Dapagliflozin reduces the risk of kidney failure, death from cardiovascular causes or heart failure hospitalization, and all-cause mortality in chronic kidney disease patients with or without type 2 diabetes. That’s the main result of the DAPA-CKD trial presented in a Hot Line session today at ESC Congress 2020. The DAPA-CKD trial tested the hypothesis that […]
New experimental coronavirus vaccine prevented severe disease in mice
New experimental coronavirus vaccine prevented severe disease in mice after two doses of the jab boosted their antibody levels 90-fold Researchers genetically modified vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV), which causes a mild illness in livestock, to become a vaccine The team took out a gene from VSV and inserted the spike protein from the coronavirus, which […]
Discovery shows promise for treating Huntington’s disease
Huntington’s disease is a progressive and aggressively debilitating brain disorder that causes uncontrolled movements, psychological problems, and loss of cognition. It is caused by a mutation in the gene that encodes the protein huntingtin, causing it to build an abnormally long tail of the amino acid glutamine. This tail prevents huntingtin from folding properly and […]
New study on development of Parkinson’s disease is ‘on the nose’
The loss of a sense of smell is known to be one of the earliest signs of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and can even appear years before the characteristic tremors and loss of motor function are seen. Some scientists believe that olfactory dysfunction may not just be a sign of broader neural damage, but rather may […]
Brain tumors may originate in a brain region distinct from where it becomes a lethal disease
A mouse model of glioblastoma, an aggressive type of cancer that can occur in the brain, suggests that this recalcitrant cancer originates from a pool of stem cells that can be a significant distance away from the resulting tumors. The findings of a new study, led by Children’s National Hospital researchers and published July 22 […]
Exercise levels can help doctors predict risk of heart disease and death among elderly
Asking elderly patients how much they exercise can help predict their risk of heart disease and death, Mount Sinai and collaborative researchers say. Their study, published in the Monday, June 5, issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Innovations, Quality and Outcomes shows that a simple assessment of exercise activity during appointments for atherosclerosis screening can lead […]
Precision medicine guides choice of better drug therapy in severe heart disease
Is personalized medicine cost-effective? University of Alabama at Birmingham researcher Nita Limdi, Pharm.D., Ph.D., and colleagues across the United States have answered that question for one medical treatment. Patients experiencing a heart attack—known as a myocardial infarction or an acute coronary syndrome—have sharply diminished blood flow in coronary arteries, with a high risk of heart […]
Study: Antibiotic and ‘crapsule’ therapy eliminate need for further treatment of Crohn’s disease
The Centre for Digestive Disease (CDD) headed by Professor Thomas Borody has cured Crohn’s disease as reported today by Dr. Gaurav Agrawal in Gut Pathogens. Professor Borody is internationally recognized for curing stomach ulcers caused by H. pylori, and is currently researching the infection connection associated with heart disease. He is also a leader in […]
Widowhood accelerates cognitive decline among those at risk for Alzheimer’s disease
The death of a spouse often means the loss of intimacy, companionship and everyday support for older adults. A new study finds that widowhood can have another profound effect: It may accelerate cognitive decline. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital analyzed older, cognitively normal Americans enrolled in the Harvard Aging Brain […]
Initial protective role of nervous system’s ‘star-shaped cells’ in sporadic motor neuron disease uncovered
Support cells in the nervous system help protect motor neurons in the early-stages of sporadic motor neuron disease, according to new research from the Crick and UCL. Motor neuron disease is a degenerative condition which destroys the nerve cells (motor neurons) in the brain and spinal cord, which control movement, speech, swallowing and breathing. The […]