News by Subject Medicine & Health

Intra-articular therapies (IAT) are frequently used to treat joint conditions such as gout, rheumatoid arthritis, or osteoarthritis. The procedure involves inserting a needle into the space between the bones of the joint to deliver a medicine. The types of medicines used in IAT techniques vary, from steroids to radiopharmaceuticals.

Monoclonal antibodies work well in reducing COVID-19 related emergency department visits and hospitalizations when administered early to high-risk patients, a study by the University of South Florida Health (USF Health) and Tampa General Hospital demonstrates. If used under FDA guidelines, the researchers suggest, this treatment can ease the pandemic's continuing burden on patients and on limited health care resources.

A team of researchers at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering who previously reported on a responsive hydrogel, investigated its gelation at distinct temperatures and pH conditions. The study, "Self-assembly of stimuli-responsive coiled-coil fibrous hydrogels," appears in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal Soft Matter.

For patients who have inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS), the condition is literally a pain in the gut. Chronic -- or long-term -- abdominal pain is common, and there are currently no effective treatment options for this debilitating symptom. In a new study in ACS Pharmacology & Translational Science, researchers identify a new potential source of relief: a molecule derived from spider venom. In experiments with mice, they found that one dose could stop symptoms associated with IBS pain.

Women who currently use hormonal contraceptives face more than a 2-fold higher risk of developing glaucoma, according to an analysis of electronic medical records for women aged 15-45 years from 2008 to 2018. The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology analysis included 2,366 women who developed glaucoma and 9,464 controls.

Two mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 have proven safe and effective in clinical trials, as well as in the millions of people who have been vaccinated so far. But how prior SARS-CoV-2 infection affects vaccine response, and how long that response lasts, are still uncertain. Now, a new study in ACS Nano supports increasing evidence that people who had COVID-19 need only one vaccine dose, and that boosters could be necessary for everyone in the future.

Scientists are pursuing a new strategy in the protracted fight against the SARS-CoV-2 virus by engineering nanobodies that can neutralize virus variants in two different ways.

An innovative new device which can examine and separate single cells on the basis of their response to stimuli could boost personalized medicine and advance our understanding of our own molecular mechanisms.