3 Oilers players who could be dangled in a potential trade

The Edmonton Oilers will be very involved in trade discussions in the months leading up to the NHL’s Trade Deadline, but who do they have to give up?

After a disappointing start to the season, the Oilers could use some reinforcements to their defensive group. It was reported late last month that Edmonton GM Stan Bowman was “aggressively” working the trade market to improve this Oilers team, and now we have our first target. The Pittsburgh Penguins appear to be on the verge of a fire sale after a poor start, with defenceman Marcus Pettersson being a likely candidate to be shipped out. The Athletic’s Josh Yohe, who covers the Penguins, mentioned that the Oilers have shown interest in the 28-year-old Swede. Yohe also mentioned that the Vancouver Canucks are showing interest alongside Edmonton. Pettersson is in the final year of a five-year contract that carries a cap hit of $4.025 million and has been among Pittsburgh’s best players early in the season. He is currently getting top-pairing minutes with the Penguins alongside Erik Karlsson. Pettersson has a goal and eight points in 20 games this season. Pettersson leads all regular Pittsburgh defenders with a 56.54 expected goals-for (xGF) and a 57.79 high-danger chances-for percentage (HDCF%) at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick. Those rates would put him ahead of Darnell Nurse on the Oilers. Pittsburgh would be looking to bolster their defensive ranks in any trade that saw Pettersson go the other way. Edmonton could potentially send over a package that includes a first-round pick and perhaps one of Sam O’Reilly or Matt Savoie to entice Penguins GM Kyle Dubas. Savoie would most likely be the more appealing option, as he holds the distinction of being a former top-10 draft pick. Edmonton will have to be careful in offloading their top prospects; however, as the team’s pipeline for young talent is already quite bare, it is risky, considering Pettersson is set to become a free agent this summer. Outside of the cost, adding Pettersson would make a world of sense for the Oilers. He would slot in perfectly as a second-pair defenceman and plays a solid defensive style that should blend well with Nurse. The only issue is that the Swede is a left-handed defenceman, meaning one of him or Nurse would have to play their off-side to make that work. Oilers head coach Kris Knoblauch has shown a willingness to play defenceman on their off-side this year, with Brett Kulak playing RD beside Nurse despite being left-handed. Perhaps the same thing could be done with Pettersson. The NHL’s trade deadline is still months away, but it’s encouraging that Bowman is reportedly targeting a guy like Pettersson, as he represents a player who would go a long way toward filling some of Edmonton’s most glaring holes.

Wearing surgical masks in public could help slow COVID-19 pandemic's advance

Surgical masks may help prevent infected people from making others sick with seasonal viruses, including coronaviruses, according to new research that could help settle a fierce debate spanning clinical and cultural norms.

In laboratory experiments, the masks significantly reduced the amounts of various airborne viruses coming from infected patients, measured using the breath-capturing "Gesundheit II machine" developed by Dr. Don Milton, a professor of applied environmental health and a senior author of the study published April 3 in the journal Nature Medicine.

Milton has already conferred with federal and White House health officials on the findings, which closely follow statements this week from the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying the agency was reconsidering oft-stated advice that surgical masks aren't a useful precaution outside of medical settings. (The debate takes place at a time when clinicians themselves face dangerously inadequate supplies of masks -- a shortfall other UMD researchers are scrambling to help solve.)

The question of masks has roiled society as well, with some retailers refusing to let employees wear them for fear of sending negative signals to customers, and cases of slurs and even physical attacks in the United States and elsewhere against Asians or Asian Americans who were wearing masks, a measure some consider a necessity during a disease outbreak.

The study, conducted prior to the current pandemic with a student of Milton's colleagues on the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, does not address the question of whether surgical masks protect wearers from infection. It does suggest that masks may limit how much the infected -- who in the case of the novel coronavirus often don't have symptoms -- spread diseases including influenza, rhinoviruses and coronaviruses.

Milton, who runs the Public Health Aerobiology, Virology, and Exhaled Biomarker Laboratory in the School of Public Health, demonstrated in a 2013 study that surgical masks could help limit flu transmission. However, he cautions that the effect may not be as great outside of controlled settings.

Nevertheless, he said, the chance they could help justifies taking a new look at whether all people should be encouraged to wear them when they venture out of their houses to stores or other populated locations during the current COVID-19 lockdown.

"In normal times we'd say that if it wasn't shown statistically significant or the effective in real-world studies, we don't recommend it," he said. "But in the middle of a pandemic, we're desperate. The thinking is that even if it cuts down transmission a little bit, it's worth trying."

Previous studies have shown that coronavirus and other respiratory infections are mostly spread during close contact, which has been interpreted by some infectious disease specialists to mean that the disease could spread only through contact and large droplets, such as from a cough or sneeze -- a message that has often been shared with the public.

"What they don't understand is that is merely a hypothesis," Milton said. The current study (along with earlier ones) shows, by contrast, that tiny, aerosolized droplets can indeed diffuse through the air. That means it may be possible to contract COVID-19 not only by being coughed on, but by simply inhaling the breath of someone nearby who has it, whether they have symptoms or not. Surgical masks, however, catch a lot of the aerosolized virus as it's exhaled, he said.

The study was conducted at the University of Hong Kong as part of the dissertation research of the lead author, Dr. Nancy Leung, who, under the supervision of the co-senior authors Drs. Cowling and Milton, recruited 246 people with suspected respiratory viral infections. Milton's Gesundheit machine compared how much virus they exhaled with and without a surgical mask.

"In 111 people infected by either coronavirus, influenza virus or rhinovirus, masks reduced detectable virus in respiratory droplets and aerosols for seasonal coronaviruses, and in respiratory droplets for influenza virus," Leung said. "In contrast, masks did not reduce the emission of rhinoviruses."

Although the experiment took place before the current pandemic, COVID-19 and seasonal coronaviruses are closely related and may be of similar particle size. The report's other senior author, Professor Benjamin Cowling, division head of epidemiology and biostatistics, School of Public Health, HKUMed, and co-director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control, said, "The ability of surgical masks to reduce seasonal coronavirus in respiratory droplets and aerosols implies that such masks can contribute to slowing the spread of (COVID-19) when worn by infected people."

Milton pointed to other measures his research has found is even more effective than masks, such as improving ventilation in public places like grocery stores, or installing UV-C lights near the ceiling that works in conjunction with ceiling fans to pull air upwards and destroy viruses and bacteria.

"Personal protective equipment like N95 masks are not our first line of defense," Milton said. "They are our last desperate thing that we do."

Hong Kong University contributed to this report.

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Materials provided by University of Maryland. Original written by Chris Carroll. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. Nancy H. L. Leung, Daniel K. W. Chu, Eunice Y. C. Shiu, Kwok-Hung Chan, James J. McDevitt, Benien J. P. Hau, Hui-Ling Yen, Yuguo Li, Dennis K. M. Ip, J. S. Malik Peiris, Wing-Hong Seto, Gabriel M. Leung, Donald K. Milton, Benjamin J. Cowling. Respiratory virus shedding in exhaled breath and efficacy of face masks. Nature Medicine, 2020; DOI: 10.1038/s41591-020-0843-2

Scottish research could 'reverse effects of multiple sclerosis'

Pheno Therapeutics has secured more than 5 million of funding to search for new drugs to repair damage to the nervous system the disease causes and improve symptoms including problems with balance, speech, vision and 

movement.

New treatments to reverse the effects of multiple sclerosis (MS) will be investigated by a new drug discovery company based on research from a Scottish university.

Pheno Therapeutics has secured more than £5 million of funding to search for new drugs to repair damage to the nervous system the disease causes and improve symptoms including problems with balance, speech, vision and movement.

It aims to develop new therapies for MS by identifying novel molecules that spark the body to repair a protective cover for nerve cells damaged the disease.

MS causes the immune system to attack the myelin sheath surrounding nerve cells, disrupting the signals travelling to the nerves.

Developing a remyelination process, as Pheno Theraputics hopes to, has the potential to slow or arrest the progressive disability MS patients face.

The company has secured funding over three years, subject to hitting certain milestones, from investment organisations and a medical research charity.

Pheno Therapeutics co-founder Professor Siddharthan Chandran said: "There are no interventions for people with later stage multiple sclerosis, which is a devastating and debilitating condition.

"The opportunity for this company is to bring new and repurposed therapeutics to clinical trials and, by doing so, meet an urgent and currently unmet need."

The university's commercialisation service, Edinburgh Innovations, helped to launch the company.

George Baxter, Edinburgh Innovations chief executive, said: "Everyone involved is focused on driving the science forward, and we look forward to supporting the team as momentum continues to build, ultimately offering the promise of new treatments."

Beauty sleep could be real, say body clock biologists

Woman waking up from bed (stock image).

Biologists from The University of Manchester have explained for the first time why having a good night's sleep really could prepare us for the rigours of the day ahead.

The study in mice and published in Nature Cell Biology, shows how the body clock mechanism boosts our ability to maintain our bodies when we are most active.

And because we know the body clock is less precise as we age, the discovery, argues lead author Professor Karl Kadler, may one day help unlock some of the mysteries of aging.

The discovery throws fascinating light on the body's extracellular matrix -which provides structural and biochemical support to cells in the form of connective tissue such as bone, skin, tendon and cartilage.

Over half our body weight is matrix, and half of this is collagen -- and scientists have long understood it is fully formed by the time we reach the age of 17.

But now the researchers have discovered there are two types of fibrils -- the rope-like structures of collagen that are woven by the cells to form tissues.

Thicker fibrils measuring about 200 nanometres in diameter -- a million million times smaller than a pinhead -- are permanent and stay with us throughout our lives, unchanged from the age of 17.

But thinner fibrils measuring 50 nanometres, they find, are sacrificial, breaking as we subject the body to the rigours of the day but replenishing when we rest at night.

The collagen was observed by mass spectrometry and the mouse fibrils were observed using state of the art volumetric electron microscopy -- funded by the Wellcome Trust -- every 4 hours over 2 days.

When the body clock genes where knocked out in mice, the thin and thick fibrils were amalgamated randomly.

"Collagen provides the body with structure and is our most abundant protein, ensuring the integrity, elasticity and strength of the body's connective tissue," said Professor Kadler

"It's intuitive to think our matrix should be worn down by wear and tear, but it isn't and now we know why: our body clock makes an element which is sacrificial and can be replenished, protecting the permanent parts of the matrix.

He added: "So if you imagine the bricks in the walls of a room as the permanent part, the paint on the walls could be seen as the sacrificial part which needs to be replenished every so often.

"And just like you need to oil a car and keep its radiator topped up with water, these thin fibrils help maintain the body's matrix."

"Knowing this could have implications on understanding our biology at its most fundamental level. It might, for example, give us some deeper insight into how wounds heal, or how we age.

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Materials provided by University of Manchester. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Biofeedback could help treat a number of conditions Headaches among

Biofeedback could help treat a number of conditions Headaches among

A literature review by a team at the VA Portland Health Care System and Oregon Health & Science University found evidence that biofeedback can be a helpful treatment for several conditions. Studies show that biofeedback can reduce headache pain, improve both urinary and fecal incontinence, and aid in stroke recovery.

Dr. Karli Kondo of the VA Evidence Synthesis Program and OHSU, first author on the study, explained how the research could advance the use of biofeedback: "We are encouraged by the positive findings and the additional findings of potential benefits for a wide range of conditions. Biofeedback is a low-risk, cost-effective intervention. We hope that this report will help to make biofeedback more widely available to veterans across the U.S., and that it will serve as a roadmap for future research in the field."

The results appeared online Aug. 14, 2019, in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Biofeedback refers to using instruments to measure and provide real-time feedback on patients' physiological responses. It can help patients learn to control and change those responses. Since biofeedback does not involve medication and is relatively noninvasive compared to other treatments, it could benefit patients with a low risk of any adverse effects, say the researchers.

Biofeedback measures include muscle activity, heart rate, blood pressure, and brainwaves. It is often paired with treatments to change behavior, thoughts, or emotions. For example, using electromyography (EMG) to measure how muscles tighten in response to a medical condition may help patients consciously control those muscles.

Biofeedback increasingly is being used as a complementary or alternative treatment for a wide range of conditions. In 2017, about 70 VA facilities reported offering some form of biofeedback.

However, the evidence on how biofeedback is used and its effectiveness is scattered across studies on the individual conditions. Because of this, the practice is not well-integrated with usual care.

Kondo and colleagues created an "evidence map" to get a high-level overview of the research available on biofeedback. They searched for previously conducted systematic reviews and studies on biofeedback to summarize what has been found so far. In total, the researchers used 16 systematic reviews on the topic.

The review showed clear evidence that biofeedback is effective at reducing headache pain. A variety of biofeedback measures have been used for headache, including EMG, skin temperature, and blood pressure monitoring. These techniques appear to help decrease the frequency, duration, and intensity of both migraine and tension headaches. The largest improvements were in decreasing frequency of headaches. Moderate-confidence evidence shows that biofeedback can also improve secondary outcomes of headache, such as medication use, muscle tension, anxiety, and depression.

Strong evidence also exists showing that biofeedback can help with urinary incontinence for men who have had their prostate removed. In this case, EMG is used to assist with pelvic floor muscle training. Adding biofeedback provides both immediate and long-term improvements beyond those seen with muscle training alone.

The evidence map shows consistent evidence that biofeedback helps with several other conditions, although with fewer trials than were found for headaches or incontinence. EMG biofeedback can help with fecal incontinence in both older people of both sexes and in young women who recently gave birth. Adding biofeedback to therapy for lower-limb activity after stroke also appears to help patients. Stroke therapy can include several different types of biofeedback, such as platforms that measure weight distribution to help with balance, sensors to measure the angle of the joints during walking, and EMG to record muscle activity.

The researchers found studies on biofeedback use for several other conditions, but no compelling evidence that it was effective in those cases. Reviews showed no benefits from biofeedback for urinary incontinence in women or for high blood pressure management. However, the studies covering these conditions were limited. Likewise, the review turned up insufficient evidence for the use of biofeedback for other conditions, such as bruxism (grinding or clenching the teeth, often while sleeping), labor pain, and Reynaud's disease (a condition involving reduced blood flow to the extremities).

The researchers point out that their evidence map, in addition to showing several conditions for which biofeedback has been proven useful, also shows areas of uncertainty where more research is needed. They identified several targets for further research: balance and gait training, fibromyalgia, and intradialytic hypotension (a decrease in blood pressure that can cause a number of symptoms, including nausea, dizziness, and anxiety).

Overall, the evidence map gives a "lay of the land" that shows what evidence exists for using biofeedback to treat medical conditions or symptoms and what research is still needed.

The study was funded by the VA Office of Research and Development Quality Enhancement Research Initiative.

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Materials provided by Veterans Affairs Research Communications. Original written by Tristan Horrom, VA Research Communications. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Ancient Light Suggests Universe Could Loop Back on Itself!

Image: The cosmic microwave background as seen by the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite. Credit: ESA and the Planck Collaboration

The photo above is quite common among astronomers and astrophysicists. It depicts what is known as the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the very ancient light coming from the beginnings of our universe. It is supposed to be the leftovers of the grand explosion birthing our Universe, called the Big Bang.

When analyzing the expansion of the universe, astrophysicists imagined that the expansion could be rewinded, just like a film, and that this backward movement would show the collapse into a singularity. Together with the astronomical observations of the CMB radiation, they concluded that the universe had to be flat. But recent observations with better precision are showing a different picture. An anomaly in data from the best-ever measurement of the CMB is offering solid (although not yet conclusive) evidence that the universe is closed, and in order to be closed, it would curve gently on itself.

In order to understand the difference between both kind of flatness—that of a flat sheet kept strait, or a flat sheet bended—in both cases the surface seems flat at short distances, but at very long distances, the curvature of the second case will affect and manifest different effects. For instance, two photons could cross at some point when travelling along parallel trajectories. The topology or curvature of a surface plays a crucial role in all that exists within.

As most of the calculations are done considering a flat universe, huge amounts of recalculations would have to be done in order to fine tune the physics concerned. And it seems to be necessary, as according to the latest data, there’s significantly more gravitational lensing of the CMB than expected, and this could be explained by inserting a positive curvature for the universe instead of a flat one.

Results were drawn upon data coming from a 2018 release of the Planck experiment—a European Space Agency (ESA) experiment to map the CMB in more detail—and they were published in Nature Astronomy this month.

RSF in Perspective

The image appearing in the book Gravitation, where the universe is depicted as a balloon which is being inflated and by doing so the galaxies on the surface of the balloon would separate from each other progressively, could be closer to our reality than expected. That being the case, then in Nassim Haramein’s view, the pertinent question is, “Who is the guy inflating the balloon?” If for all action there is an equal and opposite reaction, then where is the force equivalent to the lungs of the guy blowing the balloon? Haramein’s holographic theory shows that mass and forces emerge from the quantum vacuum or vacuum fluctuations, giving an elegant and simple answer to that question. Additionally, when including torque and Coriolis forces in Einstein’s Field Equations, Nassim Haramein obtains a modified and corrected topology for the universe, depicted as a double torus, which is a double “loop back on itself” configuration. The double torus configuration is crucial to understanding the dynamics of the universe as a feedback-feedforward mechanism! The results presented in this article head in the direction of Haramein’s model of the universe.

New findings could lead to improved vaccinations against sexually transmitted infections

New findings could lead to improved vaccinations against sexually transmitted infections

In a study published today in the Nature Communications, researchers from King's College London have shown how skin vaccination can generate protective CD8 T-cells that are recruited to the genital tissues and could be used as a vaccination strategy for sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

One of the challenges in developing vaccines for STIs, such as HIV or herpes simplex virus, is understanding how to attract specialised immune cells, called CD8 T-cells, to take up residence in the part of the body where the virus first enters. These cells need to be in place, armed and ready to provide an immediate protective immune defence, rather than waiting for immune cells in the blood to enter the tissues which takes time.

Before this study, it was thought that vaccines ideally needed to be delivered directly to the body surface (e.g. female genital tissue) where the infection might start, so that the immune system can generate these CD8 T-cells, travel back to the vaccination site and eliminate any future virus that is encountered. However, delivering vaccines directly to the female genital tissue is neither patient friendly nor efficient.

Now the team from King's have found that their vaccination strategy marshals a platoon of immune cells, called innate lymphoid cells (ILC1) and monocytes, in the genital tissues to work together and release chemicals (chemokines) to send out a call to the CD8 T-cells generated by the vaccine to troop into the genital tissue.

This research builds on the team's earlier work to develop skin vaccination techniques using a dissolvable 'microneedle' vaccine patch that once placed against the skin dissolves and releases the vaccine without requiring a hypodermic needle injection and generates immune responses.

Lead author, Professor Linda Klavinskis from King's College London said: "This study highlights how specialised groups of 'innate' immune cells in distant tissues can be harnessed to attract protective CD8 T-cells, arming the body's frontline tissues from infection.

"We now need to confirm these results with other types of vaccines from the one used in the study to see if a common pathway is triggered by skin vaccination. If proven, this could have a significant impact in improving the effectiveness of vaccines against sexually transmitted infections."

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Materials provided by King's College London. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Micro implants could restore standing and walking

Micro implants could restore standing and walking

When Vivian Mushahwar first applied to grad school, she wrote about her idea to fix paralysis by rewiring the spinal cord.

It was only after she was accepted into a bioengineering program that the young electrical engineer learned her idea had actually prompted laughter.

"I figured, hey I can fix it, it's just wires," Mushahwar said. "Yeah, well, it's not just wires. So I had to learn the biology along the way."

It's taken Mushahwar a lot of work over two decades at the University of Alberta, but the Canada Research Chair in Functional Restoration is still fixated on the dream of helping people walk again. And thanks to an electrical spinal implant pioneered in her laboratory and work in mapping the spinal cord, that dream could become a reality in the next decade.

Because an injured spinal cord dies back, it's not simply a matter of reconnecting a cable. Three herculean feats are needed. You have to translate brain signals. You have to figure out and control the spinal cord. And you have got to get the two sides talking again.

People tend to think the brain does all the thinking, but Mushahwar says the spinal cord has built-in intelligence. A complex chain of motor and sensory networks regulate everything from breathing to bowels, while the brain stem's contribution is basically "go!" and "faster!" Your spinal cord isn't just moving muscles, it's giving you your natural gait.

Other researchers have tried different avenues to restore movement. By sending electrical impulses into leg muscles, it's possible to get people standing or walking again. But the effect is strictly mechanical and not particularly effective. Mushahwar's research has focused on restoring lower-body function after severe injuries using a tiny spinal implant. Hair-like electrical wires plunge deep into the spinal grey matter, sending electrical signals to trigger the networks that already know how to do the hard work.

In a new paper in Scientific Reports, the team showcases a map to identify which parts of the spinal cord trigger the hip, knees, ankles and toes, and the areas that put movements together. The work has shown that the spinal maps have been remarkably consistent across the animal spectrum, but further work is required before moving to human trials.

The implications of moving to a human clinical setting would be massive, but must follow further work that needs to be done in animals. Being able to control standing and walking would improve bone health, improve bowel and bladder function, and reduce pressure ulcers. It could help treat cardiovascular disease -- the main cause of death for spinal cord patients -- while bolstering mental health and quality of life. For those with less severe spinal injuries, an implant could be therapeutic, removing the need for months of gruelling physical therapy regimes that have limited success.

"We think that intraspinal stimulation itself will get people to start walking longer and longer, and maybe even faster," said Mushahwar. "That in itself becomes their therapy."

Progress can move at a remarkable pace, yet it's often maddeningly slow.

"There's been an explosion of knowledge in neuroscience over the last 20 years," Mushahwar said. "We're at the edge of merging the human and the machine."

Given the nature of incremental funding and research, a realistic timeline for this type of progress might be close to a decade.

Mushahwar is the director of the SMART Network, a collaboration of more than 100 U of A scientists and learners who intentionally break disciplinary silos to think of unique ways to tackle neural injuries and diseases. That has meant working with researchers like neuroscientist Kathryn Todd and biochemist Matthew Churchward, both in the psychiatry department, to create three-dimensional cell cultures that simulate the testing of electrodes.

The next steps are fine-tuning the hardware -- miniaturizing an implantable stimulator -- and securing Health Canada and FDA approvals for clinical trials. Previous research has tackled the problem of translating brain signals and intent into commands to the intraspinal implant; however, the first generation of the intraspinal implants will require a patient to control walking and movement. Future implants could include a connection to the brain.

It's the same goal Mushahwar had decades ago. Except now it's no longer a laughable idea.

"Imagine the future," Mushahwar said. "A person just thinks and commands are transmitted to the spinal cord. People stand up and walk. This is the dream."

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Materials provided by University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. Original written by Brent Wittmeier. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Lower back pain? Self-administered acupressure could help

Pain affected regions

A recent study finds that acupressure, a traditional Chinese medicine technique, can improve chronic pain symptoms in the lower back.

"Acupressure is similar to acupuncture, but instead of needles, pressure is applied with a finger, thumb or device to specific points on the body," says Susan Murphy, ScD, OTR, an associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Michigan Medicine and lead author of the study.

Murphy says that while acupressure has been previously studied -- and found to be beneficial -- in people with cancer-related or osteoarthritis pain, there are few studies that have examined acupressure in people with back pain.

In the study, published in Pain Medicine, the research team randomly assigned 67 participants with chronic low back pain into three groups: relaxing acupressure, stimulating acupressure or usual care.

"Relaxing acupressure is thought to be effective in reducing insomnia, while stimulating acupressure is thought to be effective in fatigue reduction," Murphy says.

Participants in the acupressure groups were trained to administer acupressure on certain points of the body, and spent between 27 and 30 minutes daily, over the course of six weeks, performing the technique.

Participants in the usual care group were asked to continue whatever treatments they were currently receiving from their care providers to manage their back pain and fatigue.

"Compared to the usual care group, we found that people who performed stimulating acupressure experienced pain and fatigue improvement and those that performed relaxing acupressure felt their pain had improved after six weeks," Murphy says.

"We found no differences among the groups in terms of sleep quality or disability after the six weeks."

Potential treatment option

Murphy notes that chronic pain is difficult to manage and people with the condition tend to have additional symptoms such as fatigue, sleep disturbance and depression.

"Better treatments are needed for chronic pain," Murphy says. "Most treatments offered are medications, which have side effects, and in some cases, may increase the risk of abuse and addiction."

She says this study highlights the benefits of a non-pharmacological treatment option that patients could perform easily on their own and see positive results.

"Although larger studies are needed, acupressure may be a useful pain management strategy given that it is low risk, low cost and easy to administer," Murphy says.

"We also recommend additional studies into the different types of acupressure and how they could more specifically be targeted to patients based on their symptoms."

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Materials provided by Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Experts unlock key to photosynthesis, a find that could help us meet food security demands

Green leaf in sunlight

Scientists have solved the structure of one of the key components of photosynthesis, a discovery that could lead to photosynthesis being 'redesigned' to achieve higher yields and meet urgent food security needs.

The study, led by the University of Sheffield and published today in the journal Nature, reveals the structure of cytochrome b6f -- the protein complex that significantly influences plant growth via photosynthesis.

Photosynthesis is the foundation of life on Earth providing the food, oxygen and energy that sustains the biosphere and human civilisation.

Using a high-resolution structural model, the team found that the protein complex provides the electrical connection between the two light-powered chlorophyll-proteins (Photosystems I and II) found in the plant cell chloroplast that convert sunlight into chemical energy.

Lorna Malone, the first author of the study and a PhD student in the University of Sheffield's Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, said: "Our study provides important new insights into how cytochrome b6f utilises the electrical current passing through it to power up a 'proton battery'. This stored energy can then be then used to make ATP, the energy currency of living cells. Ultimately this reaction provides the energy that plants need to turn carbon dioxide into the carbohydrates and biomass that sustain the global food chain."

The high-resolution structural model, determined using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy, reveals new details of the additional role of cytochrome b6f as a sensor to tune photosynthetic efficiency in response to ever-changing environmental conditions. This response mechanism protects the plant from damage during exposure to harsh conditions such as drought or excess light.

Dr Matt Johnson, reader in Biochemistry at the University of Sheffield and one of the supervisors of the study added: "Cytochrome b6f is the beating heart of photosynthesis which plays a crucial role in regulating photosynthetic efficiency.

"Previous studies have shown that by manipulating the levels of this complex we can grow bigger and better plants. With the new insights we have obtained from our structure we can hope to rationally redesign photosynthesis in crop plants to achieve the higher yields we urgently need to sustain a projected global population of 9-10 billion by 2050."

The research was conducted in collaboration with the Astbury Centre for Structural Molecular Biology at the University of Leeds.

Researchers now aim to establish how cytochrome b6f is controlled by a myriad of regulatory proteins and how these regulators affect the function of this complex.