LiveScience

Scientists are developing an engineered parasite to get drugs into the brain.

Genetically engineered 'mind control' parasite could deliver drugs to the brain

A mind-bending parasite may one day deliver drugs to the brain. Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite that famously makes mice lose their fear of cats, but also can cause deadly foodborne illnesses (SN: 1/14/20). Now, researchers have engineered the parasite to deliver large therapeutic proteins to the brains of mice and into human brain cells grown in lab dishes, an international team of scientists reports July 29 in Nature Microbiology.

Getting drugs into the brain is hard. Maybe a parasite can do the job

Saint Louis, MO

CBS News

Ziyad Al-Aly is chief of research and development at VA St. Louis Health Care System and a clinical epidemiologist at Washington University in St. Louis.Since 2020, the condition known as long COVID-19 has become a widespread disability affecting the health and quality of life of millions of people across the globe and costing economies billions of dollars in reduced productivity of employees and an overall drop in the work force. The intense scientific effort that long COVID sparked has resulted in more than 24,000 scientific publications, making it the most researched health condition in any four years of recorded human history.Long COVID...

Long COVID has affected millions. Here's what scientists now know.

New York City, NY

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Cheryl E Preston

Yesterday was the third time this year that an ad stating Chelsea Clinton lives in a beautiful Virginia home popped up on my laptop. My computer did not warn me this was a dangerous site, so this time, I clicked on the link.

Chelsea Clinton is rumored to be living in Virginia but probably still in NYC

Colorado State

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David Heitz

A bill quietly introduced this spring in the Colorado legislature to decriminalize the possession of drug paraphernalia obtained by harm reductionists has become law. As low-key as the legislation was introduced, the bill was signed into law without fanfare June 6. It garnered little to no media attention.

Colorado legalizes needles, pipes for meth and crack if obtained by harm reduction group

Missouri State

Fulton, MO

CJ Coombs

Updated on July 17, 2024, concerning two of the missing children listed below. Bringing them home: for 40 years, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has been helping to locate missing children.

Seven teenagers have been missing in Missouri since June 2024

ScienceAlert

From conveying precise instruction to evoking entire new worlds, words and their meanings are central to our existence as humans. But how the multitude of cells making up a human brain take abstract noises or symbols and convert them into something with meaning has long been a mystery. New techniques...

Meanings of Words Have Been Detected in The Flicker of Individual Brain Cells

A neuroimaging study has revealed differences in brain activity between cannabis users and nonusers during cognitive tasks that involve switching behavior based on changing task requirements. Cannabis users exhibited weaker neural responses during these switches compared to nonusers, although both groups performed equally well on the tasks. This research was published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.

Cannabis users have altered patterns of brain activity when switching tasks

North Carolina State

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Town Talks

As North Carolina continues to attract new residents, understanding the rights and obligations of both tenants and landlords becomes increasingly important. Here’s what you need to know about landlord entry and tenant rights in the state.

Can landlords enter at any time, or is it trespassing? Here are the rules in North Carolina

Virginia State

Ronkonkoma, NY

The New York Post reveals that two men who died in a plane crash at MacArthur Airport were from Virginia. The men had been visiting friends in Long Island and were returning home when the tragedy occurred.

Life partners from Virginia have been identified as the victims of a New York plane crash

Nebraska State

National Weather Force

Severe thunderstorms are expected across parts of North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska from the late afternoon into the evening with a few cells lingering into the overnight hours. Storms will be capable of producing mainly damaging winds, large hail, and perhaps an isolated tornado. Check below for further details on the outlook.

Damaging Winds Excess of 75mph, Large Hail & Isolated Tornado; Northern Plains; Evening of July 29th

Everyday Health

A new study finds that pooping once or twice a day may be ideal for reducing the risk of chronic disease by promoting a healthy gut microbiome.

How Often Should You Poop? Science Has an Answer

Arizona State

A serious rodent-borne illness with no available treatment has recently surfaced in the U.S., causing multiple deaths and triggering health advisories. The disease, known as hantavirus, is transmitted to humans from rodents through exposure to their urine, saliva, or feces. This transmission occurs when individuals come into contact with these viral droplets, often from handling contaminated materials.

Rat-Borne Disease Without Cure Spreads To Humans, Claims Four Lives

The Independent

 A deadly superbug that causes about 300,000 deaths a year evolved from being a common environmental bacterium and spread rapidly in just over two centuries, according to a new study that could help improve our understanding of immunity against invading bacteria.Pseudomonas aeruginosa can cause multidrug-resistant infections, particularly in people with underlying conditions such as cystic fibrosis and lung damage from smoking. It wasn’t always a specialised human killer, however.Scientists at the University of Cambridge assessed nearly 10,000 DNA samples infected by the bacterium from around the world to construct a “family tree” of the bug and found that just...

Superbug that now kills 300,000 people a year evolved rapidly from common bacteria

BGR.com

A group of Chinese researchers has created a robot with a brain made of human stem cells. The technology is technically a “brain-on-a-chip,” and the researchers have been working to train the robot to perform various tasks. The stem cell brain that powers the robot is attached to a neural interface chip, which powers the entire thing.
Tianjin University, one of the two institutes behind the new research, considers the design the world’s first open-source brain-on-chip system and says that it could lead to the development of more brain-like computing. The key to the entire design is an in-vitro cultured brain...

Terrifying new robot has a brain made from human stem cells

Denver, CO

A dangerous drug that is being mixed into fentanyl is causing those who inject it to develop a rash of sores that resembles a case of flesh-eating bacteria. People experiencing homelessness around Denver can sometimes be seen with these bloody, weeping wounds. I recently mentioned this phenomenon to a fentanyl user who told me about the xylazine connection.

Denver homeless people suffer sores as xylazine enters fentanyl supply

Cincinnati, OH

In 1953, 15-year-old Joe Ligon and four other Pennsylvania teens went on an alcohol-fueled tear that resulted in the stabbing deaths of two people and injuries to six more. The teens were tried as a group, and all received life without parole. After a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions...

Many juvenile ‘lifers’ freed

Chicago, IL

Bacterial infections have a fix. Get the right antibiotic and the correct course of treatment, and you’ll kill the bacteria and stop the illness. That’s how it should work in theory. In practice, bacteria are trying to survive and have started developing antibiotic resistance. That can endanger lives, with the World Health Organization (WHO) calling bacterial resistance “one of the top global public health and development threats.”
The WHO said in a report last November that antimicrobial resistance, including antibiotic resistance, was directly responsible for 1.27 million global deaths in 2019 and contributed to 4.95 million deaths. The World Bank estimates...

New drug could make bacterial resistance ‘nearly impossible’

Foodie in Chicago

Shortly before 3 AM, people in the Chicago area may have felt their houses shake as a 3.4-magnitude earthquake occurred about 60 miles west of the city. (CHICAGO) The United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported a 3.4-magnitude earthquake around Somonauk, IL. Somonauk is in DeKalb and LaSalle Counties, 64 miles west of Chicago.

Did You Feel the Earthquake?

In addition to collecting more than 8,000 used needles in the past year from Denver drug users, the Harm Reduction Action Center passed out 10,000 meth pipes and “snort kits,” according to a newsletter sent to its supporters Thursday. They also connected about 1,700 people to medical, mental health and substance abuse treatment.

Denver group hands out 10K meth pipes, ‘snort kits,’ connects 1,700 to treatment annually

NewsBreak

YALE NEWS: What shapes a virus’s pandemic potential? SARS-CoV-2 relatives yield clues

New Haven, Conn. — Two of the closest known relatives to SARS-CoV-2 — a pair of bat coronaviruses discovered by researchers in Laos — may transmit...

YALE NEWS: What shapes a virus’s pandemic potential? SARS-CoV-2 relatives yield clues

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