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Eighty percent of patients with autoimmune diseases are female. These diseases are one of the top 10 leading causes of death for women under 65, and cases are increasing annually worldwide. There is evidence suggesting that it's females’ double complement of X chromosomes that puts them at such heightened risk for autoimmune diseases. Female cells have two X chromosomes, whereas males have one X chromosome and one Y chromosome (at least in mammals).

Shutting down an X

Different animals compensate for this sort of disparity in different ways. Male fly cells churn out twice the amount of the proteins encoded by their single X chromosome, so they end up with the same amount as female cells. Worm hermaphrodite cells reduce production of the proteins encoded by each of their X chromosomes by half, so they end up with the same amount as male cells.

Mammals use X inactivation, in which each female cell shuts off one of its X chromosomes and only uses the other. Which X chromosome is shut off (the paternally inherited one or the maternally inherited one) is random and independent within each cell. So women are all genetic mosaics: Their cells are not all making the same proteins since some of their cells use one of their X chromosomes and some of their cells use the other.

Enlarge / An ice-cold glass of cola is undoubtedly refreshing, but it probably won't help with food stuck in the throat. (credit: Cocktailmarler/CC BY-SA 4.0 )

There's always a marked increase in ER visits during the holiday season involving people getting bites of partially chewed turkey or similar foodstuffs stuck in their throat. Googling home remedies might encourage you to just sip on some cola instead, letting the carbonation help dislodge the food and sparing you an emergency endoscopy. Sure, cola is cheap and widely available, with few (if any) side effects. But you might want to think twice about skipping the ER, according to a new study published in the British Medical Journal that concluded this popular folk remedy probably doesn't help clear a blocked esophagus.

"Emergency physician Elise Tiebie, the driving force behind this project, saw online that this was really a rumor, from tip websites to Wikipedia as well as an anecdote in a British newspaper about paramedics saving a life by using cola. I've even heard doctors recommending it,” said co-author Arjan Bredenoord , a gastroenterologist at Amsterdam University Medical Centers. Getting food stuck in one's esophagus "can be really dangerous, so it's important that people get the correct treatment," he added. "That's why we wanted to check if this works."

The technical term is " esophageal food bolus obstruction ," more commonly known as " steakhouse syndrome " or "backyard barbecue syndrome." It's usually pieces of poorly masticated meat (steak, poultry, pork) that get stuck, and when that happens, the unfortunate soul will have trouble swallowing to the point of drooling (since they can't even swallow their saliva). They may also have chest or neck pain, and there's always the chance that the esophagus will be perforated , leading to aspiration into the lungs . Hence, a trip to the ER is necessary.

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A world-first trial of a gene therapy to cure a form of deafness has begun, potentially heralding a revolution in the treatment of hearing loss.

Up to 18 children from the UK, Spain, and the US are being recruited to the study, which aims to transform treatment of auditory neuropathy, a condition caused by the disruption of nerve impulses traveling from the inner ear to the brain.

Participants will be monitored for five years to gauge whether their hearing improves, with initial results expected to be published next February.

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Even after 140 years of its discovery, malaria remains one of the deadliest infections humans have ever encountered. It affected 247 million individuals and was responsible for over 600,000 deaths in 2022, according to the World Health Organization. What’s more shocking is that 95 percent of malaria cases and deaths are reported in Africa alone, and 80 percent of the people who die in various African countries due to malaria are children under 5.

Currently, there exists only one malaria vaccine called RTS,S , and it only offers partial protection in children. However, a newly developed vaccine elicits a much stronger immune response in children, and it could offer layered protection to everyone by targeting a different stage of the malarial parasite’s life cycle.

The RH5 vaccine

A team of researchers from the University of Oxford recently tested a new malaria vaccine on 63 participants ranging in age from 6 months to 35 years in Bagamoyo, a town in Tanzania. The vaccine is technically ChAd63-MVA RH5, but generally called the RH5 vaccine. It exclusively targets RH5, a protein that Plasmodium falciparum (malaria parasite) employs to penetrate human red blood cells.

Enlarge (credit: Brandon Martin/Rice University)

On average, patients with chronic illnesses follow their prescribed treatments about 50 percent of the time. That’s a problem. If drugs aren’t taken regularly, on time, and in the right doses, the treatment may not work, and the person’s condition can worsen.

The issue isn’t that people are unwilling to take their prescriptions. It’s that some drugs, like HIV medications, require unwavering commitment . And essential medicines, like insulin , can be brutally expensive. Plus, the Covid pandemic illustrated the difficulties of delivering perishable follow-up vaccine shots to regions with no cold chain . “Are we really squeezing all the utility out of those drugs and vaccines?” asks Kevin McHugh, a bioengineer at Rice University. “The answer is, in general, no . And sometimes we’re missing out on a lot.”

For example, the injectable drug bevacizumab can be used to treat macular degeneration, a leading cause of blindness. But even though it’s effective, dosing adherence is notoriously low . “People hate getting injections into their eyes,” McHugh says. “And I don’t blame them at all—that’s terrible.”