Author Archives: Rocio Gallegos, MD

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurological disease that usually leads to permanent disabilities. One key feature of the disease is that it causes the patient’s own immune system to attack and destroy the myelin sheaths in the central nervous system. Myelin sheaths ensure that electrical impulses travel quickly and efficiently from nerve cell to nerve […]

Researchers with McMaster University and Denmark-based pharmaceutical company ALK-Abello A/S have made a groundbreaking discovery: a new cell that remembers allergies. The discovery gives scientists and researchers a new target in treating allergies and could lead to new therapeutics. “We’ve discovered a type of memory B cell that had unique characteristics and a unique gene […]

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most common type of inflammatory arthritis and affects 18 million people worldwide. It is a complex autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation. This inflammation can cause the destruction of cartilage and bone, eventually leading to limitations, disabilities, loss of function, decreased quality of life, and possibly shortened life expectancy. “A major […]

A team of University of Wisconsin-Madison scientists has developed the first 3D-printed brain tissue that can grow and function like typical brain tissue. Printing methods have limited the success of previous attempts to print brain tissue, according to Zhang and Yuanwei Yan, a scientist in Zhang’s lab. Instead of using the traditional 3D-printing approach, stacking […]

Washington State University researchers measured the stress hormone cortisol in hair samples of 53 women in their third trimester. Of that group, 13 women who had elevated cortisol levels later experienced unpredicted birth complications, such as an early birth or hemorrhaging. “There was otherwise nothing about these women that would suggest a disease or anything […]

CDD causes seizures and impaired development in children, and medications are limited to managing symptoms rather than tackling the root cause of the disease. The disorder involves losing the function of a gene producing the CDKL5 enzyme, which phosphorylates proteins, meaning it adds an extra phosphate molecule to alter their function. Following recent research from […]

But what if you could ease pain by non-invasively manipulating a spot inside your brain where pain is registered? A new study by Wynn Legon, assistant professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, and his team points to that possibility. The study found soundwaves from low-intensity focused ultrasound aimed at a place deep […]

Asthma is more common among high school students who use cannabis, relative to those who do not and the prevalence of asthma increases with the frequency of its use among the students, according to a new study.  Data were drawn from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, a CDC national high school survey, which […]

Tomato juice can kill Salmonella Typhi and other bacteria that can harm people’s digestive and urinary tract health, according to new research. Salmonella Typhi is a deadly human-specific pathogen that causes typhoid fever. First, the researchers, in laboratory experiments, checked to see if tomato juice really does kill Salmonella Typhi. Once they ascertained it did, […]