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An enzyme called MARK2 has been identified as a key stress-response switch in cells in a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Overactivation of this type of stress response is a possible cause of injury to brain cells in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer s, Parkinson s, and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. The discovery will make MARK2 a focus of investigation for its possible role in these diseases, and may ultimately be a target for neurodegenerative disease treatments.
In addition to its potential relevance to neurodegenerative diseases, the finding is an advance in understanding basic cell biology.
Results published today show it is possible to identify Parkinson s based on compounds found on the surface of skin. The findings offer hope that a pioneering new test could be developed to diagnose the degenerative condition through a simple and painless skin swab.
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CDC s Deblina Datta (r.) hosted her mother Chitra Datta early in the pandemic. Chitra lives in New York, and when COVID-19 first broke out there, she took refuge at her daughter s Atlanta home, where Deblina teleworked, leading a clinical team on CDC s COVID-19 emergency response.
People can survive a COVID-19 infection in the lungs only to come down with new symptoms in other parts of the body. This is yet another way that COVID-19 is a particularly bad viral disease, says Deblina Datta, a CDC doctor who researches how infectious diseases make people sick.
Deblina has spent more than nine months on CDC’s COVID-19 emergency response, mostly leading a team of more than 40 clinicians concentrating on healthcare and protecting workers during the pandemic. She has spent decades trying to stop the spread of viral diseases like AIDS and hepatitis. But during her time on the response, she found the virus that causes COVID-19 to cause more ailments than nearly any othe
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The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on public health is staggering; more than one hundred million cases and two million deaths worldwide. In response, most countries and local governments have taken substantial measures such as travel restrictions and physical distancing to keep their citizens safe. Both the pandemic and related protective measures pose challenges for ongoing clinical research studies seeking to treat and prevent the world s greatest public health emergencies including COVID-19, but also Alzheimer s disease and other dementia.
In a new paper from the World-Wide FINGERS network in Alzheimer s & Dementia: Translational Research and Clinical Interventions, first author Susanne Röhr, Ph.D., clinical psychologist at the Institute of Social Medicine, Occupational Health and Public Health, University of Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues provide timely guidance on the design and management of clinical research during COVID-19 specifically on the conduct of