Author Archives: Karely Vega, MD

Gut Microbiome Can Increase Risk, Severity of HIV, EBV Disease

Recent research has shown that the bacteria and other microbes in our gut play a supporting role in immunity, metabolism, digestion, and the fight against “bad bacteria” that try to invade our bodies. However, new research published in Nature Biotechnology by Angela Wahl, PhD, Balfour Sartor, MD, J. Victor Garcia, PhD, and UNC School of […]

Parkinson’s Risk and Playing Football

Repetitive head impacts from tackle football can have long-term neurological consequences like chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE). But research on the association between participation in tackle football and PD is limited. In the largest study to describe the association between participation in football and the odds for having a reported diagnosis of PD, researchers from the […]

Long COVID Symptoms: Months After Infection

Long COVID can persist for at least a year after the acute illness has passed, or appear months later, according to the most comprehensive look yet at how symptoms play out over a year. The multicenter study, a collaboration between UC San Francisco, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and seven other sites, […]

Common Cold Virus and Blood Clotting Disorder

Viral infections, autoimmune disease, and other conditions can cause platelet levels to drop throughout the body, termed thrombocytopenia. After a robust clinical and research collaboration, Stephan Moll, MD, and Jacquelyn Baskin-Miller, MD, both in the UNC School of Medicine, have linked adenovirus infection with a rare blood clotting disorder.  This is the first time that […]

Sugar-Sweetened Drinks Daily: Liver Disease

Approximately 65% of adults in the United States consume sugar sweetened beverages daily.  Researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, led one of the first studies to look at the association between intake of sugar-sweetened beverages, artificially sweetened beverages, and incidence of liver cancer and chronic […]

Stem Cell Therapy for Alzheimer’s

In the ongoing search for a cure for Alzheimer’s disease, a burgeoning branch of medicine is bringing new hope. Stem cell therapies are already being used to treat various cancers and disorders of the blood and immune system.  In the study, publishing this month in Cell Reports, the researchers demonstrate that transplanting hematopoietic stem and […]

Laboratory Research Finds Gluten Caused Brain Inflammation in Mice

In what is believed to be a world first discovery, University of Otago researchers have found wheat gluten causes brain inflammation in mice. The research, led by Associate Professor Alex Tups, and published in the Journal of Neuroendocrinology, may be of importance for human physiology. “Mice are an excellent model to study human physiology. They […]

Brain Stimulation Helps Parkinson’s Patients

Gait-related disturbances adversely affect the quality of life of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), a condition affecting millions worldwide.  Although various pharmacological, surgical, and rehabilitative treatments exist, their effectiveness is limited. Now, a team of researchers from Japan has successfully addressed this limitation. Using a novel neuromodulation approach that incorporates gait-combined closed-loop transcranial electrical stimulation, […]

How People Feel About Their Sleep Matters to Their Well-Being, New Research Suggests

How people feel about their sleep has a greater impact on their well-being than what sleep-tracking technology says about their sleep quality, research led by the University of Warwick has found. Across a two-week period, over 100 participants aged 18-22 years were asked to keep a daily sleep diary about the previous night’s sleep, including […]

Reversing Overdose Effects

An antibody in single-chain fragment variable (scFv) format that binds to the powerful opioid carfentanil was shown to reverse signs of carfentanil overdose in preclinical tests conducted by scientists at Scripps Research. Carfentanil is a variant of the synthetic opioid fentanyl, and about 100 times as potent as its chemical cousin. Along with fentanyl and […]