Red yeast rice supplement has the potential to cause liver damage, warn doctors after a 64-year-old woman developed acute liver injury after six weeks of taking the supplement. Red yeast rice is a supplement made by fermenting steamed rice with food fungus, and is often used to lower high cholesterol as an alternative to statin…

A study analyzing over 15,000 individual synapses in macaques and mice found that primate neurons have two to five times fewer synapses in the visual cortex compared to mice — and the difference may be due to the metabolic cost of maintaining synapses. In a study comparing the brains of macaques and mice at the…

Scientists have revealed in unprecedented detail the genetic instructions immature egg cells go through step by step as they mature into functionality. Their findings improve our understanding of how ovaries maintain a female’s fertility. The general outline of how immature egg cells are assisted by specific ovarian helper cells starting even before a female is…

This study sheds new light on the body’s initial response to dengue virus infection, describing the molecular diversity and specificity of the antibody response. These results identify an unappreciated role for DENV-reactive IgA antibodies and set the stage for future work to fully characterize the body’s immune response to DENV, understand risk factors to severe…

Dietary components, rather than obesity itself, may lead to skin inflammation and the development of psoriasis, a study has found. The study, published today in Journal of Investigative Dermatology, suggests that dietary components, rather than obesity itself, may lead to skin inflammation and the development of psoriasis. A common and chronic skin disease, psoriasis causes…

Researchers have used single-cell RNA sequencing to better understand the viral infections. If your lip starts to tingle and itch, it often means that you’re about to get a cold sore. The result is small, painful blisters filled with the highly contagious herpes simplex virus (HSV). About 80 percent of the global population carries the…

Researchers identify and functionally describe key transport proteins, which contribute to creating a healthy early life gut microbiota. These proteins transport human milk oligosaccharides or HMOs, which are complex sugars produced by the mother, to nourish important bifidobacteria associated with the development of good health. «Our work allows us to establish a clear link between…

A novel vaccine protected almost all mice and guinea pigs exposed to a new herpes virus. This may lead to the vaccine being tested in human studies. In the study, researchers delivered the Penn-developed vaccine to 64 mice and then exposed them to genital herpes. After 28 days, 63 of the mice were found to…

The world’s food supply will become safer as the food industry shifts to high-resolution, whole-genome sequencing — which examines the full DNA of a given organism all at once. This move to make sequencing ubiquitous will lead to the consistently reliable detection of salmonella. A paper published in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology on —…

Pigtailed macaques are a candidate model organism for two hemorrhagic diseases of public health concern: Kyasanur Forest disease and Alkhurma hemorrhagic disease, researchers report. Tick-borne flaviviruses such as Kyasanur Forest disease virus (KFDV) in India, and its close relative Alkhurma hemorrhagic disease virus (AHFV) in the Arabian Peninsula, cause severe hemorrhagic fever in humans, and…