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Long-term data from smartwatches can help estimate clinical blood test results

Smartwatches and other wearable devices may be used to sense illness, dehydration and even changes to the red blood cell count, according to biomedical engineers and genomics researchers at Duke University and the Stanford University School of Medicine.

26 May 2021

Study shows how rare but serious post-COVID-19 complication develops in children, adolescents

A multidisciplinary team from MassGeneral Hospital for Children (MGHfC), Brigham and Women's Hospital and other institutions have identified the mechanism of how an extremely rare but serious post-COVID-19 complication develops in children and adolescents.

26 May 2021

Study finds no difference in physician-patient gender concordance

While some studies suggest female patients treated by female physicians have better outcomes, there does not appear to be a relationship between operator and patient gender and outcome in patients undergoing coronary angioplasty or stenting. T

26 May 2021

Men with low testosterone levels are more susceptible to severe COVID-19

Throughout the pandemic, doctors have seen evidence that men with COVID-19 fare worse, on average, than women with the infection.

25 May 2021

Study reveals how harmless skin microbes become deadly pathogens

The bacterium Staphylococcus epidermidisis primarily a harmless microbe found on the skin and in the noses of humans.

25 May 2021

Repurposed gout medication (probenecid) shows potent inhibition of SARS-CoV-2 replication

New research by a team of scientists in the USA describes the potential utility of a drug called probenecid, commonly used to treat gout, to treat this devastating viral illness caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) – the causative virus of COVID-19.

25 May 2021

SARS-CoV-2 UK variant may induce more inflammation, study suggests

Since COVID-19 was first detected in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, many different variants of its causative virus – SARS-CoV-2 – have emerged. Through increased viral fitness, some of these have risen to predominance over earlier variants in a remarkably short period of time. New research, by a team of scientists at major institutions in France, examines the reasons behind this phenomenon in one such variant of concern (VOC), the so-called UK variant.

25 May 2021

Pandemic leads doctors to rethink unnecessary treatment

Covid-19 is opening the door for researchers to address a problem that has vexed the medical community for decades: the overtreatment and unnecessary treatment of patients.

25 May 2021

Do vaccinations result in anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in human milk?

The aim of this study investigates the impact of different types of vaccines on the anti-SARS-CoV-2 Immunoglobulin A (IgA) and Immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody levels found in human milk.

25 May 2021

Heterologous prime-boost immunization with AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines safe and well-tolerated, study finds

A team of scientists from Germany has recently evaluated the reactogenicity profile of heterologous ChAdOx1 nCoV-19/BNT162b2 prime-boost vaccination among healthcare workers. The findings reveal that a 12-week interval regimen of heterologous vaccination is well-tolerated among participants. The study is currently available on the medRxiv* preprint server.

25 May 2021

UIC leads multi-center collaborative to help communities affected by COVID-19

The University of Illinois Chicago has been selected by the National Institutes of Health as the principal site of a multi-center collaborative in the Chicago area that will bolster research and outreach to help communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19.

25 May 2021

Study shows that telomeres shorten most rapidly during early childhood

Telomeres are protective caps on DNA that shorten as we grow older. Now, one of the first studies to examine telomere length (TL) in childhood finds that the initial setting of TL during prenatal development and in the first years of life may determine one's TL throughout childhood and potentially even into adulthood or older age.

25 May 2021

New gel could be used as nasal spray for treating Parkinson's patients

Scientists at the University of York have made significant progress in the development of a nasal spray treatment for patients with Parkinson's disease.

25 May 2021

Combination of easily accessible tests can enable early, reliable diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have developed an algorithm that combines data from a simple blood test and brief memory tests, to predict with great accuracy who will develop Alzheimer's disease in the future.

25 May 2021

Healthcare workers were three times more likely to get infected by COVID-19, shows study

A study of healthcare workers shows they were three times more likely to become infected during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the general population. Around one in five of workers who were infected were asymptomatic and unaware they had COVID-19.

25 May 2021

Discovery of novel SARS-related coronaviruses in bats

In a recent study published on the bioRxiv* server, Peng Zhou, Zheng-Li Shi and colleagues at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, with collaboration from scientists at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences in China, have identified a new lineage of SARS-related coronaviruses that utilize bat angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptors for cell entry, which is the same receptor used by SARS-CoV-2 to infect host cells.

25 May 2021

Do mixed COVID-19 vaccines provide immunity?

The initial results of the CombivacS trial found that the antibody levels in individuals increased by 150 times when the Pfizer messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine was given after a first dose of the AstraZeneca severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) vaccine, with only mild common side effects.

24 May 2021

Shared genetic architecture between COVID-19 severity and other health conditions

Researchers in the United States have identified a shared genetic architecture between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) severity and other health conditions.

24 May 2021

The potential therapeutic value of CDK6 inhibitors in critical COVID-19

While drug repurposing has been explored in the context of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the success of this strategy has been limited so far. A new study, released as a preprint on the medRxiv* server, describes a new method of identifying a promising hit among drugs already in use.

24 May 2021

Are COVID-19 medications safe in pregnancy?

Most medications being tested today in clinical trials for the treatment of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) have been repurposed from other indications. These are typically not tested in pregnant women. A new study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, summarizes what is known about the safety of these drugs in this group.

24 May 2021