Medical Bulletin 29/September/2022

Blood test could predict the likelihood to get long Covid

A blood test taken at the time of Covid-19 infection could predict who is most likely to develop long Covid, suggests a new small-scale study led by UCL researchers.

The study, published in Lancet eBioMedicine, analysed proteins in the blood of healthcare workers infected with SARS-CoV-2, comparing them to samples from healthcare workers who had not been infected.

Usually protein levels in the body are stable, but the researchers found a dramatic difference in levels of some of the proteins up to six weeks following infection, suggesting disruption to a number of important biological processes.

Reference:

Dr Gaby Captur et al,Plasma proteomic signature predicts who will get persistent symptoms following SARS-CoV-2 infection,EBioMedicine,DOI: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2022.104293

Dogs can smell the stress odor in humans: Research

Dogs can smell stress from human sweat and breath, a new study by Queen's University Belfast researchers has found.

The study involved four dogs from Belfast – Treo, Fingal, Soot and Winnie – and 36 people.

Researchers collected samples of sweat and breath from participants before and after they did a difficult maths problem. They self-reported their stress levels before and after the task and researchers only used samples where the person's blood pressure and heart rate had increased.

Reference:

Clara Wilson et al,PLoS ONE

Emotional connection with the parent can improve brain development of the preterm baby

A joint study by the University of Helsinki and Columbia University showed that supporting emotional connection between mother and her premature baby following birth in the hospital intensive care unit improves the baby's brain development.

In the current study, the brain network functions of premature infants were measured at term age, following approximately 6 weeks of Family Nurture Intervention (FNI) in the neonatal intensive care unit. All babies received normal high-standard premature care, but some families were given additional FNI to strengthen mother-infant emotional connection.

Reference:

Sampsa Vanhatalo et al,Facilitating early parent-infant emotional connection improves cortical networks in preterm infants,Science Translational Medicine,DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abq4786