New research at the University of Massachusetts Amherst zeroes in on the root cause of adverse health effects from disruption of the body’s circadian rhythms, which typically occurs from jet lag and rotating work shifts. “Circadian disruption impacts a lot of things,” says lead author Michael Seifu Bahiru, a Ph.D. candidate in the lab of […]
In the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, doctors tried a variety of medications to determine what was helpful to prevent the deaths caused by a virus which humans had no natural immunity against. It was reported that using dexamethasone, a common steroid, prevented deaths in patients who had severe COVID-19 and were on ventilators […]
Researchers at Boston University, USA report that the flow of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain is linked to waking brain activity. Led by Stephanie Williams, and publishing in the open access journal PLOS Biology on March 30th, the study demonstrates that manipulating blood flow in the brain with visual stimulation induces complementary fluid flow. The […]
Acetylcholine regulates blood flow, but the source of blood acetylcholine has been unclear. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet have discovered that certain T cells in human blood can produce acetylcholine, which may help regulate blood pressure and inflammation. The study, which is published in PNAS, also demonstrates a possible association between these immune cells in […]
It might become possible to inject proteins into specific cells in the body thanks to bacterial “nanosyringes” tweaked to target human cells. This could lead to safer and more effective treatments for a wide range of conditions, including cancer. Large molecules such as proteins can have much more specific and powerful effects than small-molecule drugs […]
A new study led by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) brings into sharper focus the structural details of the COVID-19 virus, revealing an elliptical shape that “breathes,” or changes shape, as it moves in the body. “Understanding the SARS-COV-2 virus envelope should allow us to model the actual process of the virus attaching to the cell […]
A common amino acid, glycine, can deliver a “slow-down” signal to the brain, likely contributing to major depression, anxiety and other mood disorders in some people, scientists at the Wertheim UF Scripps Institute for Biomedical Innovation & Technology have found. The discovery, outlined on March 31 in the journal Science, improves understanding of the biological […]
More than 55 million people globallyTrusted Source have dementia — an umbrella term for a number of diseases causing memory loss and cognitive decline. While scientists are still not sure what causes dementia, they know certain conditions may impact whether a person develops dementia or not. One of these is high blood pressure. Previous research […]
Using a new way of analysing mortality records, figures from 19 high-income countries suggest that we haven’t yet approached the maximum human lifespan and could see the record start to rise in the next few decades. “We don’t appear to be approaching a maximum limit at the moment,” says the study’s lead researcher David McCarthy […]
Investigators from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai have discovered that patients who have round hearts shaped like baseballs are more likely to develop future heart failure and atrial fibrillation than patients who have longer hearts. “We found that individuals with spherical hearts were 31% more likely to develop atrial fibrillation and 24% more likely […]