news 2020

Neural "signature" may reflect how we respond to feelings of social isolation This holiday season will be a lonely one for many people as social distancing due to COVID-19 continues, and it is important to understand how isolation affects our health. A new study shows a sort of signature in the brains of lonely people that make them distinct in fundamental ways, based on variations in the volume of different brain regions as well as based on how those regions communicate with one another across brain networks.

Apathy - a lack of interest or motivation - could predict the onset of some forms of dementia many years before symptoms start, offering a 'window of opportunity' to treat the disease at an early stage, according to new research from a team of scientists led by Professor James Rowe at the University of Cambridge.

The drug remdesivir is likely to be a highly effective antiviral against SARS-CoV-2, according to a new study by a team of UK scientists. Writing , the researchers describe giving the drug to a patient with COVID-19 and a rare immune disorder, and observing a dramatic improvement in his symptoms and the disappearance of the virus.

Neuroscientists at UCL have found no significant association between COVID-19 and the potentially paralysing and sometimes fatal neurological condition Guillain-Barré syndrome. Researchers say the findings, published in the journal  Brain*,  along with a linked scientific commentary** by UCL and other international experts, should provide the public with reassurance, as the UK's national coronavirus vaccination programme is rolled out.

By Susanne Eigner Researchers from TU Graz and acib succeed in the first enzyme-driven biocatalytic synthesis of nucleic acid building blocks. This facilitates the development of antiviral agents and RNA-based therapeutics. Due to the COVID 19 pandemic and the associated intensive search for therapeutics and vaccines, the chemical substance class of nucleosides is experiencing an enormous increase in interest.

Compared with meat eaters, fish eaters have a lower risk of several adverse heart diseases, including stroke. These findings, which were part of new research looking at the diets and risk of developing or dying from heart diseases of more than 420,000 people in the UK, also concluded that vegetarianism was associated with a lower risk of developing heart disease.

Rice, Baylor work with city to find disease in Houston four times greater than testing showed A monthslong study to determine the number of Houstonians carrying COVID-19 antibodies revealed infections may have been four times greater than viral tests showed, according to collaborators at the Houston Health Department, Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine.

Finding could lead to potential therapies Researchers at McGill University are hopeful that the identification of the origin and a specific gene needed for tumour growth could lead to new therapeutics to treat a deadly brain cancer that arises in teens and young adults. The discovery relates to a subgroup of glioblastoma, a rare but aggressive form of cancer that typically proves fatal within three years of onset.

The chain of command inside human cells is similar to the way a factory is run, two University of Queensland researchers say. But Dr Nathan Palpant and Associate Professor Mikael Boden 's big news is that they have found the password to the chief executive's computer - metaphorically speaking. "We discovered a simple but powerful rule revealing how cells are controlled by rare decision-making genes,' said Dr Palpant, from UQ's Institute for Molecular Bioscience.

An earwax self-sampling device could be used to measure chronic glucose levels, according to a study led by UCL and King's College London researchers. The pilot study, published in Diagnostics , reports that the new device was almost 60% more reliable at measuring chronic glucose levels averaged over a month than an existing gold standard technique.

A study performed in Ticino between Ente Ospedaliero Cantonale (EOC), USI Università della Svizzera italiana and Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele (UniSR, Milan, Italy) has shown how drugs against hypertension can reduce by more than 60% the risk of mortality in COVID-19 patients. The multidisciplinary study concerned 576 patients admitted to the EOC during the first wave of the epidemic, and was published in the prestigious journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

A group of researchers is to evaluate whether a simple blood test for bacterial infection could help to reduce the use of antibiotics in patients with COVID-19. A procalcitonin blood test (PCT) is used in hospitals to distinguish between bacterial and viral infections and guide antibiotic treatment.

Data from the National COVID-19 Infection Survey, done in partnership between the University of Oxford, the Office of National Statistics, Public Health England, University of Manchester and the Wellcome Trust, has revealed detailed characteristics of England's coronavirus pandemic, including which factors have contributed most to case numbers over different phases and the prevalence of asymptomatic infections.

FINDINGS UCLA researchers have identified a potential diagnostic marker that could help predict how likely someone with cervical cancer is to respond to the standard treatment of chemotherapy and radiation. The scientists found that PACS-1, a gene that resides on a small segment of the long arm of chromosome 11, is overexpressed in cancer tissues, which can result in cancer growth and spread.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists has created a new molecular tool to help us better understand the cellular basis of behavior. A new molecular probe from Stanford University could help reveal how our brains think and remember. This tool, called Fast Light and Calcium-Regulated Expression or FLiCRE (pronounced "flicker"), can be sent inside any cell to perform a variety of research tasks, including tagging, recording and controlling cellular functions.

A new and less invasive treatment developed by Cancer Research UK researchers is safer than standard major surgery for early-stage rectal cancer, giving patients a better quality of life with fewer life-altering side effects, results from a pilot study show. Results from the TREC trial show that a combination of local keyhole surgery and radiotherapy, rather than major surgery that removes the whole rectum, prevents debilitating side effects, such as diarrhoea, or the need for a permanent colostomy bag.

The Australian National University (ANU) has announced a new research project with Janssen Research & Development, LLC, aimed at improving health outcomes in Type 1 Diabetes (T1D). The collaboration was facilitated by Johnson & Johnson Innovation. The project will focus on the development of new methods for measuring and monitoring disease activity.

Older people who undergo emergency surgeries on their operating surgeon's birthday may be more likely to die within a month than patients who go through similar procedures on other days, a new UCLA-led study suggests. The study, published today in the peer-reviewed medical journal BMJ, shows that 30-day mortality rates are approximately 23% higher for patients 65 and older who are treated on a surgeon's birthday.

People's levels of anxiety and depression were at their highest (worst) in the early stages of the March lockdown but improved fairly rapidly following the introduction of restrictions, according to new findings by UCL researchers. The study, published today in Lancet Psychiatry and funded by the Nuffield Foundation and the Wellcome Trust, analysed data from over 36,000 adults who had provided responses on their mental health as part of the UCL COVID -19 Social Study on a weekly basis between 23 March and 9 August 2020.

The CRISPR-Cas9 protein (above) allows researchers to inactivate individual genes in the genome, using a guide RNA sequence that matches the target gene. These guide RNAs are paired with nucleotide barcodes in a new and fast technique to map genetic networks called CRISPR interference with barcoded expression reporter sequencing, or CiBER-seq.