Intravenous injection of bone marrow derived stem cells (MSCs) in patients with spinal cord injuries led to significant improvement in motor functions, researchers from Yale University and Japan report Feb. 18 in the Journal of Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery. For more than half of the patients, substantial improvements in key functions — such as ability to walk, or to use their hands — were observed within weeks of stem cell injection, the researchers report. No substantial side effects were reported. The patients had sustained, non-penetrating spinal cord injuries, in many cases from fal ..read more

It’s been nearly two decades since a coronavirus capable of wreaking havoc on our bodies threatened global pandemic. Last year, that threat was made good with the emergence of a deadly new version, dubbed SARS-CoV-2. With the world still reeling from the devastation of COVID-19, the question of if – and when – we’ll see yet another member of this family pop up in the near future has the attention of researchers. Their findings should have us on high alert. A recent investigation has employed machine learning to predict which mammals could host multiple strains of coronavirus, allowing the path ..read more

A breakthrough study from scientists at Japan’s RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research has homed in on the specific characteristics of stem cells in the skin responsible for hair cell regeneration and also identified the optimal ingredients to generate continual hair follicle growth. The researchers suggest animal testing for their hair regeneration method is complete and ready for human clinical trials. Human hair follicles are continually cycling through a number of different phases. The majority of the time a hair follicle is in the anagen phase, which is the active growth stage of h ..read more

When sperm race, it’s for keeps. So it comes as little surprise that in some species, the competition over who reaches the egg first can get a little dirty. A variant in mice genes has been found to give sperm that possess it a clear advantage by poisoning its peers while they’re still in development, robbing them of their ability to efficiently sniff their way towards the egg. In a rather karmic twist, a race consisting only of would-be assassins would be a complete disaster, with researchers finding the genetic variant risks overdosing on its own killer cocktail unless the race is balanced o ..read more

The effect of a drug, or impact of a treatment like chemotherapy, doesn’t just depend on your body. The success of a particular medicine also depends on the trillions of bacteria in your gut. The 100 trillion bacteria that live within the human digestive tract – known as the human gut microbiome – help us extract nutrients from food, boost the immune response and modulate the effects of drugs. Recent research, including my own, has implicated the gut microbiome in seemingly unconnected states, ranging from the response to cancer treatments to obesity and a host of neurological diseases, includ ..read more

The novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. COVID-19 is a highly transmissible disease that has spread to over 191 countries and territories around the world. To date, 97.61 million cases have been confirmed and over 2 million people have lost their lives. Whole-genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is related to the SARS bat virus. However, the main and intermediate routes SARS-CoV-2’s jump to humans r ..read more

The novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. COVID-19 is a highly transmissible disease that has spread to over 191 countries and territories around the world. To date, 97.61 million cases have been confirmed and over 2 million people have lost their lives. Whole-genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is related to the SARS bat virus. However, the main and intermediate routes SARS-CoV-2’s jump to humans r ..read more

The novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), was first detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, causing the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. COVID-19 is a highly transmissible disease that has spread to over 191 countries and territories around the world. To date, 97.61 million cases have been confirmed and over 2 million people have lost their lives. Whole-genome sequencing and phylogenetic analysis indicate that SARS-CoV-2 is related to the SARS bat virus. However, the main and intermediate routes SARS-CoV-2’s jump to humans r ..read more

Osteoarthritis is a painful, debilitating and fairly common condition that’s hard to slow or stop, so treatment options are mostly limited to reducing pain. But a new study in mice has now found that nanotherapeutic injections into the knee can slow cartilage degradation. Cartilage plays a key role in our joints, especially our knees, where it cushions against the forces of a lifetime of walking and running. But because it doesn’t naturally repair itself, the tissue can degrade over time or due to injury, leading to the pain associated with osteoarthritis. In recent years, scientists have foun ..read more

The nasal spray works by killing the virus in the upper airways, which prevents it from incubating and spreading into the lungs. A new nasal spray that allegedly kills 99.9% of the novel coronavirus has entered clinical trials that will begin today, according to a press release from the producers, the SaNOtize Research and Development Corporation. The spray works by killing the virus in the upper airways, which prevents it from incubating and spreading into the lungs. The SaNOtize Nitric Oxide Nasal Spray (NONS), developed by a team of researchers in Vancouver, Canada, has proven to be 99.9% e ..read more