Feeling alone linked to psychological and physical ills, but wisdom may be a protective factor
In recent years, public health officials have warned about a rising epidemic of loneliness, with rates of loneliness reportedly doubling over the past 50 years. In a new study, researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine put a specific, concerning and surprising face to the issue.
Schizophrenia is among the most difficult mental illnesses to treat, in part because it is characterized by a wide range of dysfunction, from hallucinations and mood disorders to cognitive impairment, especially verbal and working memory, which can be explained in part by abnormalities in early auditory information processing.
Most malaria drugs are designed to reduce symptoms after infection. They work by blocking replication of the disease-causing parasites in human blood, but they don’t prevent infection or transmission via mosquitoes. What’s worse, the malaria parasite is developing resistance to existing drugs.
The spread of invasive cancer cells from a tumor’s original site to distant parts of the body is known as metastasis. It is the leading cause of death in people with cancer. In a paper published online in iScience , University of California San Diego School of Medicine researchers reported engineering sensors that can detect and measure the metastatic potential of single cancer cells.
So audacious was Marcus Bray’s experiment that even he feared it would fail.
In the system inside cells that translates genetic code into life, he replaced about 1,000 essential linchpins with primitive substitutes to see if the translational system would survive and function. It seemed impossible, yet it went swimmingly, and Bray had compelling evidence that the system would have worked as it is today in extremely harsh conditions 4 billion years ago when it evolved.
A new ultrasound technique can help distinguish benign breast tumours from malignant ones. The technology was developed with support from the Swiss National Science Foundation.
The development of immunotherapy, which mobilizes the body’s own immune system to destroy cancer cells, is one of the greatest advances in cancer treatment, but immunotherapy can cause harm to healthy tissue in some patients. Researchers at UT Southwestern have identified blood-based biomarkers that may help identify those patients at greatest risk of developing autoimmune side effects from the treatment.