ScienceDaily: Top Health News

Third of fertility specialists still recommend a type of IVF treatment which has no clear evidence of benefit

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 05:05 PM PST

Despite a lack of evidence that the intrusive IVF treatment process of scratching the womb (endometrial scratching) increases the chances of having a baby, a third of fertility specialists are still offering this often-painful procedure.

Finding new channels to selectively target pest insects

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 12:21 PM PST

Ion channels in the nervous system are among the most important targets for insecticides. Understanding the structure of the channels is key for the identification of novel species-specific binding sites of agrochemicals. Researchers have revealed the structure and function of a potassium ion channel in fruit flies. Their newly obtained insights reveal the differences between human and insect channels, explain how known compounds affect the channel and propose new target sites for drugs. The research could help pesticide manufacturers design new drugs apt to specifically kill pest insects and parasites without affecting other animals like bees and mammals.

Overweight children are developing heart complications

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:51 AM PST

The percentage of obese children and teens jumped from 19% pre-pandemic to 22%, and that could spell bad news for children's cardiovascular systems both now and down the line.

When the brain switches from hearing to listening

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:51 AM PST

What happens in the brain when simply hearing becomes listening? To answer this question, researchers have traced the neuronal fingerprint of the two types of sound processing in the mouse brain.

Antibiotics can be first-line therapy for uncomplicated appendicitis cases

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:51 AM PST

With numerous recent studies demonstrating that antibiotics work as well as surgery for most uncomplicated appendicitis cases, the non-surgical approach can now be considered a routine option, according to a review article.

Improving drug options for colorectal cancer patients

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:50 AM PST

Patients with colorectal cancer were among the first to receive targeted therapies. These drugs aim to block the cancer-causing proteins that trigger out-of-control cell growth while sparing healthy tissues. But some patients are not eligible for these treatments because they have cancer-promoting mutations that are believed to cause resistance to these drugs. Now, physician-scientists have used computer modeling and cell studies to discover that more patients may be helped by a common class of targeted therapies than previously thought.

Debilitating human parasite transmitted via dogs eating fish

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:49 AM PST

Efforts to eradicate a human parasitic disease are being hampered by dogs eating infected fish, new research shows.

New guidelines may help reduce tick-borne illness

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 10:49 AM PST

The number of cases of tick-borne illnesses (TBIs) reported annually to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has more than doubled over the past two decades in the United States. An expert panel has developed a set of clinical practice guidelines that recommends low-risk interventions, employable with minimal resources, to help reduce the number of TBIs.

For children, young adults with recurrent AML, immunotherapy shows promise

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 07:42 AM PST

Researchers have shown, in a small clinical trial, that an immunotherapy harnessing pre-activated natural killer cells can help some children and young adults with recurrent AML and few other treatment options.

Researchers develop platform to screen for new class of coronavirus antiviral compounds

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 07:40 AM PST

A new high-throughput platform screens for drug compounds that hit a target found in human and bat coronaviruses and could be used to develop future treatments.

Cancer-spotting AI and human experts can be fooled by image-tampering attacks

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 05:45 AM PST

Artificial intelligence (AI) models that evaluate medical images have potential to speed up and improve accuracy of cancer diagnoses, but they may also be vulnerable to cyberattacks. Researchers simulated an attack that falsified mammogram images, fooling both an AI breast cancer diagnosis model and human breast imaging radiologist experts.

Boosting anti-cancer action by driving up immunity at tumor site

Posted: 14 Dec 2021 05:45 AM PST

Driving up the immune response at the site of a cancer tumor with nanotechnology may help enhance immunotherapy treatments in advanced stages of the disease, new research in mice suggests.

Scientists develop an RNA-based breath test to detect COVID-19

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 03:15 PM PST

A breathalyzer that reverse-transcribes RNA from airborne SARS-CoV-2 in breath predicts lower respiratory tract involvement and is less invasive than alternative testing approaches, report researchers.

Personality traits predict performance differently across different jobs

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 03:15 PM PST

Researchers combined multiple meta-analyses of the five big personality traits and examined their effect on job performance. Researchers examined the effect of personality traits — conscientiousness, openness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism — on performance in different occupations.

Learning and protecting itself: How the brain adapts

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 03:15 PM PST

If there is an injury to the central nervous system such as after a stroke, the brain needs to compensate for this by reorganising itself. To do this, a dense network of molecules between the nerve cells -- known as the extracellular matrix -- must loosen. This is the job of a wide variety of enzymes that ultimately regulate how plastic or how stable the brain is. Researchers studied what happens when certain enzymes are blocked in mice. Depending on whether the brain is healthy or diseased, the inhibition had opposite effects.

Stress, by itself, can lead to excessive drinking in women but not men

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 03:15 PM PST

A new study that has important implications for the understanding of sex differences in alcohol consumption has shown that stress alone leads to excessive drinking in women but not men. The study used a simulated bar environment to test how stress affected whether participants drank more than intended.

Identifying rare disease-associated genetic variants in patients with severe schizophrenia

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 01:01 PM PST

New research shows that examining genetic mutations in individuals with severe schizophrenia can improve the ability to detect disease-associated rare genetic variants.

Decreased vehicle emissions linked with significant drop in deaths attributable to air pollution

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 01:01 PM PST

As emissions fell over a decade, the number of deaths attributable to air pollution dropped by thousands, yielding billions of dollars in societal benefits.

Gene Network changes associated with cancer onset and progression identify new candidates for targeted gene therapy

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 10:33 AM PST

Researchers have identified novel changes in gene network interactions associated with cancer that may lead to new treatment targets for chemotherapy. Their work shows that more than 90% of changes in gene network interactions in nine types of cancer studied are not detectable by current tests focused on changes in gene expression.

A new spin on MRI

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 09:18 AM PST

Researchers have demonstrated a proof-of-concept modification to enable standard MRI systems to detect frequencies associated with the presence of sodium-23 ions. This low-cost and convenient approach requires the installation of a radio-frequency repeater inside the magnetic bore of an MRI machine. The wide applicability of this method for sodium and other nuclei may allow advanced medical imaging to be performed on existing machines, and substantially reduce MRI scanner upgrade costs for hospitals.

Common sleep disorder combo could be deadly

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 09:18 AM PST

People who suffer from both insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea are more likely to suffer from heart problems and are almost 50% more likely to die than those without either condition, say researchers, who advise people being tested for one of the disorders be tested for the other.

The changing patterns of DNA microcapsules

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 09:16 AM PST

Biophysicists have found ways to make and manipulate capsule-like DNA structures that could be used in the development of artificial molecular systems. Such systems could function, for example, inside the human body.

Researchers discover how cells from tumors remain dormant for years before metastasis occurs

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 08:16 AM PST

Researchers have solved a major mystery in cancer research: How cancer cells remain dormant for years after they leave a tumor and travel to other parts of the body, before awakening to create metastatic cancer.

New resistance-busting antibiotic combination could extend the use of 'last-resort' antibiotics

Posted: 13 Dec 2021 08:16 AM PST

Scientists have discovered a new potential treatment that has the ability to reverse antibiotic resistance in bacteria that cause conditions such as sepsis, pneumonia, and urinary tract infections.