News by Subject Medicine & Health

As hospitalized COVID-19 patients undergo experimental therapy, research published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry explains how the drug, remdesivir, stops replication in coronaviruses.

A group of University of Alberta researchers who have discovered why the drug remdesivir is effective in treating the coronaviruses that cause Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) expect it might also be effective for treating patients infected with the new COVID-19 strain.

Older people's risk of recurrent fractures decreases by 18 percent if the care they receive is more structured and preventive, through fracture liaison services. This is shown by a study from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have identified a rare, new cell in the immune system with 'Jekyll and Hyde properties.' These cells play a key protective role in immunity to infection but -- if unregulated -- also mediate tissue damage in autoimmune disorders. The findings should help us design more effective vaccines to prevent infections such as MRSA, and may also assist help us develop of new therapies for autoimmune diseases, such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis.

Roughly 80% of people with myotonic dystrophy -- a common form of muscular dystrophy -- experience dangerous heart ailments, and heart rhythm defects are the second-leading cause of death in those with the condition. In a new study, researchers traced the molecular events that lead to heart abnormalities in myotonic dystrophy and recreated the disease in a mouse model.