Trauma patients are at risk of developing multiple infections while in the hospital, but it’s difficult to identify those who are especially susceptible. Now a team at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) has found that certain scores already used to assess the severity of a trauma patient’s condition can provide clues. The findings are published in…
SILVER SPRING, Md. – A study led by scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research sheds new light on the body’s initial response to dengue virus (DENV) infection, describing the molecular diversity and specificity of the antibody response. These results, published in EBioMedicine, a journal published by The Lancet, identify a heretofore unappreciated…
Certain genetic changes, termed “pathogenic variants,” substantially increase risk for cardiovascular disease and cancer–the leading causes of death–but testing to identify individual carriers is not part of current clinical practice. Now a team led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) determined that nearly 1% of the population carry such pathogenic variants. These individuals were…
JUPITER, Fla.–May 1, 2020–Many people with Parkinson’s disease eventually develop debilitating movements called dyskinesia, a side effect of their much-needed dopamine replacement medication. The mechanism underlying this unwanted side effect has been unknown, until now. An international collaboration led by Scripps Research, Florida has found a key cause, and with it, potentially, a new route…
After a sharp drop in out-of-pocket costs between 2010 and 2011, Medicare patients who use specialty biologic medications for rheumatoid arthritis have seen higher out-of-pocket spending for those same drugs because of gradual price increases, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association Open finds. Led by Vanderbilt University School of Medicine…
A new USC study suggests that temporarily suppressing the body’s immune system during the early stages of COVID-19 could help a patient avoid severe symptoms. That’s because the research, just published online in the Journal of Medical Virology, shows that an interaction between the body’s two main lines of defense may be causing the immune…
Researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues have found that adding a drug once commonly used to treat schizophrenia to traditional radiation therapy helped improve overall survival in mice with glioblastoma, one of the deadliest and most difficult-to-treat brain tumors. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, show…
Boston, Mass. — Since the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a Public Health Concern of Global Interest on January 30, more than one million have tested positive for the illness in the United States, and more than 62,000 have died. With no FDA-approved treatments available to date, the anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, has emerged as a…
Despite concerns expressed by some experts, common high blood pressure drugs did not increase the risk of contracting COVID-19 – or of developing severe disease – in a study of 12,594 patients. Published online May 1 in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study was launched in response to a March 17 joint statement…
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Many have claimed the Justinianic Plague (c. 541-750 CE) killed half of the population of Roman Empire. Now, historical research and mathematical modeling challenge the death rate and severity of this first plague pandemic. Researchers Lauren White, PhD and Lee Mordechai, PhD, of the University of Maryland’s National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC),…