ScienceDaily: Top Health News

Key brain mechanisms for organizing memories in time

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 01:34 PM PST

Using experiments and a deep machine learning data analysis approach, scientists uncovered the fundamental workings of the hippocampus region of the brain as it organizes memories into time sequences. The work could help future research into cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease and other causes of dementia.

Starting antiretroviral therapy early essential to battling not one, but two killers

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 12:28 PM PST

Medication against the nonhuman primate version of HIV given two weeks after infection helped keep tuberculosis in check.

Study highlights worldwide disparities in treatment rates for major depressive disorder

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:07 AM PST

A combined analysis of results from 149 earlier studies finds that treatment rates for major depressive disorder remain low worldwide, particularly for people living in low and lower-middle income countries.

Human microbiome research excludes developing world, study finds

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:07 AM PST

New studies emerge daily on the effect of the human microbiome on human health: colon cancer, ulcers, and cognitive conditions such as Alzheimer's disease have been associated with the communities of microbes that live in our bodies. However, global research into the human microbiome is heavily biased in favor of wealthy countries such as the United States and United Kingdom, according to a new study.

Years of life lost during the pandemic significantly higher in deprived areas, study finds

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 11:07 AM PST

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hit hardest in deprived areas of England and Wales, with excess years of life lost more than three times as high in the North West than the South West of England. The research also finds 11 times as many excess deaths in 15-44 year olds in the most deprived areas compared to the most affluent ones.

How embryo cells gain independence

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 10:46 AM PST

It happens in the first hours after fertilization: The cells of the early embryo begin to independently produce proteins, the building blocks for cells and organs. Their own, uniquely composed genetic material serves as the blueprint. In vertebrates, the starting signal for this process comes from three maternal proteins that bind to the DNA of the offspring. New findings now show, using a zebrafish model, how two of these three start proteins of the egg cell elicit their roles and how they act in further development.

Outstanding question in theoretical models of memory addressed

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST

A research team has discovered that communication between two key memory regions in the brain determines how what we experience becomes part of what we remember, and as these regions mature, the precise ways by which they interact make us better at forming lasting memories.

Multi-country African research reports high rates of COVID-19-related deaths among hospitalized children and adolescents

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:55 AM PST

African children and adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19 experience much higher mortality rates than Europeans or North Americans of the same age, according to a new study.

Pandemic upends breast cancer diagnoses

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:54 AM PST

Researchers surveyed and compared early- and late-stage breast and colorectal cancer diagnoses in patients in pre-pandemic 2019 and in 2020, the first full year of the COVID-19 pandemic, discovering fewer of the former and more of the latter as patients delayed care.

COVID-19 vaccination boosts mental health along with immunity, study finds

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 09:54 AM PST

Receiving at least one vaccine dose was associated with statistically significant declines in multiple psychological distress factors, researchers report in a new study.

Climate change and extreme weather will have complex effects on disease transmission

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST

Temperature fluctuations such as heatwaves can have very different effects on infection rates and disease outcomes depending on the average background temperature, says a new report.

When a protective gene buffers a bad one, a heart can beat

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:34 AM PST

It was a medical mystery: When scientists induced a particular genetic mutation in mouse eggs, the resulting embryos would all die in the womb within a week. And yet, people with the same troublesome gene are thriving.

Beset in mucus, coronavirus particles likely travel farther than once thought, study finds

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 08:33 AM PST

A modeling study raises questions about how far droplets, like those that carry the virus that causes COVID-19, can travel before becoming harmless.

Psilocybin treatment for major depression effective for up to a year for most patients, study shows

Posted: 15 Feb 2022 06:01 AM PST

Previous studies have shown that psychedelic treatment with psilocybin relieved major depressive disorder symptoms in adults for up to a month. Now, in a follow-up study of those participants, the researchers report that the substantial antidepressant effects of psilocybin-assisted therapy, given with supportive psychotherapy, may last at least a year for some patients.

Compressing gene libraries to expand accessibility, research opportunities

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 12:48 PM PST

In image compression, a large file that could be cumbersome to store or share loses a small amount of visual information. This 'lossiness' largely preserves the image while vastly reducing its file size -- and serves as the inspiration for a new research direction in genomics, according to a professor of biomedical engineering.

Immunogenetic studies in diverse populations is essential

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 09:12 AM PST

Disease and health are the result of a complex interaction between humans and their pathogens. Genetic factors that partly determine host defenses sometimes differ significantly between people and populations. More genetic and immunological research in non-European populations will provide a better and more complete picture of how the human immune system works.

Researchers identify a novel PARP-like enzyme in mitochondria

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 08:17 AM PST

Researchers have just identified an ADP-ribosyltransferase enzyme that is active in the mitochondria (the organelle that generate most of the chemical energy needed to power biochemical reactions in cells) and characterized its activity. ADP-ribosyltransferases are enzymes that play a role in the modification of other proteins. The activity of this new mitochondrial enzyme, called NEURL4, is similar to that of PARP1, a nuclear enzyme well studied for its critical role in DNA damage repair and regulation of gene expression.