N-acetylcysteine (Mucomyst®, Exomuc®, Fluimucyl®) is commonly used as a treatment for clearing mucus from the airways, but researchers from Inserm Unit 1237, “Physiopathology and Imaging of Neurological Disorders” (Inserm/ UNICAEN), led by Denis Vivien, have shown that it is also capable of unblocking arteries obstructed by a blood clot. This study, coordinated by Maxime Gauberti and Sara Martinez de Lizarrondo, opens the way to a new treatment strategy in...
With exam time looming, a certain number of students with intense workloads are succumbing to the use of stimulants to boost their intellectual capacities. Classified as psychotropics, stimulants are medicinal doping agents that boost the brain's function by increasing its capacity for alertness and performance. A study by Inserm published in April 2016 showed that one third of the 1,700 medical students questioned were taking stimulants. Among them, 29.7%...
Multidisciplinary teams from the AP-HP Paris public hospitals network (SAMU75 emergency response dispatch centers and Hôpital européen Georges-Pompidou), as well as from Inserm, the Université Paris-Descartes, and the Paris BSPP medical emergency service, compared, in the French capital, two strategies of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation (ECPR) used in patients suffering refractory cardiac arrest (defined as lack of return of spontaneous circulation after 30 minutes of resuscitation). The results of this study,...
JUMODA, a prospective study sponsored by the Paris public hospitals (AP-HP) and conducted between 2014 and 2015 by teams of researchers and clinicians from Inserm, Université Paris Descartes and AP-HP, has shed new light on the mode of delivering twins. According to the coordinators of JUMODA ("MOde D’Accouchement des JUmeaux"), Professors Thomas Schmitz and François Goffinet, vaginal delivery is associated with decreased neonatal morbidity and mortality rates for both...
After 6 months of life in space as part of the Proxima mission, French ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet will land on Friday, June 2, 2017, in the middle of the afternoon (4:08 p.m. Paris time), aboard the Soyuz capsule which is expected to touch down in the Kazakhstani steppes.
Inserm researchers in Rouen (Unit 1234 "PANTHER: Physiopathology, autoimmunity, neuromuscular diseases and regenerative therapies", Inserm/Université de Rouen Normandie) have tested with success a cell therapy aiming to restore the ability of the sphincters to contract in patients with fecal incontinence. As part of a clinical study conducted in partnership with Rouen University Hospital, 60% of the patients who received this innovative therapy observed a reduction in their incontinence.
Cholesterol plays a central role in many living processes. In a new study, a team led by Catherine-Laure Tomasetto, Inserm research director at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology (Inserm/CNRS/Université de Strasbourg) reveals the role played by the STARD3 protein in the distribution of cholesterol within cells. A little like molecular velcro, this protein has the capacity to form membrane contacts between two cell organelles, enabling...
Since the end of the 20th century, it has been proven that women who have been pregnant (including those who have miscarried or aborted) store the fetal cells of their children in their bone marrow for at least 50 years. The team of Professor Selim Aractingi - Paris Descartes Faculty of Medicine, Cochin Hospital (Paris hospital group) Dermatology Department, “Saint Antoine Research Center” Inserm joint research unit, and Université...
The existence of new “social” neurons has just been demonstrated by scientists from the Institut de neurosciences des systèmes (Aix-Marseille University / INSERM), the Laboratoire de psychologie sociale et cognitive (Université Clermont Auvergne / CNRS), and the Institut de neurosciences de la Timone (Aix-Marseille University / CNRS). Their research on monkeys has shown that when these animals are made to perform a task, the presence or absence of a...
Researchers led by Jean-Charles Guéry of the Centre for Pathophysiology Toulouse Purpan (Inserm/Université Toulouse III – Paul Sabatier/ CNRS) are providing new insights into the possible link between male hormones and differences in gender in susceptibility to allergic asthma. This study demonstrates that hormones such as testosterone act on the immune system. The results are to be published in the scientific review The Journal of Experimental Medicine on 1...
Known to be a possible cause of certain chronic diseases, vitamin D deficiency is also believed to lead to a high risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, especially where the diet is also poor in 'good fats' and antioxidant carotenoids. This is what two studies led by Catherine Féart and Cécilia Samieri, researchers at Inserm unit 1219 Bordeaux Population Health (BPH) (Inserm/ Bordeaux University), have shown. The research was published...
