Maternal obesity and the risk of early-onset hypertensive disorders of pregnancy

Pregnant obese women were more at risk of experiencing early and late-onset hypertensive disorders, and that risk progressively increased in women with higher body mass indexes (BMI), according to a study led by researchers at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). The retrospective cohort study was recently published in Obstetrics and […]

Pre-orders of COVID-19 vaccine top five billion

Although none of the coronavirus vaccines under development has proved its efficacy yet in clinical trials, at least 5.7 billion doses have been pre-ordered around the world. First shipments of a COVID-19 vaccine created by Western laboratories have often been snapped up by the United States. Five vaccines—three Western and two Chinese—are in Phase 3 […]

Kids with ‘silent malaria infection’ at risk of cancer

A study has found strong similarities between children withendemic Burkitt lymphoma—an aggressive cancer that attacks the body’s defense system and children with silent malaria infection. Endemic Burkitt lymphoma cases occur in areas with frequent malaria transmissions. Researchers hypothesized that the disease may occur in children with heavy exposure to malaria, says Sam Mbulaiteye, a co-author […]

Researchers develop promising new treatment of advanced skin cancer

A new type of immunotherapy for the skin cancer malignant melanoma shows promising results. Three severely ill patients are now long-term survivors. The study, published in OncoImmunology, is the result of a collaboration between researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital. “Immunotherapy is based on activation of the body’s own immune defense to eliminate […]

Organoids help bridge gap between laboratory study and animal modeling of colorectal cancer

Scientists at the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) have biofabricated human colorectal cancer miniature organs, called organoids, to better understand how a tumor grows in its natural microenvironment and its response to therapies. This new study is the first to replicate observations of native tumor tissue in a laboratory model and validate it […]

Trajectories of antidepressant medication use during pregnancy

In an analysis of women who started pregnancy when taking antidepressant medications, investigators identified three trajectories of antidepressant dispensing during pregnancy: more than half stopped their treatment, a quarter maintained their treatment throughout pregnancy, and one-fifth discontinued it for a minimum of three months and then resumed it during the postpartum period. The analysis, which […]

US announces clinical trial of antibody treatment for COVID-19

The US has begun late stage clinical trials into a drug formulated to fight COVID-19, officials said Tuesday. The medicine is an antibody against the new coronavirus called LY-CoV555, which was identified in the blood sample of a recovered patient by Canada’s Abcellera Biologics. It was then developed synthetically for mass production by US-based Lilly […]

Allelic imbalance of chromatin openness is linked to neuropsychiatric disorders

A new study led by NorthShore University HealthSystem (NorthShore) and the University of Chicago took a novel approach to identifying SNPs influencing the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders like schizophrenia, bipolar and major depressive disorder, the institutions announced today. The findings, published in the current issue of Science, significantly advance understanding of the genetics of neuropsychiatric […]

Ancient part of immune system may underpin severe COVID-19

One of the immune system’s oldest branches, called complement, may be influencing the severity of COVID-19 disease, according to a new study from researchers at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Among other findings linking complement to COVID, the researchers found that people with age-related macular degeneration—a disorder caused by overactive complement—are at greater risk of […]