Health News

Scientists identify molecular mechanism behind weight gain in patients taking antipsychotics

Scientists with UT Southwestern's Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute have identified the molecular mechanism that can cause weight gain for those using a common antipsychotic medication. The findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, suggest new ways to counteract the weight gain, including a drug recently approved to treat genetic obesity, according to the […]

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Patients with neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19 are six times more likely to die

Patients with clinically diagnosed neurological symptoms associated with COVID-19 are six times more likely to die in the hospital than those without the neurological complications, according to an interim analysis from the Global Consortium Study of Neurologic Dysfunction in COVID-19 (GCS-NeuroCOVID). A paper published today in JAMA Network Open presents early results of the global […]

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New strategy to treat brain bleeding

Subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH)—bleeding from a ruptured aneurysm—leads to delayed cerebral vasospasm (blood vessel constriction) and stroke. SAH morbidity and mortality are high, and therapeutic options are limited. Joyce Cheung-Flynn, Ph.D., and colleagues proposed that SAH downregulates the nitric oxide-protein kinase G (NO-PKG) signaling pathway that normally relaxes cerebral blood vessels. Using a rat model, they […]

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Can a newborn’s brain discriminate speech sounds?

People’s ability to perceive speech sounds has been deeply studied, specially during someone’s first year of life, but what happens during the first hours after birth? Are babies born with innate abilities to perceive speech sounds, or do neural encoding processes need to age for some time? Researchers from the Institute of Neurosciences of the […]

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NLR May Be Tied to Survival in Patients With NSCLC Brain Metastases

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In patients with non-small cell lung cancer brain metastases (NSCLCBM) treated with immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and upfront steroids, a low neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) was associated with lower overall survival in a single-center retrospective analysis. “With widespread implementation of ICIs for treatment of NSCLC, many clinicians have concerns that the immunosuppressive […]

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Microrna-29 molecule controls brain maturation in mammals

A team led by scientists at the UNC School of Medicine identified a molecule called microRNA-29 as a powerful controller of brain maturation in mammals. Deleting microRNA-29 in mice caused problems very similar to those seen in autism, epilepsy, and other neurodevelopmental conditions. The results, published in Cell Reports, illuminate an important process in the […]