news 2021

Adding abiraterone to the standard treatment for locally advanced prostate cancer, where the cancer has a high chance of spreading, could halve the risk of death from the disease, according to the results of a UCL-led trial. The researchers suggest that hormone therapy using abiraterone with prednisolone, could significantly reduce prostate cancer deaths and improve outcomes for thousands of people every year.

A COVID-19 booster vaccination markedly increases immune response in residents and staff within care homes, making it vital that people living and working in these settings get their third 'jab', a new study reveals. Age and frailty are already recognised as major risk factors for severe COVID-19 outcomes, with elderly residents of long-term care facilities suffering much higher rates of mortality during the pandemic than the general population.

Whether it's the continued impact of the Covid-19 pandemic or our world-leading science, our stories have been top news across the country and the world. Here's some of the most popular and interesting news releases from the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health in 2021.

A Covid-19 booster vaccination markedly increases immune response in residents and staff within care homes, according to a new preprint study co-led by UCL researchers, making it vital that people living and working in these settings get their third jab. Age and frailty are already recognised as major risk factors for severe Covid-19 outcomes, with elderly residents of long-term care facilities suffering much higher rates of mortality during the pandemic than the general population.

Older patients in hospitals across China took part in a major multi-centre open-label randomised clinical trial that showed there was no difference in post-operative delirium in older people with a hip fracture, if they had a general anaesthesia, or a regional anaesthesia. Post-operative delirium is a common, serious, neurological, complication where people have a sudden change in their brain functions after an operation.

A relatively small number of patients are accounting for a large proportion of GP workload, including face-to-face consultations, according to a UK study by University of Manchester experts. The study of over 160 million consultation events from 12.3 million patients, in 845 general practices between 2000 and 2019 showed four out of ten of the workload at GP clinics were with frequent attenders.

A proof-of-concept trial led by the University of Birmingham and University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust has identified a drug that may benefit some patients hospitalised with COVID-19 pneumonia. The CATALYST trial tested UK-based bio-pharmaceutical company Izana Bioscience's namilumab (IZN-101) as a potential therapeutic to treat patients who are hospitalised with COVID-19 pneumonia, and receiving 'usual' care, as well as having high levels in their blood of a marker of inflammation known as C reactive protein (CRP).

Treatments used to help people with multiple sclerosis (MS) manage their condition can reduce the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines, according to a new study led by Cardiff University. Disease-modifying therapies (DMTs) are a group of treatments that suppress the body's immune system and are used by people with MS and other conditions such as cancer and rheumatoid disease.

Scientists have discovered a new potential treatment that has the ability to reverse antibiotic resistance in bacteria that cause conditions such as sepsis, pneumonia, and urinary tract infections. Carbapenems, such as meropenem, are a group of vital often 'last-resort' antibiotics used to treat serious, multi-drug resistant infections when other antibiotics, such as penicillin, have failed.

Elderly care home residents who have previously contracted and survived COVID-19 develop much stronger and higher antibody and cellular immune responses to two doses of vaccination than those without prior natural infection, finds new research led by the University of Birmingham.

The light from a smartphone screen can be used to print medications, in a new 3D printing technique developed by UCL researchers. The method could make it easier for personalised medicines to be prepared in clinics, remote areas or even in patients' homes. The report in the International Journal of Pharmaceutics is the first published study of smartphone-based 3D printing of pharmaceuticals.

Estimates of COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the USA based on large surveys that are used to guide policy-making decisions tend to overestimate the number of vaccinated individuals, research published in Nature suggests. In the USA, the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) compiles data on national vaccine uptake, but reporting can sometimes be delayed.

A study of tuberculosis patients in six Jakarta hospitals has revealed up to 13 per cent of them had fungal lung infection - or aspergillosis - at the end of their treatment. The findings could, warn the research team from Universitas Indonesia and The University of Manchester , have implications globally, wherever TB is found.

Six COVID-19 vaccines are safe and boost immunity for people who have had two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech or Oxford/AstraZeneca, show results from a UK-wide trial carried out in collaboration with the University of Birmingham. The latest results from the world-first study COV-BOOST are published in The Lancet and have been key in shaping the UK booster programme, providing vital evidence for global vaccination efforts.

Vaccines are effective in decreasing hospitalization and deaths from COVID-19 infection but the emergence of viral variants of concern may diminish their efficacy, according to a new study. The study - published today in PLOS Pathogens, by Emma Thomson, Brian Willett, and colleagues at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research - suggests that COVID-19 Delta variant may be more successful at evading the protective response of vaccines.

An international team of scientists believe they may have found a molecular mechanism behind the extremely rare blood clots linked to adenovirus COVID-19 vaccines. Scientists from Cardiff University and Arizona State University worked with AstraZeneca to investigate vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT), also known as thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), a life-threatening condition seen in a very small number of people after receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

Scientists at UCL have discovered that some patients with a common type of childhood cancer do not respond to treatment because of a rare and previously unrecognised type of cancer cell, which has the unique capacity to "lie dormant" during chemotherapy and resist its effects. The breakthrough study in mice, uncovers for the first time the specific biological features that explain why a small number of leukaemic cells are able survive the crucial first 28 days of chemotherapy for B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (BCP-ALL).

Researchers have developed a new approach to machine learning that 'learns how to learn' and out-performs current machine learning methods for drug design, which in turn could accelerate the search for new disease treatments. I was surprised how well it works - better than anything else we know for drug design Ross King The method, called transformational machine learning (TML), was developed by a team from the UK, Sweden, India and Netherlands.

Scientists have discovered a new route to produce complex antibiotics exploiting gene editing to re-programme pathways to future medicines urgently required to combat antimicrobial resistance , treat neglected diseases and tackle future pandemics. Researchers from The University of Manchester have discovered a new way of manipulating key assembly line enzymes in bacteria which could pave the way for a new generation of antibiotic treatments.

An international team of scientists and pharmaceutical collaborators have made a breakthrough 'bench to bedside' discovery, ten years in the making, which they hope will advance the future treatment of Alzheimer's Disease in patients.