Clinical Trials & Research

Counties that banned in-person religious gatherings and those with a greater number of hospitals per capita were associated with a decreased case-fatality rate of COVID-19 during the pandemic’s first wave, according to a new University of Michigan study. On the other hand, counties with high prevalence of asthma and a greater concentration of people over

A devastating genetic disease called CDKL5 deficiency disorder (CDD), which strikes in early childhood, may be significantly treatable even in adulthood, a new study from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania suggests. CDD is caused by the mutation of a gene called CDKL5, which is thought to play an important role

Mapping of the complete genome of the obesity-prone Ossabaw pig gives new hope for further insights into human obesity and associated diseases. For the first time in history, researchers at DTU Bioengineering and DTU Health Tech in collaboration with researchers in China and the US have mapped the complete genome of the exceptional Ossabaw pig.

The National Institutes of Health is funding bold, new research ideas that focus on interventions to address health disparities and advance health equity. Eleven grants were awarded to support the work of exceptionally creative researchers across the United States through the NIH Common Fund’s Transformative Research to Address Health Disparities and Advance Health Equity initiative

Countries must set ambitious national climate commitments if they are to sustain a healthy and green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The WHO COP26 Special Report on Climate Change and Health, launched today, in the lead-up to the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, spells out the global health community’s prescription for

Children are not at risk for more severe COVID-19 disease with Delta compared to earlier severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) variants, finds a new medRxiv* preprint study. In the first large-scale epidemiological study comparing SARS-CoV-2 infection between variants in children, researchers found children were more likely to be as sick from Delta as

The spike (S) protein of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the virus responsible for the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), consists of two subunits including the S1 and S2 subunits. The S1 bears the receptor-binding domain (RBD), which is responsible for the interaction of the virus with the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2

During the pandemic, it has become increasingly evident that people with cardiovascular disease and obesity are at a much higher risk of developing very severe, even fatal COVID-19 disease. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have identified some metabolic processes that SARS-CoV-2 uses to attack lung tissue. The results, which are published in Molecular &

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A new preprint deals with the characterization of neutrophil phenotypes in an attempt to provide biomarkers that can predict severe disease in patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Study: Longitudinal characterization of circulating neutrophils uncovers distinct phenotypes associated with disease severity in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon/ Shutterstock A preprint version of

The present study showed that food-insecure people with COVID-19 had a longer recovery time. Also, our findings showed that food insecurity significantly increases the likelihood of hospitalization, and after adjusting for all confounding variables, people with food insecurity are 3.9 times more likely to be hospitalized than those in the food-secure group. The present study

A technology developed by scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) shows great promise for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease before symptoms arise, potentially changing the course of research and treatment for this condition, which affects millions of people worldwide and is estimated to be the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. “This

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It’s remarkable that the reputation of the National Institutes of Health has remained mostly intact through the covid-19 pandemic, even as other federal science agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have come under partisan fire. That is in no small part due to NIH’s soft-spoken but politically

Engineers creating polymerase chain reaction (PCR) instrumentation face unique challenges in both the quantitative detection of nucleic acid sequences using real-time analysis and the qualitative detection of nucleic acid sequences using end-point analysis. Image credit: Vit Kovalcik/Shutterstock.com Quantitative PCR (qPCR) instruments that operate in real-time need high sensitivity and the most favorable signal-to-noise ratio possible.

People with rapid eye movement (REM) sleep behavior disorder act out their dreams. While sleeping safely in bed, for example, they might throw up their arms to catch an imaginary ball, or try to run from an illusory assailant. Such actions are more than just a nuisance. People with the disorder have a 50 to

A recent study, published in Clinical Nutrition ESPEN journal, evaluated a nutritional supplement, supporting immune function and energy metabolism (Apportal®, Pharmanutra), on chronic fatigue associated with the SARS-CoV-2 post-infection progress. Image Credit: PharmaNutra S.p.A. Results of the study showed a significant improvement in quality of life and health status (Euro-QoL-5D questionnaire), chronic fatigue (FACIT-Fatigue questionnaire)

Researchers at The University of Toledo have developed an experimental vaccine that shows significant promise in preventing rheumatoid arthritis, a painful autoimmune disease that cannot currently be cured. The findings, detailed in a paper published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, represent a major breakthrough in the study of rheumatoid arthritis

1. Blekas, G. A. Food Additives: Classification, Uses and Regulation. in Encyclopedia of Food and Health (eds. Caballero, B., Finglas, P. M. & Toldrá, F.) 731–736 (Academic Press, 2016). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-384947-2.00304-4. 2. Codex General Standard for Food Additives (GSFA, Codex STAN 192–1995). http://www.fao.org/fao-who-codexalimentarius/sh-proxy/en/?lnk=1&url=https%253A%252F%252Fworkspace.fao.org%252Fsites%252Fcodex%252FStandards%252FCODEX%2BSTAN%2B192-1995%252FCXS_192e.pdf (2018). 3. Monteiro, C. A. et al. The UN Decade of Nutrition, the

Eleven years ago this month, the scans and exams that hold the most power to spot the early signs of cancer became available for free to many American adults. Now, two new studies show that when those screening tests reveal potentially troubling signs, patients could face hundreds of dollars in costs for follow-up tests. The

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners launched the first ever global strategy to defeat meningitis – a debilitating disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year. By 2030, the goals are to eliminate epidemics of bacterial meningitis – the most deadly form of the disease – and to reduce deaths by

NEWS AND VIEWS 29 September 2021 Evidence that overnight fasting could extend healthy lifespan A feeding schedule of prolonged overnight fasting periods extends healthy lifespan in fruit flies by promoting night-time autophagy, a process in which material in cells is degraded and recycled. Stephen L. Helfand 0 & Rafael de Cabo 1 Stephen L. Helfand