Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Latest Cold, Flu & Cough News and Research

Lyme vaccine on the horizon, says new study

Lyme disease is a dreaded disease caused by the bite of an infected tick. The only way to prevent it is by not getting bitten by the tick. However, this is not a practical recommendation, since even today about 300,000 thousand people are diagnosed with this infection, in the US alone, and over 100,000 in Europe, each year.

17 Oct 2019

Newly introduced BARseq technology can be used to expand the brain map

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Anthony Zador has taken the next step in his quest to solve exactly how the brain is wired.

17 Oct 2019

Tips to help strengthen your defenses this flu season

Flu season can take its toll on your health, but one way to fight the virus is to stop the spread of germs at home.

17 Oct 2019

New paper defines strategy for developing effective vaccines for Lyme disease

There is no effective vaccine currently available to prevent Lyme disease in humans.

17 Oct 2019

Study represents a major step in seeking alternative cancer treatments for non-responders

Research led by VHIO's Alena Gros signposts a new, less invasive approach to identify killer T lymphocytes in patients with gastrointestinal tumors with low mutational burden who are refractory to approved immune-based treatments.

16 Oct 2019

New assistive technology can accurately identify collapsed lungs from chest x-rays

New assistive technology can diagnose collapsed lungs from chest x-rays with a higher degree of accuracy than radiologists.

16 Oct 2019

Spectrum Health, MSU researchers aim to find new or better treatments for "orphan diseases"

The National Institutes of Health has awarded a Michigan State University researcher a $2.1 million, five-year grant to search vast databases of existing drugs.

16 Oct 2019

New study solves oldest case of deafness in human prehistory

An international team of researchers including faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York, has published a new study examining a 430,000-year-old cranium of a human ancestor that was previously described as deaf, representing the oldest case of deafness in human prehistory.

15 Oct 2019

CRISPR helps find difficult to detect cancer cells

Immunotherapy is one of the latest and most effective armaments against various types of cancers. Some of the immunotherapy drugs such as PD-1 inhibitor Keytruda from Merck can block certain proteins in the cancer cells that can make the cells invisible to the immune system normally. Some of the cancers cells can now develop other ways to disguise themselves from being killed by the immune system.

15 Oct 2019

Flu test: Is it needed?

Flu season is fast approaching. When flu symptoms strike, you may wonder if you or your loved ones should get a flu test before beginning treatment.

15 Oct 2019

People with PTSD 1.8 times as likely to have other infections, study finds

First-of-its-kind study finds people with PTSD were 1.8 times as likely to have any infection as those without PTSD, ranging from being 1.3 times as likely to have meningitis, to 1.7 times as likely to have influenza, to 2.7 times as likely to have viral hepatitis.

15 Oct 2019

Study suggesting that CRISPR babies are likely to die early has been retracted

A research paper that sparked concerns about the lifespan of China's first gene-edited babies has been retracted due to technical errors.

15 Oct 2019

New system can help the immune system spot and eliminate tumors

Cancer cells are masters at avoiding detection, but a new system developed by Yale scientists can make them stand out from the crowd and help the immune system spot and eliminate tumors that other forms of immunotherapies might miss, the researchers report Oct. 14 in the journal Nature Immunology.

14 Oct 2019

Blood vessel damage is more widespread than expected in patients with TBI

The effects of a traumatic brain injury are pretty clear – problems with memory, headaches, and emotions – but what's unclear is the underlying pathological causes for those symptoms.

14 Oct 2019

Get vaccinated to protect yourself from flu, say Johns Hopkins experts

Cases of the flu are already on the rise around the nation as flu season begins. Johns Hopkins Medicine experts say now is the time to fight against the flu as the number of people getting sick from the potentially life-threatening virus will increase in the coming months.

14 Oct 2019

Patients eligible for charity care instead get big bills

When Ashley Pintos went to the emergency room of St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., in 2016, with a sharp pain in her abdomen and no insurance, a representative demanded a $500 deposit before treating her.

14 Oct 2019

New study could change the way traumatic brain injuries are treated

Traumatic brain injuries, including concussions, can be caused by anything from sports injuries to battlefield trauma.

14 Oct 2019

Brain protein plays a prominent role in the maintenance of chronic pain

A protein called RGS4 (Regulator of G protein signaling 4) plays a prominent role in the maintenance of long-term pain states and may serve as a promising new target for the treatment of chronic pain conditions, according to research conducted at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and published in print October 16, in The Journal of Neuroscience.

11 Oct 2019

€7.6 million ERC Synergy grant to support research on molecular mechanisms of viral infection

The interdisciplinary team wants to investigate the molecular mechanisms of viral infection, which will contribute to fundamental knowledge about cellular regulation and new concepts for broad-spectrum anti-viral therapy. The funding amounts to 7.6 million euros.

11 Oct 2019

Genetic mechanisms could serve as a road map for screening new drugs to prolong healthy lifespan

The discovery in the 1990s that a mutation in a single gene of an experimental worm could double its lifespan set off a stampede of research on the molecular biology of aging and triggered hopes that drug therapies or other interventions could be developed to extend healthy human lifespan. But as is often the case in science, the genetic regulation of aging is more complicated than it first appeared.

10 Oct 2019