The virus is primarily transmitted to people from ticks and livestock animals with a case fatality rate of up to 40%. There are currently no approved vaccines against the virus. Historically GP38 has been considered an important target for vaccines or other treatments. However, the lack of knowledge regarding GP38s function during infection has hindered efforts to develop CCHFV-specific medical countermeasures. The new research sheds light on GP38's role in viral infections and pathogenesis, and how GP38-specific antibodies particularly mediate protection in vivo. This study is focused on demonstrating that GP38 alone can act as a 'viral toxin' and trigger vascular leakage to occur. It is also focused largely on understanding the mechanism of protective efficacy for antibodies targeting GP38." Andrew Herbert, senior author of the study and USAMRIID branch chief Evidence also shows that GP38 has a direct role in viral pathogenesis that is independent of its function in viral glycoprotein biogenesis. It emphasizes the importance of including GP38 in CCHFV vaccine design and provides a starting point for the rational design of GP38-targeting anti-CCHF therapeutics. Additional research backs this evidence by treating CCHFV-challenged mice with exogenous GP38, further enhancing vascular leak in the context of infection, suggesting that GP38 functions as a secreted viral toxin in the induction of vascular leak. "By determining a mechanism of action for protective GP38-specific monoclonal antibody therapies, we can better understand how to target this protein for the development of potent medical countermeasures." This recent publication showed that non-neutralizing GP38-specific mAbs targeting the N-terminal region of GP38 (region 2) were the most protective against lethal challenge, the most potent at reducing circulating GP38, diminishing vascular leak, and curtailing viral dissemination to distal tissues. The moderate effect of the virus-neutralizing anti-Gc mAb indicates that the observed reduction in vascular leak upon treatment with GP38-binding mAbs is not only a result of overall reduction in viral load but rather is specific to a reduction in circulating GP38 and direct blockade of the function of GP38 in inducing vascular leak. "Virus host interactions are very complex and teasing apart complex processes that occur during a viral infection can be tricky," says Herbert. "Viral proteins often perform more than one function during infection, and they can also 'collaborate' with other viral proteins, or even host proteins, to perform a specific function that is beneficial for the virus." This study is part of the Prepositioning Optimized Strategies for Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics Against Diverse Emerging Infectious Threats - PROVIDENT consortium. Antibodies targeting Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus GP38 limit vascular leak and viral spread. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Vaccination to prevent shingles also reduces the risk of developing dementia in later life, according to a research paper published recently in Nature. Economists with their special expertise in statistical analyses have made a significant contribution to the corresponding study. We were able to apply our capabilities in statistics to medical data, thus forging a bridge between these two fields." Together with co-lead author Dr. Min Xie, a postdoctoral researcher at the Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, he demonstrated that the shingles vaccination was associated with a 20 percent reduction in the probability of a new dementia diagnosis over a period of seven years. As noted in the article, "A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia," this could raise various new possibilities for dementia prevention. Dr. Min Xie identified the groundwork of what would represent a "natural experiment" created by the introduction of a herpes zoster vaccination program in Wales about two years ago. Those born before 2 September 1933 were automatically ineligible for life, while those born on or after 2 September 1933 were entitled to receive the vaccine. "We can speak of a natural experiment in this context because this setting gives us the opportunity to compare individuals who had just turned 80 with those who had not quite reached 80 years of age," Eyting explained. "We then looked at the risk of developing dementia over the next seven years," Eyting continued. One of the main goals of the analysis was to identify a potential causal effect rather than just a correlation. In economics, threshold values and target dates - in this case, the individuals' birthdays - are often employed to test for causal effects using regression discontinuity designs. "This method is widely used in economics but has not yet been adequately recognized as a tool for clinical research," Eyting added. In his view, regression discontinuity analyses offer many opportunities for evaluating the effectiveness of public health measures. Markus Eyting is a postdoctoral researcher at the Gutenberg School of Management and Economics (GSME) of Mainz University and at the Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE in Frankfurt. Also involved in the study were Dr. Simon Heß of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, who supported the data analysis with his expertise in econometric methodologies, as well as researchers from Stanford University. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please check the box above to proceed. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

He said the doctor never warned him they could be addictive. Julian didn't learn that fact until years later, when he was cut off and began suffering withdrawal symptoms. After his brother died of brain cancer in 2011, Julian used opioids to cope with more than physical pain. His mother once gave him CPR on their bathroom floor. Life was "hell on Earth," said Julian, now 43 and in long-term recovery. That's enough to fill his car with gas about eight times or pay about a tenth of the rent for an apartment he shares with his fiancee and two children. Meanwhile, Maine's Cumberland County, where Julian lives, has received more than $700,000 in opioid settlement money and expects nearly $1.6 million more in the coming years, according to a newly updated database from KFF Health News. That discrepancy between individuals' and governments' compensations highlights a sense of injustice felt by people directly affected by the crisis who say their suffering is the reason that governments secured these settlements. Only a handful of companies — those that filed for bankruptcy, including Purdue Pharma, Mallinckrodt, Endo, and Rite Aid — have set aside payouts for individuals. To qualify, people must have filed claims within a certain window and provided documents proving they were prescribed painkillers from that company. Even then, many victims will receive just a few thousand dollars, lawyers and advocates estimate. In contrast, state and local governments have already received settlement money. Governments are receiving that money because attorneys general argued that their states' public safety, health, and social service systems were harmed by the opioid crisis. Jurisdictions are supposed to spend settlement money on addiction treatment, recovery, and prevention programs. "At the very minimum, they could spend these dollars right to prevent the future loss of life," said Ryan Hampton, a national recovery advocate and previous co-chair of a committee in the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy case, where he represented victims. "That is the opposite of what we've seen to date." In Pennsylvania, a group of bereaved family members raised similar concerns to Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro, who finalized opioid settlements when he was attorney general. "Instead of directing funds toward evidence-based solutions, you and your administration have allowed counties to divert these resources into law enforcement, ineffective programs, and initiatives that already have other funding streams available — disrespecting both our families and the lives lost," they wrote in a letter dated Feb. 14. To be sure, many governments have spent millions of settlement dollars on treatment programs, recovery supports, distribution of overdose reversal medications, and other efforts. Some officials in charge of the money say those services, which reach many residents, can have a greater impact than individual payouts. Will Simons, a spokesperson for the Pennsylvania governor, said in a statement that the Shapiro administration has invested nearly $90 million of settlement funds into treatment, recovery, harm reduction, and prevention initiatives, including prevention programs for youths, a drug and alcohol call center, and loan repayment programs aimed at retaining workers in the addiction treatment and recovery field. Many of the awarded organizations "support families who have lost loved ones to this crisis, providing counseling and other family supports," Simons said. A few jurisdictions have created fairly modest funds directed at individuals, such as one in Boston to aid families who have lost loved ones to addiction, and a fund in Alabama for grandparents having to raise children because of parental substance use. In the mid-2010s, Hampton said, he and other advocates considered filing class action lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies but realized they didn't have the resources. A few years later, when state attorneys general began pursuing cases against those companies, victims were thrilled, thinking they would finally get compensation alongside their governments. In 2019, when Hampton became co-chair of the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors in Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy and arrived at the negotiating table with state attorneys general and other entities, he thought "everybody was there to take on the big bad pharmaceutical company and to put victims' interests first," he said. But as the negotiation proceeded among various creditors vying for the company's assets, he said, "governments were way more powerful than victims and believed that they were more harmed than victims in terms of cost." Details of the Purdue settlement are still being finalized, and payments are unlikely to start until next year, but estimates suggest state and local governments will receive the lion's share, while more than 100,000 victims will split a fraction of the bankruptcy payout. Mallinckrodt, a manufacturer of generic opioids, is the only company that had begun paying victims as of early 2025, said Frank Younes, a partner at the Nebraska-based law firm High & Younes, which is representing personal injury claimants in several opioid bankruptcies. After paying roughly 25% in administrative fees to the national trust overseeing the bankruptcy and an additional 40% in attorney fees, some of his clients have received between $400 and $700, Younes said. He expects payouts from two other companies — Endo and Rite Aid — "will be even lower." Some didn't know they could file claims until it was too late. Others struggled to obtain medical records from shuttered doctors' offices or pharmacies that didn't retain older documents. John McNerney was told his Purdue Pharma claim didn't qualify, because he hadn't been prescribed enough OxyContin to meet the threshold. McNerney spent about $30,000 on rehabs before he entered long-term recovery. In Ohio, a group of affected families were similarly frustrated that money wasn't reaching them or the places where they thought it was needed most. They asked for several million dollars to put toward family support groups, training for family members who take in children whose parents have substance use disorders, and emergency cash aid for families to buy cribs or school supplies and cover funeral costs. Jackie Lewis, a member of the group, said that when her 34-year-old son, Shaun, died of an overdose, she had to pay his funeral costs by credit card. "Too many families didn't have a credit card to do that with," Lewis said. "There are families I've talked to that couldn't do flowers. The foundation has awarded over $45 million to 245 projects throughout the state, including dozens that provide family support services like child care and rental assistance. "We deeply empathize with those who have lost loved ones to the opioid epidemic — their pain is real, and it fuels the Foundation's mission to end this crisis and prevent it from happening again," Luck said in a statement. In Maine, Julian has made peace with his $325 payout, deciding to consider it a surprise bonus rather than compensation for his years of suffering. But he hopes governments will use their more substantial sums to provide real help — food and rental assistance for people in recovery and more treatment beds so no one has to wait six months to enter rehab as he once did. "They're getting millions of dollars," said Julian, who has lost numerous close friends to overdose. "They could do something for these families that have suffered great losses." KFF Health News data editor Holly K. Hacker contributed to this article. For more than two years, KFF Health News has been tracking how state and local governments use — and misuse — billions of dollars in opioid settlement funds. This database marks our third update of data showing how much money state and local governments have received through national settlements with companies that made or distributed prescription painkillers. BrownGreer, the court-appointed firm administering many national opioid settlements, tracks how much money it has delivered to various state and local governments, as well as how much is allocated to those jurisdictions for future years. In 2023, KFF Health News negotiated to obtain that information and made it public for the first time. Five months later, BrownGreer began posting updated versions of the information on a public website. Last year, KFF Health News downloaded BrownGreer's data on payouts from pharmaceutical distributors AmerisourceBergen (now called Cencora), Cardinal Health, and McKesson, as well as opioid manufacturer Janssen (now known as Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine), and used the state-by-state spreadsheets with separate entries for each settling company to create a searchable database. This year, KFF Health News has updated that database with new data from BrownGreer, including payouts from opioid manufacturers Allergan and Teva, as well as CVS, Walgreens, and Walmart pharmacies. Users can use the database to determine the total dollar amount their city, county, or state has received or expects to receive each year. Other settlements, including with OxyContin manufacturer Purdue Pharma, are still pending. As such, this database undercounts the amount of opioid settlement money most places have received and will receive. • Texas and Nevada were paid in full by Janssen outside the national settlement, so their payout data reflects payments only from other companies with which they entered national settlements. BrownGreer shows that several states received some of their anticipated 2027 payment from the distributors (AmerisourceBergen — now called Cencora — Cardinal Health, and McKesson) early in 2024. However, for three states — Colorado, Michigan, and Washington — BrownGreer does not provide data on how much of this prepayment went to each locality. For Oregon, BrownGreer shows 2024 payments from Walmart as fully paid in its statewide data but lists some August 2024 payments for localities as "projected." This article was reprinted from khn.org, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF - the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

New research from the University of Sydney reveals that the number of Australians living with diabetes may be up to 35 percent higher than previously estimated. The study, published in Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice, applied a sophisticated algorithm to integrated health data from Medicare, hospital records, and pharmaceutical claims. The results suggest there could be more than two million Australians living with diabetes, many of whom are currently missing from the official diabetes register. “A significant number of Australians are missing from national statistics. That makes it harder to plan services, allocate funding, and deliver prevention strategies where they're most needed.” The research was partially funded in 2017 by a Diabetes Australia Research Trust grant and builds on longstanding calls for better integration of medical data to understand the true burden of chronic disease. Professor Grant Brinkworth, Director of Research at Diabetes Australia, said the findings offer a compelling call to action. This study tells us what many of us in the sector have said for years: we're not seeing the full picture of diabetes in Australia,” The study also found that many people who are living with diabetes are managing the condition through lifestyle changes or medications like metformin, groups who may be less likely to register with the National Diabetes Services Scheme (NDSS). “If people aren't visible in the data, they're also invisible to policy and funding decisions,” Professor Brinkworth added. The research reinforces the importance of improved screening, earlier diagnosis, and greater health system integration to ensure every person affected by diabetes is counted, supported, and resourced. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, a global leader in laboratory automation and innovation, introduces the Next-Generation Basophil Activation Test (BAT) for research use only to more effectively characterize food allergies without exposure to potentially harmful allergens. Approximately 220 million people globally suffer from at least one food allergy. Most food allergies and treatment efficacies are currently determined through a dated and rigorous Oral Food Challenge (OFC), exposing a patient to gradual amounts of foods to determine if they have a reaction, which could include anaphylaxis in some situations. The new BAT test eliminates that risk, testing for multiple allergens at once through a blood draw -- saving hours of food testing and exposure to potentially harmful reactions. This offers a groundbreaking alternative in allergy testing, removing patient obstacles and reducing ethical concerns associated with direct allergen exposure in vulnerable participants,” Jean-Marc Busnel, PhD, Principal Investigator and Senior Staff Research Scientist, Beckman Coulter Life Sciences “For too long these concerns have limited critical advancements, putting people at risk of not having access to life-saving treatment options should an allergic reaction occur. By removing these barriers, this test unlocks an opportunity to finally expand food allergy drug development and research. This reinforces our mission at Beckman Coulter Life Sciences to deliver tools that empower clinicians and improve patient outcomes.” The innovation follows the FARE (Food Allergy Research and Education) Innovation Award Diagnostic Challenge which Beckman Coulter Life Sciences received in 2022. “At FARE, we have prioritized supporting the development of safer alternatives to oral food challenges that can expose patients to risk and induce anxiety,” said Sung Poblete, PhD, RN, CEO of FARE. BAT are functional assays measuring basophil activation in response to specific allergens or other stimuli. By leveraging dry technology to overcome traditional BAT challenges, standardization is enabled with conjugated antibodies and allergens pre-mixed and dried down together in a single tube with only 4 pipetting steps. Negative and positive controls can also be included, all without the need for compensation or centrifugation, and is compatible with any flow cytometer. While BAT has been around for more than 30 years and provides valuable insights in the study of allergies, its adoption has been limited due to the perceived complexity and lack of reproducibility associated with the assay. The use of dry reagents can support overcoming those challenges. The test offers unmatched flexibility with customizable dried down allergens, antibodies, and concentrations available through Custom Design Service from Beckman Coulter Life Sciences. At Beckman Coulter Life Sciences, we are partners in time. We accelerate answers to critical questions through the power of efficiency, saving hours from some workflows and delivering reliable results in centrifugation, flow cytometry, genomic solutions, particle analysis/counters, and liquid handlers. We develop innovations for scientists by scientists, with many of our 3,300+ global colleagues coming from the laboratory with a deep understanding of today's challenges and complexities. We're passionate about translating science in partnership with our customers, and our customizable, accessible and sustainable solutions empower them with intuitive workflow efficiencies. Time and again customers put their trust in us, with 400,000+ of our built-to-last products currently delivering results in labs worldwide – all backed by our dependable service and application experts offering educational insights and tailored support. Working together, let's advance human health for a better tomorrow! Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: Beckman Coulter Life Sciences launches safer, Next-Generation Basophil Activation Test to improve, expedite allergy research. "Beckman Coulter Life Sciences launches safer, Next-Generation Basophil Activation Test to improve, expedite allergy research". "Beckman Coulter Life Sciences launches safer, Next-Generation Basophil Activation Test to improve, expedite allergy research". Beckman Coulter Life Sciences launches safer, Next-Generation Basophil Activation Test to improve, expedite allergy research. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Wiley, one of the world's largest publishers and a global leader in research and learning, today announced the much-anticipated release of the second edition of Maurer, Meyer, Helfer, Weber: LC-HR-MS/MS Library of Drugs, Poisons, and Their Metabolites. Developed by renowned toxicologist Hans H. Maurer and his team, this database is a vital resource for LC-MS identification in toxicology and related disciplines. “With the new edition of Maurer, Meyer, Helfer, Weber: LC-HR-MS/MS Library, toxicologists and forensics scientists can accelerate the LC-MS analysis of metabolite-based screening procedures in clinical as well as forensic situations,” said Graeme Whitley, director, data science solutions at Wiley. This comprehensive dataset, developed and curated by the world-renowned pharmacology and toxicology team at the University of Saarland's Center for Molecular Signaling, is trusted globally. With it, scientists can confidently identify and characterize unknown compounds and assess risks associated with toxic substances.” Graeme Whitley, director, data science solutions at Wiley The second edition data is currently available as a KnowItAll subscription for use with Wiley's KnowItAll software, which supports multiple instrument vendor formats. It will be available in common instrument vendor formats at a later date to be announced. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: John Wiley and Sons - Scientific Publishers. Wiley releases updated Maurer, Meyer, Helfer, Weber: LC-HR-MS/MS Library of Drugs, Poisons and Their Metabolites database. John Wiley and Sons - Scientific Publishers. "Wiley releases updated Maurer, Meyer, Helfer, Weber: LC-HR-MS/MS Library of Drugs, Poisons and Their Metabolites database". "Wiley releases updated Maurer, Meyer, Helfer, Weber: LC-HR-MS/MS Library of Drugs, Poisons and Their Metabolites database". Wiley releases updated Maurer, Meyer, Helfer, Weber: LC-HR-MS/MS Library of Drugs, Poisons and Their Metabolites database. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please check the box above to proceed. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

A new study by the University of Turku and Turku University Hospital, Finland, found that a significant proportion of Parkinson's disease diagnoses are later corrected. Up to one in six diagnoses changed after ten years of follow-up, and the majority of new diagnoses were made within two years of the original diagnosis. A recent study published in Neurology reveals significant diagnostic instability in Parkinson's disease, with 13.3% of diagnoses revised over a 10-year follow-up period. When dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is treated as a separate diagnostic category, the revision rate increases to 17.7%. The large-scale study followed over 1,600 patients initially diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. Notably, a majority of these diagnostic changes occur within the first two years of diagnosis, which emphasises the challenges and uncertainty clinicians face in diagnosing Parkinson's disease accurately." While dopamine transporter (DAT) imaging was frequently used to aid in diagnosis, the study found that postmortem neuropathological examinations were only conducted in 3% of deceased patients, with 64% of these confirming the initial Parkinson's disease diagnoses. "This rule, which considers the temporal sequence of motor and cognitive symptoms, resulted in more latter cases identified compared to the original clinical diagnoses. While the one-year rule is used in clinical practice, its relevance may be limited by the overlap between these disorders, with substantial group-level differences but minimal distinctions at the individual level," says Kaasinen. "The key conclusions of our study are the urgent need for ongoing refinement of diagnostic processes, enhanced clinical training for neurologists, more frequent use of postmortem diagnostic confirmation, and the development of widely accessible, cost-effective biomarkers," Kaasinen summarises. Increasing the rate of autopsies would enhance clinicians' understanding of diagnostic accuracy, particularly in cases where initial diagnoses are unclear or revised. The development of cost-effective and accessible biomarkers could improve diagnostic precision, particularly in non-specialised settings, ultimately leading to better patient care. This retrospective study was conducted at Turku University Hospital and three regional hospitals in Finland, analysing patient records from 2006 to 2020. The study aimed to evaluate the long-term diagnostic stability of Parkinson's disease and assess the accuracy of initial diagnoses over time in a large cohort of patients diagnosed by neurologists, with or without specialisation in movement disorders. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please check the box above to proceed. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Poor dietary habits in adolescence – lots of sweets, sugary drinks or skipping breakfast – is directly linked to overusing social media, University of Queensland research has found. Associate Professor Asaduzzaman Khan from UQ's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences led a team that analyzed data from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children survey involving 222,865 adolescents from 41 countries. This is the first multi-national study to offer insights into how social media behaviours are linked to adolescents' dietary choices. Dr. Asaduzzaman Khan, Associate Professor, UQ's School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences The study examined social media use that was defined as excessive (frequent or extended use), or problematic (mirroring addiction-like symptoms with compulsive and uncontrollable behaviour). Dr. Khan said the findings reinforced the importance of reducing problematic and excessive social media use to help stop poor dietary habits. "These poor dietary habits are potential risk factors for obesity, weakened immune system, mental well-being, and chronic conditions including diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular issues later in life," he said. "Issues like cyberbullying, body shaming and negative body image are beyond the scope of this particular work, but we know from other research that overuse of social media certainly affects psychosocial health, academic performance, interpersonal and family relationships. "The challenge is how, as a family, as a community, we are going to deal with it, so we are using the technology without letting our kids harm themselves. "We cannot simply live our life without social media or without screens but there is a need for education in the community.'' The research also analyzed fruit and vegetable consumption, finding problematic social media use was associated with a lower fruit and vegetable intake, with adolescents in this category possibly engaging in mindless eating of unhealthy snacks while scrolling, with limited time for meal preparation. Conversely, excessive use was linked to a higher intake of fruit and vegetables that may be due to the influence of health-conscious influencers, nutritionists, and fitness enthusiasts, the study reported. Dr Khan said adolescence offered a unique opportunity to develop and promote healthy dietary habits. "This is a period characterised by autonomy in eating behaviours and establishment of new personal habits,'' he said. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

New Australian technology is set to transform the way that gastrointestinal cancers are detected and treated with precise, minimally invasive surgery. Backed by the Federal Government's Economic Accelerator (AEA) Ignite Grant, researchers from the University of South Australia (UniSA) are using quantum technology to develop a first-of-its-kind laparoscopic probe that will allow surgeons to accurately map the spread of tumours. Led by Dr. Nicole Dmochowska from UniSA's Future Industries Institute, the $405,050 project is being undertaken in partnership with precision cancer surgery company Ferronova. The probe will work alongside Ferronova's iron-oxide nanoparticle formulation (FerroTrace) to improve the detection of cancerous lymph nodes during surgery, reducing the need for extensive procedures that often lead to life-threatening complications and life-long side-effects for survivors. By integrating state-of-the-art quantum sensors into a minimally invasive laparoscopic probe, we aim to give surgeons a powerful new tool to precisely locate affected lymph nodes. This will potentially enable more targeted surgery, reducing the need for extensive tissue removal and improving post-surgical recovery." This new project will take this technology further by miniaturising the probe for use in laparoscopic – or keyhole – surgery, allowing for more precise and less invasive cancer treatments. Researchers have spent more than eight years developing the magnetometer probes for cancer surgery. The AEA Ignite grant will fund the next crucial step: developing a fully functional, preclinically validated prototype that can be trialled in large animal models before progressing to human clinical trials. "This research aligns with Australia's national priority areas in both medical science and quantum technology," according to UniSA researcher Professor Benjamin Thierry. "The commercial potential is immense, with an anticipated global market exceeding $2 billion annually," Prof Thierry says. "This technology is particularly promising for patients undergoing chemotherapy and radiotherapy before surgery, where conventional lymphatic mapping methods have limited effectiveness," Dr Cousins says. Preclinical trials are expected to start within the next year. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Drug-resistant infections - especially from deadly bacteria like tuberculosis and staph - are a growing global health crisis. These infections are harder to treat, often require more expensive or toxic medications and are responsible for longer hospital stays and higher mortality rates. Now, Tulane University scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence-based method that more accurately detects genetic markers of antibiotic resistance in Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Staphylococcus aureus - potentially leading to faster and more effective treatments. A Tulane study, published in Nature Communications, introduces a new Group Association Model (GAM) that uses machine learning to identify genetic mutations tied to drug resistance. Unlike traditional tools, which can mistakenly link unrelated mutations to resistance, GAM doesn't rely on prior knowledge of resistance mechanisms, making it more flexible and able to find previously unknown genetic changes. Current methods of detecting resistance used by organizations such as the WHO either take too long - like culture-based testing - or miss rare mutations, as with some DNA-based tests. Tulane's model addresses both problems by analyzing whole genome sequences and comparing groups of bacterial strains with different resistance patterns to find genetic changes that reliably indicate resistance to specific drugs. Tony Hu, PhD, Senior Author, Weatherhead Presidential Chair in Biotechnology Innovation and director of the Tulane Center for Cellular & Molecular Diagnostics In the study, the researchers applied GAM to over 7,000 strains of Mtb and nearly 4,000 strains of S. aureus, identifying key mutations linked to resistance. They found that GAM not only matched or exceeded the accuracy of the WHO's resistance database but also drastically reduced false positives, wrongly identified markers of resistance which can lead to inappropriate treatment. "Current genetic tests might wrongly classify bacteria as resistant, affecting patient care," said lead author Julian Saliba, a graduate student in the Tulane University Center for Cellular and Molecular Diagnostics. "Our method provides a clearer picture of which mutations actually cause resistance, reducing misdiagnoses and unnecessary changes to treatment." In validation studies using clinical samples from China, the machine-learning enhanced model outperformed WHO-based methods in predicting resistance to key front-line antibiotics. This is significant because catching resistance early can help doctors tailor the right treatment regimen before the infection spreads or worsens. The model's ability to detect resistance without needing expert-defined rules also means it could potentially be applied to other bacteria or even in agriculture, where antibiotic resistance is also a concern in crops. "It's vital that we stay ahead of ever-evolving drug-resistant infections," Saliba said. Enhanced diagnosis of multi-drug-resistant microbes using group association modeling and machine learning. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

A UPV/EHU study published in the prestigious journal Stem Cell Research & Therapy has proven that stem cells extracted from human dental pulp can be transformed into excitable neuronal cells and has highlighted the potential of these easily accessible cells for nerve tissue engineering. This finding will enable the furthering of advances in cell therapy for treating various neurodegenerative diseases, such as Huntington's disease and epilepsy. "An adult neuron cannot be divided. And unlike other organs, the brain has a comparatively low capacity for natural regeneration due to its low presence of stem cells," said Gaskon Ibarretxe, a researcher in the UPV/EHU's Signaling Lab research group. The scientific community is looking for a way to obtain functional neurons that can be transplanted to restore impairments in neurodegenerative pathologies, brain lesions, strokes, etc. The UPV/EHU research group has obtained cells very similar to neurons; they "manage to produce electrical impulses like those of neurons by means of the differentiation of stem cells in human dental pulp, the soft tissue located inside the tooth," they said. The main milestone of this study was "the obtaining of cells that display functional excitability and which synthesise a type of neurotransmitter that regulates neuronal activity, without having been genetically modified; the primary dental cells were simply cultured with differentiation factors and were subjected to precise stimuli to generate cells with neuronal electrophysiological activity", said the researchers of the Signaling Lab at the UPV/EHU. Neurotransmitters are substances released by neurons that can send excitatory or inhibitory signals to make neurons generate an electrical impulse or not. "The cells that we managed to differentiate are capable of synthesising a neurotransmitter known as GABA," explained the researchers. And that is very important because there are neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease or conditions such as epilepsy in which there is a selective death of those types of cells in specific areas of the brain, and a resulting hyper-excitability of the brain circuitry". Ibarretxe and Pineda, lecturers in the UPV/EHU's Department of Cell Biology and Histology, expressed great optimism when referring to the new avenues that can be explored on the basis of this finding: "We believe that these cells could be integrated into a damaged brain circuit and replace lost neurons, and thus reconnect with existing neurons and eventually regenerate the entire lost area functionally. This finding suggests a different approach to traditional cell therapy applied to the nervous system, which until now has been based, above all, on reducing inflammation, on neuroprotecting what remained alive, but not on replacing what has been lost. This opens a new door to the future of personalised medicine." That is in fact the next step in this research: "to transplant these cells into living animals and see if they are integrated into the brain circuit and reconnect with the host's neurons. We obtained cells that generate electrical impulses characteristic of neurons that are not yet fully mature, but we are aware that they must generate trains of electrical impulses and be correctly integrated into a neuronal circuit. The UPV/EHU researchers admitted that "there is a long road ahead, but we know it's going to be very promising. We believe that these cells have a great chance of being implemented in the clinical setting. The fact that they are transplanted at a relatively immature stage could even encourage their plasticity and integration into already developed brain circuits". The researchers added that these cells in fact offer an inherent advantage: "They are cells that do not have a tendency to generate tumours; on the contrary, it has been proven that they are very stable cells and differentiate better than other types of human stem cells into neurons," they concluded. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please check the box above to proceed. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

About 65% of melanoma patients do not respond to immunotherapy. New work by the team of Prof. Max Mazzone (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology) discovered that an enzyme called HPGDS (expressed in a specific subset of macrophages), plays a key role in immunotherapy resistance. Blocking HPGDS may be a new way to overcome immunotherapy resistance in melanoma patients and potentially in other tumors facing similar challenges. However, approximately 65% of melanoma patients still do not respond to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapies. The immunosuppression induced by tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) may be pivotal in this process. TAMs have been shown to impede immune system function, thereby fostering tumor growth and metastasis dissemination. Thus, reprogramming TAM phenotype away from their immunosuppressive state might boost cancer treatments. New work by the team of Prof. Max Mazzone (VIB-KU Leuven) and colleagues zooms in on a specific enzyme known as hematopoietic prostaglandin D2 synthase (HPGDS), which is produced by TAMs. HPGDS promotes the formation of a metabolite called prostaglandin D2 (PGD2), which, in turn, helps cancer cells to resist treatment by blocking the activity of T-cells, which are vital for attacking tumors. By analyzing the expression of genes related to the immune response in patients who responded to immune checkpoint blockade therapies compared to those who did not, we found that HPGDS levels were high in non-responding patients during treatment, whereas were downregulated if the treatment was working and T-cells were then activated against the tumor." By employing genetic deletion of HPGDS in macrophages and using pharmacological inhibitors in mouse and humanized models, the researchers proved a remarkable shift in the macrophages' behavior from promoting tumor growth to supporting a more robust and anti-tumoral immune response. "Targeting HPGDS not only enhanced the recruitment and activation of T-cells per se," says Prof. Max Mazzone, "but also showed promise in overcoming resistance to existing therapies. Our findings suggest that blocking HPGDS or the two downstream receptors may be a new potential strategy for improving treatment options for melanoma patients and perhaps others facing similar challenges." This study suggests that HPGDS inhibitors or PGD2 receptor blockers could serve as new therapeutic agents, either alone or in combination with existing treatments for melanoma and other cancers (i.e., pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma) that show similar resistance mechanisms. Activated T cells break tumor immunosuppression by macrophage re-education. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Researchers at Mayo Clinic have developed an innovative deep brain stimulation (DBS) platform that was used to not only reduce seizures, but also improve memory and sleep - two common challenges for patients with epilepsy. Epilepsy, a seizure disorder that affects about 50 million people worldwide, often disrupts memory, emotions and sleep. Many cases are drug-resistant, leaving people with limited treatment options. Researchers at Mayo Clinic found that low-frequency DBS not only reduced seizures, but it also improved memory and sleep. "Using an implanted investigational device, the team continuously monitored brain activity with AI-driven seizure and sleep tracking," says Gregory Worrell, M.D., Ph.D., Mayo Clinic neurologist and co-lead author of the study. "A cloud-based platform simultaneously assessed participants' behavior, memory and mood at home. This real-time data enables precise tuning of stimulation settings, maximizing benefits while minimizing side effects." By using an implanted device that continuously monitors brain activity, we can detect seizures more accurately than patient-reported diaries in order to optimize deep brain stimulation in real-time and improve treatment." Vaclav Kremen, Ph.D., Mayo Clinic researcher and co-lead author of the study The researchers monitored five patients with temporal lobe epilepsy throughout their DBS treatment. The system allowed patients to track their brain activity and symptoms remotely, providing doctors with detailed, real-world data to fine-tune treatments. This technology could lead to more effective treatments for drug-resistant epilepsy and could be expanded to treat other neurological and psychiatric disorders. "Our study demonstrates the potential of emerging neurotechnology to treat human disease," says Jamie Van Gompel, M.D., Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon and co-author of the study. Modulating limbic circuits in temporal lobe epilepsy: impacts on seizures, memory, mood and sleep. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

When are you most forthcoming with life updates? For most folks - show of hands, please - it's when things are going well. Yet, it turns out, broad government transparency not only breeds goodwill, begetting still more transparency - it can change lives for the better. Researchers Sarah Anderson and Mark Buntaine, of UC Santa Barbara's Bren School of Environmental Science & Management, and colleagues conducted a field experiment with cities in China to demonstrate that an increase in transparency causes decreases in pollution, with meaningful effects on health. This has major policy implications because we now know that policies to induce transparency can be effective at improving governance of outcomes like pollution." More broadly, the results suggest that transparency can significantly improve how environmental policies are enforced, added Buntaine, professor of environmental institutions and government, and a lead author of the paper. "If governments provide clear and accessible information about their activities, firms respond by reducing pollution, leading to better environmental outcomes, he said. "This has implications for many countries facing similar issues, such as India, Indonesia, and the U.S., where transparency could help bridge gaps between environmental laws and actual practices, improving health and environmental quality broadly." The researchers sought to understand whether transparency itself causes better enforcement of pollution laws and cleaner air. But governments being governments, studying transparency therein can be challenging: "Those that are more transparent usually have characteristics that help them perform better overall," Buntaine said. "They might be under pressure to be both transparent and effective at the same time, making it difficult to separate the effects of transparency alone from these other pressures. Our goal was to overcome this challenge and see if an increase in transparency, independent of these other factors, directly improves environmental outcomes." To get at their answer, the team conducted a randomized experiment involving 50 Chinese cities. Half of them were publicly rated on how transparently they shared environmental information, like air quality data and pollution inspections; the other half were not rated. Then, by tracking pollution violations by firms, government inspection activities and air quality in both groups over several years, they were able to isolate the direct effects of transparency on pollution outcomes without other influencing factors - because transparency was randomly boosted. All that, and no evidence of direct public pressure, like increased citizen complaints or media coverage, was found. What they did find - and were surprised by - was just how strongly firms responded to increased transparency, suggesting that the implied threat of scrutiny is a major motivator. "This provides strong evidence that transparency is a powerful tool for better governance and can lead to meaningful improvements in public health and environmental protection globally," Buntaine said. "Transparency isn't just beneficial in theory - it has real-world impacts that save lives. This study highlights the importance of holding governments accountable through transparency, suggesting that more policymakers should embrace openness as a practical step toward achieving meaningful environmental improvements." Liu, M., et al. (2025) Transparency by Chinese cities reduces pollution violations and improves air quality. Dr. Pascale Allotey advocates for comprehensive maternal health policies, stressing the importance of women's voices in shaping effective healthcare solutions. Dr. Yifan Jian explores the evolution of OCT, challenges in retinal imaging, and AI's potential in biophotonics, shaping the future of ophthalmic diagnostics. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.