A feral cat found in Alexandria, Virginia, tested positive for rabies, officials say.
The Animal Welfare League of Alexandria said officers captured the small gray cat on Tuesday after it was seen acting aggressively in the Alexandria West area.
Five people were “exposed to” the cat and the health department is working with them, officials said.
Local
Authorities are warning anyone who had physical contact with the cat to call the health department at 703-746-4910 or after hours at 703-735-8506.
There is also an increased risk that other animals in the area could have contracted rabies from the cat.
Symptoms of rabies in animals include:
Unexpected aggression from an animal that would normally avoid people, easily frighten or run away
Extreme drooling or foaming at the mouth
Walking as if drunk or unusual sluggishness or stupor
Residents should call 703-746-444 with any concerns about animals.
The first test flight of a hydrogen passenger plane ran on fuel produced in large part by fossil fuels, the company behind the plane has admitted.
UK and US-based ZeroAvia last week flew a six-seater plane running on hydrogen instead of kerosene, saying it was the first hydrogen fuel cell flight of a commercial-size aircraft. The company hailed the test as “the first step to realising the transformational possibilities of moving from fossil fuels to zero-emission hydrogen”.
UK aviation minister Robert Courts said the flight was a sign of the “commitment …
Existing subscribers, please log in with your email address to link your account access.
A study suggests a type of nerve cell derived from stem cells can make the right connections when implanted into the brain, restoring lost motor function.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive degenerative disorder that affects muscular control.
Its symptoms include tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement, and impaired balance. Difficulties with swallowing and speaking are also common, particularly later in the course of the disease.
The National Institutes of Health estimate that about 50,000 people are diagnosed with Parkinson’s every year in the United States, and around half a million people live with the condition.
In the disease’s early stages, before symptoms appear, certain brain cells called the “substantia nigra” start to die. These cells produce dopamine, a nerve signaling molecule, or neurotransmitter, which is essential for the smooth movement of muscles.
There is currently no cure for Parkinson’s, but one promising line of research involves transplanting nerve cells into the brain to replace lost functions. Experts could potentially use the same approach to repair damage caused by other neurodegenerative disorders and trauma.
However, for such therapies to succeed, the transplanted nerve cells must make the right connections.
“Our brain is wired in such an accurate way by specialized nerve cells in particular locations so we can engage in all our complex behaviors. This all depends on circuits that are wired by specific cell types,” says Su-Chun Zhang, a professor of neuroscience and neurology at the Waisman Center in the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Neurological injuries usually affect specific brain regions or specific cell types, disrupting circuits,” he says. “To treat those diseases, we have to restore these circuits.”
To repair the lost neural circuitry, implanted cells would need to send out projections or “axons” to transmit signals to the correct targets in distant regions of the brain. They would also need to receive the appropriate signals from other nerve cells.
One major unanswered question is whether it is the exact location in the brain where the cells are implanted or the identity of the cells themselves that determine these connections.
It is also unknown whether such new connections would restore lost brain functions.
Zhang and his colleagues set out to find the answers through experiments on mice with Parkinson’s.
They report their results in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Scientists can now create particular human cells to order from embryonic stem cells, which, given the right conditions, can produce virtually any cell type in the body.
Zhang and his team used this technique to make dopamine-producing neurons, the cells that die in Parkinson’s. For comparison, they also created neurons that produce another neurotransmitter called glutamate.
When they transplanted either cell type into the mice’s substantia nigra, both neuron types sent out long-distance projections. But the projections followed different routes and connected to other targets in the brain.
The majority of implanted dopamine-producing cells sent axons to a part of the brain called the dorsal striatum, which is crucial for coordinating movement. In a healthy brain, “native” dopamine cells target the same region.
The researchers believe this shows that the identity of transplanted nerve cells — rather than their location — determines the path their axons will take through the brain and their ultimate destination.
Just as importantly, the two types of implanted nerve cells started to receive distinctive inputs from other nerve cells. The glutamate cells were more likely to receive stimulatory inputs, whereas the dopamine cells were more likely to receive inhibitory inputs that prevented them from being overstimulated.
Between 4 and 5 months after the transplantation of dopamine cells into their brains, the mice showed improved motor skills. By contrast, the mice that received glutamate cells showed no such improvements.
Finally, the researchers demonstrated that it was the implanted dopamine-producing cells that restored the mice’s motor abilities.
Before implanting them into the brain, they inserted genetic “on-off” switches into the dopamine cells. These increase or decrease the cells’ activity in response to drugs in the animals’ feed or injections.
When the team switched off the cells, improvements in the animals’ motor skills disappeared, proving that the new circuitry created by them had been responsible.
The researchers speculate that specialists could use the same technique to fine-tune the activity of implanted dopamine cells in Parkinson’s patients.
The authors conclude:
“These findings reveal cell-type-dependent functional circuit integration by transplanted neurons, highlighting the prospect of using specialized neuronal types from stem cells to repair the neural circuit to treat neurological conditions.”
However, they note some important limitations of their work.
The distance between the substantia nigra and dorsal striatum is considerably greater in humans than mice, so axons from implanted nerve cells will have further to grow.
They write that further studies in non-human primates will be needed to test the therapy for larger brains. To make the technique work in people, scientists may also have to find ways to speed up the axons’ growth.
For millions of us, starting the day without a coffee doesn’t bear thinking about.
But experts warn it is better to hold off from the caffeine hit until after breakfast because regularly drinking coffee beforehand may raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the long term.
Researchers at the University of Bath asked 29 volunteers to drink a strong black coffee about an hour after getting up to understand how this would affect their blood sugar after breakfast.
After then having a sugary drink – similar in calorie content to cereal or toast with jam – their blood sugar was around 50 per cent higher than when they went without a coffee. The caffeine in the drink is thought to prevent muscles from absorbing the sugar.
Experts warn it is better to hold off from the caffeine hit until after breakfast because regularly drinking coffee beforehand may raise the risk of developing type 2 diabetes in the long term
This may not be an immediate problem, but frequently raised blood sugar over the years can lead to diabetes and heart disease, the study in the British Journal of Nutrition said.
Professor James Betts, senior author of the study, said: ‘Nearly half of us will wake in the morning and, before doing anything else, drink coffee – intuitively the more tired we feel, the stronger the coffee.
‘I love coffee too, and I’m not necessarily telling people to go without it, as it has some benefits.
‘Perhaps people should wait just a little while later, or until they get to work, so they don’t have caffeine in their system when they eat a breakfast containing carbohydrates and sugar.’
Around 40 per cent of people in the UK are believed to drink a coffee as soon as they wake up.
Researchers wanted to see its effects in sleep-deprived people, so asked study participants to set an alarm to go off every hour during the night.
Researchers at the University of Bath who asked volunteers to drink a strong black coffee about an hour after getting up found their blood sugar was around 50 per cent higher than when they went without a coffee
When they woke, to make sure they didn’t fall asleep, researchers texted them questions such as simple sums every 30 seconds, to which they had to reply.
The study looked at people’s blood sugar and insulin levels on three occasions – after a full night’s sleep at home with no coffee, after broken sleep in their bed with no coffee, and after broken sleep and coffee.
This was 300mg of strong black coffee – about the equivalent of two standard cups.
Participants’ blood sugar was tested following the breakfast drink, which they had around 30 minutes after the coffee.
The study, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, did not find coffee or sleep deprivation had an impact on insulin levels.
However, strong black coffee consumed before breakfast substantially increased the blood glucose response, repeated blood tests over two hours showed.
Professor Betts said: ‘This study is important and has far-reaching health implications as up until now we have had limited knowledge about what coffee is doing to our bodies, in particular for our metabolic and blood sugar control.’
The first test flight of a hydrogen passenger plane ran on fuel produced in large part by fossil fuels, the company behind the plane has admitted.
UK and US-based ZeroAvia last week flew a six-seater plane running on hydrogen instead of kerosene, saying it was the first hydrogen fuel cell flight of a commercial-size aircraft. The company hailed the test as “the first step to realising the transformational possibilities of moving from fossil fuels to zero-emission hydrogen”.
UK aviation minister Robert Courts said the flight was a sign of the “commitment …
Existing subscribers, please log in with your email address to link your account access.
A study suggests a type of nerve cell derived from stem cells can make the right connections when implanted into the brain, restoring lost motor function.
Parkinson’s disease is a progressive degenerative disorder that affects muscular control.
Its symptoms include tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement, and impaired balance. Difficulties with swallowing and speaking are also common, particularly later in the course of the disease.
The National Institutes of Health estimate that about 50,000 people are diagnosed with Parkinson’s every year in the United States, and around half a million people live with the condition.
In the disease’s early stages, before symptoms appear, certain brain cells called the “substantia nigra” start to die. These cells produce dopamine, a nerve signaling molecule, or neurotransmitter, which is essential for the smooth movement of muscles.
There is currently no cure for Parkinson’s, but one promising line of research involves transplanting nerve cells into the brain to replace lost functions. Experts could potentially use the same approach to repair damage caused by other neurodegenerative disorders and trauma.
However, for such therapies to succeed, the transplanted nerve cells must make the right connections.
“Our brain is wired in such an accurate way by specialized nerve cells in particular locations so we can engage in all our complex behaviors. This all depends on circuits that are wired by specific cell types,” says Su-Chun Zhang, a professor of neuroscience and neurology at the Waisman Center in the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“Neurological injuries usually affect specific brain regions or specific cell types, disrupting circuits,” he says. “To treat those diseases, we have to restore these circuits.”
To repair the lost neural circuitry, implanted cells would need to send out projections or “axons” to transmit signals to the correct targets in distant regions of the brain. They would also need to receive the appropriate signals from other nerve cells.
One major unanswered question is whether it is the exact location in the brain where the cells are implanted or the identity of the cells themselves that determine these connections.
It is also unknown whether such new connections would restore lost brain functions.
Zhang and his colleagues set out to find the answers through experiments on mice with Parkinson’s.
They report their results in the journal Cell Stem Cell.
Scientists can now create particular human cells to order from embryonic stem cells, which, given the right conditions, can produce virtually any cell type in the body.
Zhang and his team used this technique to make dopamine-producing neurons, the cells that die in Parkinson’s. For comparison, they also created neurons that produce another neurotransmitter called glutamate.
When they transplanted either cell type into the mice’s substantia nigra, both neuron types sent out long-distance projections. But the projections followed different routes and connected to other targets in the brain.
The majority of implanted dopamine-producing cells sent axons to a part of the brain called the dorsal striatum, which is crucial for coordinating movement. In a healthy brain, “native” dopamine cells target the same region.
The researchers believe this shows that the identity of transplanted nerve cells — rather than their location — determines the path their axons will take through the brain and their ultimate destination.
Just as importantly, the two types of implanted nerve cells started to receive distinctive inputs from other nerve cells. The glutamate cells were more likely to receive stimulatory inputs, whereas the dopamine cells were more likely to receive inhibitory inputs that prevented them from being overstimulated.
Between 4 and 5 months after the transplantation of dopamine cells into their brains, the mice showed improved motor skills. By contrast, the mice that received glutamate cells showed no such improvements.
Finally, the researchers demonstrated that it was the implanted dopamine-producing cells that restored the mice’s motor abilities.
Before implanting them into the brain, they inserted genetic “on-off” switches into the dopamine cells. These increase or decrease the cells’ activity in response to drugs in the animals’ feed or injections.
When the team switched off the cells, improvements in the animals’ motor skills disappeared, proving that the new circuitry created by them had been responsible.
The researchers speculate that specialists could use the same technique to fine-tune the activity of implanted dopamine cells in Parkinson’s patients.
The authors conclude:
“These findings reveal cell-type-dependent functional circuit integration by transplanted neurons, highlighting the prospect of using specialized neuronal types from stem cells to repair the neural circuit to treat neurological conditions.”
However, they note some important limitations of their work.
The distance between the substantia nigra and dorsal striatum is considerably greater in humans than mice, so axons from implanted nerve cells will have further to grow.
They write that further studies in non-human primates will be needed to test the therapy for larger brains. To make the technique work in people, scientists may also have to find ways to speed up the axons’ growth.
Since March, we’ve all been forced to rethink our handling of personal space. Dictating our distance from other humans is a rule of thumb that defines “close contact”: If you’re within 6 feet of someone for more than 15 minutes, it’s potentially dangerous. This is the rule that federal and state health departments use to determine whom needs to be contacted after someone tests positive for COVID-19, and it’s a rule (especially the 6 feet part) that many Americans are using to determine their risk when going shopping or seeing friends. Restaurant servers adhere to it by not lingering at tables; news anchors adhere to it on TV, their seats carefully spaced out. But as we move indoors in increasing numbers—particularly into classrooms, dormitories, and offices—the underlying assumptions that made 6 feet and 15 minutes a rule to live by are no longer correct. To reflect the risk that comes with gathering indoors, and our evolving understanding of how COVID-19 can be spread, we need to rethink the formula for “close contact.”
The original definition for close contact was basically a goodguess.
We’ve been aware for a while that the main way you become infected with SARS-CoV-2 is through inhalation of virus-containing particles; this is why we have physical distancing. Those particles come from the airway of an infected person who coughs, sneezes, sings, yells, or even just speaks and breathes. If you are close enough to breathe those particles as they fall through the air—at the beginning of the pandemic, we thought most particles that conferred risk were relatively large—you stand a chance of becoming infected. For interacting with the general population, where we don’t know who is infected, prevention has centered on minimizing the ways one might be exposed to the virus. These include staying far enough away from one another such that most of the potentially virus-containing particles from one person are either dispersed (this is why the outdoors is considered safer) or fall to the ground before they reach someone nearby (this is the purpose of the 6-foot rule). Disinfecting surfaces where particles may have fallen can be a useful precaution.
For a disease as serious and as infectious as COVID-19, we take additional steps when we identify an infectious case. The cornerstone of pandemic response is isolation, contact tracing, and testing. When this works, it identifies an infected person quickly, through regular testing, then minimizes the number of people who come into contact with them, by isolating the infected person. It proactively identifies other people who had prior contact with the case, through contact tracing; these people are at greatest risk of infection. Who is categorized as having had “close contact” with the infected person is very important: It may affect if they are contacted in the first place, and if they are then counseled to quarantine to avoid further disease spread. In this process of identifying and informing “close contacts,” the finer details matter. Although it is informed by science, there is an art to whether someone qualifies as an instance of close contact. In the process of identifying close contacts, an investigator is likely to talk to many more people than will eventually be deemed “close contacts”—people who came into contact with an infected person only briefly or from a distance. The messaging in all of these discussions must be persuasive, informative, and accurate. That can’t happen if the definition of “close contact” isn’t based on good, up-to-date science.
The original definition for close contact was basically a good guess, made at the beginning of the pandemic, with the understanding that the virus spread via relatively large particles. Helpfully, our understanding of how the virus makes its way from one person to the next has evolved since. It turns out that large virus-containing particles, the kind that usually don’t travel more than a few feet and don’t linger in the air, aren’t the only particles that an infected person expels as they breathe, talk, and cough. They also emit smaller particles that remain airborne for minutes to hours. (This is what people who say that the virus is “airborne” mean). Outdoors, the smaller particles should be diluted and dispersed. But those smaller particles do not disperse as readily in an indoor environment. Those aerosols are also infectious; we call this route of exposure “airborne transmission.” Defining “close contacts” as just those “within 6 feet for longer than 15 minutes” ignores this important disease transmission pathway. Experts who study airborne viral transmission met in late August at a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine workshop and concluded that airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 is playing a role in the spread of the virus. Though the exact extent to which it is causing spread of the virus is still uncertain, we need to take it into account in our infection control strategy.
Currently, “close contact” ignores airborne transmission. Using the current rule, if you (or your child) sat several desks away from another student during a two-hour classroom lecture, no one would need to inform you if that student tested positive for the virus. This is true even if the room is not well ventilated. In fact, in shared spaces where desks, cribs, or mats are placed more than 6 feet apart, the current rule would tell us that the presence of an infected individual would not lead to any of the occupants of the room qualifying as a close contact. This means that other occupants, students, teachers, or caregivers would not, according to federal health guidelines, need to be notified that they had been exposed to an infected individual.
We believe that this failure can lead to unnecessary disease spread. We also believe that strict applications of the “6 feet, 15 minutes” rule is at odds with the expectation parents, students, and teachers have that they should be informed if there is an infection in the classroom. Protracted proximity, under circumstances where ventilation and filtering are substantially reduced relative to being outdoors, should override the fact a person was by-the-measuring-stick distanced from the infected individual. Failing to account for such a commonsense concern of increased risk of airborne transmission in a stuffy room is not just a poor reading of recent science but also bad public health policy. Communication and trust in public health is a cornerstone of disease prevention. Sharing indoor space with a group is inevitably risky. People should have information on how best to protect themselves and others. They also should have the information needed to make personal decisions following a potential exposure—particularly if they are not currently identified as “close contacts” but nonetheless shared a space for an extended period with someone who has tested positive.
A prudent approach moving forward would be to consider all classroom occupants close contacts of one another and, in the event of an infection, recommend quarantine as well as testing of those individuals. The testing data that results could then be used as evidence to refine future classroom quarantine measures, and to develop a formula for close contact that takes into account ventilation, longer exposure periods, and even mask-wearing. At minimum, we recommend that everyone in the classroom with a positive case be notified so that they can be instructed to quarantine or they can decide to quarantine in order to prevent additional community spread of COVID-19. This would be good public health policy. We may never have a magic rule for preventing spread, but an updated evidence-based formula can help us depend less on magic to protect human lives.
A farm worker trying to put out an illegal fire which burned part of the Amazon rainforest reserve in Brazil
CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images
It has been a big week for talk about tackling our destruction of nature. “We need to respect nature, follow its laws and protect it,” said China’s president Xi Jinping at a virtual UN biodiversity summit today. However, he stopped short of a biodiversity equivalent of his significant climate announcement last week, pledging that the country would achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
At the summit, UN secretary general Antonio Guterres said “humanity is …
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A study finds that belief in conspiracy theories and its effect upon individual behaviors rose between March and July 2020.
While many other countries have managed to control the spread of COVID-19, the death toll from the disease continues to rise in the United States.
The Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia has published a study examining how the belief in conspiracy theories has led to an unwillingness among many U.S. citizens’ to engage in activities that could curtail the spread of the disease.
Many people in the U.S. continue to believe that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) were exaggerating the seriousness of COVID-19, that China created the virus, or that the pharmaceutical industry created it to sell more drugs.
Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.
“Belief in pandemic conspiracy theories appears to be an obstacle to minimizing the spread of COVID-19,” says study co-author Dan Romer, research director of APPC. APPC director Kathleen Hall Jamieson is the study’s other author.
The study authors conducted surveys from March 17–27, 2020, and July 1–21, 2020. In March, the researchers interviewed a nationally representative sample of 1,050 U.S. adults. In July, they questioned 840 individuals from that original sample.
Belief in COVID-19 conspiracies rose between March and July of 2020:
In March, 28% believed that the virus was a bioweapon created by the Chinese government. That number rose to 37% in July.
In March, 24% suspected that people at the CDC were exaggerating the seriousness of COVID-19 to damage the re-election prospects of President Donald Trump. In July, 32% believed this to be the case.
15%, or 1 in 7, believed in March that the pharmaceutical industry had created the disease to sell drugs, and eventually, vaccines. By July, that number was 17%.
In the spring, the APPC released a study that explored the sources of misinformation regarding COVID-19. The study found associations between a belief in conspiracy theories and the heavy consumption of conservative media outlets and social media.
Once a person believes a conspiracy theory, says Jamieson, it is hard to change their mind.
“Conspiracy theories are difficult to displace because they provide explanations for events that are not fully understood, such as the current pandemic, play on people’s distrust of government and other powerful actors, and involve accusations that cannot be easily fact-checked,” she explains.
The authors found that conspiracy beliefs were most common among people belonging to disadvantaged racial and ethnic groups, a troubling finding since fatalities from the disease are disproportionately high among people of color.
However, the study found that older people in the U.S., who are at high risk of COVID-19 fatalities, were less likely to believe in conspiracies.
The study finds that a belief in conspiracies is inversely proportional to the likelihood that a person will wear a face mask or get vaccinated.
People who do not believe in conspiracy theories are 1.5 times more likely to wear a face mask outside the home when in contact with other people.
The authors found that 62% of conspiracy believers reported wearing a mask compared to 95% of other people. Political orientation also seemed to be a factor in whether people wore a mask. The study indicated that liberals were more likely to wear a mask than conservatives.
By July, the study found that fewer people overall intended to get vaccinated.
In March, 37% of those who believed strongly in conspiracy theories intended to get a vaccination; by July, that percentage had fallen to 22%.
Finally, in March, 81% of people who did not believe in conspiracy theories planned to have the vaccination, although that number had gone down to 76% by July.
The researchers found no meaningful association between political beliefs and the drop in the number of people intending to get vaccinated.
The study concludes:
“Because belief in COVID-related conspiracy theories predicts resistance to both preventive behaviors and future vaccination for the virus, it will be critical to confront both conspiracy theories, and vaccination misinformation to prevent further spread of the virus in the U.S. Reducing those barriers will require continued messaging by public health authorities on mainstream media and in particular on politically conservative outlets that have supported COVID-related conspiracy theories.”
For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, click here.
BERLIN — Scientists say genes that some people have inherited from their Neanderthal ancestors may increase their likelihood of suffering severe forms of COVID-19.
A study by European scientists published Wednesday by the journal Nature examined a cluster of genes that have been linked to a higher risk of hospitalization and respiratory failure in patients who are infected with the new coronavirus.
Researchers Hugo Zeberg and Svante Paabo determined that the genes belong to a group, or haplotype, which likely came from Neanderthals. The haplotype is found in about 16% of the population in Europe and half the population in South Asia, while in Africa and East Asia it is non-existent.
Modern humans and Neanderthals are known to have interbred at various points in history, resulting in an exchange of genes than can still be found today.
The genes are one of several risk factors for COVID-19, including age, sex and pre-existing conditions like obesity, diabetes and heart problems.
Zeberg and Paabo, who work at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, noted that the prevalence of the particular Neanderthal gene group is highest in people from Bangladesh, where 63% are estimated to carry a copy of the haplotype.
They cited studies from the U.K. showing that people of Bangladeshi descent have about two times higher risk of dying from COVID-19 than the general population.
“It is striking that the genetic heritage from the Neanderthals has such tragic consequences during the current pandemic,” Paabo said in a statement. “Why this is must now be investigated as quickly as possible.”
But Andre Franke, director of the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology at the University of Kiel, Germany, said the findings have no immediate impact on the treatment of COVID-19.
In a comment ahead of the study’s final publication, Franke said one interesting question arising from the study is why that haploytpe — unlike most Neanderthal genes — survived until today.
“Perhaps it’s good for a very active immune system if one doesn’t have other risk factors,” he suggested.
A choir teacher conducts an online meeting of a children’s choir
Laura Thompson/Shutterstock
As the popularity of video conferencing software, such as Zoom, has surged during the coronavirus pandemic, so too has the phenomenon of virtual gate-crashing, commonly known as Zoombombing.
This has included harassment, hate speech and offensive images being suddenly streamed into a virtual meeting, and has been tied to coordinated campaigns organised on internet message boards. In March, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement that it had “received multiple reports of conferences being disrupted by pornographic and/or hate images and threatening language,” and warned users to take security …
A recent small-scale study has concluded that hospitalized patients with COVID-19 are less likely to have life threatening complications if they have sufficient vitamin D levels.
A new study demonstrates that people with sufficient levels of vitamin D are less likely to develop life threatening COVID-19 complications when hospitalized with the disease.
The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, could be valuable for doctors attempting to reduce the mortality rates of COVID-19 in the absence of an effective vaccine.
If further studies back up these findings, vitamin D supplements might offer a cost-effective way to limit the risk of severe COVID-19. It is important to note that this recent study has several limitations, which we address below.
Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.
Since the sudden emergence of the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease that it causes, COVID-19, scientists have paid a great deal of attention to the development of a vaccine.
Experts consider a vaccine to be crucial in reducing the effects of the virus, even if it is not yet clear to what extent an initial vaccine would moderate rates of transmission and infection.
Alongside the endeavor to develop a vaccine, researchers are also focusing on developing effective COVID-19 treatments. Even if none can make a person immune to the virus, treatments may be able to reduce the disease’s severity.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have approved two drugs as treatments for COVID-19: remdesivir and dexamethasone.
Another candidate is vitamin D. Research has suggested that it might, in theory, be effective, but corroborating this requires further efforts.
Rather than analyzing the effects of vitamin D as COVID-19 treatment, the researchers behind the present study looked at the effects of a person’s vitamin D levels on the severity of the disease.
To do so, they analyzed data from patients with confirmed COVID-19 who had been admitted to the Sina Hospital, in Tehran, Iran.
Of the 611 people admitted with confirmed COVID-19 before May 1, 2020, there were records of the 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, an indication of overall vitamin D levels, for 235 patients. Their mean age was 58.7 years, ranging from 20–90 years, and 37.4% were older than 65.
The researchers classified the patients into two groups: those with vitamin D levels of at least 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) — an amount considered sufficient by the Endocrine Society — and those with lower values.
They then analyzed the severity of the patients’ COVID-19 signs and symptoms using guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Severe or critical disease might involve a range of issues, including shortness of breath, respiratory failure, or a significantly reduced blood oxygen level.
After cross-checking the patients’ vitamin D levels with the severity of their COVID-19 symptoms and accounting for confounding factors, the researchers found that having a vitamin D level of above 30 ng/ml was significantly associated with having less severe COVID-19.
Among the 235 patients with confirmed COVID-19, only 32.8% had sufficient levels of the vitamin.
The researchers also found that the patients with sufficient vitamin D had higher blood lymphocyte counts and lower levels of C-reactive protein in their blood — both of which indicate a positive immune response.
The researchers speculate that this may have reduced the likelihood of developing cytokine storm, which can cause acute respiratory distress syndrome in COVID-19 patients, sometimes resulting in death.
The findings highlight, the researchers say, that vitamin D sufficiency may be important in the eventuality that people develop COVID-19 alongside another respiratory disease, such as influenza.
According to the study’s corresponding author, Dr. Michael F. Holick, director of the General Clinical Research Unit at the medical campus of Boston University, in Massachusetts, “There is great concern that the combination of an influenza infection and a coronal viral infection could substantially increase hospitalizations and death due to complications from these viral infections.”
For the researchers, their findings suggest that vitamin D supplementation would be valuable. As Dr. Holick notes: “Because vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency is so widespread in children and adults in the United States and worldwide, especially in the winter months, it is prudent for everyone to take a vitamin D supplement to reduce [the] risk of being infected and having complications from COVID-19.”
It is worthing noting the present study’s limitations. First, the researchers only had access to a relatively small number of patients. Before drawing solid conclusions, scientists need to carry out much larger studies.
Also, various issues can influence both vitamin D status and COVID-19 severity, such as socioeconomic factors and smoking status. The scientists accounted for neither of these in their analysis.
Also, because the study was cross-sectional, the researchers could not prove that vitamin D insufficiency caused an increase in disease severity.
To address these limitations, the researchers call for “large-scale studies and randomized clinical trials.”
For live updates on the latest developments regarding the novel coronavirus and COVID-19, clickhere.
A recent small-scale study has concluded that hospitalized patients with COVID-19 are less likely to have life threatening complications if they have sufficient vitamin D levels.
A new study demonstrates that people with sufficient levels of vitamin D are less likely to develop life threatening COVID-19 complications when hospitalized with the disease.
The research, published in the journal PLOS ONE, could be valuable for doctors attempting to reduce the mortality rates of COVID-19 in the absence of an effective vaccine.
If further studies back up these findings, vitamin D supplements might offer a cost-effective way to limit the risk of severe COVID-19. It is important to note that this recent study has several limitations, which we address below.
Stay informed with live updates on the current COVID-19 outbreak and visit our coronavirus hub for more advice on prevention and treatment.
Since the sudden emergence of the virus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease that it causes, COVID-19, scientists have paid a great deal of attention to the development of a vaccine.
Experts consider a vaccine to be crucial in reducing the effects of the virus, even if it is not yet clear to what extent an initial vaccine would moderate rates of transmission and infection.
Alongside the endeavor to develop a vaccine, researchers are also focusing on developing effective COVID-19 treatments. Even if none can make a person immune to the virus, treatments may be able to reduce the disease’s severity.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have approved two drugs as treatments for COVID-19: remdesivir and dexamethasone.
Another candidate is vitamin D. Research has suggested that it might, in theory, be effective, but corroborating this requires further efforts.
Rather than analyzing the effects of vitamin D as COVID-19 treatment, the researchers behind the present study looked at the effects of a person’s vitamin D levels on the severity of the disease.
To do so, they analyzed data from patients with confirmed COVID-19 who had been admitted to the Sina Hospital, in Tehran, Iran.
Of the 611 people admitted with confirmed COVID-19 before May 1, 2020, there were records of the 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels, an indication of overall vitamin D levels, for 235 patients. Their mean age was 58.7 years, ranging from 20–90 years, and 37.4% were older than 65.
The researchers classified the patients into two groups: those with vitamin D levels of at least 30 nanograms per milliliter (ng/ml) — an amount considered sufficient by the Endocrine Society — and those with lower values.
They then analyzed the severity of the patients’ COVID-19 signs and symptoms using guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Severe or critical disease might involve a range of issues, including shortness of breath, respiratory failure, or a significantly reduced blood oxygen level.
After cross-checking the patients’ vitamin D levels with the severity of their COVID-19 symptoms and accounting for confounding factors, the researchers found that having a vitamin D level of above 30 ng/ml was significantly associated with having less severe COVID-19.
Among the 235 patients with confirmed COVID-19, only 32.8% had sufficient levels of the vitamin.
The researchers also found that the patients with sufficient vitamin D had higher blood lymphocyte counts and lower levels of C-reactive protein in their blood — both of which indicate a positive immune response.
The researchers speculate that this may have reduced the likelihood of developing cytokine storm, which can cause acute respiratory distress syndrome in COVID-19 patients, sometimes resulting in death.
The findings highlight, the researchers say, that vitamin D sufficiency may be important in the eventuality that people develop COVID-19 alongside another respiratory disease, such as influenza.
According to the study’s corresponding author, Dr. Michael F. Holick, director of the General Clinical Research Unit at the medical campus of Boston University, in Massachusetts, “There is great concern that the combination of an influenza infection and a coronal viral infection could substantially increase hospitalizations and death due to complications from these viral infections.”
For the researchers, their findings suggest that vitamin D supplementation would be valuable. As Dr. Holick notes: “Because vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency is so widespread in children and adults in the United States and worldwide, especially in the winter months, it is prudent for everyone to take a vitamin D supplement to reduce [the] risk of being infected and having complications from COVID-19.”
It is worthing noting the present study’s limitations. First, the researchers only had access to a relatively small number of patients. Before drawing solid conclusions, scientists need to carry out much larger studies.
Also, various issues can influence both vitamin D status and COVID-19 severity, such as socioeconomic factors and smoking status. The scientists accounted for neither of these in their analysis.
Also, because the study was cross-sectional, the researchers could not prove that vitamin D insufficiency caused an increase in disease severity.
To address these limitations, the researchers call for “large-scale studies and randomized clinical trials.”
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Image caption
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the Berlin patient, pictured in 2012
The first person cured of HIV – Timothy Ray Brown – has died from cancer.
Mr Brown, who was also known as “the Berlin patient”, was given a bone marrow transplant from a donor who was naturally resistant to HIV in 2007.
It meant he no longer needed anti-viral drugs and he remained free of the virus, which can lead to Aids, for the rest of his life.
The International Aids Society said Mr Brown gave the world hope that an HIV cure was possible.
Mr Brown, 54, who was born in the US, was diagnosed with HIV while he lived in Berlin in 1995. Then in 2007 he developed a type of blood cancer called acute myeloid leukaemia.
His treatment involved destroying his bone marrow, which was producing the cancerous cells, and then having a bone marrow transplant.
The transfer came from a donor that had a rare mutation in part of their DNA called the CCR5 gene.
HIV resistance
CCR5 is a set of genetic instructions that build the doorway that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) walks through to infect cells.
Mutations to CCR5 essentially lock the door and give people resistance to HIV.
After the treatment, levels of HIV in Mr Brown’s blood fell to undetectable levels and he no longer needed anti-retroviral therapy. He was in effect “cured”.
But the leukaemia, that led to his HIV cure, returned earlier this year and spread to his brain and spinal cord.
“It is with great sadness that I announce that Timothy passed away… surrounded by myself and friends, after a five-month battle with leukaemia,” his partner Tim Hoeffgen posted on Facebook.
He added: “Tim committed his life’s work to telling his story about his HIV cure and became an ambassador of hope.”
Closer to a cure?
Mr Brown’s cure was too risky and aggressive to be used routinely – it remains principally a cancer treatment. The approach is also too expensive for the 38 million people, many in sub-Saharan Africa, thought to be living with an HIV infection.
However, Mr Brown’s story inspired scientists, patients and the world that a cure could eventually be found.
The International Aids Society (IAS) said it was mourning with “a profoundly heavy heart”.
“We owe Timothy and his doctor, Gero Hutter, a great deal of gratitude for opening the door for scientists to explore the concept that a cure for HIV is possible,” said Prof Adeeba Kamarulzaman, the IAS president said.
Image copyright Getty Images
The second person cured of HIV was announced earlier this year. Adam Castillejo – known as the London patient – had a similar treatment to Mr Brown and could come off his HIV drugs.
“Although the cases of Timothy and Adam are not a viable large-scale strategy for a cure, they do represent a critical moment in the search for an HIV cure,” said Prof Sharon Lewin, the director of the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, Australia.
“Timothy was a champion and advocate for keeping an HIV cure on the political and scientific agenda.
“It is the hope of the scientific community that one day we can honour his legacy with a safe, cost-effective and widely accessible strategy to achieve HIV remission and cure using gene editing or techniques that boost immune control.”
We may be able to tell someone’s heart rate at a glance, which could help us interpret their emotional state.
Alejandro Galvez-Pol at University College London and his colleagues showed 120 volunteers videos of two people positioned side-by-side. The heart rate of one of the individuals was shown on the screen, in the form of a square that changed colour from black to red with every heartbeat.
The participants were then asked to say who they thought the heartbeat belonged to. On average, they guessed correctly 58 per cent of the …
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A study finds that 10 minutes of massage or relaxation can activate the body’s system for overcoming stress.
The damaging effects of stress are well-known, but fortunately, our bodies have a built-in system for managing and recovering from it. This system is called the parasympathetic nervous system (PSNS).
While there is plenty of anecdotal evidence that taking time to relax — especially when it involves massage — can activate the PSNS, the new study by psychologists at the University of Konstanz in Germany has scientifically measured and confirmed this effect.
In their paper, the researchers conclude that short periods of relaxation may be psychologically and physiologically regenerative and that the effect is even more pronounced with massage.
The senior author of the study is Prof. Jens Pruessner of the university’s Neuropsychology lab, who is a member of the Cluster of Excellence “Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour.” He explains the importance of the new research:
“To get a better handle on the negative effects of stress, we need to understand its opposite — relaxation. Relaxation therapies show great promise as a holistic way to treat stress, but more systematic scientific appraisal of these methods is needed.”
For their study, the team divided the participants into three groups.
The first group received 10-minute head-and-neck massages with a moderate pressure intended to stimulate the PSNS’s vagus nerve. This nerve contains some 75% of the PSNS nerve fibers, branching out to the many organs in the body with which the system interacts.
The second group of individuals received much softer 10-minute neck-and-shoulder massages as a means of determining the PSNS-activating effect of simple tactile contact.
A third control group simply sat at a table relaxing for 10 minutes.
The researchers used both physiological and psychological measurements to evaluate the degree to which each intervention, or lack of, had activated the participants’ PSNS.
Neuropsychology doctoral student Maria Meier led the team, who assessed the tests’ physiological effect by measuring the participants’ heart rate, as well as their heart rate variability (HRV). HRV is a measurement of variations in the time intervals between heartbeats.
For example, when the body is in fight-or-flight mode, there is very little variation because the heart beats quickly at a steady rate. This will provide a low HRV value. When the body is relaxed, a greater degree of variation occurs, resulting in a higher HRV.
All of the participants had significantly higher HRV levels afterward. However, the most dramatic increases in HRV belonged to those who had received massages. The type of massage did not matter.
Simple tactile contact proved just as effective for helping an individual relax as a massage designed specifically to activate the PSNS.
Psychologically, all participants reported feeling less stressed and more relaxed after the tests.
Overall, the experiments confirmed that simply taking a few moments to relax can help a person manage stress. Adding a relaxing massage does even more to activate the PSNS and alleviate the physical and mental effects of stress.
Meier concludes: “We are very encouraged by the findings that short periods of disengagement are enough to relax not just the mind but also the body. You don’t need a professional treatment in order to relax. Having somebody gently stroke your shoulders, or even just resting your head on the table for 10 minutes, is an effective way to boost your body’s physiological engine of relaxation.”
Equally important as the study’s finding is the development of a system for objectively evaluating relaxation therapies. With experts often citing stress as the driver of diseases such as depression, a reliable means of validating relaxation techniques clearly has value.
Says Meier, “Massage, being such a commonly used relaxation therapy, was our first study. Our next step is to test if other short interventions, like breathing exercises and meditation, show similar psychological and physiological relaxation results.”
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As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), continues to wreak havoc globally, scientists race to develop an effective medicine or vaccine to fight the infection. With more than 33.5 million people infected since the pandemic started in December 2019, finding a treatment for those infected is crucial to stemming its spread.
Now, a biotech company in Australia, Ena Respiratory, said that a nasal spray it is developing might help boost the human immune system to fight flu and common colds, significantly reduced the growth of the coronavirus in a recent study in animals.
The potential nasal spray may not only help treat COVID-19 but also prevent it.
The nasal spray
The novel product, called INNA-051, is being developed by Ena Respiratory, and laboratory experiments have shown that it reduced viral replication by as much as 96 percent in the animal study. Spearheaded by Public Health England’s (PHE) Deputy Director, Professor Miles Carroll, the new study described the potential treatment and has been published in the open-source preprint server bioRxiv*.
Used as a nasal spray, it aims to boost the natural immune system of the body to fight common colds and flu. It works by triggering the innate immune system, which is the body’s first line of defense against infection from a pathogen. When the drug has enhanced the immune system, it also prevented the infection and replication of SARS-CoV-2 in the laboratory.
Clinical observations. (a) Schematic of experimental design. Ferrets received INNA-051 and PBS treatments 4 days and 1 day prior to challenge with 5.0 x 106 pfu/ml SARS-CoV-2. Nasal wash and throat swabs were collected at days 1, 3, 5, 7, 10 & 12 post challenge (p.c.) for all treatment groups and control group. Scheduled culls were performed for 6/24 ferrets on day 3 p.c. and 18/24 ferrets on days 12-14 p.c. (b) Temperatures were measured twice daily (approximately 8 hours apart), using implanted temperature/ID chips. Mean temperatures +/- standard error of the mean (SEM) are displayed. Temperature dip post SARS-CoV-2 challenge
was attributed to sedation. (b) Weight was recorded daily and percentage change from the ferret weight prior to treatment plotted. Mean percentage weight change +/- SEM are displayed.
The study
Respiratory tract diseases, including those that cause flu, common colds, and the coronavirus infection, represent major ongoing global health threats. These viruses have caused outbreaks to pandemics, endangering the lives of those who are at higher risk, such as children, older adults, and those who are immunocompromised.
The SARS-CoV-2 infection is actively spreading worldwide, and it spreads quickly from one person to another through close contact and respiratory droplets. One of the biggest threats of the current pandemic is that several people infected with the virus are asymptomatic, which means that they do not know that they carry the virus. As a result, they are called silent spreaders.
The research team from the National Infection Service, Public Health England (PHE) wanted to develop the nasal spray to prevent the replication of the virus in the nasal area, the most common point of entry of the virus.
To test the nasal spray, the team obtained nasal wash and throat swab samples four days before the viral challenge. Upon analyzing the viral RNA in nasal wash samples, the team confirmed infection in all treatment groups, with lower viral RNA levels seen in the INNA-051 treatment.
The team has found that prophylactic intra-nasal administration of INNA-051 in the SARS-CoV-2 ferret infection model has reduced levels of viral RNA in the nose and threat.
“The results of our study support clinical development of a therapy based on prophylactic TLR2/6 innate immune activation in the URT to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission and provide protection against COVID-19,” the team wrote in the paper.
Further, the research team added that the prophylactic approach is important to people at a high risk of community transmission or development of the severe disease from COVID-19, such as older adults, people with comorbidities, and those who are immunocompromised.
“We’ve been amazed by just how effective our treatment has been. By boosting the natural immune response of the ferrets with our treatment, we’ve seen a rapid eradication of the virus,” Christophe Demaison, the Ena Respiratory Managing Director, said.
“If humans respond similarly, the benefits of treatment are two-fold. Individuals exposed to the virus would most likely rapidly eliminate it, with the treatment ensuring that the disease does not progress beyond mild symptoms. This is particularly relevant to vulnerable members of the community. In addition, the rapidity of this response means that the infected individuals are unlikely to pass it on, meaning a swift halt to community transmission,” he added.
*Important Notice
bioRxiv publishes preliminary scientific reports that are not peer-reviewed and, therefore, should not be regarded as conclusive, guide clinical practice/health-related behavior, or treated as established information.
Proud, P., Tsitoura, D., Watson, R., Chua, W., et al. (2020). Prophylactic intranasal administration of a TLR2 agonist reduces upper respiratory tract viral shedding in a SARS-CoV-2 challenge ferret model. bioRxiv. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.09.25.309914v1
The device works in a similar way to a parasitic wasp’s ovipositor
A. Sakes et al
A surgical device inspired by parasitic wasps could make it easier and less painful to remove certain tumours and blood clots.
Parasitic wasps inject their eggs through a long, thin, tubular organ called an ovipositor into living hosts, such as spiders and caterpillars. The organ’s blade-like valves, which run the full length of the tube, slide up and down alternately pushing the eggs into the wasp’s victims using friction.
Aimée Sakes at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands and her colleagues …
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