COVID-19 linked to increased asthma risk—vaccine offers protection

Northwestern Medicine scientists have discovered how a subset of immune cells are essential for successful organ transplantation acceptance and that therapeutically targeting them may improve long-term survival post-transplant, according to a recent study published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Cholera has claimed at least 40 lives in Sudan's Darfur region over the last week as the country weathers its worst outbreak in years, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) said on Thursday.

Survival for all cancers combined has increased dramatically since the 1970s, but progress has slowed down in the past 10–15 years, according to a study by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM).

A study published in The Journal of Rural Health sheds new light on the persistent and troubling disparities in chronic pain prevalence between rural and urban populations in the United States.

A study by ethnobotanist Hemerson Dantas dos Santos Pataxó Hãhãhãi has revived the ancestral healing knowledge of his Indigenous people. Currently a doctoral student at the Institute of Environmental, Chemical, and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Federal University of São Paulo (ICAQF-UNIFESP) in Brazil, he belongs to the Pataxó Hã-Hã-Hãi people. According to his doctoral advisor, Eliana Rodrigues, he is the world's first Indigenous ethnobotanical researcher.

While smoking rates in the United States have substantially declined over the past six decades, smoking remains high among people with low incomes, leading to health disparities. A smartphone app that delivers real-time, tailored messages may hold the key to helping them quit, according to University of Oklahoma clinical trial results published in JAMA Network Open.

Shedding light on what determines how cells become what they are meant to be—nerves, bone, muscles, etc.—can also help researchers understand how diseases develop when these biological programs break down. Now, researchers at Case Western Reserve University have discovered a key synergistic role for two epigenetic markers—molecules that help tell genes to turn on and off—involved in programming cell fate. Importantly, turning off these two markers causes genes to over-activate, disrupting normal cell development.

Scientists at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the University of Michigan have developed a monoclonal antibody to stop sepsis, a deadly full-body infection. The antibody also has the potential to treat a broad array of other inflammatory conditions, including autoimmune disorders, their research indicates.

The underlying causes of this increase are not fully understood. The researchers note that the trend does not appear to be driven by known risk factors for colorectal cancer in younger people, such as inflammatory bowel disease and hereditary factors. Instead, environmental and lifestyle factors early in life may play a role.

A novel drilling plate simulating the tactile and structural properties of natural human dental tissues may provide dental students with increasingly realistic training opportunities in the preclinical phase. The new drilling plate was assessed by dental educators as part of an international study led by the University of Eastern Finland.

Preventing and managing high blood pressure with healthy lifestyle behaviors, such as following a heart-healthy diet including reducing salt intake, staying physically active, maintaining a healthy weight and managing stress—combined with early treatment with medication to lower blood pressure if necessary—are recommended to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, heart failure, kidney disease, cognitive decline and dementia, according to a new clinical guideline published in Circulation, Hypertension, and in JACC.

A study, published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation titled "Single Dose Genome Editing Therapy Rescues Auditory and Vestibular Functions in Adult Mice with DFNA41 Deafness," provides an example of a successful use of gene-editing technology to treat a mouse model of human genetic hearing loss.

A research team co-led by UCLA investigators has found that pembrolizumab, an immunotherapy drug that helps the immune system attack cancer cells, can effectively shrink or eliminate tumors in patients with unresectable advanced desmoplastic melanoma, a rare and often aggressive form of skin cancer.

Wildfire smoke contains pollutants that are hazardous to health, including fine particles (PM2.5), which have been linked to increased mortality and morbidity. A new study by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), provides strong evidence that PM2.5 from wildfires poses a greater mortality risk than non-fire-related particles. The results, published in The Lancet Planetary Health, also indicate that mortality associated with wildfire smoke may be underestimated by 93%.

Roughly two-thirds of children with pediatrician-diagnosed asthma have a confirmed diagnosis in accordance with international guideline criteria requiring two or more positive objective tests, according to a study published online Aug. 8 in Pediatric Pulmonology.

A research team revealed that microplastics introduced into the body may bind to proteins in vivo, disrupt the function of brain cells, and act as neurotoxicants. Based on proteomics analysis, the study precisely demonstrated how microplastics bound to proteins alter biological properties in the body and cause inflammatory responses and cellular function disruptions.

In patients with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) is associated with improved urinary function and reduced lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS), according to a study published online July 6 in The Prostate.

Many different mutational signatures, or "fingerprints" of DNA damage have been identified across different tumor types which can provide a record of environmental exposure or clues about the etiology of carcinogenesis. Most of the mutational signature characterization has been performed using tumors from American and European populations due to the availability of sequencing data in these regions from large-scale atlases such as The Cancer Genome Atlas and the International Cancer Genome Consortium. While some unique mutational signatures have been identified in various Asian populations, mutational signatures and their activity in tumors from Chinese patients have not been well characterized across cancer types.