Allergies News and Research

Latest Allergies News and Research

Parent‐specific effects on child's risk of developing asthma and allergies

New research found that, compared with a father's traits related to allergies and asthma, a mother's traits create a higher risk that a child will develop these same traits in early childhood.

8 Jul 2020

No-biopsy diagnosis for adults with suspected celiac disease could cut long NHS waiting lists

The British Society of Gastroenterology has issued interim guidance, pending the publication of its new Coeliac Guidelines in 2021, so that some adults with suspected coeliac disease can now be diagnosed based on blood test results alone, cutting out the long wait for an endoscopy with biopsy.

8 Jul 2020

NIH study: Long-acting form of HIV prevention drug more effective than daily oral pill

A pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) regimen containing an investigational long-acting form of the HIV drug cabotegravir injected once every 8 weeks was more effective than daily oral Truvada at preventing HIV acquisition among cisgender men who have sex with men and transgender women who have sex with men in a clinical trial sponsored by the National Institutes of Health.

7 Jul 2020

BU researchers develop new method to better understand cell communication

Researchers from Boston University School of Medicine have developed and implemented a new way to better understand how human cells communicate with each other, how this communication is disrupted in human diseases and how this can be corrected pharmacologically.

6 Jul 2020

'Night owl' teens more likely to develop asthma and allergies

Teenagers who prefer to stay up late at night and sleep in late the next day are more likely to develop asthma and allergies than their "early bird" counterparts, according to new research published today.

6 Jul 2020

Florida man infected with brain-eating amoeba

The health agency announced that one patient in Hillsborough County contracted the Negleria fowleri, a water-borne and single-cell amoeba that targets the brain. The amoeba can cause a rare infection of the brain known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM), which destroys brain tissue.

6 Jul 2020

Human trials of potential COVID-19 vaccine commence in South Australia

A potential COVID-19 vaccine developed at Flinders University has commenced human trials in South Australia.

6 Jul 2020

Asthma does not appear to increase the risk of COVID-19, shows study

Asthma does not appear to increase the risk for a person contracting COVID-19 or influence its severity, according to a team of Rutgers researchers.

6 Jul 2020

Study: Teenagers who stay up late are more likely to suffer from asthma, allergies

Teenagers who prefer to stay up late and wake later in the morning are more likely to suffer from asthma and allergies compared to those who sleep and wake earlier, according to a study published in ERJ Open Research.

6 Jul 2020

Human immune response could neutralize new G virus, shows study

Flashback to mid-March: the novel coronavirus had reached San Diego, California. Few people could get tested, and even less was known about how the virus mutated as it spread from person to person.

3 Jul 2020

Study: Variation in COVID-19 viral genome improves its ability to infect human cells

Researchers have shown that a variation in the viral genome of Covid-19 improved its ability to infect human cells and helped it become the dominant strain circulating around the world today.

3 Jul 2020

Newer form of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus dominates global infections

Research out today in the journal Cell shows that a specific change in the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus virus genome, previously associated with increased viral transmission and the spread of COVID-19, is more infectious in cell culture.

2 Jul 2020

Eating black raspberries may reduce skin inflammation associated with allergies, study shows

Eating black raspberries might reduce inflammation associated with skin allergies, a new study indicates.

2 Jul 2020

Novel microbiome-based diagnostic tool can identify liver fibrosis, cirrhosis

Chronic liver disease represents a major global public health problem affecting an estimated 844 million people, according to the World Health Organization. It is among the top causes of mortality in Australia, the UK and the United States.

2 Jul 2020

More than one-third of excess deaths in pandemic's early months linked to other causes

Since COVID-19's spread to the United States earlier this year, death rates in the U.S. have risen significantly. But deaths attributed to COVID-19 only account for about two-thirds of the increase in March and April, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

1 Jul 2020

Herd immunity in the U.S. unlikely

The race to develop an effective vaccine against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is on, with many vaccine candidates entering the human trial phase. When a vaccine is developed and introduced into the population at scale, it triggers herd immunity, with many people immune to the infectious disease.

30 Jun 2020

Alternative antibiotics for unverified penicillin allergies likely unnecessary

Hospitalized patients who report an allergy to penicillin are often prescribed alternative antibiotics for infection that can be harmful, even though diagnostic testing or evaluations would show that the vast majority of these reported allergies could be disproven, according to researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital.

30 Jun 2020

Stool microbial and metabolite signatures predict cirrhosis

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the leading cause of chronic liver disease worldwide, affecting an estimated one-quarter of the global population. It is a progressive condition that, in worst cases, can lead to cirrhosis, liver cancer, liver failure and death.

30 Jun 2020

Newly identified molecules can help develop COVID-19 therapeutics

SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus causing the global COVID-19 pandemic, uses a protein called polymerase to replicate its genome inside infected human cells.

30 Jun 2020