Gut

National Taiwan University Hospital (NTUH), in collaboration with multiple medical centers across Taiwan, has found that patients with hepatitis C remain at a significantly elevated risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) even after successful viral eradication with direct-acting antivirals (DAAs), particularly if metabolic dysfunction–associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) is present.

A Taiwan-oriented study in Gut shows that gastric cancer is shaped by complex interactions between environmental exposure, microbes, host, and tumor biology. The findings reveal distinct cancer routes and targets linked to prognosis and potential treatment opportunities.

HBsAg seroconversion, durable HBsAg loss, and the presence of anti-HBs are considered indicators of an almost complete cure of chronic HBV infection, which is viewed as a goal that is rarely achieved with current antiviral treatments. Researchers from the College of Medicine of National Taiwan University and National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital identified that the undetectable circulating HBV RNA after HBeAg-seroconversion is an important predictor of HBsAg seroconversion.

Researchers from National Taiwan University Hospital and Academia Sinica have identified a simple blood marker that can reliably pinpoint chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients at negligible risk of developing liver cancer.

Researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CU Medicine) found for the first time that COVID-19 patients have active and prolonged gut viral infection, even in the absence of gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. After respiratory clearance of coronavirus, the activity of viral infection and replication will still persist in the gut. The study result has impacted the clinical management of COVID-19 patients and was published in the international medical journal GUT.

Researchers from the Faculty of Medicine at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CU Medicine) have recently conducted a study to investigate the impact of liver injury on clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Data from over 1,000 COVID-19 patients in Hong Kong was analysed and liver injury was found in around 20% of the patients. The estimated risk of COVID-19 patients with liver injury experiencing adverse clinical outcomes such as intensive care unit (ICU) admission, use of invasive mechanical ventilation or death was almost eight times of other patients. It is suggested that liver function monitoring is important regarding its association with adverse clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. These findings have been published recently in the world-renowned medical journal Gut. In view of the high prevalence of various chronic liver diseases in the Asia-Pacific region, CU Medicine’s researchers led a group of experts from Mainland China, Japan, Singapore and Australia to issue a position statement on the management of COVID-19 patients with liver derangement. The statement has been published recently in another international medical journal The Lancet Gastroenterology & Hepatology.

Everyone wants to be as healthy as they can be. However, while wearable technology has made it possible for people to track their physical activity, personalised nutrition has yet to be fully addressed.

Hepatocellular carcinoma diagnosis, prognosis and treatment could improve by identifying a closely associated protein.

Partnership signed at TechInnovation 2018, Singapore

While drones scan beaches to assess plastic litter, microplastics are found in the digestive tracts of one in every six Red Sea fish.

Singapore’s leading technology-industry brokerage conference TechInnovation is back for its 7th edition.

Novel micro-beads encapsulating probiotics could help to further lower cholesterol levels.

The quality of life of young adults who survived cancer as children could improve due to a new understanding about why they age earlier than their healthy peers.

Researchers in Malaysia are harnessing properties in tropical microbes to address a variety of environmental, agricultural and aquacultural issues.

Management and nutritional strategies are needed to protect livestock from heat stress resulting from climate change, according to a review paper published in the Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science.

[MELBOURNE] While combination antiretroviral therapy has meant that people with HIV can live longer lives, research shows that the virus makes fundamental changes to the immune system by increasing the risk of developing age-related conditions.

Researchers report that a common bacterium infecting the human stomach has significant links with worsened symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

Researchers in Singapore and UK as part of the EpiGen consortium worked together with scientists at the Nestlé Research Center, Switzerland, on a new study on the bacterial makeup of the gut (gut microbiota) of infants in Singapore.

An opinion article by Professor Kimiko Murakami of Waseda University, Japan

Children of older fathers have a higher rate of new mutations according to a large genome-sequencing study published in this week’s Nature. The effect is an increase of roughly two new mutations per year for every additional year of father’s age at conception.

Latest news from Nature 2 February 2012

A diet supplemented with a specific probiotic bacterial strain increases the lifespan of mice

This press release contains:

Summaries of newsworthy papers on Evolution, Fungal threat to bats, stellar dust, microbiota, roundworm and more

Summaries of newsworthy papers: Planetary science: Moon meets moon; Evolution: Early humans out of the woods; Neuroscience: How vampire bats ‘see’ blood; Climate science: CO2 counters warming in grassland productivity and more

Summaries of newsworthy papers on Healing light fixes smart materials; Manipulating mosquitoes to manage malaria; Mechanics of anxiety control; The future of the PhD; Detection of a footprint from one of Saturn’s moons; Refining the microbiome; TRIMming back virus infection; Serotonin from the placenta

Researchers at RIKEN, Yokohama City University and the University of Tokyo have uncovered how gut bifidobacteria protect the body against lethal infection by enhancing the defenses of colonic epithelium.

As Japan’s flagship research institute, one of RIKEN’s missions is to share its research findings with the general public to boost awareness and curiosity about science.

Gut bacteria specialized for sushi; Images of a most unusual eclipse; Grazers can reduce greenhouse gas emissions; How the fly got its spots; Stretching the deep crust; How is the Global Green New Deal going?; A device for memory and logic; Learning gets neurons to work together; The shape of weight gain; Following the leader?

In Nature China this week - A follow-up study shows that about one-tenth of the children who suffered renal failure because of the 2008 Chinese milk scandal still had problems after six months