Complement system appears to be specifically implicated in severe COVID-19
Researchers in the United States have conducted a study showing that activation of the complement system is specifically implicated in the pathogenesis of severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), rather than being a broader indicator of critical illness.
The complement system is a tightly regulated network of proteins that work together as the first line of host immune defense against invading pathogens.
Now, a team of scientists from Washington University School of Medicine, Marian University, University of Pittsburgh, Yale School of Medicine and Yale New Haven Health System, have identified complement activation as a distinctive immunologic feature of COVID-19.
A liquid biopsy examining blood or urine can help gauge the effectiveness of therapy for colorectal cancer that has just begun to spread beyond the original tumor, a new study shows.
This kind of biopsy can detect lingering disease and could serve as a guide for deciding whether a patient should undergo further treatments due to some tumor cells evading an initial attempt to eradicate the cancer.
The findings appear in the
While the Food and Drug Administration has approved a few liquid biopsies, mostly for lung, breast, ovarian, and prostate cancers, it has not approved any for colorectal cancer.
Study reveals new routes to potential treatments for chronic inflammatory conditions
Inflammatory lung diseases such as asthma, COPD and, most recently, COVID-19, have proven difficult to treat. Current therapies reduce symptoms and do little to stop such diseases from continuing to damage the lungs. Much research into treating chronic inflammatory diseases has focused on blocking chemicals called cytokines, which trigger cascades of molecular events that fuel damaging inflammation.
Now, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that such cytokines can drive inflammation in more ways than previously understood, perhaps revealing new routes to potential treatments for chronic inflammatory conditions.
A researcher at the Institute of Biomedical Research and Innovation in Kobe studies age-related changes in the brain. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Gerontology researchers are racing to unravel the mechanisms of how humans age, with the goal of developing medicines and nutritional foods that can extend the healthy life spans of humans.
“It s no longer science fiction but an attainable goal to develop anti-aging methods and extend healthy life expectancy,” said Yoichi Nabeshima, a professor emeritus at Kyoto University and chairman of the Institute for Research on Productive Aging (IRPA).
The IRPA, modeled after a private research institute in the United States, kicked off its activities last year with the mission of developing anti-aging methods by studying the mechanisms of aging and longevity.
Nearly half of women with uncomplicated urinary tract infections received the wrong antibiotics and almost three-quarters received prescriptions for longer than necessary, with inappropriately long treatment durations more common in rural areas, according to a study of private insurance claims data published today in Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, the journal of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America.