General

Women who will develop potentially life-threatening disorders during pregnancy can be identified early when hormone levels in the placenta are tested, a new study has shown. Nearly all of the organ systems of the mother’s body need to alter their function during pregnancy so that the baby can grow. If […]

Scientists have identified key molecular events in the developing human embryo between days 7 and 14 – one of the most mysterious, yet critical, stages of our development. The second week of gestation represents a critical stage of embryo development, or embryogenesis. Failure of development during this time is one of the […]

Researchers have shown why people with mental health disorders, including anorexia and panic disorders, experience physical signals differently. The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, found that the part of the brain which interprets physical signals from the body behaves differently in people with a range of mental health disorders, […]

Scientists working to understand the cellular processes linking high cholesterol to breast cancer recurrence and metastasis report that a byproduct of cholesterol metabolism causes some cells to send out cancer-promoting signals to other cells. These signals are packaged in membrane-bound compartments called extracellular vesicles. Reported in the journal Endocrinology, the […]

Canine parvovirus (CPV) is a highly infectious pathogen that causes severe diseases in unvaccinated dogs, including inflammation of the heart and acute gastrointestinal illness. Originating in cats, the virus is a rare example of a DNA-based virus that can jump between species, and a team of researchers’ discovery may help […]

A clinical study has investigated whether immunotherapy against type 1 diabetes can preserve the body’s own production of insulin. The results suggest that injection of a protein, GAD, into lymph nodes can be effective in a subgroup of individuals. In type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune system attacks the cells […]

A study, led by Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (GMMH) and The University of Manchester (UoM), and funded by the National Institute for Healthcare Research (NIHR), has found that a mental health treatment called Metacognitive Therapy significantly improves symptoms of anxiety and depression for heart disease patients. These […]

Implant surface topography can influence the development of scarring, inflammation, and other complications, researchers find. Every year, about 400,000 people receive silicone breast implants in the United States. According to data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, a majority of those implants needs to be replaced within 10 years […]

Leukemia stem cells are rare cells that can renew themselves while continuing to generate malignant cells known as leukemic blasts. These cells are difficult to eradicate using chemotherapy drugs and frequently lead to recurrence of leukemia. Leukemia stem cells, however, are dependent on a protein complex called polycomb repressive complex […]

Scientists studied the brain activity of school-aged children during development and found that regions that activated upon seeing limbs (hands, legs, etc.) subsequently activated upon seeing faces or words when the children grew older. The research, by scientists at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, reveals new insights about vision development […]

Over the past two decades, targeted cancer therapies have changed the prognosis for thousands of patients. By targeting the specific genetic mutation behind a patient’s cancer, these therapies have enabled increasing numbers of patients to experience fewer toxic side effects and, often, live free of disease following their treatment. But […]

Acrylamide, which is extensively used in industries, causes peripheral neuropathy or encephalopathy. Now, scientists from Japan examined the response against oxidative stress in acrylamide-induced neurotoxicity and found that nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), a master regulator of the immune system and response to oxidative stress, was at the […]

Regenerative medicine researchers have made progress toward overcoming a seemingly intractable obstacle to stem cell-derived heart cell transplantation for repairing damaged heart muscle. Their approach is a significant advance toward making heart cell transplants a potential reality for patients with cardiac disease. Their findings were presented at the International Society for Stem […]

New study challenges long-standing assumptions about disease severity in infants. Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, remains a significant cause of death in infants and young children around the world and, despite global vaccination programs, many countries are experiencing a resurgence of this highly contagious disease. A new study by Boston […]

Articular cartilage is a connective tissue lining the surfaces of joints. When the cartilage severely wears down, it leads to osteoarthritis (OA), a debilitating disease that affects millions of people globally. The articular cartilage is composed of a dense extracellular matrix (ECM) with a sparse distribution of cells found in healthy […]

If the genome is the recipe of life, base pairs are the individual ingredients listed. These chemical structures form DNA, and every living organism on Earth has just four. The specific arrangements of these four base pairs — A, T, C, G — make us who and what we are. […]

The gut and the brain communicate with each other in order to adapt satiety and blood sugar levels during food consumption. The vagus nerve is an important communicator between these two organs. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, the Cluster of Excellence for Ageing Research […]

A hydrogel that forms a barrier to keep heart tissue from adhering to surrounding tissue after surgery was developed and successfully tested in rodents by a team of University of California San Diego researchers. The team of engineers, scientists and physicians also conducted a pilot study on porcine hearts, with […]

Neutrophils belong to the first responders of our immune system. They circulate in our bodies and hunt in infected tissues to ingest, kill, and digest harmful pathogens. To become such effective killers in the very complex situation of an inflamed tissue, they work together as a collective. They release chemical […]

Many diseases caused by a dysregulated immune system, such as allergies, asthma and autoimmunity, can be traced back to events in the first few months after birth. To date, the mechanisms behind the development of the immune system have not been fully understood. Now, researchers at Karolinska Institutet show a […]

A noted diabetes researcher and public health advocate from the University of Toronto has been selected to lead a “powerhouse” research network that will focus on the global fight against diabetes and other serious chronic diseases. Lorraine Lipscombe, a physician and associate professor in the department of medicine in the […]

Case Western Reserve University researchers studying prions—misfolded proteins that cause lethal incurable diseases—have identified for the first time surface features of human prions responsible for their replication in the brain. The ultimate goal of the research is to help design a strategy to stop prion disease in humans—and, ultimately, to […]

University of Utah Health scientists and collaborators with the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Consortium have developed a rich resource for studying how the brain changes and matures during adolescence: a collection of functional MRI scans revealed patterns of brain activity in more than 6,000 9- and 10-year-old children. The […]

Evolution is hardly predictable. But it works. And works so well, that this efficiency of evolving is often underestimated by a large part of scientific community. Quick fact: in less than two weeks bacteria can evolve to resist antibiotics thousands of times stronger than what would have killed them at […]

A large international study on the effects of cooling the brain after a cardiac arrest shows that contrary to current treatment recommendations, it doesn’t actually improve survival or recovery. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggests that a less intensive approach to temperature control in these patients […]

Christina often struggled to get through the average day. A former teacher diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression – along with OCD, bipolar disorder and Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) – was unable to work. At one point she was taking almost 60 different pills per day, with little to no effect […]

Altering traumatic memories in a way that eases their burden could be the key to treating survivors of post-traumatic stress disorder and other anxiety disorders, according to one of the University of Alberta’s newest Canada Research Chairs (CRC). Peggy St. Jacques, the psychology researcher in the Faculty of Science and CRC in […]

The B.1.1.7 coronavirus variant—also known as Alpha—may be more infectious because it contains mutations that make it better adapted to foil the innate immune system, at least for long enough to allow the virus to replicate and potentially find new hosts, according to a new study on BioRxiv. In the study, […]

New research published challenges a popular belief that intermittent fasting diets such as alternate day fasting or the ‘5:2’ are the most effective ways to lose weight. Over recent years, diets that see people fast on a few days each week have increased in popularity, reinforced by images of people’s […]

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet found industrial chemicals in the organs of fetuses conceived decades after many countries had banned the substances. In a study published in the journal Chemosphere, the researchers urge decision-makers to consider the combined impact of the mix of chemicals that accumulate in people and nature. “These […]