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An estimated 1,600 people in the U.S. contract a serious infection from Listeria bacteria in food each year and, of those individuals, about 260 people die, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Penn State researchers may now better understand how the bacteria, called Listeria monocytogenes, survive and persist in fruit-packing plants by evading and surviving sanitizers.
According to their study, which is now available online and will be published in the June issue of the journal Biofilm, biofilms — comprising otherwise harmless microorganisms that attach to each other and the food surface — result in a kind of shield that surrounds and protects the Listeria. The findings may result in changes to sanitation protocols in food-processing facilities that promise to diminish contamination of food with Listeria, the researchers said.
“We found two groups of microorganisms in the tree fruit packing environments, Pseudomonadaceae and Xanthomonadaceae, that are very good at forming biofilms and protecting Listeria monocytogenes,” said corresponding author Jasna Kovac, the Lester Earl and Veronica Casida Career Development Professor of Food Safety. “Biofilms represent a physical barrier that reduces the effective diffusion and antimicrobial action of sanitizers and is hypothesized to increase L. monocytogenes’ tolerance to sanitizers used in food processing facilities.”
As a result of the biofilms shielding the pathogen, the sanitizers are not as effective in killing Listeria monocytogenes, explained Laura Rolon, who recently earned her doctorate from Penn State and spearheaded the study.
“Our research suggests that if packing facilities are having a recurring problem with Listeria monocytogenes, they may need to assess whether biofilm-forming microorganisms are causing it,” she said.
This study’s results indicate a need to assess the efficacy of commonly used sanitizers against non-pathogenic biofilm-forming microorganisms commonly found in the food processing environments to prevent biofilms from establishing, Kovac explained. The results of further assessments could help inform practical recommendations for the industry, such as application concentrations and times, to prevent biofilm formation and improve the control of Listeria monocytogenes in these environments.
In future workshops and short courses, Penn State Extension educators will communicate the research findings to professional organizations dedicated to sanitation in food-processing facilities, noted study co-author Luke LaBorde, professor of food science and extension specialist.

“The findings of this research project will inform and enhance sanitation protocols and extension training efforts targeted at the tree-fruit industry to effectively control L. monocytogenes,” said LaBorde, an expert in the tracking of Listeria monocytogenes in produce production and processing environments. The bridge between scientific discovery and dissemination among stakeholders, he added, is a vital part of this work and a prime example of the mission of a land-grant university like Penn State.
To that end, Penn State Extension routinely offers workshops and other resources to communicate research findings, such as the Listeria monocytogenes-biofilms study results, and promote other best practices for controlling foodborne pathogens. These trainings are typically attended by food-processing plant professionals, representatives of industry associations, food safety consultants and government inspectors.
Partially because of their research on Listeria monocytogenes and biofilms, Kovac and LaBorde won the Integrated Team Award from the College of Agricultural Sciences late last year.
Other co-authors include M. Laura Rolan, Olena Voloshchuk and Katelyn V. Bartlett, all with the Department of Food Science in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Penn State.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture supported this research.

She trained caregivers to “validate” the delusions of older people with dementia, rather than try to wrest them into the real world.Naomi Feil was only 8 years old when she moved into what was then known as a home for the aged, where her parents worked. Living there until she left for college, she learned firsthand, by trial and error, how to comfort and communicate with older adults.When she died at 91 on Dec. 24 at her home in Jasper, Ore., she had devoted her entire career to finding ways to comfort disoriented older people and their caregivers.Her daughter Vicki de Klerk-Rubin said she died of cancer.Mrs. Feil was a 24-year-old social worker, convening a group of patients diagnosed as “senile psychotic,” when a staff psychologist at the Montefiore Home for the Aged in Cleveland laid the foundation for what would become the method she called validation therapy.“He taught us when feelings are ‘validated’ they are relieved,” Mrs. Feil explained on the website of her nonprofit Validation Training Institute in Pleasant Hill, Ore. “‘You are validating your residents, helping them release their pain.’ When social work students asked me what I was doing, I answered: ‘Validation.’ And so a new way of relating was formed.”Her method calls for caregivers to empathize with disoriented individuals in an effort to reduce their stress and support their dignity, rather than try to impose reality on them.“If you validate someone, you accept them where they are and where they’re not,” Mrs. Feil (pronounced “feel”) often said. “If you accept them, then they can accept themselves.”As she refined her methods, she founded the nonprofit Validation Training Institute in 1982. She directed it until 2014 when she was succeeded by Ms. de Klerk-Rubin, her daughter.“She was a pioneer in this area of person-centered dementia care,” Sam Fazio, the senior director of quality care and psychosocial research at the Alzheimer’s Association, said in a phone interview. “What’s key in connecting with a person with cognitive impairment is to meet them in their reality instead of expecting them to meet us in ours.”Her theory, like a related one called therapeutic deception, was not without its critics. The main objection is that it condones lying. The British Alzheimer’s Society has said that “we struggle to see how systematically deceiving someone with dementia can be part of an authentic trusting relationship.” Others argue that lying, or accepting a patient’s delusion as reality, is justified when it is in the patient’s best interest.There is still no consensus.According to the Validation Training Institute, more than 9,000 people in 14 countries have been trained to communicate with people with declining cognitive abilities, especially dementia, by expressing empathy.Mrs. Feil wrote two books: “Validation: The Feil Method, How to Help the Disoriented Old-Old” (1982) and “The Validation Breakthrough” (1993). She collaborated on a later edition of “The Validation Breakthrough” with Ms. de Klerk-Rubin.She and her husband, Edward R. Feil, a professional filmmaker, collaborated on a number of documentaries, including “The Inner World of Aphasia” (1968), which was placed on the United States National Film Preservation Board’s film registry in 2015.Ms. Feil wrote her second book, “The Validation Breakthrough,” in 1993. She later revised it in collaboration with her daughter Vicki de Klerk-Rubin.Gisela Noemi Weil was born on July 22, 1932, in Munich to Jewish parents. By the time she was 5, her family had fled Nazi Germany for the United States, where her father, Julius Weil, became director of the Montefiore Home for the Aged in Cleveland, and her mother, Helen (Kahn) Weil, ran the home’s social service department.After studying at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, and Western Reserve University (now Case Western Reserve University) in Cleveland, and earning her master’s degree from the Columbia University School of Social Work in New York in 1956, she married Warren J. Rubin. Their marriage ended in divorce. She then moved to Cleveland and returned to the Montefiore Home, this time as a member of the professional staff. She married Mr. Feil in 1963; he died in 2021.In addition to Ms. de Klerk-Rubin, her daughter from her first marriage, Mrs. Feil is survived by another daughter from that marriage, Beth Rubin; two sons from her second marriage, Edward G. Feil and Kenneth Jonathan Feil; six grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter.She and Mr. Feil moved from Ohio to Eugene, Ore., in 2015 to live on their son Edward’s farm, where Mr. Feil, who was suffering from cognitive decline, received full-time home nursing care, piano lessons, painting classes and validation therapy.In the early 1960s, when she started working with disoriented people over 80, Mrs. Feil realized that helping them to face reality was an unrealistic goal, one that would frustrate the caregiver and the invalid alike.“Each person was trapped in a world of their own fantasy,” she wrote in her first book.“I learned validation from the people with whom I worked,” she added. “I learned that they have the wisdom to survive by returning to the past.”

Published15 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Wilmslow Health CentreBy Gill Dummigan & Ewan GawneHealth Correspondent, BBC North WestTwo GPs who drove a patient to hospital after waiting three hours for an ambulance have said the NHS is “broken”.Doctors from Wilmslow Health Centre took the man, who they said was rapidly deteriorating, to Macclesfield Hospital on Monday night.Dr Fari Ahmad said the ambulance service was not to blame for the “outrageous” situation.NHS England said demand for services had been “consistently high” this week.North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said staff were trying their best to help people “as quickly as possible” during a “significant spike” in demand.Staff at the health centre posted a video online showing the moment doctors decided to drive the patient to A&E themselves after waiting more than three hours for an ambulance.Dr Ahmad said he had collapsed at the surgery and was “getting worse”, adding she was “very worried about him”.”It is not their [ambulance crews] fault, they’re rammed, every single part of the NHS is stretched yet again.”It’s winter and really poorly people are struggling to access the help they need.”She looked after the man in the back seat of the car, while her husband and colleague Dr Amar Ahmed drove.”It’s not the ideal thing to do, but we were in such a desperation situation”, she said, adding the GPs had ferried other patients to hospital in the past due to similar delays.In the video Dr Ahmed said the doctors filmed their act of desperation to highlight how the NHS system was “totally broken”. He said: “Politicians on both sides need to wake and do something about it, because people are dying.”Wake up, stop obfuscating, and do something about it now.”Image source, Wilmslow Health CentreA representative for NWAS said: “We are sorry that we haven’t been able to get to the gentleman as quickly as we would have liked.”The NHS is experiencing a significant spike in demand, leading to delays for some patients, but our staff are trying their best to get those who need us as quickly as possible.”A spokeswoman for NHS England said: “Demand for NHS services, including in A&E departments and 999, have been consistently high this week and we are working closely with NHS partners across all provider services, including North West Ambulance Service and social care, to help manage these pressures and ensure patients are seen as quickly as possible.” Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, X and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to northwest.newsonline@bbc.co.ukMore on this storyPostcode check: How’s the NHS coping in your area?Published7 days agoAmbulance pressures: ‘You can’t get to everybody’Published14 December 2023The hospitals struggling the most as winter bitesPublished14 December 2023Related Internet LinksNHS EnglandThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

When vaccinations begin to lag, as they did during the pandemic, measles is often the first disease to resurge. “It’s the canary in the coal mine,” one expert said.The NewsMeasles, a disease preventable by vaccination, is resurgent in Europe and in Britain. Small outbreaks have also popped up in multiple parts of the United States.In Europe, reported measles cases rose more than 40-fold last year compared with 2022, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. Nearly a third of those cases were in Kazakhstan, where the outbreak is attributed largely to children who missed routine immunizations. Experts fear the virus could spread beyond Kazakhstan.Most cases in the United States have been linked to travel outside the country. The number of cases reported last year was lower than in most years before the pandemic.A single dose of the measles vaccine is 93 percent effective at stopping the virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Brian Snyder/ReutersWhy It Matters: Measles can be devastating.Some cases of measles can be mild, but up to half of infected children may need medical attention, said Dr. David Sugerman, who leads the measles team at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Children with measles may develop diarrhea and dehydration, pneumonia that leads to long-term respiratory difficulties, and brain inflammation that results in neurological problems, Dr. Sugerman said.For every 1,000 cases in children, one child may become deaf or intellectually disabled, and one to three may die. Deaths from measles rose worldwide by 43 percent between 2021 and 2022, according to a report in November from the W.H.O. and the C.D.C.The Lesson: Vaccination effectively prevents outbreaks.Measles is among the most contagious infections, and the virus can linger in the air for up to two hours. “It is so contagious that if one person has it, up to 90 percent of the people close to him or her will also become infected if they are not protected,” Dr. Sugerman said.The disease is characterized by respiratory symptoms, fever, conjunctivitis and a rash that can be mistaken for roseola, scarlet fever or other viral infections.In the United States, the measles vaccine is given twice, at 12 to 15 months old, and at 4 to 6 years of age. Even a single dose is 93 percent effective at preventing the disease, according to the C.D.C.Dr. Sugerman urged families planning to travel, or who are otherwise worried about exposure, to immunize infants at 6 to 11 months old, and to reconsider those plans if the infants are younger than 6 months.Back Story: The pandemic and rising hesitancy slowed immunizations.A false claim in the 1990s that said the combined measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism led to a drop in immunization rates. Public health campaigns later recouped much of that deficit, but the rates again fell during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly in low-income countries.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? 

Published19 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, PA MediaBy Aurelia FosterHealth reporterTens of thousands of children who became overweight or obese during the pandemic could face “lifelong health consequences”, researchers say.Obesity rates rose sharply among 10- and 11-year-olds in England and have not returned to pre-pandemic levels.Measures aimed at children under five are now needed to tackle childhood obesity, the researchers warn.The government said it was taking “strong action” to encourage healthier food choices.A prolonged absence from school, a lack of physical activity and unhealthy eating habits have been blamed for rising obesity levels in children during periods of Covid restrictions.Between 2019-2020 and 2020-2021, the proportion of overweight and obese Year 6 primary school children, aged between 10 and 11, went from 35.2% to 40.9%, with people from deprived areas disproportionately affected.Researchers used BMI data from the government’s National Child Measurement Programme, which weighs and measures about one million Year 6 pupils annually in England.The number of overweight and obese pupils of that age decreased the following year, but it was still higher than before the Covid lockdowns. This increase represents a cohort of an additional 56,000 children, researchers from the NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre and University of Southampton say – based on this snapshot.Based on existing data linking childhood obesity to adolescent and adult obesity, they conclude that many of those children are at greater risk of developing conditions such as diabetes, strokes, arthritis and some types of cancer.”What the data shows is that the pandemic is likely to have lasting effects on physical health in the children,” Prof Keith Godfrey, the report’s lead author, said.There was a larger increase in weight gain among Reception pupils aged four and five, but that has now reverted to its previous level.Prof Godfrey said this was likely to be because of the Year 6 pupils’ more advanced “developmental stage”. “In the older children, the dietary and physical activity habits that were developed during the pandemic became more embedded and did not revert back,” he said.The devastating effect of the pandemic on childrenEarly interventionThe researchers say measures to tackle childhood obesity aimed at pre-school children are needed and are likely to be more effective than measures focused on older children. “At the moment the interventions largely centre around a sugar tax, which has probably been effective to a degree, but it needs a much wider engagement.”Changes to certain food placements in shops, a ban on fast food stores next to schools, and increased priority of physical activity in nurseries and pre-schools should be introduced into new policies, Prof Godfrey told the BBC.He said government funding was needed to narrow the gap in health outcomes between advantaged and disadvantaged people.”Those from less advantaged communities have less access to healthy foods and less access to opportunities for physical activity. It doesn’t come down to personal choice or to parenting preferences or behaviours,” he said. Image source, Southampton UniversitySara Stanner, science director at the British Nutrition Foundation, said childhood obesity rates were already “worryingly high” before the pandemic and that this study “underlines the need for action, particularly in areas of deprivation”.”With many children starting school already overweight, it’s important that we intervene in early life. “Tackling obesity needs action across many areas of our society, but supporting children’s health in the early years should be a key part of any approach,” Ms Stanner said.The Department for Health and Social Care said it was trying to tackle obesity across all socio economic groups. A spokesperson said: “We require labelling on pre-packed foods to set out a variety of information to aid shoppers, including a list of ingredients and nutritional data, and we have introduced legislation to restrict the placement of foods high in fat, sugar or salt in supermarkets.”It said it also runs a Healthy Start scheme, encouraging healthy diets for families from lower-income households.Cost to societyThe researchers also used economic data to conclude additional people living with obesity as a result of the pandemic could eventually cost the UK economy more than £8bn in total, including £800m in healthcare costs.”Given that the current epidemic of childhood obesity has yet to completely play out into adulthood, there are concerns that productivity actually might worsen as a consequence of this rise,” Prof Godfrey said.More than 90% of children in the two age groups in England are measured and weighed in the National Child Measurement Programme each year, which researchers say is representative of the population.The study was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.More on this storyChildhood obesity shows slight fall in EnglandPublished19 October 2023Pandemic sees big rise in obese childrenPublished17 November 2021Child mental health not improved since lockdownPublished30 September 2021The devastating toll of the pandemic on childrenPublished30 January 2021Related Internet LinksNational Institute for Health and Care ResearchDepartment of Health and Social CareNIHR Imperial Biomedical Research CentreNHS DigitalSouthampton Biomedical Research CentreUniversity of SouthamptonThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

A team led by LMU researchers Christian Weber and Yvonne Döring has demonstrated new mechanisms that are involved in the development of inflammatory cardiovascular diseases.
A chronic inflammatory disease of the inner walls of blood vessels, atherosclerosis is responsible for many cardiovascular conditions. Dendritic cells, which act to recognize foreign substances in the body and mount an immune response, play an important role in the disease. They produce the signaling protein CCL17, a chemokine, which influences the activity and mobility of T cells, which track down infected cells in the body and attack the pathogens. However, CCL17 can also promote cardiovascular pathologies. People who suffer from cardiovascular diseases, or are particular susceptible to such diseases, have elevated levels of the signaling protein. In humans and mice, elevated CCL17 serum levels are associated with increased risk of atherosclerosis and inflammatory diseases of the cardiovascular and digestive systems. However, scientists have not yet managed to establish how exactly CCL17 produced by the dendritic cells regulates the T cells.
A study just published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research has clarified important mechanisms in the signaling pathways involved. “We know from our previous work that a genetic deficiency or an antibody blockade of CCL17 impedes the progress of atherosclerosis,” says Professor Christian Weber, Director of the Institute for Cardiovascular Prevention at University of Munich Hospital and one of the lead authors of the new paper. Before now, only one signal receptor was known to contribute to the recruitment and functions of T cells. If this receptor is lacking, however, the body is not protected from the negative effects of CCL17, as Weber’s team was able to demonstrate in a mouse study. Mice that did not possess the receptor in question continued to have the same extent of disease driven by CCL17. If the signaling protein acted directly and exclusively on this receptor, then silencing it should have the same effects as the absence of CCL17.
Consequently, there must be another signaling pathway in which CCL17 is involved, and the researchers demonstrated and described just such a pathway in the course of the new study. “We furnish clear evidence that CCL17 acts through an alternative receptor with high affinity, thereby triggering a signaling pathway that results in the suppression of anti-inflammatory, so-called regulatory T cells,” explains Weber’s colleague and first author Professor Yvonne Döring. These T cells would then no longer be able to tackle the vascular inflammations. By targeting and inhibiting individual receptors of the investigated signaling pathway in the course of their experiments, the authors were able to show that this mechanism plays a decisive role in the negative effects of CCL17. Weber is convinced that this accomplishes a major step forward in the understanding of inflammatory diseases: “The reaction pathway we identified represents a highly relevant mechanism in chronic inflammatory diseases and could be an important starting point for a wide variety of therapeutic interventions.”

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have found overactivation in many brain regions, including the frontal and parietal lobes and the amygdala, in unmedicated children with anxiety disorders. They also showed that treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) led to improvements in clinical symptoms and brain functioning. The findings illuminate the brain mechanisms underlying the acute effects of CBT to treat one of the most common mental disorders. The study, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, was led by researchers at NIH’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).
“We know that CBT is effective. These findings help us understand how CBT works, a critical first step in improving clinical outcomes,” said senior author Melissa Brotman, Ph.D., Chief of the Neuroscience and Novel Therapeutics Unit in the NIMH Intramural Research Program.
Sixty-nine unmedicated children diagnosed with an anxiety disorder underwent 12 weeks of CBT following an established protocol. CBT, which involves changing dysfunctional thoughts and behaviors through gradual exposure to anxiety-provoking stimuli, is the current gold standard for treating anxiety disorders in children.
The researchers used clinician-rated measures to examine the change in children’s anxiety symptoms and clinical functioning from pre- to post-treatment. They also used task-based fMRI to look at whole-brain changes before and after treatment and compare those to brain activity in 62 similarly aged children without anxiety.
Children with anxiety showed greater activity in many brain regions, including cortical areas in the frontal and parietal lobes, which are important for cognitive and regulatory functions, such as attention and emotion regulation. The researchers also observed elevated activity in deeper limbic areas like the amygdala, which are essential for generating strong emotions, such as anxiety and fear.
Following three months of CBT treatment, children with anxiety showed a clinically significant decrease in anxiety symptoms and improved functioning. Increased activation seen before treatment in many frontal and parietal brain regions also improved after CBT, declining to levels equal to or lower than those of non-anxious children. According to the researchers, the reduced activation in these brain areas may reflect more efficient engagement of cognitive control networks following CBT.
However, eight brain regions, including the right amygdala, continued to show higher activity in anxious compared to non-anxious children after treatment. This persistent pattern of enhanced activation suggests some brain regions, particularly limbic areas that modulate responses to anxiety-provoking stimuli, may be less responsive to the acute effects of CBT. Changing activity in these regions may require a longer duration of CBT, additional forms of treatment, or directly targeting subcortical brain areas.

“Understanding the brain circuitry underpinning feelings of severe anxiety and determining which circuits normalize and which do not as anxiety symptoms improve with CBT is critical for advancing treatment and making it more effective for all children,” said first author Simone Haller, Ph.D., Director of Research and Analytics in the NIMH Neuroscience and Novel Therapeutics Unit.
In this study, all children with anxiety received CBT. For comparison purposes, the researchers also measured brain activity in a separate sample of 87 youth who were at high risk for anxiety based on their infant temperament (for example, showing a high sensitivity to new situations). Because these children were not diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, they had not received CBT treatment. Their brain scans were taken at 10 and 13 years.
In adolescents at temperamental risk for anxiety, higher brain activity was related to increased anxiety symptoms over time and matched the brain activity seen in children diagnosed with an anxiety disorder before treatment. This provides preliminary evidence that the brain changes in children with anxiety were driven by CBT and that they may offer a reliable neural marker of anxiety treatment.
Anxiety disorders are common in children and can cause them significant distress in social and academic situations. They are also chronic, with a strong link into adulthood when they become harder to treat. Despite the effectiveness of CBT, many children continue to show anxiety symptoms after treatment. Enhancing the therapy to treat anxiety more effectively during childhood can have short- and long-term benefits and prevent more serious problems later in life.
This study provides evidence — in a large group of unmedicated youth with anxiety disorders — of altered brain circuitry underlying treatment effects of CBT. The findings could, in time, be used to enhance treatment outcomes by targeting brain circuits linked to clinical improvement. This is particularly important for the subset of children who did not significantly improve after short-term CBT.
“The next step for this research is to understand which children are most likely to respond. Are there factors we can assess before treatment begins to make the most informed decisions about who should get which treatment and when? Answering these questions would further translate our research findings into clinical practice,” said Brotman.

The fountain of youth has eluded explorers for ages. It turns out the magic anti-aging elixir might have been inside us all along.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Corina Amor Vegas and colleagues have discovered that T cells can be reprogrammed to fight aging, so to speak. Given the right set of genetic modifications, these white blood cells can attack another group of cells known as senescent cells. These cells are thought to be responsible for many of the diseases we grapple with later in life.
Senescent cells are those that stop replicating. As we age, they build up in our bodies, resulting in harmful inflammation. While several drugs currently exist that can eliminate these cells, many must be taken repeatedly over time.
As an alternative, Amor Vegas and colleagues turned to a “living” drug called CAR (chimeric antigen receptor) T cells. They discovered CAR T cells could be manipulated to eliminate senescent cells in mice. As a result, the mice ended up living healthier lives. They had lower body weight, improved metabolism and glucose tolerance, and increased physical activity. All benefits came without any tissue damage or toxicity.
“If we give it to aged mice, they rejuvenate. If we give it to young mice, they age slower. No other therapy right now can do this, ” says Amor Vegas.
Perhaps the greatest power of CAR T cells is their longevity. The team found that just one dose at a young age can have lifelong effects. That single treatment can protect against conditions that commonly occur later in life, like obesity and diabetes.
“T cells have the ability to develop memory and persist in your body for really long periods, which is very different from a chemical drug, ” explains Amor Vegas. “With CAR T cells, you have the potential of getting this one treatment, and then that’s it. For chronic pathologies, that’s a huge advantage. Think about patients who need treatment multiple times per day versus you get an infusion, and then you’re good to go for multiple years.”
CAR T cells have been used to treat a variety of blood cancers, receiving FDA approval for this purpose in 2017. But Amor Vegas is one of the first scientists to show that CAR T cells’ medical potential goes even further than cancer.
Amor Vegas’ lab is now investigating whether CAR T cells let mice live not only healthier but also longer. If so, society will be one mouse step closer to the coveted fountain of youth.

More than half of people in the U.S. (51%) do not know that heart disease is the leading cause of death in the country, according to a recent Harris Poll survey conducted on behalf of the American Heart Association in November 2023. Yet, heart disease has now been the #1 killer for more than a century, according to the 2024 Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics: A Report of U.S. and Global Data From the American Heart Association. The annual update published today in Circulation, the peer-reviewed, flagship journal of the American Heart Association, the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke, celebrating 100 years of lifesaving work in 2024.
“Heart disease has now been the leading cause of death in this country for 100 years straight, since 1921, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” said Joseph C. Wu, M.D., Ph.D., FAHA, volunteer president of the American Heart Association, director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute and the Simon H. Stertzer Professor of Medicine and Radiology at Stanford School of Medicine. “Heart disease along with stroke, which is the fifth leading cause of death, claims more lives in the U.S. than all forms of cancer and chronic lower respiratory disease combined, based on the most recent data available. So, the results of this survey, finding that most people do not know the significant impact of heart disease, is discouraging and even a bit frightening.”
In the survey, only 49% of people named heart disease as the leading cause of death; 16% said they didn’t know the leading cause and 18% listed cancer as the top cause of death of people in the U.S.
Wu cautioned that this lack of knowledge and awareness is potentially deadly, as this year’s statistical update reports that nearly half of all people in the U.S. (48.6%) have some type of cardiovascular disease (CVD), including coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and, most notably, high blood pressure.
According to the 2024 statistical update, 46.7% of U.S. adults have high blood pressure. Yet, 38% those with high blood pressure are unaware that they have it. In the past 10 years, the age-adjusted death rate from high blood pressure increased 65.6% and the actual number of deaths rose 91.2%.
“High blood pressure is a leading risk factor for heart disease and stroke, and yet with proper treatment and management it can be controlled and your risk for cardiovascular disease can be greatly reduced. The first step toward reducing any risk factor for cardiovascular disease is awareness.” Wu said. “When the American Heart Association was founded 100 years ago, heart disease was considered a death sentence. Little was known about what caused it and even less about how to care for people living with and dying from it. The knowledge we continue to gain through research and data such as that reported in this statistical update is helping make significant inroads. Although too many people still die each year, many are living longer, more productive lives while managing their cardiovascular disease and risk factors.”
Wu noted there are several highlights in the fight against cardiovascular disease published in a special foreword of this year’s statistical update: Since 1950, death rates from CVD have declined 60%; the rates have fluctuated over the years and have recently trended upward. Wu notes this trend aligns with increases in the prevalence of risk factors that cause heart disease and stroke, such as high blood pressure and obesity. The number of people in the United States dying of a heart attack each year has dropped from 1 in 2 in the 1950s to now 1 in 8.5. Wu notes this is likely due in part to improved diagnosis and treatment options. Stroke was first ranked as the third leading cause of death in 1938; however, stroke mortality has been on the decline since the early 20th century and now ranks as the fifth leading cause of death in the United States. Aggressive evidence-based public health programs and clinical interventions have played a key role in reducing the number of stroke deaths, Wu said. Cigarette smoking has fallen dramatically from >40% of U.S. adults smoking in the mid-1960s to about 11% today. According to Wu, the American Heart Association has led the charge in this decline, supporting increased public awareness about the dangers of nicotine and tobacco use and policy initiatives that have placed legal restrictions on smoking in public spaces and placed higher taxes on cigarette products.”Identifying trends like this is a key reason why we compile the American Heart Association’s statistical update, which has been released annually since 1927. Although the research and statistics included in each year’s report illustrate the most recent data available, the historical data pulled from the collective work over the years is especially invaluable,” said volunteer chair of the statistical update writing committee Seth S. Martin, M.D., M.H.S., FAHA, a professor of medicine and cardiologist at John’s Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. “As it has evolved over the years, the report has become a preeminent resource in identifying the overall impact of cardiovascular disease, including who is most affected, where it is most prevalent and what factors may increase the risk of it. This type of information is crucial to the development of awareness initiatives and policy strategies and provides a road map for cardiovascular research priorities.”

Martin noted that last year’s statistical update identified a concerning increase in cardiovascular related deaths — the largest single-year increase since 2015 — which may have been a reflection of the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The data trends on cardiovascular deaths reported in this year’s update also show an increase, however it appears lower in magnitude: The overall number of cardiovascular related deaths was 931,578, an increase of less than 3,000 from the 928,741 deaths reported last year. Last year, the number of deaths increased more than 54,000 over the previous year. Cardiovascular deaths include deaths from coronary heart disease (40.3%), stroke (17.5%), other minor CVD causes combined (17.1%), high blood pressure (13.4%), heart failure (9.1%) and diseases of the arteries (2.6%). The age-adjusted death rate from cardiovascular disease increased to 233.3 per 100,000, up 4.0% from 224.4 per 100,000 reported last year, whereas the rate had increased 4.6% in the previous year. Last year’s increase was the first increase in age-adjusted death rates seen in many years.”While the long-term impact of the pandemic is yet to be seen, we’re cautiously optimistic that the trends from this year’s update indicate a slowdown in the striking effects we initially saw,” Martin said. “There is still much work to be done in the overall fight against cardiovascular disease. Recognizing that most people do not realize heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., it’s imperative that we share the data from our statistics update even more broadly to increase this awareness.”
Here are some other key facts from the 2024 report: There are 2,552 deaths from total cardiovascular disease (CVD) each day, based on 2021 data. On average, someone dies of CVD every 34 seconds in the U.S. There are about 1,905 deaths from heart disease, each day in the U.S., including heart attacks. Approximately every 40 seconds, someone in the U.S. will have a heart attack. Each year in the U.S., there are about 605,000 new heart attacks and 200,000 recurrent attacks. Of these, it is estimated that 170,000 are silent, without significant symptoms. The average age at first heart attack is 65.6 years for males and 72.0 years for females. There are about 446 deaths from stroke each day, based on 2021 data. On average, someone dies of a stroke every 3 minutes and 14 seconds in the U.S. Each year, 795,000 people experience a new or recurrent stroke. Approximately 610,000 of these are first attacks and 185,000 are recurrent attacks. On average, someone dies of a stroke every 3 minutes 14 seconds. Stroke accounts for about 1 of every 21 deaths in the United States. In 2021, sudden cardiac arrest attributed to 20,114 deaths in the U.S. On average, there are about 55 deaths from sudden cardiac arrest in the U.S. each day. According to 2022 U.S. data, most adult Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrests (OHCA) occur at a home or a residence (72.1%). Public settings (17.3%) and nursing homes (10.6%) were the second and third most common locations of adult OHCA. According to 2022 U.S. data for adult OHCA only, survival to hospital discharge was 9.3% for all EMS-treated non-traumatic OHCA cardiac arrests. Bystander witnessed adult arrests had a 14.0% survival to hospital discharge and 9-1-1 responder witnessed arrests had a 17.0% survival to hospital discharge.”This year, our annual statistical report has a new name, as we’ve added ‘Global’ to the title to reflect the continued addition of more data noting the impact of cardiovascular disease around the world,” said volunteer vice-chair of the report writing committee Latha P. Palaniappan, M.D., M.S., FAHA, a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. “Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death not only in the U.S., but worldwide. The information gathered in our statistical update helps identify the global burden of CVD and guides the American Heart Association’s lifesaving work around the world.”
Here are a few key global statistics from the new report: In 2019, 27% of the world’s deaths were caused by CVD, making it the predominant cause of death globally. CVD accounted for approximately 19.91 million global deaths in 2021. Worldwide, tobacco contributed to an estimated 7.43 million deaths in 2021. Worldwide, high body mass index was attributed to 3.69 million deaths in 2021, an increase of 46.7% compared with 2010. In 2021, an estimated 1.70 million deaths were attributed to diabetes globally.”I cannot stress enough how important it is for people to fully recognize just how much cardiovascular diseases, including heart disease and stroke, impact each of us as individuals and communities. If you don’t have heart disease yourself, chances are you know someone who does, perhaps a family member or other loved one,” Wu said. “Arm yourself with knowledge that can help you reduce your risk of becoming a future statistic. In 2024, with Bold Hearts™ — the American Heart Association’s Centennial celebration — the organization celebrates 100 years of progress as a global force transforming the way the world understands, treats and prevents cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. This year, more than ever, our future is about improving yours.”
This statistical update was prepared by a volunteer writing group on behalf of the American Heart Association Council on Epidemiology and Prevention Statistics Committee and Stroke Statistics Committee.

Tissue engineering, which involves the use of grafts or scaffolds to aid cell regeneration, is emerging as a key medical practice for treating volumetric muscle loss (VML), a condition where a significant amount of muscle tissue is lost beyond the body’s natural regenerative capacity. To improve surgical outcomes, traditional muscle grafts are giving way to artificial scaffold materials, with MXene nanoparticles (NPs) standing out as a promising option.
MXene NPs are 2D materials primarily composed of transition-metal carbides and nitride. They are highly electrically conductive, can accommodate a wide range of functional groups, and have stacked structures that promote cell interactions and muscle growth. While there have been practical demonstrations in the laboratory showcasing their ability to promote the reconstruction of skeletal muscles, the specific mechanism by which they do so remains unclear.
To address this gap, Associate Professor Yun Hak Kim from the Department of Anatomy and Department of Biomedical Informatics alongside Professors Suck Won Hong, and Dong-Wook Han from the Department of Cogno-Mechatronics Engineering at Pusan National University, developed nanofibrous matrices containing MXene NPs as scaffolds. They used DNA sequencing to reveal the genes and biological pathways activated by MXene NPs to aid in muscle regeneration. These findings, published on 4 January 2024, in Volume 16 of Nano-Micro Letters, mark a significantly advancement in the use of MXene scaffolds for treating muscle damage.
“This discovery posits a prospective avenue for the utilization of these materials to augment the efficacy of muscle tissue regeneration post-injury or damage,” explains Professor Kim.
In the initial phase, the team created a nanofibrous PCM matrix containing poly(lactide-co-ε-caprolactone) (P), reinforced with collagen (C), and Ti3C2Tx MXene nanoparticles (M). To determine the specific effect of MXene NPs on muscle growth, they prepared three controls: pristine PLCL (P), PLCL with Collagen (PC), and PLCL with MXene (PM). On testing all the scaffolds on mouse models with induced volumetric muscle loss, the researchers observed a significant increase in the overall number of muscle cells in PCM-treated mice compared to the other groups.
To understand how MXene nanoparticles (NPs) impact muscle regeneration and growth at the molecular level, the researchers introduced C2C12 myoblasts, which are precursors of muscle cells, onto PC and PCM matrices. The objective was to analyze the differences in gene expression levels between the two matrices. Within the PCM matrix, a heightened production of inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and serum/glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (SGK1) was identified-two proteins closely associated with calcium signaling and muscle regeneration.
These results suggest that MXenes promote calcium ion (Ca2+) deposition around cells. This heightened levels of intracellular Ca2+ triggers the activation of genes that produce iNOS and SGK1 proteins. SGK1 influences the mTOR-AKT pathway, promoting cell proliferation, survival, and myogenesis-the conversion of myoblasts to muscle fibers. Simultaneously, iNOS increases the production of nitric oxide (NO), contributing to myoblast proliferation and muscle fiber fusion. The combined effects lead to the development of mature muscle tissue. The aligned PCM nanofibrous matrices offer biophysical cues for intracellular biochemical signaling, guiding myogenic behaviors. This discovery contributes to our understanding of MXene’s potential to regrow muscle and holds promise for refining scaffold designs to enhance this process further.
“Within 5 to 10 years, this research may yield groundbreaking treatments for muscle injuries. MXene NP-infused matrices could become a routine in medical practice for athletes, people with muscle-related ailments, and those recuperating from muscle-related traumas or surgeries,” Prof. Kim optimistically states. ‘These NPs might enhance muscle regeneration methods, offering improved outcomes for reconstructive surgeries and conditions like muscular dystrophy, where muscle function is compromised,’ he further adds.
The MXene NP-infused matrices hold potential for customization to meet diverse needs in treating muscle loss injuries. This customization may involve adjusting composition, structure, or properties to match specific patient requirements, like size, shape, or bioactivity enhancement. Tailoring these materials could offer personalized solutions for various muscle loss severities. Additionally, the observed enhanced muscle regeneration could aid in a more efficient recovery, potentially reducing post-treatment rehabilitation needs.
These matrices, with controllable mechanical properties, hold promise for enhancing in vivo muscle regeneration. Further research into MXene promises expanded clinical applications, potentially benefiting human well-being.