Cystic fibrosis is one of the most common fatal hereditary diseases worldwide. As many as 8,000 children, teens, and adults are living with the disease in Germany today. An imbalance in salt and water transport across mucosal surfaces of the body causes people with cystic fibrosis to produce thick, sticky secretions that harm organs such […]
The link between vitamin D and skin cancers has been studied abundantly in the past, but these studies have mainly focused on serum levels of calcidiol, which is a metabolite of vitamin D, and its association with skin cancers. Findings from these studies have been inconclusive and even contradictory at times, as serum calcidiol levels […]
Gestational diabetes is a global health issue affecting almost 3 million pregnant women worldwide every year. It is a condition characterized by elevated blood sugar levels during pregnancy, posing increased health risks for both mothers and their babies. Professor Fidelma Dunne, Professor of Medicine at University of Galway and Consultant Endocrinologist at Saolta University Health […]
High cholesterol is mainly caused by diets high in saturated fat, carrying excess fat around your waist and not exercising enough, and is described, alongside high blood pressure, as one of the ‘silent killers’ that are often symptomless and only identified through a medical emergency. Elevated levels of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, often referred to […]
Huntington’s disease is among the so-called polyglutamine (polyQ) diseases, a group of neurodegenerative disorders caused by multiple repetitions of glutamine amino acids in specific proteins. Huntington’s disease is an inherited condition that causes widespread deterioration in the brain and disrupts thinking, behavior, emotion and movement. In their recent study, Professor Dr David Vilchez (CECAD) and […]
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the destruction of certain neurons in the brain: dopamine neurons. The main symptoms of this disease are tremors, slowness of movement and muscular stiffness. Epidemiological studies show that other disorders may be associated, such as disturbances of sleep and of the circadian cycle. This cycle, defined […]
A team of researchers has uncovered a previously unknown compensatory mechanism found in liver disease. If Kupffer cells (KCs), a specific kind of immune cells found in the liver, become impaired by tissue scarring, immune cells originating in the bone marrow flow to the organ, where they form larger cell clusters to perform the same […]
This new research is the first to find evidence of higher levels of depression and anxiety among higher education students compared with their peers. The authors found that by age 25, the difference had disappeared between graduates and non-graduates. Lead author Dr Gemma Lewis said: “In recent years in the UK we have seen an […]
Scientists have long recognized the fact that mitochondrial DNA, or mtDNA, comes exclusively from egg cells in humans, meaning only the mother contributes the genetic code carried by thousands of mitochondria necessary for energy production in every cell in the body. Previously, it was believed that paternal mtDNA was eliminated soon after a sperm fuses […]
There are currently around 55,920 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed in the UK each year and it is the leading cause of cancer-related death in women worldwide. In a new study researchers developed a technique using sodium magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to detect salt levels in breast cancer tumors in mice. Using this technique, […]