A new study has shown that probably 1 in 4 people in the world carry the tuberculosis bacterium in the body. The disease tuberculosis is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium Tuberculosis, which affects more than 10 million people every year, and kills up to 2 million, making it the most deadly of the infectious diseases.…

Extracts of the herb Withania coagulans, or Paneer dodi, are used in traditional Indian medicine. Although some healers claim that W. coagulans can help treat diabetes, the bitter-tasting plant hasn’t been studied extensively by scientists. Now, researchers have found that herbal extracts packaged in polymers derived from natural substances can reduce blood glucose levels in…

Accurately assessing the exposure of a population to a particular virus is difficult because the tools for doing so do not account for the fact that many viruses comprise multiple circulating strains, or the fact that people can be vaccinated or naturally immune, among other factors. Using influenza as a model, researchers have developed a…

Vaginal Lactobacillus bacterial strains largely perform better than strains currently used in probiotics for vaginal health, according to a new study. The findings suggest that a vaginal health probiotic that includes top-performing vaginal Lactobacillus strains may improve treatment options for bacterial vaginosis. Lactobacillus species in the lower reproductive tract of healthy women lower vaginal pH…

As growing numbers of people are using cannabis to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a new study reports that prescriptions are not backed up by adequate evidence. The systematic review, published in the Journal of Dual Diagnosis, finds that the active components of cannabis, called cannabinoids, may hold promise as a treatment for PTSD, particularly…

mRNA plays a key role in the conversion of genetic information from DNA to proteins. Their production is a delicate process. A research team has now identified a crucial factor. Wolf is a professor for tumour system biology at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Wurzburg. With his research team,…

Identifying vulnerabilities to outbreaks of Ebola and Lassa fever is possible following new research. This will aid government agencies and health organizations in evaluating a country’s vulnerability to outbreaks, and inform decisions on strategic investments and plans. Vulnerability — an assessment of a country’s ability or inability to resist a hazard or to respond when…

Bisexual women had higher rates of past-year and daily marijuana use compared to heterosexual women, and gay/lesbian women were also more likely to report daily marijuana use and past year medical marijuana use than heterosexual women. While previous research has explored the association between state-level medical marijuana laws and marijuana use and MU disorder among…

Antibiotic treatment — which depletes gut microbes — drastically changes the parts of a rat’s brain that are activated during opioid addiction and withdrawal. «It turned out I had malaria and needed a different treatment,» Simpson said. «But by then the antibiotics had messed with my stomach and I felt more anxious than I had…

Using nanopore DNA sequencing technology, researchers have managed to scan a single protein: by slowly moving a linearized protein through a tiny nanopore, one amino acid at the time, the researchers were able to read off electric currents that relate to the information content of the protein. The new single-molecule peptide reader marks a breakthrough…