Publisher Health

Scientists at Université Laval and the University of Lethbridge have succeeded in reversing certain cognitive manifestations associated with Alzheimer’s disease in an animal model of the disease. Their results have been published in the scientific journal Brain.
“Although this has yet to be demonstrated in humans, we believe that the mechanism we have uncovered constitutes a very interesting therapeutic target, because it not only slows down the progression of the disease but also partially restores certain cognitive functions,” comments study leader Yves De Koninck, a professor in the Faculty of Medicine and researcher at Université Laval’s CERVO research centre.
Previous studies have shown that even before Alzheimer’s symptoms appear, brain activity is disrupted in people who go on to develop the disease. “There is neuronal hyperactivity and signal disorganization in the brain. Our hypothesis is that a mechanism that regulates neuronal activity, more specifically the one responsible for inhibiting neuronal signals, is disrupted,” explains the researcher.
The main inhibitor of neuronal signals in the human brain is the neurotransmitter GABA. It works in close collaboration with a cotransporter, KCC2. This is an ion pump, located in the cell membrane, which circulates chloride and potassium ions between the inside and outside of neurons,” recalls Professor De Koninck. Maintaining this ion pump in the neuron’s cell membrane could slow down or reverse the pathology.
“A loss of KCC2 in the cell membrane can lead to neuronal hyperactivity. One study has already shown that KCC2 levels were reduced in the brains of deceased Alzheimer’s patients. This gave us the idea of examining the role of KCC2 in an animal model of Alzheimer’s disease,” adds the researcher.
Promising Results in Mice
To do this, scientists used mouse lines expressing a manifestation of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers found that when these mice reached the age of four months, KCC2 levels decreased in two regions of their brains: the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. These two regions are also affected in people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

Platelets, or thrombocytes, are specialized cellular fragments that form blood clots when we get scrapes and traumatic injuries. Viral infections, autoimmune disease, and other conditions can cause platelet levels to drop throughout the body, termed thrombocytopenia.
After a robust clinical and research collaboration, Stephan Moll, MD, and Jacquelyn Baskin-Miller, MD, both in the UNC School of Medicine, have linked adenovirus infection with a rare blood clotting disorder. This is the first time that the common respiratory virus, which causes mild cold-and flu-like symptoms, has been reported to be associated with blood clots and severe thrombocytopenia.
“This adenovirus-associated disorder is now one of four recognized anti-PF4 disorders,” said Moll, professor of medicine in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Hematology. “We hope that our findings will lead to earlier diagnosis, appropriate and optimized treatment, and better outcomes in patients who develop this life-threatening disorder.”
Their new observation, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, sheds new light on the virus and its role in causing an anti-platelet factor 4 disorder. Additionally, the discovery opens a whole new door for research, as many questions remain as to how and why this condition occurs — and who is most likely to develop the disorder.
HIT, VITT, and “Spontaneous HIT”
Antibodies are large Y-shaped proteins that can stick to the surface of bacteria and other “foreign” substances, flagging them for destruction by the immune system or neutralizing the threat directly.
In anti-PF4 disorders, the person’s immune system makes antibodies against platelet factor-4 (PF4), a protein that is released by platelets. When an antibody forms against PF4 and binds to it, this can trigger the activation and rapid removal of platelets in the bloodstream, leading to blood clotting and low platelets, respectively.

The researchers also identified three proteins that are needed for the virus to carry out the invasion and have in turn synthesized molecules (potential drugs) that can target one of the proteins, potentially leading to new treatments for AIDS.
“We have revealed a protein pathway that appears to have a direct impact on diseases, which opens up a new area for potential drug development,” says the study’s senior author Aurelio Lorico, MD PhD, Professor of Pathology and interim Chief Research Officer at Touro University Nevada College of Osteopathic Medicine.
HIV infection requires the virus to enter a cell and gain access to the well-guarded nucleus in order for the viral components to be integrated into the healthy cell’s DNA. But how the viruses get past the protective membrane is not well understood and is the subject of much debate.
The newly identified pathway begins with HIV entering a cell wrapped inside a membrane package, called an endosome. The virus-containing endosome then pushes the protective nuclear membrane inward, forming an indentation known as a nuclear invagination. The endosome then moves inside the invagination to its inner tip, where the virus then slips into the nucleus.
The study found that three proteins were critical to the invasion: One protein (Rab7) is located on the membrane of the endosome, the second (VAP-A) is on the nuclear membrane where the invagination occurs, and the third (ORP3) connects the first two proteins together. An interaction among the three proteins is needed for the invasion to be successful, so targeting any of these proteins could halt the infection. The team has synthesized and tested molecules that interrupt the interaction among the proteins. The researchers observed that, in the presence of these molecules, HIV replication does not occur.
This pathway for nuclear access was first discovered in the team’s research on cancer metastasis and is likely involved in other diseases as well.
“This is an entirely new pathway and we have developed molecules (drugs) that block it,” says Lorico. “Although our research is at a pre-clinical stage, it is likely that the new drugs synthesized may have therapeutic activity in AIDS, other viral diseases, and possibly metastatic cancer and other diseases where nuclear transport is involved.” The team is currently looking at the pathway’s role in Alzheimer’s disease and metastasis of many types of cancer.
“Because the pathway we found may apply to many types of disease, there is a tremendous amount of work that needs to be done to understand the full benefits of this research,” says Dr. Denis Corbeil, co-leading author of the study, research group leader at the Biotechnology Center (BIOTEC) of TUD Dresden University of Technology in Germany.
“The ground-breaking research of Dr. Lorico and his team is a testimony to the importance that Touro University gives to its mission of service to humanity. The potential therapeutic applications of this new pathway to improve patient care are immense and may help us better navigate the next pandemic,” said Dr. Alan Kadish, Touro University President.

Following the first stay-at-home orders issued in the U.S. to curb the spread of COVID-19, gastrointestinal viruses such as norovirus, rotavirus and adenovirus all but disappeared from California communities, and remained at very low levels for nearly 2 years. The research is published in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.
Interestingly, these viruses surged back to pre-pandemic levels in late 2022, said Niaz Banaei, M.D., professor of Pathology and Medicine (Infectious Diseases), Stanford University, and Medical Director of Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, Stanford Health Care. “Adenovirus F40/41, the adenovirus strains most frequently associated with gastroenteritis, actually jumped to levels two-fold higher than pre-pandemic levels.”
Banaei suspects that the surge in viral infections was enabled by the waning of collective community immunity from lack of exposure during the pandemic. “Something similar has been described for the surge in respiratory syncytial virus infections in 2022,” he said.
To identify changes in the prevalence of gastrointestinal pathogens, the investigators compared detection rates for community acquired gastrointestinal pathogens before, during and after California’s COVID-related shelter-in-place. To that end, they used a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) panel test called the BioFire FilmArray GI panel, which tests for 22 of the most common pathogens that cause diarrhea and analyzed about 18,000 tests that were taken from January 2018 to December 2022.
The motivation for the research was the change in the rate of positives for certain pathogens during the COVID-19 pandemic, said Banaei. “It immediately became clear that the pandemic lockdown and shelter-in-place had created a natural experiment to investigate the transmission dynamics of pathogens causing gastroenteritis.”
The research offers a unique window into the biology of gastrointestinal pathogens, raising some new research questions, said Banaei. “Why did some disappear while others persisted unaffected during lockdown? Why are some now surging to levels we haven’t seen before?” Improved understanding of these phenomena could lead to ways to interrupt pathogens’ spread, particularly in low- to middle-income countries where gastroenteritis remains a major cause of illness and death, especially among children. “It may also help us prepare for future unforeseen pandemics.”

Despite the many changes in school culture since the 1960s, a new study reveals that some things never change: life is harder for middle school students who are not attractive and for those who are not athletic.
As children head back to school, the first-of-its-kind longitudinal study by Florida Atlantic University helps to explain why adolescents who lack traits valued by peers are at risk for adjustment difficulties.
Results, published in the Journal of Youth and Adolescence, show that low attractive youth and low athletic youth became increasingly unpopular over the course of a school year, leading to subsequent increases in their loneliness and alcohol misuse. Put simply, the peer group punishes those who do not have highly valued traits such as being good-looking or being good at sports.
The study put to rest stereotypes about sex differences in traits important for success with peers. For decades, it was assumed that not being athletic was particularly problematic for boys and that not being attractive was particularly problematic for girls.
The findings reveal a transformation in adolescent social culture such that the social penalties attached to being low in attractiveness or low in athleticism are no longer gender specific. Boys and girls did not differ in the extent to which unpopularity and adjustment problems flowed from low attractiveness and low athleticism. As their unpopularity grows, so do their problems.
“Children who lack the traits valued by their peers suffer from a host of adjustment difficulties, many of which stem from their deteriorating stature in the group,” said Brett Laursen, Ph.D., senior author and a professor of psychology in FAU’s Charles E. Schmidt College of Science. “Children who are not attractive and children who are not athletic become increasingly unpopular. Growing marginalization, in turn, precipitates loneliness and alcohol misuse. Growing unpopularity is the key to understanding why the unattractive and the unathletic develop behavior problems. Of those who began drinking to intoxication during the course of the school year, almost two-thirds were above average in unpopularity.”
The dangers attached to stigmatized traits were comparable for boys and girls.

A collaborative study undertaken by the Navarrabiomed Biomedical Research Center (Pamplona, Navarre), the Institute of Neurosciences CSIC-UMH (Sant Joan d’Alacant, Valencian Community) and IRB Barcelona (Barcelona, Catalonia) shows that the administration of ranolazine, a drug currently used to treat heart conditions, improves the efficacy of current therapies for melanoma, in mouse models of this disease.
The journal Nature Metabolism has published the results of the study, which offers an alternative therapeutic approach to treat melanoma, the most deadly type of skin cancer, which affects 16.3 women and 14.6 men per 100,000 inhabitants in Spain.
The development of future clinical trials to validate and confirm the action of ranolazine in cancer patients will be facilitated by the fact that it has already been approved for use in humans and is being administered in clinical practice to treat chronic angina.
Details about the study
In most cases, patients with melanoma respond well to therapies directed against one of the key genes in tumour progression, namely BRAF. However, they soon develop resistance to these therapies and the tumours grow back. In addition, the latest clinical studies suggest that these patients show a poorer response to immunotherapy.
This study has provided a deeper understanding of the role of fatty acid metabolism in the development of resistance to BRAF inhibitors and demonstrated the capacity of ranolazine to slow down tumour progression. More importantly, this drug increases the visibility of melanoma cells to the immune system, thereby improving response to immunotherapies and increasing the ability of lymphocytes to control tumour growth.
Multicentre study
The research has been coordinated from Navarrabiomed by Dr. Imanol Arozarena Martinicorena, head of the Cancer Signaling Unit, and is part of the doctoral thesis by Marta Redondo Muñoz (Public University of Navarre), a researcher in the same unit.

Patients often experience functional decline after an ischemic stroke, especially due to the brain’s resistance to regenerate after damage. Yet, there is still potential for recovery as surviving neurons can activate repair mechanisms to limit and even reverse the damage caused by the stroke. How is it triggered though?
In a study published recently in Neuron, researchers from Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU) provided new insights regarding this question by identifying a new mechanism. They discovered that neurons surrounding the area of cell death secrete lipids that can trigger brain-autonomous neural repair after ischemic brain injury.
An ischemic stroke occurs when the blood supply to the brain is blocked and results in the death of brain cells. This condition is life-threatening, and patients will likely develop functional disabilities. Although the adult brain can self-repair, the underlying mechanisms need further clarification.
Inflammation of the brain contributes to the effects of ischemic stroke. “There is evidence that more lipids are produced after tissue injuries and contribute to regulating inflammation,” says Takashi Shichita, senior author of the study. “We investigated the changes in lipid metabolite production in mice after ischemic stroke. Interestingly, the levels of a specific fatty acid called dihomo-γ-linolenic acid (DGLA) and its derivatives increased after the stroke.”
The researchers further discovered that a protein known as PLA2GE2 (Phospholipase A2 Group IIE, an enzyme) mediates DGLA increase. By manipulating the expression of PLA2GE2, they also showed its impact on functional recovery. Deficiency of PLA2GE2 led to more inflammation, lower expression of factors stimulating neuronal repair, and more tissue loss. The team carried on with identifying the targets of PLA2GE2/DGLA.
“When we look at genes expressed in mice lacking PLA2GE2, we found low levels of a protein called peptidyl arginine deiminase 4 (PADI4),” explains Akari Nakamura, lead author of the study. “PADI4 regulates transcription and inflammation. Remarkably, expressing PADI4 in mice limited the extent of tissue damage and inflammation after ischemic stroke!” Additionally, the study shows that PADI4 promotes the transcription of genes involved in brain repair. It also identifies the whole signaling pathway involved in this process.
Most data were obtained in a mouse model of ischemic stroke. Yet, the recovery pathway likely exists in humans as the researchers found that neurons surrounding the stroke site express PLA2G2E and PADI4 in humans. Moreover, another recent study reported that the lower serum DGLA level was correlated with the severe ischemic stroke and cognitive disorders in humans.
This study describes a new mechanism that triggers brain repair after an ischemic stroke, which might lead to the development of compounds promoting PADI4’s effects, that stimulate the recovery of patients. It could also change our current understanding and approach toward Eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) or Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), as the only beneficial lipids for preventing atherosclerosis and vascular diseases.

People living with cystic fibrosis (CF) will benefit from improved treatment as international experts produce clinical practice guidance for exercise assessments.
The European CF Society Exercise Working Group (ECFS) document, led by Dr Zoe Saynor from the University of Portsmouth in England, provides comprehensive recommendations and instructions for health and care professionals carrying out exercise tests on individuals with the condition.
There are approximately 11,000 people living with CF in the UK and approximately 100,000 people worldwide.
The inherited condition is caused by a faulty gene that affects the movement of salt and water across cell surfaces. It is a multisystem chronic condition, and the mutation in the gene results in the accumulation of sticky mucus in the lungs and digestive system, leading to a range of challenging symptoms.
While there is no cure, a wide range of treatments including physical activity and exercise are recommended to manage CF. NICE guidelines, CF UK Trust physiotherapy management guidelines, and international guidelines all recommend regular exercise testing of people with the condition.
These tests include establishing aerobic fitness, measuring performance, and assessing muscle strength. The tests are also able to assist in evaluating health trends, response to treatment, and health outlook.
However, many people across the world don’t have access to routine testing, and execution of the testing has inconsistencies across CF centres.

Published10 AugustShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Smitha MundasadHealth reporter The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a new sub-variant of Covid called EG.5 – unofficially named “Eris” – a variant of interest and is asking countries to monitor it as cases grow globally.But the organisation says it poses a low risk to public health, with no evidence that it causes more severe disease than other variants circulating at the moment. What is EG.5 and why has it been dubbed Eris? Ever since it first emerged, Covid has been mutating or shape-shifting and becoming incrementally different. The new genetic versions that keep appearing are called variants.EG.5 is another off-shoot of the Omicron variant of Covid. According to the WHO, it was first seen in February 2023 and cases have been increasing steadily.It has been dubbed Eris on social media – also the name of a goddess in Greek mythology. The unofficial nickname may follow on from the WHO convention of using letters of the Greek alphabet to assign, “simple, easy-to-say labels” for key variants.The WHO naming system arose after experts agreed scientific names were difficult to remember and prone to misreporting. It was also intended to stop variants being named after the countries they were first spotted in.In its latest assessment, the WHO includes EG.5 and sub-variants very closely related to it, including 5G.5.1. According to the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), 5G.5.1 now makes up about one in seven cases of Covid picked up by hospital tests.Dr Meera Chand, the agency’s deputy director, said “it was not unexpected” to see new variants emerge. She continued: “EG.5.1 was designated as a variant on 31 July 2023 due to continued growth internationally and presence in the UK, allowing us to monitor it through our routine surveillance processes.”Cases of EG.5 are also rising in the US, where it has narrowly surpassed other circulating omicron sub-variants, according to estimates published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Is Eris more dangerous? Based on the available evidence, WHO officials say there is no suggestion the sub-variant is causing more severe disease and the risks are no higher than other current variants of interest.Some tests suggest it can evade our immune systems more easily than some circulating variants but this has not been translated into people becoming more seriously ill. In the UK, there has been a small increase in people in hospital in recent weeks, particularly those aged over 85, but experts say the numbers remain lower than previous waves. There has been no increase in people severely unwell in intensive care.Experts around the world will continue to monitor the sub-variant and assess its impact, particularly as schools and universities reopen.Where is EG.5 spreading? According to the WHO, infections have been reported in 51 countries, including China, the US, the Republic of Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, Singapore, the UK, France, Portugal and Spain. Image source, ReutersWhat are the symptoms? Experts say there is no evidence to suggest it causes any new Covid symptoms. Have I got Covid, a bad cold or something else?Symptoms of Covid can include:fevercontinuous coughchange in sense of taste or smell fatiguerunny nosesore throatImage source, PA MediaHow can you protect yourself?As with other Covid variants, the risk of serious illness remains highest for people who are elderly or have significant underlying health conditions.UKHSA officials say vaccination remains the “best defence against future Covid waves, so it is still as important as ever that people take up all the doses for which they are eligible as soon as possible”.Winter Covid vaccines axed for under-65sCovid vaccine safety – What we knowPeople eligible for Covid vaccines this winter include all adults aged 65 and over, adults living in care homes and a number of people who have health conditions that put them at increased risk. The WHO says it continues to assess the impact of variants on the performance of vaccines to inform decisions on updates to vaccine composition.UKHSA experts recommend regular handwashing and staying away from others where possible if you have symptoms of a respiratory illness. More on this storyHave I got Covid, a bad cold or something else?Published5 April 2022Winter Covid vaccines axed for under-65sPublished8 August

A moment of forgetfulness by a distracted or sleep-deprived parent can be devastating. Experts and child-safety advocates have called for interior motion sensors in all vehicles.Ever since Tyler Cestia left his son Thomas in his truck on a hot morning in June two years ago, he has felt, he said, like a cork bobbing in the ocean.It was June 14, 2021, and Mr. Cestia was preparing for a stressful audit at work when he forgot to drop off Thomas at the babysitter on the way to his office in New Iberia, La.At lunchtime, he drove to a restaurant with the auditor and then back to his office.That afternoon, it occurred to him that he didn’t remember seeing the babysitter that morning. He ran to his truck where he found Thomas in his car seat behind the driver’s seat. Thomas, who was 2 and a half years old, was pronounced dead at the scene.“It was just a total utter shock,” said Mr. Cestia, 37, who lives in New Iberia with his wife, Pam, and their two other children. “It’s almost like a nightmare that’s not real. I’m living in a makeshift world that’s not real. And once you come down off that, it’s a daily grind.”Mr. Cestia said he has coped with the extreme grief with help from his religious faith and therapy. He has also had the support of his wife.“People think, ‘Oh, how does somebody do that?’” Pam Cestia said. “You don’t forget your cellphone. You don’t forget this. But he was hyper-focused on something else. He’s not a bad parent. He’s not a bad father.”The aftermath in other cases has been more dire. Marriages have fallen apart. Caregivers have been prosecuted and faced prison time. In one case last year in Chesterfield, Va., a father who realized what he had done immediately went home and killed himself.And still the deaths come. Just this week in Houston, a 3-month-old died after he was left unattended in a car, the police said. About 40 children a year die from heatstroke in cars, either because they are left in the vehicle or because they become trapped, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.That averages out to a child dying in a hot car every 10 days in the United States. The deaths are more frequent in summer but happen in every month of the year.Child-safety advocates said that new technology could help prevent these recurring tragedies. Vehicles with interior motion sensors, for example, can sound the horn and send alerts to a driver’s phone if they detect a child in the back seat after the car has been turned off.But automakers and regulators have not made the technology standard equipment in new vehicles, frustrating safety experts. According to Kids and Car Safety, a nonprofit group, 1,050 children have died in hot cars nationwide since 1990 and at least another 7,300 have survived with varying injuries.“It should really be embarrassing for the automakers and to the government that this has not already been taken care of,” said Janette E. Fennell, the founder and president of Kids and Car Safety. “When you have the technology to prevent these deaths, and it’s not expensive, what are we waiting for?”Federal regulators said they were developing rules that would require new vehicles to have lights and chimes to remind drivers to check the back seat after they turn off a car, as required under the $1 trillion infrastructure law that President Biden signed in 2021. But that requirement won’t take effect until 2025.New cars on display at the New York International Auto Show in April. Some automakers have started installing reminders for drivers to check the back seat before leaving a car. But child-safety advocates say sensors would save more lives.Luiz Rampelotto/EuropaNewswire, via picture-alliance, via dpa, via Associated Press ImagesMajor automakers have also pledged that by 2025 all new vehicles will include basic back-seat reminder systems. As of last October, more than 150 models offered the reminders, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which said in a statement that the industry was making “major progress” toward its goal of universal back-seat reminders.But higher-tech systems that use radar or ultrasonic sensors to detect a child in the back seat remain relatively rare.“It’s a matter of cost and demand,” said Emily A. Thomas, the manager of auto safety at Consumer Reports, which holds the position that child-detection systems should be standard in new vehicles. “People don’t know this is what they need, so there’s not a huge demand for it and, unfortunately, the auto industry responds to what’s required. So if it’s not required, they won’t put it in as standard equipment.”About half of all hot-car deaths lead to criminal charges ranging from child endangerment to murder, according to Kids and Car Safety. Many parents and caregivers take plea deals to avoid jail time and because they are unwilling to face a court battle after the death of a child, the group said.The psychological underpinnings of the problem have been discussed for years, at least since 2009, when Gene Weingarten of The Washington Post wrote a Pulitzer Prize-winning article exploring whether criminal charges are really appropriate for parents who accidentally kill their children by leaving them in cars.David M. Diamond, a neuroscientist at the University of South Florida who was quoted in that story, has been patiently explaining the issue ever since, including for a documentary film, “Fatal Distraction,” that was released in 2021.Dr. Diamond said that many of the deaths happen when parents drive to work and go into “autopilot mode and lose awareness of the child in the back seat.”During the drive, the part of the brain that handles habitual behaviors like commuting “outcompetes and suppresses” the conscious memory system, which is responsible for reminding a parent to stop and drop off the child at day care, Dr. Diamond said. Stressed and sleep-deprived parents are particularly susceptible to this problem, he said.“That’s why we need technology because, frankly, we are so forgetful,” Dr. Diamond said in an interview. “I try to emphasize to people that it’s not negligence, it’s not bad parenting, it’s just part of being human.”The reminder lights and chimes installed in many newer vehicles advise drivers to check the back seat when the car is turned off. Those systems are usually triggered by a rear door being opened before or during a trip, but they cannot actually detect whether a child is in the car.Ultrasonic sensors, found in some Kia and Hyundai vehicles, can detect a child (or a pet) moving in the back seat after a vehicle has been locked and then blow the horn and send text messages to the driver. But ultrasonic sensors may not detect a child sleeping in a rear-facing car seat, Dr. Thomas said.Radar-based systems can purportedly detect even slight movements like the rise and fall of the chest of a child sleeping in a car seat. At least one vehicle, the Genesis GV70, features that technology.In March, the Federal Communications Commission approved a specific frequency for short-range radar, which automakers say will make it much easier to deploy child-detecting radar inside cars. Before that, companies had to seek waivers from the F.C.C.While radar technology is not widely available, safety advocates said that drivers could remind themselves to check the back seat by putting something important next to the child, like a purse, phone, wallet or even one of their shoes.The Cestias have their own system. Every morning at 8:05 they text each other to make sure that their 1½-year-old was dropped off at the babysitter.They have also spoken out strongly in favor of mandatory child-detection technology in cars.“This is my opportunity to be Thomas’s mom and to advocate for him,” Pam Cestia said. “His story can help save other people’s lives.”