Science and Health News

The rheumatoid arthritis drug baricitinib can block viral entry and reduce mortality in patients with moderate to severe COVID-19, according to translational research by an international team coordinated by researchers from Karolinska Institutet in Sweden. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, support the continuation of ongoing randomized clinical trials.

Doctors may soon be able to more accurately diagnose concussions by measuring the number of certain molecules in a person’s saliva, according to . The results of a recent clinical study confirmed that a patient’s spit may be used to aid concussion diagnosis in a non-invasive, non-biased fashion.

Scientists have made a breakthrough discovery of a key protein that supports the production of healthy blood cells throughout life by regulating the body’s inflammatory response.

Bioengineers at EPFL have used organoids – tiny lab-grown organs – to mimic the early development of the heart in the mouse embryo. The work is another step towards future bioartificial organs for research and transplants.

At high concentrations, reactive oxygen species – known as oxidants – are harmful to cells in all organisms and have been linked to ageing. But a study from Chalmers University of Technology has now shown that low levels of the oxidant hydrogen peroxide can stimulate an enzyme that helps slow down the ageing of yeast cells.

A genetically edited form of a herpes simplex virus — rewired to keep it from taking refuge in the nervous system and eluding an immune response — has outperformed a leading vaccine candidate in a new study from the University of Cincinnati, Northwestern University and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is one of the most common and deadliest diseases worldwide. Until today, COPD is not curable. Researchers at Helmholtz Zentrum München and at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) have now succeeded in curing COPD in mice exposed to chronic cigarette smoke. Their goal is to test the novel therapeutic approach in human clinical trials over the next few years.

Researchers examine the decline in average body temperature among healthy adults over the past two decades