Questions tagged [medicine]

Medicine is the doctrine of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases and injuries in humans and animals. Health and medicine questions are off-topic unless dealing with the biology underlying health and medicine. Please carefully explore the tour, help centre, and meta before posting health and medicine questions.

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How can Clostridium tetani proliferate in relatively minor wounds?

It is often reported (NIH) that some of the most common infections by Clostridium tetani are in minor wounds where, in theory, blood (hence oxygen) supply should not be completely disrupted. How can ...
AlexanderCar's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
57 views

Statistical significance set at $p < 0.05$ or $\alpha = 0.05$?

Obviously, both refer to the same thing. But, which is more correct/more common in biomedical papers? By alpha, I mean alpha level (Also see one). (And, should it be $p < 0.05$ or $p = 0.05$ if it'...
BigMistake's user avatar
13 votes
2 answers
1k views

Can simultaneous double pathogen infections happen, or are they prevented?

Is there something in immunology that prevents a simultaneous infection with a 2nd pathogen? For example, I've never heard of someone getting both dengue and malaria together. Or, say, Ebola and ...
curious_cat's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
70 views

Is the Malaria vaccine the first vaccine against a Eukaryote?

RTS,S or Mosquirix was recently released to the public, offering the first Malaria vaccine. This struck me as particularly important because I don't know of any other vaccine that protects against ...
Shmuel Newmark's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
3k views

Why do bacteria in a urinary tract infection (UTI) cause bleeding?

It seems that when a urinary tract infection happens, bacteria will cause inflammation to the lining of the urinary tract, and this will cause bleeding. What is the exact process for the inflammation ...
flen's user avatar
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Have the potential therapeutic applications of cell fusion between cancer cells and neural cells been investigated?

Studies have appeared on the possible role that cell fusion plays in the formation of certain cancers. For instance, Sitar et al. (2019) have looked into the process of cell fusion in the formation of ...
Max Muller's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
27 views

Conjugate vaccines in the context of the original antigenic sin and antibody feedback inhibition

How come we can get an antibody response against a polysaccharide bound to a carrier protein, that we have antibodies towards, when antibody feedback inhibition exists? If we have antibodies against ...
Noel Lundström's user avatar
17 votes
1 answer
9k views

Why haven't we cured the common cold yet?

Researchers think they’re close to a cure for the common cold, but they first need to solve a complex problem that’s perplexed scientists for decades. Polio, smallpox, hepatitis A and B are all ...
DARYL JOSEPH.G's user avatar
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0 answers
29 views

PEGylation safety and hybridomas

PEGylation is the covalent attachment of PEG (PolyEthylene Glycol) to molecules (e.g. proteins). It states in wikipedia ("PEGylation"): The covalent attachment of PEG to a drug or ...
Ynk's user avatar
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1 answer
134 views

Disease-causing allele frequency and modern medicine

I was thinking about what the impact modern medicine might have on human evolution based on a couple assumptions. If we assume that: modern medicine has massively cushioned the selection pressure ...
AnethOthbo's user avatar
25 votes
1 answer
3k views

Why are drug dosages so high in some mice studies?

On reading through some research on the effects of certain drugs I often come across staggeringly high dosages such as in this paper: Römer, B., Pfeiffer, N., Lewicka, S., Ben-Abdallah, N., Vogt, M. ...
kcpm's user avatar
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6 votes
1 answer
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What Produces the Postive Potenial in the lumen of the thick ascending loop of Henle?

In the Thick Ascending Loop of Henle, Paracellular diffusion of certain Solutes like magnesium and calcium takes place. Such diffusion is a result of the positive lumen potential. Looking at the image ...
Omar Shahaltough's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
96 views

How do tapeworms aid weightloss?

The 5 second answer people come up with is, "well they consume calories you otherwise would have". This logic works great if we're discussing the impact of my brother consuming part of my ...
Edward Garemo's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
978 views

What specific interaction between methylphenidate and quetiapine causes toxicity concerns?

A number of reputable sources on drug interactions posit a potential interaction between methylphenidate and quetiapine, described on Medscape as follows: quetiapine increases toxicity of ...
Polynomial's user avatar
27 votes
5 answers
5k views

Why did scientists state that the Omicron COVID-19 variant was a reason to get a booster?

I was watching Vox’s video, Big questions about the Covid booster shot, answered, which references the New York Times article Omicron Prompts Swift Reconsideration of Boosters Among Scientists. In ...
hb20007's user avatar
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0 answers
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Monoclonal antibody mass production

There is a long conversation taking place these days about monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19. From a few biology courses I had a long time ago, I remember that the process of creating mAbs was a ...
Arkoudinos's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
110 views

Why is syphilis not resistant to penicilin?

How is it that we are dealing with so many antiobiotic resistant infections in iatrogenic settings, and yet this very old bacterial pathogen has still not acquired resistance to penicilin (the oldest ...
Shayan's user avatar
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0 answers
439 views

Why is heparin contraindicated in patients with severe uncontrolled hypertension?

Heparin is a parenteral anti coagulant- prevents clot formation by inhibiting factors 2 a and 10 a mainly. Now, patients with severe uncontrolled hypertension- have persistent bp of more than 140/90. ...
Kavya Chandrasekaran's user avatar
-2 votes
1 answer
115 views

Ingredients in Pfizer vaccine

The ingredients in the Pfizer vaccine have been listed in a number of websites, including government healthcare ones. This site claims that the list includes ALL of the ingredients of the vaccine. ...
Meep's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
41 views

Safety in Liposomal Amphotericin B

From reading about Amphotericin B antifungal, I understand it is quite a toxic medicine for kidney, but I am not able to find any details as to how Liposomal version of same medication is so safe, in ...
murmansk's user avatar
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5 votes
1 answer
165 views

Concentration of active ingredient

For some time now, I have been wondering why, when a tablet is taken, the concentration of active ingredient undergoes an exponential decrease after the maximum concentration value in the blood is ...
Rico1990's user avatar
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1 vote
0 answers
55 views

Why does warfarin decrease biological activity of protein C?

Warfarin inhibits VKOR. Hence it disrupts vitamin K dependent $\gamma$-carboxylation of Fc- II, VII, IX, X. But what exactly it does to Protein C and Protein S? How does it also affect anticoagulant ...
ANA negative's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
37 views

How do APCs find their specific T-cells in the lymph nodes?

My understanding is that when an APC (more specifically a dendritic cell) encounters an antigen in the periphery, it ingests it and presents it on its surface. It then migrates to lymph nodes to ...
Kareem Atef's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
213 views

What exactly makes red meat (probably) unhealthy?

It seems generally agreed that (even fresh, unprocessed) red meat is at least somewhat bad for human health. But why exactly is this the case? It's difficult to find any attempt at an explanation, ...
Aqualone's user avatar
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0 votes
2 answers
231 views

How do physics notions of fluid dynamics relate to pressure gradients in circulation?

I'm having a hard time comprehending why sometimes physiology notions seem to contradict each other and contradict physics teachings. More specifically I don't understand why aortic coarctation causes ...
sha00's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
148 views

Why exactly does UMN lesion cause hypertonia?

The corticospinal tracts are excitatory in nature (Glutaminergic). So damage of the CST would mean less excitatory input to the LMN. By this logic, there should not be hypertonia. What is the ...
ANA negative's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
107 views

Does Topiramate work by supplanting Pyridoxal phosphate in enzymes?

I have seen it said that the precise mechanism of action of migraine medicine Topiramate is not known. But I certainly see a resemblance between that molecule and PLP (Pyridoxal phosphate, the ...
user240254's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
103 views

Why is half dose of Oxford's vaccine of covid more effective than full dose?

I recently read in a newspaper that the half dose of the Oxford's vaccine is 90% effective while the full dose is only 62% effective. Why is this the case ?
Ankit's user avatar
  • 221
0 votes
1 answer
29 views

The relation of a schizophrenia drug side effect and caffeine intake

I am listening to the book Surviving Schizophrenia and in the book, it is mentioned that drugs like Clozapine increases in blood level if the patient takes Caffeine, and can have side effects due to ...
Aakash Gupta's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
350 views

Why is the current flow shown to be flowing from the negative area towards the positive area?

When I was studying the ECG chapter in the book "Guyton and Hall Textbook of Medical Physiology", I noticed something odd in one of the pictures: As you can see the current is shown to be ...
IdaM's user avatar
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0 votes
0 answers
33 views

What is the mechanism of aspirin as an anticoagulant? [duplicate]

I understand that aspirin prevents blood clots from forming by interfering with the clotting action. I want to know at which stage aspirin interferes with clot forming and what really happens in the ...
Roshelle Perera's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
21 views

Are there any real life instances of kidney organoid transplants in human?

Googling the terms "kidney organoid", "artificial kidney" etc. shows quite a huge amount of research papers regarding studies about kidney organoid synthesis from pluripotent stem ...
Always Confused's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
439 views

Why do beta-1 and beta-2 adrenergic receptors result in two completely different effects (though both use Gs pathway)?

$\beta_2$ adrenergic Receptors are $G_s$-coupled 7-TM proteins. Considering that $G_s$ , by activation increases $[\text{cAMP}]_\text{cytosol}$ which inhibits MLCK of smooth muscles (and causes ...
ANA negative's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
948 views

What are the physiological effects of retinal exposure to 380–400nm light?

There are two categories of sunglasses: UV380 sunglasses block all light with wavelength 380nm or lower, while UV400 sunglasses block all light with wavelength 400nm or lower. This made me wonder, ...
hb20007's user avatar
  • 985
1 vote
1 answer
60 views

About how many covid-19 virus particles is required in the human body before infection and sickness follows?

Our immune systems are often able to destroy germs and virus particles. About how many of them does it take to make a 70 year old healthy male sick ? Any ideas ?
Thomas's user avatar
  • 156
7 votes
1 answer
356 views

Why is there no herd immunity against common cold coronaviruses?

In discussions of herd immunity against SARS-CoV-2 the underlying assumption usually appears to be that the virus basically stops spreading once a sufficient percentage of the population has overcome ...
Epiousios's user avatar
  • 237
0 votes
0 answers
14 views

What causes rashes to appear in specific parts of the body without a site specific trigger?

Why do rashes appear randomly at highly specific locations (and not others), without location specific triggers? Like, if it's a systemic issue, then it should be distributed to other areas on the ...
user60319's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
35 views

Alzheimer's disease - Hyperexcitability

I am trying to read literature on Alzheimer's disease. A very important phenomenon that occurs in AD patients, is hyperexcitability in neurons close to A-beta concentrations. Some authors only ...
axel's user avatar
  • 21
3 votes
1 answer
218 views

What fraction of human cells gets infected during a viral infection?

As I understand, if a cell gets infected during a viral infection then it eventually dies. If an individual does not die of an infection, the percentage of cells that gets infected in the course of ...
Epiousios's user avatar
  • 237
2 votes
1 answer
182 views

Why is prothrombin time used to monitor warfarin and not activated partial thromboplastin time?

Warfarin is said to change prothrombin time (PT) but not activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) (for practical purposes at least anyways, not really sure). But looking at the mechanism of action ...
Dahen's user avatar
  • 313
0 votes
2 answers
96 views

What are some good books on oncology?

I'm looking for some book suggestions on oncology, preferably I want them to be fairly recent. I am not worried if they are fairly technical, as long as they have good accurate content and layout.
Kudo Anastasia's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
51 views

Edema and hydrostatic pressure

I'm currently studying Robbins basic pathology, and I'm confused about a specific statement: It states in the book that when hydrostatic pressure is low due to a lack of albumin synthesis, it leads ...
Kudo Anastasia's user avatar
-1 votes
1 answer
34 views

How does the surface of the eye remain moist during sleep?

When we are awake, blinking helps distribute the tears so the cornea and the entire conjunctiva are wet and moist. But how is this maintained during the night, when we are sleep and there is no ...
Mhkhm's user avatar
  • 1
0 votes
1 answer
127 views

How far can free radicals from UV radiation diffuse through the skin?

UV radiation damages DNA through two separate mechanisms. Direct damage occurs when a photon is absorbed by DNA. Indirect damage occurs when a photon is absorbed by a chromophore, and the excited ...
aTree's user avatar
  • 143
3 votes
2 answers
91 views

Can far-UVC light be safely used as germicide? (help understanding a paper)

I've been trying to familiarize myself with the literature on far UVC light as a germicide. My question mostly pertains to figure 4 of this paper. The paper investigates the efficacy of 207 nm light ...
aTree's user avatar
  • 143
1 vote
2 answers
61 views

Can erythrocytes Function without plasma?

my title is not very specific. So i will proceed to clarify it. I am trying to make sure that the only blood cells in a sample are Erytocytes, since i want to evaluate their metabolism, I am aware ...
RockishWood's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
465 views

Why is Ibuprofen contraindicated in asthma patients?

So yesterday a patient showed up at the clinic with a massive swelling in his left face region. Upon examination it was found to be due to infected first premolar. Dentist recommended him to get the ...
Noeshel 's user avatar
15 votes
1 answer
971 views

Inability of vultures to digest diclofenac

The population of Indian vultures has been rapidly declining since 2003. This is attributed to the diclofenac present in the carcasses which the vultures eat. Vultures seem to digest all sorts of food ...
Shishir Maharana's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
57 views

How does the age of a parent affect the chances of occurrence of certain genetically transmitted diseases?

Do genetically transmitted age-related diseases (like hypertension, arthritis etc.)have the probability of occurring at an earlier(younger) age in the offspring if they are born at a later age to ...
beena benny's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
27 views

WHO Essential Medicines vs Essential Medicines for Children

Per the WHO (World Health Organization), there are a list of "Essential Medicines" such as those listed on their Wikipedia page. Is there a database link for this directly other than Wikipedia? What ...
Alexander Kleinhans's user avatar

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