ScienceDaily: Top Health News

Impulsiveness tied to faster eating in children, can lead to obesity

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 11:07 AM PDT

The research sought to uncover the relationship between temperament and eating behaviors in early childhood. The findings are critical because faster eating and greater responsiveness to food cues have been linked to obesity risk in children.

Rare genetic variants confer largest increase in type 2 diabetes risk seen to date

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 08:25 AM PDT

Scientists have identified rare genetic variants - carried by one in 3,000 people - that have a larger impact on the risk of developing type 2 diabetes than any previously identified genetic effect.

Gene therapy in early stages of Huntington's disease may slow down symptom progression

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 08:25 AM PDT

In a new study on mice, researchers report that using MRI scans to measure blood volume in the brain can serve as a noninvasive way to potentially track the progress of gene editing therapies for early-stage Huntington's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that attacks brain cells.

Anti-androgen therapy can fuel spread of bone tumors in advanced prostate cancer

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 08:24 AM PDT

Anti-androgen therapy is commonly used to treat patients with advanced prostate cancer at stages where the disease has spread to the bones. However, new research has found that anti-androgen treatment can actually facilitate prostate cancer cells to adapt and grow in the bone tumor microenvironment model developed by biomedical scientists.

How vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT) happens

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 08:24 AM PDT

Researchers recently discovered how, exactly, the COVID-19 vaccines that use adenovirus vectors trigger a rare but sometimes fatal blood clotting reaction called vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia, or VITT.

Study reveals how our immune system reacts to COVID-19 variants

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 08:24 AM PDT

New research into how our immune system responds to COVID-19 reveals that those infected by early variants in 2020 produced sustained antibodies, but these antibodies are not as effective against contemporary variants of the virus.

Mucus and mucins may become the medicine of the future

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 08:24 AM PDT

The body is filled with mucus that keeps track of the bacteria. Now, researchers present a method for producing artificial mucus. They hope that the artificial mucus, which consists of sugary molecules, may help to develop completely new, medical treatments.

Importance of teaching children about environmental issues

Posted: 07 Jul 2021 08:24 AM PDT

Environmental education provision needs greater investment and innovation if future generations are to be able to respond fully to the climate emergency, experts have said.

There's a 'man in the moon': Why our brains see human faces everywhere

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 04:16 PM PDT

Whether you see an angry face in a tree trunk or even the presence of Jesus Christ in toasted cheese, until now scientists haven't understood exactly what the brain is doing when it processes visual signals and interprets them as representations of the human face.

Context in science reporting affects beliefs about, and support for, science

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 01:38 PM PDT

How the media frame stories about science affects the public's perception about scientific accuracy and reliability, and one particular type of narrative can help ameliorate the harm to science's reputation sometimes caused by different journalistic approaches to scientific storytelling, according to a new study.

Personalized medicine for cats with heart disease

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 01:38 PM PDT

Veterinarians at the University of California, Davis, have found that a cat's DNA alters how it responds to a life-saving medication used to treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, a heart disease that affects 1 in 7 cats.

Fighting COVID with COVID

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 12:30 PM PDT

Researchers design a new COVID-19 therapy that uses a defective version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus to drive the disease-causing version to extinction.

Lab analysis finds near-meat and meat not nutritionally equivalent

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 12:30 PM PDT

A research team's deeper examination of the nutritional content of plant-based meat alternatives, using metabolomics, shows they're as different as plants and animals. Beef contained 22 metabolites that the plant substitute did not. The plant-based substitute contained 31 metabolites that meat did not. The greatest distinctions occurred in amino acids, dipeptides, vitamins, phenols, and types of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids found in these products.

Digital pens provide new insight into cognitive testing results

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 10:31 AM PDT

During neuropsychological assessments, participants complete tasks designed to study memory and thinking. Based on their performance, the participants receive a score that researchers use to evaluate how well specific domains of their cognition are functioning.

Source of remarkable memory of 'superagers' revealed

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 10:31 AM PDT

'Superagers' who performed a challenging memory task in an MRI scanner were able to learn and recall new information as well as 25-year-old participants. Neurons in the visual cortex of brains of superaging older adults retain their selective and efficient ability to process visual stimuli and create a distinct memory of the images. In the future, interventions to train specific areas of the brain to be more efficient may enable normal aging adults to enhance memory and other cognitive functions.

How an unfolding protein can induce programmed cell death

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 10:31 AM PDT

The death of cells is well regulated. If it occurs too much, it can cause degenerative diseases. Too little, and cells can become tumors. Mitochondria, the power plants of cells, play a role in this programmed cell death. Scientists have obtained new insights in how mitochondria receive the signal to self-destruct.

Developing new techniques to build biomaterials

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 10:28 AM PDT

Scientists have developed an approach that could help in the design of a new generation of synthetic biomaterials made from proteins. The biomaterials could eventually have applications in joint repair or wound healing as well as other fields of healthcare and food production.  

Muscles retain positional memory from fetal life

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 08:54 AM PDT

Muscles and the resident stem cells (satellite cells) responsible for muscle regeneration retain memory of their location in the body. This positional memory was found to be based on the expression pattern of the homeobox (Hox) gene cluster, which is responsible for shaping the body during fetal life. These findings are expected to provide clues to elucidate the pathogenesis of muscle diseases like muscular dystrophy, and help develop regenerative treatments based on positional memory.

New report aims to improve VR use in healthcare education

Posted: 06 Jul 2021 08:54 AM PDT

A new report could help improve how immersive technologies such as Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) are used in healthcare education and training.

Vaccines grown in eggs induce antibody response against an egg-associated glycan, study finds

Posted: 01 Jul 2021 04:53 PM PDT

Researchers have found that viral vaccines grown in eggs, such as the H1N1 flu vaccine, produce an antibody response against a sugar molecule found in eggs, which could have implications for the effectiveness of these vaccines.