news 2020

Elevated risk of Parkinson's disease among people with type 2 diabetes appears to be reduced by some medications used to treat their diabetes, finds a new study led by UCL researchers. The researchers are testing one of the drugs, called exenatide, as a potential Parkinson's treatment in an upcoming clinical trial, and the new findings, published in Brain , lend support to repurposing diabetes medications for people with Parkinson's.

Fears that people with high blood pressure are more at risk from severe Covid-19 because it is easier for the virus to enter their cells and tissues have been laid to rest, thanks to research by an international team of scientists The team led by University of Manchester, and including University of Glasgow researchers, also show that speculation over some blood pressure lowering medications that they increase the risk of Covid-19 infection, is likely to be wrong.

The proportion of children experiencing a probable mental disorder has increased over the past three years, from one in nine in 2017 to one in six in July this year, according to a report published by NHS Digital and co-authored by Professor Tamsin Ford at the University of Cambridge.

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) works by using light waves to take cross-section pictures of the back of the eye, allowing doctors to not only see each individual layer, but measure each layer's thickness. Imaging techniques ordinarily used by eye doctors to monitor the optic nerve could offer a non-invasive method of measuring and managing potentially dangerous swelling in the skull, a new UK study led by researchers at the University of Birmingham has found.

A study into antibiotic use led by Cardiff University and in collaboration with the University of Oxford and King's College London has won research paper of the year. The study, by researchers from Cardiff University's School of Medicine and Centre for Trials Research, found a simple finger-prick blood test could help to prevent unnecessary prescription of antibiotics in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

World-leading AI technology developed by the Cambridge Centre for AI in Medicine and their colleagues - some of which is being showcased this week at the North American Cystic Fibrosis Conference 2020 - offers a glimpse of the future of precision medicine, and unprecedented predictive power to clinicians caring for individuals with the life-limiting condition.

Just 13% of people in England feel they 'fully understand' the current Covid-19 lockdown rules, with half of adults (51%) in the country saying they understand 'the majority' of them, find UCL researchers as part of the Covid-19 Social Study.

Her plans to study the effects of social isolation on adolescents have become particularly pertinent this year. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore is a cognitive neuroscientist who has spoken out about the importance of supporting and empowering young people, not suppressing and blaming them, during the pandemic.

Palliative care should extend across China and pay more attention to managing non-malignant disease - integrated within the country's healthcare system and available to everyone who needs it, according to a new study. Researchers have found that, with rapidly aging populations, there is an increasing need for palliative care across Greater China - Hong Kong, Macao, mainland China and Taiwan - to help improve quality of life, as well as reducing pain, anxiety and depression.

New study reveals mental health impact of initial lockdown period The first six weeks of the pandemic and lockdown had a major impact on the UK population's mental health and wellbeing, according to new research. Led by the University of Glasgow, the study, which is published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, found young people, women, individuals from more socially disadvantaged backgrounds and those with pre-existing mental health problems reported the worst mental health outcomes in the initial phase of the national lockdown.

A new study sheds fresh light on the conditions under which people in groups follow the behaviour of others, which can help understand human behaviour in relation to Covid-19 restrictions. The new research, a collaboration between the University of St Andrews, the University of Sussex and University College London and published in the journal PLOS ONE, reveals that copying others' behaviour depends on shared group membership.

Scientists across UCL will play a key role in the world's first human challenge study of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, providing new insight into the body's immune response and finding out which vaccines are likely to work. The COVID-19 Human Challenge Programme, funded through the UK Government's Vaccines Taskforce, is being run in partnership with Imperial College London, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS), hVIVO, a leading clinical company with expertise in viral human challenge models, and the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Neuropilin-1 (NRP1) is a host factor for SARS-CoV-2 infection. The image shows human cells infected with SARS-CoV-2 and expressing viral proteins (shown in green). Removal of NRP1 from cells or treating cells with a drug or an antibody targeting NRP1 reduces SARS-CoV-2 infection University of Bristol 20 October 2020 In a major breakthrough an international team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has potentially identified what makes SARS-CoV-2 highly infectious and able to spread rapidly in human cells.

Programmes to reduce dementia risk by targeting smoking, high blood pressure and hearing loss are likely to be cost-effective and cost saving by reducing dementia rates by 8.5%, finds a new study by UCL and LSE researchers. The modelling study, published in The Lancet Healthy Longevity , found that the benefits would outweigh the costs of such programmes, and could save £1.86 billion each year in England.

Initial findings from a study looking at the longer-term impact of COVID-19 has found that a large proportion COVID-19 patients discharged from hospital were still experiencing symptoms of breathlessness, fatigue, anxiety and depression two to three months after contracting the virus. The University of Oxford scientists carrying out the C-MORE study have also detected abnormalities on MRI in multiple organs and believe that persistent or chronic inflammation may be an underlying factor for these changes among COVID-19 survivors.

A new online tool which could help eliminate tuberculosis in countries with low transmission rates such as the UK, by identifying who is at highest risk of developing TB, has been developed by UCL researchers. The research, published today , is the largest study of its kind and pooled data from 18 previous studies and 20 countries including the UK and from across Western Europe, North America and Australia.

A new online tool which could help eliminate tuberculosis in countries with low transmission rates such as the UK, by identifying who is at highest risk of developing TB, has been developed by UCL researchers. The research, published today , is the largest study of its kind and pooled data from 18 previous studies and 20 countries including the UK and from across Western Europe, North America and Australia.

Scientists from Oxford University's Department of Physics have developed an extremely rapid diagnostic test that detects and identifies viruses in less than five minutes. The method, published on the preprint server MedRxiv , is able to differentiate with high accuracy SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, from negative clinical samples, as well as from other common respiratory pathogens such as influenza and seasonal human coronaviruses.

Non-routine testing of patients with suspected Covid-19 to help predict their prognosis on admission to emergency departments offers limited benefit and could have significant cost implications, according to a collaborative evaluation by Cardiff University and the University Hospital of Wales. Researchers drew together laboratory and clinical findings at Wales's largest hospital from the first wave of the pandemic using a newly created electronic healthcare resource, aimed at learning from routine care in the NHS.

We have not all been in this together, according to  research  from Oxford, which shows the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in aggravated economic and mental health inequality. The study, published by PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America), shows lower paid workers have suffered disproportionately more economic hardship and more resulting mental health problems during the current crisis than their higher paid peers.