IMDEA Software creates a tool capable of tracking cybercrime financial transactions in Bitcoin

Researchers Gibran Gómez, Pedro Moreno-Sánchez and Juan Caballero develop "Watch Your Back"

Peer-Reviewed Publication

IMDEA SOFTWARE INSTITUTE

IMDEA Software researchers Gibran Gómez, Pedro Moreno-Sánchez and Juan Caballero have created an open-source automated tool to track the financial relationships of malicious entities that abuse Bitcoin technology, tested on 30 malware families. The study "Watch Your Back: Identifying Cybercrime Financial Relationships in Bitcoin through Back-and-Forth Exploration", in which they present their research and the tool, was presented at the prestigious CCS'22 conference (ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security) last November.

 

Cybercrime is the plague of the digital environment. Scams, phishing, identity theft, personal data theft, phishing or computer fraud are just a few examples of illicit activities on the network. Blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, have consistently attracted the attention of cybercriminals, who have frequently used them as a means of payment and even as a means of storing data for illicit purposes.

 

Aware of this problem, Gibran, Pedro and Juan have analyzed more than 7,500 Bitcoin addresses belonging to 30 malware families, including ransomware families, clippers, sextorsion, crypto-jackers  or info stealers. 

 

The main advantage provided by the back-and-forth exploration method, used in the study, is that it allows tracking all transactions produced by a Bitcoin address recursively. This means that, if a Bitcoin address receives cryptocurrencies from another address, and this in turn sends them to a third address, the complete path of the cryptocurrencies could be traced starting from the first address, or from the last one.

 

As Gibran Gómez points out, "one of the main advantages of the tool is that the user can replicate the whole process in a transparent way, which allows the results to be corroborated". 

 

The tool, in addition to serving Bitcoin users themselves, could be especially useful for law enforcement agencies, as it would allow them to identify paths between malicious addresses and deposit addresses used by operators of illicit activities that belong to financial entities regulated by KYC policies, such as exchanges (cryptocurrency exchanges). This means that the National Police, for example, could use such paths as evidence to obtain a court order to require from an exchange the personal identification data associated with the addresses involved, and get to know who the final recipients of the illicit money are.

 

In addition, Gómez advises users to take certain precautionary measures before carrying out transactions to avoid being the target of cybercrime: "Paying close attention when including the destination address in a transaction is essential. It is necessary to check several times that the destination address is correct to avoid clippers". To prevent malware, he suggests always using antivirus software and running frequent computer scans and, lastly, performing constant back-ups to avoid the loss of important data that can result from a ransomware attack.

 

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DOI

10.1145/3548606.3560587 

ARTICLE TITLE

Watch Your Back: Identifying Cybercrime Financial Relationships in Bitcoin through Back-and-Forth Exploration

Disney’s plans for total dominance are well underway, argues Concordia PhD student

Jake Pitre writes that the media giant is using its vast resources and rich legacy to cement its grip on the content business

Peer-Reviewed Publication

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

 

IMAGE: JAKE PITRE view more 

CREDIT: CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

The cultural and economic behemoth that is the Walt Disney Company has steamrolled its way into the collective consciousness and shows no signs of slowing down. Their strategy involves a savvy and skilled combination of careful marketing, brand acquisitions, digital positioning in the form of the Disney+ streaming service and undeniably popular content. And now the company is poised to extend its dominance well into the future — a future that it wants to define with its own brand of Disney magic. That’s according to Jake Pitre, a PhD student in film and moving image studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema.

In a paper published in the journal Television & New Media, Pitre studies how Disney uses a strategy he calls brand futurity. He argues that it instills a sense of inevitable, permanent and total Disney cultural dominance, burnished with the sheen of its trademark joy and wonder.

“Brand futurity is a way of understanding how brands position themselves in the digital age and in the age of hyper financialization. They are expected to be constantly talking about future profit, future revenue, but also positioning themselves as the moral and economic future of their chosen industry,” he says.

Mouse story

Disney, he argues, has taken upon itself the role of arbiter of a better moral and economic future, whether we like it or not. As they want the public to see it, Disney in fact is the only correct choice to take on that responsibility. And with Disney+, the company can bolster its argument as the only media company in existence that can marry its extensive catalogue of films and television shows to new properties and technologies. It can thus sell the public a vision consistent with its legacy.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in the streaming service’s One Day at Disney series of documentary shorts that focus on the diverse range of employees — or “cast members,” as Disney refers to them — who work there. Unsurprisingly, all of the films’ subjects praise the company as a place where creativity is nurtured and diversity is celebrated. Unmentioned are the allegations of workplace abuses exposed by media organizations like The Nation and denounced by Walt’s grandniece Abigail Disney, including stagnant wages despite record profits and the use of sweatshops in the Global South.

“I don’t know how popular those short films are or how many people watch them,” Pitre says. “It’s more about using them as a tool to understand how Disney thinks of itself in the streaming age, how they are creating this narrative about this legacy they have to draw on, how they are defining themselves in the present and making claims about what the future of media is going to look like.”

Pitre points out that he is not anti-Disney specifically. He enjoys its content. Rather, he is critical of the way the company uses its reservoir of popular goodwill as a “moral-economic impetus to say that we should just trust them to define what the future of media is going be.”

Pitre’s critique of Disney is only one part of his dissertation research into how tech companies create narratives about the future to influence how society thinks about it collectively.

“My focus is anti-capitalist but pro-hope,” he says. “I’m trying to imagine what alternative futures could look like. What could a more equitable, sustainable future of media look like if we did not have to rely on one company providing everything to us?”

Read the cited paper: “The Magical Work of Brand Futurity: The Mythmaking of Disney+.”

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JOURNAL

Television & New Media

DOI

10.1177/15274764221128923 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Content analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

The Magical Work of Brand Futurity: The Mythmaking of Disney+

Depression may look different in Black women

Variation in depression symptoms could translate to under-diagnosis and missed care

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY

Black women with symptoms of depression more often report sleep disturbances, self-criticism, and irritability than stereotypical symptoms such as depressed mood, according to a new study led by researchers at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and Columbia University School of Nursing.

 

“Based on our findings, it’s possible that health care providers may miss depression symptoms in Black women, resulting in underdiagnosis and undertreatment,” said Nicole Perez, PhD, RN, a psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and postdoctoral associate at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing and the lead author of the study published in Nursing Research.

 

Depression is diagnosed based on symptoms that patients report during an evaluation by a health provider. Common symptoms include low mood, loss of interest in activities, changes in appetite or sleep, and feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness.

 

But symptoms of depression can vary from one person to the next—and there are more than 1,500 possible combinations of symptoms that meet criteria for a depressive disorder, meaning that patients can share the same diagnosis and have no symptoms in common. As a result, depression often gets overlooked and undertreated.

 

Moreover, research exploring variations in depression symptoms has been predominantly conducted in white people, increasing the chances that depression will be missed among racial and ethnic minority populations.

 

The Nursing Research study aimed to address this research gap by exploring variations in depression symptoms among Black women, a population that is understudied despite being at increased risk for depression. The researchers analyzed data from 227 Black women who were screened for depression as part of the Intergenerational Impact of Psychological and Genetic Factors on Blood Pressure (InterGEN) study, a study of Black mothers and children that seeks to understand the genetic, psychological, and environmental factors that contribute to high blood pressure.

 

Black women in the study with greater depressive symptoms were more likely to report somatic symptoms (e.g. fatigue, insomnia, decreased libido) and self-critical symptoms (e.g. self-hate, self-blame) than stereotypical depression symptoms such as feelings of hopelessness or depressed mood. They also reported experiencing anhedonia (an inability to experience pleasure) and irritability.

 

While the researchers caution that the results cannot be generalized to all Black women, given that the study participants were younger and had relatively low levels of depression, their findings demonstrate the heterogeneity in depression symptoms and need for screening tools that account for this variation. Notably, symptoms experienced by Black women may not be adequately assessed in clinical practice using standard screening tools, especially those that focus on feeling depressed without addressing somatic and self-critical symptoms. 

 

“My hope is that these findings contribute to the growing dialogue of how depression can look different from person to person, and raise awareness of the need for more research in historically understudied and minoritized populations, so that we can better identify symptoms and reduce missed care and health disparities,” added Perez.

 

Jacquelyn Taylor of Columbia University School of Nursing and Center for Research on People of Color, the Nursing Research study’s senior author, led the InterGEN study with Cindy Crusto of Yale School of Medicine and University of Pretoria. Additional study authors include Gail D’Eramo Melkus, Fay Wright, and Gary Yu of NYU Meyers; Allison Vorderstrasse of University of Massachusetts Amherst; and Yan Sun of Emory University School of Public Health. The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01NR013520 and TL1TR001447). 

 

About NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing (@NYUNursing)

NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing is a global leader in nursing and health. Founded in 1932, the College offers BS, MS, DNP, and PhD degree programs providing the educational foundation to prepare the next generation of nursing leaders and researchers. NYU Meyers has several programs that are highly ranked by U.S. News & World Report and is among the top 10 nursing schools receiving NIH funding, thanks to its research mission and commitment to innovative approaches to healthcare worldwide.

 

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JOURNAL

Nursing Research

DOI

10.1097/NNR.0000000000000635 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Latent Class Analysis of Depressive Symptom Phenotypes Among Black/African American Mothers

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

9-Dec-2022

Researchers uncover factors linked to optimal aging

Findings underline the importance of a strength-based rather than a deficit-based focus on aging and older adults

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO

What are the keys to “successful” or optimal aging? A new study followed more than 7000 middle aged and older Canadians for approximately three years to identify the factors linked to well-being as we age.

They found that those who were female, married, physically active and not obese and those who had never smoked, had higher incomes, and who did not have insomnia, heart disease or arthritis, were more likely to maintain excellent health across the study period and less likely to develop disabling cognitive, physical, or emotional problems.

As a baseline, the researchers selected participants who were in excellent health at the start of the approximately three-year period of study. This included the absence of memory problems or chronic disabling pain, freedom from any serious mental illness and absence of physical disabilities that limit daily activities — as well as the presence of adequate social support and high levels of happiness and life satisfaction.

“We were surprised and delighted to learn that more than 70% of our sample maintained their excellent state of health across the study period,” says the first author, Mabel Ho, a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work (FIFSW) and the Institute of Life Course and Aging. “Our findings underline the importance of a strength-based rather than a deficit-based focus on aging and older adults. The media and research tend to ignore the positive and just focus on the problems.”

There was considerable variation in the prevalence of successful aging based on the respondents’ age at the beginning of the study. Three quarters of the respondents who were aged 55 to 64 at the start of the study period maintained excellent health throughout the study. Among those aged 80 and older, approximately half remained in excellent health.

“It is remarkable that half of those aged 80 and older maintained this extremely high bar of cognitive, physical, and emotional well-being across the three years of the study. This is wonderful news for older adults and their families who may anticipate that precipitous decline is inevitable for those aged 80 and older.”  says Mabel Ho. “By understanding factors associated with successful aging, we can work with older adults, families, practitioners, policymakers, and researchers to create an environment that supports a vibrant and healthy later life.”

Older adults who were obese were less likely to maintain good health in later life. Compared to older adults who were obese, those who had a normal weight were 24% more likely to age optimally.

“Our findings are in keeping with other studies which have found that obesity was related to a range of physical symptoms and cognitive problems and that physical activity also plays a key role in optimal aging,” says co-author David Burnes, Associate Professor at the University of Toronto’s FIFSW and a Canada Research Chair in Older Adult Mistreatment Prevention. “These findings highlight the importance of maintaining an appropriate weight and engaging in an active lifestyle throughout the life course”.

Income was also as an important factor. Only about half of those below the poverty line aged optimally compared to three-quarters of those living above the poverty line.

“Although our study does not provide information on why low income is important, it is possible that inadequate income causes stress and also restricts healthy choices such as optimal nutrition. Future research is needed to further explore this relationship,” says senior author Esme Fuller-Thomson, Director of the Institute for Life Course & Aging and Professor at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work.

Lifestyle factors are associated with optimal health in later life. Older adults who never smoked were 46% more likely to maintain an excellent state of health compared to current smokers. Previous studies showed that quitting smoking in later life could improve survival statistics, pulmonary function, and quality of life; lower rates of coronary events, and reduce respiratory symptoms. The study found that former smokers did as well as those who had never smoked, underscoring that it is never too late to quit.

The study also found that engaging in physical activity was important in maintaining good health in later life. Older adults who engaged in moderate to strenuous physical activity were 35% to 45% more likely to age well, respectively.

The findings indicated that respondents who never or rarely experienced sleep problems at baseline were 29% more likely to maintain excellent health across the study.

“Clearly, good sleep is an important factor as we age. Sleep problems undermine cognitive, mental, and physical health. There is strong evidence that an intervention called cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is very helpful for people living with insomnia,” says Esme Fuller-Thomson.

The study was recently published online, in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. It uses longitudinal data from the baseline wave (2011-2015) and the first follow-up wave (2015-2018) of data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA) to examine factors associated with optimal aging the first two waves. In the CLSA, there were 7,651 respondents who were aged 60 years or older at wave 2 who were in optimal health during the baseline wave of data collection. The sample was restricted to those who were in excellent health at baseline, which was only 45% of the respondents.

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JOURNAL

International Journal of Environmental Research

DOI

10.3390/ijerph192013199 

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Successful Aging among Immigrant and Canadian-Born Older Adults: Findings from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA)

Alcohol abstinence essential even in advanced liver cirrhosis

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF VIENNA

Complete abstinence from alcohol is considered a cornerstone in the treatment of patients with alcohol-related liver disease. It has not yet been sufficiently researched whether this measure can still improve the prognosis even in the case of advanced liver cirrhosis. Scientists at the Department of Internal Medicine III at MedUni Vienna and AKH Vienna have now provided evidence of the positive effects of alcohol abstinence even at very advanced stages of the disease. The results of their clinical study were recently published in the journal Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

As part of the study, the research team led by Benedikt Hofer and Thomas Reiberger from the Clinical Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the Department of Internal Medicine III at MedUni Vienna and AKH Vienna analysed the clinical course of 320 patients with alcohol-related liver cirrhosis. Not only the influence of alcohol abstinence was investigated, but also the effect of portal hypertension. Portal hypertension refers to increased blood pressure in the veins that transport blood from the gastrointestinal tract to the liver, and is - in addition to sustained alcohol consumption - largely responsible for the progression of liver disease.

By analysing both factors, the researchers have now, for the first time, gained insights into the effect of alcohol abstinence in advanced liver cirrhosis at different stages of portal hypertension. "Our results clearly show that all patients with alcohol-related liver cirrhosis who maintain sustained abstinence from alcohol not only suffer complications of liver cirrhosis significantly less frequently, but also live considerably longer - even in the case of pronounced portal hypertension," explains the lead author of the study, Benedikt Hofer.

Evidence for prognostic relevance
Liver cirrhosis, as the pronounced scarring of the liver is referred to in technical jargon, is one of the most frequent and most severe complications of excessive alcohol consumption. According to current data of the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (Alcohol Manual - Austria, 2021), 11.7 litres of (pure) alcohol per year or 25.3 grams of alcohol per day (20 grams correspond to 0.5 litres of beer) are consumed per capita in Austria from the age of 15. This makes Austria one of the top countries in an international comparison.

Even though complete abstinence from alcohol is recommended as a basic therapy for patients with alcohol-related liver disease, the prognostic relevance of abstinence in advanced liver cirrhosis has been insufficiently researched to date. "Our new data provide important evidence for the daily counselling of our patients and show that it is never too late to strive for complete abstinence from alcohol," says the head of the study, Thomas Reiberger. However, the study also showed that even patients with sustained abstinence from alcohol are at risk of developing complications - especially if the extent of portal hypertension remains very pronounced. Therefore, all those affected need regular medical check-ups.

Personalised therapy options
As also shown in the study, the measurement of portal hypertension provides important prognostic information in patients with alcohol-related liver cirrhosis, regardless of alcohol consumption. The minimally invasive examination of the hepatic vein pressure gradient is considered the gold standard for evaluating the extent of portal hypertension. The measurement methodology has been consistently refined over the past few years in MedUni Vienna's Laboratory of Hepatic Haemodynamics. This means that optimised, personalised treatment options can be created for patients.

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JOURNAL

Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology

DOI

10.1016/j.cgh.2022.11.033 

ARTICLE TITLE

Alcohol abstinence improves prognosis across all stages of portal hypertension in alcohol-related cirrhosis

Studies find Omicron related hospitalisations lower in severity than Delta and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine remains effective in preventing hospitalisations

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Adult hospitalisations from Omicron-related SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) were less severe than Delta and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (also known as Comirnaty and BNT162b2*) remains effective in preventing not only hospitalisation, but severe patient outcomes associated with COVID-19, two new research studies have found. 

The University of Bristol-led research, funded and conducted in collaboration with Pfizer Inc., as part of AvonCAP, is published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe.  

In the first paper ‘Severity of Omicron (B.1.1.529) and Delta (B.1.617.2) SARS-CoV-2 infection among hospitalised adults: a prospective cohort study in Bristol, United Kingdom’  researchers assessed whether Delta SARS-CoV-2 infection resulted in worse patient outcomes than  Omicron SARS-CoV-2 infection, in hospitalised patients   

The study aimed to provide more detailed data on patient outcomes, such as the need for respiratory support.

The research demonstrated that Omicron infection resulted in less serious outcomes than Delta in hospitalised patients. Compared to Delta, Omicron-related SARS-CoV-2 hospitalisations were 58% less likely to need a high level of oxygen support, 67% less likely to need ventilatory support (such as a ventilator) or more critical care, and 16% less likely to have a hospital admission which lasted for more than three days.

Dr Catherine Hyams, Post-Doctoral Clinical Research Fellow, Principal Investigator for the AvonCAP study and one of the study’s lead authors at the University of Bristol, said: “By finding out the reduced requirement of increased oxygen support and total positive pressure support, including non-invasive ventilation, our analysis should contribute to future hospital care and service planning assessments. 

“However, the impact of lower severity Omicron-related hospitalisation must be balanced with increased transmissibility and overall higher numbers of infections with this variant.”

The research team suggest there should be ongoing evaluation of the severity of new variants of SARS-CoV-2, along with careful planning of healthcare resource to avoid healthcare systems being overwhelmed.

Dr Leon Danon, Associate Professor in Infectious Disease Modelling and Data Analytics, in the Department of Engineering Mathematics and one of the study’s lead authors, added: “These results have been published at a time when China is experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19 and may be useful in helping to understand what is happening there.”

The second paper – ‘Effectiveness of BNT162b2 COVID-19 vaccination in prevention of hospitalisations and severe disease in adults with SARS-CoV-2 Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant between June 2021 and July 2022: a prospective test negative case-control study’ - provides the first estimates of two- or three-dose Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine effectiveness against hospital admission for more than three days and against respiratory difficulty requiring oxygen or ventilatory support.

Many studies have reported the effectiveness of the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines against hospitalisation, but few have assessed the effectiveness against clinically relevant measures of COVID-19 severity. Using detailed clinical data from Bristol’s two hospital Trusts – North Bristol NHS Trust (NBT) and University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust (UHBW) –  researchers estimate the effectiveness of two- or three-doses of the (original/monovalent) Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against hospitalisation for infection with either Delta or Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variants.

The study showed that receipt of two-doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may result in an 83% reduction in the rate of hospitalisation due to Delta SARS-CoV-2 infection, compared to the unvaccinated. Two doses also prevented severe in-hospital outcomes due to Delta SARS-CoV-2 infection, reducing the likelihood of a hospital admission lasting more than three days by 63%.  The researchers also found that two doses of this vaccine reduced the risk of a patient needing increased oxygen or ventilatory support by 52% and 59%, respectively.

Receipt of three-doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was also found to be effective in reducing Omicron infection severity, compared to the unvaccinated, including in older adults, reducing the risk of hospitalisation for more than three days with Omicron SARS-CoV-2 by 56%, and decreasing the risk of needing high-level oxygen or ventilatory support by 42% and 59%, respectively. This is additional evidence that Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is effective in reducing hospital admissions due to Delta and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Dr Anastasia Chatzilena, Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Engineering Mathematics, and a lead author of the study, said: “Our research has shown the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine provides effective protection against hospitalisation from Delta and Omicron infection and has significant benefits in terms of preventing severe disease, including critical care admission and respiratory failure.

“However, the benefit provided by vaccination decreases over time which appears to be more pronounced in older adults, so careful ongoing monitoring of vaccine effectiveness and SARS-CoV-2 disease severity for emerging variants remain important.”

This research is part of AvonCAP, an ongoing collaborative surveillance project funded by Pfizer Inc., which records detailed information on every adult patient admitted to Bristol’s two large NHS hospital Trusts, NBT and UHBW, with symptoms, signs and/or X-ray evidence of acute disease in the lungs.

* The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine (also known as Comirnaty and BNT162b2) is indicated for active immunisation to prevent COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, in individuals 12 years of age and older.

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JOURNAL

The Lancet Regional Health - Europe

DOI

10.1016/j.lanepe.2022.100556 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Severity of Omicron (B.1.1.529) and Delta (B.1.617.2) SARS-CoV-2 infection among hospitalised adults: a prospective cohort study in Bristol, United Kingdom

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

13-Dec-2022

Effects of antidepressants taken during pregnancy are poorly understood, scientists note

Brazilian researchers advocate trials using mini-brains grown in the lab to investigate the impact of these drugs on fetal neurodevelopment.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

Depression affects 10%-16% of pregnant women worldwide. Most get better with the help of antidepressant drugs. Although the safety of using antidepressants during pregnancy is endorsed by science, their effects on fetal neurodevelopment are poorly understood and should be studied with advanced techniques such as genomics. This is the main conclusion reached by a group of Brazilian researchers in a review of more than 100 scientific articles on fetal exposure to these drugs, especially sertraline, the most prescribed antidepressant worldwide.

“Most of the publications we reviewed were reports of observational surveys and studies conducted in the laboratory using cell cultures and animals, whose brain development is very different from that of humans. They don’t offer sufficient data to justify conclusive results,” said neuroscientist Alexandre Kihara, a researcher at the Neurogenetics Laboratory of the Federal University of the ABC (UFABC) in São Bernardo do Campo, São Paulo state. 

“We propose an experimental trial model involving human-induced pluripotent stem cells [hiPSC] to investigate what happens to developing fetal nerve cells in pregnant women during treatment with antidepressants,” said Luciana Rafagnin Marinho, a researcher at UFABC with doctoral and postdoctoral qualifications in epigenetics, in vitro embryo production and animal reproduction. 

Marinho and Kihara are first and last authors respectively of the review article published online in Seminars in Cell & Developmental Biology and soon to be available in print. The study was supported by FAPESP. 

Human induced pluripotential stem cells can be differentiated into brain organoids (“mini-brains”), which scientists want to use in research on neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, and in testing of drugs with neurological action.

“These structures can be used to test different dosages and track the development of brain cells up to the third trimester,” said Alysson Muotri, penultimate author of the article. Muotri is a neuroscientist at the University of California San Diego (UCSD) in the United States and heads a genetics laboratory that has pioneered the development of brain organoids to study autism and other neurological disorders. He is also a co-founder of Tismoo, a Brazilian biotech startup.

“We can study the organoids for up to a year, observing aspects of their development such as the morphology and electrophysiology of individual neurons or neural networks,” he explained. 

To exemplify the possible advances, Marinho cited the only study that used brain organoids among the more than 100 covered by the review. “It investigated the effects of paroxetine and detected a reduction in the growth of neurites [projections from neurons that develop into axons and dendrites to form complex circuits] and the population of oligodendrocytes, which produce the myelin sheath around axons and are therefore important to enable information to travel through the nervous system,” she said.

The scientists note that whole-genome sequencing, transcriptome analysis and single-cell RNA sequencing apply to research using organoids. “The technology enables us to investigate the effects of exposure to antidepressants on different cell types, such as progenitor cells, glial cells and neurons. This is particularly important because alterations may not be confined to neurons. We need to know all these implications,” Kihara said.

Caution is required in interpreting the findings of this kind of research. “We’re not saying antidepressants shouldn’t be used in pregnancy. We're proposing an experimental model and stressing the need to study their effects on neurodevelopment with the most advanced resources available so that potential alterations can be managed,” Kihara said.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe

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JOURNAL

Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.semcdb.2022.09.007 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Systematic review

ARTICLE TITLE

The impact of antidepressants on human neurodevelopment: Brain organoids as experimental tools

George Washington University launches health equity training series for clinicians

Program to kick off with webinar featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning racial scholar

Business Announcement

THE REIS GROUP

WASHINGTON D.C. (December 13, 2022) – The George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) is launching a nine-month Two in One: HIV + COVID Screening and Testing Model next month with a moderated webinar discussion with Pulitzer Prize-winning racial scholar Nikole Hannah-Jones.

The webinar, titled “Confronting U.S. History: We must end RACISM to end health disparities,” is a free, CME-bearing moderated discussion that will relate the history of U.S. slavery to poor health outcomes among Black sub-populations and will explore the enduring impact of racism as an ongoing threat to health equity. The webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, January 11th from 12 – 1 p.m. ET. Anyone can register for the event here.

“We are excited to kick off our program with this important conversation,” said Maranda Ward, principal investigator of the Two in One Model and assistant professor of clinical research and leadership at The George Washington University. “Understanding the significant historical influences of slavery and racism on health disparities experienced by Black communities is crucial to building a foundation for real change in the health of Black Americans.”

This webinar is the first in the Two in One Model training series, which will include a range of topics that historicize and contextualize HIV and COVID disparities among BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ populations. The Two in One Model is a national educational effort designed with a combined health and racial equity lens for U.S. primary care practitioners (PCPs) to routinize HIV screening and COVID-19 vaccine screening for all of their patients. It also provides capacity-building support for PCPs to engage in culturally responsive communication on HIV and COVID vaccines with their racial, ethnic, sexual, and gender-minoritized patients.

The two-part training series will offer nine live-streamed, continuing medical education (CME) monthly lectures as well as an asynchronous CME-bearing module-based training course and toolkit. The series will culminate in a symposium focused on translating the knowledge gained from the speaker series into policy-based and practice-based action. There will also be research that informs this series and its advocacy messages. Students who attend training webinars will be eligible to receive a certificate of completion for each event.

The webinar is sponsored by the GW SMHS Two in One Model in partnership with the GW SMHS Office of Diversity & Inclusion and the Meharry Medical College and funded by Gilead Sciences inc. For more information on this research-informed model, visit the Two-in-One website at: twoinone.smhs.gwu.edu.

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About the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Founded in 1824, the GW School of Medicine and Health Sciences (SMHS) was the first medical school in the nation’s capital and is the 11th oldest in the country. Working together in our nation’s capital, with integrity and resolve, the GW SMHS is committed to improving the health and well-being of our local, national and global communities. smhs.gwu.edu

Vitamin D deficiency increases risk of losing muscle strength by 78%

Researchers in Brazil and the UK analyzed data for more than 3,000 people aged 50 or more to prove the importance of vitamin D to muscles.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

FUNDAÇÃO DE AMPARO À PESQUISA DO ESTADO DE SÃO PAULO

Vitamin D plays an important role in the regulation of calcium and phosphorus absorption by the organism. It also helps keep the brain and immune system working. Researchers at the Federal University of São Carlos (UFSCar) in Brazil and University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom have now shown that vitamin D supplementation reduces the risk of dynapenia in older people by 78%. 

Dynapenia is an age-associated loss of muscle strength. It can be partially explained by muscle atrophy and is a major risk factor for physical incapacity later in life. People with dynapenia are more likely to fall, need to go to hospital, be prematurely institutionalized, and die.

An article on the study is published in the journal Calcified Tissue International and Musculoskeletal Research. The study was supported by FAPESP.

The researchers analyzed data for 3,205 non-dynapenic individuals aged 50 and over who were followed for four years by the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA), a long-term multi-cohort study that began in 2002 and has had more than 15 years of follow-up.  

“Vitamin D is known to participate in various functions of the organism. Actually, it’s a hormone and its many roles include helping to repair muscles and releasing calcium for muscle contraction kinetics. It was therefore expected to cause muscle alterations of some kind. That’s exactly what our study proved,” said Tiago da Silva Alexandre, last author of the article. Alexandre is a professor of gerontology at UFSCar.

Bone and muscle tissue are interconnected not just mechanically and physically but also biochemically. “Endocrine disorders such as vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency can lead to loss of bone mineral density as well as a reduction in muscle mass, strength and function,” he said. 

The study sample comprised individuals aged 50 and over without dynapenia. Grip strength (considered a good proxy for overall muscle strength) was 26 kg or more for men and 16 kg or more for women.

The main conclusion was that individuals with vitamin D deficiency, defined as less than 30 nanomoles per liter in the blood, had a 70% higher risk of developing dynapenia by the end of the four-year study period than those with normal levels of vitamin D, defined as more than 50 nmol/L. 

“This is itself an important finding as it shows that vitamin D deficiency heightens the risk of muscle weakness by 70%. However, because we knew there are many worldwide cases of people with osteoporosis who take vitamin supplements, we needed to try to measure the effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation,” said Maicon Luís Bicigo Delinocente, first author of the article. He was supported by a scholarship from FAPESP.

When individuals with osteoporosis and those taking vitamin D were excluded from the analysis, he explained, “we found that the risk of developing muscle weakness by the end of the four-year period was 78% higher for subjects with vitamin D deficiency at the start of the study than for subjects with normal vitamin D levels and 77% higher for those with vitamin D insufficiency [30-50 nmol/L]”.

The results proved that the risk of muscle weakness is heightened by both vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency, Alexandre said. “Another conclusion to be derived from the results of the study is that it’s important to take vitamin D if you have a deficiency or insufficiency,” he added. “The study analyzed data for people who live in the UK. There are many more days of sunlight per year in Brazil, and yet we’re known to have a high incidence of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency, especially among older people. Indeed, this is the case worldwide.”

Our body only synthesizes vitamin D when large areas of skin are exposed to sunlight, Alexandre recalled. “It’s necessary to explain to people that they risk losing muscle strength if they don’t get enough vitamin D. They need to expose themselves to the sun, eat food rich in vitamin D or take a supplement, and do resistance training exercises to maintain muscle strength,” he said.

About São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP)

The São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) is a public institution with the mission of supporting scientific research in all fields of knowledge by awarding scholarships, fellowships and grants to investigators linked with higher education and research institutions in the State of São Paulo, Brazil. FAPESP is aware that the very best research can only be done by working with the best researchers internationally. Therefore, it has established partnerships with funding agencies, higher education, private companies, and research organizations in other countries known for the quality of their research and has been encouraging scientists funded by its grants to further develop their international collaboration. You can learn more about FAPESP at www.fapesp.br/en and visit FAPESP news agency at www.agencia.fapesp.br/en to keep updated with the latest scientific breakthroughs FAPESP helps achieve through its many programs, awards and research centers. You may also subscribe to FAPESP news agency at http://agencia.fapesp.br/subscribe

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JOURNAL

Calcified Tissue International

DOI

10.1007/s00223-022-01021-8 

ARTICLE TITLE

Are Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Deficiency and Insufficiency Risk Factors for the Incidence of Dynapenia?

Women who take more steps per day may have a lower risk of diabetes

New study leverages Fitbit data to show benefits of active lifestyle on diabetes risk

Peer-Reviewed Publication

THE ENDOCRINE SOCIETY

WASHINGTON—Wearable fitness devices offer new insights into the relationship between physical activity and type 2 diabetes, according to a new analysis of the National Institutes of Health’s All of Us Research Program data published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of the disease, affecting 90% to 95% of people with diabetes. In type 2 diabetes, the body is resistant to the action of insulin, meaning it cannot use insulin properly, so it cannot carry sugar into the cells. Type 2 diabetes most often develops in people over age 45, but more and more children, teens and young adults are being diagnosed.

"We investigated the relationship between physical activity and type 2 diabetes with an innovative approach using data from wearable devices linked to electronic health records in a real-world population,” said Andrew S. Perry, M.D., of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn. “We found that people who spent more time in any type of physical activity had a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Our data shows the importance of moving your body every day to lower your risk of diabetes."

The researchers analyzed Fitbit data and type 2 diabetes rates from 5,677 participants included in the NIH’s All of Us Research Program between 2010-2021. All of Us is part of an effort to advance individualized health care by enrolling one million or more participants to contribute their health data over many years. About 75% of the participants that the researchers studied were female.

They found 97 new cases of diabetes over a follow-up of 4 years in the data set. People with an average daily step count of 10,700 were 44% less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than those with 6,000 steps.

“We hope to study more diverse populations in future studies to confirm the generalizability of these findings,” Perry said.

The other authors of this study are Jeffrey Annis, Hiral Master, Aymone Kouame, Kayla Marginean, Ravi Shah and Evan Brittain of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville, Tenn.; Matthew Nayor of Boston University School of Medicine in Boston, Mass.; Andrew Hughes and Dan M. Roden of Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Paul A. Harris of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and Vanderbilt University Medical Center; Karthik Natarajan of Columbia University in New York, N.Y.; and Venkatesh Murthy of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The study received funding from the NIH.

The manuscript, “Association of Longitudinal Activity Measures and Diabetes Risk: An Analysis from the NIH All of Us Research Program,” was published online, ahead of print.

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Endocrinologists are at the core of solving the most pressing health problems of our time, from diabetes and obesity to infertility, bone health, and hormone-related cancers. The Endocrine Society is the world’s oldest and largest organization of scientists devoted to hormone research and physicians who care for people with hormone-related conditions.

The Society has more than 18,000 members, including scientists, physicians, educators, nurses and students in 122 countries. To learn more about the Society and the field of endocrinology, visit our site at www.endocrine.org. Follow us on Twitter at @TheEndoSociety and @EndoMedia.

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JOURNAL

The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism