Akok Makako

01/05/2025

How much do you know about protein? It's not just for shakes and popcorn.

In The Color of North, on sale May 13, Maggie Fink and Shahir Rizk give us a backstage pass to the secret life of proteins—how they help animals see and navigate the world, how they cause creatures like fireflies and jellyfish to glow, and even how they can be used to develop life-saving treatments.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/4iZouoN

27/04/2025

A 26-year-old man presented with sudden onset of severe pain in the legs and inability to move the left leg. On physical examination, he had complete loss of motor function in the left leg. Bedside ultrasonographic examination with color Doppler showed no blood flow in the distal aorta. Computed tomographic angiography of the abdomen revealed a saddle embolus at the aortoiliac junction (left). Emergency aortoiliac embolectomy was performed, and a gelatinous mass was removed. A subsequent transthoracic echocardiogram identified a heterogeneous mass in the left atrium (middle). On hospital day 2, cardiothoracic surgery was performed to remove the left atrial mass, and a villous, friable lesion was excised (right). Histopathology of the cardiac mass showed abundant mucopolysaccharide matrix with scattered nests of lepidic cells. What is the diagnosis? https://nej.md/IC04242025

26/04/2025

26/04/2025

Avid runner Kristine Stoehr started experiencing dangerous abnormal heart rhythms and was ultimately diagnosed with a rare condition called arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C).

26/04/2025

Finding the right antidepressant isn’t always simple—or fast. About 13% of U.S. adults report taking an antidepressant, but many face a frustrating trial-and-error process. Why do some medications work for certain people and not others? The answer may lie in your genes.

Advances in genomics and personalized medicine are bringing hope for more effective, tailored treatment. https://mayocl.in/4lNNCBh

26/04/2025

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved penpulimab-kcqx (Akeso Biopharma) in combination with cisplatin or carboplatin and gemcitabine as first-line treatment for adults with certain types of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), and as a single agent for certain patients with NPC disease progression on or after other treatments. http://ms.spr.ly/6182SKQKq

26/04/2025

SARS-CoV-2 infection in children and adolescents is linked to a higher risk for chronic kidney disease and kidney function decline, especially in those with preexisting conditions: http://ms.spr.ly/6187SJbe5

26/04/2025

New work published in Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery for the article "Intraoperative indocyanine green videoangiography versus postoperative catheter angiography to confirm microsurgical occlusion of cranial dural arteriovenous fistulas" written by Drs. Katherine Karahalios, Lea Scherschinski, Michael Lawton, et al. The figures depict a summary of locations of intracranial dural arteriovenous fistulas (DAVFs) in both a posterolateral and axial views. Check out the article online:
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clineuro.2025.108896

26/04/2025

We have the knowledge, life-saving tools and targeted prevention, testing and treatment methods to defeat malaria.

The choice is ours: act now or risk losing ground.

25/04/2025

An estimated 2.2 billion cases of malaria and 12.7 million deaths have been prevented over the last two decades. But after years of steady declines, progress has stalled.

World Health Organization (WHO) says Friday's World Malaria Day is an opportunity to recommit to end malaria. https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-malaria-day/2025

25/04/2025

Did you know Nobel Prize laureate Ronald Ross was the first person to record the link between mosquitos and malaria transmission in 1897?

”The work, which was continued from 8 am to 3 or 4 pm with a short interval for breakfast, was most exhausting, and so blinding that I could scarcely see afterwards; and the difficulty was increased by the fact that my microscope was almost worn out, the screws being rusted with sweat from my hands and forehead, and my only remaining eye-piece being cracked, while swarms of flies persecuted me at their pleasure as I sat with both hands engaged at the instrument.”

From the Nobel Prize lecture 1902 by Ronald Ross. We can highly recommend reading his lecture even though it's 90 pages: https://bit.ly/2XF8imr

Image: The page in Ross' notebook where he recorded the "pigmented bodies" in mosquitoes that he later identified as malaria parasites.