In patients with metastatic bladder cancer, a novel combination of biomarkers from baseline tumor tissues was predictive of improved clinical responses and prolonged survival following treatment with immune checkpoint inhibitors, according to researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. The study used multi-platform analyses of tumor samples to discover that ARID1A mutations in tumor cells and expression of the immune signaling protein CXCL13 in surrounding immune cells were enriched in patients who...

A multidisciplinary team from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston has uncovered a new mechanism for designing antiviral drugs for dengue virus. Dengue virus is a very important mosquito-transmitted viral pathogen, causing 390 million human infections each year. Dengue is common in more than 100 countries and forty percent of the world’s population is at risk of infection. When someone becomes ill with dengue, symptoms that can range from mild to severe may...

Like finding that needle in the haystack every time, your T cells manage what seems like an improbable task: quickly finding a few invaders among the many imposters in your body to trigger its immune response. T cells have to react fast and do so nearly perfectly to protect people from diseases. But first, they need a little “me” time. Rice University researchers suggest that has to do with how T cells “relax” in the...

Researchers from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston explored the effects of estrogen and testosterone and their possible therapeutic effects in treating older patients with COVID-19. “Although there’s no specific therapies or vaccines available yet for COVID-19, reports have consistently shown that older adults and males are at increased risk of becoming severely ill or dying from COVID-19,” said Rasha Al-Lami, MD, Master of Clinical Science candidate in the UTMB department of Preventive...

By Alanna Moriarty, Content Marketing Manager, Definitive Healthcare   While many hospitals across the U.S. begin to recover from the worst of COVID-19 cases, healthcare industry leaders are raising questions about the long-term impacts of the pandemic on care delivery and patient outcomes. One key question is whether physicians will see increases in patient complication rates as a result of postponing care—both for patients delaying treatment for existing conditions and patients who put off seeking an initial diagnosis.  ...

There is no shortage of articles offering advice for how to deal with lockdown: stick to a routine, get enough sleep, eat regular meals, maintain social connections at a safe distance, and so on.   Drug use often doesn’t make the list, but early signs suggest this is how many people are grappling with a dark and uncertain reality, according to an expert at Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.   “It will be...

The vast majority of Houston-area residents who are experiencing symptoms consistent with COVID-19 are not getting tested for it, according to initial results of a survey from the COVID-19 Registry at Rice University.   In addition, more than 40% of households have lost income as a result of the crisis — and the economic impact appears to be much more severe among African American and Hispanic households than white and Asian American households. The initial...

A detailed study of the monoclonal antibodies from a person who survived a Marburg infection led researchers to identify novel mechanisms that contribute protection against the disease, according to the latest findings of a collaborative team led by The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and Vanderbilt University Medical Center.   Certainly, the virus that is on everyone’s mind is the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 disease, but there are other viral families that continue...

By Ayomide Isola-Gbenla, BS, Monisha Arya MD, MPH, and K. Viswanath PhD.   As Harris County healthcare organizations adhere to social distancing and employ telemedicine during this COVID-19 crisis, we are worried that many residents in our community will be left out. While poverty and lack of education are known to limit healthcare access, not having access to communication technologies such as computers and internet is underappreciated as a health determinant. Ignoring these factors during...

The plans for Rice University’s ApolloBVM, an open-source emergency ventilator design that could help patients in treatment for COVID-19, are now online and freely available to everyone in the world. The project first developed by students as a senior design project in 2019 has been brought up to medical grade by Rice engineers and one student, with the help of Texas Medical Center doctors. The device costs less than $300 in parts and can squeeze a common bag...