Articles by Delthia Ricks
Medical Xpress / Influenza A-infected volunteers display different patterns of expelling viruses into environment
Late in the Middle Ages, Italian stargazers gave a name to the annual contagion that rolled around each year like clockwork. It was a name that stuck, and to this day is known as influenza.
Medical Xpress / Stem cells from fat tissue may help prevent kidney dialysis access failure
To undergo kidney dialysis, doctors must first surgically create an access route—an arteriovenous fistula—usually in an arm, a conduit that will accommodate hemodialysis treatments. It is a routine outpatient procedure performed ...
Phys.org / Long overlooked small proteins in E. coli offer new insights into the bacteria
After the advent of antibiotics in the 1940s, scientists were certain that they were on the cusp of conquering infectious diseases, their confidence bolstered by the notion that a comprehensive knowledge of bacterial pathogens ...
Medical Xpress / Scientists move toward developing vaccine against pathogenic Staphylococcus aureus
Antibiotics are the old medicine cabinet standby for treating infections caused by multidrug-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, but as antimicrobial resistance continues to mount globally, scientists say there's a need for ...
Medical Xpress / Can immune cells stave off devastating neurodegenerative diseases? Scientists aim to find out
An evolving form of therapy to treat devastating neurodegenerative disorders by injecting fresh immune cells—microglia—directly into the brain, promises a new lease on health by slowing the progression of mind-robbing conditions.
Medical Xpress / Stopping DNA damage in T cells during PARP inhibitor cancer treatment enhances antitumor effectiveness
The cancer drugs called PARP inhibitors have a puzzling reputation: even though they are treatment mainstays for multiple forms of cancer, they can damage cancer-killing T cells and disrupt the potential for meaningful therapy. ...
Phys.org / Kinase enzymes exist throughout tree of life—those found in bacteria may be vulnerable targets for new antibiotics
Enzymes known as kinases play a critical role in cell growth, metabolism and signaling in a multitude of organisms across the tree of life—from algae to helminths to mammals. Now, scientists have developed an atlas of bacterial ...
Medical Xpress / Click chemistry PET imaging tracks antisense drug distribution in the brain
Assessing the distribution of a medication in the brain is critical for the treatment of a vast range of neurological disorders, especially conditions such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. To that end, scientists ...
Medical Xpress / Can monoclonal antibodies effectively treat malaria? Scientists say the answer is a resounding 'yes'
Monoclonal antibodies provide protection against a wide range of infectious microbes, and now, in a series of elegant laboratory experiments, scientists have uncovered how a pair of these lab-engineered molecules fight malaria.
Medical Xpress / Size matters when it comes to antibiotics. Obese patients may need customized doses of certain drugs
Obesity can have a distinct impact on the absorption, effectiveness and excretion of antibiotics, medications that have been in use for more than 80 years, but only now have consensus guidelines been proposed on prescribing ...
Medical Xpress / Positive proof-of-concept experiments may lead to the world's first treatment for celiac disease
An investigational treatment for celiac disease effectively controls the condition—at least in an animal model—in a first-of-its-kind therapeutic for a condition that affects approximately 70 million people worldwide.
Medical Xpress / Investigational test detects earliest stages of autoimmune assault that causes type 1 diabetes, scientists report
An investigational blood test for type 1 diabetes can accurately detect the disorder's characteristic autoimmunity with only small samples of blood, a feature that makes it ideal to screen pediatric patients, scientists in ...
Medical Xpress / New technique protects 'architecture' of insulin-producing islet cells for transplant into type 1 diabetics
Stem cell-derived pancreatic islets are being studied as a rich transplantable source for insulin production, a therapeutic for type 1 diabetes that overcomes the need to obtain islet cells from deceased donors.
Medical Xpress / Scientists work toward a vaccine for filoviruses, Ebola's deadly kin
Filoviruses are among the globe's most lethal—indeed, so dangerous they can be handled only in high-security laboratories. Yet, more than five decades after the discovery of the Marburg virus and nearly 50 years after the ...
Medical Xpress / Low levels of a single enzyme influence pathway to malignancy in colorectal cancer, scientists find
The transformation of healthy cells into invasive colorectal tumors is an extraordinarily complex process involving numerous molecular mechanisms, according to cancer biologists in China who have discovered that low levels ...
