Curated News: National Institutes of Health (NIH)

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Chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) – daily pain in the muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons and nerves that lasts for six months or longer – contributes to approximately 21% of worker disability issues in this country and costs $500 billion annually from lost wages, treatment and medications, according to a study conducted by Johns Hopkins University. In an effort to develop a more effective strategy against this debilitating condition, a team of doctors and researchers at Wake Forest School of Medicine has received a four-year grant of approximately $4 million from the National Institutes of Health.

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Changing levels of the chemical dopamine, a chemical most associated with motivation, may help explain why stressful experiences during infancy can lead to lasting behavioral issues, a new study in rodents shows.

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Genes aren’t only inherited through birth. Bacteria have the ability to pass genes to each other, or pick them up from their environment, through a process called horizonal gene transfer, which is a major culprit in the spread of antibiotic resistance.

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Scientists publish encouraging early tests of a gene therapy strategy against Angelman syndrome, a neurodevelopmental disorder that features poor muscle control and balance, hard-to-treat epilepsy, and intellectual disabilities.

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In a study that used inorganic, physical and analytical chemistry to mimic respiratory droplets that can carry viruses, researchers demonstrated a mechanism that enables multiple mask materials to be protective. Led by Stony Brook University, the study findings are published in The paper is published in the journal Applied Materials & Interfaces.

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Ankylosing spondylitis is a painful and inflammatory form of axial spondyloarthritis (SpA) which affects 1-2% of Canadians and causes inflammation in the spine, joints, eyes, gut and skin. In a new paper recently published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers at the Schroeder Arthritis Institute at UHN have made a discovery that could lead to new treatments for SpA.

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New research has revealed that red blood cells function as critical immune sensors by binding cell-free DNA, called nucleic acid, present in the body’s circulation during sepsis and COVID-19, and that this DNA-binding capability triggers their removal from circulation, driving inflammation and anemia during severe illness and playing a much larger role in the immune system than previously thought. Scientists have long known that red blood cells, which are essential in delivering oxygen throughout the body, also interacted with the immune system, but didn’t know whether they directly altered inflammation, until now. The study, led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, was published today in Science Translational Medicine.

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Scientists can now pinpoint and track proteins that are in a desired shape in real time inside living cells. The scientists demonstrated the technique in, essentially, movies that track the active version of an important signaling protein – a molecule, in this case, important for cell growth.

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Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is joining the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) new research network focused on the study of senescent cells, a rare and important population of cells that is difficult to study but vital for understanding aging and the diseases of aging, including cancer and neurodegeneration. The goal is to help researchers develop new therapies that target cellular senescence to prevent or treat such diseases and improve human health.

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A genome engineering technique developed at UT Southwestern Medical Center helped make the institution a research partner in a new $185 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiative to build on findings of the Human Genome Project.

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How cancers metastasize remains poorly understood. The process begins when cancer cells break off from a tumor and invade blood and lymphatic vessels, the body’s alleyways. But studying invasion - typically a microscopic process - is challenging.

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Expanded partnerships, access to clinical trials and new medical and behavioral treatments and interventions reaching individuals more quickly will benefit communities in Pennsylvania and beyond thanks to the renewal of Penn State’s Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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The National Institutes of Health has awarded a grant to fund cellular senescence research in lymphoid organs at Yale Cancer Center.

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Albert Einstein College of Medicine has received a five-year, $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the New York Regional Center for Diabetes Translation Research (NY-CDTR). One of only seven such centers in the country and the only one in the Northeast, the NY-CDTR promotes collaboration and research on effective strategies to improve diabetes prevention, care, and self-management, with an emphasis on health equity.

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An international team of researchers has broadened and deepened understanding of how inherited retinal dystrophies (IRDs) affect different populations of people and, in the process, have identified new gene variants that may cause the diseases.

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E-cigarette use did not help smokers quit and may make smokers more likely to relapse, according to a study by Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science at University of California San Diego and Moores Cancer Center.

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Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine identify a strain of bacteria on healthy cats that produces antibiotics against severe skin infections. The findings may soon lead to new bacteriotherapies for humans and their pets, wherein cat bacteria is applied via topical cream or spray.

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Over the last few decades, scientists have discovered that long-term calorie restriction provides a wealth of benefits in animals. Researchers have largely assumed that reduced food intake drove these benefits by reprogramming metabolism. But a new study finds that reduced calorie intake alone is not enough; fasting is essential for mice to derive full benefit.

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A $3.7 million grant to identify patients at risk for developing chronic consequences of COVID-19 infection and discover potential underlying mechanisms leading to neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) has been awarded to Louise McCullough, MD, PhD, and Fudong Liu, MD, MSN, by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

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Researchers find that restoring CDKL5 gene activity reverses many disease signs in young adult mice

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A new study by University of Illinois Chicago researchers shows a mechanism that stops the herpes simplex virus 1 from causing serious brain damage and death. Researchers discovered a function of a protein complex, mammalian target of rapamycin complex 2, in an antiviral defense mechanism. This protein complex limits HSV-1 virus infection through rapid activation of antiviral immunity and protects the host by preventing encephalitis — brain inflammation — and possible death due to HSV-1 infection.

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The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded researchers at University of California San Diego approximately $30 million over five years to expand and deepen longitudinal studies of the developing brain in children.

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Wistar is proud to announce Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health (NIH); Jane Shull, chief executive officer of Philadelphia FIGHT; philanthropist Ken Nimblett; Philadelphia Foundation and the Robert I. Jacobs Fund; and Philadelphia FIGHT will be honored at the Wistar Legacy Awards, a celebration of 25 years of continuous HIV research collaboration on Thursday, October 28 from 5:30 to 7:45 p.m.

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A researcher at Binghamton University, State University of New York has received a $1.74 million, five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to explore how pre-natal alcohol exposure leads to ‘anxious’ offspring. Research project to explore how pre-natal alcohol exposure leads to ‘anxious’ offspring

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Understanding how fully functional LUBAC blocks the cell death pathway can help scientists learn how to treat patients with rare genetic mutations in LUBAC components that impair the enzyme pathway.

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UC San Diego researchers report that conducting genomic evaluations of advanced malignancies can be effective in guiding first-line-of-treatment, rather than waiting until standard-of-care therapies have failed.

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An international research team has found a small-molecule inhibitor that was able to suppress tumor growth in animal models of a childhood glioma — offering new hope toward developing therapies.

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Researchers at UC San Diego School of Medicine awarded $11.7 million by National Institutes of Health to identify genomic and socioeconomic factors contributing to health and disease in admixed individuals. The new center aims to bring the genomic revolution to all.

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Researchers at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals (UH) Harrington Heart & Vascular Institute are leading a multi-organizational effort to address cardiovascular health disparities, thanks to a new “transformative” $18.2 million federal grant from the National Institutes of Health’s P50 program.

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Researchers with the John P. Hussman Institute for Human Genomics (HIHG) at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, will serve as principal investigators for a major five-year initiative with Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the University of Southern California, to pool and standardize research data gathered from individuals in multiple studies of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).

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Multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a serious condition associated with a recent COVID-19 infection.

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The National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities has awarded Wayne State University $18.15 million over five years to establish a Center for Multiple Chronic Diseases Associated with Health Disparities: Prevention, Treatment, and Management that will use community-based interventions deployed from three research institutions to fight hypertension, heart failure and coronary heart disease in the Black population.

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In an effort to reduce disparities and increase the understanding of suicide, the National Institutes of Health awarded Penn Medicine researchers a grant of more than $14 million over the next five years to develop the Penn Innovation in Suicide Prevention Implementation Research (INSPIRE) Center.

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A team of researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Touchstone Diabetes Center have successfully used CRISPR gene editing to turn fat cells normally used for storage into energy-burning cells.

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Psychological therapy reduces the adverse biobehavioral effects of testicular cancer in young adult survivors, according to a pilot study led by the University of California, Irvine. Biobehavior is the interaction of biological processes and behavior. Researchers’ findings, published in the American Journal of Men’s Health, show that Goal-focused Emotion-regulation Therapy, developed specifically to enhance the quality of life for these patients, reduced the stress hormone cortisol and the proinflammatory cell protein cytokine IL-1ra that triggers fatigue, pain and other side effects.

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Care for the 15 most prevalent types of cancer in the U.S. cost approximately $156.2 billion in 2018, according to a team of Penn State College of Medicine researchers.

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Add an improved memory to the list of the many benefits that accompany having a sense of purpose in life. A new study led by Florida State University researchers showed a link between an individual’s sense of purpose and their ability to recall vivid details.

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Specialized cells that conduct electricity to keep the heart beating have a previously unrecognized ability to regenerate in the days after birth, a new study in mice by UT Southwestern researchers suggests. The finding, published online in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, could eventually lead to treatments for heart rhythm disorders that avoid the need for invasive pacemakers or drugs by instead encouraging the heart to heal itself.

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Cells that normally nourish healthy brain cells called neurons release toxic fatty acids after neurons are damaged, a new study in rodents shows. This phenomenon is likely the driving factor behind most, if not all, diseases that affect brain function, as well as the natural breakdown of brain cells seen in aging, researchers say.

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In a special issue of Nature, UC San Diego researchers further refine the organization of cells within key regions of the mouse brain and the organization of transcriptomic, epigenomic and regulatory factors that provide these brain cells with function and purpose.

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A multidisciplinary group of University of Michigan researchers will investigate environmental exposures, chosen as one of the first projects in a new NIH amyotrophic lateral sclerosis initiative.

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An analysis of electronic health records of nearly 580,000 fully vaccinated people in the United States found that while the risk of SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection among those with substance-use disorders was low overall, it was higher for people who misuse substances such as alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and opioids.

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The American Physiological Society thanks Francis Collins for his 12 years of service to the scientific community.