Health & Fitness

In one of the largest single-center COVID-19 cohort studies to date, researchers have identified a key driver of COVID-19 disease severity. The findings suggest that lung damage is linked to the loss of immune cells called macrophages that normally reside in the lung and organize tissue repair, followed by an influx of new macrophages from the blood into the lung that cause inflammation.

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Researchers describe how different types of repetitive DNA elements are controlled by the same silencing mechanism in fruit fly ovaries. Central to their findings is an uncharacterized protein that the researchers named 'Kipferl', which ensures the effective control of jumping genes. The findings suggest that different selfish elements compete for the host genome defense system and that Kipferl might be the first of a series of similarly acting molecules yet to be uncovered.

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Evidence in mice and human brain tissue reveals a mechanism that may explain the sex-based differences in Alzheimer's disease, including why females are more vulnerable. Researchers report that female brains show higher expression of an X-linked enzyme called ubiquitin-specific peptidase 11 (USP11) compared to males, resulting in greater accumulation of a protein called tau.

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A new discovery about how cells make antibodies has revealed the surprisingly random way the body's immune system defends against infection and disease.

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Obesity afflicts approximately 42 percent of the U.S. adult population and contributes to the onset of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and other conditions. While popular healthy diet mantras advise against midnight snacking, few studies have comprehensively investigated the simultaneous effects of late eating on the three main players in body weight regulation and thus obesity risk: regulation of calorie intake, the number of calories you burn, and molecular changes in fat tissue. A new study provides experimental evidence that late eating causes decreased energy expenditure, increased hunger, and changes in fat tissue that combined may increase obesity risk.

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Newly discovered biological changes in mothers who suffer postpartum depression may help explain the condition, yield long-sought treatments and let doctors identify those at risk even before their babies are born.

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