Hormone-free male contraceptive pill passes first safety test

Women are less likely than men to receive drugs for multiple sclerosis (MS) between the ages of 18 to 40, during women's childbearing years, even when those drugs have been shown to be safe for use during pregnancy or to have a prolonged effect against the disease even when stopped before conception, according to a study published in Neurology.

As temperatures rise, California is experiencing fewer deaths from cold temperatures, which outweigh increased deaths from extreme heat. However, hotter temperatures sharply increase emergency department visits—a previously overlooked consequence of climate change that could place a greater burden on the health care system.

A new study reveals that fragmented sleep causes cellular damage to the brain's blood vessels, providing further evidence to suggest that sleep disruption predisposes the brain to dementia.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer worldwide, and early detection is key to successful treatment. While traditional methods rely on visual inspection and biopsy, researchers are developing new technologies that can provide more detailed information without cutting into the skin.

New research published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) finds that prolonged and/or repeated exposure to gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) anesthetic agents (sevoflurane, propofol) for infants in the first two months of life resulted in an accelerated maturation of brain electrical activity patterns evoked by visual stimuli when recorded at 2–5 months of age, compared to infants who did not have early general anesthesia exposure.

In a small trial, Mass General Brigham researchers have found that a drug designed to treat celiac disease supported a more rapid return to normal activities for patients following COVID.

A mutant DJ-1 gene causes recessive Parkinson's disease, but the molecular mechanism of this process has not been well studied. To understand how DJ-1 hydrolyzes cyclic 3-phosphoglyceric anhydride—a highly reactive, toxic cellular metabolite—researchers from Japan have performed molecular simulations and biochemical assays, including mutational analyses, confirming DJ-1's role in the pathogenesis of hereditary Parkinson's disease.

The Black Death arrived on the shores of England in May 1348 and, in less than two years, spread throughout the country, killing an estimated 2 million people. The death toll from the disease, which was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, got so high that officials in London and other cities opened new cemeteries where hundreds of bodies were interred every day.

Although metformin has been the go-to medication to manage type 2 diabetes for more than 60 years, researchers still do not have a complete picture of how it works.

Your feet are microbial hotspots. The area between your toes is packed with sweat glands, and when we wrap our feet in socks and shoes, we trap that moisture in a warm, humid cocoon that's ideal for microbial growth. In fact, your feet may be home to a miniature rainforest of bacteria and fungi, with anywhere from 100 to 10 million microbial cells per square centimeter of skin surface.

Employees of the technology transfer center ANAXAM and researchers from the Paul Scherrer Institute PSI used the unique analytical methods available at PSI to look inside pre-filled syringes. They found that, in rare cases, zinc from the needle shield can leach into the drug solution to be injected and possibly contribute to syringe clogging.

Spinal cord damage—whether from traumatic injury or conditions such as spina bifida—can have a profound impact on bladder function. This can result in neurogenic bladder, a problem in which damage to the nerves involved in urination leads to a loss of bladder control. Neurogenic bladder is currently managed with medication, Botox injections, and catheterization.

No one knows exactly how many doses of coronavirus vaccines were discarded during the pandemic. But the numbers are high. The media reported that 125,000 doses went unused in Norway during 2021 alone.

Nitrous oxide deaths in the United States spiked by more than 500% between 2010 and 2023, a new study indicates.

Brazilian researchers have taken an important step toward precision medicine by identifying four genes that can predict which melanoma patients will not respond to immunotherapy. Although this treatment has revolutionized the fight against melanoma, the most aggressive and lethal form of skin cancer, it is still costly and variable in efficacy, which limits its use, especially in the SUS (Sistema Único de Saúde), the country's national public health system. The goal is to use this finding to create ways to identify patients who are eligible for treatment, thus reducing costs in the public health system.

When school starts in West Virginia next month, 240,000 students in districts large and small will notice something missing from their cafeteria trays.

Depression is a mental health disorder characterized by a recurrent or persistent sadness and a loss of interest in activities that were previously deemed pleasurable, sometimes accompanied by changes in sleep, appetite and perceived energy levels. One of the most debilitating types of depression is major depressive disorder (MDD), which entails a pervasive low mood for a prolonged time, which in turn adversely impacts people's ability to engage in daily activities.

In a new study led by Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), researchers found that novel eye-tracking metrics can help properly identify concussion-related vision disorders, a common phenomenon among patients with persisting post-concussive symptoms that last more than 28 days after their initial injury. The findings, recently published in the Journal of Sport and Health Science, suggest that objective infrared eye tracking could help identify which patients would benefit the most from referrals to and treatment from concussion specialists.