Public Health Archives - Page 38 of 52 - Dr Amin Azhari

Elevated Biomarker Related to Blood Vessel Damage in All Children with SARS-CoV-2

Researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have found elevated levels of a biomarker related to blood vessel damage in children with SARS-CoV-2 infection, even if the children had minimal or no symptoms of COVID-19. They also found that a high proportion of children with SARS-CoV-2 infection met clinical and diagnostic criteria for thrombotic microangiopathy (TMA). TMA is a syndrome that involves clotting in the small blood vessels and has been identified as a potential cause for severe manifestations of COVID-19 in adults.

To assess the role of complement activation in children with SARS-CoV-2, the Immune Dysregulation Frontier Program, including co-senior authors Edward Behrens, MD and Hamid Bassiri, MD, PhD and co-first authors Caroline Diorio, MD and Kevin McNerney, MD, analyzed 50 pediatric patients hospitalized at CHOP with acute SARS-CoV-2 infection between April and July 2020. Of those 50 patients, 21 had minimal COVID-19, 11 had severe COVID-19, and 18 were diagnosed with MIS-C. The researchers used soluble C5b9 (sC5b9) as a biomarker for complement activation and TMA. sC5b9 has been implicated as an indicator of severity in TMA after hematopoietic stem cell transplant; transplant patients with markedly elevated sC5b9 have increased mortality.

The findings were published in Blood Advances.

Release date: 08 December 2020
Source: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Neurologic disorders

Diabetes increases neuritic damage around amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease

Diabetes increases neuritic damage around amyloid plaques in Alzheimer disease - دیابت می تواند فرایند آسیب زایی در جریان آلزایمر را تشدید کند.

New research from the University of Eastern Finland explores the role of diabetes in the cellular and molecular changes underlying Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In an AD mouse model, diabetes induced through a diet rich in fats and sugars weakened the accumulation of microglial cells around amyloid plaques and increased the formation of neuritic plaques with prominent tau pathology. Besides the mouse model, a similar observation was also made in hydrocephalus patients with type 2 diabetes, who had fewer microglia around amyloid plaques than patients without diabetes. The findings provide valuable new insight into the cellular mechanisms by which type 2 diabetes contributes to the risk and development of AD.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia, with no cure to date. AD is characterised by the accumulation of beta-amyloid peptides and phosphorylated tau proteins in the brain, leading to the activation of the immune cells in brain: microglia and astrocytes. AD also causes damage to axons and dendrites and, ultimately, leads to neuronal cell death. Recent genetic studies suggest that microglia play a key role in the development of AD. In addition to genetics, environmental and lifestyle factors, and diseases associated with them, such as type 2 diabetes, affect the risk of AD. Type 2 diabetes has long been known to increase the risk of AD and to influence the disease course, but the underlying cellular and molecular events are still elusive.

Release date: 16 November 2020
Source: University of Eastern Finland

Yoga, Meditation, Mindfulness in Concussion Treatment Plans

When Rebecca Acabchuk was studying mild traumatic brain injuries while working on her doctorate in physiology and neurobiology at UConn, she met a student athlete who had suffered multiple concussions.

“When I started doing research on concussions, people just started coming to me,” Acabchuk says. “Families at my daughter’s school, anytime somebody had a concussion, I would hear about it – I would hear these personal stories and all the struggles of people who had concussions and their symptoms just didn’t resolve.”

So it was for the student athlete, who told Acabchuk that she would experience seizures when a smoke alarm went off in her dormitory.

“All of these symptoms she would have to struggle with – really profound symptoms – are an invisible injury,” says Acabchuk, who earned her PhD in 2016 and is now a post-doctoral fellow with UConn’s Institute for Collaboration on Health, Intervention, and Policy, or InCHIP. “People think you should be better, the injury happened so long ago. Why aren’t you better? And then more frustration comes in when your doctor says just to rest, there’s nothing else that can be done, but you’re still getting headaches or feeling fatigued or depressed.”

Chronic concussion symptoms are notoriously difficult to treat. But Acabchuk – who is also a yoga instructor in Hebron, and has been teaching yoga for 17 years – is hoping that a recently published InCHIP study, the first-ever meta-analysis looking at the use of yoga, meditation, and mindfulness-based interventions for the effective treatment of chronic concussion symptoms, will offer hope to those still struggling with their symptoms. The study was recently published in the journal Applied Psychology: Health and Well-being.

Release date: 30 November 2020
Source: University of Connecticut

COVID-19 May Deepen Depression, Anxiety, and PTSD Among Pregnant and Postpartum Women

In a new study published in Psychiatry Research, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital surveyed pregnant women and those who had recently given birth, finding concerning rates of depression, generalized anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, which were found to be exacerbated by COVID-19-related grief and health worries. The researchers launched the Perinatal Experiences and COVID-19 Effects Study (PEACE) to better understand the mental health and well-being of pregnant and postpartum individuals within the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among 1,123 of these women surveyed between May 21 and August 17, 2020, the researchers found that more than 1-in-3 (36.4 percent) reported clinically significant levels of depression. Before the pandemic, rates of perinatal depression (depression occurring during or after pregnancy) were generally considered to be 15-20 percent. Furthermore, 1-in-5 (22.7 percent) reported clinically significant levels of generalized anxiety, and 1-in-10 (10.3 percent) reported symptoms above the clinical threshold for PTSD.

Release date: 01 December 2020
Source: Brigham and Women’s Hospital

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Existing antidepressant helps to inhibit growth of cancer cells

New research has shown that the antidepressant sertraline helps to inhibit the growth of cancer cells. The substance acts on a metabolic addiction that allows different types of cancer to grow. This is shown by a study on cell cultures and lab animals performed by various research labs of KU Leuven. Their findings were published in Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Cancer cells use different biological mechanisms to stimulate their growth. In certain types of breast cancer, leukaemia, skin cancer, brain tumours and lung cancer, among others, the malignant cells produce large amounts of serine and glycine, two amino acids. This production stimulates the growth of cancer cells to such an extent that they become addicted to serine and glycine.

Release date: 17 November 2020
Source: KU Leuven

Glucosamine may reduce overall death rates as effectively as regular exercise

Assessed data from 16,686 adults who completed the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1999 to 2010. All of the participants were at least 40 years old. Researchers merged these data with 2015 mortality figures.

After controlling for various factors—such as participants’ age, sex, smoking status and activity level—the researchers found that taking glucosamine/chondroitin every day for a year or longer was associated with a 39 percent reduction in all-cause mortality.

It was also linked to a 65 percent reduction in cardiovascular-related deaths. That’s a category that includes deaths from stroke, coronary artery disease and heart disease, the United States’ biggest killer.

“Once we took everything into account, the impact was pretty significant,” Researchers said.

The results appear in the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine.

Release date: 01 December 2020
Source: West Virginia University

More than one-third of children with COVID-19 show no symptoms

More than one-third of kids who have COVID-19 are asymptomatic, according to a University of Alberta study that suggests youngsters diagnosed with the disease may represent just a fraction of those infected.

For the study, McAlister’s team analyzed results for 2,463 children who were tested during the first wave of the pandemic—March to September—for COVID-19 infection.

All told, 1,987 children had a positive test result for COVID-19 and 476 had a negative result. Of children who tested positive, 714—35.9 per cent—reported being asymptomatic.

We can do all the COVID-19 questionnaires we want, but if one-third of the kids are asymptomatic, the answer is going to be no to all the questions—yet they’re still infected.

Because of the asymptomatic nature of the disease in up to one-third of children, McAlister said the province was right to close schools for a longer period over Christmas.

As far as we know, kids are less likely to spread disease than adults, but the risk is not zero. Presumably asymptomatic spreaders are less contagious than the person sitting nearby who is sneezing all over you, but we don’t know that for sure.

The researchers also found that although cough, runny nose and sore throat were three of the most common symptoms among children with COVID-19 infection—showing up in 25, 19 and 16 per cent of cases respectively—they were actually slightly more common among those with negative COVID-19 test results, and therefore not predictive of a positive test.

Kids are at risk of contracting many different viruses, so the COVID-specific symptoms are actually more things like loss of taste and smell, headache, fever, and nausea and vomiting, not runny nose, a cough and sore throat.

Release date: 27 November 2020
Source: University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry

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Low risk of pregnancy complications from COVID-19

The study, published in JAMA Network Open, shows that 95 percent of women who tested positive for COVID-19 during pregnancy had no adverse outcomes. Additionally, the study found that the virus was transmitted to the fetus in just 3 percent of the cases.

The researchers set out to measure how COVID-19 infection impacts pregnancy outcomes, how severely ill a pregnant woman gets, placental pathology, and neonatal infections by studying women at Parkland Health and Hospital System – a high-volume prenatal clinic system and public hospital affiliated with UT Southwestern. The team followed 3,374 mothers, 252 of whom tested positive for the virus during pregnancy, from March through August. The group was predominantly Hispanic (75 percent), followed by Black (18 percent) and white (4 percent). There were no significant differences between the expectant mothers in age, number of previous births, BMI, or diabetes.

Release date: 19 November 2020
Source: UT Southwestern Medical Center

Age is no barrier to successful weight loss

Study of patients attending a hospital-based obesity service shows no difference in weight loss between those under 60 years old and those from 60 to 78 years old
The University of Warwick-led study conducted at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) concludes that lifestyle changes to manage weight loss are effective in reducing obesity regardless of age
Aims to dispel myths about effectiveness of weight loss in older people
Obese patients over the age of 60 can lose an equivalent amount of weight as younger people using only lifestyle changes, according to a new study from the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire (UHCW) NHS Trust that demonstrates that age is no barrier to losing weight.

The researchers hope that their findings will help to correct prevailing societal misconceptions about the effectiveness of weight loss programmes in older people, as well dispel myths about the potential benefits of older people trying to reduce their weight.

The findings are based on analysis of patient records from a hospital-based obesity service and are reported in the journal Clinical Endocrinology.

Release date: 20 November 2020
Source: University of Warwick

Covid-19

MMR Vaccine Could Protect Against COVID-19

The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine has been theorized to provide protection against COVID-19. In a new study published in mBio, an open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology, researchers provide further proof of this by showing that mumps IgG titers, or levels of IgG antibody, are inversely correlated with severity in recovered COVID-19 patients previously vaccinated with the MMR II vaccine produced by Merck.

Release date: 20 November 2020
Source: American Society for Microbiology