization of escape mutations was incomplete. They will also help to enable immediate interpretation of the effects of the mutations cataloged by viral genomic surveillance, say the authors. Several antibodies are in use or under development as therapies to treat COVID-19. As new SARS-CoV-2 variants emerge, it ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Researchers engineer antibody that acts against multiple SARS-like viruses

Researchers have engineered an antibody that neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 with a potency that "rivals" current lead SARS-CoV-2 clinical neutralizing antibodies, and that also broadly neutralizes a range of clade 1 sarbecoviruses. Their antibody, ADG-2, studied in mice, represents a "promising candidate" for the prevention and treatment of not only COVID-19, they say, but also of future respiratory diseases caused by SARS-related coronaviruses. Although two vaccines and two monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies have been authorized for emergency use by the FDA, it is unknown whether these vaccines and treatments will provide broad protection against new emerging SARS-CoV-2 strains that originate in humans or animal reservoirs; this is partly ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Nearly one in four families hesitant to take their child to ER during COVID-19 pandemic

During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly one in four families responded that they would be unlikely to bring their child to the Emergency Department if they had an emergency condition, according to a survey from Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago published in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. Greater hesitancy to seek emergency care was found in families living in under-resourced communities, those who rely on public insurance and in families who are Black, Latinx or Asian. "We observed greater hesitancy to use the Emergency Department among more vulnerable demographic groups who historically showed high utilization of emergency care for their children," ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

Bioorthogonally catalyzed lethality strategy generates targeting drugs within tumor

Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the world. The number of deaths and incidences is increasing each year. The metal-based anticancer drugs were used clinically worldwide, but suffer from poor selectivity, serious side effects and drug resistance. Tumor-targeting drug development is the basis for precise cancer treatment. Recently, Professor Hongke Liu of Nanjing Normal University, Professor Jing Zhao and Academician Zijian Guo of Nanjing University have made breakthrough achievements in anticancer drug development. They proposed a "bio-orthogonally catalyzed lethality" (BCL) strategy ...

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Science25 Jan 2021

3-D printed Biomesh minimizes hernia repair complications

Hernias are one of the most common soft tissue injuries. Hernias form when intra-abdominal content, such as a loop of the intestine, squeezes through weak, defective or injured areas of the abdominal wall. The condition may develop serious complications, therefore hernia repair may be recommended. Repair consists of surgically implanting a prosthetic mesh to support and reinforce the damaged abdominal wall and facilitate the healing process. However, currently used mesh implants are associated with potentially adverse postsurgical complications. "Although hernia mesh implants are mechanically strong and support abdominal tissue, making the patient feel comfortable initially, ...

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Space25 Jan 2021

CHEOPS finds unique planetary system

Musical notes that sound pleasant together can form a harmony. These notes are usually in a special relationship with each other: when expressed as frequencies, their ratios result in simple fractions, such as four-thirds or three-halves. Similarly, a planetary system can also form a kind of harmony when planets, whose orbital period ratios form simple fractions, regularly attract each other with their gravity. When one planet takes three days to orbit its star and its neighbor takes two days, for example. Using the CHEOPS space telescope, scientists, led by astrophysicist Adrien Leleu of the Center for Space and Habitability of the University of Bern, the University of Geneva and ...

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Physics25 Jan 2021

What's in a name? A new class of superconductors

HOUSTON - (Jan. 25, 2021) - A new theory that could explain how unconventional superconductivity arises in a diverse set of compounds might never have happened if physicists Qimiao Si and Emilian Nica had chosen a different name for their 2017 model of orbital-selective superconductivity. In a study published this month in npj Quantum Materials, Si of Rice University and Nica of Arizona State University argue that unconventional superconductivity in some iron-based and heavy-fermion materials arises from a general phenomenon called "multiorbital singlet pairing." In superconductors, electrons form pairs and flow without resistance. Physicists cannot fully explain how ...

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Environment25 Jan 2021

Climate change increases coastal blue carbon sequestration

Coastal Blue Carbon (BC), which includes mangrove and saltmarsh tidal wetlands, of which was first coined a decade ago to describe the disproportionately large contribution of coastal vegetated ecosystems to global carbon sequestration. The role of BC in climate change mitigation and adaptation has now reached international prominence. Recent studies have reported BC's unique role in mitigating climate change, projected coastal wetlands area change, carbon stocks in response to historical sea level rise fluctuations, and the future roadmap relative to carbon sequestration studies. However, several questions remain unanswered: Q1. What is the global extent and spatial distribution ...

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Science25 Jan 2021

Photocatalytic reaction in the shadow

Solar-driven photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting is an attractive approach to convert solar energy into chemical energy. Among many photoelectrode materials, crystalline silicon (c-Si) has drawn considerable attention because of its earth abundance, narrow bandgap, and suitable band edge position for hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). However, c-Si suffers from low photovoltage generated from the solid-liquid junction. Various strategies, such as the construction of p-n homojunctions, metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) junctions and p-n heterojunctions, have been adopted to obtain high photovoltage. The MIS junctions have been the focus of attention in PEC water splitting due to their simple fabrication and the potential to achieve higher efficiencies than p-n ...

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Medicine25 Jan 2021

The public health employment picture: Are graduates meeting the demands of the workforce?

January 25, 2021 -- In a study to gain understanding of the future public health workforce, researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and the Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH), conducted a large-scale analysis of the first employment outcomes of public health graduates and found that 78 percent were employed including 5 percent employed in fellowships and internships. Fifteen percent were continuing their studies; only 5 percent were not employed and job seeking. These indicators may ultimately expand public health's reach and lead to healthier communities overall. The study is the first national analysis of employment outcomes of public health graduates, and one of the only such analyses ...

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