Drug may protect the heart in people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Researchers have identified a potential pathway that could protect heart function in people with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a progressive and fatal genetic disease that weakens the body’s muscles.

“The results are very promising.”

Published in Molecular Therapy, the new study examined the effects of the experimental drug Setanaxib in two preclinical models of DMD.

Researchers found that the treatment preserved cardiac function, limited heart enlargement, and reduced tissue scarring.

The findings also suggest that an enzyme known as NOX4 could serve as a potential target for future treatments for cardiomyopathy, a serious form of heart disease associated with DMD.

The study was led by Da-Zhi Wang, professor in the University of South Florida Health Morsani College of Medicine and director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the USF Health Heart Institute. The research team also included USF Health’s John Mably, associate professor, and Gabriela Diniz, assistant professor, as well as outside collaborators.

“Despite great progress in the development of gene replacement therapies, Duchenne muscular dystrophy remains a devastating disease,” Wang says.

“Understanding the causes of DMD progression is urgently needed to advance therapies that alleviate symptoms and improving quality of life.”

DMD primarily affects boys because it is inherited through the X chromosome. The disease is best known for causing progressive weakness in the muscles used to walk and move. But one of the disease’s most serious effects occurs in the heart.

The condition is caused by mutations that prevent the body from producing functional dystrophin, a protein that helps stabilize and protect muscle cells.

Without dystrophin, muscle cells become more vulnerable to damage from repeated contractions. Over time, healthy muscle can be replaced by fat and stiff scar tissue.

The heart is especially vulnerable because it must contract continuously to circulate blood throughout the body. As cardiac damage accumulates, the heart can enlarge and lose its ability to pump effectively, eventually leading to heart failure.

Treatments have helped people with DMD live longer, making the protection of the heart an increasingly important part of managing the disease.

In the new study, researchers evaluated Setanaxib, an experimental drug designed to limit a damaging process known as oxidative stress.

The drug targets NOX1 and NOX4, enzymes that produce highly reactive molecules within cells. At normal levels, these molecules play useful roles in the body; however, when too many are produced, they can contribute to inflammation and fibrosis.

The researchers found that Setanaxib helped preserve the heart’s ability to pump blood while reducing inflammation and fibrosis. It also lowered the activity of genes associated with cardiomyopathy.

The results suggest that blocking this pathway may help slow the progression of DMD-related heart disease.

“The results are very promising,” Mably says.

“The Nox4 inhibitor has already been tested in clinical trials for the treatment of lung fibrosis and kidney and liver disease. We hope it will also be tested soon in clinical trials in DMD patients to slow the progression of heart disease.”

The findings build on more than 15 years of DMD research in Wang’s laboratory. During that time, the team has sought to better understand how the disease progresses and identify biological mechanisms contributing to the development of new therapies.

“Our new study represents an important step forward for the field and for our cardiac and regenerative medicine program,” Diniz says.

“It shows how efforts in basic biomedical sciences are crucial for understanding human disease and health care advancements.”

Source: University of South Florida

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Canadian wildfire smoke tied to fewer bird sightings in New York

New research links Canadian wildfire smoke to fewer bird sightings in New York State.

Despite burning hundreds of miles away, Canadian wildfires have become a familiar source of disruption in New York State.

Air quality advisories. A spike in emergency room visits for asthma.

Now, the new study has identified another consequence: fewer sightings of dozens of bird species across the Empire State.

In a study in Biodiversity and Conservation, researchers found that 40 different bird species were less likely to be observed in New York as levels of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) in the air increased during recent breeding seasons. The analysis included the 2023 season that overlapped with Canada’s worst wildfire season on record.

“Our results show a link between wildfire smoke and the probability of observing particular bird species,” says corresponding author Festus Adegbola, a PhD candidate in the geography department at the University at Buffalo.

“Wildfire smoke is often underexplored when monitoring biodiversity. Failing to account for air quality may bias models of species distributions and abundance.”

The researchers first analyzed PM2.5 levels, a key marker of wildfire smoke, during New York’s 2021–2023 breeding seasons. The highest concentrations occurred in 2023, when smoke from Canada’s historic wildfires degraded air quality across New York throughout June and July. PM2.5 levels exceeded World Health Organization guidelines on multiple occasions, at times reaching eight times the recommended limit.

The researchers then matched the PM2.5 data with nearly 99,000 birdwatching checklists submitted to Cornell University’s eBird database. The citizen science project, run by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, allows birdwatchers to record the birds they observe, creating one of the world’s largest collections of bird observations.

Because the observations come from birdwatchers with varying levels of experience, the UB researchers used rigorous data filtering and statistical methods to ensure reliable results.

In all, they analyzed 84 different bird species across nearly 99,000 eBird checklists collected across all of New York during the three recent breeding seasons.

Nearly half of the species studied were less likely to be observed when PM2.5 rose. These included many migratory forest songbirds, such as warblers, thrushes and vireos.

“It’s possible that smoky conditions changed the birds’ behavior—singing and moving less, spending more time in dense forest canopy—and therefore made them harder to detect,” Adegbola says.

However, 15 species were actually more likely to be observed as PM2.5 levels rose, while another 29 showed no significant change in how likely they were to be observed. These included many aerial insectivores and some wetland-associated birds.

That doesn’t necessarily mean wildfire smoke benefited those birds.

“These species often occupy more open environments than forest songbirds, so it’s possible their increased sightings had more to do with where birdwatchers chose to observe during smoky conditions than how the birds themselves responded,” says coauthor Adam Wilson, associate professor of geography and Adegbola’s adviser.

The findings suggest that fewer bird sightings during smoky periods don’t necessarily mean there are fewer birds—they may simply be harder to detect. Understanding that distinction is crucial for biodiversity monitoring so that temporary declines in detectability aren’t mistaken for true population declines.

“Still, as climate change continues to intensify wildfires, it’s crucial we understand how birds will be affected by increased smoke pollution,” Wilson says.

“This study is hopefully a first step to better understanding how species respond to wildfire smoke exposure.”

Other coauthors are from UB and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Source: University at Buffalo

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What causes hydroplaning and how you can prevent it

A recent study explores how you can stay safe while driving in the rain.

Vehicles can hydroplane when water gathers on a road, resulting in tires losing their grip.

Researchers used both a computer and a live simulation of tires on a wet road to explore the different factors that contribute to hydroplaning.

Speed and water thickness both increased the chance of hydroplaning, but the risk fell once the water was about 10 millimeters deep.

The Federal Highway Administration estimates that wet pavement and severe weather contribute to around 500,000 injuries and 6,000 deaths each year.

“This is a very important safety issue,” says Linbing Wang, corresponding author of the study and a professor in the University of Georgia College of Engineering.

“If we have a good understanding about what the contributing factors are, then we can improve them, either through the design of pavements or the vehicle design, helping to save lives.”

The researchers used field tests to simulate rainy conditions on a road. Tires were placed in a mechanism that allowed the researchers to adjust tire speed and add water onto the pavement. The researchers then placed sensors along the track. As the tires moved through the water-soaked pavement, those sensors measured the forces that contribute to hydroplaning.

At first, as water depth increased, the risk of hydroplaning went up. However, once the water reached about 10 millimeters deep, the risk of hydroplaning steadily fell. This could be because thinner layers of water are harder for your tires to break through, making it more difficult for them to stay on the road.

For deeper water, the risk of hydroplaning is highest when your tires first hit the wet pavement because it’s before your tires can disperse the water. As the water is pushed away by the tires, the risk of hydroplaning goes down.

Speed was also one the most important risk factors when the road surface conditions were the same between tests, the researchers say. As tires move faster, the water on the track puts more pressure on them, lifting them off the road.

“It’s very similar to an airplane. You reach a certain speed, and the vehicle lifts,” Wang says.

The tread patterns of the tires, tire pressure, surface texture of the road, and whether water can drain from the road also play a role in hydroplaning risk, the researchers say.

Driving slower in rainy weather can drastically reduce the risk of hydroplaning, the researchers say. Replacing worn tires is also critical.

A good surface texture of the road and infrastructure changes could also help keep drivers safer. Georgia, for example, is among the best in applying a thin surface layer of pavement onto highways that allows water to drain through the asphalt rather than pooling on roads.

“Speed is something that drivers can control. The pavement texture and raining thickness you cannot control,” Wang says.

“Human factors affect safety. That’s something we should all be concerned about.”

This study appears in Applied Sciences.

Source: University of Georgia

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How to avoid ‘tech neck’

Experts have tips to help you avoid “tech neck.”

You’re doing it right now: slouching your neck forward and looking at your screen. And you aren’t the only one.

On average, American adults spend five to six hours every day on their phones. That is a staggering amount of time in poor posture.

Add in the hours we spend sitting and staring at our computers at our jobs, we brew the perfect storm for “tech neck.”

Tech neck is a mild to moderate discomfort in the neck resulting from using our phones or computer screens incessantly. When we lean forward, we force our neck and shoulder muscles (upper trapezius muscles) to be active, otherwise our head would just drop forward. Tech neck arises when we maintain that position for an extended period.

“Tech neck is not an official diagnosis, but we are definitely seeing it in the clinic. I call it neck tightness or postural concerns,” says Cassidy Foley Davelaar, a sports medicine physician at Emory University. “I haven’t quite diagnosed it as tech neck yet, but it is probably coming.”

Severe forms of neck pain arise due to trauma from car accidents or falls but tech neck can be disabling in the long term. It can begin as people having difficulty concentrating, experiencing headaches and losing time from work. Over time, the pressure of hunching forward can get to the spine and the nerve cells nestled in our neck and back.

“The further your head comes forward, the more the muscles of the neck contract to keep the head from dropping off the body. Basically, that’s why we get fatigue,” says Peter Sprague, an orthopaedic clinical specialist and assistant professor of rehabilitation medicine at Emory.

Our head, on average, weighs about 12 pounds at rest. If we bring our head forward, the posture alongside the effect of gravity increases our head’s weight by three-fold. People with a tendency to go into these positions may experience numbness in the upper body. In severe cases, problems with balance and muscle activity can arise throughout the body.

“Stop what’s causing it in the first place by having better posture,” says Davelaar. “Sit 90 degrees at your ankle, knees, hips, and elbows and prop your phone up or put your laptop on a couple of books and use a remote keyboard.”

Muscles are attached to the back and front of the cervical spine. Hunching our head forward works the back muscles. The front muscles, called the intrinsic or deep flexor muscles, stay relaxed. Research shows that cervical pain is associated with a lack of muscle activity from those muscles.

“The deep flexor muscles hold and control one vertebra together on top of the other and act as seatbelts,” says Sprague. “If they are weaker, one has a higher risk of developing cervical spine pain. If someone has this type of pain already, improving the strength of these muscles will likely resolve the pain.”

Reducing phone use is an excellent solution to tech neck but Sprague says that we can still use our phones—if we keep changing our positions every 20 minutes.

“Switching positions frequently is most helpful in reducing strain from sitting because you are no longer staying static,” says Sprague. “Squat, kneel, or lie down on your side or stomach to promote neuromusculoskeletal health while using your phone.”

Helpful exercises

Chin tuck: A staple for anyone who wants to engage the deep flexor muscles in the cervical spine.

This is a simple exercise you can do anywhere and anytime. Bring your chin slightly down toward your chest, making a double chin. You should feel a little tightness in the front part of your neck. Think of a string coming up from the top of your neck. Elongate that and then hold that posture for 2-3 seconds and release. Remember not to pop your head forward.

Open book exercise: A way to improve mobility in the upper back, where we get stiff while hunching forward, and to stretch your thoracic spine and pectoral muscles.

Lie down on your side with your knees bent at a 90-degree angle. Put both arms out in front of you with your palms together. Move your arm up and hold before switching sides. Keep the legs in the same position throughout the exercise. Sweeping the arm up and down allows the opportunity to identify where it’s tight and to make sure to stretch that area.

W rows: A way to promote a good upright posture and work your paraspinal muscles, middle and lower trapezius muscles and rotator cuffs.

Hold a piece of resistance band with both hands and bring your hands apart and shoulder blades together. Pull the band to form a “W” shape with your arms and squeeze your shoulders together at the back of the movement. Slowly come back to the extended position and don’t hunch your shoulders forward.

Doorway stretch: Put your arms down on either side of the doorway and lean forward so that you’re stretching out the front of the neck and out of the shoulder.

“Our bodies are engineered to move, and we don’t,” Sprague says. “My best advice—even better than the exercises—would be to change and alter your positions.”

Source: Emory University

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Watching nature videos can help reduce stress

Research finds that watching nature videos can reduce stress and improve emotional recovery, even without direct exposure to the outdoors.

When stressed, it’s important to find healthy ways to cope. Getting outdoors is a proven way to do so. But not everyone has easy access to nature.

That’s where nature videos might help, according to a North Carolina State University professor.

“Research shows that exposure to nature is beneficial, even if that exposure only occurs through a screen. Not everyone has access to natural views from their office, work, bedroom, or home, but there are plenty of online videos of natural spaces that can set one at ease,” says Aaron Hipp, a professor of community health and sustainability in the parks, recreation, and tourism management department.

Hipp, who also serves as director of NC State’s Nature and Health Collaborative, coauthored a study examining the stress-reducing effects of nature-based imagery, specifically videos of forests and streams.

The study found that watching nature videos, including those readily available on YouTube, can help people recover from stress more effectively than watching videos of urban environments, adding to growing evidence that nature-based imagery can positively influence mood.

Hipp and collaborators conducted the international, multi-site study to replicate similar findings from a 1991 study led by environmental psychologist Roger Ulrich and researchers at Texas A&M University and the University of Delaware.

In their study, Ulrich and his collaborators demonstrated that viewing nature videos significantly promotes stress recovery, as evidenced by positive changes in mood and anxiety levels and physiological effects such as lower heart rate, muscle tension, and blood pressure.

The study remains widely cited by researchers and has paved the way for the global adoption of nature-based imagery in hospitals, schools, offices, and other built environments to promote relaxation and reduce stress.

However, because it has been 35 years since the original study was published, Hipp says it was important to replicate and validate its findings using contemporary research methods, given the continued widespread use of nature-based imagery in research and practice, the emergence of new forms of video media, and broader changes in society and technology.

Hipp and researchers at laboratories across Europe and the United States recruited nearly 1,000 volunteers to watch a stress-inducing video followed by videos of natural and urban environments, allowing the team to compare their emotional and physiological responses.

The researchers had participants begin by watching a 10-minute compilation video of workplace accidents in industrial settings, including incidents involving slips and falls and workers being struck by heavy objects, to raise their stress levels.

Next, the researchers randomly assigned participants to watch one of six 10-minute environmental videos: two showing natural settings—a forest and a stream—and four showing urban environments, including pedestrian areas and traffic scenes.

Throughout the study, Hipp and researchers tracked how participants’ emotional states changed using a questionnaire administered before the stress-inducing video, after the stress video, and after the environmental video. The questionnaire measured feelings such as fear, anger, positive emotions, sadness, and attentiveness.

Hipp and researchers also used sensors to record participants’ bodily responses such as heart activity and sweating and then compared these measures with the questionnaire results to assess which environments best supported stress recovery.

The stressful video reliably triggered both psychological and physiological stress responses. Participants reported feeling more fear, anger, and sadness, along with lower positive mood and reduced attentiveness. They also experienced more sweating, changes in heart activity and lower heart rate variability, confirming that they were experiencing stress.

After viewing the environmental videos, participants felt more positive emotion and less anger compared with those who viewed urban environments. Physiological stress responses generally improved over time for all participants no matter which environment they viewed, meaning their bodies started to calm down after the stressful video.

“Our findings reinforce earlier research showing that viewing videos of natural environments can help people recover from acute stress, both physically and mentally,” Hipp says. “Even without being physically present in nature, people experienced small but consistent improvements.”

Hipp notes that unlike the original study, the nature videos did not lead to faster physiological stress recovery. In other words, people felt calmer after watching nature scenes, but their physical stress responses did not improve more quickly. This suggests that nature’s stress-relieving effects may be stronger mentally, not physically, at least in the short term.

Even so, some physical measures did show differences depending on the type of nature video. Participants who watched the forest scene seemed to calm down and relax faster than those who watched urban scenes, while those who watched the stream scene showed little to no difference—which may have been due to the loud, distracting sound of the water.

Overall, Hipp says the study’s findings suggest that even brief exposure to natural environments on a screen can help people recover from stress, offering a simple and accessible way to support mental well-being when getting outdoors isn’t possible.

Research shows that parks and green spaces provide both physical and mental health benefits, ranging from improved cardiovascular health to reduced stress. But not everyone has equal access to them, leaving many communities without nearby safe places to enjoy nature.

According to The Trust for Public Land, more than 100 million people—including 28 million kids—don’t have a park within a 10-minute walk of home. This gap in access limits opportunities for daily physical activity, relaxation and connection to nature, especially in urban communities.

Hipp says nature videos can help bridge this gap, offering a practical way to deliver similar calming and restorative effects by bringing natural scenes into everyday environments when time outdoors or nearby green space isn’t an option.

Nature videos are widely accessible and easy to integrate into daily life. They can be streamed on platforms like YouTube or TikTok, played on televisions or computer screens or even displayed in waiting rooms, offices, and classrooms.

One example comes from Hipp himself, who uses them in his course PRT 261: Nature, Health, and Wellness. At the end of each class, he shows a two-minute nature video to help students recover from the attentional demands of a 90-minute lecture.

“For health care, schools, and universities, incorporating videos—or even virtual reality—into rooms can provide moments of respite,” Hipp says. “That could be during dental care, during testing, or following an exam.”

Source: North Carolina State University

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Habits form faster than previously thought

A team is studying whether a region of the brain plays a key role in developing habitual behavior, a discovery that could point to ways to change entrenched habits.

From responding to the ping of your phone notification to reaching for a snack at the end of the day, many everyday behaviors begin as mindful choices and end up feeling almost automatic.

The new study from Johns Hopkins University in Nature Communications suggests that shift may not always happen slowly.

Scientists have long believed that habits emerge gradually after long periods of repetitive behavior. But the new research shows that the transition into habitual action occurs faster than previously understood. And the research suggests that a particular brain region may play a key role in the transition.

“For over 100 years the theory of how habits form has been one of gradual strengthening and repetition: You do enough repetitions and slowly over time the brain starts to realize, ‘I don’t need to be thinking about this anymore,'” says Kishore V. Kuchibhotla, senior author on the paper and a neuroscientist who studies learning in humans and animals. “But the reason scientists tend to think of it as a gradual process is because of how we have studied it.”

Research studies often use rewards to motivate animals to learn and perform a task. Once the task is learned, animals can be given free access to the reward and become satiated. When returned to the task, a goal-directed animal will typically stop performing it, since it no longer seeks the reward. In contrast, a habitual animal will perform the task automatically, regardless of whether the reward is needed.

This traditional approach required testing at specific time points (one earlier in learning and one later in learning). They could not test “in real time” when the habit transition actually occurred and then assumed that it must have been gradual.

Kuchibhotla and his research team designed a new method that was closer to everyday motivation. People do not drink only because they are thirsty. They might reach for sparkling water or a favorite drink because it is simply more appealing than plain water.

“We essentially motivated them by something else—a taste preference,” Kuchibhotla says.

The new testing method gave mice constant access to acidic water while they resided in their home cages, allowing them to remain hydrated even if they did not love the water’s taste. If the mice responded to a certain sound, they got the water they preferred.

Because the mice were not overly thirsty, they would sometimes respond to the sound that gave them water and sometimes not. The researchers proved this was because they were goal-directed (they would only behave when they wanted the plain water). Then, at a particular moment in time, they switched their behavior—they would always respond to the sound that gave them water even if they didn’t want it. What the researchers found is that the transition happened suddenly—like a switch had been flipped.

“What surprised us most is that nothing changed on our end. The animals simply switched strategies from one trial to the next. Capturing that kind of rapid behavioral reorganization is rare,” says lead author Sharlen Moore, a postdoctoral fellow in the university’s psychological and brain sciences department.

And further recordings of the mice brains revealed something fascinating: the brain region that might just house that switch.

“The fact that it is so sudden implies that something is controlling it,” Kuchibhotla says.

They also found that some mice returned to goal-directed behavior after long periods of habitual behavior.

“It really shows how much our methods shape what we see: When we stop over-motivating the animals, we start to uncover aspects of behavior that were basically hidden before,” Moore says.

The team’s discovery of a possible switch led the National Institutes of Health to award it a new grant to study the nature of this possible controller.

“Many habits are helpful for freeing up your mind for other things. But that’s not always the case. The fact that there may be a controller means maybe we can reverse maladaptive habits back to goal-directed behavior,” Kuchibhotla says.

“Rather than thinking of habits as always being there no matter what, it’s possible that bad habits need not be there forever.”

The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and through fellowships from the Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute at Johns Hopkins University.

Source: Johns Hopkins University

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Positive experiences affect young people more than crises

A new study shows that adolescents and young adults describe positive, everyday experiences as shaping their lives most significantly, while psychological stress can change how they view major life events.

Which major life events matter to young people?

The recent study by the University of Zurich (UZH) shows that adolescents and young adults primarily cite positive, everyday developmental steps as formative events, for example school and apprenticeships, friendships, first relationships, travel, and moving out of their parents’ home.

The researchers evaluated open-ended written responses from 1,442 participants in a long-term study. Each participant was surveyed at the ages of 15, 17, 20 and 24.

The results paint a different picture than many classic studies on life events, which tend to focus on stressful experiences. Overall, 83% of the events mentioned were positive. The participants talked about school, training, and apprenticeships particularly often, with these topics accounting for almost half of all mentions. Friendships and romantic relationships came in second place, at around 12%. Personal development and mental well-being accounted for about 8%, while travel and stays abroad stood at approximately 7%.

“Our results show that youth is not primarily composed of crises. Many young people primarily mention positive developmental steps such as education, relationships, and personal achievements,” says David Bürgin, clinical developmental psychologist and first author of the study.

Lilly Shanahan, co-leader of the study, adds: “Support services should therefore not only focus on how to cope with stress. Stable relationships, positive experiences, and opportunities to experience self-efficacy are just as important.”

Nevertheless, the researchers found that psychological stress was still part of the equation. Adolescents and young adults with more severe symptoms of anxiety and depression mentioned stressful relationship experiences, conflicts, loss, and personal failures significantly more often. Correspondingly, they referred to positive events such as travel, educational achievements, and sports activities less frequently.

The study also revealed that clear changes occur between adolescence and early adulthood. While school, friendships, and leisure time were paramount in middle adolescence, education, work, relationships, and independence grew in significance later on. Topics such as sport and going out were mentioned less frequently as the participants became older, while work, housing, and having children became more important over time.

The researchers also found differences based on gender, social background, and experiences of migration. However, broadly speaking, the most important topics were very similar across social groups.

The research team used automated language processing methods to evaluate thousands of open-ended written responses according to topic.

“Our analyses show how freely formulated responses from large longitudinal studies can be processed in such a way that they provide a structured picture of young people’s experiences. This allows their perspectives remain visible in their own words,” says first author Christina Haag, who is now at the University of Cambridge. The study is one of the first large-scale, long-term studies in the world to use such methods to analyze open-ended responses from young people.

The research appears in Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

The study is a collaboration between the Jacobs Center for Productive Youth Development and the Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Prevention Institute at the University of Zurich. The project was supported by the UZH Population Research Center as part of its Seed Grants Program.

Source: University of Zurich

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