Researchers from Critical Path Institute’s (C-Path) Predictive Safety Testing Consortium have proposed glutamate dehydrogenase (GLDH) as a more liver-specific biomarker for detecting liver injury, supporting clearer decision-making. Currently, alanine aminotransferase and aspartate aminotransferase (ALT and AST) are considered the “gold standard” biomarkers in clinical practice and drug development.
For patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), long-term inhaled corticosteroid (ICS) treatment is associated with increased rates of adverse composite and specific individual outcomes, according to a study published in the March/April issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.
Many everyday skills, such as speech, are not innate. They are learned through trial and error. Now, by analyzing young songbirds rehearsing their fathers’ songs, researchers at Columbia’s Zuckerman Institute have for the first time witnessed the role that the brain’s reward machinery plays as the brain naturally learns over time through practice.
In what is believed to be a world-first study, researchers from the University of Adelaide’s Australian Dysautonomia and Arrhythmia Research Collaborative (ADARC) have used brain scans to identify blood flow problems in people with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS).
A research team has established an innovative intracranial pre-olivary pretectal nucleus (OPN) optic tract injury model (pre-OPN OTI), shedding light on crucial mechanisms of functional axonal rewiring following central nervous system injury. The team was led by Prof. Liu Kai from the Division of Life Science and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
In an effort to understand how brain cells exchange chemical messages, scientists say they have successfully used a highly specialized microscope to capture more precise details of how one of the most common signaling molecules, glutamate, opens a channel and allows a flood of charged particles to enter. The finding, which resulted from a study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers, could advance the development of new drugs that block or open such signaling channels to treat conditions as varied as epilepsy and some intellectual disorders.
If the past four decades have taught us anything about HIV, it’s to adjust our expectations—despite enormous progress in controlling the virus, no treatment can yet completely eradicate HIV once it has taken hold. But promising results from a recent clinical trial suggest that broadly neutralizing antibody therapy (bNAbs) may be able to accomplish the next best thing.
In a position statement issued by the American Academy of Neurology and published online March 12 in Neurology, an updated consensus is presented relating to seizures, driving licensure, and medical reporting.
An Australian-first study demonstrating the effectiveness of a new immunization against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for babies found it to be almost 90% effective in reducing hospitalization rates and helped more than 500 WA families avoid a hospital stay.
Early diagnosis of COPD, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, increases the quality of life of the patient and the efficacy of available treatments. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have now shown that material from nasal lavage provides a basis for assessing COPD. The study, which has been published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, could lead to a simple diagnostic method for early assessment of COPD.