ScienceDaily: Top Health News

Adults in hospital who have COVID-19 and the flu at the same time are at much greater risk of severe disease and death compared with patients who have COVID-19 alone or with other viruses, research shows.

Thanks to antiretroviral therapy, HIV infection is no longer the life sentence it once was. But despite the effectiveness of drugs to manage and treat the virus, it can never be fully eliminated from the human body, lingering in some cells deep in different human tissues where it goes unnoticed by the immune system. Now, new research by University of Alberta immunologist Shokrollah Elahi reveals a possible answer to the mystery of why infected people can't get rid of HIV altogether. Elahi and his team found that in HIV patients, killer T cells -- a type of white blood cells responsible for identifying and destroying cells infected with viruses -- have very little to none of a protein called CD73. Because CD73 is responsible for migration and cell movement into the tissue, the lack of the protein compromises the ability of killer T cells to find and eliminate HIV-infected cells, explained Elahi.

Researchers have developed a novel strategy for identifying potent miniature antibodies, so-called nanobodies, against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants. The approach led to the discovery of multiple nanobodies that in cell cultures and mice effectively blocked infection with different SARS-CoV-2 variants. The findings could pave the way for new treatments against COVID-19.

New research shows that while microsaccades seem to boost or diminish the strength of the brain signals underlying attention, eye movements are not drivers of those brain signals.

Scientists have now created a powerful new method for generating protein drugs. Using computers, they designed molecules that can target important proteins in the body, such as the insulin receptor, as well as vulnerable proteins on the surface of viruses. This solves a long-standing challenge in drug development and may lead to new treatments for cancer, diabetes, infection, inflammation, and beyond.

Researchers have discovered another way tumor cells transfer genetic material to other cells in their microenvironment, causing cancer to spread.

Researchers have found that many people who tested positive for the coronavirus in the early months of the pandemic also experienced peripheral neuropathy -- pain, tingling and numbness in the hands and feet -- during and following their bouts with COVID-19.

Could the length of a person's fingers provide a clue to how ill they might get after contracting COVID-19?

While kidney function is known to be related to bleeding event risk, researchers conducted a post-hoc subgroup analysis of the Atrial Fibrillation and Ischemic Events with Rivaroxaban in Patients with Stable Coronary Artery Disease (AFIRE) trial to determine the impact of kidney function on the risk of recurrent bleeding events during antithrombotic therapy. Their analysis revealed that the effect of kidney function on recurrent bleeding risk events was quite large for patients undergoing this treatment.

In a retrospective study drawing data from 973 participants between 2018 and 2020, researchers find that cases of metabolic dysfunction-associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD) increased from 22 pre-pandemic to 44 mid-pandemic. Additionally, univariate and multivariate analysis of lifestyle habits reveal late-night meals pre-pandemic and increased alcohol intake mid-pandemic as independent lifestyle predictors of developing the disease.

New research demonstrates overgrowth of the amygdala in the first year of life, before babies show most of the behavioral symptoms that later consolidate into a diagnosis of autism. This overgrowth may be unique to autism, as babies with fragile X syndrome show a different brain growth pattern.

Scientists have long puzzled about a critical way that cells communicate with one another, but researchers have now used a simple roundworm to solve the mystery.

Researchers found that early aspirin treatment helped reduce mortality in patients with moderate COVID, especially for the elderly and those with comorbidities.