Title: Harms of Banned Pregnancy Drug Linger for Decades in Daughters
Category: Health News
Created: 5/2/2018 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/3/2018 12:00:00 AM

Title: 'Smart Dresser' Might Help Alzheimer's Patients Clothe Themselves
Category: Health News
Created: 5/4/2018 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2018 12:00:00 AM

Title: Food for Thought: Keys to Fruitful Fertility
Category: Health News
Created: 5/3/2018 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2018 12:00:00 AM

Title: Device Might Detect Breast Cancer-Linked Swelling Sooner
Category: Health News
Created: 5/3/2018 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/4/2018 12:00:00 AM

Title: Blood Test Might Diagnose Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Category: Health News
Created: 4/30/2019 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/1/2019 12:00:00 AM

Title: AHA News: Director John Singleton's Fatal Stroke Spotlights Black Americans' Hypertension Risk
Category: Health News
Created: 5/2/2019 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/2/2019 12:00:00 AM

Title: Gene Therapy May Help Fight Tough-to-Treat Blood Cancer
Category: Health News
Created: 5/1/2019 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/2/2019 12:00:00 AM

Title: AHA News: Firefighter In Need of a New Heart Got By With a Little Help From His Friends
Category: Health News
Created: 4/24/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/27/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Nanotechnology Might Help Fight Deadly 'Cytokine Storm' of COVID-19
Category: Health News
Created: 4/28/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/29/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: UV Light Won't Treat COVID-19 -- But It Might Disinfect Medical Gear
Category: Health News
Created: 4/28/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/29/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: ECMO: Technology That Might Help COVID Patients When Ventilators Can't
Category: Health News
Created: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: High Blood Pressure May Affect More Pregnant Women Than Thought: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 5/4/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/5/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Transplanted Skin Stem Cells Help Blind Mice See Light
Category: Health News
Created: 4/21/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/22/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: During Droughts, Many Poor Americans Will Lack Clean Tap Water: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 4/30/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/1/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Pangolins Hold Clues to How COVID-19 Began -- and Might End
Category: Health News
Created: 5/8/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/8/2020 12:00:00 AM

A new analysis suggests there may be a simple, noninvasive technique that could delay, or even eliminate, the need for ventilation in COVID-19 patients.

Title: Heading to Work on a Bike? You Might Live Longer
Category: Health News
Created: 2/25/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 2/26/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Heart Drug Combos Might Also Lower Your Dementia Risk: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 3/13/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/16/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Dirty Air Might Raise Your Odds for Dementia
Category: Health News
Created: 3/31/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/1/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Which Foods Might Reduce Your Odds for Dementia?
Category: Health News
Created: 4/14/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/14/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Certain Gene Might Help Shield At-Risk People From Alzheimer's
Category: Health News
Created: 4/13/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/14/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Vitamin D Might Aid Seniors' Recovery From Hip Fracture: Study
Category: Health News
Created: 4/2/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/3/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Blood Pressure Dips Upon Standing Might Not Be as Dangerous as Thought
Category: Health News
Created: 1/28/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 1/29/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: AHA News: Could Sunshine Lower Blood Pressure? Study Offers Enlightenment
Category: Health News
Created: 2/28/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 3/2/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Blood Pressure Spikes at Night May Spell Trouble for Brain
Category: Health News
Created: 4/17/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/20/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: AHA News: Being an African American 'Superwoman' Might Come With a Price
Category: Health News
Created: 2/11/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 2/12/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Many With Dog Allergies Might Only Be Allergic to Male Dogs
Category: Health News
Created: 1/7/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 1/8/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Study Links Menopausal Night Sweats to Impaired Thinking
Category: Health News
Created: 9/25/2019 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 9/25/2019 12:00:00 AM

Title: Pets May Help Parents of Kids With Autism Fight Stress
Category: Health News
Created: 5/7/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/8/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: AHA News: Stroke Survivors Might Need Better Screening for Depression
Category: Health News
Created: 2/12/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 2/13/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Bacterial Blood Infections Tied to Heightened Colon Cancer Risk
Category: Health News
Created: 4/22/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 4/23/2020 12:00:00 AM

Title: Fewer Kids in Cancer Trials, Which Might Not Be a Bad Thing
Category: Health News
Created: 5/5/2020 12:00:00 AM
Last Editorial Review: 5/6/2020 12:00:00 AM

ABSTRACT

Patients with COVID-19 infection are at risk of acute respiratory disease syndrome (ARDS) and death. The tissue receptor for COVID-19 is ACE2, and higher levels of ACE2 can protect against ARDS. Angiotensin receptor blockers and statins upregulate ACE2. Clinical trials are needed to determine whether this drug combination might be used to treat patients with severe COVID-19 infection.

ABSTRACT

Mobile elements—plasmids and phages—are important components of microbial function and evolution via traits that they encode and their capacity to shuttle genetic material between species. We here report the unusually rich array of mobile elements within the genome of Arsenophonus nasoniae, the son-killer symbiont of the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis. This microbe’s genome has the highest prophage complement reported to date, with over 50 genomic regions that represent either intact or degraded phage material. Moreover, the genome is predicted to include 17 extrachromosomal genetic elements, which carry many genes predicted to be important at the microbe-host interface, derived from a diverse assemblage of insect-associated gammaproteobacteria. In our system, this diversity was previously masked by repetitive mobile elements that broke the assembly derived from short reads. These findings suggest that other complex bacterial genomes will be revealed in the era of long-read sequencing.

IMPORTANCE The biology of many bacteria is critically dependent on genes carried on plasmid and phage mobile elements. These elements shuttle between microbial species, thus providing an important source of biological innovation across taxa. It has recently been recognized that mobile elements are also important in symbiotic bacteria, which form long-lasting interactions with their host. In this study, we report a bacterial symbiont genome that carries a highly complex array of these elements. Arsenophonus nasoniae is the son-killer microbe of the parasitic wasp Nasonia vitripennis and exists with the wasp throughout its life cycle. We completed its genome with the aid of recently developed long-read technology. This assembly contained over 50 chromosomal regions of phage origin and 17 extrachromosomal elements within the genome, encoding many important traits at the host-microbe interface. Thus, the biology of this symbiont is enabled by a complex array of mobile elements.

ABSTRACT

Burkholderia pseudomallei, the founding member of the B. pseudomallei complex (Bpc), is a biothreat agent and causes melioidosis, a disease whose treatment mainly relies on ceftazidime and meropenem. The concern is that B. pseudomallei could enhance its drug resistance repertoire by the acquisition of DNA from resistant near-neighbor species. Burkholderia ubonensis, a member of the B. cepacia complex (Bcc), is commonly coisolated from environments where B. pseudomallei is present. Unlike B. pseudomallei, in which significant primary carbapenem resistance is rare, it is not uncommon in B. ubonensis, but the underlying mechanisms are unknown. We established that carbapenem resistance in B. ubonensis is due to an inducible class A PenB β-lactamase, as has been shown for other Bcc bacteria. Inducibility is not sufficient for high-level resistance but also requires other determinants, such as a PenB that is more robust than that present in susceptible isolates, as well as other resistance factors. Curiously and diagnostic for the two complexes, both Bpc and Bcc bacteria contain distinct annotated PenA class A β-lactamases. However, the protein from Bcc bacteria is missing its essential active-site serine and, therefore, is not a β-lactamase. Regulated expression of a transcriptional penB'-lacZ (β-galactosidase) fusion in the B. pseudomallei surrogate B. thailandensis confirms that although Bpc bacteria lack an inducible β-lactamase, they contain the components required for responding to aberrant peptidoglycan synthesis resulting from β-lactam challenge. Understanding the diversity of antimicrobial resistance in Burkholderia species is informative about how the challenges arising from potential resistance transfer between them can be met.

IMPORTANCE Burkholderia pseudomallei causes melioidosis, a tropical disease that is highly fatal if not properly treated. Our data show that, in contrast to B. pseudomallei, B. ubonensis β-lactam resistance is fundamentally different because intrinsic resistance is mediated by an inducible class A β-lactamase. This includes resistance to carbapenems. Our work demonstrates that studies with near-neighbor species are informative about the diversity of antimicrobial resistance in Burkholderia and can also provide clues about the potential of resistance transfer between bacteria inhabiting the same environment. Knowledge about potential adverse challenges resulting from the horizontal transfer of resistance genes between members of the two complexes enables the design of effective countermeasures.

For decades, government, health systems, universities, foundations, exceptional individuals, and thought leaders across North Carolina have been testing, implementing, modifying, and just plain trying new ways of improving the way we seek, receive, and experience health care.

More recently, North Carolina has been striving to not simply address the cost, efficiency, and value that are so frustratingly elusive in health care, but also recognizing that we simply need to improve the health of our residents. We have looked to interventions both compatible with and beyond health care to do this.

The National Academy of Medicine, formerly the National Institute of Medicine, since 2016 has boldly laid out Vital Directions in Health Care, focusing on 19 priority issues and recommendations for health policy to better achieve health and well-being for all Americans. They have taken their show on the road, beyond the halls of Congress and think tanks and universities to the people on the ground in states across the country to present, discuss, listen, and learn how policy recommendations come to life.

This issue of the journal highlights the National Academy of Medicine bringing its spotlight to North Carolina last November, an acknowledgment that states are often where policy is put into action, and that North Carolina has been a leader in innovating, planning, implementing, and evaluating again and again to get better and better results for our residents. Pull your chair up to the edge of the stage for a good read in the glow of the spotlight.

Plants require a high concentration of ascorbate as a redox buffer for survival under stress conditions, such as high light. Dehydroascorbate reductases (DHARs) are enzymes that catalyze the reduction of DHA to ascorbate using reduced glutathione (GSH) as an electron donor, allowing rapid ascorbate recycling. However, a recent study using an Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) triple mutant lacking all three DHAR genes (herein called dhar) did not find evidence for their role in ascorbate recycling under oxidative stress. To further study the function of DHARs, we generated dhar Arabidopsis plants as well as a quadruple mutant line combining dhar with an additional vtc2 mutation that causes ascorbate deficiency. Measurements of ascorbate in these mutants under low- or high-light conditions indicated that DHARs have a nonnegligible impact on full ascorbate accumulation under high light, but that they are dispensable when ascorbate concentrations are low to moderate. Because GSH itself can reduce DHA nonenzymatically, we used the pad2 mutant that contains ~30% of the wild-type GSH level. The pad2 mutant accumulated ascorbate at a wild-type level under high light; however, when the pad2 mutation was combined with dhar, there was near-complete inhibition of high-light–dependent ascorbate accumulation. The lack of ascorbate accumulation was consistent with a marked increase in the ascorbate degradation product threonate. These findings indicate that ascorbate recycling capacity is limited in dhar pad2 plants, and that both DHAR activity and GSH content set a threshold for high-light–induced ascorbate accumulation.

Objective

To specifically report on ataxic-hypotonic cerebral palsy (CP) using registry data and to directly compare its features with other CP subtypes.

Dr. Sethi raises an excellent point about the term functional neurologic disorder (FND) in his comment on the editorial.¹ It seems clear that reticence to use the term functional creates the ambiguity he mentions. Medically unexplained symptoms, categorized in the international classification of diseases as undifferentiated somatoform disorders, are a diagnosis that many providers are loathed to give. Whether that is because of concern about missing a diagnosis is not clear. Having evaluated and treated more than 400 of these individuals in the FND clinic at the University of Colorado, I can attest to the fact that patients arrive confused about their diagnosis. Multiple incorrect diagnoses, as Dr. Sethi points out, pack the medical histories of patients with FND, leading doctors and patients astray. I believe that the commentary by Perez et al.² gives us the best chance for a way forward, by teaching a new generation of residents and fellows how to approach patients in a nonjudgmental and open-minded fashion. It took 30 years to add Functional Neurologic Disorder to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, and it is still parenthetical to the term Conversion.³ Stripping the diagnosis of FND of its stigma and empowering care providers to rule in functional disorders is an actionable step which should be taken.

I read with interest the editorial by Strom¹ about functional neurologic disorders (FNDs). As a treating physician, I have struggled with the multiple diagnostic labels attached to these patients by physicians of different medical specialties during the course of their clinical disease presentation. A neurologist may assign a patient who presents with chronic fatigue the diagnostic labels of narcolepsy, idiopathic hypersomnia, or chronic Lyme disease. A rheumatologist may assign the label of collagen vascular disease, and a psychiatrist may diagnose depression. This diagnostic ambiguity is troublesome for patients and clinicians alike. I contend that even the term FND needs to be revisited. A patient should be broadly labeled as having a functional disorder and only after characterization sublabeled and referred to an appropriate specialty physician.

Wardrope et al. (p. 96) reported on the feasibility of using an artificial intelligence tool to distinguish reliably between syncope, epilepsy, and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures in patients presenting with transient loss of consciousness. In an accompanying editorial, Cormac O'Donovan (p. 94) observes that "the likelihood of a one-size-fits-all diagnostic method is unlikely but should not deter the very important research in this field that needs to be performed."

Key Points

The Bcl-2 (B cell lymphoma 2)-related protein Nr-13 plays a major role in the regulation of cell death in developing avian B cells. With over 65% sequence similarity to the chicken Nr-13, herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT) vNr-13, encoded by the HVT079 and HVT096 genes, is the first known alphaherpesvirus-encoded Bcl-2 homolog. HVT-infected cells were reported to be relatively more resistant to serum starvation, suggested that vNr-13 could be involved in protecting the cells. Here, we describe CRISPR/Cas9-based editing of exon 1 of the HVT079 and HVT096 genes from the HVT genome to generate the mutant HVT-vNr-13 to gain insights into its functional roles. Overall, wild-type HVT and HVT-vNr-13 showed similar growth kinetics; however, at early time points, HVT-vNr-13 showed 1.3- to 1.7-fold-lower growth of cell-associated virus and 3- to 6.2-fold-lower growth of cell-free virus. In transfected cells, HVT vNr-13 showed a mainly diffuse cytoplasmic distribution with faint nuclear staining. Further, vNr-13 localized to the mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and disrupted mitochondrial network morphology in the transfected cells. In the wild-type HVT-infected cells, vNr-13 expression appeared to be directly involved in the disruption of the mitochondrial network, as the mitochondrial network morphology was substantially restored in the HVT-vNr-13-infected cells. IncuCyte S3 real-time apoptosis monitoring demonstrated that vNr-13 is unequivocally involved in the apoptosis inhibition, and it is associated with an increase of PFU, especially under serum-free conditions in the later stages of the viral replication cycle. Furthermore, HVT blocks apoptosis in infected cells but activates apoptosis in noninfected bystander cells.

IMPORTANCE B cell lymphoma 2 (Bcl-2) family proteins play important roles in regulating apoptosis during homeostasis, tissue development, and infectious diseases. Several viruses encode homologs of cellular Bcl-2-proteins (vBcl-2) to inhibit apoptosis, which enable them to replicate and persist in the infected cells and to evade/modulate the immune response of the host. Herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT) is a nonpathogenic alphaherpesvirus of turkeys and chickens that is widely used as a live vaccine against Marek’s disease and as recombinant vaccine viral vectors for protecting against multiple avian diseases. Identical copies of the HVT genes HVT079 and HVT096 encode the Bcl-2 homolog vNr-13. While previous studies have identified the potential ability of vNr-13 in inhibiting apoptosis induced by serum deprivation, there have been no detailed investigations on the functions of vNr-13. Using CRISPR/Cas9-based ablation of the vNr-13 gene, we demonstrated the roles of HVT vNr-13 in early stages of the viral replication cycle, mitochondrial morphology disruption, and apoptosis inhibition in later stages of viral replication.

Grasses are among the most resilient plants, and some can survive prolonged desiccation in semiarid regions with seasonal rainfall. However, the genetic elements that distinguish grasses that are sensitive versus tolerant to extreme drying are largely unknown. Here, we leveraged comparative genomic approaches with the desiccation-tolerant grass Eragrostis nindensis and...

Genetic polymorphisms in the region of the trimeric serine hydrolase high-temperature requirement 1 (HTRA1) are associated with increased risk of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and disease progression, but the precise biological function of HtrA1 in the eye and its contribution to disease etiologies remain undefined. In this study, we have...

Functioning cells depend on the outward-facing plasma membrane (PM) effectively contacting the endoplasmic reticulum (ER), which serves as a central hub for contacts with mitochondria and other intracellular organelles. The contact sites are critical to intracellular communication because they mediate intermembrane exchange of lipids, ions, and other small molecules that...