Research News

Using state of the art techniques, researchers from Uppsala University have shown that the metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes and prediabetes was much more disturbed than previously known, and that it varied between organs and severity of the disease. The study is a collaboration with e.g. Copenhagen University and AstraZeneca and it has been published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine.

Simple nasal washes with mild saline water can prevent hospitalisation and deaths from COVID-19, if applied twice daily following a positive diagnosis, according to research led by the US-based Augusta University.

Epileptic seizures are frequent among patients with cerebral venous thrombosis - a blood clot affecting the venous system of the brain. A thesis from University of Gothenburg suggests that some of these patients should be diagnosed with epilepsy and offered medication to prevent further seizures.

In a recent study, researchers from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University and other universities in China have reported that brain stimulation combined with a nose spray containing nanoparticles can improve recovery after ischemic stroke in an animal model.

Demand for donor livers for transplant patients outstrips supply with over 15% of waitlist patients dying after a year. A new international study offers support for increasing the use of living donor liver transplantation (LDLT) in Western countries and reducing the imbalance between organ supply and demand. This study is reported in the Journal of Hepatology, the official journal of the European Association for the Study of the Liver, published by Elsevier.

Short cycles of a low-calorie diet that replicates fasting appeared to reduce inflammation and delay cognitive decline in mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease; initial data indicates diet’s safety in Alzheimer’s patients.

Researchers from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have developed a Zika vaccine technology that is highly effective and safe in preclinical mouse models. In a pregnant mouse model, the vaccine prevented both the pregnant mothers and the developing fetuses from developing systemic infection. The research is published in Microbiology Spectrum, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology.

Detection of the cancer microenvironment may soon become much easier with the help of a new molecular biosensor recently developed by a team of scientists.

Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) have designed a new method to deliver a vaccine candidate for tuberculosis (TB). It involves using spherical vesicles secreted by bacteria coated on gold nanoparticles which can then be delivered to immune cells. This can potentially trigger an immune response and offer protection against the disease.