Clínic Hospital
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Head of the Cardiology Department at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and researcher at the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) and at the August Pi Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS)
Psychiatrist and researcher at the Bipolar and Depressive Disorders Unit of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona
Scientific Director of the Centre for Biomedical Research in Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM). Head of the Psychiatry and Psychology Department at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and lecturer at the University of Barcelona
Professor of Medicine at the University of Barcelona and coordinator of the Central Sensitisation Unit at the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona.
Head of the HIV-AIDS unit, Hospital Clínic-Barcelona
Head of the Immunology Service
Clinical psychologist at the Psychiatry and Psychology Service of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and member of the research group Imaging of mood and anxiety disorders at IDIBAPS
Specialist in Immunology at the Immunology Department of the Hospital Clínic de Barcelona, specialising in immune response to anti-infectious vaccines
Head of the Neurology Department at Hospital Clínic de Barcelona and secretary of the Spanish Society of Neurology's Study Group on Behaviour and Dementia
Apps developed to treat depression may be beneficial in the management of severe and moderate cases. This is the conclusion of a review and meta-analysis that included 13 studies with up to 16 different apps. The results are published in the journal JAMA Network Open.
Researchers at Northwestern University in the United States have studied the effect of a temporary decrease in sleep on the mood of mice. According to their results, the animals became more hyperactive and hypersexual for a few hours. In addition, the occasional lack of sleep had an antidepressant effect that lasted for a few days and is explained by an increase in the release of dopamine. The results are published in the journal Neuron.
The Karolinska Institute has awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their groundbreaking discoveries, which have radically changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, and made it possible to develop vaccines at unprecedented speed during the covid-19 pandemic.
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which usually consists of taking a daily oral anti-HIV drug, is a highly effective measure to prevent HIV infection. However, it only works well if people strictly follow the protocol, and some people end up not adhering to it. To improve this situation, researchers have tested an implant under the skin of non-human primates that releases the antiretroviral drug islatravir and maintains adequate concentrations for at least 20 months. The results, published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, show complete protection against infection with repeated exposure.
A commentary published last Friday in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, signed by more than 30 researchers, challenges the conclusions of the systematic review published in the same journal in July 2022, in which the authors concluded that there was no evidence that low serotonin levels cause depression. The researchers in the new paper blame the earlier study for flaws in methodology, among other weaknesses.
An international team of scientists, led by Stanford University (United States), has designed a study to analyse the relationship between herpes zoster virus infections and the development of dementia. To do so, they took advantage of the introduction of the Zostavax vaccine against this virus in 2013 in Wales (UK), which people over the age of 80 could not receive. After reviewing data from people around this age over the following seven years, they concluded that the vaccine reduced the relative risk of dementia by 20%. According to the authors, their study, which is in prepublication form and has not been peer-reviewed, "leads to the conclusion that shingles vaccination is most likely an effective way to prevent or delay the onset of dementia".
A phase 1 clinical trial has tested personalised mRNA vaccines against the most common type of pancreatic cancer with a particularly poor prognosis. The treatment, which is tailored to the characteristics of each patient's tumour, was given to 16 people along with surgery, chemotherapy and other immunotherapy. Half of them showed an immune response to the vaccine, which was associated with a better prognosis. The results are published in the journal Nature.
Swedish research involving more than 6,000 male footballers in the country's top division (between 1924 and 2019) indicates that they were 1.5 times more likely to develop a neurodegenerative disease compared to the population analysed who were not involved in professional football. Unlike outfield players, goalkeepers did not have this increased risk, which, according to the authors, supports the hypothesis that impacts to the head when striking the ball could explain the increased risk. The study is published in The Lancet Public Health.
A virological and immunological follow-up confirms that a third patient has been cured of HIV nine years after receiving a bone marrow transplant for myeloid leukaemia, and four years after stopping his antiretroviral treatment. This case of the Düsseldorf patient, similar to two previously documented in Berlin and London, is detailed in a Nature Medicine publication by an international consortium coordinated by the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute and the University Medical Center in Utrecht, the Netherlands. The patient was diagnosed with HIV in 2008 and in 2011 with leukaemia, for which he received the transplant in 2013.
Two studies have found changes in the microbiome of patients affected by chronic fatigue syndrome. In particular, they have found a decrease in both butyrate and certain bacteria that produce butyrate. Butyrate is a factor related to the protection of the intestinal barrier and appears to play a role in the regulation of the immune system. Both papers are published in the journal Cell Host and Microbe.