Birth Defects News

November 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Could a Genetic Flaw Be the Key to Stopping People Craving Sugary Treats?

Nov. 12, 2024 — New research has found that people with a genetic defect in their ability to digest sucrose eat less cake, sweets and chocolate, which could hold the key to helping the wider population to eat less sugar. The international study shows that genetic ...

New Subtypes of Common Brain Disorder

Nov. 18, 2024 — Researchers have used AI tools to describe three sub-types of Chiari type-1, which will help guide clinicians to make the most effective treatment decisions for their patients. Chiari type-1 malformation is a condition in which the cerebellum ...

Exposure to Marijuana in the Womb May Increase Risk of Addiction to Opioids Later in Life, Study Finds

Nov. 14, 2024 — Evidence has been growing to suggest that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, poses risks to the developing fetus by impacting brain development. Now a new ...

Huntington's Disease Gene Also Enhances Early Brain Development and Intelligence, Study Finds

Nov. 13, 2024 — The Huntington's disease (HD) mutation eventually causes a fatal brain disease in adulthood, but a new study finds that early in life, children with the HD mutation have bigger brains and higher IQ ...

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updated 10:44pm EST

Frequent Emergency Care During Pregnancy Could Signal Greater Risk for Severe Maternal Morbidity

Nov. 14, 2024 — A new study found that, among nearly 775,000 pregnant people in Massachusetts, 31 percent of these individuals had at least one unscheduled emergency ...

Human Stem Cell-Derived Heart Cells Are Safe in Monkeys, Could Treat Congenital Heart Disease

Nov. 13, 2024 — A research team reported recently that heart muscle cells grown from induced pluripotent stem cells can integrate into the hearts of monkeys with a ...

One Gene Provides Diagnoses for 30 Patients Whose Condition Was Unexplained for Years

Nov. 8, 2024 — An international team of researchers has provided a genetic diagnosis for 30 individuals whose condition was undiagnosed for years despite extensive ...

Alzheimer's and Alcohol Use Disorder Share Similar Gene Expression Patterns, Study Finds

Nov. 5, 2024 — By examining RNA in hundreds of thousands of individual brain cells, scientists further support that alcohol use disorder could accelerate ...

Use of 'Genetic Scissors' Carries Risks

Nov. 6, 2024 — The CRISPR tool is capable of repairing the genetic defect responsible for the immune disease chronic granulomatous disease. However, researchers have now shown that there is a risk of inadvertently ...

Discovery of Key Mechanism in Huntington's Disease Could Pave the Way for Early Detection and Treatment

Oct. 28, 2024 — Researchers have identified a key biochemical mechanism relevant to the development of Huntington's Disease. This discovery opens up the possibility ...

Could a New Medical Approach Fix Faulty Genes Before Birth?

Oct. 24, 2024 — A new biomedical tool successfully delivers genetic material to edit faulty genes in developing fetal mouse brain cells. This might stop disease progression of genetic-based neurodevelopmental ...

'Human Mini-Brains' Reveal Autism Biology and Potential Treatments

Oct. 23, 2024 — By creating personalized brain 'organoids' in the lab, scientists showed how microRNAs impact brain development, and demonstrate how one drug can reverse critical cellular signs of ...

Birth: It's a Tight Squeeze for Chimpanzees, Too

Oct. 23, 2024 — According to a new study, chimpanzees, like humans, must contend with a confined bony birth canal when giving birth. In humans, the problem was exacerbated by our unique form of upright walking since ...

Study Shows That Rett Syndrome in Females Is Not Just Less Severe, but Different

Oct. 17, 2024 — Symptoms and disease progression of Rett syndrome are different in females than males. A new study shows why it is important to understand these ...

Standardized Autism Screening During Pediatric Well Visits Identified More, Younger Children With High Likelihood for Autism Diagnosis

Nov. 14, 2024 — New research found that the use of standardized autism screening during pediatric well-child visits identifies more children with high autism likelihood at a younger age, including those presenting ...

Nearly 6 Percent of Pregnant Women Report Marijuana Use, U.S. Study Finds

Oct. 30, 2024 — A new study, using responses from the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health, has found that about 6 percent of pregnant women reported using marijuana during the last month, and many did not ...

Folic Acid May Mitigate Link Between Lead Exposure During Pregnancy and Autistic Behaviours in Children

Oct. 16, 2024 — A new study has found that folate may weaken the link between blood-lead levels in pregnant women and autistic-like behaviors in their ...

A New Target for Anxiety Disorders

Oct. 11, 2024 — By generating mice with genetic mutations that disrupt the brain's TrkC-PTP protein complex, researchers find a key way that brain cells ...

Coffee During Pregnancy Safe for Baby's Brain Development, Study Suggests

Oct. 10, 2024 — A new study has failed to find any strong links between drinking coffee during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental difficulties in ...

Researchers Examine the Persistence of Invisible Plastic Pollution

Oct. 9, 2024 — Plastic pollution -- tiny bits of plastic, smaller than a grain of sand -- is everywhere, a fact of life that applies even to newborn ...

Neurons Look Different in Children With Autism, Research Finds

Oct. 9, 2024 — There is new evidence that the cells responsible for communication in the brain may be structured differently in children with autism. Researchers discovered that in some areas of the brain neuron ...

Researchers Discover What Hinders DNA Repair in Patients With Huntington's Disease

Sep. 27, 2024 — Researchers have made an important Huntington's disease discovery. They have found that the protein mutated in patients with Huntington's disease doesn't repair DNA as intended, ...

Babies Born After Fertility Treatment Have Higher Risk of Heart Defects, Study Suggests

Sep. 27, 2024 — The risk of being born with a major heart defect is 36% higher in babies who were conceived after assisted reproductive technology, such as in vitro fertilization (IVF), according to results of a ...

Pregnant Women Who Sleep Less Than 7 Hours a Night May Have Children With Developmental Delays

Sep. 26, 2024 — Pregnant women who do not get enough sleep may be at higher risk of having children with neurodevelopmental delays, according to new ...

Why Children With Down Syndrome Have Higher Risk of Leukemia

Sep. 26, 2024 — People with Down syndrome face a higher risk of developing leukemia. Now researchers explain why, by identifying specific changes in blood cells of people with Down ...

Single-Dose Gene Therapy Is Potentially Life-Changing for Adults With Hemophilia B

Sep. 25, 2024 — Adults with hemophilia B saw their number of bleeding episodes drop by an average of 71 percent after a single infusion of gene therapy, according to the new results of an international Phase III ...

How the Brain Changes During Pregnancy

Sep. 16, 2024 — Researchers follow the dramatic changes that occur in the brain throughout the course of ...

Babies Born to Women Consuming a High Fat, Sugary Diet at Greater Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Diabetes in Later Life

Sep. 13, 2024 — Babies born to pregnant women with obesity are more likely to develop heart problems and diabetes as adults due to fetal damage caused by the high-fat, high-energy diet of their ...

Diagnostic Tool Identifies Puzzling Inflammatory Diseases in Kids

Sep. 9, 2024 — RNA is expelled from cells via cell death or active release, and can then find its way into blood plasma. Medical researchers have now developed machine learning models that use these cell-free ...

New Gene for 'Spindle Hair' Decoded

Sep. 4, 2024 — From infancy and usually for life, some families suffer from broken hair due to a congenital form of hair loss called monilethrix. Researchers at have now identified causative mutations in another ...

Discovery Gives Answers to Parents of Children With Rare Disease

Aug. 27, 2024 — A new genetic study provides answers to family of people with a rare and terrible neurological condition. It also allows family members to be tested for the mutations so they can make informed ...

A New Culprit in Huntington's Disease

Aug. 22, 2024 — Researchers have implicated a new gene in the progression of Huntington's disease in a brain organoid model. The gene may contribute to brain abnormalities much earlier than previously ...

Mother's Gut Microbiome During Pregnancy Shapes Baby's Brain Development

Aug. 20, 2024 — A study in mice has found that the bacteria Bifidobacterium breve in the mother's gut during pregnancy supports healthy brain development in the ...

Low Cortisol, Hair-Trigger Stress Response in the Brain May Underlie Long COVID

Aug. 19, 2024 — A new animal study shows that exposure to immune-stimulating proteins left behind by COVID-19 leads to lower cortisol, brain inflammation and a heightened reaction to subsequent ...