In what they consider a surprise finding, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have demonstrated a key role for male sex hormone “signaling” in inducing—rather than suppressing—allergic lung inflammation in a mouse model of asthma.
More than 1 in 10 people successfully treated with antibiotics for Lyme disease go on to develop chronic, sometimes debilitating, and poorly understood symptoms of fatigue and brain fog that may last for years after their initial infection has cleared up. Now, in a small study, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report they have used an advanced form of brain scan to show that 12 people with documented post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS) all show elevation of a chemical marker of widespread brain inflammation, compared with 19 healthy controls.
In an effort to reduce chronic pain, many people look for hope by paying $20 to thousands of dollars for a tube of prescription topical pain cream or gel.
Johns Hopkins researchers have found that rhomboid enzymes, which are special proteins that cut other proteins, are able to break the “cellular speed limit” as they move through the cell membrane. Rhomboid enzymes do this by warping their surroundings, letting them glide quickly from one end of the membrane to another.
Experimenting with mice, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report that a low-calorie diet prevented asthma symptoms regardless of the diet’s fat and sugar content. The researchers also say they found that obesity resulting from a high-calorie diet led to asthma symptoms in the animals by causing lung inflammation, and a drug that blocks inflammation eased those symptoms.
Around the country, women physician researchers make 7 to 8 percent less per year than men. At the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, efforts to eliminate such a gender disparity have cut the difference in salaries from 2.6 percent in 2005 to a statistically insignificant 1.9 percent in 2016.
Cancer of the esophagus claims more than 400,000 lives around the world each year. With no efficient, reliable method of screening for the disease, by the time symptoms become apparent, it's often too late to save the patient.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine say they have added to evidence that rapid resistance gene sequencing technology can accurately speed the identification of specific antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains that sicken and kill some patients. A report on a proof of concept study, published in the January 2019 issue of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, suggests the technology has the potential to hasten the “personalized” choice of antibiotics critically ill patients need.
It's no surprise to scientists that variety is the very essence of biology, not just the seasoning, but most previous studies of key brain cells have found little variability in a common cell process that involves how genetic information is read and acted on.
New research from Johns Hopkins Medicine and Sheppard Pratt Health System shows that people in the study with schizophrenia also have higher levels of antibodies against the Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), a herpes virus that causes infectious mononucleosis, so-called mono.
In experiments in rats and human cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have added to evidence that a cellular protein signal that drives both bone and fat formation in selected stem cells can be manipulated to favor bone building.
Johns Hopkins researchers have shown how to best identify nonadherent patients, combining technology with the perceptions of health care providers.
A computer-generated model developed by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers adds to evidence that providing universal vaccination against meningitis B infection to students entering college may be too costly to justify the absolute number of cases it would prevent. The study also suggests that if vaccine developers could significantly lower the price, universal vaccination might be worth requiring on college campuses.
Research completed at Johns Hopkins and the Greater Baltimore Medical Center has demonstrated that vaginal childbirth substantially increases the probability a woman will develop a pelvic floor disorder later in life.
In a tuberculosis screening and treatment initiative covering the entire population of Tibetan refugee schoolchildren in northern India, a team directed by researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and the University of Wisconsin says it has found not only a startlingly high prevalence of TB disease and infection, but also a potentially workable strategy to eliminate the disease in a large, high-risk group.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center discovered a combination of a cancer vaccine with two checkpoint drugs reduced pancreatic cancer tumors in mice, demonstrating a possible pathway for treatment of people with pancreatic cancers whose response to standard immunotherapy is poor.
In a review of registry data for more than 5,300 liver transplants performed in children nationwide, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers identify the type of patient who is most likely to survive a split liver transplant—receiving only part of a donor’s liver—with no additional long-term health risks, which could allow for an increase in the availability of organs. A report on the new study is published in the December issue of the journal Liver Transplantation.
Results of a medical records study of more than 7,000 patients awaiting a lung transplant in the United States affirm the basis of a court filing in 2017 that called the organ allocation system geographically “rigged” in some regions of the nation.
In a study of adolescent mice with a version of a gene linked to serious human mental illnesses, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have uncovered a possible explanation for how marijuana may damage the brains of some human teens.
Results of a medical records study of children with Crohn’s disease by Johns Hopkins researchers have added substantial evidence for a strong and direct link between malnutrition and increased risk of surgical complications and poor outcomes.
Using a mouse model of necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) — a potentially fatal condition that causes a premature infant’s gut to suddenly die — researchers at Johns Hopkins say they have uncovered the molecular causes of the condition and its associated brain injury. The discovery enabled the team to combine efforts with colleagues studying brain inflammation and to identify potential drugs that reverse the brain injury in mice.
Johns Hopkins researchers have observed a previously unrecognized behavior in a single-celled parasite called Spironucleus vortens, which infects ornamental fish such as angelfish: The protozoans swarm.
In a study of medical records pulled from a national database, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have found that underrepresented populations are less likely than others to be eligible for hip or knee replacement surgeries because they do not meet certain rigid—and in their opinion unfairly applied—hospital requirements for surgery, such as weight, blood sugar and tobacco use limits. Such cutoffs, say the researchers, designed to lower costs and in some cases complications, deny minority and lower income groups access to treatments that would improve their quality of life.
In a medical records analysis of information gathered on more than 6,000 people, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers conclude that simply asking older adult patients about their weight history at ages 20 and 40 could provide real value to clinicians in their efforts to predict patients’ future risk of heart failure, heart attacks or strokes.
The Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at Johns Hopkins has named three new leaders within its ranks to strengthen opportunities for faculty development, build connections with scientists in clinical-based departments and represent basic science interests among the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s Research Council.
A molecular pathway that’s frequently mutated in many different forms of cancer becomes active when cells push parts of their membranes outward into bulging protrusions, Johns Hopkins researchers report in a new study. The finding, published Nov. 7 in Nature Communications, could eventually lead to new targets for cancer-fighting therapeutics.
If you are wondering how long you personally are willing to stand in line to buy that hot new holiday gift, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine say the answer may be found in the biological rules governing how animals typically forage for food and other rewards.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have identified in live human brains new radioactive “tracer” molecules that bind to and “light up” tau tangles, a protein associated with a number of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center are rapidly advancing the understanding of biological factors, including hormones, as predictors of longer disease-free survival for certain subtypes of breast cancer. The implications for treatment — especially among younger women — can be profound, but uncertainties remain and decision-making by patients and their physicians can be complicated.
In medical chart reviews of 2,430 kidneys transplanted from 1,298 donors—585 (24 percent) of them with AKI—researchers say they found no significant differences in rates of organ rejection among kidneys from deceased donors with or without AKI. They also report they found no evidence that factors such as the amount of time an organ is chilled and left without blood supply before transplantation had any impact on recipient outcomes for those who received AKI kidneys.
Although relatively rare in the United States, and accounting for fewer than 5 percent of tuberculosis cases worldwide, TB of the brain—or tuberculosis meningitis (TBM)—is often deadly, always hard to treat, and a particular threat to young children.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine have developed a new molecular tool they call EXoO, which decodes where on proteins specific sugars are attached—a possible modification due to disease. The study, published in issue 14 of Molecular Systems Biology, describes the development of the tool and its successful use on human blood, tumors and immune cells.
In a small study of infrequent cannabis users, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have shown that, compared with smoking cannabis, vaping it increased the rate of short-term anxiety, paranoia, memory loss and distraction when doses were the same.
In a proof-of-principle study, researchers at Johns Hopkins revealed that certain immune system cells found in the human liver, called liver macrophages, contain only inert HIV and aren’t likely to reproduce infection on their own in HIV-infected people on long-term antiretroviral therapy (ART). ART is a regimen containing combinations of HIV-targeting drugs that prevents the growth of the virus but does not eradicate it.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified two patients with HIV whose immune cells behave differently than others with the virus and actually appear to help control viral load even years after infection. Moreover, both patients carry large amounts of virus in infected cells, but show no viral load in blood tests. While based on small numbers, the data suggest that long-term viral remission might be possible for more people.
In a study tracking the severe crisis pain of sickle cell disease and its management in 73 adults over a period of a year, Johns Hopkins researchers found that even among those on high doses of daily at-home opioids, a persistent subset was more likely to seek emergency hospital care for crisis pain and was less likely to have the pain controlled by intensive treatment.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have added to evidence that measuring and monitoring tumor DNA that naturally circulates in the blood of melanoma patients can not only reliably help reveal the early stages of cancer growth and spread but also uncover new treatment options that tumor genetic analysis alone may not.
Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report that a program designed to enhance self-care and lead to more seamless management of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in adults successfully reduced rates of emergency room visits and hospitalization, and the burdensome symptoms and limitations caused by the condition.
For the past 17 years, most scientists around the globe have been using the nucleic acid sequence, or genome, an assembly of DNA information, from primarily a single individual as a kind of “baseline” reference and human species representation for comparing genetic variety among groups of people.
It’s a common scenario in many emergency rooms: A man with a long history of homelessness and schizophrenia reports hallucinations and thoughts of suicide. Should the medical team admit him for hospitalization or treat him with antipsychotic drugs and release him from the ER? Lessons learned from this experience are the focus of the first article in a series of case studies that begins Nov. 15 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
A new study designed to reach hospitalized patients at risk shows that a “real-time” educational conversation, video or leaflet can lower the missed dose rates of drugs that can prevent potentially lethal blood clots in their veins.
Dry Eye Syndrome Slows Reading Rate, Study Suggests 11/15/2018 AddThis Sharing Buttons Share to Facebook Share to TwitterShare to EmailShare to PrintShare to More Slow reading rate and significantly disrupt day to day tasks that require visual concentration for long periods of time . Johns Hopkins researchers report that chronic dry eye, a condition in which natural tears fail to adequately lubricate the eyes, can slow reading rate and significantly disrupt day to day tasks that require visual concentration for long periods of time. Credit: iStock Johns Hopkins researchers report that chronic dry eye, a condition in which natural tears fail to adequately lubricate the eyes, can slow reading rate and significantly disrupt day to day tasks that require visual concentration for long periods of time.
In a new $5.5 million center that spans engineering and cardiology specialties at Johns Hopkins, experts aim to improve the diagnosis and treatment of heart rhythm disorders that affect millions of people by leveraging innovations in cardiac imaging, computer simulations and data science.
Zebrafish eye injected with retinoblastoma tumor cells (green) form a mass in areas close to the injection site. A few of these tumor cells move outside the eye. Credit: Johns Hopkins Medicine By comparing genetic sequences in the eye tumors of children whose cancers spread with tumors that didn’t spread, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers report new evidence that a domino effect in cells is responsible for the cancer spreading. Their experiments suggest that blocking part of the chain of events — which they successfully accomplished in zebra fish and human cells — stops the growth and spread of the eye tumor cells.
Experimenting with lab-grown brain cancer cells, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers have added to evidence that a shortage of specific tiny molecules that silence certain genes is linked to the development and growth of pediatric brain tumors known as low-grade gliomas.
The 2018 American Heart Association Scientific Sessions
2018 Cholesterol Guidelines for Heart Health Announced 11/10/2018 AddThis Sharing Buttons Share to Facebook Share to TwitterShare to EmailShare to PrintShare to More . A working group composed of two Johns Hopkins Medicine physicians and their American Heart Association colleagues has released updated clinician guidelines on managing cholesterol as a way to minimize risk for heart attack, stroke and death.
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