What a doctor has behind them during a telehealth video visit can make a difference in how a patient feels about them and their care, a new study finds. Even if the doctor is miles away from their usual in-person clinic or exam room, they should make it look like they’re there, the study suggests. Even better: sitting in an office with their diplomas hanging behind them—or perhaps having a virtual background that’s a photo of such an office. This is especially true if they haven’t seen the patient before, the study shows. A home office with a bookshelf or a plain solid-color background are both acceptable to patients, too. But providers should use blurred or virtual backgrounds if they carry out the visit in a home environment with a kitchen or a bed in the background, the study shows. The findings come from a survey that asked patients to react to seven different backgrounds behind a model physician, and to rate how knowledgeable, trustworthy, caring, approachable, and professional the physician appeared in each, and how comfortable the patient would feel with that provider. It also asked them to consider each background for a first or returning appointment with a primary care or specialty provider. For the study, published in JAMA Network Open, more than 1,200 patients who had seen providers at one of the two health systems completed the study surveys, and the researchers compiled their responses. Lead researcher Nathan Houchens is an associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan and associate chief of medicine at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System (VAAAHS). His past work on how interpersonal communications affects the patient-provider relationship—including non-verbal factors like attire and posture—led to the new telehealth study. “The transition to virtual care was rapid and came without specific guidance during the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but telehealth appears to be here to stay so it’s important to understand what patients prefer when it comes to the setting their provider is in,” says Houchens, a hospitalist who worked with Jennifer Meddings, a general internist, and others for the study. He notes that during the first year of the pandemic, providers were urged to conduct telehealth visits outside of clinics if they didn’t need to go in, to reduce the chance of COVID-19 transmission. But now, some clinics have created dedicated spaces for providers to sit in if they have telehealth appointments on days when they’re also seeing patients in person. Some of those might be spaces shared with other clinicians, so a virtual background would also serve to reduce visual distractions. Houchens notes that as telehealth increased in use and became a standard way to receive care, some guidance on “webside manner” has been suggested to guide providers in the ways in which they interact verbally over a virtual connection. But very little guidance is available about the background for their video visits. Houchens and his colleagues were surprised at the level of dislike that patients had for kitchen and bedroom settings, with only 2% and 3.5% saying they preferred these backgrounds respectively, compared with 35% for an office with displayed diplomas, 18% for a physician office, 14% for a plain color background, and around the same for a home office with bookshelf or an exam room. There were also significant differences in the composite scores for how patients rated the way each background would make them feel about receiving care from the provider. The bedroom and kitchen backgrounds received far lower composite scores than any of the other five backgrounds. Houchens and colleagues including coauthor Sanjay Saint, have previously published work on patients’ preferences for what physicians wear during clinical encounters. Just like with video visit background, these seemingly superficial factors can actually make a difference in the patient experience, he says. “Patients have expectations of what physicians’ attire and workspaces should look like. This study showed that patients prefer what have been previously termed traditional or professional attire and settings,” he says. “Diplomas and credentials remind patients of the expertise they expect a physician to have, and conversely, something is lost when the background conveys a relaxed, informal home environment.” The team is currently analyzing more data from the same study, to assess other factors that affect patients’ telehealth experiences—including their access to high-speed internet and their ability to use necessary technologies. But for now, they suggest that providers can take immediate steps to conduct virtual visits from an office or exam room. Clinics may want to make unused clinical rooms available for use by providers conducting virtual visits during in-person clinic days. Another option is to create virtual backgrounds that will evoke these types of professional settings. Houchens also notes that while they haven’t yet studied what physicians think of the backgrounds behind patients during video visits, these may provide helpful information. The rise of “Hospital at Home” and home-based primary care means that patients with more acute conditions may be able to see their providers virtually, and that their setting can give clues to the way physical and social factors play a role in their health. Discussing visible elements from both a provider’s and a patient’s virtual background—art and other hobby-related items, for example—can also help build rapport, Houchens notes. “This is a reminder that patients often do care about some of the details that providers and health systems may not have emphasized,” he says. “It’s important to remember that our words and our nonverbal behaviors are taken to heart by those we care for, and it behooves us to care about them as well.” Source: University of Michigan The post Why docs shouldn’t do telehealth visits in the kitchen appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/E8FCt1X
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A recent study reveals that the risk of developing type 2 diabetes is increased in women who first get gestational diabetes during a second pregnancy. The risk increases even more for those who get it during two consecutive pregnancies. Women with gestational diabetes—temporary diabetes during pregnancy—are at higher risk for future type 2 diabetes later in life. But from one pregnancy to the next, how does this risk evolve? The new study shows that women who have gestational diabetes for the first time in a second pregnancy have a 76% higher risk of future type 2 diabetes than women with gestational diabetes in the first pregnancy but not in the second, according to a new study published in JAMA Network Open. Women with gestational diabetes in both pregnancies are at the highest risk, more than 3.5 times higher than those with it only in their first pregnancy. The researchers hope that the findings will enable women to benefit from personalized advice to reduce their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. “Around 10% of pregnancies are affected by gestational diabetes overall. Our study shows that future diabetes risk differs in relationship to which pregnancy is affected by gestational diabetes and how many gestational diabetes pregnancies there are,” says senior author Kaberi Dasgupta, a senior scientist in the metabolic disorders and complications program at the Research Institute of McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC). “We can help mothers personalize risk estimates with this and other information, so that they can make informed choices about when and how to take action on prevention.” Using data from Quebec health administrative and birth and death registries, the researchers built a study group of 431,980 women with two deliveries between 1990 and 2012. They did not have diabetes before or between their pregnancies. The researchers looked at whether they had developed diabetes by 2019. More than 10,000 women had gestational diabetes only in their first pregnancy, more than 16,000 had it only in their second, and more than 8,000 had it in both pregnancies (respectively, 10,920 women (2.5%), 16,145 women (3.7%), and 8,255 women (1.9%)). Overall, more than 12,000 developed type 2 diabetes. Compared with women who had never had gestational diabetes, those who had it during their first pregnancy had over four times the risk of future type 2 diabetes (4.35), those with gestational diabetes in the second pregnancy only had more than 7.5 times the risk (7.68), and those with gestational diabetes in both pregnancies had a nearly 16 times higher risk (15.8). “Our results suggest that women who had gestational diabetes in their first pregnancy, but not in their second, were probably able to change their eating habits and increase their physical activity between the two pregnancies. We can now tell them that they have also lowered their risk of future diabetes, which could encourage them to maintain their healthy life habits,” says first author Joseph Mussa, a PhD candidate in the epidemiology and biostatistics department. “On the other hand, women diagnosed with gestational diabetes in a second pregnancy have moved to an increased level of risk. We need to help them manage this risk. We also need to provide women who have had two occurrences of gestational diabetes with urgent support to improve their health and reduce their risk,” says Dasgupta, who is also a professor at McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and an internist at the MUHC. For the study, the researchers performed several analyses, taking into account various known risk factors for type 2 diabetes. As expected, having gestational hypertension, giving birth to a baby with a high weight for gestational age, or having a partner with diabetes, were associated with an increased risk of the mother developing type 2 diabetes. The risk was also increased for women with mood disorders, drug or alcohol addiction, thyroid problems, arthritis, or respiratory problems. Source: Fabienne Landry for McGill University The post Diabetes in 2 pregnancies seriously ups later diabetes risk appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/p5XSwuR Scientists have discovered that colonies of gelatinous sea animals swim through the ocean in giant corkscrew shapes using coordinated jet propulsion. It’s an unusual kind of locomotion that could inspire new designs for efficient underwater vehicles. Salps are small creatures that look similar to jellyfish that take a nightly journey from the depths of the ocean to the surface. Observing that migration with special cameras helped researchers capture the macroplankton’s graceful, coordinated swimming behavior.
“The largest migration on the planet happens every single night: the vertical migration of planktonic organisms from the deep sea to the surface,” says Kelly Sutherland, an associate professor in biology at the University of Oregon’s Oregon Institute of Marine Biology, who led the research. “They’re running a marathon every day using novel fluid mechanics. These organisms can be platforms for inspiration on how to build robots that efficiently traverse the deep sea.” Despite looking similar to jellyfish, salps are barrel-shaped, watery macroplankton that are more closely related to vertebrates like fish and humans, says Alejandro Damian-Serrano, an adjunct professor in biology. They live far from shore and can live either as solitary individuals or operate in colonies, he says. Colonies consist of hundreds of individuals linked in chains that can be up to several meters long. “Salps are really weird animals,” Damian-Serrano says. “While their common ancestor with us probably looked like a little boneless fish, their lineage lost a lot of those features and magnified others. The solitary individuals behave like this mothership that asexually breeds a chain of individual clones, cojoined together to produce a colony.” But the most unique thing about these ocean creatures was found during the researchers’ ocean expeditions: their swimming techniques. Exploring off the coast of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, Sutherland and her team developed specialized 3D camera systems to bring their lab underwater. They conducted daytime scuba dives, “immersed in infinite blue,” as Damian-Serrano described, for high visibility investigations. They also performed nighttime dives, when the black backdrop allowed for high-contrast imaging of the transparent critters. They encountered an immense flurry of different salps that were doing their nightly migration to the surface—and many photobombing sharks, squids, and crustaceans, Sutherland says. Through imaging and recordings, the researchers noticed two modes of swimming. Where shorter colonies spun around an axis, like a spiraling football, longer chains would buckle and coil like a corkscrew. That’s called helical swimming. Helical swimming is nothing new in biology, Sutherland says. Many microorganisms also spin and corkscrew through water, but the mechanisms behind the salps’ motion are different. Microbes beat water with hair-like projections or tail whips, but salps swim via jet propulsion, Sutherland says. They have contracting muscle bands, like those in the human throat, that pump water sucked from one side of the body and squirted out the other end to create thrust, Damian-Serrano says. The researchers also noticed that individual jets contracted at different times, causing the whole colony to steadily travel without pause. The jets were also angled, contributing to the spinning and coil swimming, Sutherland says. “My initial reaction was really one of wonder and awe,” she says. “I would describe their motion as snake-like and graceful. They have multiple units pulsing at different times, creating a whole chain that moves very smoothly. It’s a really beautiful way of moving.” Microrobots inspired by microbial swimmers already exist, Sutherland says, but this discovery paves the way for engineers to construct larger underwater vehicles. It may be possible to create robots that are silent and less turbulent when modeled after these efficient swimmers, Damian-Serrano says. A multijet design also may be energetically advantageous for saving fuel, he says. Beyond microbes, larger organisms like plankton have yet to be described in this way, Sutherland says. With Sutherland’s new and innovative methods of studying sea creatures, scientists might come to realize that helical swimming is more pervasive than previously thought. “It’s a study that opens up more questions than provides answers,” Sutherland says. “There’s this new way of swimming that hadn’t been described before, and when we started the study we sought to explain how it works. “But we found that there are a lot more open questions, like what are the advantages of swimming this way? How many different organisms spin or corkscrew?” The study is published in Science Advances. Additional coauthors are from Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium, University of South Florida, Roger Williams University, Marine Biological Laboratory, and Providence College. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the Office of Naval Research supported the work. Source: Leila Okahata for University of Oregon The post Jelly sea creature ‘jet propulsion’ could give robots a boost appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/UZqu8km Firefighters may have an increased risk of prostate cancer due to on-the-job chemical exposures, according to new research. Prostate cancer is the leading incident cancer among US males. Firefighters are diagnosed with prostate cancer at a rate 1.21 times higher than the general population, possibly because of chemical exposures including smoke and firefighting foam during firefighting. Some of those chemicals can affect how genes are expressed through a process called epigenetic modification, and certain epigenetic modifications, including DNA methylation, contribute to cancer development. Researchers found evidence that experienced firefighters have different epigenetic modifications than new firefighters in regions linked to prostate cancer. “With these published findings, we have clear evidence of the health risks that firefighters face due to cumulative exposure on the job,” says Jeff Burgess, director of the Center for Firefighter Health Collaborative Research and professor at the University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health. The study appears in the journal Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis. Burgess, also a member of the BIO5 Institute, has investigated firefighter health for decades. He collaborated with lead author Margaret Quaid and researcher Jackie Goodrich, from the University of Michigan, who led the analysis on the methylation of genes. The team also collaborated with fire service partners and researchers around the country through the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study. The researchers found that experienced firefighters had different epigenetic modifications at chromosome 8q24—a particular area of the genome where epigenetic modifications have been linked to prostate cancer risk—compared with new firefighters. One class of chemicals that is linked with epigenetic modifications is per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are used in firefighting foam as well as in many household items, including nonstick pans and water-resistant clothing. The researchers also investigated whether there was a link between exposure to PFAS and epigenetic modification. The results showed that, in many fire departments, new and experienced firefighters had similar exposure to PFAS. However, exposure to a specific PFAS chemical—branched perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA—was linked to epigenetic modifications. “This study demonstrates the power of the Fire Fighter Cancer Cohort Study to combine data across grants—in this case awards from the Federal Emergency Management Agency in 2014, 2015, and 2018—to more powerfully evaluate questions from the fire service, this time around exposures and increased prostate cancer risk,” Burgess says. Additional coauthors are from the University of Arizona, the University of Miami, Rutgers University, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Tucson Fire Department, the Los Angeles County Fire Department, the Orange County Fire Authority, and the Fire Protection Research Foundation. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a division of the National Institutes of Health; the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funded the work. Source: University of Arizona The post Firefighters may have higher prostate cancer risk appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/3UIZfJP A parasitic worm that can infest the brains of moose appears to be playing a role in the decline of the iconic animal in some regions of North America, researchers report. Moose populations have been dwindling for years across the country due to many contributing factors, but new research shows the impact of Eleaophora schneideri, also known as the arterial worm, has likely been underestimated. The researchers examined recently deceased Shiras moose in Idaho between March 2020 and July 2022. While the parasitic roundworm E. schneideri was not detected in any of the animals found in north Idaho, it was present in 10 of the 20 adult moose studied in the southeastern portion of the state. Nine of the infected not only had adult worms in their major arteries but their brains were littered with microfilariae, the microscopic early life stage of the worm. “The microfilaria are just scattered throughout their brains, and even though the damage from each is minuscule, they’re basically shot-gunning the whole brain,” says Kyle Taylor, a pathologist at Washington State University’s Washington Animal Disease Diagnostics Laboratory. “We hypothesize the cumulative effects of large numbers of microfilariae in the brain may be associated with increased morbidity or chance of mortality, with mortality more likely in cases with larger numbers of worms.” The research, published in the Journal of Wildlife Diseases, is part of a three-year collaborative project on moose mortality with the Idaho Fish and Game and Janet Rachlow of the University of Idaho, College of Natural Resources. E. schneideri is primarily transmitted by tabanid flies like horse and deer flies. Mature worms can measure as long as 4.5 inches and are most commonly found in the carotid arteries in the area of the head and neck, where they will mate and release microfilariae into the bloodstream. Infection can lead to a condition known as elaeophorosis in which the host’s circulation system is disrupted. It can advance to blindness, abnormal behavior, damage to the ears and muzzle, and death. Infections have been reported in a variety of species, including deer, domestic and wild sheep, and elk. Unlike moose, mule deer and black-tail deer are considered to be natural hosts and typically show minimal to no signs of infection. There are currently no tests available to determine whether a live moose is infected with the parasite. Taylor’s team examined 61 recently deceased moose in Idaho. No evidence of infection was found in northern Idaho moose or juveniles, but 10, or half, of the adult moose studied in southeastern Idaho were infected. Of those 10, three had damage to the tips of their ears, a condition attributed to E. schneideri infection. Four exhibited abnormal behavior prior to their deaths, possibly due to neuropathology associated with the parasite. Based on their findings and that of other research, Taylor suspects the subtle but widespread damage to the brain caused by the worms may be leading to reduced fitness of the moose, which could increase risk of predation, and, sometimes, cause death. “We really need to have an understanding of all the issues related to moose population decline, and this parasite appears to be a factor,” Taylor says. The study also explored the geographic spread of E. schneideri in Idaho. The parasite was found to be widespread in southeastern Idaho, aligning with its prevalence in neighboring regions of Montana and Wyoming. The distribution coincides with populations of mule deer. Christine Haake, a pathology resident at WADDL and graduate student in the department of veterinary microbiology and pathology, helped to lead the study. Logan Weyand, a graduate student at the University of Idaho during the project, performed and directed field sampling. WADDL pathologist Chrissy Eckstrand and parasitologist Laura Williams assisted with the research. Source: Washington State University The post Parasitic worm in moose brains adds to species decline appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/B5k3IaT Leptospirosis is a dangerous infection that can lead to kidney failure and even death in dogs. An expert has tips for keeping your four-legged friends safe and healthy. “It’s heartbreaking when we see these cases,” says Emmanuelle Butty, assistant clinical professor at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University, because an efficient vaccine for leptospirosis has been available for the past 20 years. Leptospirosis is an illness caused by a bacteria called leptospira that can be present in soil and stagnant water. Rodents and other wildlife carry the bacteria and spread it through their urine. Both humans and dogs can become sick with leptospirosis, while cats are considered disease-resistant. For both people and dogs, the result of infection can range from mild to deadly serious. How is leptospirosis transmitted?Most dogs become infected by drinking water from puddles or lakes, or by entering stagnant water when they have an open wound. People, on the other hand, are more likely to become infected after a natural disaster such as a hurricane or flooding that disperses contaminated soil and water far and wide. Dogs with an active infection can also transmit the disease to other dogs in the household, so Butty recommends that pet owners ask their vet about treating other pets with preventative antibiotics if their pet is diagnosed with leptospirosis. Owners of infected pets should also reach out to their primary care physicians. “It’s a zoonotic disease,” Butty says. “It can be transmitted from animals to humans.” Is your dog at risk?“Every dog that has access to the outdoors is at risk of getting leptospirosis,” Butty says. Leptospirosis is prevalent in New England, with the infection being most common in spring and fall. A dog with leptospirosis will seem unwell and lethargic. They may vomit, have a decreased appetite, or refuse to eat. They may seem very thirsty, or their eyes and skin may appear yellow (a sign of jaundice). But because the symptoms are nonspecific, Butty says a trip to the vet is in order to get an official diagnosis. What if your dog gets leptospirosis?Many dogs recover with antibiotics, but a subset will develop serious complications. Many organs can be affected, with the kidneys and liver topping the list. Dogs that experience complete kidney failure can sometimes be saved by undergoing several sessions of dialysis. Taking over the function of the kidneys can keep the dog alive until they are able to recover from the infection. “If we buy time,” Butty says, “we have a chance that the body will recover.” The strategy works for some dogs, but not all. Butty recently published a study in the Journal of Veterinary Internal Medicine that she and her colleagues conducted to gain a deeper understanding of how often dialysis saves these dogs, with the goal of helping owners and vets make informed decisions about treatment The researchers found that among 22 dogs with leptospirosis who experienced kidney failure and underwent dialysis, 16 survived. “All of them would have died without dialysis because their kidneys were completely shut down,” she says, “but almost 75% of them were able to get out of the hospital. Even if things look really bad, there is a decent chance we will be able to save this animal.” The study shows that survival was less likely if multiple organ systems were affected by the infection. Dialysis for dogs is not cheap, though, so Butty recommends that dog owners consider pet insurance. “It can definitely save a life,” she says. Even dogs that don’t require dialysis can have chronic health problems after a leptospirosis infection. “It’s sad when dogs have chronic kidney disease at one or two years old,” Butty says. “Their lifespan is going to be reduced significantly.” How can you protect your dog?The leptospirosis vaccine is the easiest way to protect dogs from infection, but many dogs don’t receive it. Butty would like to change that. “We have a good way to prevent the disease and to prevent the most severe cases of the disease, and that is the vaccine,” Butty says. The leptospirosis vaccine consists of an initial two-shot series spaced four weeks apart, which can be started in puppies at 12 weeks of age, followed by yearly booster shots. The timing of the yearly boosters is important. “If the booster is not on time, they are not considered vaccinated anymore and have to be restarted with the first two doses,” Butty says. “Owners absolutely have to be on top of this and get an appointment with the vet before the due date.” These guidelines are part of the updated consensus statement on leptospirosis in dogs published in 2023. Dogs may feel a little under the weather for a day or two after the vaccine, but serious reactions are extremely rare. “I’ll take the vaccine reaction any day over ending up on dialysis because of complete kidney failure,” Butty says. “Dogs need to be vaccinated.” Source: Mary-Russell Roberson for Tufts University The post How to protect your dog from dangerous bacterial infection appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/zraBjk6 Artificial intelligence computer programs that process MRI results show differences in how the brains of men and women are organized at a cellular level, a new study shows. The variations were spotted in white matter, tissue primarily located in the human brain’s innermost layer, which fosters communication between regions. Men and women are known to experience multiple sclerosis, autism spectrum disorder, migraines, and other brain issues at different rates and with varying symptoms. A detailed understanding of how biological sex impacts the brain is therefore viewed as a way to improve diagnostic tools and treatments. However, while brain size, shape, and weight have been explored, researchers have only a partial picture of the brain’s layout at the cellular level. Led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, the new study used an artificial intelligence (AI) technique called machine learning to analyze thousands of MRI brain scans from 471 men and 560 women. Results revealed that the computer programs could accurately distinguish between biological male and female brains by spotting patterns in structure and complexity that were invisible to the human eye. The findings were validated by three different AI models designed to identify biological sex using their relative strengths in either zeroing in on small portions of white matter or analyzing relationships across larger regions of the brain. “Our findings provide a clearer picture of how a living, human brain is structured, which may in turn offer new insight into how many psychiatric and neurological disorders develop and why they can present differently in men and women,” says neuroradiologist Yvonne W. Lui, a professor and vice chair for research in the radiology department at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and senior author of the study in Scientific Reports. Lui notes that previous studies of brain microstructure have largely relied on animal models and human tissue samples. In addition, the validity of some of these past findings has been called into question for relying on statistical analyses of “hand-drawn” regions of interest, meaning researchers needed to make many subjective decisions about the shape, size, and location of the regions they choose. Such choices can potentially skew the results, Liu says. The new study results avoided that problem by using machine learning to analyze entire groups of images without asking the computer to inspect any specific spot, which helped to remove human biases, the authors say. For the research, the team started by feeding AI programs existing data examples of brain scans from healthy men and women and also telling the machine programs the biological sex of each brain scan. Since these models were designed to use complex statistical and mathematical methods to get “smarter” over time as they accumulated more data, they eventually “learned” to distinguish biological sex on their own. Importantly, the programs were restricted from using overall brain size and shape to make their determinations, says Lui. According to the results, all of the models correctly identified the sex of subject scans between 92% and 98% of the time. Several features in particular helped the machines make their determinations, including how easily and in what direction water could move through brain tissue. “These results highlight the importance of diversity when studying diseases that arise in the human brain,” says co-lead author Junbo Chen, a doctoral candidate at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. “If, as has been historically the case, men are used as a standard model for various disorders, researchers may miss out on critical insight,” adds co-lead author Vara Lakshmi Bayanagari, a graduate research assistant at NYU Tandon School of Engineering. Bayanagari cautions that while the AI tools could report differences in brain-cell organization, they could not reveal which sex was more likely to have which features. She adds that the study classified sex based on genetic information and only included MRIs from cisgendered men and women. According to the authors, the team next plans to explore the development of sex-related brain structure differences over time to better understand environmental, hormonal, and social factors that could play a role in these changes. The National Institutes of Health and the United States Department of Defense supported the work. Source: NYU The post AI detects sex-related differences in brain structure appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/pAwJaTd A new vaccine approach works like a GPS, guiding the immune system through specific steps to make broadly neutralizing antibodies against HIV. As reported in the journal Cell Host & Microbe, the approach provides step-by-step directions for the immune system to generate the elusive, yet necessary antibodies for a successful HIV vaccine. “HIV is the fastest-evolving virus known. So it’s been a long-standing goal in HIV research to create a vaccine that can generate broadly neutralizing antibodies that can recognize diverse HIV strains,” says lead author Kevin Wiehe, associate professor in the department of medicine at Duke University School of Medicine and director of research at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute (DHVI). Wiehe and colleagues started with an engineered version of a broadly neutralizing antibody in its original state, before any mutations occurred. Knowing that the antibody will need to mutate to keep up with the ever-changing HIV virus, the researchers then added sequential mutations one-by-one to determine which mutations were essential for the antibody to broadly neutralize HIV. Doing this allowed them to figure out what the exact points were along the route to arrive at broadly neutralizing antibodies. They then developed a vaccine which gave the immune system the turn-by-turn directions to follow that mutational route. Using mice specially bred to encode for the original version of the antibody, the researchers demonstrated that the guidance system approach triggered the immune system to start churning out the sought-after antibodies. “This paper shows that our mutation-guided vaccine strategy can work,” says Wiehe, adding that the technique could also be used in vaccines for other diseases. “This strategy potentially gives us a way to design vaccines to direct the immune system to make any antibody we want, which could be a broadly neutralizing antibody for all coronavirus variants, or an anti-cancer antibody.” Wiehe says the next challenge will be to reproduce the study in primates and then humans. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a part of the National Institutes of Health, funded the work. Source: Duke University The post HIV vaccine approach works like GPS appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/OiacPkj New research reveals a link between the frequency of sleep apnea events during the rapid-eye-movement stage and the severity of verbal memory impairment in older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Verbal memory refers to the cognitive ability to retain and recall information presented through spoken words or written text and is particularly vulnerable to Alzheimer’s. As reported in the journal Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy, researchers discovered a specific correlation between the severity of sleep apnea—when breathing pauses while an individual is sleeping—and diminished cognition. Higher ratios during REM compared to non-REM stages were associated with worse memory performance. “Our findings identified the specific features of sleep apnea that are associated with memory, which is important because clinically, events occurring during REM sleep are often overlooked or minimized,” says co-corresponding author Bryce Mander, associate professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California, Irvine. “Most hours of sleep are non-REM, so the overall averages of apnea severity can look much lower than what is typically observed during REM sleep. This means that someone at risk can be misdiagnosed and undertreated because current evaluation standards are not focused on sleep-stage-specific apnea severity.” “Furthermore, we found that women are more likely to have a greater proportion of their apneic events in REM sleep in comparison to men, which could potentially be contributing to their greater risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” says co-corresponding author Ruth Benca, professor and chair of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. The study involved 81 middle-aged and older adults from the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center with heightened risk factors, of whom 62% were female. Participants underwent polysomnography—a comprehensive test that records brain waves, eye movements, muscle activity, blood oxygen levels, heart rate, and breathing during sleep—and verbal memory assessments. Results showed apnea events during REM to be a critical factor contributing to verbal memory decline, especially among individuals with a genetic predisposition to Alzheimer’s and those with a parental history of the disease. “Our findings highlight the intricate relationship among sleep apnea, memory function, and Alzheimer’s risk,” Mander says. “Identifying and addressing REM-specific events are crucial for developing proactive, personalized approaches to assessment and treatment that are tailored to individual sleep patterns.” Kitty K. Lui, a graduate student in the San Diego State University/University of California, San Diego joint doctoral program in clinical psychology, is the study’s lead author. Additional coauthors are from UC Irvine, UC San Diego, the Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, and the University of Kentucky. The National Institute on Aging, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences’ Clinical and Translational Science Awards Program funded the work. Source: UC Irvine The post Sleep apnea during REM contributes to verbal memory decline appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/hb5MIvR The virus that causes COVID-19 can breach the protective blood-retinal barrier, leading to potential long-term consequences in the eye, new research shows. The blood-retinal barrier is designed to protect our vision from infections by preventing microbial pathogens from reaching the retina where they could trigger an inflammatory response with potential vision loss. Pawan Kumar Singh, an assistant professor of ophthalmology at the University of Missouri, leads a team researching new ways to prevent and treat ocular infectious diseases. Using a humanized ACE2 mice model, the team found that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can infect the inside of the eyes even when the virus doesn’t enter the body through the surface of the eyes. Instead, they found that when viruses enter the body through inhalation, it not only infects organs like lungs, but also reaches highly protected organs like eyes through the blood-retinal barrier by infecting the cells lining this barrier. “This finding is important as we increase our understanding of the long-term effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection,” says Singh. “Earlier, researchers were primarily focused on the ocular surface exposure of the virus. “However, our findings reveal that SARS-CoV-2 not only reaches the eye during systemic infection but induces a hyperinflammatory response in the retina and causes cell death in the blood-retinal barrier. The longer viral remnants remain in the eye, the risk of damage to the retina and visual function increases.” Singh also discovered that extended presence of SARS-CoV-2 spike antigen can cause retinal microaneurysm, retinal artery and vein occlusion, and vascular leakage. “For those who have been diagnosed with COVID-19, we recommend you ask your ophthalmologist to check for signs of pathological changes to the retina,” Singh says. “Even those who were asymptomatic could suffer from damage in the eyes over time because of COVID-19 associated complications.” While viruses and bacteria have been found to breach the blood-retinal-barrier in immunocompromised people, this research is the first to suggest that the virus that causes COVID-19 could breach the barrier even in otherwise healthy individuals, leading to an infection that manifests inside the eye itself. Immunocompromised patients or those with hypertension or diabetes may experience worse outcomes if they remain undiagnosed for COVID-19 associated ocular symptoms. “Now that we know the risk of COVID-19 to the retina, our goal is to better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms of how this virus breaches the blood-retinal barrier and associated pathological consequences in hopes of informing development of therapies to prevent and treat COVID-19 induced eye complications before a patient’s vision is compromised,” Singh says. The study appears in the journal PLOS Pathogens. The National Institutes of Health/National Eye Institute and the University of Missouri funded the work. Source: University of Missouri The post COVID virus can infect your eyes and damage vision appeared first on Futurity. via Futurity https://ift.tt/Riuser9 |