ScienceDaily: Top Health News

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• How birth control, girls' education can slow population growth
• Cell in zebrafish critical to brain assembly, function
• Linking calorie restriction, body temperature and healthspan
• Small study shows convalescent plasma is safe to use in pediatric patients with COVID-19
• NSAIDs not associated with more severe coronavirus disease, study finds
• Delayed immune responses may drive COVID-19 mortality rates among men and the elderly
• Brain stimulation reduces dyslexia deficits
• Research unravels what makes memories so detailed and enduring
• Older women with type 2 diabetes have different patterns of blood use in their brains
• Elevated clotting factor V levels linked to worse outcomes in severe COVID-19 infections
• A spillover effect: Medicaid expansion leads to healthier dietary choices
• New nanosystem enhances treatment for melanoma in animal models
• Model shows that the speed neurons fire impacts their ability to synchronize
• Investigational drug stops toxic proteins tied to neurodegenerative diseases
• Targeted drug found effective in patients who have lung cancer with certain mutations
• Cholesterol's effects on cellular membranes
• Romantic partners influence each other's goals
• Glial cells play an active role in the nervous system
• Fighting cardiovascular disease with acne drug
• Star-cells 'shine' to make sense of touch
• As information flows through brain's heirarchy, higher regions use higher frequency waves
• Brain astrocytes show metabolic alterations in Parkinson's disease
• Recommendations measuring persistent HIV reservoirs
• Mini-organs could offer treatment hope for children with intestinal failure
• Brain's immune cells promising cellular target for therapeutics
• Betrayal or cooperation? Analytical investigation of behavior drivers
• Endometriosis: No cure, but diagnosis could avert surgery
• Producing technicolor through brain-like electronic devices
• New drug shown to improve bone growth in children with achondroplasia
• How mutations in DNA packaging machines cause cancer
• Method to derive blood vessel cells from skin cells suggests ways to slow aging
• New surgical tools with smart sensors can advance cardiac surgery and therapy
• Quality over quantity in recovering language after stroke

How birth control, girls' education can slow population growth Posted: 08 Sep 2020 02:05 PM PDT Education and family planning have long been tied to lower fertility trends. But new research analyzes those factors to determine, what accelerates a decline in otherwise high-fertility countries.

Cell in zebrafish critical to brain assembly, function Posted: 08 Sep 2020 02:05 PM PDT New research documents the presence of astrocytes in zebrafish, a milestone that will open new avenues of research into a star-shaped type of glial cell in the brain that is critical for nearly every aspect of brain assembly and function.

Linking calorie restriction, body temperature and healthspan Posted: 08 Sep 2020 02:05 PM PDT Cutting calories significantly may not be an easy task for most, but it's tied to a host of health benefits ranging from longer lifespan to a much lower chance of developing cancer, heart disease, diabetes and neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer's. A new study illuminates the critical role that body temperature plays in realizing these diet-induced health benefits.

Small study shows convalescent plasma is safe to use in pediatric patients with COVID-19 Posted: 08 Sep 2020 01:21 PM PDT Early findings show that convalescent plasma appears to be a safe and possibly effective treatment for children with life-threatening cases of COVID-19.

NSAIDs not associated with more severe coronavirus disease, study finds Posted: 08 Sep 2020 11:29 AM PDT The use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), such as ibuprofen and diclofenac, is not associated with any adverse effects in people who have tested positive for COVID-19, according to a new study.

Delayed immune responses may drive COVID-19 mortality rates among men and the elderly Posted: 08 Sep 2020 11:29 AM PDT COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) infections tend to be more severe among older adults and males, yet the mechanisms underlying increased mortality in these two demographics are unknown. A new study suggests that varying immune responses to SARS-CoV-2 due to age and sex may depend on viral load and the time-course of infection.

Brain stimulation reduces dyslexia deficits Posted: 08 Sep 2020 11:29 AM PDT Restoring normal patterns of rhythmic neural activity through non-invasive electrical stimulation of the brain alleviates sound-processing deficits and improves reading accuracy in adults with dyslexia, according to a new study.

Research unravels what makes memories so detailed and enduring Posted: 08 Sep 2020 10:11 AM PDT Researchers report a breakthrough in understanding how memories can be so distinct and long-lasting without getting muddled up.

Older women with type 2 diabetes have different patterns of blood use in their brains Posted: 08 Sep 2020 10:11 AM PDT A researcher is reporting that the brains of older women with Type 2 diabetes do not use as much oxygenated blood as those who don't have the disease. The research is the first to point to changes in blood use in the brain as the primary reason for diabetes-related deficits in motor function.

Elevated clotting factor V levels linked to worse outcomes in severe COVID-19 infections Posted: 08 Sep 2020 10:11 AM PDT New research points to disturbances in blood clotting protein factor V activity as both a potential cause of blood clotting disorders with COVID-19, and to potential methods for identifying at-risk patients with the goal of selecting the proper anticoagulation therapy.

A spillover effect: Medicaid expansion leads to healthier dietary choices Posted: 08 Sep 2020 10:11 AM PDT Besides providing health care to millions, the Medicaid program helps recipients make healthier food choices, according to new work.

New nanosystem enhances treatment for melanoma in animal models Posted: 08 Sep 2020 10:11 AM PDT Researchers have developed an innovative nanotechnological drug delivery system that significantly enhances the effectiveness of treatment for the aggressive skin cancer melanoma.

Model shows that the speed neurons fire impacts their ability to synchronize Posted: 08 Sep 2020 10:10 AM PDT Research has shown for the first time that a computer model can replicate and explain a unique property displayed by a crucial brain cell. Their findings shed light on how groups of neurons can self-organize by synchronizing when they fire fast.

Investigational drug stops toxic proteins tied to neurodegenerative diseases Posted: 08 Sep 2020 10:10 AM PDT An investigational drug that targets an instigator of the TDP-43 protein, a well-known hallmark of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), may reduce the protein's buildup and neurological decline associated with these disorders, suggests a pre-clinical study.

Targeted drug found effective in patients who have lung cancer with certain mutations Posted: 08 Sep 2020 10:10 AM PDT A targeted therapy called capmatinib can provide significant benefits to patients who have advanced lung cancer with specific gene mutations, according to recently published results from a phase two clinical trial.

Cholesterol's effects on cellular membranes Posted: 08 Sep 2020 09:25 AM PDT New findings have far-reaching implications in the general understanding of disease, the design of drug delivery methods, and many other biological applications that require specific assumptions about the role of cholesterol in cell membranes.

Romantic partners influence each other's goals Posted: 08 Sep 2020 09:25 AM PDT Over the long-term, what one partner in a two-person relationship wishes to avoid, so too does the other partner -- and what one wants to achieve, so does the other. These effects can be observed regardless of gender, age and length of the relationship, as researchers report in a study of more than 450 couples.

Glial cells play an active role in the nervous system Posted: 08 Sep 2020 09:25 AM PDT Researchers have discovered that glial cells - one of the main components of the brain -not only control the speed of nerve conduction, but also influence the precision of signal transduction in the brain.

Fighting cardiovascular disease with acne drug Posted: 08 Sep 2020 09:25 AM PDT Researchers have found the cause of dilated cardiomyopathy - a leading cause of heart failure - and identified a potential treatment for it: a drug already used to treat acne.

Star-cells 'shine' to make sense of touch Posted: 08 Sep 2020 08:33 AM PDT A research group reports a rather surprise finding as to how GABA works to control the tactile sense. GABA, known for its inhibitory function, actually enhances the sensory input processing by accelerating the signal processing and sharpening the sensitivity of signal magnitude.

As information flows through brain's heirarchy, higher regions use higher frequency waves Posted: 08 Sep 2020 08:33 AM PDT To produce your thoughts and actions, your brain processes information in a hierarchy of regions along its surface, or cortex, ranging from "lower" areas that do basic parsing of incoming sensations to "higher" executive regions that formulate your plans for employing that newfound knowledge. In a new study, neuroscientists seeking to explain how this organization emerges report two broad trends: In each of three distinct regions, information encoding or its inhibition was associated with a similar tug of war between specific brain wave frequency bands, and the higher a region's status in the hierarchy, the higher the peak frequency of its waves in each of those bands.

Brain astrocytes show metabolic alterations in Parkinson's disease Posted: 08 Sep 2020 08:33 AM PDT A new study using induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) technology links astrocyte dysfunction to Parkinson's disease (PD) pathology. The study highlights the role of brain astrocyte cells in PD pathology and the potential of iPSC-derived cells in disease modelling and drug discovery.

Recommendations measuring persistent HIV reservoirs Posted: 08 Sep 2020 08:32 AM PDT Scientists compiled the first comprehensive set of recommendations on how to best measure the size of persistent HIV reservoirs during cure-directed clinical studies.

Mini-organs could offer treatment hope for children with intestinal failure Posted: 08 Sep 2020 08:32 AM PDT Scientists have grown human intestinal grafts using stem cells from patient tissue that could one day lead to personalized transplants for children with intestinal failure.

Brain's immune cells promising cellular target for therapeutics Posted: 08 Sep 2020 08:32 AM PDT Inspired by the need for new and better therapies for neurodegenerative diseases, researchers are exploring the link between uncontrolled inflammation within the brain and the brain's immune cells, known as microglia, which are emerging as a promising cellular target because of the prominent role they play in brain inflammation. The group highlights the design considerations and benefits of creating therapeutic nanoparticles for carrying pharmacological factors directly to the sites of the microglia.

Betrayal or cooperation? Analytical investigation of behavior drivers Posted: 08 Sep 2020 08:32 AM PDT At the macroscopic level, there are numerous examples of people cooperating to form groupings. Yet at the basic two-person level, people tend to betray each other, as found in games like the prisoner's dilemma, even though people would receive a better payoff if they cooperated among themselves. The topic of cooperation and how and when people start trusting one another has been studied numerically, and researchers investigate what drives cooperation analytically.

Endometriosis: No cure, but diagnosis could avert surgery Posted: 08 Sep 2020 07:16 AM PDT 176 million women worldwide who have endometriosis, a chronic, painful gynaecological condition. It affects nearly three times as many women as breast cancer.

Producing technicolor through brain-like electronic devices Posted: 08 Sep 2020 07:16 AM PDT Structural coloration is promised to be the display technology of the future as there is no fading - it does not use dyes - and enables low-power displays without strong external light source. However, the disadvantage of this technique is that once a device is made, it is impossible to change its properties so the reproducible colors remain fixed. Recently, a research team has successfully obtained vivid colors by using semiconductor chips - not dyes - made by mimicking the human brain structure.

New drug shown to improve bone growth in children with achondroplasia Posted: 08 Sep 2020 06:37 AM PDT A phase three global clinical trial has shown that the drug vosoritide restores close-to-average bone growth rates of children with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. The study enrolled 121 children aged five to 18. The 60 children who received vosoritide grew an average 1.57 cm more per year. Regulatory authorities are reviewing applications to license treatment.

How mutations in DNA packaging machines cause cancer Posted: 08 Sep 2020 06:15 AM PDT Like wrenches made of Legos, SWI/SNF chromatin remodeling complexes tighten or loosen DNA in our cells to control how genes are turned on and made into proteins. When assembled correctly, these complexes play a crucial role in the development of normal tissues, and when broken, they can lead to the development of cancer. These complexes are commonly disrupted by mutations in the genes that encode them - but how this leads to cancer is poorly understood.

Method to derive blood vessel cells from skin cells suggests ways to slow aging Posted: 08 Sep 2020 05:54 AM PDT Scientists have used skin cells called fibroblasts from young and old patients to successfully create blood vessels cells that retain their molecular markers of age. The team's approach revealed clues as to why blood vessels tend to become leaky and hardened with aging, and lets researchers identify new molecular targets to potentially slow aging in vascular cells.

New surgical tools with smart sensors can advance cardiac surgery and therapy Posted: 07 Sep 2020 08:23 AM PDT Researchers developed a new class of medical instruments equipped with an advanced soft electronics system that could dramatically improve the diagnoses and treatments of a number of cardiac diseases and conditions.

Quality over quantity in recovering language after stroke Posted: 06 Sep 2020 10:53 AM PDT New research has found that intensive therapy is not necessarily best when it comes to treating the loss of language and communication in early recovery after a stroke.

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