Health News

Estrogen status, not sex, protects against heightened fear recall

A new study shows that markers of fear recall differ between men and women, but in a hormone-dependent manner. Aberrant fear-memory processing in the brain is thought to underlie anxiety disorders, which affect hundreds of millions of people worldwide. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying these disorders remain poorly understood, but recent studies suggest that neural oscillations […]

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Combination therapy may provide significant protection against lethal influenza

A significant proportion of hospitalized patients with influenza develop complications of acute respiratory distress syndrome, driven by virus-induced cytopathic effects as well as exaggerated host immune response. Reporting in The American Journal of Pathology, investigators have found that treatment with an immune receptor blocker in combination with an antiviral agent markedly improves survival of mice […]

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Pfizer's vaccine DOES work against Brazilian covid variant, study says

Pfizer’s vaccine DOES work against the Brazilian coronavirus variant, study suggests: Second dose of the shot ‘neutralized’ the mutant virus in lab tests Scientists tested antibodies in the blood of people who had two doses against an engineered variant  They saw in the lab that the antibodies were able to ‘neutralize’ an infectious spike protein […]

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WHO advises against remdesivir for coronavirus treatment

The anti-viral drug remdesivir should not be used to treat COVID-19 patients no matter how severe their illness as it has “no important effect” on survival chances, the World Health Organization said Friday. Denting hopes in one of the few treatments that had shown some initial promise in severe patients, a WHO Guideline Development Group […]

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Wistar creates a new synthetic DNA vaccine against Powassan virus

Scientists at The Wistar Institute have designed and tested the first-of-its-kind synthetic DNA vaccine against Powassan virus (POWV), targeting portions of the virus envelope protein. A rapidly reemerging tick-borne disease, POWV has been reported to be fatal in 10% of infected people with detrimental neurological consequences including encephalitis and meningitis. This new POWV vaccine candidate, […]