DNA damage is occurring in our cells all the time due to external agents; such as exposure to sun, or internal agents, like reactive oxygen species. To detect and repair DNA lesions, cells have evolved DNA damage response. Activation of this response underpins genome integrity; which is crucial for preventing the onset of many human…
Diabetes is a debilitating health condition which is to reach epidemic proportions in the next 20 years. According to the World Health Organisation; 108m people around the world had diabetes in 1980; by 2014 that figure was 422m. Three years later in 2017, 425m people worldwide are living with the disease and this figure is…
Glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) is known for its neurorestorative and neuroprotective effects in nonhuman primate models of Parkinson’s disease. However, despite promising results in early open-label clinical studies, placebo-controlled trials testing GDNF as a disease-modifying treatment for this relentlessly progressing disease have not shown a significant clinical benefit to date. In particular, as…
Every day, about 28% of Canadians provide care for a family member, friend or neighbour; and nearly half will do so at some point. Although many Canadians with chronic conditions and disabilities need care, the most common needs requiring caregiver help are age related. With 93% of older Canadians living at home, unpaid or informal…
Researchers from Jülich, Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, and the UK have discovered specific activity patterns in the brains of people with autism. These consistent patterns of functional connectivity might be used in the long term as therapeutic biomarkers. The idea behind this is that in future, doctors would be able to investigate whether certain treatments…
Fibrosis is the formation of excess fibrous connective tissue in an organ or tissue in a reparative or reactive process. This can be a reactive, benign, or pathological state. In response to injury, this is scarring, and if fibrosis arises from a single cell line, this is a fibroma. Physiologically, fibrosis acts to deposit connective…
The immune system’s killer T cells are crucial in fighting viral infections. A fraction of them, called ‘memory cells’; live on once infection is controlled in order to fight re-infection by the same virus. They are of great interest as the basis of T cell-based vaccination and immunotherapies. Now, a study by Monash Biomedicine Discovery…
While walking a dog provides older Americans with a valuable outlet for regular, physical activity; a Penn Medicine study has shown that fractures related to these walks have more than doubled between 2004 and 2017 in patients 65 and older. In this population; 78 percent of the fractures occurred in women; with hip and upper…
Russian scientists investigated the role of opioid receptors in protecting the heart from coronary disease; the lack of its blood supply. These receptors are mainly responsible for pain regulation. It turned out that they significantly affect the mechanism of cardioprotection. The results of the work can help to develop new drugs for ischemia. The study…
Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have published a study in the peer-reviewed medical journal Laryngoscope exploring the merits of integrating gamification into the graduate medical education curriculum. “With gamification, we take aspects of gaming and put it in a learning software”; said senior author Do-Yeon Cho, M.D., director of Otolaryngology Research in UAB…
Virtual reality hypnosis (VRH) can reduce the need for postoperative opioids and anti-anxiety medications and lead to improved outcomes in children, new research suggests. A team of anesthesiologists at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Hopitaux Universitaires Strasbourg in France studied 21 children undergoing surgery for scoliosis, comparing 10 who received VRH in…
Rushed clinical visits and an increased reliance on technology in medicine that replaces in-person communication between doctor and patient have led to “a kind of professional loneliness” and “a crisis in job satisfaction” among physicians, writes Richard Wenzel, M.D., in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. Wenzel’s essay, “RVU Medicine, Technology, and…