Tag: 16/5/25

Categories : AllergiesTags :

Why Are Urban Children More Prone to Allergies?

On By ModernMedia

Study finds unique immune cell linked to risk

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Unsplash

A previously uncharacterised subset of immune cells may play a critical role in the development of allergic diseases and explain differences between urban and rural populations. The finding, published in the journal Allergy, provides new insight into how the immune system is shaped in early life – and why urban children are more prone to allergies than children from rural areas.

Led by researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Department of Pediatrics, including MD/PhD student Catherine Pizzarello and senior author Kirsi Järvinen-Seppo, MD, PhD, the study uncovered a unique subpopulation of T cells known as helper 2 (Th2) cells with distinct molecular characteristics.

T-cells are the foundational immune cells that fight off infections, but there is evidence that this specific subtype is recognizing certain foods as allergenic and attacking them, according to Jarvinen-Seppo.

“These pro-allergic T cells are more inflammatory than anything previously described in this context,” said Järvinen-Seppo, chief of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at UR Medicine Golisano Children’s Hospital. “They were found more frequently in urban infants who later developed allergies, suggesting they may be a predictive biomarker or even a mechanistic driver of allergic disease.”

The study compared blood samples from urban infants with those from infants in a farming community, specifically the Old Order Mennonites (OOM) of New York’s Finger Lakes region – known for their low rates of allergies. Researchers found that while urban infants had higher levels of the aggressive Th2 cells, OOM infants had more regulatory T cells that help keep the immune system in balance and reduce the likelihood of allergic responses.

While additional research is needed to identify a possible cause, Jarvinen-Seppo speculates that differences in the development of the gut microbiome between the two populations, and more exposure to “healthy” bacteria in rural children, may be a factor.

“The farming environment, which is rich in microbial exposure, appears to support the development of a more tolerant immune system. Meanwhile, the urban environment may promote the emergence of immune cells that are primed for allergic inflammation,” said Jarvinen-Seppo.

The work is part of a broader, NIH-funded investigation into how early-life exposures influence long-term immune outcomes. In 2023, Järvinen-Seppo’s team received a $7 million grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to study environmental, microbiome, and immune differences between OOM and urban infants. The goal is to continue this foundational work to uncover protective factors that could be translated into preventive therapies, including probiotics or microbiome-supporting interventions.

“If we can identify the conditions for this disparity between the different T cell subpopulations, we can potentially find solutions in allergic disease development,” Järvinen-Seppo said.

Source: University of Rochester Medical Center

Categories : NeurologyTags :

‘Sweet Spot’ for Focused Ultrasound Provides Relief from Essential Tremor

On By ModernMedia
A surgical lesion site is highlighted in orange following MR-guided focused ultrasound treatment. Structural brain connections associated with optimal tremor response or side effects, as identified in the present study, are depicted in various colors. The background features an ultra-high resolution MRI image acquired at Massachusetts General Hospital. Image courtesy of Andreas Horn, Mass General Brigham.

Essential tremor, a common neurological movement disorder, causes uncontrollable shaking, most often in the hands, but it can also occur in the arms, legs, head, voice, or torso. Essential tremor impacts an estimated 1% of the worldwide population and around 5% of people over 60.

Investigators from Mass General Brigham identified a specific subregion of the brain’s thalamus that, when included during magnetic resonance-guided focused ultrasound (MRgFUS) treatment, can result in optimal and significant tremor improvements while reducing side effects. Their results are published in Science Advances.

“This one-time, noninvasive treatment can have immediate, long-lasting and lifechanging effects for patients and was pioneered here at Brigham and Women’s Hospital 30 years ago,” said co-senior author G. Rees Cosgrove, MD, FRCSC, director of functional neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “The results of this study will help make the procedure even more safe and effective than it already is and will help other centres around the world improve their outcomes.”

MRgFUS treatment of essential tremor creates a small, permanent lesion in a specific nucleus in the thalamus that is thought to be part of the brain circuit mediating the disorder and disrupts the tremor-causing activity. The research team analysed data from 351 thalamotomy patients that were treated across three international hospitals, the largest cohort assessed to date, to identify the optimal location for this procedure and better understand its impacts on clinical improvements and side effects.

The study identified a set of optimal sites and brain connections to target, as well as locations and connections to avoid that lead to side effects. The team then tested whether this ‘sweet spot’ could be used as a model to predict the outcomes in a cohort of patients treated with the same procedure at another centre, which proved true. The more the ‘sweet spot’ was lesioned, the better the outcome was in all patients’ one-year, post-procedure comparison data. According to the researchers, when thalamotomy patients have good tremor control at one year, it is typically sustained over multiple years.

“Seeing how this procedure can make such a huge impact on patients’ lives is what motivated me to pursue this research,” said lead author Melissa Chua, MD, a senior resident in the Brigham’s Department of Neurosurgery. “It is very exciting to have such robust validation and to be moving toward this treatment becoming even more precise and personalized in the future.”

Next, the team plans to further analyse patient data for a more detailed picture of the evolution of this technology and how patient outcomes have improved, to fully understand the parameters that go into achieving long-term tremor control and minimise side effects.

“It is incredible when you can provide a patient with relief from these tremors,” Cosgrove said. “It is like a gift when patients who have not been able to sing, speak in public, write, or even drink from a cup for years can once again do so – we see it in case after case.”

Source: Mass General Brigham

Categories : Expert Opinion Healthcare Politics and RegulationsTags :

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Should Step up Efforts

On By Peter Van Dyk
Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash

The international community must protect global responses to HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria to serve humanity’s collective interests, according to an opinion article published May 14, 2025, in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by Gorik Ooms from the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Belgium, and colleagues.

Within days of starting his second term as President, Donald Trump ended most United States (US) contributions to global health. Global responses to HIV, TB and malaria are not the only programs affected but were particularly dependent on US support. The US withdrawal from global health could result in 3 million additional HIV deaths and 10 million additional HIV infections, 107 000 additional malaria deaths and 15 million additional malaria infections, and 2 million additional TB deaths, all in 2025.

HIV, TB and malaria are global health security threats that require international collective action. The Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria (Global Fund) entered its replenishment cycle for 2027–2029, with a target of $18 billion. A failure of this replenishment would make it impossible for many countries to compensate for decreasing US funding and decreasing Global Fund support.

The abrupt end of most US funding for global health comes at a crucial moment for the fight against the three epidemics. For HIV, funding cuts are disrupting treatment and prevention, and increasing morbidity, mortality and infections especially among marginalised groups. The transmission of TB remains high due to insufficient access to treatment, urbanisation and undernutrition. Control of malaria remains elusive due to emerging resistance to treatments, and insecticides, gaps in prevention, and limited access to healthcare.

According to the authors, the reduction of US bilateral aid calls for re-prioritisation and enhanced coordination of the global fights against HIV, TB and malaria. Currently, the Global Fund is uniquely positioned to undertake this endeavour, as it financially supports HIV, TB and malaria programs in most, if not all, countries affected by US spending cuts. This requires a successful replenishment, which seems improbable given uncertainty about the US position and considering the aid spending cuts announced by other high-income countries. Low- and middle-income countries need to step in, which necessitates an overhaul of the Global Fund governance.

The authors outline four action points. First, all countries, regardless of income level, should support the current replenishment of the Global Fund. Second, the replenishment mechanism should move toward agreed and fair assessed contributions, such as 0.01% of the annual gross domestic product of all countries. Third, the Global Fund should commit to overhauling its governance structures to promote equal representation among geographical constituencies. Fourth, the Global Fund should commit to adhere to the Lusaka Agenda, which captures consensus around five key shifts for the long-term evolution of global health initiatives and the wider health ecosystem.

As noted by the authors, these four actions would save essential elements of the global responses to HIV, TB and malaria and set a central and collaborative mechanism for global health security on a path toward the principles of global public investment.

Dr Gorik Ooms adds: “Richer countries still view global health cooperation primarily as aid, from them to poorer countries. They do not seem to realise how this cooperation also protects their own interests. We must not only find enough funding to sustain it; but also rethink how we work together. Through genuine international cooperation between equal partners.”

Co-author Dr Raffaella Ravinetto concludes: “It is not only a matter of keeping life-saving programs alive. It is also a matter of building and maintaining a solid ecosystem, encompassing health infrastructure, policies and human resources, to make quality health care feasible everywhere. Through solidarity we can serve common interests.”

Provided by PLOS

Freely available article: https://plos.io/4djaJ2H

In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Global Public Health: https://plos.io/4djaJ2H

Contact: Anna Dams, adams@itg.be, Ph.: +32 477 45 88 38; Gorik Ooms, gooms@itg.be, Ph./WhatsApp: +32 465 829 858   

Image Caption: A person holds medications. Limited access to diagnostics and medicines will worsen treatment quality, inducing resistance to antiretrovirals and medicines for infections.

Image Credit: Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), Antwerp, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease NeurologyTags :

Could a Transient Ischaemic Attack Leave Lasting Fatigue?

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels

A transient ischaemic attack (TIA) is typically defined as a temporary blockage of blood flow to the brain that causes symptoms that go away within a day, but a new study finds that people who have this type of stroke may also have prolonged fatigue lasting up to one year. The study is published in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN).

The study does not prove that TIAs, also known as mini-strokes, cause lasting fatigue; it only shows an association. “People with a transient ischaemic attack can have symptoms such as face drooping, arm weakness or slurred speech and these resolve within a day,” said study author Boris Modrau, MD, PhD, of Aalborg University Hospital in Denmark. “However, some have reported continued challenges including reduced quality of life, thinking problems, depression, anxiety and fatigue. Our study found that for some people, fatigue was a common symptom that lasted up to one year after the transient ischaemic attack.”

The study involved 354 people with an average age of 70 who had a mini-stroke. They were followed for a year.

Participants completed questionnaires about their level of fatigue within the first two weeks of the mini-stroke and again at three, six, and 12 months later. One questionnaire looked at five different types of fatigue, including overall tiredness, physical tiredness, reduced activity, reduced motivation and mental fatigue. Scores ranged from four to 20 with higher scores indicating more fatigue. Participants had an average score of 12.3 at the start of the study. At three months, the average score decreased slightly to 11.9, at six months to 11.4 and at twelve months to 11.1.

Researchers looked at how many participants experienced fatigue as defined as a score of 12 or higher. Of the participants, 61% experienced fatigue two weeks after the mini-stroke and 54% experienced fatigue at each of the three other testing time periods at three, six and 12 months.

Participants also had brain scans. Researchers found that the presence of a blot clot on a scan was equal between people with long term fatigue and those without it, so this did not explain the reason for the level of fatigue.

Researchers did find that previous anxiety or depression was twice as common in those participants who reported lasting fatigue.

“Long-term fatigue was common in our group of study participants, and we found if people experience fatigue within two weeks after leaving the hospital, it is likely they will continue to have fatigue for up to a year,” said Modrau. “For future studies, people diagnosed with a transient ischaemic attack should be followed in the weeks and months that follow to be assessed for lingering fatigue. This could help us better understand who might struggle with fatigue long-term and require further care.”

A limitation of the study was that while participants were asked to complete the questionnaires themselves, it is possible some responses may have been completed with assistance from relatives or caretakers and this may have influenced responses, including those around fatigue.

Source: American Academy of Neurology

Categories : Lab Tests and ImagingTags :

Medical Imaging Experts can Outsmart Optical Illusions

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Anna Shvets

Medical imaging experts are adept at solving common optical illusions, according to research from four UK universities, including the University of East Anglia. The correct analysis of medical images from scans, such as MRI, is critical for diagnosing cancer and many other conditions.

A new study published in Scientific Reports shows that people who do this professionally are also more accurate at judging the size of objects in common optical illusions.

In other words, medical imaging experts also literally see better in everyday life!

The research is also the first to show that people can be trained to do better at solving visual illusions, which was previously thought to be near-impossible.

Senior researcher Dr Martin Doherty, from UEA’s School of Psychology, said: “Optical illusions are designed to fool the brain. They can be a bit of fun, but they also help researchers shed light on how our brains works.

“We wanted to better understand whether people who are very experienced and skilled in visual recognition, do better at solving optical illusions.”

Participants were shown a series of visual illusions that made it hard to correctly judge the size of two similar objects – and asked to identify the larger one.

The object size differences varied, giving the research team an estimate of how much participants’ judgements were affected by the illusions.

They tested 44 radiographers and radiologists and compared their scores with a control group of 107 non-experts.

First author Dr Radoslaw Wincza, from the School of Medicine and Dentistry at University of Central Lancashire, said: “Many illusions are effective even if you know it is an illusion, and until now it was generally believed you could not train yourself to avoid the illusory effects.

“But this research suggests that training aimed at accurately perceiving objects in medical images has the effect of making experts less susceptible to visual illusions.

“This is the first time that it’s been shown that people can be trained to do better at solving visual illusions. And they could perhaps even be used for training medical image analysts in future.

“This is particularly important, given that 60 to 80 per cent of diagnostic errors are perceptual in nature,” he added.

Source: University of East Anglia