General

Atrial fibrillation, which basically is an irregular and rapid heart rate, is actually a quite common condition. It does increase the risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related health problems, while the risk of Atrial fibrillation can be influenced by alcohol. But not all alcohol torments your heart equally. […]

Study provides insight on what blood pressure targets in patients with hypertension according to glucose status should be. An estimated 1.13 billion people worldwide have hypertension or high blood pressure, and two-thirds of these individuals are living in low- and middle-income countries. Blood pressure is the force manifested by circulating […]

Scientists at UC say restoring a brain protein, not removing amyloid plaques, should be the target. Experts estimate more than 6 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s dementia. But a recent study, led by the University of Cincinnati, sheds new light on the disease and a highly debated new drug […]

COVID-19 pandemic is not over and it will not be over for quite some time. The only way we can bring the ending of it closer is by vaccinating. But for how long will these vaccines provide us the necessary protection? Scientists at UCL found that the total antibody levels […]

Fraser Island (K’gari) funnel web spider can bite and kill you. Sure, we now have strong anti-venoms, but it can be deadly. However, it can also be life-saving as scientists have developed a drug candidate from a molecule found in the venom of funnel web spiders. These drugs could one […]

Mammals have a poor ability to recover after a spinal cord injury which can result in paralysis. A main reason for this is the formation of a complex scar associated with chronic inflammation that produces a cellular microenvironment that blocks tissue repair. Now, a research team led by Leonor Saude, […]

Castration is known to extend life in male sheep. Researchers here show that epigenetic clocks constructed for this species show the expected slowing of epigenetic aging following castration. This is a way to dig deeper into the question of how it is that females live longer than males in mammalian […]

Scientists have completed the largest and most diverse genetic study of Type 1 diabetes ever undertaken, identifying new drug targets to treat a condition that affects 1.3 million American adults. Several potential drugs are already in the pipeline. Drugs targeting 12 genes identified in the diabetes study have been tested […]

University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have discovered a previously unknown repair process in the brain that they hope could be harnessed and enhanced to treat seizure-related brain injuries. Common seizure-preventing drugs do not work for approximately a third of epilepsy patients, so new and better treatments for such […]

Some of the world’s most common allergy-inducing critters, from dust mites to fungi to shellfish, have one thing in common: chitin, the polymer that makes tough cell walls in mushrooms, fungal spores and crunchy lobster exoskeletons. A whiff of chitin triggers an immune response in the lungs, likely to prepare […]

CT scans for patients with concussions provide critical information about their risk for long-term impairment and potential to make a complete recovery – findings that underscore the need for physician follow-up. In a study led by UC San Francisco, researchers looked at the CT scans of 1,935 patients, ages 17 […]

In the largest study of its kind, an investigation by UC San Francisco has found no evidence that moderate coffee consumption can cause cardiac arrhythmia. In fact, each additional daily cup of coffee consumed among several hundred thousand individuals was associated with a 3 percent lower risk of any arrhythmia […]

New research adds to a body of evidence indicating decisions about withdrawing life-sustaining treatment for patients with moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) should not be made in the early days following the injury. In the study published in JAMA Neurology, researchers led by UC San Francisco, Medical College of Wisconsin […]

When we are exposed to a pathogen, the immune system’s B cells swarm to our lymph nodes, spleens, and tonsils. There, those cells mutate in germinal centers—microscopic boot camps that rush the B cells through volleys of mutations to produce the most potent antibodies for neutralizing the infectious agent. As […]

Developing drugs to combat tuberculosis, or TB, can be frustrating business. A gene essential to the bacteria’s lifecycle is discovered, scientists rush to develop drugs that inhibit the target, and then—disappointment. Volleys of compounds hurled at the essential gene target have little impact on microbial growth. The bacteria live on. […]