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    Category Health/Medical

    Studies offer New Evidence for possible link between Blood Type and COVID-19 susceptibility

    October 15, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Adjusted cumulative incidence plots for mechanical ventilation, CRRT, and ICU discharge. Adjusted cumulative incidence of requiring mechanical ventilation (A) or CRRT (B) during hospital stay by group. (C) Cumulative incidence of being discharged from the ICU by group. Cumulative incidence models were created with death as a competing risk and are adjusted for age, sex, and the presence of ≥1 comorbidity status (binary, yes/no). sHR ratio >1 indicates an increased probability of an event occurring during the study period, whereas a ratio <1 indicates a decreased probability. *Statistically significant P value for a difference between groups.
    Adjusted cumulative incidence plots for mechanical ventilation, CRRT, and ICU discharge. Adjusted cumulative incidence of requiring mechanical ventilation (A) or CRRT (B) during hospital stay by group. (C) Cumulative incidence of being discharged from the ICU by group. Cumulative incidence models were created with death as a competing risk and are adjusted for age, sex, and the presence of ≥1 comorbidity status (binary, yes/no). sHR ratio >1 indicates an increased probability of an event occurring during the study period, whereas a ratio <1 indicates a decreased probability. *Statistically significant P value for a difference between groups.

    Individuals with blood type O may have lowest risk of infection; individuals with A and AB may have increased risk of severe clinical outcomes...

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    Technique to Recover Lost Single-Cell RNA-sequencing Information

    October 14, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Seq-Well resolution example
    MIT researchers have greatly boosted the amount of information that can be obtained using Seq-Well, a technique for rapidly sequencing RNA from single cells. This advance should enable scientists to learn much more about the critical genes that are expressed in each cell, and help them to discover subtle differences between healthy and dysfunctional cells for designing new preventions and cures. This image illustrates the improved resolution, right, using the new technique.
    Credits:Courtesy of the researchers. Edited by MIT News.

    Boosting the efficiency of single-cell RNA-sequencing helps reveal subtle differences between healthy and dysfunctional cells. Sequencing RNA from individual cells can reveal a great deal of information about what those cells are doing in the body...

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    Scientists find Neurochemicals have Unexpectedly Profound Roles in the Human Brain

    October 13, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Electrodes for brain research
    Virginia Tech researchers with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC Center for Human Neuroscience Research construct carbon fiber microelectrodes for real-time detection of dopamine and serotonin activity in human patients. The in-house, custom-made electrodes are narrow and used during deep brain stimulation electrode implantation surgeries to measure activity of both dopamine and serotonin in patients. Shown at right in comparison with a paper clip.

    Dopamine, serotonin involved in sub-second perception, cognition...

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    The effects of Oxytocin on Social Anxiety depend on Location, location, location

    October 10, 2020, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Mouse
    Working with California mice, UC Davis researches showed that the “love hormone” oxytocin can sometimes have antisocial effects depending on where in the brain it is made. (Mark Chappell/UC Riverside)

    Finding a better route to treating social anxiety disorder may lie in another part of the brain, researchers suggest. The findings of the study show that oxytocin produced in the BNST increases stress-induced social anxiety behaviors in mice. This may provide an explanation as to why oxytocin can sometimes have antisocial effects.

    Studies have long suggested that oxytocin – a hormone that can also act as a neurotransmitter – regulates prosocial behavior such as empathy, trust and bonding, which led to its popular labeling as the “love hormone...

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