Researchers using a model of airway tissue created from human stem cells have pinpointed how smoking cigarettes causes more severe infection by SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the airways of the lungs. The study, led by scientists at the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA…

Researchers have developed a method that could be used to diagnose atherosclerosis. Using self-learning software, they were able to identify vascular changes in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), often at an early stage. Although these early stages do not yet cause symptoms, they are nevertheless already associated with increased mortality. The algorithm used photos…

Men with a history of obesity in their late teens are, in adult life are more at risk of a blood clot (thrombus) in a leg or lung, according to a new study. The risk rises successively and is highest in those who were severely obese in adolescence. A thrombus in the leg or lung…

New research demonstrates the beneficial effect of breast milk consumption on cardiovascular health and early cardiovascular development in premature infants. Published in JAMA Network Open, the study of 80 preterm infants is the first of its kind to show that preterm infants with higher exposure their mother’s own milk had enhanced cardiac function at age…

Researchers have identified several women’s health benefits from a low-fat diet. The findings found a low-fat diet commensurate with an increase in fruit, vegetable and grain servings reduced death following breast cancer, slowed diabetes progression and prevented coronary heart disease. Dr. Ross Prentice, member of the Cancer Prevention and Biostatistics programs at Fred Hutch and…

Hearing is widely thought to be the last sense to go in the dying process. Now, the first study to investigate hearing in palliative care patients who are close to death provides evidence that some may still be able to hear while in an unresponsive state. Electroencephalography (EEG) was used to measure the dying brain’s…

Engineers have shown that nanosized silver cubes can make diagnostic tests that rely on fluorescence easier to read by making them more than 150 times brighter. Combined with an emerging point-of-care diagnostic platform already shown to be able to detect small traces of viruses and other biomarkers, the approach could allow such tests to become…

An international team of researchers identifies a compound that corrects genetic abnormalities involved in the onset and progression of Huntington’s disease for which there is no definitive treatment. They successfully reversed disease-causing DNA expansion mutations with no off-target effects in the lab. They hope that their discovery may help treat other DNA repeat diseases like…

High blood pressure is a risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia in older adults. Studies have shown that commonly prescribed high blood pressure medications, or antihypertensives, may have a positive, beneficial impact on cognitive function including memory. This meta-analysis compares the impact on memory over time associated with taking antihypertensives that cross the blood-brain…

People with more pain sensitization were more likely to suffer from constant and unpredictable pain, rather than just intermittent pain. This study has identified for the first time a potential underlying mechanism in the nervous system responsible for why people experience varying pain patterns with knee osteoarthritis. The pain experience in patients with knee osteoarthritis…