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
Business closures, partial reopenings due to COVID may cost the US $3-$5 trillion in GDP over 2 years
Among highlights of the study, the researchers projected:
Economics of Disasters and Climate Change
Release date: 30 November 2020
Source: University of Southern California
SARS-CoV-2 mutations do not appear to increase transmissibility
None of the mutations currently documented in the SARS-CoV-2 virus appear to increase its transmissibility, according to a UCL-led study.
The analysis of virus genomes from over 15,000 Covid-19 patients from 75 countries is published today as a pre-print on bioRxiv and has not yet been peer-reviewed.
The findings build on a peer-reviewed study published in Infection, Genetics and Evolution earlier this month that characterised patterns of diversity emerging in the genome of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing the ongoing pandemic of the Covid-19 disease. Nature Communications
Release date: 22 November 2020
Source: University College London
COVID-19 affects the eyes
The study found that sore eyes was significantly more common when the participants had COVID-19, with 16% reporting the issue as one of their symptoms. Just 5% reported having had the condition beforehand.
While 18% of people reported suffering from photophobia (light sensitivity) as one of their symptoms, this was only a 5% increase from their pre-COVID-19 state.
Of the 83 respondents, 81% reported ocular issues within two weeks of other COVID-19 symptoms. Of those, 80% reported their eye problems lasted less than two weeks.
The most common reported symptoms overall were fatigue (suffered by 90% of respondents), a fever (76%) and a dry cough (66%).
Release date: 08 December 2020
Source: Anglia Ruskin University
Significant increase in depression seen among children during first lockdown
The first lockdown led to a significant increase in symptoms of depression among children, highlighting the unintended consequences of school closures, according to a new study from the University of Cambridge.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK Government implemented a national ‘lockdown’ involving school closures and social distancing. There has been widespread concern that these measures would negatively impact child and adolescent mental health. To date, however, there is relatively little direct evidence of this.
To test whether changes in emotional wellbeing, anxiety and depression symptoms occurred during lockdown since their initial assessment, a team at the Medical Research Council (MRC) Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, examined data from mental health assessments on 168 children (aged 8-12 years) before and during the UK lockdown. These assessments included self-reports, caregiver-reports, and teacher-reports.
“Put differently, if you randomly selected a child from the sample there is a 70% chance that their depression symptoms were worse during lockdown than before the pandemic.”
The results of their study are published in Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Release date: 08 December 2020
Source: University of Cambridge
COVID-19: persistent symptoms in one third of cases
A total of 669 people were followed (mean age 43 years, 60% female, 25% of healthcare professionals and 69% without underlying risk factors that could be related to complications from COVID-19). At 6 weeks from diagnosis, nearly a third of participants still had one or more symptoms related to COVID-19, mainly fatigue (14%), shortness of breath (9%) and loss of taste or smell (12%). In addition, 6% reported a persistent cough and 3% reported headaches. Dr. Mayssam Nehme, Senior Resident in Professor Guessous’s team and first author of this work, also explains how these patients felt: “In addition to the physical distress of their symptoms, many were very worried: how much longer would it last? Were some after-effects irrecoverable? Even without a clear medical answer, in the current state of knowledge, it is important to accompany concerned patients and to listen to them,” she adds. With this in mind, the HUG has set up a specific consultation for long COVID patients in order to improve their care and guide them through the health system.
These results, which can be seen in the Annals of Internal Medicine, call for better communication, particularly with patients and with the physicians who follow them, and for ongoing messages to the general public, reminding them that SARS-CoV-2infection is not trivial.
Release date: 08 December 2020
Source: Université de Genève
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
Diabetes increases neuritic damage around amyloid plaques in Alzheimer’s disease
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
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