Worldwide, 1 in 4 people will suffer from a depressive episode in their lifetime. While current diagnosis and treatment approaches are largely trial and error, a breakthrough study sheds new light on the biological basis of mood disorders, and offers a promising blood test aimed at a precision medicine approach to treatment. Led by Alexander […]
Asthma is a debilitating condition that affects millions of people each year. A group of scientists led by immunologists and pulmonologists used advanced tools of immunology, molecular biology and unbiased computational and bioinformatic approaches to characterize immune profiles of patients with severe asthma. These findings invite a new appreciation for the complexity of disease mechanisms […]
For decades, it has been known that people with diabetes are at a substantially increased risk of developing severe lung disease if they become infected with viruses such as influenza, as well as with bacteria and fungi. When the COVID-19 pandemic started in early 2020, this mysterious phenomenon gained even more pressing importance: It became […]
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria have become a rapidly growing threat to public health. Each year, they account for more than 2.8 million infections, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Without new antibiotics, even common injuries and infections harbor the potential to become lethal. Scientists are now one step closer to eliminating that threat, […]
Autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are caused when the immune system mistakenly attacks a person’s own tissues or organs. These illnesses affect an estimated 10 million people in the U.S. alone. Treatments are available and can be effective for many patients, but they tend to suppress the immune system indiscriminately, creating an enhanced susceptibility […]
Researchers from the University of Jyväskylä and the Central Finland Health Care District have developed an AI based neural network to detect an early knee osteoarthritis from x-ray images. AI was able to match a doctors’ diagnosis in 87% of cases. Osteoarthritis is the most common joint-related ailment globally. The new AI based method was […]
Exposure to phthalates, a group of plasticizing and solvent chemicals found in many household products, was linked to a lower probability of getting pregnant, but not to pregnancy loss, according to research. Phthalates are found in such common products as shampoo, makeup, vinyl flooring, toys and medical devices. People are exposed primarily by ingesting food […]
A Loyola Medicine study provide further evidence that floppy eyelids may be a sign of sleep apnea. In a study published in the journal The Ocular Surface, corresponding author Charles Bouchard, MD, and colleagues reported that 53 percent of sleep apnea patients had upper eyelids that were lax and rubbery. The most severe cases of […]
Through a highly collaborative research effort led by the laboratory of Saïd Sebti, Ph.D, at the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center, a team of scientists has successfully developed a groundbreaking targeted therapy that hones in on the KRAS protein that drives some of the deadliest human cancers, including pancreatic, lung and colon tumors. Their findings […]
mRNA — or ‘messenger ribonucleic acid’ — is the genetic material that tells cells in the body how to make a specific protein. Researchers from the Medical Research Council (MRC) Toxicology Unit have discovered that the cellular machinery that ‘reads’ mRNAs ‘slips’ when confronted with repeats of a chemical modification commonly found in mRNA therapeutics. […]