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A Swedish study has found an association between lack of sleep or poor quality sleep during adolescence and an increased risk of developing multiple sclerosis later in life. They put the relative increased risk at 40 %. The results are published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.
Research concludes that different types of antidepressants are capable of generating resistance to multiple antibiotics, even when administered for short periods of time. The results are published in the journal PNAS.
Approved therapies to treat various tumours using CAR-T cells are based on the modification of the patient's own lymphocytes in the laboratory, which delays their administration. A phase 1 clinical trial has used ready-made donor cells to treat patients with multiple myeloma. The results are published in the journal Nature Medicine.
In January 2013, two laboratories demonstrated that CRISPR tools could be used to edit genes in human cells. Ten years later, the first patients are already benefiting from the molecular scissors to overcome incurable diseases. This week in Science, one of the pioneers of CRISPR, Nobel laureate Jennifer Doudna, summarises the history of these tools, without forgetting that it all began thirty years ago with the findings of Francis Mojica in the Santa Pola salt flats.
The brightness of the night sky has increased by 7 to 10 % per year (depending on the region of the world) in the range visible to the human eye, according to an analysis based on 51,000 observations made with the naked eye by citizen scientists between 2011 and 2022. According to the research, published in Science, this increase is faster than what can be observed with satellites; satellites cannot detect blue emissions from LED lights, which are increasingly used in street lighting.
A study to be published in the journal Actas Dermo-Sifiliográficas analyses an outbreak of ringworm that has affected hundreds of Spanish adolescents in the last two years.
A study published in NEJM that followed a cohort of more than 300 transgender and non-binary youth, aged 12-20, for two years concluded that hormone therapy led to improvements in their symptoms of depression and anxiety.
An international team including researchers from Spain has analysed the level of exchange of microbial strains between different generations (vertical transmission) and between people who share a household or are close contacts (horizontal transmission). The analysis, published in the journal Nature, is based on about 9,700 microbiome samples from the faeces and saliva of people with different lifestyles from countries. According to the research, the transmission of bacteria is more frequent for the mouth microbiome than for the gut microbiome among people living together.
In the last few days, several media have published that the end of the obligatory use of face masks in public transport is near. According to today's Vozpópuli, the Alerts Committee is expected to approve the change from compulsory to recommended use next week.
Between 2018 and 2020, a pilot programme conducted neonatal genetic screening of children born in Australia for spinal muscular atrophy, allowing treatment to begin early. A study just published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health looks at their condition at two years of age and concludes that they had better movement ability, including the ability to walk, compared to children diagnosed once they develop symptoms. According to the authors, the findings justify further implementation of neonatal screening for the disease.