Studies published this week have introduced a consensus-based definition of long COVID-19 in children and young persons, narrowing its prevalence estimates, which have been wildly divergent. Long COVID rates for adults are still unclear, but a recent meta-analysis estimated that between one third and two thirds of adult COVID-19 patients who had severe acute disease develop symptoms of long COVID.

Researchers at New York University have demonstrated that protease-activated receptor 2 (PAR2) on epithelial cells of the colon continued after they were trafficked from the cell membrane.

Japanese researchers have created complex 3D kidney organoids that could lead the way to better kidney research and even artificial kidneys for human transplant.

Combining Sarepta Therapeutics Inc.’s gene editing technology and Genedit Inc.’s Nanogalaxy platform to treat neuromuscular disorders shows promising potential, the companies reported. A year into the research collaboration, Genedit’s polymer nanoparticles have demonstrated the ability to deliver therapeutic cargo to specific muscle tissue following system administration of targeted genetic medicines.

PARIS – An interdisciplinary academic research consortium in Italy has devised and tested nanowires that restore physiological cell-to-cell conductance. This research team, led by the Experimental and Applied Medical Technology Lab (Tecmed Lab) at the Department of Medicine and Surgery at the University of Parma, Italy, has just published the results of multiple local in situ injections of nanowires into left ventricular infarct regions in Nature Communications.

The growth of some pancreatic cancers is fueled by fungus-induced production of the cytokine IL-33, and the progression of such tumors could be slowed down by treatment with antifungals or genetic deletion of IL-33, researchers reported in the February 3, 2022, online issue of Cancer Cell.

A histone acetylome-wide associations study performed in immune cells from patients with active Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection versus those from healthy controls, has for the first time provided proof of principle for HAWAS to infer molecular mechanisms of host response to pathogens.

Researchers have discovered a blood signature of protein isoforms that could potentially predict which patients may reject a new organ transplant, helping inform therapeutic decisions. The findings of this study are reported online in the January 27th edition of Science.

A remarkably brief exposure to a multidrug cocktail enabled frogs to re-grow largely functional limbs after amputation, investigators from Tufts University reported in the January 26, 2022, issue of Science Advances. Twenty-four hours of exposure to five factors – brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), growth hormone (GH), 1,4-dihydrophenonthrolin-4-one-3carboxylic acid (1,4-DPCA), resolvin D5 (RD5) and retinoic acid (RA) – set off regeneration processes that continued for 18 months.