Genetic Score Shows Promise for Honing PSA Precision
NEW ORLEANS — Adjusting prostate-specific antigen (PSA) levels for normal genetic variations showed potential for making PSA testing more useful, including reducing unnecessary prostate biopsies, a large genome-wide association study (GWAS) suggested. A “polygenic score” (PGS) that accounted for noncancerous variations in PSA values explained 7.3%-8.8% of the variation in baseline PSA values in two […]
Decoy particles trick coronavirus as it evolves: Emerging therapeutics could overcome drug-resistant variants
They might look like cells and act like cells. But a new potential COVID-19 treatment is actually a cleverly disguised trickster, which attracts viruses and binds them, rendering them inactive. As the ever-evolving SARS-CoV-2 virus begins to evade once promising treatments, such as monoclonal antibody therapies, researchers have become more interested in these “decoy” nanoparticles. […]
Why Am So I Angry for No Reason? 16 Possible Causes
If you constantly feel angry for no reason, it’s important to identify potential causes and learn how you can control your anger before it escalates. Anger is a natural response to negative situations, and sometimes a healthy outlet for expressing your feelings about something that has hurt you. To some degree, anger is also helpful […]
An obesity treatment for women only?
University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers have identified a potential way to battle the health effects of obesity and type 2 diabetes in women after discovering an important factor that could determine how their bodies use and store fat. Based on their new discovery, the researchers, led by Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering Mete […]
A step toward ‘living biotherapeutics’: Chemical engineers have created a coating for microbes that could make it easier to deploy the organisms to treat gastrointestinal disease
The human gut is home to thousands of species of bacteria, and some of those bacteria have the potential to treat a variety of gastrointestinal diseases. Some species may help to combat colon cancer, while others could help treat or prevent infections such as C. difficile. One of the obstacles to developing these “living biotherapeutics” […]
Researchers shrink camera to the size of a salt grain
Micro-sized cameras have great potential to spot problems in the human body and enable sensing for super-small robots, but past approaches captured fuzzy, distorted images with limited fields of view. Now, researchers at Princeton University and the University of Washington have overcome these obstacles with an ultracompact camera the size of a coarse grain of […]
Blood metabolites associated with coffee consumption may affect kidney disease risk
Food and beverages may have important effects on kidney health, but the potential biological mechanisms involved are often unclear. New research in CJASN identifies several metabolites in the blood whose levels are altered by coffee consumption and may affect the risk of developing chronic kidney disease (CKD). When Casey M. Rebholz, PhD, MS, MNSP, MPH […]
Insomnia may be a risk factor for highly fatal brain aneurysm rupture
Insomnia may be a potential risk factor for a brain bleed from a ruptured aneurysm along with more well known risk factors of smoking and high blood pressure, according to new research published today in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access journal of the American Heart Association. More than 3% of […]
‘Frameshifting’ therapy for mast cell cancers reduces size, spread
A potential new treatment for mast cell cancers reduces the number of mast cells by “mutating” the messenger RNA (mRNA) before it can deliver instructions for manufacturing the gene responsible for cell proliferation. The method, known as frameshifting, changes the pre-mRNA so that the mature mRNA is degraded and any protein produced from its instructions […]
Do vitamin D supplements offer kidney-related benefits for individuals with high diabetes risk? Trial shows no significant effects on kidney outcomes
A recent clinical trial described in CJASN has examined the potential of vitamin D supplementation for protecting the kidney health of individuals with pre-diabetes. In the general population, low blood vitamin D levels have been associated with higher risks of various diseases, including type 2 diabetes and kidney disease. Sun H. Kim, MD, MS (Stanford […]