Category Health/Medical

The discovery that the anaesthetic ketamine can help people with severe depression has raised hopes of finding new treatment options for the disease. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden have now identified novel mechanistic insights how the drug exerts its antidepressant effect. The findings have been published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

According to the World Health Organization, depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide and the disease affects more than 360 million people every year.

The risk of suffering is affected by both genetics and environmental factors. The most commonly prescribed antidepressants, such as SSRIs, affect nerve signalling via monoamines in the brain...

New sensor provides quick test to measure antibiotic resistance. UBC researchers have developed a method for monitoring bacterial responses to antibiotics in health-care settings that opens the door to personalized antibiotic therapy for patients.

Using microwave sensing technology, UBC Okanagan Assistant Professor Mohammad Zarifi and his team at the Okanagan Microelectronics and Gigahertz Applications (OMEGA) Lab have developed a low-cost, contactless, portable and reusable microwave sensor that acts as a fast and reliable evaluation tool for measuring antibiotic resi...

Findings from a new University of Kentucky College of Medicine and College of Health Sciences study add to growing evidence that resistance exercise has unique benefits for fat loss. The Department of Physiology and Center for Muscle Biology study published in the FASEB Journal found that resistance-like exercise regulates fat cell metabolism at a molecular level.

The study results in mice and humans show that in response to mechanical loading, muscle cells release particles called extracellular vesicles that give fat cells instructions to enter fat-burning mode.

Extracellular vesicles were initially understood as a way for cells to selectively eliminate proteins, lipids and RNA...

A new adhesive that mimics the sticky substance barnacles use to cling to rocks may offer a better way to treat traumatic injuries. Inspired by the sticky substance that barnacles use to cling to rocks, MIT engineers have designed a strong, biocompatible glue that can seal injured tissues and stop bleeding.

The new paste can adhere to surfaces even when they are covered with blood, and can form a tight seal within about 15 seconds of application...