news 2020

Sleep paralysis - a condition thought to explain a number of mysterious experiences including alleged cases of alien abduction and demonic night-time visits - could be treated using a technique of meditation-relaxation, suggests a pilot study published today. I know first-hand how terrifying sleep paralysis can be, having experienced it many times myself.

Relationships between GPs and patients are changing. It is becoming more difficult for patients to see their preferred GP. In a study by researchers from the University of Bristol's Centre for Academic Primary Care, patients reported that, regardless of whether they were able to see the same GP or not, what they most wanted is to be trusted and respected by their GP.

The rise of antibiotic resistance in many pathogens has been driven by the spread of a small number of strains, suggesting that some bacteria may be genetically pre-disposed to evolving resistance. Researchers at Oxford University have tested this hypothesis by quantifying differences in evolvability between pathogen strains and by searching for 'potentiator' genes that accelerate the evolution of resistance.

Scientists at UCL have discovered new biomarkers, which may identify those people with Type 1 diabetes who would benefit from the immunotherapy drug Abatacept, a finding which could eventually help thousands manage the disease more effectively. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease, which means it is caused by the body's own immune system attacking healthy body tissues.

A 'pill on a string' test can identify ten times more people with Barrett's oesophagus than the usual GP route, after results from a 3-year trial were published in the medical journal  The Lancet . It's taken almost a decade of research and testing thousands of patients to show that we've developed a better route to diagnosing Barrett's oesophagus Rebecca Fitzgerald The test, which can be carried out by a nurse in a GP surgery, is also better at picking up abnormal cells and potentially early-stage cancer.

Cannabidiol (CBD) could be a safe and effective treatment for problematic cannabis use, according to new findings from a benchmark clinical trial involving UCL. The study, published today in The Lancet Psychiatry , was the first-ever randomised clinical trial of CBD, a non-intoxicating constituent part of the cannabis plant, for cannabis use disorder.

Over a six-year period, researchers studied more than 2000 patients with newly diagnosed adrenal tumours from 14 centres of the European Network for the Study of Adrenal Tumours (ENSAT) Using a simple urine test alongside routine imaging for patients with adrenal masses could speed up adrenal cancer diagnosis, improving patient's prognosis and reducing the need for invasive diagnostic procedures, a new multi-centre study published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology has found.

Antibiotic resistance poses a significant threat to human health on a global scale. It has been predicted that resistant infections will cause 10 million deaths per year by 2050. Given that antibiotics are crucial in many areas of medicine, it is important to understand how antibiotic use influences the likelihood that resistance will emerge in response to treatment.

Antibiotic treatment in early life seems to impede brain signalling pathways that function in social behaviour and pain regulation in mice, a new study by Dr Katerina Johnson and Dr Philip Burnet has found. It was published today in  BMC Neuroscience . Katerina Johnson, from the University's Departments of Psychiatry and Experimental Psychology, was researching the effects of disrupting the microbiome on the brain in mice.

69.9% of BAME patients included in the study were populated within areas of high living environment deprivation compared to 50.2% of White patients. Black, Asian minority ethnic patients with COVID-19 are more likely to be admitted to hospital from regions with higher levels of air pollution, lower quality housing and overcrowded living conditions and are more likely to be admitted to intensive care, a new UK study has found.

Since the trial opened to recruitment in May 2015 until November 2019, 288 patients have been recruited to the 19 targeted treatment cohorts on the trial. A pioneering lung cancer study, led by the University of Birmingham's Cancer Research UK Clinical Trials Unit , has highlighted important factors that will need to be considered in the next wave of precision medicine studies particularly in treating genomically complicated cancers.

New markers hidden inside the influenza virus have been discovered by scientists at Cardiff University. The researchers from the School of Medicine worked with an international team of experts - including collaborators in Moscow, Russia and Melbourne, Australia - to look at how people's immune systems responded to the new protein markers.

The review , led by the University of Bristol and Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Trust published today in Anaesthesia, a journal of the Association of Anaesthetists, also shows ICU mortality for the disease is similar across the three continents included: Europe, Asia and North America. "The important message is that as the pandemic has progressed and various factors combine, survival of patients admitted to ICU has significantly improved.

Medicated chewing gum has been recognised as a new advanced drug delivery method but currently there is no gold standard for testing drug release from chewing gum in vitro. New research has shown a chewing robot with built-in humanoid jaws could provide opportunities for pharmaceutical companies to develop medicated chewing gum.

A condition which causes deformity of the hand - leading in the most severe cases to impairment and disability - can now be successfully treated by using drugs developed in recent years for the treatment of different forms of arthritis, researchers at the University of Glasgow have found. Their findings are reported in the journal Advanced Science.

Researchers have developed a way to pull HIV out of the latent reservoir making the virus visible to the immune system and providing the potential to be killed by treatment. Part of what has made HIV infection so difficult to cure, is that once the virus enters the body, some of it hides dormant inside of the cells, making it essentially invisible to both the immune system and antiretroviral drugs.

Here's a batch of fresh news and announcements from across Imperial. From commencing a space study despite COVID-19 challenges, to a new drug and diet combo treatment for cancer, here is some quick-read news from across the College. Operating a spacecraft in lockdown After launching in February , the European Space Agency's (ESA) Solar Orbiter spacecraft has successfully completed four months of technical verification, known as commissioning.

An Imperial researcher discussed a trial giving UK COVID-19 patients blood plasma from people who have recovered from coronavirus, in a recent talk. Professor Anthony Gordon, Chair in Anaesthesia and Critical Care at Imperial College London and a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, is leading a trial to investigate whether convalescent plasma transfusions improve the speed of recovery and chances of survival for patients with COVID-19.

The researcher developing a potential new coronavirus vaccine said the technology behind it could also be used for future pandemics, in a recent talk. Professor Robin Shattock, from the Department of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London, is leading the development of a candidate vaccine. It is currently being tested in human trials to establish whether it can be well tolerated and produce an effective immune response against COVID-19.

The key to swift treatments to cure the pain of rheumatoid arthritis has been found in the joints of people with the condition who are in longterm remission. The study - published today and led by the University of Glasgow in collaboration with Fondazione A.Gemelli IRCCS in Italy and the Versus Arthritis funded Research into Inflammatory Arthritis Centre (RACE) - found that people with arthritis in long-term remission had a difference in cell function which could settle inflammation and 'teach' nearby cells to repair the joint.