CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — According to a new paper, ancient Maya reservoirs, which used aquatic plants to filter and clean the water, “can serve as archetypes for natural, sustainable water systems to address future water needs.” The Maya built and maintained reservoirs that were in use for more than 1,000 years, wrote University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign anthropology professor Lisa Lucero in a perspective in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. These reservoirs provided potable water for thousands to tens of thousands of people in cities during the annual, five-month dry season and in periods of prolonged ...

Hamilton, ON, Oct. 9, 2023 – New analysis of the remains of victims of the 1918 influenza pandemic, which killed an estimated 50 million people worldwide, contradicts the widespread belief the flu disproportionately impacted healthy young adults.  Because so many people fell ill so quickly, physicians at the time believed the healthy were as likely to die from the flu as those who had already been sick or frail. Despite numerous historical accounts, though, it turns out there is no concrete scientific evidence to support that belief. Researchers at McMaster University and the University of Colorado Boulder ...

LOS ANGELES — Approximately 7% of Americans have had long COVID, a range of ongoing health problems experienced after infection and recovery from COVID-19. Symptoms can include fatigue, brain fog, headaches, chest pain, heart palpitations and more.   To date, there is no proven treatment for the syndrome, and the mechanisms that cause it are not fully understood.   Now, a new clinical trial from Keck Medicine of USC is investigating if a diet designed to lower inflammation may play a role in easing this often debilitating condition.   The premise of ...

Miriam Merad, M.D., Ph.D., an esteemed immunologist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, has been elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) in recognition of her pioneering contributions to the fields of immunology and cell biology. Dr. Merad was elected for her transformational discoveries, establishing for the first time that tissue-resident macrophages have distinct origins, maintain their lineage separately from adult hematopoiesis, and possess unique functions that enhance tissue health, repair, infection defense, and impact tumor outcomes. She is the Mount Sinai Professor ...

In cases where standard therapies fail, a medication called XEN1101 reduces seizure frequency by more than 50% in some patients and sometimes eliminates them altogether, a new study shows. Unlike several treatments that must be started at low doses and slowly ramped up, the new drug can safety be taken at its most effective dose from the start, the authors say. Focal seizures, the most common type seen in epilepsy, occur when nerve cells in a particular brain region send out a sudden, excessive burst of electrical signals. Along with seizures, this uncontrolled activity can lead to abnormal behavior, periods of lost awareness, and mood changes. ...

*EMBARGOED UNTIL 11 A.M. MONDAY, OCT. 9* Liquid biopsies are blood tests that can serially measure circulating tumor DNA (cell-free DNA that is shed into the bloodstream by dying cancer cells). When used in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer undergoing immunotherapy, they may identify patients who could benefit from treatment with additional drugs, according to a phase 2 clinical trial in the U.S. and Canada. The trial is led by investigators at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and its Bloomberg~Kimmel ...

In the game of soccer (association football), goalkeepers have a unique role. To do the job well, they must be ready to make split-second decisions based on incomplete information to stop their opponents from scoring a goal. Now researchers reporting in Current Biology on October 9 have some of the first solid scientific evidence that goalkeepers show fundamental differences in the way they perceive the world and process multi-sensory information. “Unlike other football players, goalkeepers are required to make thousands of very fast decisions based on limited or incomplete sensory information,” says Michael Quinn, the study’s ...

About The Study: This study of 23,000 individuals found a higher risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease, and ischemic heart disease mortality among adults with moderate to severe depressive symptoms compared to those without depressive symptoms. Public health efforts to improve awareness and treatment of depression and associated risk factors could support a comprehensive, nationwide strategy to reduce the burden of depression.  Authors: Zefeng Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, is the corresponding author.  To access the embargoed study: ...

About The Study: During the first full calendar year of the pandemic, approximately 1 in 5 adolescents had major depressive disorder, and less than half of adolescents who needed treatment had any mental health treatment, according to this analysis of nationally representative survey data of 10,000 U.S. adolescents. Adolescents in racial and ethnic minority groups, particularly Latinx, experienced the lowest treatment rates. Authors: Michael William Flores, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Cambridge Health Alliance in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is the corresponding author. To access ...

A new, bio-inspired drug restores the effectiveness of immune cells in fighting cancer, a team led by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin has found. In mouse models of melanoma, bladder cancer, leukemia and colon cancer, the drug slows the growth of tumors, extends lifespan and boosts the efficacy of immunotherapy. The research is published in the journal Cancer Cell and could be a game changer for many cancer patients. Many cancers delete a stretch of DNA called 9p21, which is the most common deletion across all cancers, occurring in 25%-50% of certain cancers such as melanoma, bladder ...

A new combination of treatments safely decreased growth of pancreatic cancer in mice by preventing cancer cells from scavenging for fuel, a new study finds. Led by researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, its Department of Radiation Oncology, and the Perlmutter Cancer Center, the work builds on prior discoveries at NYU Langone that revealed how pancreatic cancer cells, to avert starvation and keep growing, find alternate fuel sources. Normally supplied by the bloodstream, oxygen, blood sugar, and other resources become scarce as the increasing density of fast-growing pancreatic tumors cuts off their own blood supply. ...

The intricate control of cellular metabolism relies on the coordinated and harmonious interplay between the nucleus and mitochondria. On the one hand, mitochondria are the hub for the production of essential metabolites, which aside from being required to meet the energy demands of the cell, also serve as the building blocks for constructing both genetic and epigenetic landscapes in the nucleus. On the other hand, the majority of mitochondrial metabolic enzymes are encoded by the nuclear genome, making the function of these two organelles highly interdependent on one another. Inter-organellar communication is aided by molecules that shuttle between these two compartments. ...

Each year, approximately 800,000 people in the U.S. experience a stroke, according to the American Heart Association’s 2023 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistical Update. Individuals and groups making a difference in the stroke community have a chance to be nationally recognized with a 2024 Stroke Hero Award from the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, which is devoted to a world of healthier lives for all. Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death and a leading cause of serious, long-term ...

The University of Louisville has received $16 million to help increase Kentuckians’ access to health care, particularly in underserved rural and urban areas. The UofL School of Medicine will use the funds from a four-year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to train more primary care physicians and encourage them to practice in underserved communities where they are needed. Kentucky has a severe shortage of health care providers, with at least some portion of 113 of the state’s 120 counties designated as Health Professional Shortage Areas, including ...

The vast majority of people who have a minimally invasive heart valve replacement procedure do not participate in recommended cardiac rehabilitation, a Michigan Medicine-led study finds. Researchers used clinical registry and health care claims data from over 3,300 patients who underwent transcatheter aortic valve replacement, or TAVR, in Michigan across 24 hospitals between 2016 and mid-2020, to determine the rate of cardiac rehabilitation participation and the factors associated with its utilization. Results published in JACC: Advances reveal that just 30.6% ...

The “Margaritaville” in Jimmy Buffett’s famous song isn’t a real place, but it’s long been associated with the Florida Keys. This string of tropical islands is home to the only living coral barrier reef in the continental US, along with many animals found nowhere else in the world. One of them is a newly-discovered, bright yellow snail, named in honor of Margaritaville. The lemon- (or, key-lime-) colored snail, along with its lime-green cousin from Belize, is the subject of a study published in the journal PeerJ. These marine snails are distant relatives of the land-dwelling gastropods you ...

To address a crisis of unmet mental health needs among seniors with dementia and their family caregivers amid a shortage of mental health providers with expertise treating this population, McLean Hospital, a member of Mass General Brigham, has entered into an agreement to offer strategic advisory services and professional education to Rippl Care. Rippl provides specialty dementia care and is pioneering a new care model in an effort to expand access to high quality, wraparound behavioral healthcare for seniors, their families and caregivers. Under McLean’s agreement with Rippl Care, leaders in the ...

Advisory Highlights: A new American Heart Association presidential advisory identifies the strong connections among cardiovascular disease (CVD), kidney disease, Type 2 diabetes and obesity, and suggests redefining CVD risk, prevention and management. The advisory defines cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic (CKM) syndrome for the first time. CKM syndrome ranges from Stage 0, or no risk factors and an entirely preventive focus, to Stage 4, the highest-risk stage with cardiovascular disease. Stage 4 may also include kidney failure. The advisory urges use of a new tool that will predict someone’s likelihood of heart attack, stroke and/or heart failure ...

BOSTON – Although several medications are approved to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), some individuals experience limited benefits from the drugs or develop side effects from their use. A recent clinical trial published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), a founding member of Mass General Brigham (MGB), has demonstrated that the drug solriamfetol may be an effective alternative for managing ADHD in adults. Solriamfetol is currently approved in the United States for ...

A team of researchers from Queen Mary University of London and the University of Campinas in Brazil has found that tropical forest ecosystems are more reliant on aquatic insects than temperate forest ecosystems and are therefore more vulnerable to disruptions to the links between land and water.  The study, published in the journal Ecology Letters, is the first to directly compare the interconnections between land and water in tropical and temperate environments via the emergence of aquatic insects. The researchers used a technique called stable isotope analysis to trace ...

Utrecht University geologist Suzanna van de Lagemaat has reconstructed a massive and previously unknown tectonic plate that was once one-quarter the size of the Pacific Ocean. Her colleagues in Utrecht had predicted its existence over 10 years ago based on fragments of old tectonic plates found deep in the Earth’s mantle. Van de Lagemaat reconstructed lost plates through field research and detailed investigations of the mountain belts of Japan, Borneo, the Philippines, New Guinea, and New Zealand. To her surprise, she found that oceanic remnants on northern Borneo must have belonged to the long-suspected plate, which scientists have named Pontus. She has now reconstructed ...

An international team of scientists have discovered a huge spike in radiocarbon levels 14,300 years ago by analysing ancient tree-rings found in the French Alps.    The radiocarbon spike was caused by a massive solar storm, the biggest ever identified.   A similar solar storm today would be catastrophic for modern technological society – potentially wiping out telecommunications and satellite systems, causing massive electricity grid blackouts, and costing us billions of pounds.   The academics are warning of the importance ...

A new study found that an alternative model to identify patients with lung cancer eligible for screening was more accurate than the currently used method based on the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) criteria. The results are published by Wiley online in CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths, and using low-dose computed tomography scans to screen people who are at elevated risk for lung cancer reduces lung cancer deaths. The USPSTF criteria use age and smoking history to determine ...

Type of work: peer-reviewed/randomised controlled trial/people SSRI antidepressants normally take a few weeks before any showing mental health benefits, but how come it takes so long? Now a study from a group of clinicians and scientists provides the first human evidence that this is due to physical changes in the brain leading to greater brain plasticity developing over the first few weeks of SSRI intake. This may also begin to explain one of the mechanisms of how antidepressants work. This work is presented at the ECNP conference in Barcelona on 9th October. This ...

Type of work: Peer-reviewed / experimental study / people Up to a third of mothers don’t bond well with their babies after birth, causing intense emotional distress to both mother and baby1. Now researchers have found that they can train at-risk expectant mothers to recognise and regulate emotions better, potentially reducing their risk of postpartum depression. Presenting the work at the ECNP Congress in Barcelona, researcher Dr Anne Bjertrup said: People generally have an automatic tendency to see the positive or negative in any situation. In previous studies we saw that certain ...