Palestine

Category: 4. Health

  • Researchers map 7,000-year-old genetic mutation that protects against HIV

    Researchers map 7,000-year-old genetic mutation that protects against HIV

    Modern HIV medicine is based on a common genetic mutation. Now, researchers have traced where and when the mutation arose — and how it protected our ancestors from ancient diseases.

    What do a millennia-old human from the Black Sea region and modern HIV medicine have in common?

    Quite a lot, it turns out, according to new research from the University of Copenhagen.

    18-25 percent of the Danish population carries a genetic mutation that can make them resistant or even immune to HIV. This…

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • Colonic inflammation explains missing link between obesity and beta-cell proliferation

    Colonic inflammation explains missing link between obesity and beta-cell proliferation

    Researchers at the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine have uncovered a key primary step in the hepatic ERK pathway that leads to increased insulin production. While their previous work focused on aspects of the signaling pathway from the liver to the pancreas, this current study shows an even earlier step that begins in the colon when it is inflamed — triggered by obesity. The present study revealed a novel role the gastrointestinal tract plays in regulating glucose homeostasis.

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • Novel, needle-free, live-attenuated influenza vaccines with broad protection against human and avian virus subtypes

    Novel, needle-free, live-attenuated influenza vaccines with broad protection against human and avian virus subtypes

    A research team led by the School of Public Health in the LKS Faculty of Medicine, the University of Hong Kong (HKUMed), in collaboration with the Centre for Immunology & Infection (C2i), has achieved a significant breakthrough in developing broadly protective, live-attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIV). These innovative LAIV platforms offer potential to develop universal influenza vaccines that induce a more robust immune response against various virus subtypes, including both human and…

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • Fatty liver in pregnancy may increase risk of preterm birth

    Fatty liver in pregnancy may increase risk of preterm birth

    Pregnant women with metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) have an increased risk of giving birth prematurely and the risk increase cannot be explained by obesity, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet published in the journal eClinicalMedicine.

    It is estimated that one in five people in Sweden has MASLD, previously called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, and globally it may be as many as three out of ten. Common risk factors are metabolic disorders…

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • An enzyme as key to protein quality

    An enzyme as key to protein quality

    A special enzyme — the so-called ubiquitin-selective unfoldase p97/VCP — is one of the main players when cells remove malformed or excess proteins from their interior. This is the central finding of a new study, the results of which have now been published in the journal Nature Communications.

    The new findings form the basis for a better understanding of numerous pathological processes. They clearly show that blocking this enzyme causes proteins to fold incorrectly and form aggregates,…

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • Heart rhythm disorder traced to bacterium lurking in our gums

    Heart rhythm disorder traced to bacterium lurking in our gums

    Tempted to skip the floss? Your heart might thank you if you don’t. A new study from Hiroshima University (HU) finds that the gum disease bacterium Porphyromonas gingivalis (P. gingivalis) can slip into the bloodstream and infiltrate the heart. There, it quietly drives scar tissue buildup — known as fibrosis — distorting the heart’s architecture, interfering with electrical signals, and raising the risk of atrial fibrillation (AFib).

    Clinicians have long noticed that people with…

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • Green fabrication of hybrid materials as highly sensitive X-ray detectors

    Green fabrication of hybrid materials as highly sensitive X-ray detectors

    New bismuth-based organic-inorganic hybrid materials show exceptional sensitivity and long-term stability as X-ray detectors, significantly more sensitive than commercial X-ray detectors. In addition, these materials can be produced without solvents by ball milling, a mechanochemical synthesis process that is environmentally friendly and scalable. More sensitive detectors would allow for a reduction in the radiation exposure during X-ray examinations.

    X-ray imaging is indispensable in…

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • Improving newborn genetic screening | ScienceDaily

    Improving newborn genetic screening | ScienceDaily

    More than a decade ago, researchers launched the BabySeq Project, a pilot program to return newborn genomic sequencing results to parents and measure the effects on newborn care. Today, over 30 international initiatives are exploring the expansion of newborn screening using genomic sequencing (NBSeq), but a new study by researchers from Mass General Brigham highlights the substantial variability in gene selection among those programs. In a paper published in Genetics in Medicine, an official…

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • Can frisky flies save human lives?

    Can frisky flies save human lives?

    When fruit flies are infected with the Wolbachia bacteria, their sex lives — and ability to reproduce — change dramatically.

    Arizona State University scientist Timothy Karr decided to find out why. What he discovered could help curb mosquito-borne diseases and manage crop pests. And that’s just the “tip of the iceberg,” he says.

    Promiscuous flies

    Wolbachia is a parasitic bacteria that lives inside insect cells. It infects at least two out of every five insect species. Since insects…

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com

  • New gene linked to severe cases of Fanconi anemia

    New gene linked to severe cases of Fanconi anemia

    Fanconi anemia is an aggressive, life-threatening disorder. Most individuals living with this rare genetic condition, characterized by bone marrow failure and cancer predisposition, survive into adulthood only with bone marrow transplantation and regular cancer screening. But a new study demonstrates that mutations in one particular gene in the Fanconi anemia pathway result in an even more severe form of the disorder — and that many fetuses with this mutation do not survive to birth.

    The…

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    News Source: www.sciencedaily.com