Medicine

Adults self-report their pain on a one to 10 numerical score, while children can point to an equivalent face scale — from a green smiling face to a red crying face — to indicate their pain. Newborns, however, cannot say a number or point to a face, leaving it up to their caregivers to identify and evaluate any pain they may be in. Until the turn of this century, a significant number of clinicians did not recognize that neonates could even experience pain, resulting in infrequent, nonstandard training for medical workers. Now, researchers are reporting that a flexible e-learning program improves neonate pain management knowledge and skills for nurses.

Osaka University researchers used a large dataset of trauma patients in Japan to determine the characteristics and biomarkers most strongly associated with mortality risk by employing machine learning methods. This work may help improve the practice of emergency medicine.

The OWSD Early Career Fellowship is a prestigious award of up to USD 50,000 offered to women who have completed their PhDs in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects and are employed at an academic or scientific research institute in one of the listed Science and Technology Lagging Countries (STLCs).

Reaction design framework proposed by computations leads to the discovery of a wealth of reactions, opening new paths for drug development.

Scientists at Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, have found that elevated blood levels of an amino acid called homocysteine correlate strongly with the severity of an advanced form of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. They also found vitamin B12 and folic acid could potentially prevent and/or delay disease progression.

Researchers have discovered that vitamin K acts as a powerful antioxidant. It can inhibit ferroptosis, a type of cell death associated with Alzheimer’s disease and organ damage, by trapping lipid radicals. Furthermore, the team identified the long-sought-after vitamin K-reducing enzyme, the identity of which remained unknown for more than half a century.

The history of extracting chay root dye — a natural red colourant — from the chay plant (Oldenlandia umbellata) dates back to at least the seventeenth century. Read on to know more about the relevance of the dye in the textile dyeing practices of southern India.

Asia Research News monitors the latest research news in Asia. Some highlights that caught our attention this week are the discovery of an ancient palace that could be connected to Genghis Khan, the joy of letting your mind wander, and a wound dressing made from frog skin that promotes healing.

Researchers create 'time machine' to study ancestor galaxies, Robotics engineers pay attention to matters of the heart, Custom suits for delivery worms, Tough, light structures with superior impact resistance and Virtual training can reduce stress and anxiety. Read all in the July's Editor's Choice plus op-ed: To boost South Korea’s basic science, look to values, not just budgets, this month's Image & Asia Research News 2022 magazine pick - Better memristors for brain-like computing.

The World Health Organization (WHO) welcomes the launch by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, of the landmark opportunity for countries to apply for funding to introduce, or further roll-out, the RTS,S/AS01 (RTS,S) malaria vaccine.

Osaka University researchers designed a silicon-based agent that successfully generated hydrogen continuously in the mouse gastrointestinal tract in an ulcerative colitis (UC) model. The hydrogen served as an antioxidant that could eliminate the reactive oxygen species shown to induce the chronic inflammation responsible for the damage and symptoms caused by UC. Mice given the agent had reduced hemorrhage, inflammation, and hyperexcitability in the brain area associated with visceral pain and discomfort. These results may help with the development of a novel treatment for UC.

Cultured human skeletal muscle cells infused with serum from hibernating bears exhibited “muscle gain” confirming that these creatures’ ability to avoid muscular damage despite months of inactivity is in their blood.

23 Gold awarded at MTE 2022: COVID-19 International Innovation Awards and Advanced Healthcare & Life Sciences International Innovation Awards

An artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm trained to listen to patients pass urine is able to identify abnormal flows and could be a useful and cost-effective means of monitoring and managing urology patients at home. It is presented today at the European Association of Urology annual congress (EAU22), in Amsterdam.

Specialised physician training, nurse-led motivational conversations and follow-up with patients, and subsidy on combination medication significantly lowered BP among patients with uncontrolled hypertension, according to findings from Singapore.

Chula Engineering and Chula Medicine co-invent an innovative device for a rapid and accurate gastrointestinal cancer detection hoping to foster preventive medicine and reduce the number of cancer patients.

Researchers from Osaka University have found that infection with SARS-CoV-2 activates the expression of IRF1, a key regulator of insulin/IGF signaling in multiple tissues, leading to disruption of blood sugar metabolism and, in some cases, new onset of diabetes. Treating infected cells with hormonal factors that decreased IRF1 expression enhanced insulin/IGF signaling, suggesting that this approach could be used to mitigate some of the more severe side effects of COVID-19 in the future.

Automation in disease diagnosis is reliant on deep learning models that can accurately and efficiently identify measurements of tumors, tissue volume, or other sorts of abnormalities. Now, researchers from Tohoku University have unveiled a new, resource-light model capable of identifying many common eye diseases.

Researchers from Osaka University have found that nematodes can be coated with a protective hydrogel sheath that can be engineered to carry functional cargo. This system could potentially be developed to deliver anti-cancer drugs to tumors using worms with a natural predilection for human cancer cells.

New dinosaur species used claws to graze along the coast, More accurate rainfall predictions, Magnetism helps futuristic cell research, Do compression garments facilitate muscle recovery? Science journalism and why it matters for democracy and our Image of the month. Read all in the June's Editor's Choice and this month's Asia Research News 2022 magazine pick - Lessons from the dead.

• The Satellite Center at Duke-NUS marks the latest achievement for the SingHealth Duke-NUS Academic Medical Centre’s vision for a Discovery District on its Campus. • It is also the first Asia Pacific site in Johnson & Johnson’s network of research collaborations aimed at addressing endemic and emerging pandemic threats.

Researchers in Japan outline preliminary research that could pave the way for a future test to diagnose ALS, a progressive disease of the nervous system.

Duke-NUS is working with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop the Asia Pathogen Genomics Initiative (APGI) to improve regional genomic surveillance and sequencing capacity. New Centre for Outbreak Preparedness will support APGI and work closely with national and global partners to enhance regional capacity to predict, prepare and respond to future health threats.

SINGAPORE, June 9, 2022– Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (“Takeda”) today announced that its dengue vaccine candidate, TAK-003, prevented 61% of symptomatic dengue cases and 84% of hospitalised cases with no important safety risks identified in the overall population.

Potential of a novel therapeutic strategy for rheumatoid arthritis by UHRF1 stabilization We identified an epigenetic regulator UHRF1 that suppresses various pathogeneses in rheumatoid arthritis. The UHRF1 expression level in synovium showed a negative correlation with the severity of pathogenesis in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and mouse arthritis models. In addition, stabilization of the UHRF1 expression achieved improvement of the arthritis pathology. Our results indicate that the stabilization of the UHRF1 protein is a potential therapeutic strategy for rheumatoid arthritis patients.

Giants in History: Known for her pioneering contributions to bio-organic chemistry, Darshan Ranganathan (4 June 1941 – 4 June 2001) is considered India’s most prolific chemist.

Scientists at Osaka Metropolitan University utilized a Japan-developed, objective, and simple nutritional indicator called the Nutrition Risk Index (NRI) to unveil a long-suspected yet unverified relationship between sarcopenia and malnutrition in end-stage kidney disease patients. Their findings confirmed that malnutrition contributes to sarcopenia, which can be detected through NRI.

A research team led by Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has found that a proteolytic enzyme called membrane-type 1 matrix metalloproteinase (MT1-MMP) plays an important role in the regulatory mechanism of fullness, or satiety, and it could serve as a promising potential drug target for the management of obesity.

Among anesthetics, ketamine has a unique effect: it also acts as an antidepressant. A research team led by Osaka Metropolitan University Professor Makoto Kondo linked ketamine to brain regulation of IGF-1, which works independently of other ketamine-associated factors. The discovery may help untangle ketamine’s positive and negative effects, allowing future drug development to target IGF-1 directly.

The antibiotic rifampicin is shown as a potential medicine for preventing Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Frontotemporal dementia (FTD).