Category Health/Medical

A study led by Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan has revealed a link between gut microbiota and Parkinson’s disease (PD). The researchers found a reduction in the gut bacteria of genes responsible for synthesizing the essential B vitamins B2 and B7. They also identified a relationship between the lack of these genes and low levels of agents that help maintain the integrity of the intestinal barrier. This barrier prevents toxins from entering the bloodstream, which causes the inflammation seen in PD. Their findings, published in npj Parkinson’s Disease, suggest that treatment with B vitamins to address these deficiencies can be used to treat PD.

PD is characterized by a variety of physical symptoms that hinder daily activities and mobility, such as shaking, slow...

The sites where our bodies come into contact with the outside world—via skin, the surface of the eye, inside the mouth, the lining of the intestine and the urinary tract, for example—are known as barrier tissues.

Helping to defend those tissues are innate lymphoid cells, or ILCs, which when faced with a threat, stimulate proteins called cytokines that further activate the immune system and control the intestinal microbiome.

These cells naturally diminish with aging or can be depleted by certain medical conditions.

ILCs are made inside bone marrow and circulate in the blood. But how are they activated to mobilize and travel to their target sites to replenish the depleted pool of tissue ILCs?

A Michigan Medi...

Eczema, a skin inflammatory disease that causes dry, itchy and inflamed skin, affects millions worldwide. Eczema is associated with an altered skin microbiome and higher colonization by Staphylococcus aureus.

A study, led at New York Medical by postdoctoral fellow Anish R. Maskey, Ph.D., focuses on the natural compound berberine and its impact on eczema exacerbated by S. aureus. The findings, presented at ASM Microbe, shed light on berberine’s ability to inhibit S. aureus colonization and alleviate eczema symptoms without adverse effects.

Current treatments often fall short—topical antibiotics can give temporary relief, but risk development of antibiotic resistance, and steroid use can potentially result in topical steroid withdrawal (TSW) syndrome...

Scientists at Weill Cornell Medicine discovered a previously unknown link between two key pathways that regulate the immune system in mammals — a finding that impacts our understanding of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). This family of disorders severely impacts the health and quality of life of more than 2 million people in the United States.

The immune system has many pathways to protect the body from infection, but sometimes an overactive immune response results in autoimmune diseases including IBD, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple scler...