How two different types of immune cells help two billion people keep tuberculosis in check

More than 10 million people are sickened by tuberculosis (TB) globally each year, resulting in 1.5 million deaths. Yet, as many as two billion people are infected with Mycobaterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, and are otherwise healthy and asymptomatic. Scientists who study TB look at those individuals who can tolerate and contain the infection in hopes of developing better treatments and vaccines.

Community-based program helps moms in poorer countries improve babies’ brain health

A program of facilitated, community-based groups to teach women and their partners from pregnancy until the baby is one about nutrition, sensitive caregiving, play, first aid, health and avoiding family violence has been shown to improve the brains of these women’s children. The children have significantly better cognitive, language and motor development at the age of two than those whose mothers had usual health care.

Predicting multi-omics from genotypes with OmicsPred

Work by an international research team led by Yu Xu and Michael Inouye at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care, University of Cambridge, has resulted in a unique resource for predicting multi-omics data directly from genotypes. The details of how the team developed the OmicsPred resource are in an article, “An atlas of genetic scores to predict multi-omic traits,” published in the journal Nature. A Research Briefing on the study is published in the same journal issue.

Study: Metformin and leucine prevent cellular senescence and proteostasis disruption

Aging coincides with the accumulation of senescent cells within skeletal muscle that produce inflammatory products, known as the senescence-associated secretory phenotype, but the relationship of senescent cells to muscle atrophy is unclear. Previously, researchers found that a metformin + leucine (MET+LEU) treatment had synergistic effects in aged mice to improve skeletal muscle structure and function during disuse atrophy.

Association of alleles with risk of relapse in ANCA-associated vasculitis in the Japanese population

Vasculitis is a group of conditions that results in inflammation of the blood vessels. Symptoms include rash, shortness of breath, vision loss, and kidney failure depending on the location of the inflamed vessels. A rare type of vasculitis, ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV), is associated with the presence of antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibodies (ANCA); these antibodies are directed against components in the cytoplasm of neutrophils.