Social determinant screening useful for families with pediatric sickle cell disease

Individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD) face the burdens of chronic illness and often racial disparities, both of which may increase vulnerability to adverse social determinants of health (SDoH). For children with SCD, living in poverty is associated with lower quality of life, higher healthcare utilization and higher complication rates.

Read more

Important questions on how mental illness is currently diagnosed

This research raises questions as to whether current diagnoses accurately reflect the underlying neurobiology of mental illness. The findings, just published in the leading peer-reviewed medical journal, JAMA Psychiatry, highlight the need for more individualised approaches to defining mental illness.

Read more

Children bullied by friends and siblings are more likely to think about suicide in their early 20s

Depression, self-harm and suicidal ideation are more prominent in adults in their early twenties if they were bullied at home and at school, a study has found. Researchers stress that intervention is needed to educate people in bullying to reduce it.

Read more

When blood vessels are overly permeable

In Germany alone there are around 400,000 patients who suffer from chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. For the first time, researchers have discovered that dysfunctions in blood vessels play a significant role in the development of such diseases. In experimental model systems, the progression of the disease slowed down significantly by eliminating these dysfunctions.

Read more

New study challenges our understanding of premature aging

Disturbances in the function of mitochondrial DNA can accelerate the ageing process in ways that are different than previously thought, according to a new study. Offering a new perspective to ageing, the researchers suggest that accelerated ageing is the result of abnormal cell nucleotide levels and compromised nuclear DNA maintenance.

Read more

New mechanism in the liver helps prevent invasive fungal infections

An expert in intravital microscopy is making breakthroughs in invasive fungal infections. He has discovered a pathway by which liver macrophages capture fungi before dissemination to target organs like the brain. This not only provides an explanation as to why individuals with liver disease have enhanced risk of fungal infection, but also points to therapeutic options to prevent these infections, which kill 1.5 million people annually.

Read more

Common denominator that triggers asthma in favorable environments

Some so-called pro-allergic environments strongly promote the development of asthma and are responsible for the dramatic increase in the prevalence of asthma, especially in industrialized countries. Researchers at the GIGA of the University of Liège have identified how all these pro-allergic environments act in the same way on the pulmonary immune system to induce the development of allergic asthma.

Read more