The novel coronavirus began spreading in New York City in February, before widespread testing began, and the strain so far identified in local samples came from Europe, a scientist said Wednesday. Adriana Heguy, a geneticist at NYU Grossman School of Medicine who led the research, told AFP that tracing back…
The mysterious connection between the coronavirus and the heart
The novel coronavirus mainly attacks the lungs. But doctors have been increasingly reporting cases of another battlefield raging within the body: the heart. More than 1 in 5 patients develop heart damage as a result of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, one small study published March 27 in the journal JAMA…
Researchers successfully repair stroke-damaged rat brains
Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have succeeded in restoring mobility and sensation of touch in stroke-afflicted rats by reprogramming human skin cells to become nerve cells, which were then transplanted into the rats’ brains. The study has now been published in the research journal PNAS. “Six months after the…
COVID-19 critical care bed modelling study: Potential shortage in Canada
A national modelling paper predicting the number of available ICU beds across Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that self-isolation will likely not be enough to keep demand from exceeding supply. It is published in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal). Researchers modelled several scenarios: Without self-isolation of mild cases, each…
Triggering melanoma cell death to fight cancer with its own ‘suicide switch’
Scientists at the Centenary Institute have reported a new strategy to battle melanoma, the most dangerous form of skin cancer, responsible for approximately 1,700 deaths in Australia each year. Using drugs to inhibit two separate proteins, the researchers found that they could effectively kill melanoma cells by inducing apoptosis (the…
Security guards struggle with PTSD and lack mental health support
New research shows that thousands of security guards in the UK are suffering Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), having been exposed to frequent episodes of verbal and physical abuse. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth have just released the results of the largest study to date of mental health amongst…
Observing the internal 3-D structure of the nipple to understand and fight breast cancer
Nipple-sparing mastectomy is gaining ground as a treatment or preventive measure for breast cancer, given the understandable desire among patients to preserve natural appearance as much as possible. But the precise risk of preserving the nipple is not known as the cancer can spread along mammary ducts and to the…
The coronavirus ban on elective surgeries might show us many people can avoid going under the knife
As part of the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, all elective surgeries across Australia have been temporarily canceled. Elective surgery is non-urgent surgery people choose (elect) to have: things like cataract surgery, joint replacement, tonsillectomy, hernia repair and cosmetic surgery. There are more than two million hospital admissions involving…
No, I’m Not Afraid of Being Single in My 40s
When I ended my 11-year relationship, the reactions ran the gamut. One friend asked, “Did you cheat?” Another asked if my sex writing led to our demise. (It did not, though a lack of sex may have played a part.) Hands down, the best reaction was from a woman who…
54.8% of COVID-19 cases imported to Brazil by March 5 came from Italy
Italy was the main origin point of the individuals who first brought the novel coronavirus to Brazil, according to a study by Brazilian researchers in collaboration with colleagues in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. The COVID-19 pandemic arrived in Brazil between February and early March. “In contrast…