Health • Medicine • Neuroscience • Pharmacy
Ayahuasca is an illegal entheogenic drug, substances that have the capacity to generate a mystical experience, a psychological sensation of contact with the divinity. Ayahuasca is an infusion prepared from the Banisteriopsis caapi liana and other ingredients, which include leaves of Psychotria viridis , Diplopyterys cabrerana and Mimosa tenuiflora . Psychotria has dimethyltryptamine (DMT), a […]
The heart is a muscular organ with four chambers designed to work efficiently, reliably, and continuously over a lifetime. The muscular walls of each chamber contract in a regulated sequence, pumping blood as required by the body while expending as little energy as possible during each heartbeat. Contraction of the muscle fibres in the heart […]
I n the age of bacteria resistant to multiple antibiotics, the so-called superbacteria, it is critical to our future the development of novel therapeutic strategies. Lytic enzymes encoded by bacteriophages – viruses that specifically kill bacteria, also called lysins or enzybiotics, are effective agents for preventing and controlling diseases caused by Gram+ bacteria, including Streptococcus […]
Why people younger than 22 with congenital or acquired heart conditions should be more likely of developing a cancer? Actually, a small number of studies have been published, suggesting relatively high cancer incidence and mortality, compared to the general population. If it is true a correlation exists, there are several potential explanations. It could be […]
The most effective interventions in people with autism are based on a personal work by specialized professionals and these therapies, when well designed and well done, achieve a constant improvement in different areas such as social communication, the presence of stereotypes and other atypical behaviors characteristic of autism. However, person-to-person therapies are by their very […]
When we hear somebody wheezing, coughing, showing chest tightness and shortness of breath, most of us will immediately recognize the underlying cause: Asthma . This is not a minor issue, but one affecting approximately 5% of the entire world population (and steeply growing every year) and causing the death of nearly 400000 people back in […]
A recurrent problem with pain is the absence of therapeutic strategies to selectively block the nociceptors (neurons responsible to detect painful stimuli) that need to be targeted for a particular indication. Things get even worse if we take into account that some molecules used for pain management do affect other, more general physiological processes. Local […]
There are plenty of examples of drugs that have been repurposed in recent years. For instance, thalidomide, the initially prescribed medication for headache in pregnant women which led to countless numbers of babies born with body malformations during the 50s and 60s, now this drug is used for treating certain types of cancer, such as […]
Interior of a human blood vessel. Something looks wrong, very wrong. Bacteria have entered the circulation, and the immunological system is reacting. All the alarms are on fire, while an army of white blood cells comes by, getting ready to unleash hell on the invaders. Suddenly, among these security agents, a neutrophil stands out. It […]
Diagnosis is one of the trickiest steps in disease management for many diseases, ranging from some types of cancer to rare diseases or neurodegenerative disorders, like Alzheimer’s for instance. Even though we have been hearing long about the disease, to date the only reliable diagnosis comes from a postmortem brain analysis and the finding of […]