A new study implicates 160 genes in brain shrinkage seen on MRIs of 45,000 healthy adults. The shrinkage is in the cortex, the dimply outer layer of the brain that gives rise to thinking, awareness and action, and largely consists of gray matter.

25 Sep 2020

Pitt team receives NIH award to optimize tissue-engineered vascular graft design

Just as a climbing plant needs the right trellis to thrive, a small-diameter tissue-engineered vascular graft (TEVG) needs the right scaffold to transform seeded cells into a native-like artery that can save a life.

25 Sep 2020

University of Minnesota receives funding to initiate research on diabetes drug as a COVID-19 treatment

University of Minnesota Medical School researchers received funding from the Parsemus Foundation to initiate research on the widely-used diabetes medication, metformin, available globally as an inexpensive generic drug for prevention and treatment for COVID-19.

25 Sep 2020

FDA approves first drug for patients with hypereosinophilic syndrome in nearly 14 years

Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Nucala (mepolizumab) for adults and children aged 12 years and older with hypereosinophilic syndrome (HES) for six months or longer without another identifiable non-blood related cause of the disease.

25 Sep 2020

Novel technique helps detect heart damage in top-level competition dogs

Frequent high-intensity exercise entails cardiac remodelling both in humans and animals. In dogs, especially those used for top-level competition, it is of great interest to learn whether they develop the so-called athletic heart syndrome.

25 Sep 2020

Social inequities in Black and South Asian immigrants increase risk of severe COVID-19 infection

Black, South Asian and Aboriginal populations from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds in Canada are nearly four times more likely to have three or more medical conditions that have been identified as risk factors for severe illness from COVID-19.

25 Sep 2020

Study assesses cardiovascular and renal outcomes for ertugliflozin in patients with type 2 diabetes

A new study led by a cardiologist from Brigham and Women's Hospital has assessed the cardiovascular and renal outcomes for ertugliflozin, an SGLT2 inhibitor prescribed for patients with type 2 diabetes to help them control blood sugar levels

25 Sep 2020

Study highlights the importance of healthy placental development in pregnancy

The first stages of placental development take place days before the embryo starts to form in human pregnancies. The finding highlights the importance of healthy placental development in pregnancy, and could lead to future improvements in fertility treatments such as IVF, and a better understanding of placental-related diseases in pregnancy.

25 Sep 2020

Scientists develop single-cell atlas of the normal human heart

Scientists have for the first time documenting all of the different cell types and genes expressed in the healthy human heart, in new research published in the journal Nature.

25 Sep 2020

Scientists create first atlas of human heart cells

Ka-thump. Ka-thump. Ka-thump. Though we barely notice it most of the time, the steady beating of a human heart is an amazingly complex performance. Like an orchestra, thousands of cells have to master their individual performances as well as work together.

25 Sep 2020

Cellular and molecular map of the human heart could guide personalized medicine

Scientists have created a cellular and molecular map of the healthy human heart, to understand how this vital organ functions, and to shed light on what goes wrong in cardiovascular disease.

24 Sep 2020

Parental skin-to-skin contact dampens pain responses in newborn baby's brain

Being held by a parent with skin-to-skin contact reduces how strongly a newborn baby's brain responds to a painful medical jab, finds a new study led by researchers at UCL and York University, Canada.

24 Sep 2020

As fires and floods wreak havoc on health, new climate center seeks solutions

For the past month, record-breaking wildfires have torched millions of acres from the Mexican border well into Canada, their smoke producing air so toxic that millions of people remained indoors for days on end while many visited hospitals because of respiratory distress.

24 Sep 2020

Lack of considerations in cumulative effect of food chemicals could have contributed to increased chronic diseases

Today, a group of health, environmental, and consumer organizations challenged the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) practice of not accounting for the cumulative health effect of chemicals in the diet when allowing new chemicals in food.

24 Sep 2020

Gruthan Bioscience to develop new class of cholesterol-lowering drugs

Gruthan Bioscience, LLC, a Medical University of South Carolina startup based in Charleston, South Carolina, received a Small Business technology Transfer (STTR) award from the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute in August to take the next step in developing a novel class of cholesterol-lowering drugs to treat familial hypercholesterolemia.

24 Sep 2020

Study: 5 to 10% of surgically induced weight loss linked with cardiovascular benefits

A Cleveland Clinic study shows that 5 to 10 percent of surgically induced weight loss is associated with improved life expectancy and cardiovascular health.

23 Sep 2020

Intensive physical exercise session improves memory

If sport is good for the body, it also seems to be good for the brain. By evaluating memory performance following a sport session, neuroscientists from the University of Geneva demonstrate that an intensive physical exercise session as short as 15 minutes improves memory, including the acquisition of new motor skills.

23 Sep 2020

Drugs used to treat HIV and hepatitis B could be repurposed to prevent type 2 diabetes

A group of drugs used to treat HIV and hepatitis B could be repurposed to prevent type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests.

23 Sep 2020

Cardiovascular adverse events linked to hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine

As the antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine have drawn attention as potential therapies for COVID-19 and are being widely used off-label, it's now more important than ever to have a thorough assessment of the safety of these medications.

23 Sep 2020

People with congenital heart defect may have worse functional exercise capacity

A common congenital heart defect may reduce your ability to exercise especially as you grow older, regardless of whether it was corrected with surgery or previously deemed too small for treatment, according to research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association.

23 Sep 2020