17.02.2020

The Lancet Psychiatry: Life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour may be associated with differences in brain structure

MRI brain scans suggest there are characteristic differences in brain structure of individuals who exhibit life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour. Individuals who exhibit life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour – for example, stealing, aggression and violence, bullying, lying, or repeated failure to take care of work or school responsibilities – may have thinner cortex and smaller surface area in regions…

Intratumoral heterogeneity may be responsible for chemotherapy resistance in patients with small cell lung cancer

HOUSTON – Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) accounts for 14% of all lung cancers and is often rapidly resistant to chemotherapy, resulting in poor clinical outcomes. Treatment has changed little for decades, but a study at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that chemotherapy results in increased heterogeneity within the tumor, leading…

Study: Disease-causing repeats help human neurons function

Over half of our genomes are made of repeating elements within DNA. In rare cases, these repeats can become unstable and grow in size. These repeat “expansions” cause neurodegenerative diseases such as ALS and dementia as well as learning disorders and autism in Fragile X syndrome. Research to date has focused on how these expanded…

Test measures immune response to improve ovarian cancer diagnosis

Researchers have developed a simple blood test that measures the body’s own immune response to improve diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Ovarian cancer is one of the most common gynaecologic cancers, with the highest mortality rate. About 300,000 new cases are diagnosed globally each year, with an estimated 60% of women dying within five years after…

Combination drug therapy for childhood brain tumors shows promise in laboratory models

In experiments with human cells and mice, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center report evidence that combining the experimental cancer medication TAK228 (also called sapanisertib) with an existing anti-cancer drug called trametinib may be more effective than either drug alone in decreasing the growth of pediatric low-grade gliomas. These cancers are the most…

Vaccine misinformation and social media

People who rely on social media for information were more likely to be misinformed about vaccines than those who rely on traditional media, according to a study of vaccine knowledge and media use by researchers at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The study, based on nationally representative surveys of nearly…