Latest news with #braindevelopment
Reuters
9 hours ago
- Health
- Reuters
Health Rounds: Air pollution exposure alters fetal brain development
June 13 (Reuters) - (This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here.) Brain development in the womb is affected by the mother's level of exposure to air pollution, researchers have found, although it's not clear whether the brain structure differences observed will cause any issues later. Researchers in Barcelona analyzed data collected between 2018 and 2021 from 754 mother-fetus pairs. During the third trimester of pregnancy, participants underwent transvaginal neurosonography, a specialized ultrasound that allows the analysis of fetal brain shape and structures. Higher prenatal exposure to nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and black carbon in pregnant women's homes, workplaces, and commuting routes was associated with an increase in the volumes of multiple brain regions that contain cerebrospinal fluid, the researchers reported in The Lancet Planetary Health, opens new tab. Higher exposure to black carbon was also linked with a reduction in the depth of a groove in the brain called the lateral sulcus, which the researchers said might suggest less maturation of the brain. All measurements of brain structures were within the range considered normal, however. 'At this stage, we can only report having observed differences in the brains of fetuses with higher exposure to pollution compared to those with lower exposure,' senior study author Jordi Sunyer of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health said in a statement. 'Additional research is needed to determine whether these effects are reversible after birth or if they persist, and whether they have any implications for neurodevelopmental outcomes in later stages.' Scientists have been wrong about how acetaminophen eases pain, a discovery that could lead to new pain management approaches, researchers reported in PNAS, opens new tab. For decades, scientists believed that acetaminophen, the main ingredient in Tylenol - known in some countries as paracetamol - relieved pain by working only in the brain and spinal cord. But researchers have discovered the drug also works outside the brain, in the nerves that first detect pain. After the drug is ingested, the body processes it into a metabolite called AM404. The new study found in laboratory experiments that AM404 is produced in pain-sensing nerve endings, where it shuts off specific channels that help transmit pain signals to the brain. By blocking these sodium channels, AM404 stops the pain message before it even starts, the researchers said. 'This is the first time we've shown that AM404 works directly on the nerves outside the brain,' study leader Alexander Binshtok of Hebrew University in Israel said in a statement. 'It changes our entire understanding of how paracetamol fights pain.' The discovery could lead to new types of painkillers that mimic the effects of AM404, the researchers suggested. Because AM404 targets only the nerves that carry pain, such drugs may avoid some of the side effects of traditional painkillers, they said. U.S. appendix cancer rates, while still low, have been climbing dramatically in younger adults, according to a report published in Annals of Internal Medicine, opens new tab. Appendix cancer rates were three times higher among people born between 1975 and 1985, and four times higher among those born between 1981 and 1989, than among people born in the 1940s, based on national U.S. population data. The conclusions are drawn from the nearly 4,900 adults who were diagnosed with appendix cancer in the United States between 1975 and 2019. The pattern of increasing cancer rates held true, to varying degrees, for all tumor types, including nonmucinous, mucinous, goblet cell, or signet ring cell carcinoma, the researchers said. Rates of colon cancers and other gastrointestinal malignancies have also been rising in younger adults, for reasons that remain unclear, the researchers noted. 'It really struck our curiosity... Would we observe similar patterns in rare appendiceal cancers?" said study leader Dr. Andreana Holowatyj of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee. "And certainly the answer was yes,' 'The big question remains as to why is this happening,' she added. 'But what's most important is that as these higher-risk birth cohorts continue to age, it's likely these rates will continue to increase.' (To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here)
Japan Times
11 hours ago
- Health
- Japan Times
Natural disasters may be shaping babies' brains
Climate disasters are known for damaging homes, disrupting power and displacing residents. But even after the lights come back on and people return to their homes, their effects can linger — including in the brains of children born afterwards, a new study suggests. Climate stressors, and the effect they have on pregnant people, appear to affect the brain development of their babies, according to the study published in PLOS One on Wednesday, which relied on brain imaging conducted years after 2012's Superstorm Sandy hit the New York City metro area. The study evaluated a sample of 34 children, 11 whose parents were pregnant during Superstorm Sandy. By the time of assessment, the kids were roughly eight years old. Those who had been exposed to Sandy in utero had a significant enlargement in a part of the brain known as the basal ganglia. Parts of the basal ganglia were as much as 6% larger than in unexposed children, a change that could have negative implications for the children's behavior. The parents living through the disruptions from a storm that displaced more than 23,000 people and suspended electric services in the area for days to weeks may have affected their offspring's neurodevelopment, the researchers say. The findings signal how new generations of children may be marked by climate crises that occur before they were born, and speak to a need to better evaluate and educate pregnant people about climate risks, the researchers say. They contribute to a growing consensus about pregnant people's vulnerability to climate change, with extreme heat, air pollution and natural disasters posing risks like preterm births. "This is something which people who are going to get pregnant should know and be prepared,' says Yoko Nomura, an author of the PLOS One research and a professor at Queens College at the City University of New York. "Society as a whole has to have a strategy to protect those pregnant people.' Non-climate-related stress can affect pregnancies and influence fetal brain development. But studies typically haven't examined how natural disasters may work in the same way. Project Ice Storm, a project examining the aftermath of a devastating 1998 storm in Canada, found that stress had an effect on everything from kids' temperament to their IQ. Superstorm Sandy, which hit New York and New Jersey in October 2012, devastated coastal areas, leading to around 120 deaths and billions in damages. Queens College, in Flushing, New York, served as a shelter. Nomura, who was already on the faculty there at the time, observed how distressed storm evacuees in the on-campus gym were. Many of them were pregnant, and facing stressors like losing power and being displaced from their homes. That inspired Nomura to look into how the experience might affect their unborn babies. While the team hasn't yet determined how the changes they observed in the basal ganglia may affect participating children in the day-to-day, that part of the brain is involved in functions including emotional regulation. Other studies have linked the basal ganglia to conditions like depression and autism. Demonstrators, including mothers and babies, take part in a protest in London in October 2019. | Reuters "We do think that those changes we're seeing could lead to negative outcomes for the children's behavior,' says Donato DeIngeniis, the study's lead author and a doctoral student in clinical neuropsychology at the CUNY Graduate Center. For a subset of seven children whose parents had been exposed to Sandy and separately, over the course of their parent's pregnancy, extreme heat, the brain differences were more pronounced. Researchers observed that one portion of the basal ganglia was enlarged while another was reduced. "That might mean one area is impaired, which might lead the other to have to work harder to compensate,' DeIngeniis says, which is common in the brain in instances of brain damage or injury. The cohort of children examined in the study is small, reflecting the cost of brain imaging and the fact that the study's recruitment was interrupted by the COVID-19 crisis. Even after recruitment resumed in 2021, participants were reluctant to visit for in-person imaging. Burcin Ikiz, chair of the Neuro Climate Working Group, part of Columbia University's Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education, calls the study "small but mighty.' It's increasingly important to understand how different climate stressors may together affect human health, she says. For instance, children in New Delhi are experiencing both air pollution and extreme heat. "And this is one of the first studies — that's why it's a trailblazing study — that looks at these joint things,' she says. But she added that additional work still needs to be done to address limitations of the study such as the small sample size, and to examine the effect of heat with more depth. While the researchers used statistical methods to ensure the accuracy of their findings, it's still possible that other factors could explain the differences seen in the kids' brains, like genetic variability or socioeconomic status. The research team is now in the process of conducting a similar, larger study, with around 80 participants so far. But rather than wait to release those results, Nomura says the team felt it was important to release earlier findings more quickly to raise awareness among the public.
Bloomberg
2 days ago
- Health
- Bloomberg
Natural Disasters May Be Shaping Babies' Brains
Climate disasters are known for damaging homes, disrupting power and displacing residents. But even after the lights come back on and people return to their homes, their effects can linger — including in the brains of children born afterwards, a new study suggests. Climate stressors, and the effect they have on pregnant people, appear to affect the brain development of their babies, according to the study published in PLOS One on Wednesday, which relied on brain imaging conducted years after 2012's Superstorm Sandy hit the New York City metro area.
