In the Press

Many diseases have their origin in early human development, and today (8 September), two publications in Nature reveal how researchers from the Human Cell Atlas (HCA) consortium are advancing understanding of this. The global HCA initiative is mapping every cell type in the human body, to transform our knowledge of biology, infection and disease.

In 2014, the European Medicines Agency approved the drug Tecfidera for the treatment of relapsing multiple sclerosis, a neurodegenerative disease that affects millions of people worldwide. In multiple sclerosis, inflammation damages the protective myelin insulation around nerves, and the nerves themselves. The active ingredient of Tecfidera is dimethyl fumarate, a compound that is thought to modulate the immune system, thus acting as an anti-inflammatory that alleviates the symptoms of multiple sclerosis.

Specific genes increase the risk of developing depression, according to a new study led by UCL researchers, which also shows that the genes associated with depression vary depending on ancestry group.

Currently, there are no presymptomatic screening methods to identify individuals infected with a respiratory virus to prevent disease spread and to predict their trajectory for resource allocation.

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners launched the first ever global strategy to defeat meningitis - a debilitating disease that kills hundreds of thousands of people each year.

Mount Sinai researchers have developed a therapy that shows promise against a deadly pediatric leukemia. The small-molecule therapy was highly effective in fighting a type of acute myeloid leukemia in both in vitro and in vivo experiments, according to research published in Science Translational Medicine in September.

The August 17 seven-day average for COVID-19 deaths was 615 per day, down from 3,245 a day in early January. This comes as the highly contagious Delta variant becomes the dominant COVID-19 strain. More Americans are dying from COVID-19 than earlier this summer, which recorded a low of 246 deaths per day on July 3.

Most emerging infectious diseases of humans are caused by viruses that originate from other animal species. Identifying these zoonotic threats prior to emergence is a major challenge since only a small minority of the estimated 1.67 million animal viruses may infect humans [1–3].

On August 12, 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) amended Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to authorize administration of an additional dose after completion of a primary vaccination series to eligible persons with moderate to severe immunocompromising conditions (1,2).

The influence of certain weather types (heat waves and air mass types), specific weather parameters, and also of the atmospheric environment in general, on human health, particularly all-cause mortality, has been studied extensively [1–4].