Tag: Diseases and Conditions

Osteoarthritis linked to higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have investigated the link between osteoarthritis and mortality in an epidemiological study. It was shown that the risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was higher for people with osteoarthritis than for the rest of the population. Using population registers, the researchers studied approximately 469,000 people living in Skåne, Sweden,

A new drug target for chemically induced Parkinson’s disease

More than three decades ago, scientists discovered that a chemical found in a synthetic opioid, MPTP, induced the onset of a form of Parkinson’s disease. In a new study led by scientists from the School of Veterinary Medicine, researchers found that an enzyme in the body can metabolize compounds formed in the brain from alkaloids

How hepatitis B and delta viruses establish infection of liver cells: Researchers explore infection using new cell culture system

Princeton University researchers have developed a new, scalable cell culture system that allows for detailed investigation of how host cells respond to infection with hepatitis B (HBV) and delta virus (HDV). The paper describing their findings was published online on June 18, 2019 in the journal Hepatology. HBV causes an acute illness that is usually

Cardiac toxicity risk factors identified with relapsed multiple myeloma therapy

More than half of patients with relapsed multiple myeloma treated with carfilzomib experienced cardiac issues during treatment, according to a multi-institutional study published June 12 in Journal of Clinical Oncology. The study recommends that patients undergo a detailed cardiovascular history before being prescribed carfilzomib and then be monitored with natriuretic peptide testing, an indicator for

Growing life expectancy inequality in US cannot be blamed on opioids alone

A new University of Michigan study challenges a popularized view about what’s causing the growing gap between the lifespans of more- and less-educated Americans — finding shortcomings in the widespread narrative that the United States is facing an epidemic of “despair.” Some influential studies have argued that growing life expectancy inequality is driven by so-called

New pathogens in beef and cow’s milk products

According to the DKFZ, they have been detected up to now in cow’s milk, cow’s milk products and the blood serum of healthy cattle. From the scientific findings made up to now, it seems possible that an indirect connection could be interpreted between the consumption of various foods originating from cattle and the occurrence of

Undetected diabetes linked to heart attack and gum disease

People with undetected glucose disorders run a higher risk of both myocardial infarction and periodontitis, according to a study published in the journal Diabetes Care by researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The results demonstrate the need of greater collaboration between dentistry and healthcare, say the researchers, and possibly of screening for diabetes at dental

New framework helps gauge impact of mosquito control programs

Effective methods of controlling mosquito populations are needed to help lower the worldwide burden of mosquito-borne diseases including Zika, chikungunya, and dengue. Now, researchers reporting in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases have described a new statistical framework that can be used to assess mosquito control programs over broad time and space scales. The mosquito Aedes aegypti

Massive sequencing study links rare DNA alterations to type 2 diabetes: Scientists identify new genetic targets for disease research and potentially drug development

An international consortium of scientists has analyzed protein-coding genes from nearly 46,000 people, linking rare DNA alterations to type 2 diabetes. The study, one of the largest known of its type, includes data from people of European, African American, Hispanic/Latino, East Asian, and South Asian ancestries. From this large cohort — roughly 21,000 individuals with

Artificial intelligence tool vastly scales up Alzheimer’s research: Machine learning tool automates pathologists’ work to identify disease markers

Researchers at UC Davis and UC San Francisco have found a way to teach a computer to precisely detect one of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease in human brain tissue, delivering a proof of concept for a machine-learning approach to distinguishing critical markers of the disease. Amyloid plaques are clumps of protein fragments in the

Common food additive found to affect gut microbiota: Titanium dioxide nanoparticles E171 may impact human health

University of Sydney research provides new evidence that nanoparticles, which are present in many food items, may have a substantial and harmful influence on human health. The study investigated the health impacts of food additive E171 (titanium dioxide nanoparticles) which is commonly used in high quantities in foods and some medicines as a whitening agent.

Appendix removal associated with development of Parkinson’s disease: Data from 62 million records explores relationship between the gut and the nervous system disorder

Patients who had their appendix removed were more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those whose appendix remained in place, according to the largest study to address the relationship between the two conditions. The retrospective study involving more than 62 million patient records from 26 health systems will be presented at Digestive Disease Week® (DDW)

Researchers define Alzheimer’s-like brain disorder: LATE symptoms resembles Alzheimer’s disease but has different cause

A brain disorder that mimics symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease has been defined with recommended diagnostic criteria and guidelines for advancing future research on the condition. Researchers at Rush University Medical Center and scientists from several National Institutes of Health-funded institutions, in collaboration with international peers, described the newly-named pathway to dementia, Limbic-predominant Age-related TDP-43 Encephalopathy,

Targeted therapy proves effective against aggressive rare blood cancer: Clinical study treating BPDCN with tagraxofusp led to first FDA approval for the disease

A multi-institutional clinical trial has given good results for a targeted therapy to treat a rare, aggressive blood cancer known as blastic plasmacytoid dendritic-cell neoplasm (BPDCN). Details on the trial, which supported Food and Drug Administration approval of the tagraxofusp therapy in December 2018, have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Diagnosed