Cardiologist Brendan Carry, MD, and a team of Geisinger physicians have enrolled the first patient in the U.S. into a cardiac amyloidosis trial. The team is also the first to in the U.S. to screen for the trial. „If a patient qualifies for the clinical trial, it will allow us to provide a treatment option when they receive an amyloidosis diagnosis without having to travel outside of the region for care,“ said Dr. Carry. „Geisinger is at the forefront of research and technological advancements that allow for better patient outcomes and improvements in their quality of life.“ Cardiac amyloidosis is caused by protein buildup between the muscle cells of the heart, increasing the thickness of the heart. As these proteins build up, the heart becomes thicker and struggles to pump blood. Over time as the heart thickens, heart failure develops.… 

The highest performing countries across public health outcomes share many drivers that contribute to their success. That’s the conclusion of a new study published May 9  in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Dr. Nadia Akseer, an Epidemiologist-Biostatistician at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-author of the study and colleagues in the Exemplars in Global Health (EGH) program. In the new study, the researchers systematically analyzed 31 previous EGH studies across six topics, including under-five child mortality, childhood stunting, community health workers (CHW), vaccine delivery, COVID-19 response, and newborn and maternal mortality reduction. The studies included data from 19 countries in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Caribbean. The EGH team looked for common themes and findings in these countries that resulted in programmatic success. In general, the drivers that were seen most often in… 

Higher consumption of most ultra-processed foods is linked to a slightly higher risk of death, with ready-to-eat meat, poultry, and seafood based products, sugary drinks, dairy based desserts, and highly processed breakfast foods showing the strongest associations, finds a 30-year US study in The BMJ today. The researchers say not all ultra-processed food products should be universally restricted, but that their findings “provide support for limiting consumption of certain types of ultra-processed food for long term health.” Ultra-processed foods include packaged baked goods and snacks, fizzy drinks, sugary cereals, and ready-to-eat or heat products. They often contain colours, emulsifiers, flavours, and other additives and are typically high in energy, added sugar, saturated fat, and salt, but lack vitamins and fibre. Mounting evidence links ultra-processed foods to higher risks of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and bowel cancer, but few long term… 

A new study led by University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Hillman Cancer Center researchers shows that an enzyme called PARP1 is involved in repair of telomeres, the lengths of DNA that protect the tips of chromosomes, and that impairing this process can lead to telomere shortening and genomic instability that can cause cancer. PARP1’s job is genome surveillance: When it senses breaks or lesions in DNA, it adds a molecule called ADP-ribose to specific proteins, which act as a beacon to recruit other proteins that repair the break. The new findings, published today in Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, are the first evidence that PARP1 also acts on telomeric DNA, opening up new avenues for understanding and improving PARP1-inhibiting cancer therapies. O’Sullivan hypothesizes that ADP-ribose affects telomere integrity by disrupting a protective structure called shelterin that safeguards telomeres, but more… 

Innosphere Engineering Ltd (Innosphere or the Company), a medical device company developing non-pharmaceutical treatments for ADHD, is pleased to announce the launch of recruitment for a randomized, sham-controlled, double-blind clinical trial examining the safety and effectiveness of Novostim 2 transcranial Random Noise Stimulation (tRNS) on ADHD symptoms in pediatric patients (7 – 12 years). „Novostim 2 uses a non-invasive technique where a weak signal is applied to the brain, subtly enhancing brain activity. It is like a buzzing sensation to the brain that may activate some regions important for attention by making your brain’s natural activities change or become more efficient,“ says Dr. Cesar A. Soutullo, MD, PhD, Vice Chair and Chief, Child & Adolescent Psychiatry and Director of the ADHD Outpatient Program at McGovern Medical School, UTHealth Houston. „Following positive and encouraging results from small trials, we are testing…