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Immunology

Global Dermatology, Gastroenterology and Rheumatology Practices 2021 and the Impact of COVID-19 – ResearchAndMarkets.com – Business Wire

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Impact on the Sales of Immunology Drugs" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), throughout 2020 has led to widespread disruption of daily life, leading to national lockdowns in attempts to mitigate the pandemic. Disruptions to healthcare systems and the management of chronic diseases has resulted in patients having difficulty seeing HCPs and receiving treatment, including for autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, especially as many of these immunological disorders require ongoing therapy.

Immunological disorders whose treatment has been disrupted include psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and others.

The key objectives of this report are to:

Key Highlights

Scope

Key Topics Covered:

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/xkq5jn

About ResearchAndMarkets.com

ResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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Global Dermatology, Gastroenterology and Rheumatology Practices 2021 and the Impact of COVID-19 - ResearchAndMarkets.com - Business Wire

Immunology

COVID-19 Impact on the Worldwide Sales of Immunology Drugs – GlobeNewswire

Dublin, Feb. 18, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Impact on the Sales of Immunology Drugs" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), throughout 2020 has led to widespread disruption of daily life, leading to national lockdowns in attempts to mitigate the pandemic. Disruptions to healthcare systems and the management of chronic diseases has resulted in patients having difficulty seeing HCPs and receiving treatment, including for autoimmune and inflammatory conditions, especially as many of these immunological disorders require ongoing therapy.

Immunological disorders whose treatment has been disrupted include psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and others.

The key objectives of this report are to:

Key Highlights

Scope

Key Topics Covered:

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/i7gpw6

About ResearchAndMarkets.comResearchAndMarkets.com is the world's leading source for international market research reports and market data. We provide you with the latest data on international and regional markets, key industries, the top companies, new products and the latest trends.

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COVID-19 Impact on the Worldwide Sales of Immunology Drugs - GlobeNewswire

Immunology

Lilly and Scottish university partner to find new therapies for immunological disorders – BioPharma-Reporter.com

The 4.6m (US$6.4m) research alliance is set to last four years. The partners will work across four diseases psoriatic arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, fibrosis, and vasculitis.

The project will be led by Glasgow Universitys Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation.

The collaboration is aimed at identifying first-in-class therapeutics for people suffering with these conditions.

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune disease characterized by inflammation, primarily of the small joints of the hands and feet.

RA affects approximately 0.31% of the adult population worldwide, and it is estimated that within 10 years of diagnosis, 40% of people will be unable to stay in full-time work.This has major socio-economic repercussions. In the UK, this costs the NHS on average 700m per year and indirectly costs the UK economy an estimated 8bn per year, according to a release from the university.

Professor Iain McInnes, vice principal at the University of Glasgow, said with the current backdrop of the pandemic it is particularly important that its research continues to focus on discovering new ways to treat patients with other diseases that affect peoples quality-of-life.

Strengthening links with industry is hugely important as we move to translate our research findings into clinical practice which benefits patients.

Professor Carl Goodyear, professor of translational immunology at that university, said the alliance combines Glasgows world-class clinical and translational skills with Lillys therapeutic capabilities and technology platforms for developing novel therapeutics.

This is a highly unique collaboration that is aimed at harnessing not only cross-disease comparison but also intra-disease pathological comparison across different affected tissues. By providing this disease and tissue contextualization it will enable the identification and validation of unique therapeutic targets.

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Lilly and Scottish university partner to find new therapies for immunological disorders - BioPharma-Reporter.com

Immunology

ImmuneID Launches with $17M Financing to Profile and Modulate Immune Response at Unprecedented Scale and Resolution – BioSpace

Feb. 17, 2021 12:00 UTC

Unlocking precision immunology to treat severe disease

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- ImmuneID, Inc., a precision immunology company employing a proprietary platform to identify and therapeutically target antibody interactions that drive immune diseases, announced a $17M financing led by founding investor Longwood Fund, as well as Arch Venture Partners, Pitango HealthTech, In-Q-Tel, Xfund, and others. The company plans to use this funding to develop therapeutic programs in areas including severe allergy, autoimmunity, oncology, and infectious disease.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210217005096/en/

Lea Hachigian (Photo: Business Wire)

High-quality therapeutic target identification has remained a vexing bottleneck in drug discovery, said Stephen Elledge, Ph.D., ImmuneID co-founder, Lasker Award winner, and Gregor Mendel Professor of Genetics and Medicine, Harvard Medical School. The ImmuneID platform, including the VirScan technology, relieves this bottleneck by using its massively parallel, multiplexed, and unbiased approach to provide previously unavailable insight into human immune responses throughout the course of disease progression.

ImmuneIDs platform is a robust, patented, and well-validated system that makes use of next generation sequencing, robotic automation, and artificial intelligence to interrogate and ultimately drug the immune system. The Elledge Lab has optimized the platform through years of intensive research and development resulting in multiple articles in leading journals such as Science and Cell.

ImmuneID is committed to therapeutically leveraging the powerful data we have generated to create new medicines for patients with severe allergies, autoimmune diseases, cancer, and infectious disease, said Longwood Funds Christoph Westphal, M.D., Ph.D., ImmuneID co-founder and Executive Chair. Lea Hachigian, Ph.D., founding CEO of ImmuneID, and Principal, Longwood Fund, added, We are also applying our platform to generate real-time deep insights into public health risks, and other severe diseases.

The power of the VirScan technology was recently highlighted in Shrock et al., Science 10.1126/science.abd4250 (Sept. 29, 2020), in which deep serological profiling of 232 COVID-19 patients and 190 pre-COVID-19 era controls revealed over 800 epitopes in the SARS-CoV-2 proteome, including 10 high-quality epitopes likely recognized by neutralizing antibodies. ImmuneIDs broader platform was employed in Monaco et al., Nat Commun 12, 379 (2021), to identify strong anti-wheat IgE reactivities in wheat allergic individuals and characterize a key wheat epitope that elicits dominant IgE responses among allergic patients, opening the door to targeted therapeutics.

ImmuneIDs Scientific Advisory Board includes co-founder Stephen Elledge, Ph.D.; co-founder H. Benjamin Larman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor Pathology, Johns Hopkins; co-founder Tomasz Kula, Ph.D., Harvard Society of Fellows, Harvard University; and Michael Mina, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

About ImmuneID

ImmuneID is a precision immunology company using its proprietary platform to simultaneously identify and therapeutically target millions of antibody interactions that drive immune diseases. Based on technology developed by scientific founders Stephen Elledge (Harvard), Ben Larman (Johns Hopkins), and Tomasz Kula (Harvard), we are employing our massively parallel, multiplexed, and unbiased systems to develop therapeutics for autoimmunity, severe allergy, oncology and infectious disease. ImmuneID was founded in 2020 by Longwood Fund and is headquartered in Cambridge, MA.

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ImmuneID Launches with $17M Financing to Profile and Modulate Immune Response at Unprecedented Scale and Resolution - BioSpace

Immunology

When Foreigners Invade, the Body Fights Back. And It Can hurt. – CU Anschutz Today

Ross Kedl, PhD, doesnt mince words when he describes the effects of his COVID-19 vaccine: It packs a wallop, said the University of Colorado School of Medicine professor.

Kedl, who studies vaccines and teaches in the Department of Immunology and Microbiology at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus, took part in a Phase 3 clinical trial for the Moderna vaccine on campus this past summer.

It hit me hard for a day, he said of receiving his second dose, that was obviously not a placebo. I felt like Id been hit by a truck.

But thats a good thing, Kedl and his colleague, Aimee Bernard, PhD, said.

Our immune cells are responding to the components in the vaccine and building an immune army that is actively training to fight and destroy the pathogen. Aimee Bernard, PhD

Soon after clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines began, the word began spreading that the effects of stimulating an immune response, particularly after the second dose, were sending people to the couch.

It just means its doing its job, the two immunologists say, addressing the widely prevalent misconception that vaccine injection may mean the shot gave them the illness it was designed to prevent.

Our immune cells are responding to the components in the vaccine and building an immune army that is actively training to fight and destroy the pathogen, said Bernard, assistant director for the CU Human Immunology & Immunotherapy Initiative.

Its immunological warfare, and it generally starts right at the injection site, Bernard said of the arm soreness sometimes followed by body aches, fatigue and even fever. These are all signs that the immune system is working, she said.

The same thing happens when people are infected with the actual virus, Kedl said. When you feel lousy with the flu, those flu-like symptoms are actually immune-like symptoms. Fever sets in almost exclusively because of the triggering of the molecule Interleukin-1, he said. And the reason you feel super achy is because of something called interferon, and thats also an immune molecule thats stimulated because of the infection.

When you feel lousy with the flu, those flu-like symptoms

are actually immune-like symptoms. Ross Kedl, PhD

Vaccines prompt the immune system to recognize and respond to a non-harmful form of a pathogen in order to produce memory cells (T- and B-lymphocytes), Bernard said. These memory cells then patrol the body looking for the infectious pathogen they were trained to fight.

When the second dose enters the body, those memory cells are well-armed and ready for attack, initiating an even more robust immune-system response. Feeling sick is a very good sign, Bernard said.

The data for the vaccines being used in the ongoing national rollout suggest about 70% to 80% of people will experience some notable symptoms after the second shot, Kedl said. But in a vaccine setting, the symptoms generally last only 24 to 48 hours, unlike with a real infection which, in COVID-19s case, can take people down for weeks or worse, he said.

Because their immune systems begin tapering off after age 65, older people often have fewer symptoms post-vaccine because of a weaker immune response. But the data seem to indicate they will still have protection, Kedl said.

Even young, healthy people can have different reactions because of different immune systems and different genetics, Bernard said. We are all unique.

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When Foreigners Invade, the Body Fights Back. And It Can hurt. - CU Anschutz Today

Immunology

New First-Year Biology Seminar Tackles COVID-19, Vaccinations and Pandemic Misinformation – Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

As misinformation over COVID-19 vaccine side effects and distribution conspiracy theories continue to flood social media, members of the general public are often left unequipped with the scientific literacy to discern between clickbait headlines and reliable information.

But Prof. Elizabeth Rhoades, microbiology and immunology, is trying to change that.

A researcher and lecturer, Rhoades jumped on the opportunity to mold a more science-informed student body by crafting a new first-year seminar course: Biology 1250: Keep Calm and Be Science Literate in the Pandemic.

As science is politicized and misinformation continues to spread through social media feeds like wildfire, the class teaches students how to ask questions, find reputable sources and make informed decisions and how dangerous it can be when that doesnt happen, Rhoades explained.

How can you distinguish pseudoscience from real science? How can you make well-informed decisions about your health if you dont know immunology? The answer is that you become science literate, the course description reads.

Targeted toward first-year students regardless of their science background, Rhoades is offering this one-credit course in-person during the second half of the semester. Rhoades explained that the course is structured around class discussions and hands-on activities, and will equip students with the tools to distinguish fact from fiction.

I want to teach [my students] how to go find real news, and how you can tell its not fake, Rhoades said. They will learn how to check if the source has any biases or gains, and how to be skeptical when they consider certain sources.

Rhoades said the course will first provide students with a foundational knowledge of the immunology behind the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as how the vaccine can trigger the bodys defense against infection.

According to the course syllabus, students who take this class will be able to evaluate popular scientific claims, explain the biology behind vaccines and COVID-19 tests and engage in productive conversations around sociocultural issues of the pandemic such as healthcare disparities.

Then, the class will shift toward dissecting the social implications of the virus, as well as misinformation across social media and fraudulent news sites.

Students will also gain hands-on experience navigating scientific rhetoric. For one assignment, students will either take the stance of a COVID-19 vaccine skeptic or believer and analyze each sides argument for the impact the vaccine could have on the long-term health of individuals.

This type of exercise highlights the technique of gathering and applying information, and more importantly, it may open students eyes to different perspectives, Rhoades said. I want students to learn enough about vaccines and where to find information about them, so they can make informed decisions if a vaccine is a good decision for them or not.

According to Rhoades, the experience of this class will have a multiplying effect on generating a more scientifically literate public, as students can have informed discussions on vaccine safety with their friends and family.

Ultimately, Rhoades said she hopes the course will empower students with the critical thinking skills that will allow them to draw their own conclusions on scientific issues, even if they dont have extensive knowledge of science.

You dont have to be a science expert to make science decisions, but I want to teach students to track down the facts online when reading the news, and to be able to make educated choices for themselves, Rhoades said. I see this as science communication at its best.

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New First-Year Biology Seminar Tackles COVID-19, Vaccinations and Pandemic Misinformation - Cornell University The Cornell Daily Sun

Immunology

Major 2.2m research project aims to improve treatment and understanding of Long COVID – University of Birmingham

Approximately 1 in 10 people with COVID-19 continue to experience symptoms and impaired quality of life beyond 12 weeks

The University of Birmingham today launches a major new 2.2m government-funded research project to improve the treatment, causes and symptoms of so-called Long COVID in non-hospitalised patients.

The two-year project, funded through the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), follows a UK-wide joint research call to fund ambitious and comprehensive Long COVID research.

Approximately 1 in 10 people with COVID-19 continue to experience symptoms and impaired quality of life beyond 12 weeks, which is known as Long COVID. Common Long COVID symptoms include, extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, brain fog, insomnia, heart palpitations, dizziness, pins and needles, joint pain, depression, anxiety, tinnitus, earaches, nausea, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite, a high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat, and changes to sense of smell or taste.

Through a partnership with the Clinical Practice Research Datalink using electronic GP records, the University of Birmingham-led team will identify and recruit thousands of non-hospitalised patients with Long COVID who have had symptoms for 12 weeks or longer to a major clinical digital study.

At the heart of the study will be the use of a digital platform, called Atom5 from med-tech company Aparito Limited, which will be configured for the study by experts from the University of Birmingham with patient input. Participating patients will be given access to the digital platform, allowing them to self-report symptoms, quality of life and work capability.

Asub group of patients will receive blood and other biological tests to understand the immunology of Long COVID, and will wear a device that will measure their heart rate, oxygen saturation, step count and sleep quality.

Using their findings, the researchers will co-produce with patients a targeted intervention for Long COVID, tailored to individual patient need. Delivered remotely in the community, via the Atom5TM app, it will provide critical support and information to empower patients in self-managing long COVID. In addition, they will provide tailored resources to support symptom management and nurse-led support for those with the severest symptoms.

The researchers will also use the digital platform to assess whether the treatments and supportive interventions reduce symptoms, improve quality of life, and are good value for money.

All data gathered will be used to help the scientists characterise the symptoms, health impacts, and underlying causes of Long COVID syndromes in non-hospitalised patients providing invaluable insight not currently available.

Principal Investigator Dr Shamil Haroon, Clinical Lecturer in Primary Care at the University of Birmingham, said: Individuals with Long COVID frequently report experiencing diverse physical and psychological symptoms beyond 12 weeks that can be extremely debilitating.

People living with Long COVID have indicated that they feel abandoned and dismissed by healthcare providers, and receive limited or conflicting advice.

Meanwhile, neither the biological or immunological mechanisms of Long COVID, nor the rationale for why certain people are more susceptible to these effects, are yet clear, limiting development of therapies. Its essential we act quickly to address these issues.

Co-Principal Investigator Melanie Calvert, Professor of Outcomes Methodology and NIHR Senior Investigator at the University of Birmingham, added: A large number of individuals that have had COVID-19 experience long-term effects on their health and well-being.

Our study aims to reduce their symptom burden and improve quality of life. Ultimately, people want to be able to enjoy life again and spend time with their friends and family.

It is clear that there is an urgent need for research to help explain the causes that drive the longer-term health effects of COVID-19 so that we can optimise patient care.

Our digital trial platform in primary care will not only facilitate research exploring the underlying cause of Long COVID, but also the evaluation and co-production of suitable interventions.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock, said: I am acutely aware of the lasting and debilitating impact Long COVID can have on people of all ages, irrespective of the extent of the initial symptoms.

Fatigue, headaches and breathlessness can affect people for months after their COVID-19 infection regardless of whether they required hospital admission initially.

In order to effectively help these individuals we need to better understand long COVID and identify therapeutics that can help recovery. This funding will kick-start ambitious projects to do just that.

Chief Medical Officer for England and Head of the NIHR, Professor Chris Whitty, said: Good research is absolutely pivotal in understanding, diagnosing and then treating any illness, to ease symptoms and ultimately improve lives.

This research, jointly funded through the NIHR and UKRI, will increase our knowledge of how and why the virus causes some people to suffer long term effects following a COVID-19 infection - and will be an important tool in developing more effective treatments for patients.

Health Minister, Lord Bethell, said:The UK is at the forefront of scientific research and innovation when it comes to the treatment of COVID-19. This work is vital in helping us to build on our knowledge and improve the treatment of the longer-term impacts of the virus.

This research will make the best use of available evidence to help us identify the causes, the consequences and most importantly the best treatments to help people recover from COVID-19 in the long term.

The University of Birmingham-led project will include a Lived Experience Advisory Panel (LEAP), made up of a group of long COVID patients, who will work with researchers and clinicians to develop the research from a patient perspective. LEAP member and long COVID patient Dave Stanton, aged 74, welcomed the research.

The RAF veteran said: COVID-19 has knocked me sideways, with a long and debilitating battle since initially becoming ill in March last year, including having to have surgery to replace my pacemaker following additional damage the virus has caused to my heart.

"Each day is baby steps in terms of recovery, but almost one year on I am still battling a myriad of symptoms from memory loss to difficulties breathing, pins and needles, and immobility.

"I am delighted to be part of this research project, which will give hope to so many out there who are, like me, struggling with the longer term crippling effects of this virus.

The research team consists of multi-disciplinary experts heavily involved in COVID-19 research from the University of Birmingham, including Dr Krish Nirantharakumar, Dr Joht Singh Chandan, Dr Olalekan Lee Aiyegbusi, Professor Janet Lord, Professor David Wraith, Professor Alastair Denniston, Dr Sarah Hughes, Dr Louise Jackson, Dr Grace Turner, Dr Samantha Cruz Rivera, Dr Anuradhaa Subramanian, Professor Georgios Gkoutos, Professor Elizabeth Sapey, Professor Tom Marshall, Dr Christel McMullan, and Professor Steven Marwaha.

It also includes Dr Puja Myles and Dr Tim Williams, of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and Dr Elin Haf Davies, of Aparito Limited.

Project partners will include patient campaign group LongCovidSOS, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the UK Coronavirus Immunology Consortium (UK-CIC), and the Post-hospitalisation COVID-19 Study Consortium (PHOSP-COVID). Long COVID patients and their carers have co-developed the research plan, including COVID-19 survivor Gary Price who will also act as a co-investigator.

For more information, please contact Emma McKinney, Communications Manager, University of Birmingham, on +44 7815607157. Alternatively, contact the Press Office out of hours on +44 (0)7789 921165.

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Major 2.2m research project aims to improve treatment and understanding of Long COVID - University of Birmingham

Physiology

Cassidy Announces Nearly $5 Million for LSU Health Shreveport, LSU and A&M College Baton Rouge – Bossier Press-Tribune Online

WASHINGTON U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-LA) today announced the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is awarding $4,617,645 to Louisiana State University (LSU) Health Shreveport and LSU and Agricultural and Mechanical (LSU and A&M) College Baton Rouge under the pharmacology, physiology, and biological chemistry research program.

These federal dollars support cutting-edge research in Louisiana to improve the health of all Americans, said Dr. Cassidy. Im proud to announce more than $4.5 million to both LSU Health Shreveport and LSU and A&M College Baton Rouge to advance their research efforts.

Funding for pharmacology, physiology, biological chemistry research was awarded in the following amounts:

$2,150,395 to LSU Health Shreveport for the Center for Applied Immunology and Pathological Processes$2,467,250 to LSU and A&M College Baton Rouge for the Center for Pre-Clinical Cancer ResearchBackground

The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) a medical research agency of the National Institute of Health which is a component of HHS supports basic research that increases our understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. NIGMS-funded scientists investigate how living systems work at a range of levels from molecules and cells to tissues and organs, in research organisms, humans, and populations.

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Cassidy Announces Nearly $5 Million for LSU Health Shreveport, LSU and A&M College Baton Rouge - Bossier Press-Tribune Online

Physiology

Timing of exercise impacts men with Type 2 diabetes – Harvard Gazette

Numerous studies have demonstrated the role of physical activity in improving heart health for patients with Type 2 diabetes. But whether exercising at a certain time of the day promised an added health bonus for this population was still largely unknown.

New research published inDiabetes Care reports a correlation between the timing of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity and cardiovascular fitness and health risks for individuals who have Type 2 diabetes and obesity or overweight.

The research team fromBrigham and Womens Hospitaland Joslin Diabetes Center investigators, along with collaborators found that, in its study of 2,035 people, men who performed physical activity in the morning had the highest risks of developing coronary heart disease (CHD), independent of the amount and intensity of weekly physical activity. Men most active midday had lower cardiorespiratory fitness levels. In women, the investigators did not find an association between specific activity timing and CHD risk or cardiorespiratory fitness.

The general message for our patient population remains that you should exercise whenever you can as regular exercise provides significant benefits for health, said corresponding authorJingyi Qian of theDivision of Sleep and Circadian Disordersat the Brigham and an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. But researchers studying the effects of physical activity should take into account timing as an additional consideration so that we can give better recommendations to the general public about how time of day may affect the relationship between exercise and cardiovascular health.

The researchers analyzed baseline data from the Look AHEAD (Action for Health in Diabetes)study, a multi-site, randomized clinical investigation that began in 2001 and monitored the health of more than 5,000 individuals with Type 2 diabetes and overweight or obesity. Among them, over 2,000 individuals had objectively measured physical activity at baseline.

The study population was very well characterized at baseline, with detailed metabolic and physical activity measurements, which was an advantage of using this dataset for our work, said corresponding author Roeland Middelbeek of the Joslin Diabetes Center, who is a co-investigator of the Look AHEAD study.

For theDiabetes Carearticle, the researchers reviewed data from hip-mounted accelerometers that participants wore for one week at the beginning of the Look AHEAD study. The researchers tracked the clock-time of daily moderate-to-vigorous activity, including labor-intensive work that extends beyond more traditionally defined forms of exercise. To assess the participants risk level of experiencing CHD over the next four years, the researchers used the well-known, sex-specificFramingham risk score algorithm.

Sex-specific physiological differences may help explain the more prominent correlations seen in males, who tend to be at risk of CHD earlier in life. However, the researchers note that other factors could also be at play. It remains unclear why time-specific activity may be associated with different levels of health and fitness.

The researchers also could not account for participants varying circadian rhythms: whereas a jog at 6 p.m. for one participant may be evening exercise, another participant prone to waking later in the day may, biologically, consider it to be afternoon, regardless of how the clock-time of the activity was recorded in the study.

Interest in the interaction between physical activity and the circadian system is still just emerging, Qian said. We formed a methodology for quantifying and characterizing participants based on the clock-time of their physical activity, which allows researchers to carry out other studies on other cohorts.

Beyond further integrating circadian biology with exercise physiology, the researchers are also excited to use longitudinal data to investigate how exercise timing relates to cardiovascular health outcomes, particularly among diabetes patients more vulnerable to cardiovascular events.

Other contributors to the research include Michael P. Walkup, Shyh-Huei Chen, Peter H. Brubaker, Dale S. Bond, Phyllis A. Richey, John M. Jakicic, Kun Hu, Frank A.J.L. Scheer, and the Look AHEAD Research Group.

Funding was provided by the National Institutes of Health. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (K99HL148500). The Look AHEAD trial was supported by the Department of Health and Human Services through the following cooperative agreements from the National Institutes of Health (DK57136, DK57149, DK56990, DK57177, DK57171, DK57151, DK57182, DK57131, DK57002, DK57078, DK57154, DK57178, DK57219, DK57008, DK57135, and DK56992). The Indian Health Service (I.H.S.) provided personnel, medical oversight, and use of facilities.

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Timing of exercise impacts men with Type 2 diabetes - Harvard Gazette

Genetics

20% of People Have a Genetic Mutation That Provides Superior Resilience to Cold – SciTechDaily

Almost one in five people lack the protein -aktinin-3 in their muscle fiber. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden now show that more of the skeletal muscle of these individuals comprises slow-twitch muscle fibers, which are more durable and energy-efficient and provide better tolerance to low temperatures than fast-twitch muscle fibers. The results are published in the scientific journal The American Journal of Human Genetics.

Skeletal muscle comprises fast-twitch (white) fibers that fatigue quickly and slow-twitch (red) fibers that are more resistant to fatigue. The protein -aktinin-3, which is found only in fast-twitch fibers, is absent in almost 20 percent of people almost 1.5 billion individuals due to a mutation in the gene that codes for it. In evolutionary terms, the presence of the mutated gene increased when humans migrated from Africa to the colder climates of central and northern Europe.

This suggests that people lacking -aktinin-3 are better at keeping warm and, energy-wise, at enduring a tougher climate, but there hasnt been any direct experimental evidence for this before, says Hkan Westerblad, professor of cellular muscle physiology at the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet. We can now show that the loss of this protein gives a greater resilience to cold and weve also found a possible mechanism for this.

For the study, 42 healthy men between the ages of 18 and 40 were asked to sit in cold water (14 C) until their body temperature had dropped to 35.5 C. During cold water immersion, researchers measured muscle electrical activity with electromyography (EMG) and took muscle biopsies to study the protein content and fiber-type composition.

The results showed that the skeletal muscle of people lacking -aktinin-3 contains a larger proportion of slow-twitch fibres. On cooling, these individuals were able to maintain their body temperature in a more energy-efficient way. Rather than activating fast-twitch fibres, which results in overt shivering, they increased the activation of slow-twitch fibers that produce heat by increasing baseline contraction (tonus).

The mutation probably gave an evolutionary advantage during the migration to a colder climate, but in todays modern society this energy-saving ability might instead increase the risk of diseases of affluence, which is something we now want to turn our attention to, says Professor Westerblad.

Another interesting question is how the lack of -aktinin-3 affects the bodys response to physical exercise.

People who lack -aktinin-3 rarely succeed in sports requiring strength and explosiveness, while a tendency towards greater capacity has been observed in these people in endurance sports, he explains.

One limitation of the study is that it is harder to study mechanisms in human studies at the same level of detail as in animal and cell experiments. The physiological mechanism presented has not been verified with experiments at, for example, the molecular level.

Reference: Loss of -actinin-3 during human evolution provides superior cold resilience and muscle heat generation by Victoria L. Wyckelsma, Tomas Venckunas, Peter J. Houweling, Maja Schlittler, Volker M Lauschke, Chrystal F. Tiong, Harrison D. Wood, Niklas Ivarsson, Henrikas Paulauskas, Nerijus Eimantas, Daniel C. Andersson, Kathryn N. North, Marius Brazaitis, Hkan Westerblad, 17 February 2021, American Journal of Human Genetics.DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2021.01.013.

The study was a collaboration with research groups at the Lithuanian Sports University in Kaunas, Lithuania, and the University of Melbourne in Australia. It was supported by grants from the Swedish Research Council, the Swedish National Centre for Research in Sports, the Research Council of Lithuania, the Swedish Society for Medical Research, the Jeansson Foundations, the Swedish Heart and Lung Foundation and Australias National Health and Medical Research Council. Co-author Volker Lauschke is the founding CEO and shareholder of HepaPredict AB and has been a consultant for EnginZyme AB.

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20% of People Have a Genetic Mutation That Provides Superior Resilience to Cold - SciTechDaily