Month: September 2024

New “smart bandages” hold potential for revolutionizing the treatment of chronic wounds:  Researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC are co-leading an effort to develop advanced electronic bandages and other tools to improve chronic wound monitoring and healing.

Smart bandages can detect infection, inflammation: Researchers are developing smart bandages capable of autonomously monitoring wound healing and detecting issues like infections and inflammation, according to a study published in the journal Nature Materials. The findings showed potential results in animal models, suggesting these high-tech dressings could revolutionize wound care by assisting in real time, delivering treatments and improving patient outcomes.

Older Women Are Different Than Older Men.  Their Health Is Woefully Understudied.

Experts call for more research on older women’s health: Scientific research on older women’s health is “completely inadequate,” leaving clinicians unsure of how well or even whether drugs tested on men in clinical trials will affect postmenopausal women, who are biologically different, says Stephanie Faubion, Director of the Mayo Clinic’s Center for Women’s Health. Experts say more research is needed on heart disease, brain health, mental health, cancer, and bone health in older women, and the White House’s new Women’s Health Initiative might narrow some of these research gaps.

Pet Care Industry Is Dreaming of Dog and Cat Ozempic

Some companies want to adapt weight-loss drugs to pets: Overweight cats lost at least 5% of their body weight within 112 days after receiving an implant containing a glucagon-like peptide 1 agonist, the active ingredient in new human weight-loss drugs, according to Okava Pharmaceuticals, which is developing the implant designed by Vivani Medical. Better Choice, which acquired Aimia Pet Healthco, is also developing pet treats that replicate the benefits of human weight-loss drugs. Although pet obesity is a problem, it is frequently due to overfeeding, and veterinarian Jeanne Ficociello says it is best to try diet and exercise and to check for underlying endocrine disorders before turning to weight-loss drugs for pets.

New insights into the brain regions involved in paranoia:  Through a novel approach, Yale researchers translate data from monkeys to better understand how paranoia arises in the human brain.

Regions of brains linked to paranoia found in humans, non-human primates: By comparing data from humans and non-human primates, researchers identified specific regions of the brain involved in paranoia, finding that lesions in these areas were associated with negative behaviors linked to paranoia, according to a study in Cell Reports. Scientists hope that this research could translate to other species, like mice or invertebrates, and could ultimately help find treatments for paranoia in humans.