Prostate Drug associated with Lower Risk of Parkinson’s disease

Parkinson's disease
Immunohistochemistry for alpha-synuclein showing positive staining (brown) of an intraneural Lewy-body in the Substantia nigra in Parkinson’s disease. Credit: Wikipedia

Taking a particular type of medication to treat enlarged prostate is associated with a reduced risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, according to a large observational study led by researchers at the University of Iowa, with colleagues in Denmark and China.

The findings, published Feb. 1 in JAMA Neurology, provide compelling evidence that terazosin, and similar medications, might have the potential to prevent or delay the development of Parkinson’s disease.

The new study used data on almost 300,000 older men from two large, independent patient datasets — the Truven Health Analytics MarketScan database in the Uni...

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Physicists create Tunable Superconductivity in Twisted Graphene ‘Nanosandwich’

Illustration of electrons against hexagonal pattern
This artist’s rendition shows magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene, composed of three honeycomb lattices. The tightly bound electrons (yellow spheres connected by blue halos) indicate the new structure’s strongly coupled superconducting state.
Credits:Image: Ella Maru Studio

When two sheets of graphene are stacked atop each other at just the right angle, the layered structure morphs into an unconventional superconductor, allowing electric currents to pass through without resistance or wasted energy.

This “magic-angle” transformation in bilayer graphene was observed for the first time in 2018 in the group of Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, the Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at MIT...

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Astronomers spot Bizarre, never-before-seen activity from One of the Strongest Magnets in the Universe

Astronomers spot bizarre, never-before-seen activity from one of the strongest magnets in the Universe
Artist’s impression of the active magnetar Swift J1818.0-1607. Credit: Carl Knox, OzGrav.

Astronomers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav) and CSIRO have just observed bizarre, never-seen-before behavior from a radio-loud magnetar—a rare type of neutron star and one of the strongest magnets in the universe.

Their new findings, published today in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS), suggest magnetars have more complex magnetic fields than previously thought, which may challenge theories of how they are born and evolve over time.

Magnetars are a rare type of rotating neutron star with some of the most powerful magnetic fields in the universe...

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Hyaluronan is effective in Treating Chronic Lung Disease

graphic displaying the relationships between inhaled hyaluronan and lung injuries
The research shows that inhaling hyaluronan interferes at almost every step of the COPD cycle, making it a potent treatment for chronic lung disease.
(Photo courtesy of Stavros Garantziotis, M.D.)

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and their collaborators found that inhaling unfragmented hyaluronan improves lung function in patients suffering from severe exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Hyaluronan, a sugar secreted by living tissue that acts as a scaffold for cells, is also used in cosmetics as a skin moisturizer and as a nasal spray to moisturize lung airways...

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