January 19, 2021
Maggie Anthony didn’t have much time to deliberate before getting her Covid-19 vaccine. A labor and delivery nurse at Cambridge Hospital in Massachusetts, she suddenly heard from her manager that shots would be available the next day. But with an 8-month-old breastfeeding baby at home, she wasn’t sure whether to accept. Those who are pregnant and lactating haven’t been included in clinical trials for the Covid vaccines, so there’s no data on the vaccines’ safety for these groups.
Covid-19 vaccine guidance for those who are lactating is based on faulty assumptions, experts say
January 18, 2021
Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic affects maternal health both directly and indirectly, and direct and indirect effects are intertwined. To provide a comprehensive overview on this broad topic in a rapid format behooving an emergent pandemic we conducted a scoping review. Methods: A scoping review was conducted to compile evidence on direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic on maternal health and provide an overview of the most significant outcomes thus far. Working papers and news articles were considered appropriate evidence along with peer-reviewed publications in order to capture rapidly evolving updates. Literature in English published from January 1st to September 11 2020 was included if it pertained to the direct or indirect effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the physical, mental, economic, or social health and wellbeing of pregnant people. Narrative descriptions were written about subject areas for which the authors found the most evidence.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on maternal and perinatal health: a scoping review
January 16, 2021
Purpose of review: The global pandemic caused by the severe acute respiratory virus coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has a male bias in mortality likely driven by both gender and sex-based differences between male and female individuals. This is consistent with sex and gender-based features of HIV infection and overlap between the two diseases will highlight potential mechanistic pathways of disease and guide research questions and policy interventions. In this review, the emerging findings from SARS-CoV-2 infection will be placed in the context of sex and gender research in the more mature HIV epidemic. Recent findings: This review will focus on the new field of literature on prevention, immunopathogenesis and treatment of SARS-CoV-2 referencing relevant articles in HIV for context from a broader time period, consistent with the evolving understanding of sex and gender in HIV infection. Sex-specific features of epidemiology and immunopathogenesis reported in COVID-19 disease will be discussed and potential sex and gender-specific factors of relevance to prevention and treatment will be emphasized. Summary: Multilayered impacts of sex and gender on HIV infection have illuminated pathways of disease and identified important goals for public health interventions. SARS-CoV-2 has strong evidence for a male bias in disease severity and exploring that difference will yield important insights.
January 15, 2021
Scientists studying the body’s natural defenses against bacterial infection have identified a nutrient — taurine — that helps the gut recall prior infections and kill invading bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae (Kpn). The finding, published in the journal Cell by scientists from five institutes of the National Institutes of Health, could aid efforts seeking alternatives to antibiotics.
NIH scientists identify nutrient that helps prevent bacterial infection
January 15, 2021
Androgen's TMPRSS2-mediated actions might explain both the low fatalities observed in prepubertal children and the differences between sexes regarding SARS-COV2 infection. Androgen sensitivity may be a critical factor in determining COVID-19 disease severity, and sensitivity tests can, therefore, help in predicting patient outcomes.
Sex differences in COVID-19: the role of androgens in disease severity and progression
January 15, 2021
Humans show reproducible sex-differences in cognition and psychopathology that may be contributed to by influences of gonadal sex-steroids and/or sex-chromosomes on regional brain development. Gonadal sex-steroids are well known to play a major role in sexual differentiation of the vertebrate brain, but far less is known regarding the role of sex-chromosomes. Our review focuses on this latter issue by bridging together two literatures that have to date been largely disconnected. We first consider "bottom-up" genetic and molecular studies focused on sex-chromosome gene content and regulation. This literature nominates specific sex-chromosome genes that could drive developmental sex-differences by virtue of their sex-biased expression and their functions within the brain. We then consider the complementary "top down" view, from magnetic resonance imaging studies that map sex- and sex chromosome effects on regional brain anatomy, and link these maps to regional gene-expression within the brain. By connecting these top-down and bottom-up approaches, we emphasize the potential role of X-linked genes in driving sex-biased brain development and outline key goals for future work in this field.
X-chromosome regulation and sex differences in brain anatomy
January 14, 2021
For many cancer survivors, their worst nightmare is finding out that their cancer has come back. Even years after a seemingly successful treatment, cancer can start growing again, and scientists don’t know how this happens. Now, a new study suggests that stress hormones may wake up dormant cancer cells that remain in the body after treatment. In experiments in mice, a stress hormone triggered a chain reaction in immune cells that prompted dormant cancer cells to wake up and form tumors again.
January 14, 2021
Sleep is crucial for optimal well-being, and sex differences in sleep quality have significant implications for women's health. We review the current literature on sex differences in sleep, such as differences in objective and subjective sleep measures and their relationship with aging. We then discuss the convincing evidence for the role of ovarian hormones in regulating female sleep, and survey how these hormones act on a multitude of brain regions and neurochemicals to impact sleep. Lastly, we identify several important areas in need of future research to narrow the knowledge gap and improve the health of women and other understudied populations.
Neurobiological and Hormonal Mechanisms Regulating Women's Sleep
January 14, 2021
While primarily a respiratory disease, COVID-19 can also lead to neurological problems. The first of these symptoms might be the loss of smell and taste, while some people also may later battle headaches, debilitating fatigue, and trouble thinking clearly, sometimes referred to as “brain fog.” All of these symptoms have researchers wondering how exactly the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, affects the human brain. In search of clues, researchers at NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) have now conducted the first in-depth examinations of human brain tissue samples from people who died after contracting COVID-19. Their findings, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, suggest that COVID-19’s many neurological symptoms are likely explained by the body’s widespread inflammatory response to infection and associated blood vessel injury—not by infection of the brain tissue itself.
January 13, 2021
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) occurs in women more than men whereas survival in men is worse than in women. In recent years, much research has been carried out to understand these sex differences in PAH. This article discusses clinical and preclinical studies that have investigated the influences of sex, serotonin, obesity, estrogen, estrogen synthesis, and estrogen metabolism on bone morphogenetic protein receptor type II signaling, the pulmonary circulation and right ventricle in both heritable and idiopathic pulmonary hypertension.
