Publisher Health

Women instructed to embrace their romantic partner prior to undergoing a stressful experience had a lower biological stress response — as indicated by levels of the stress hormone cortisol in saliva — compared to women who did not embrace their partner. This effect was not seen for men. Gesa Berretz of Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on May 18.
In some settings, social touch may buffer against stress. Previous research has shown that massages, embraces combined with hand-holding, and embraces combined with affectionate communication can all reduce signs of stress in women. However, few studies have investigated these effects in men, nor have they explored the effects of brief embraces on their own.
To explore potential stress-reducing effects of embracing, Berretz and colleagues conducted an analysis of 76 people in romantic relationships. All participants underwent a stress-inducing test in which they were asked to keep one hand in an ice-water bath for three minutes while being observed and maintaining eye contact with a camera. Prior to this test, half of the couples were instructed to embrace, and the others did not embrace. The researchers measured various indicators of stress, including participants’ salivary cortisol levels, before and after the experiment.
Statistical analysis revealed that women who embraced their partner had a lower cortisol response to the stress test than women who did not embrace their partner. However, for men, no associations were observed between embrace and stress-induced cortisol response. Other measures of stress including changes in blood pressure and emotional state did not show any associations with partner embrace.
These results suggest that a brief embrace with a romantic partner might subsequently reduce the cortisol response for women facing stressful social situations, such as school exams, job interviews, or presentations. Further research could investigate whether this benefit extends to embraces with platonic friends.
The authors also call for research into related effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such investigations could explore whether social restrictions that reduced social touch may be associated with observed increases in stress and depression during the pandemic.
The authors add: “As a woman, hugging your romantic partner can prevent the acute stress response of your body.”
Story Source:
Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

A Japanese research team looking at COVID-19’s lingering impacts on survivors and local communities found that having a mild case of COVID-19, smoking status, comorbidities, or your sex aren’t significant predictors to tell if you are less likely to develop long-term symptoms, but age is.
“The prevalence of sequelae did not significantly differ by sex, severity of COVID-19, place of medical care, smoking status, or comorbidities,” the research team, led by Hiroshima University Professor and Executive Vice President Junko Tanaka, said in their findings published in Scientific Reports.
The cross-sectional study explored four areas to investigate what recovery and community life are like for COVID-19 survivors. These areas are the persistence of symptoms, psychological distress, impairments in work performance, and experiences of stigma and discrimination. Some 127 patients who recovered from COVID-19 at two hospitals in Hiroshima Prefecture, Japan participated in the study between August 2020 to March 2021.
Although they found that smoking history and comorbidities were not significantly related to the frequency of long-term symptoms in the multivariate analysis, the researchers believe that these factors should be continued to be examined in the future since only 18 were smokers among the study participants. As for comorbidities, hypertension was reported only in 19 of the participants and diabetes in 13.
COVID-19 severity is not a risk factor
Persistent symptoms of COVID-19 were identified in over half of the participants at a median of 29 days after onset. Meanwhile, half of those with mild cases experienced lingering symptoms.

Students at four-year colleges and universities drink nearly twice as much alcohol as their peers in two-year colleges, according to a survey of college students in the Seattle area. On the other hand, students in community colleges and other two-year institutions use marijuana nearly twice as often as four-year students.
The results are detailed in a study led by a Washington State University researcher published in the Journal of American College Health.
“I expected differences in both alcohol and marijuana use among two- and four-year college students, but was surprised by the magnitude of the differences given that the subjects are the same ages,” said Jennifer Duckworth, an assistant professor in WSU’s Department of Human Development and lead author of the paper.
More research is needed to understand why these differences in alcohol and cannabis use exist, but perceptions of peer use may be one factor. Specifically, four-year students thought their peers drank more than two-year students believed their peers drank, whereas two-year students thought that their peers used cannabis more than four-year students thought their peers did.
In the study, the authors found that, among college students near Seattle, four-year students averaged over seven drinks per week, while two-year students averaged around 3.5 drinks each week, based on a self-reported questionnaire.
For marijuana use, two-year students averaged using it on over eight days in the previous month, while four-year students averaged nearly 4.5 days of use.

Like storm waves battering a ship, new versions of the SARS-CoV-2 virus have buffeted the world one after another. Recently, scientists keeping tabs on these variants noticed a trend: Many carry the same set of three mutations. In a new study in ACS’ Biochemistry, researchers examined how these mutations change the way a key piece of the virus functions. Their experiments show how this triad alters traits it needs to cause and sustain COVID-19 infection.
The virus SARS-CoV-2 has forced human cells to copy its genetic code innumerable times over the past couple of years, and, in the process, errors have emerged. These errors, or mutations, are the raw material for new variants. Scientists have found that nearly half of the genetic sequences within variants contain three mutations at positions called K417, E484 and N501. All of these changes tweak the same part of the virus, known as the receptor binding domain, which enables SARS-CoV-2 to infect human cells by latching onto their ACE2 protein. The widespread presence of this combination suggests that together, these mutations provide the virus with benefits not possible with a single change. Vaibhav Upadhyay, Krishna Mallela and colleagues wanted to tease out the advantages — and drawbacks — of each of these three mutations individually and in combination.
As a first step, the researchers produced domains containing the mutations and studied their effects in cells grown in Petri dishes. The team looked at how well cells could produce the domain, as well as the domain’s stability, ability to bind to ACE2 and ability to evade antibodies. The results showed that each mutation enhances at least one of these characteristics, but at a cost. The K417 change, for example, increased the production and stability of the domain, while also improving its ability to escape one type of antibody. However, it also decreased the domain’s ability to attach to ACE2. The other two mutations had differing strengths and weaknesses. But, when put all together, the changes mitigated one another’s negative effects. Domains with all three mutations could bind ACE2 tightly and escape two types of antibodies, yet also were produced at similar levels as the original virus and were just as stable. By revealing the details of how natural selection can favor a combination of a mutations, these results offer new insight into virus evolution, according to the researchers.
The authors acknowledge funding from the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Story Source:
Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

New research on the experimental drug, NU-9, invented and developed by two Northwestern University scientists to treat ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), shows it is more effective than existing FDA-approved drugs for the disease.
More importantly, NU-9 has an enhanced effect when given in combination with those drugs, riluzole and edaravone. The drug was invented by Richard B. Silverman, the Patrick G. Ryan/Aon Professor at Northwestern, and animal studies were carried out by P. Hande Ozdinler, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.
The research, published recently in Scientific Reports, showed NU-9 lengthened the axons of diseased upper motor neurons in an SOD1 ALS mouse model. This new finding about lengthening axons of diseased neurons further illustrates NU-9’s benefits.
The axon is the segment of the upper motor neuron that connects the brain to the spinal cord and makes the corticospinal tract, which degenerates in ALS patients. Deteriorating axons contribute to the swift and fatal paralysis of ALS patients.
“For a drug to be effective, it is important for that drug to improve axon outgrowth and axon health,” said co-lead study author Ozdinler. “This is very important for connecting the brain and the spinal cord and for revitalizing the motor neuron circuitry that degenerates in patients.”
In ALS, movement-initiating nerve cells in the brain (upper motor neurons) and muscle-controlling nerve cells in the spinal cord (lower motor neurons) die.

Health screening and genetic tests might identify more than 1 million U.S. adults who carry a gene for familial hypercholesterolemia, a common genetic disorder that causes elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, known as “bad cholesterol,” which may lead to premature heart attack or death, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.
According to the American Heart Association, familial hypercholesterolemia is an inherited genetic disorder that affects how the body recycles bad cholesterol. As a result, LDL levels in the blood remain very high; in severe cases, levels can reach above 190 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) of blood in adults. The desirable level for LDL is less than 100 mg/dL. However, total blood cholesterol levels should be considered in the context of other known cardiovascular disease risk factors.
An estimated 1 in 250 people in the U.S. may carry at least one gene for familial hypercholesterolemia. Among the people who have one familial hypercholesterolemia gene, the average age for a first heart attack if the condition is not treated is 50 years for men and 60 years for women, while the average age for a first heart attack in the general population is 66 years for men and 72 years for women. A much smaller number of people may inherit two genes for familial hypercholesterolemia (one from each parent), and they have more severe complications, including far higher bad cholesterol and heart disease beginning in childhood or adolescence.
“Currently, most individuals aren’t diagnosed with familial hypercholesterolemia until they are in their 50s. If a young adult is identified to have familial hypercholesterolemia, they would likely benefit from earlier and more aggressive treatment to prevent heart attack and stroke,” said study lead author Brandon K. Bellows, Pharm.D., M.S., an assistant professor of medical sciences at Columbia University in New York City.
The American Heart Association recommends that all adults ages 20 or older have their cholesterol and other traditional heart risk factors checked every four to six years, if risk remains low. Familial hypercholesterolemia screening is not standard and requires the accurate collection of additional clinical information or diagnostic genetic testing. Genetic testing is available; however, it may not be affordable for many people when not covered by health insurance. A 2020 American Heart Association scientific statement suggests that genetic testing for cardiovascular diseases should typically be reserved for people who have a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of a condition and for those with a known disease-causing gene variant in their family.
In this study, researchers estimated how many people with familial hypercholesterolemia could be identified if all adults were screened using clinical factors, such as cholesterol levels and the presence of early heart disease in an individual or close family member (parent, sibling or child), both with and without genetic testing.

People who are highly responsive to food lost more weight and, importantly, were more successful at keeping the pounds off using a new alternative weight-loss intervention that targets improving a person’s response to internal hunger cues and their ability to resist food, reported a team led by University of California San Diego experts in the May 18, 2022 online issue of JAMA Network Open.
“There are individuals who are very food cue responsive. That is, they cannot resist food and/or cannot stop thinking about food. Behavioral weight loss skills are not sufficient for these individuals, so we designed an alternative approach to address this clinical need,” said first author Kerri N. Boutelle, PhD, UC San Diego professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and in the School of Medicine Department of Pediatrics.
Approximately 74% of adults in the United States are living with overweight or obesity. Behavioral weight loss programs, that include calorie counting, have been the go-to treatment. However not everyone responds, and most people regain the lost weight.
For those who find it difficult to resist food, weight loss can be particularly challenging. This food responsiveness is both hereditary and shaped by the environment and individual factors.
In the Providing Adult Collaborative Interventions for Ideal Changes (PACIFIC) randomized clinical trial, the researchers compared their intervention, called Regulation of Cues, against a behavioral weight loss program, a control group, and a cohort that combined Regulation of Cues with the behavioral program.
Weight loss was comparable after 24 months among individuals in both the Regulation of Cues and the behavioral weight loss program.

Researchers from the University of Missouri School of Medicine have discovered a specific combination immunotherapy that shows promise in the fight against liver cancer.
The therapy involves a tumor-suppressing lipid molecule called nanoliposome C6-ceramide (LipC6) and an antibody for cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA4). When used together in this study, LipC6 and the anti- CTLA4 antibody significantly slowed tumor growth and enhanced the strength of tumor-attacking T cells.
“Our analysis revealed the combination therapy significantly extended the life span of tumor-bearing mice compared to the mice with a single type of therapy or no therapy at all,” said co-principal investigator Guangfu Li, PhD, DVM, associate professor in the Department of Surgery and Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology.
Li said this finding is especially promising given the current lack of effective therapies against liver cancer, which is the third-leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. For patients diagnosed with liver cancer, the average five-year survival rate of all stages is 20%, according to the American Cancer Society.
“What is particularly notable is that we have now demonstrated that LipC6 treatment significantly improves the ability of anti-CTLA-4 antibodies to suppress liver cancer,” Li said. “LipC6 and anti-CTLA-4 antibody have been approved by the FDA to use in human patients, so this combination treatment can be quickly translated to clinical application.”
More research will be required to better understand the underlying mechanisms behind the success of this combination.
“The human therapeutic response to another commonly used type of immunotherapy, anti-PD-1, is only about 14% in liver cancer patients,” said co-principal investigator Kevin F. Staveley-O’Carroll, MD, PhD, professor in the Department of Surgery. “We also tested anti-PD-1 immunotherapy in combination with LipC6, but it showed no benefit compared to the robust response demonstrated by the combination of LipC6 and anti-CTLA4 antibodies. This represents a new and powerful therapeutic approach.”
In addition to Li and Staveley-O’ Carroll, other MU co-authors include Xiaoqiang Qi, PhD, research assistant professor; Feng Wu, PhD, post-doctoral fellow; Jussuf Kaifi, MD, assistant professor of surgery; Eric Kimchi, MD, chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology and General Surgery; and Sung Hoon Kim, visiting Scholar from South Korea.
Their study, “Nanoliposome C6-Ceramide in combination with anti-CTLA4 antibody improves anti-tumor immunity in hepatocellular cancer,” was recently published by the journal Federation of American Societies to Experimental Biology. Research reported in this publication was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funding agencies.
Highlighting the promise of personalized health care and the impact of large-scale interdisciplinary collaboration, the NextGen Precision Health initiative is bringing together innovators from across the University of Missouri and the UM System’s three other research universities in pursuit of life-changing precision health advancements. It’s a collaborative effort to leverage the research strengths of Mizzou toward a better future for the health of Missourians and beyond. The Roy Blunt NextGen Precision Health building at MU anchors the overall initiative and expands collaboration between researchers, clinicians and industry partners in the state-of-the-art research facility.
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Missouri-Columbia. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Caesarean births are not linked to an increased risk of food allergy during the first year of life, according to a new study.
The research, led by the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI) and published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice, found caesarean delivery, either with or without labour, or elective or emergency, compared to vaginal birth does not impact on the likelihood of food allergy at 12 months of age.
Murdoch Children’s Associate Professor Rachel Peters said the association between mode of delivery and the risk of food allergy had remained unclear prior to this study due to the lack of studies linking accurate food challenge outcomes to detailed information on the type of caesarean delivery.
The study involved2045 infants from the HealthNuts study, with data linked to the Victorian Perinatal Data Collection to source detailed information on birth factors.
The study found of the 30 per cent born by caesarean, 12.7 per cent had a food allergy compared to 13.2 per cent born vaginally.
“We found no meaningful differences in food allergy for infants born by caesarean delivery compared to those born by vaginal delivery,” Associate Professor Peters said. Additionally, there was no difference in likelihood of food allergy if the caesarean was performed before or after the onset of labour, or whether it was an emergency or elective caesarean.”
Associate Professor Peters said it was thought a potential link between caesarean birth and allergy could reflect differences in early microbial exposure (bacteria from the mother’s vagina) during delivery.

Viral infections during pregnancy affect the mother’s brain and her postpartum care behaviour. These are the findings of a research study in a mouse model conducted at MedUni Vienna. The results were published in the leading journal “Molecular Psychiatry.”
There is ample data from studies in mouse models demonstrating that viral infections during pregnancy can affect the developing brain of the young in utero (in the womb) with lifelong consequences for brain function and behaviour.
A preclinical study has now shown, for the first time, that a viral-like immune activation during pregnancy also affects the maternal brain and significantly disrupts maternal care behaviour after the birth. These results are published by a research group led by behavioural biologist Daniela D. Pollak from the Division of Neurophysiology and Pharmacology at MedUni Vienna’s Center for Physiology and Pharmacology, working together with colleagues from the Division of Molecular Neurosciences at MedUni Vienna’s Center for Brain Research and from Columbia University (USA).
In this preclinical study the researchers used a chemical substance that activates the same receptor pathways as viruses, to trigger the immune system of the mother during pregnancy in a manner that is comparable to the typical course of a viral infection. Once the young had been born, the maternal care behaviour of the dams was behaviourally tested. “Dams who had experienced a viral-like immune activation were less caring towards their young than animals in the control group,” says Daniela D. Pollak, describing the results. “The naturally strong drive to take care of one’s own offspring and to keep them safe from harm was much less pronounced corresponding to a significant decline in attachment behaviour.”
The researchers not only observed changes in the behaviour of the dams but also identified structural, molecular and functional changes in their brains and were able to discover some of the underlying mechanisms.
Even though animal-model results cannot be directly translated to humans, the study team says it is an indication that viral infections during pregnancy can change mothers’ behaviour toward their babies. “Women who have had systemic viral illnesses during pregnancy may be at increased risk of impaired mother-infant bonding,” Pollak explains. The researcher hopes that this will raise awareness so that women with a history of infection during pregnancy may be more prompted to seek medical or psychotherapeutic treatment if they experience indications of impaired bonding after birth, which may affect the well-being of mother and child.
Story Source:
Materials provided by Medical University of Vienna. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.