Medical Bulletin 17/April/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Misfolded alpha-synuclein protein key to early detection of Parkinson’s disease: Study

Parkinson’s disease is characterized by deposits of a protein known as alpha-synuclein (aSyn) in the nervous system. This protein can become corrupted and start to change shape in a process called misfolding. These misfolded proteins will start to clump together and poison the surrounding healthy nerve cells that are responsible for brain function, particularly for motor skills.

The presence of a misfolded alpha-synuclein protein can be used to determine if people have Parkinson’s disease, according to a new study using technology developed by a researcher at UTHealth Houston. This biomarker could pave the way for the development of better diagnostic tools and new treatment options for the disease.

Reference:

Assessment of heterogeneity among participants in the Parkinson’s Progression Markers Initiative cohort using α-synuclein seed amplification: a cross-sectional study,The Lancet Neurology,doi 10.1016/S1474-4422(23)00109-6

Hearing aids may protect against a higher risk of dementia linked with hearing loss: Study

Dementia and hearing loss are common conditions among older adults. The Lancet Commission on dementia prevention, intervention, and care, published in 2020, suggested that hearing loss may be linked to around 8% of worldwide dementia cases , therefore, addressing hearing impairment could be a crucial way to reduce the global burden of dementia.

People experiencing hearing loss who are not using a hearing aid may have a higher risk of dementia than people without hearing loss, suggests a new study published in The Lancet Public Health journal. However, using a hearing aid may reduce this risk to the same level as people without hearing loss.

Reference:

Association between hearing aid use and all-cause and cause-specific dementia: an analysis of the UK Biobank cohort,The Lancet Public Health,doi 10.1016/S2468-2667(23)00048-8

Sleep irregularities contribute to worse symptoms in schizophrenia patients: Study

A team of scientists from the University of Pittsburgh in collaboration with researchers in Italy described shared patterns of sleep disturbances and irregularities in daily rhythms of rest and activity across patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, or SSD. The paper was published recently in Molecular Psychiatry.

By using wrist monitors that measured activity and rest as proxies of wakefulness and sleep, researchers found that individuals with SSD who resided in psychiatric hospitals and those who manage their condition in outpatient settings had erratic sleep patterns, dysregulated transitions between sleep and wake cycles, and excessively rigid daily routines that were predictive of worse SSD symptoms and correlated with poorer quality of life.

Reference:

Shared and distinct abnormalities in sleep-wake patterns and their relationship with the negative symptoms of Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorder patients,Molecular Psychiatry,doi 10.1038/s41380-023-02050-x

Promising results towards restoring vision in blindness caused by cellular degeneration in the eye

The degeneration of photoreceptors in the eye is a significant cause of declining vision that can eventually lead to blindness and for which there is currently no effective treatment. Photoreceptor degeneration occurs in a variety of inherited retinal diseases, such as retinitis pigmentosa-a rare eye disease that breaks down cells in the retina over time and eventually causes vision loss-and age-related macular degeneration, a leading cause of vision impairment worldwide.

A preclinical study using stem cells to produce progenitor photoreceptor cells-light-detecting cells found in the eye-and then transplanting these into experimental models of damaged retinas has resulted in significant vision recovery. This finding, by scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School, the Singapore Eye Research Institute and the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, marks a first step towards potentially restoring vision in eye diseases characterised by photoreceptor loss.

Reference:

Photoreceptor laminin drives differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells to photoreceptor progenitors that partially restore retina function,Molecular Therapy,doi 10.1016/j.ymthe.2022.12.012