Articles by Delthia Ricks
Medical Xpress / The two sides of inflammation—the cure and the curse
One of the many wonders—and mysteries—of human biology is the complex response of the innate immune system, which is known for its swiftness in annihilating invading pathogens and capacity to mount an explosive inflammatory ...
Medical Xpress / Antibiotic resistant bacteria are a global threat—oak surfaces might thwart their growth
Drug resistant superbugs are expected to overwhelm the healthcare system, reverse a century's worth of medical progress and claim more lives than cancer by 2050 unless efforts are accelerated to stop antibiotic resistant ...
Medical Xpress / 'Turncoat' macrophages in the tumor 'micro-environment' underlie breast cancer progression
New research that is examining the "tumor microenvironment" reveals not only how macrophages can become extraordinary turncoats but also how they can actively support tumor growth and metastatic progression in certain forms ...
Medical Xpress / Harnessing a forgotten plague: Mathematical models suggest vaccine control of TB in hard hit countries
It has been a pandemic since at least biblical times, and unless effective strategies harness the global tuberculosis scourge, the disease will remain problematic and pervasive—an unending plague throughout many regions of ...
Medical Xpress / Binge drinking may cause Alzheimer's disease—and it might strike younger and in a severe form
Binge drinking may be linked to both the onset and severity of Alzheimer's disease, but scientists have only now embarked on a path to decipher each molecular step involved in how excessive alcohol consumption leads to the ...
Medical Xpress / Scientists test a 'bispecific' antibody that helps T cells zero in on treatment-resistant cancers
Although immunotherapy has achieved increasing prominence in the panoply of innovative cancer treatments, it remains an imperfect tool—too many tumors simply do not respond.
Medical Xpress / Battle royale: How bacteria fight antibiotics and up the ante in chemical warfare
Inadequate development of new antibiotics and rising rates of resistance by bacteria to existing antimicrobials are dual forces pushing the world ever closer to a post-antibiotic era.
Medical Xpress / Moving the diagosis of rheumatic diseases into the era of precision medicine
Many rheumatic conditions develop slowly and initially have inflammatory arthritis as the first sign that something is amiss. The trouble with such close similarity is the difficulty that clinicians have differentiating one ...
Medical Xpress / Greedy for glucose: Cancer cells rely on a primeval energy-producing pathway to proliferate and spread
To fuel their rapid proliferation, tumor cells rely on glycolysis, a primordial metabolic pathway that is easily exploited by cancers to gain energy to grow—and spread.
Medical Xpress / Discovery: Scientists find for the first time how the eyes drain cellular waste and debris
Just as the brain is a privileged organ, so too are the eyes. Often poetically called the windows to the soul, a unique set of studies has begun to regard the eyes in another way. Like the brain, the eyes lack the classic ...
Medical Xpress / Research: Cancer gene inhibition shows step toward beating neuroblastomas
Neuroblastoma is a devastating solid tumor of childhood and emerges in the sympathetic nervous system while many kids who develop it are still toddlers.
Medical Xpress / Rotavirus vaccine controls annual threat to vulnerable infants and toddlers
Before a rotavirus vaccine became available in 2006, the infection was an enormous wintertime burden—a cause of severe epidemics that threatened infants' lives, and sometimes claimed them.
Medical Xpress / An understudied cause of cancer: Mutations in regulators of cell signaling
Mutations in a vital class of regulatory molecules are an underappreciated cause of cancer because they impair the function of "G" proteins, a versatile and vast family of signaling switches that underlie innumerable biological ...
Medical Xpress / Dementia gene: Heading soccer balls increases brain risks for certain players
Startling new evidence from medical investigators in New York suggests that "heading" a ball in soccer—in which players propel it with their heads—can lead to cognitive impairment in members of the sport who are endowed with ...
Medical Xpress / Deep reservoirs of 'sleeper' viruses are roadblocks to HIV cure
The major obstacle to curing HIV is a vast reservoir of "latent, replication-competent proviruses," which have infiltrated the very cells that help orchestrate the immune response.
