Existing heart failure drug may treat potential COVID-19 long-hauler symptom

In a new study out of University of California San Diego School of Medicine, researchers found a drug used for heart failure improves symptoms associated with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, otherwise known as POTS. This complex, debilitating disorder affects the body’s autonomic nervous system, causing a high heart rate, usually when standing. Writing in the…

Posttraumatic stress after natural disasters

What The Study Did: Data from four studies of children and adolescents exposed to major U.S. hurricanes were pooled to examine posttraumatic stress symptoms after those events and the factors associated with them. Authors: Betty S. Lai, Ph.D., of Boston College in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit…

Cheap, potent pathway to pandemic therapeutics

PITTSBURGH, Feb. 15, 2021 – By capitalizing on a convergence of chemical, biological and artificial intelligence advances, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine scientists have developed an unusually fast and efficient method for discovering tiny antibody fragments with big potential for development into therapeutics against deadly diseases. The technique, published today in the journal Cell…

Large-scale study finds genetic testing technology falsely detects very rare variants

A technology that is widely used by commercial genetic testing companies is “extremely unreliable” in detecting very rare variants, meaning results suggesting individuals carry rare disease-causing genetic variants are usually wrong, according to new research published in the BMJ. After hearing of cases where women had surgery scheduled after wrongly being told they had very…