Publisher Health

The new ruling will have no effect on access until the Supreme Court ultimately decides the case.A federal appeals court panel said Wednesday that it would impose restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone that would prevent the drug from being prescribed by telemedicine or dispensed through the mail.But the decision — the latest development in a closely watched lawsuit filed by abortion opponents seeking to block access to abortion pills — will not take effect until the Supreme Court ultimately decides the case.In a ruling this spring, the high court said mifepristone should remain available under the current rules until the appeals process concludes.In its ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit upheld part of a decision issued in April by a federal judge in Texas. That decision, by Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk, had nullified the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of the pill 23 years ago.But the appeals court decision on Wednesday kept the F.D.A.’s approval in place. It also kept in place a later approval of the generic version of the drug, which is now used in the most medication abortions.The main impact of the appeals court decision, if it is upheld by the Supreme Court, would be to reverse changes made by the F.D.A. in recent years that allowed patients to obtain the pill without visiting a doctor or other health provider in person. It would mean that patients would have to make three medical visits and could not receive the pills in the mail.The ability for patients to use telemedicine and obtain the prescribed pills through the mail has significantly expanded the use of medication abortion, which is now used in more than half of pregnancy terminations in the United States.

Medications to treat various chronic diseases may hinder the body’s ability to lose heat and regulate its core temperature to optimal levels. The loss of effective thermoregulation has implications for elderly people receiving treatment for illnesses like cancer, cardiovascular, Parkinson’s disease/dementia and diabetes, particularly during hot weather, according to a review by a team of scientists from various institutions in Singapore.
The group, led by Associate Professor Jason Lee from the Human Potential Translational Research Programme at the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore (NUS Medicine), identified and reviewed relevant research papers using keyword searches on databases such as PubMed and Google Scholar. These papers studied the associations and effects of medications on thermoregulation. The review findings were presented in a topical manner, focusing on medication classes used to treat commonly diagnosed chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, and cancer). The findings were published in Pharmacological Reviews, titled Effects of Medications on Heat Loss Capacity in Chronic Disease Patients:
Health Implications Amidst Global Warming
The findings show that medications used to treat common chronic conditions, like blood thinners, blood pressure drugs, Parkinson’s disease/Alzheimer’s medications, and some chemotherapy drugs, can make it harder for the human body to handle hot weather by reducing its ability to sweat or increase blood flow to the skin.
Lead author and second-year PhD candidate from the Human Potential Translational Research Programme Mr Jericho Wee said, “Rising global temperatures caused by climate change pose a significant health concern for clinical patients reliant on long-term medications and healthcare. Increasingly, we will continue to see more elderly patients, many who have multiple health conditions and are taking different types of medication concurrently to manage their chronic diseases, compounding the risk of heat-related illness and dehydration. Understanding how each medication impacts thermoregulation, in the face of warmer environments, is the crucial first step to predicting the possible health outcomes when multiple medications are taken concurrently.” While previous reviews have highlighted the impacts of medications on heat, the scope of those reviews did not present the evidence in the context of the chronic diseases and ageing. The team’s narrative review presents the evidence in the context of high ambient temperatures and their impact on chronic disease sufferers who are on long-term and life-long medication.
Senior author Assoc Prof Jason Lee said, “This review emphasises the importance of studying the mechanisms of altered thermoregulation in individuals with diabetes and other cardiometabolic conditions to prevent heat-induced conditions. This is most relevant in Singapore and many other countries, where we have rapidly ageing populations and rising ambient temperatures. Pharmacological and thermal physiologists should focus transdisciplinary efforts on this area of research to refine and enhance safe medication prescription guidelines to preserve the health of people who need these medications, even in hot weather.”
Assoc Prof Melvin Leow, the review’s co-author and Senior Consultant Endocrinologist at Tan Tock Seng Hospital said, “Physicians are often unaware of the potential harms certain drugs may cause by compromising the body’s thermoregulatory control mechanisms. This is an especially important area to delve into as those with chronic diseases and older adults are susceptible to adverse health outcomes in the heat, due to their reduced thermoregulatory capacity. It is timely and prudent that scientists and doctors collaborate even closer in this important field that cuts across a wide range of medical disciplines.”
The study was supported by the National Research Foundation, Prime Minister’s Office, Singapore under its Campus for Research Excellence and Technological Enterprise (CREATE) Programme.

Published15 hours agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingBy Bob Dale & Peter WhittleseaBBC NewsA plastic surgeon has blamed a social media trend for a dramatic increase in young people suffering serious burns.Paul Drake, a consultant at the Queen Victoria Hospital in East Grinstead, West Sussex, said he was treating “two to three cases a week, sometimes more” during July and August.He said a trend that started on social media, in which people put aerosol cans on fires, was behind the injuries. In many cases the cans have exploded, leaving some people with major burns.Sunny Willink said her son Alfie – who suffered serious burns after putting an aerosol can on a fire – was “just having fun with his friends”. He is now being treated at the Queen Victoria Hospital. Mr Drake said he had seen some injuries with “potentially devastating effects with lifelong scarring and disability”.Although the majority of injuries do heal without any major long-term complications, he said the hospital was also treating injuries that required surgery. Mr Drake said he had no doubt social media was behind the increase in cases.”All of these stunts are captured on video and uploaded to streaming platforms where they’re consumed over a huge audience,” he said.”The feedback that is given through likes and shares – and the celebrity you can achieve – that adds a fuel which wouldn’t necessarily have been there 20 years ago.”Follow BBC South East on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@bbc.co.uk.More on this storyDad’s warning after girl dies from deodorant fumesPublished26 JanuaryTeen’s hair singed in aerosol attackPublished27 May 2016Related Internet LinksQueen Victoria HospitalThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have found that molecules in vegetables like broccoli or cauliflower help to maintain a healthy barrier in the lung and ease infection.
The AHR — aryl hydrocarbon receptor — is a protein found at barrier sites like the gut and the lung. Natural molecules in cruciferous vegetables — for example, kale, cauliflower, broccoli, or cabbage — are dietary ‘ligands’ for AHR, which means, once eaten, they activate AHR to target a number of genes. Some of the genes targeted switch off the AHR system, allowing it to self-regulate.
The effect of AHR on immune cells is well understood, but this research, published today in Nature, now shows that AHR is also highly active in endothelial cells lining blood vessels in the lung.
The lung barrier between the body and the air outside is only made up of two layers, one of endothelial cells and one of epithelial cells, because it needs to allow oxygen to enter. But the barrier also has to be kept strong against pollution or viruses and bacteria.
The researchers conducted a series of experiments in mice to show how AHR impacts lung barriers. When mice were infected with the flu virus, blood was found in the airspaces in the lungs, as it had leaked across the damaged barrier. The researchers then showed that AHR was able to prevent the barrier from becoming leaky: when AHR was overactivated they observed less blood in the lung spaces.
They also found that mice with enhanced AHR activity didn’t lose as much weight when infected with flu, and were able to better fight off a bacterial infection on top of the original virus.
When AHR was prevented from being expressed in the lung endothelial cells of infected mice, more blood and immune cells were seen in the air spaces, showing greater damage to the barrier.

Neuroscientists at Scripps Research have identified brain circuits that make mammals want to eat more when they are exposed to cold temperatures.
Mammals automatically burn more energy to maintain normal body temperature when exposed to cold. This cold-activated increase in energy expenditure triggers an increase in appetite and feeding, although the specific mechanism controlling this had been unknown. In the new study, reported on August 16, 2023, in Nature, the researchers identified a cluster of neurons that work as a “switch” for this cold-related, food-seeking behavior in mice. The discovery could lead to potential therapeutics for metabolic health and weight loss.
“This is a fundamental adaptive mechanism in mammals and targeting it with future treatments might allow the enhancement of the metabolic benefits of cold or other forms of fat burning,” says study senior author Li Ye, PhD, associate professor and the Abide-Vividion Chair in Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Scripps Research.
The study’s first author was Ye Lab postdoctoral research associate Neeraj Lal, PhD.
Because exposure to cold leads to enhanced energy burning to stay warm, cold water immersion and other forms of “cold therapy” have been explored as methods for losing weight and improving metabolic health. One drawback of cold therapies is that humans’ evolved responses to cold are not designed to cause weight loss (an effect that could have been fatal during the frequent periods of food scarcity in pre-modern times). Cold, like dieting and exercise, increases appetite to counteract any weight-loss effect. In the study, Ye and his team set out to identify the brain circuitry that mediates this cold-induced appetite increase.
One of their first observations was that, with the onset of cold temperatures (from 73F to 39F), mice increase their food seeking only after a delay of about six hours, suggesting this behavioral change is not simply a direct result of cold sensing.
Using techniques called whole-brain clearing and light sheet microscopy, the researchers compared the activity of neurons across the brain during cold versus warm conditions. Soon they made a key observation: While most of the neuronal activity across the brain was much lower in the cold condition, portions of a region called the thalamus showed higher activation.

“Back-to-school” season means buying pens and paper, figuring out the new bus route, and … earaches. Doctors typically treat these infections with antibiotics, but children don’t always complete the full course, accelerating resistance to these medications. Today, researchers report developing a single-use nanoscale system that’s unlikely to generate resistance. Using a compound similar to bleach in test animals, they show it can kill off one type of bacterium that causes ear infections, and it could someday be easily applied as a gel.
The researchers will present their results today at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
“We initially conceived of this idea by looking at the household cleaner bleach. Even though it has been used since the 19th century, bacteria do not appear to have developed any widespread resistance to this cleaner,” says Rong Yang, Ph.D., the project’s principal investigator.
But Yang quickly warns that people should not treat infections with bleach. The solution sold at stores is highly concentrated and caustic, but when used in a properly controlled manner at extremely low concentrations, the active ingredient in bleach is considered compatible with living tissue.
After realizing that the active ingredient in the household cleaner could circumvent antibiotic resistance, the researchers, who are at Cornell University, decided to tackle a nearly universal childhood scourge: acute ear infections. These infections affect more than 95% of children in the U.S., and treatment typically requires taking antibiotics for five to 10 days. However, these regimens can cause problematic side effects, leading some families to discontinue the medication prematurely, particularly if symptoms resolve. But using these medications improperly can speed up the development of antibiotic resistance, which makes infections more difficult, if not impossible, to treat. This issue ranks among the biggest threats to global health, according to the World Health Organization.
Bacteria have more success fighting against some substances than others. Hypochloric acid from bleach belongs to a family of compounds, known as hypohalous acids, to which bacteria have yet to develop any significant resistance — most likely because of the numerous ways these highly reactive acids damage microbial cells, Yang says.
Because these substances break down quickly, Yang and her colleagues sought to generate one of them on an as-needed basis behind the eardrum in the middle ear, where ear infections occur. They found inspiration in an enzyme from giant kelp, which converts hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) to hypobromous acid (HOBr), a chemical relative of bleach.

Young vegetables known as microgreens are reputed to be particularly good for health. Now, researchers are trying to find out if microgreens — which can easily be grown at home — are the superfood they’re claimed to be, and how they compare to mature veggies. Results to date show their nutritional profiles differ, as do their effects on gut bacteria. Yet, tests in mice suggest that both microgreen and mature vegetables can limit weight gain.
The researchers will present their results today at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS Fall 2023 is a hybrid meeting being held virtually and in-person Aug. 13-17, and features about 12,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
“The scientific literature suggests that cruciferous vegetables, like kale and broccoli, are good for you,” notes Thomas T. Y. Wang, Ph.D., the project’s principal investigator. The microgreen versions of these foods are particularly touted for their health benefits. Older than sprouts but younger than baby greens, microgreens are typically harvested within a couple of weeks after they start growing. And they can easily be grown in a container on a windowsill.
“When we started this research, not a lot was known about the nutrient content or biological effects of microgreens, so we thought we should take a look at them,” says Wang, a scientist at the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). He is working with collaborators there and at the University of Maryland, College Park.
The team began their studies with another cruciferous plant — red cabbage. The researchers found that both young and fully grown cabbage limited weight gain in mice fed a high-fat diet. Yet the cabbage’s nutrient profile changed over time, and the microgreen was significantly richer in substances such as glucosinolates — nitrogen- and sulfur-containing compounds that may offer protection from cancer, Wang says.
Next, the scientists turned their attention to kale. “We wondered whether the bioactive components in microgreen kale were different from those in mature kale,” says Wang. “And we found that the nutritional composition is very different.” For example, the immature plant has about five times more glucosinolates. Similarly, further studies by Wang’s team and others have shown that nutrient levels in several other types of cruciferous vegetables are higher in the immature plants.
In their latest work, Wang and his colleagues are comparing the biological effects of microgreen and fully grown kale. They have discovered that both the young plant and mature kale are effective in limiting weight gain in mice fed a high-fat diet. Additional experiments will be needed to see if humans would experience these same benefits.

A few years ago, amid lockdown boredom, it seemed like everyone was perfecting their sourdoughs. A simple, fermented mixture of flour and water, the bread is powered by microbes that provide its one-of-a-kind tangy flavor. For over a hundred years, sourdough bread has been synonymous with San Francisco, where today, scientists will report that they’ve identified and quantified 21 key chemical compounds that make this bread taste and smell so unique. They’ve also compared the levels of the compounds in different breads.
The researchers will present their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Sourdough breads have existed for centuries, dating back to ancient Egypt — well before they hit their recent peak of popularity in 2020. Unlike other wheat or white breads, which often rely on baker’s yeast to rise, sourdough breads use a “starter” — a living colony of bacteria and wild yeast that causes the bread’s dough to rise through fermentation. Since the microbes come from the air of the local environment, certain places are reportedly home to the best loaves. For example, San Francisco’s unique foggy climate is said to help make its sourdoughs so famously delicious.
Even though these breads are common, little work has been done to understand what chemical compounds provide their characteristic taste and smell. This knowledge could be important to bakers who need to control the quality of their breads, preventing them from becoming too sour, and it could also help them create more consistent sourdoughs for consumers to enjoy. So, Thomas Hofmann’s team at the Technical University of Munich wanted to apply an updated version of a technique known as “sensomics” to sourdough bread crumb — the soft inside part of a loaf. Hofmann currently serves as editor-in-chief of ACS’ Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
“With sensomics, you can take just a few key compounds and completely recreate the characteristic taste of a food,” says Laura Eckrich, a graduate student in Hofmann’s lab, who is presenting the work at the meeting. The approach involves chromatography, mass spectrometry and similar methods. The team has applied the method previously to other foods to isolate all the flavor-active compounds and to determine their structures and concentrations, as well as how they contribute to taste. The team has used this knowledge to re-engineer the flavor profile of various foods from the bottom up.
Hofmann’s team isolated, identified and quantified the flavor compounds in sourdough bread crumb, and then determined which ones were the most important. The resulting 10 key “tastants” and 11 key “odorants” were then combined into a sourdough “essence,” the flavor of which was confirmed by a human sensory panel. The key taste compounds include salt, which is directly added to the dough, as well as acetic and lactic acid, produced during fermentation. After these experiments, they applied a technique called “unified flavor quantitation,” which was previously developed by Hofmann’s team, to the sourdough bread. For the first time, this technique allowed them to analyze these unique taste and aroma compounds simultaneously.
The team then used the method in brand-new studies to quantify the concentrations of these compounds in different types of bread. They collected both yeast-based and sourdough breads from local bakeries and supermarkets made with either rye or wheat flours. Though key sourdough compounds, including lactic and acetic acids, were found in the yeast-based breads, they were present in much smaller amounts. These results confirmed the importance of the fermentation process to the sourdough’s special flavor.
Next on the researchers’ plates was an analysis of the best way to reduce the salt content in breads. They addressed this issue by unevenly distributing saltier doughs throughout a dough mixture. Since breads, especially sourdoughs, can contribute significantly to one’s daily salt intake, the method could help reduce the amount of sodium while maintaining the bread’s unique taste.
Ultimately, the team says their discoveries should be welcome news for the baking industry. “This was the first time the key taste and aroma compounds of bread crumb were elucidated using the sensomics approach, and we hope what we learned will help bakers create the best sourdough breads they can,” says Eckrich.

Surgeons at NYU Langone Health have transplanted a genetically engineered pig kidney that continues to function well after 32 days in a man declared dead by neurologic criteria and maintained with a beating heart on ventilator support. This represents the longest period that a gene-edited pig kidney has functioned in a human, and the latest step toward the advent of an alternate, sustainable supply of organs for transplant.
The procedure, performed on July 14, 2023, and led by Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, the H. Leon Pachter, MD Professor of Surgery, chair of the Department of Surgery, and director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, was the fifth xenotransplant performed at NYU Langone. Observation is ongoing and the study will continue through mid-September 2023.
“This work demonstrates a pig kidney — with only one genetic modification and without experimental medications or devices — can replace the function of a human kidney for at least 32 days without being rejected,” said Dr. Montgomery, who had previously performed the world’s first genetically modified pig kidney transplant into a human decedent on September 25, 2021, followed by a second similar procedure on November 22, 2021. Surgeons with the Transplant Institute performed two genetically engineered pig heart transplants in summer 2022.
Removing Troublesome Gene Again Shows Promise
The first hurdle to overcome in xenotransplants is preventing so-called hyperacute rejection, which typically occurs just minutes after an animal organ is connected to the human circulatory system. By “knocking out” the gene that encodes the biomolecule known as alpha-gal — which has been identified as responsible for a rapid antibody-mediated rejection of pig organs by humans — immediate rejection has been avoided in all five xenotransplants at NYU Langone. Additionally, the pig’s thymus gland, which is responsible for educating the immune system, was embedded underneath the outer layer of the kidney to stave off novel, delayed immune responses. The combination of modifications has been shown to prevent rejection of the organ while preserving kidney function.
To ensure the body’s kidney function was sustained solely by the pig kidney, both of the transplant recipient’s native kidneys were surgically removed. One pig kidney was then transplanted and started producing urine immediately without any signs of hyperacute rejection. During the observation phase, intensive care clinical staff maintained the decedent on support while the pig kidney’s performance was monitored and sampled with weekly biopsies. Levels of creatinine, a bodily waste product found in the blood and an indicator of kidney function, were in the optimal range during the length of the study, and there was no evidence on biopsy of rejection.
The surgery was the latest in a larger study approved by a specific research ethics oversight board at NYU Langone and was performed after consultation with the New York State Department of Health. This important research, which study leaders say could save many lives in the future, was made possible by the family of a 57-year-old male who elected to donate his body after a brain death declaration and a circumstance in which his organs or tissues were not suitable for transplant.

Teeth could be capable of preserving antibodies for hundreds of years, allowing scientists to investigate the history of infectious human diseases, a new study has found.
Antibodies are proteins produced by the immune system as a natural response to infectious organisms like viruses and bacteria. Their job is to recognise those microbes so that the immune system can attack them and clear them from the body.
In the new paper, published by iScience, antibodies extracted from 800 year-old medieval human teeth were found to be stable and still able to recognise viral proteins.
The study, led by Professor Robert Layfield and research technician Barry Shaw from the School of Life Sciences, University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Professor Anisur Rahman and Dr Thomas McDonnell from the Department of Medicine at University College London, expands the study of ancient proteins, referred to as palaeoproteomics, potentially allowing experts to analyse how human antibody responses developed through history.
Palaeoproteomics can reach back into deep time with ancient proteins already successfully recovered and identified after preservation in 1.7-million year old dental enamel from an ancient rhinoceros and an ostrich eggshell more than 6.5 million years old. In this new study, the authors also found preliminary evidence that, like the medieval human teeth, mammoth bones nearly 40,000 years old appear to preserve stable antibodies.
This science has previously been applied by the Nottingham team to the analysis of other disease-associated proteins recovered from archaeological human bones and teeth to allow identification of an unusual ancient form of the skeletal disorder Paget’s disease.
Professor Layfield explained:”In discovery science we come to expect the unexpected, but the realisation that intact, functional antibodies can be purified from skeletal remains in the archaeological record was quite astonishing. Some ancient proteins were known to be stable, but these tend to be ‘structural’ proteins such as collagens and keratins, that are pretty inert.”
Professor Rahman added: “Antibodies are different because we are able to test whether they can still do their job of recognising viruses or bacteria even after hundreds of years. In this case we found that antibodies from medieval teeth were able to recognise Epstein-Barr virus, which causes glandular fever. In future it could be possible to look at how antibodies from ancient specimens react to diseases present during those periods, such as the Black Death.”