Children’s Health

A new approach to predicting which babies will develop type 1 diabetes moves a step closer to routine testing for newborns which could avoid life-threatening complications. Scientists at seven international sites have followed 7,798 children at high risk of developing type 1 diabetes from birth, over nine years, in The Environmental Determinants of Diabetes in

Research has shown that a mutation in the ATAXIN-1 gene leads to accumulation of Ataxin-1 (ATXN1) protein in brain cells and is the root cause of a rare genetic neurodegenerative disease known as spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1). How healthy cells maintain a precise level of ATXN1 has remained a mystery, but now a study

Sabrina Lira Garcia is proud to work as a clinical assistant in the COVID-19 ward of a Los Angeles hospital, but sometimes she wishes she could just stay home with her infant son until the pandemic is over. Pulling her child from day care has never been an option for Lira Garcia, however. She can’t

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 6 2020 Two federal environmental standards regulating lead hazards in homes and child care facilities have different maximum thresholds, a discrepancy putting more than 35,000 kids in the United States at increased risk of lead poisoning. That’s according to a new study led by a Brown University researcher as the

A large-scale analysis of the clinical characteristics of Alport syndrome in Japanese patients has revealed that the effectiveness of existing treatment with ACE inhibitors and/or angiotensin receptor blockers (RAS inhibitors) varies depending on the type of mutation in the syndrome’s causal gene (COL4A5). RAS inhibitors are widely administered to patients with chronic kidney diseases as

A new study from the researchers at the Australian National University shows that there may be physical changes in the brain volume among persons who have coexisting and anxiety and depressive disorders. The study titled, “Volumetric brain differences in clinical depression in association with anxiety: a systematic review with meta-analysis,” was published in the latest

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 7 2020 Engineers at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and their colleagues at Stanford School of Medicine have demonstrated that drug levels inside the body can be tracked in real time using a custom smartwatch that analyzes the chemicals found in sweat. This wearable technology could be incorporated into

The time has come for routine health care visits to include some form of dietary assessment and counseling, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association published today in Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes, an American Heart Association journal. The statement, written by a group of nutrition and cardiovascular disease experts, recommends

The current global climate of misinformation and myths about the origin, cure of, and measures required to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic has mired public acceptance of and compliance with governmental interventions and personal precautions. Now, a new study published in the preprint server medRxiv* in August 2020 examines the prevalence of and reasons for

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 6 2020 The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center has been awarded a five-year, $38 million grant to lead and expand a national program dedicated to suicide prevention. The grant will be led by Dolores Subia BigFoot, Ph.D., a professor in the OU College of Medicine and a longtime researcher

A new study conducted by researchers at Yonsei University College of Medicine, Korea, suggests that while having coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) during pregnancy has little effect on fetal or neonatal mortality, it can be associated with premature birth and sometimes severe outcomes for mother and baby, including death. The systematic literature review found that the

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 6 2020 Research led by Nicolas Bazan, MD, PhD, Boyd Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Center of Excellence at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, and Ludmila Belayev, MD, LSU Health New Orleans Professor of Neuroscience, Neurology and Neurosurgery, has unlocked a key fundamental mechanism in the communication

The review, published in the British Ecological Society Journal People and Nature, is the first to focus on nature connection in children and adolescents. In the article Dr. Chawla comprehensively reviews the full scope of literature on the topic, covering peer-reviewed articles, books and studies by environmental organizations. The review finds that connecting with nature

Researchers from Western University, Canada and the University of Nottingham, UK, are leading a new $100,000 study into teenage vaping in Canada, where high schoolers will be appointed as co-researchers to the project. The study will take a revolutionary ‘by-youth-for-youth’ approach to understanding teenagers’ motivations for, and experiences with vaping, by involving teens in the

Minority and socioeconomically disadvantaged children have significantly higher rates of COVID-19 infection, a new study led by Children’s National Hospital researchers shows. These findings, reported online August 5 in Pediatrics, parallel similar health disparities for the novel coronavirus that have been found in adults, the authors state. COVID-19, an infection caused by the novel coronavirus

Aug 5 2020 Children’s own temperament could be driving the amount of TV they watch – according to new research from the University of East Anglia and Birkbeck, University of London. Sensor nets measure what a baby’s brain pays attention to. Credit: Birbeck New findings published today show that the brain responses of 10-month-old babies

Aug 5 2020 Neutrolis, a biotechnology company developing therapeutics that target neutrophils, the most abundant immune cells in the body, today announced the development of NTR-441, a first-in-class DNASE1L3 enzyme analog that has the potential to rapidly and systemically clear neutrophil extracellular traps (NETs) for severe cases of COVID-19. NETs are a fundamental arm of

Cancer immunotherapy -; a treatment that better enables a patient’s own immune system to attack tumors -; has shown great potential against some cancers. Yet immunotherapy doesn’t work against all tumor types, and many patients who initially respond later develop resistance and relapse. Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores

An early blood test could detect which babies deprived of oxygen at birth are at risk of serious neurodisabilities like cerebral palsy and epilepsy. The prototype test looks for certain genes being switched on and off that are linked to long-term neurological issues. Further investigations of these genes may provide new targets for treating the

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Aug 4 2020 Researchers from the Icahn School of Medicine used a novel genetic sequencing technology to identify the genetic cause of–and a treatment for a previously unknown severe auto inflammatory syndrome affecting an 18-year-old girl since infancy. The technology, tailored to the patient’s own genetic code at a single cell