Children

One question that continues to remain unanswered during the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has been why is there a distinctive hit-and-miss pattern when it comes to severe disease? An interesting new study that appears on the medRxiv* preprint server pinpoints one highly relevant risk factor: the state of the oral and gut microbiomes.

A team of renowned scientific experts has joined forces from across the world to help fight the spread of misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines, which hold the key to beating the deadly pandemic and releasing countries from debilitating lockdown restrictions. Together they have created a unique online guide, published today and led by the University

Physicians have long known that necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC), a potentially lethal inflammatory condition that destroys a premature infant’s intestinal lining, is often connected to the development of severe brain injury in those infants who survive. However, the means by which the diseased intestine “communicates” its devastation to the newborn brain has remained largely unknown. Now,

Researchers at the Children’s Medical Center Research Institute at UT Southwestern (CRI) have discovered a new metabolic vulnerability in a highly aggressive form of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). These findings could pave the way for new treatments for patients with mutations in two key genes – KRAS and LKB1. Patients whose tumors contain both

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children with disabilities has not received much attention, perhaps because the disease disproportionately affects older individuals. In this special issue of the Journal of Pediatric Rehabilitation Medicine experts assess the impact of the pandemic on pediatric patients with special needs, their caregivers, and healthcare providers. They also focus

One of the most recognizable characteristics of autism is an amazing diversity of associated behavioral symptoms. Clinicians view autism as a broad spectrum of related disorders, and the origin of the disease’s heterogeneity has puzzled scientists, doctors, and affected families for decades. In a recent study, researchers at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and

Research has shown that human milk is the optimal nutrition source for neonates and infants. It confers protection against both immediately life-threatening infant diseases such as necrotizing enterocolitis, as well as later onset diseases in adults, like obesity, diabetes and inflammatory bowel disease. Scientific evidence suggests that what a mother eats while she is breastfeeding

Black children are removed from their families at much greater rates than any other race or ethnicity in this country. At the same time the sheer number of all child abuse investigations in the US is staggering: experts estimate that by age 18 one out of three children has been the subject of a child

About one in 100 children has a common brain disorder called Chiari 1 malformation, but most of the time such children grow up normally and no one suspects a problem. But in about one in 10 of those children, the condition causes headaches, neck pain, hearing, vision and balance disturbances, or other neurological symptoms. In

Researchers at the Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine have revealed that alterations in fetal microglia resulting from maternal inflammation could contribute towards the onset of developmental and psychiatric disorders. The research team including PhD student OZAKI Kana and Professor YAMADA Hideto et al. from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology observed that infant mice

Results of a national study show significant sex and age-based differences among youth and young adults who experience a nonfatal opioid overdose. Female youth between the ages of 11 and 16 have a higher incidence of nonfatal opioid overdose compared to male youth of the same age. That reverses at age 17, however, as males

Recent analyses indicate that pregnant women and newborns may face elevated risks of developing more severe cases of COVID-19 following SARS-CoV-2 infection. New research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and published in Cell reveals lower than expected transfer of protective SARS-CoV-2 antibodies via the placenta from mothers who are infected in the

COVID-19 antibodies preferentially target a different part of the virus in mild cases of COVID-19 than they do in severe cases, and wane significantly within several months of infection, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford Medicine. The findings identify new links between the course of the disease and a patient’s immune response.

Jean Lengenfelder, PhD, of Kessler Foundation, received a two-year $168,001 grant from the New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research to study the impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on the ability of children to reliably process the emotions of others. Children with TBI often struggle with social interaction and relationships, even years after their

When a person has an infection, the body activates immune responses to fight it. IFNγ is an inflammatory molecule produced by the immune system that helps fight infections. However, long-term exposure to IFNγ has undesirable consequences – it irreversibly exhausts blood stem cells, the progenitors of all blood cells, including immune cells, by triggering their

Giving antimalarial medicines to children monthly during the rainy season cut malaria deaths in children by 42 per cent, making a case for wide implementation in malaria-endemic African regions, a study found. In 2012, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued guidelines for implementing intermittent monthly drug administration, also known as Seasonal Malaria Chemoprevention (SMC), in

A new study looking at the results of testing children for COVID-19 through a Children’s National Hospital community-based testing site found that one in four patients had a positive test. The findings, reported online Dec. 18 in The Journal of Pediatrics, reinforce that children and young adults are impacted by the virus more than originally

Children of mothers who drink relatively more cow’s milk during breastfeeding are at reduced risk of developing food allergies. That is the conclusion of researchers from Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, in a new study published in the scientific journal Nutrients. The result is based on a survey of more than 500 Swedish women’s eating

An observational study has launched to evaluate the short- and long-term health outcomes of SARS-CoV-2 infection in children, including multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), and to characterize the immunologic pathways associated with different disease presentations and outcomes. SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes COVID-19. The study, called the Pediatric Research Immune Network on SARS-CoV-2

Preschoolers living in impoverished communities who have access to a nurturing home environment have significantly higher intelligence quotient (IQ) scores in adolescence compared to those raised without nurturing care. That is the finding of a new international study conducted by University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) researchers, which examined data from more than 1600

One consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic is that more families are putting off their children’s preventive care visits, causing pediatric providers to worry about missed vaccines. In a recent study published in Pediatrics, researchers at Nationwide Children’s Hospital evaluated changes in measles vaccination rates from before the pandemic to this summer, when return for clinical

A Melbourne-led research consortium investigating the impact of iron treatments on maternal and newborn health in low-income countries has received two major grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation worth almost $US 9.6 million. The funding, awarded in 2020, will support major clinical trials in Malawi, South Asia, Africa and Bangladesh, investigating whether intravenous

A new paper released by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health reports a strong association between a high number of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and contact with the U.S. justice system. Analyzing data from eleven studies, the researchers found that results were consistent across multiple types of justice system contact and across diverse geographic

If clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines aren’t expanded soon to include children, it’s unlikely that even kids in their teens will be vaccinated in time for the next school year. The hurdle is that COVID vaccine makers are only in the early stages of testing their products on children. The Pfizer vaccine authorized for use

In a paper published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics, a group of international collaborators led by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine identified new genetic associations that can predict individual susceptibility to a rare inflammatory disease called Takayasu arteritis. The study, conceived by Amr Sawalha, M.D., professor of pediatrics

A deficiency in Vitamin D on the mother’s side could explain why Autism spectrum disorder is three times more common in boys, say researchers from The University of Queensland. In their latest study, Professor Darryl Eyles and Dr Asad Ali from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute found vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy caused an increase in

Using a custom-built exposure chamber, UNC School of Medicine and EPA scientists tested consumer-grade masks and improvised face coverings to show how effective they can be at protecting individuals from airborne particles of similar size to those carrying SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. It’s been shown that when two people wearing masks interact, the

A team of McGill University researchers has found that young adults who perceived higher levels of social support reported fewer mental health problems. In a study published today in JAMA Network Open, the team led by Marie-Claude Geoffroy, Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at McGill, reassessed the impact of the