Day: July 4, 2024

The earlier that Alzheimer’s disease and other similar conditions can be spotted, the better the treatment options are, and scientists have discovered a blood biomarker that could signal the risk of dementia many years in advance. A team from the National Institute on Aging, the University of Texas, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in the US, as well as other institutions across the world, looked at data on 10,981 individuals collected across the course of 25 years. In particular, the researchers analyzed the proteome of these individuals: the complete set of proteins expressed in a body, driving all kinds of biological processes from cell communication to hormone levels. The team found that unusual amounts of certain proteins were linked to dementia risk. (Walker et al., Science Translational Medicine, 2023) The analysis revealed 32 proteins that, when found at unusually high or low levels in the blood in people aged 45 to 60, were associated with an increased risk of developing dementia later in life. “The present study leveraged data from multiple cohorts to identify and characterize 32 proteins and 4 protein networks in plasma of middle-aged adults that were strongly associated with dementia risk in subsequent decades,” write the researchers in their published paper. This study doesn’t go as far as to look at why these protein imbalances are linked to dementia risk, but they could help scientists more accurately assess dementia risk in older adults. Interestingly, many of the proteins weren’t directly involved in the functioning of the brain. That backs up previous research showing that the onset of dementia and its underlying triggers aren’t something that happens exclusively in the brain. Several of the identified proteins were linked to proteostasis, or the healthy regulation of the proteome. This process helps prevent the protein clumps that are found in the brains of people who have developed Alzheimer’s. Other proteins played key roles in the immune system, perhaps showing that there’s something about an immune system reaction or failure that increases the chances of dementia starting to take hold in the brain. There’s still a long way to go with this research, but eventually we may get to the stage where blood can be tested for signs of dementia risk. If those signs are caught earlier, personalized treatments can be put in place. Further down the line, we might one day fully understand how conditions like Alzheimer’s disease get started, and that revelation could well come by watching for imbalances and abnormalities outside of the brain. “We’re seeing so much involvement of the peripheral biology decades before the typical onset of dementia,” neuroscientist Keenan Walker, from the National Institute on Aging, told Nature. The research has been published in Science Translational Medicine.

A leading No campaigner says an ex-Labor minister should remain a member of the No camp despite making comments that blood tests should be taken to prove Aboriginality. Key points: Ex-Labor minister Gary Johns has doubled down on controversial comments made in his book and at speaking engagements Yes campaigners have called for Mr Johns’s resignation from the committee of No campaign organisation Recognise a Better Way Prominent No campaigner Warren Mundine says there is “no credibility” in calls for Mr Johns to resign Speaking on Sky News, Gary Johns, who is campaigning against the Voice to Parliament, said if the country provided people with “race-based benefits” it needed to ask First Nations people to prove their heritage, adding that people were “embarrassed to ask”. “We will lose credibility here if we don’t test or otherwise prove that you are or are not an Aboriginal person,” he said. Yes campaigners have called for Mr Johns to resign from the No campaign after his comments emerged. In his book The Burden of Culture, Mr Johns wrote: “If the current three-part test on Aboriginality is to remain then, just as Aborigines insist in native title claims, blood will have to be measured for all benefits and jobs.” Opponents to a politically enshrined Indigenous voice in the constitution, Recognise a Better Way, list Mr Johns as a committee member and have not responded to ABC’s request for comment about his future with the group. “Why should it be based on race? It’s such an awful concept, but if you’re going to do it, you’re going to have to measure it, you’re going to have to say who is and isn’t an Aboriginal person — at the moment we’re too afraid to ask,” Mr Johns told Sky News on Monday night. “I would rather there be none of these embarrassing discussions, there should be no race-based programs and no race-based benefits.” Prominent No campaigner and Bundjalung man Warren Mundine said while he doesn’t agree with all of Mr Johns’s comments, he doesn’t believe he should resign from the No camp. “He’s entitled to his views, I’ll keep on having conversations with him and that is the way I am. I don’t talk to people that agree with me, I talk to people that disagree with me and I change people’s viewpoints and this is how you make the country a better place,” Mr Mundine said. Comments ‘repugnant’: Liberals for Yes Mr Johns also doubled down on other notions he had mentioned in the book, such as a public holiday celebrating “interracial marriages” between non-Aboriginal and Aboriginal people, and abolishing Welcome to Country practices. He was also critical of the landmark Bringing Them Home report, tabled in the federal parliament in 1997. The Human Rights Commission’s report detailed the damage caused to Indigenous Australians because of the government’s policy of forcibly removing children from their families. “The inquiry was jumping at the shadows of history instead of responding to contemporary events of the period that it covered,” he wrote. “Consequently, it got it wrong. Taking children was a necessary instrument, because saving Aboriginal society was thought at the time to be a forlorn hope.” Liberal NSW Shadow Minister for Health Matt Kean, who has urged his federal colleagues to back the Voice, said Mr Johns’s comments were “repugnant to everything the country stands for”. “There are good people on both sides of the Voice Referendum debate making serious and considered arguments for and against the Voice,” he said. Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney says Mr Johns has a right to make a statement despite disagreeing with it. (ABC News) “However, Mr Gary Johns’s call last night for all Aboriginal benefits recipients to be blood tested, and for a national public holiday celebrating intermarriage between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, as well as his belief that Aboriginal people will find a period in jail a ‘respite from a distraught life’ means he has no place in this national conversation. “If Mr Johns refuses to resign from the board of the official No Campaign today, the No Campaign should do the decent and honourable thing and fire him.” Indigenous Australians Minister Linda Burney said while she didn’t agree with Mr Johns’s statements: “He has a right to make them” “My view is that is not the role of other people [to] determine one’s Aboriginality — that is something that is very clearly articulated, that you identify, that you are accepted, and you are recognised by the community.” No campaign responds No campaigner Mr Mundine said he did not take lectures from anyone affiliated with the Yes campaign, likening one board member to a Nazi. “They’ve got a communist sitting on their thing [board] and a communist is just as bad as a Nazi,” he said. Mr Mundine said no one from the Yes campaign has “any credibility” in asking Mr Johns to resign. Prominent No campaigners Warren Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price have defended Mr Johns’s comments. (ABC News: Mark Moore) He added that comments from Yes campaigners had prompted him to receive treatment after his mental health had deteriorated. “I’m getting a lot of support, which is great, but other people are continuing to do what they’re doing — I will just continue to work with my doctors and get on with life.” Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, an outspoken opponent of the Voice, said that Mr Johns’s comments are part of the national debate and she respected an “individual’s right to express their views”. The senator said she had interpreted the comments as “suggesting identity politics and separatism has provided more negative consequences for Aboriginal Australians and that we should stop focusing on racial identification and support Australians on the basis of need, not race”. She added that she was “grateful” for some aspects of British settlement. “For instance, I wouldn’t exist and many of us of Aboriginal descent wouldn’t exist either. I’m grateful we weren’t colonised by the Dutch or Belgians. “We can’t change our

Grammy-winning singer Tori Kelly remained hospitalized in an intensive care unit on Monday after collapsing the night before while out at a Los Angeles restaurant with friends. Kelly, 30, was being treated for blood clots around her lungs and in her legs, and doctors were working to determine whether they were also around her heart. Advertisement Her condition is “really serious,” a source told TMZ, which first reported the incident. Tori Kelly attends a Special Screening of Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” at Regal LA Live on April 01, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Amy Sussman/Getty Images) The singer was dining in downtown L.A. when she noted her heart was beating very rapidly, TMZ reported. She passed out “for a while” shortly afterward, the source said, and has been in and out of consciousness ever since. Advertisement Her friends took her to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the city’s premier hospital, rather than calling an ambulance that would have taken her elsewhere, the outlet reported. Kelly won two Grammys in 2019 and earned Billboard’s Women in Music Breakthrough Artist Award in 2015. Her most recent tour was cut short by the COVID pandemic, and she told People in March that she was looking forward to getting back out on the road. She recently released “Missin u,” her first solo single in about three years. The musician started singing and performing at age 12, appearing on the television show “America’s Most Talented Kid” and signing with Geffen Records. She started posting YouTube videos two years later and then in 2010 got as far as “Hollywood Week” in her audition for the ninth season of “American Idol,” falling short before the “Top 24.” Her 2015 hit “Nobody Love” put her on the map, but a 2016 Grammy loss to Meghan Trainor pushed her to switch to gospel. In 2019 she won both the Best Gospel Album Award, for “Hidden Place,” and Best Gospel Performance/Song, for “Never Alone.” The switch was all about “taking a step back and realizing, you know, I want to do a project that’s really close to my heart and something I’m really passionate about,” she told the Daily News backstage after her Grammy win. “The fact that it got this response and got nominated for two Grammys is insane. I’m I just so honored and so thankful.”

The 30-year-old singer reportedly collapsed while out to dinner with friends. LOS ANGELES — Grammy-winning singer Tori Kelly was rushed to the hospital after collapsing and is being treated for blood clots, multiple media outlets reported Monday. According to TMZ, which first reported the incident, Kelly was out to dinner in Los Angeles with friends on Sunday night when she fainted after experiencing a racing heartbeat. She was reportedly “out for a while” after collapsing and friends took her to the hospital. Doctors found blood clots in her legs and lungs, and were working to determine if there are any clots around her heart, TMZ reported. The 30-year-old singer is reportedly in and out of consciousness. Kelly first gained recognition as a teenager through her videos on YouTube, and made it through to Hollywood Week of the ninth season of American Idol when she was 16 years old. She was nominated for Best New Artist at the 2016 Grammy Awards and later won two Grammys in 2019 for her second album “Hiding Place,” in the categories of Best Gospel Album and Best Gospel Performance/song. She voiced the character Meena in the animated films “Sing” and “Sing 2.” This is a developing story. Check back for updates. RELATED: Elton John, Scorsese and more friends and admirers of Tony Bennett react to his death RELATED: After nearly 30 years, there’s movement in the case of Tupac Shakur’s killing. Here’s what we know

#inform-video-player-1 .inform-embed { margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 20px; } #inform-video-player-2 .inform-embed { margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 20px; } By Cindy Allen Enid News & Eagle ENID, Okla. — Regulations for blood donation centers and plasma donation centers vary, and the chief medical officer for Our Blood Institute (OBI) told Enid Rotarians that for-profit plasma centers are contributing to a decrease in blood donations at nonprofit centers. Dr. Tina S. Ipe MD, MPH, said OBI is the sixth-largest blood center in the United States. OBI was created in 1977 when physicians felt there was a lack of blood supply and that patients needed access to blood. She spoke to Enid Rotary Club on Monday, July 24, 2023. Enid’s OBI serves 16 counties and services 11 hospitals. Ipe said OBI collects blood products from donors who are not compensated for donating blood. The blood products collected undergo rigorous FDA-required testing. “We have conversations with hospitals about the blood products they are receiving, help them manage inventory and also provide medical information to the hospitals that we serve,” Ipe said. Ipe said that the opening of a new plasma center in Enid has impacted blood donations OBI is receiving. “What we have noticed with the Parachute Plasma Center opening in Enid, we have not had the same collection numbers as we did previous to their opening. Starting in March, our blood collection numbers have decreased,” she said. Parachute opened in late February. Ipe said the community should be “concerned” that as blood collections numbers decrease, local hospitals won’t have the blood they need. She said the FDA prohibits blood donation centers from paying donors; however, FDA does not have the same limitation on plasma centers. That means plasma centers can pay for plasma. Plasma is the yellow liquid portion of blood that makes cells move through the body efficiently. Plasma is composed of water and other components. “It maintains the pressure within your blood vessels,” she said. “Without plasma, your blood vessels would collapse.” Blood donation centers also take plasma donations. “When you go in for a plasma donation at a blood center, we remove some portion of your plasma, and that plasma gets frozen and provided to patients in hospitals,” she said. The principal difference between a blood center and plasma center is that blood centers are nonprofit and plasma centers are for-profit. Ipe stressed that blood center donations go to local hospitals. She said FDA requirements are stringent and ensure the safety of the donation. She also gave statistics about the number of plasma centers in the U.S., which she said number around 1,500. Plasma has become a global business, she said, and the U.S. is one of five countries that compensates for donations. “Two-thirds of the plasma (globally) comes from the United States,” she said. “We do have better safety measures, donors that tend to be healthier than the rest of the world. Our regulations also make it easier for plasma centers to set up shop and allow for paid donations.” Ipe said some donors can make hundreds of dollars a month through for-profit plasma donation centers. She said being paid for plasma donations is attractive for those who are economically disadvantaged. She said plasma centers have become a lucrative business, and she provided statistics that show the United States is one of the largest collectors of plasma in the world; yet, the plasma does not go back to the U.S. She said much of the plasma is manufactured into medical products at pharmaceutical manufacturing companies outside the United States. Ipe said OBI is encouraging people to talk to state and federal lawmakers about ways to offset the negative impact plasma centers have on nonprofit blood donations centers, including increasing taxes on plasma centers, taxing plasma donors as generating income, increasing FDA regulations for plasma centers and enacting laws that would require a certain percentage of manufactured plasma be returned to the U.S. Parachute Plasma Center responds The Enid News & Eagle reached out to Parachute for comments regarding its plasma center donations and operations. Eva Anderson, marketing director for JoinParachute, said Parachute has 13 locations, mostly in Texas. Enid is the only Oklahoma location. “Donors are compensated for taking the time to donate,” Anderson said. She said that after the donation, the plasma is frozen on site to preserve its purity and freshness. “Once it goes through the testing, we send it out to a U.S.-based drug manufacturer,” she said. That manufacturer handles the fractionation where the plasma is made into medical products. She said all of Parachute’s production is done within the U.S. “Testing covers both safety of the donor as well as anyone receiving,” she said. “We test for all viral markers, any irregular antibodies. Before each visit, we check the donor’s protein and red blood cell levels. When donors come in for the first visit, they get a comprehensive physical. That’s another check to ensure they’re healthy and doing well.” As for where the plasma donations eventually go, Anderson said the U.S. is one of the only countries that compensates for donations. “We (U.S.) supply 70% of the global plasma for patients … since other countries are not compensating, (donors), they don’t have as much supply.” Community blood drive Tuesday OBI is hosting an Enid Community Challenge Blood Drive from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 25, in the Stride Bank Center ballroom. Coffee Inclination will be serving drinks to donors and A Fuego Pizzeria Truck will be there to feed donors. Each donor also will receive a free T-shirt, a Chick-fil-A meal voucher and a ticket of their choice to Science Museum Oklahoma, Frontier City, or Hurricane Harbor. The first 100 donors to sign in will receive a free fold-up lawn chair. #inform-video-player-3 .inform-embed { margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 20px; }

The Arizona Diamondbacks are getting a breath of fresh air as starting pitcher Merrill Kelly is returning to the lineup Tuesday night against the St. Louis Cardinals, Arizona Sports‘ John Gambadoro reported. Manager Torey Lovullo said Kelly is back at Chase Field with the team after hitting the 15-day IL on july 27 with a blood clot in his leg. Lovullo did not definitively announce Kelly as the starter because the team will still have to make a move to get him back on the active roster after Monday’s game. “He’s here, feeling great and was up to 85 pitches in his last outing,” Lovullo told reporters pregame. “We spoke for a brief minute and he is really excited to be here and be ready to go. … It’s (Ryne) Nelson, TBA and Zac (Gallen). There is a really strong possibility the TBA will be Merrill Kelly.” Despite Lovullo’s hesitance to commit to Kelly, the blood clot has dissipated from his leg and all medicals have been passed, clearing the way for him to pitch. The D-backs manager said despite the team being filled with young talent, Gallen and Kelly bring a much-needed 1-2 punch in the rotation, something the team has been severely lacking as of late. “We have a 1A and 1B with Zac and Merrill. They pump out the innings, they make pitches, they keep us in games,” Lovullo said. “I love the youngsters that have been coming out, doing their job and helping us win baseball games, but Merrill and Zac give us a different taste, different color each day. Getting him back will be a big push for us.” Catch all the action as the D-backs take on the Cardinals at 6:40 p.m. on 98.7, the Arizona Sports app and ArizonaSports.com.

Tori Kelly has been hospitalized and is getting treatment for severe blood clots, according to a report from TMZ. The publication reports that the 30-year-old Grammy winner was out to dinner with her friends in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday night when she passed out after saying that her heart was beating fast. She was then transferred to Cedars-Sinai hospital, where she is currently getting treatment in the ICU. According to TMZ, doctors discovered blood clots in Kelly’s lungs and legs and are working to see if there are any clots around her heart. Billboard has reached out to Kelly’s reps for confirmation and more information. Kelly, who is managed by SB Projects, signed to Epic Records earlier this year. The singer-songwriter unveiled her first single with the label, “Missin U,” and its Y2K-inspired music video in March. The song, which samples Craig David’s 2000 single “Fill Me In,” marked Kelly’s first new music since 2019’s Inspired by True Events and 2020’s A Tori Kelly Christmas. In 2019, she won best gospel album at the Grammys for her sophomore album Hiding Place and best gospel performance/song for “Never Alone.” Following the release of “Missin U,” Kelly told People that she’s excited to get back on the road. “I miss touring so much. I was actually on a world tour right as COVID was happening, and it was heartbreaking to have to cancel that,” she shared. “Since then, I haven’t been able to tour. That’s one of the most exciting things I’m looking forward to. I can’t give any details or anything yet, but I cannot wait just to see fans again and belt out these songs with them.”