2 . When colds and flu hit, many people naturally turn to over-the-counter(OTC) medicines (非处方药) to push through and treat their symptoms. Although these medicines are easily accessible and widely used, it might come as a surprise to many people to learn that they are not risk-free. A study estimated that every year, 26, 735 people went to the emergency room for problems related to OTC cold and cough medicines.

When two or more drugs are used together, their interactions can sometimes produce unexpected harmful effects. Doctors are typically knowledgeable about possible drug interactions, so it is very important for patients to ask their healthcare providers which OTC medicines are safe for them to use.

It is important to read the package ingredients (成分) of OTC medicines closely to avoid duplication of doses (剂量重复). Cold medicines are typically made up of various ingredients, including pain relievers, nasal decongestants and cough suppressants or expectorants. A person who takes a single-ingredient medicine paired with one of these multi-ingredient medicines can receive an unsafe dose of that ingredient.

While everyone could experience bad effects from cold and flu medicines, some groups —including older adults, children and pregnant women—may be at greater risk.

Older people who are using prescribed (处方的) drugs to treat different health conditions may have a higher risk of drug interactions because of the higher number of medicines being used at the same time to treat different conditions. The aging body is not as expert at absorbing, distributing and clearing medicines as younger bodies are. This can put older adults at higher risk for an overdose and drug-to-drug interactions with some medicines.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend giving cold medicines to children under age 4. Because of a variety of factors, young children have a higher risk of an accidental overdose and adverse events that could lead to death.

5 . Scientists have developed a blood test to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease without the need for expensive brain imaging or a painful lumbar puncture, where a sample of cerebrospinal (脑脊髓的) fluid (CSF) is drawn from the lower back.

Current guidelines recommend detection of three distinct markers: abnormal accumulations of amyloid (淀粉样蛋白) and tau proteins, as well as neurodegeneration—the slow and progressive loss of neuronal cells (神经元细胞) in specified regions of the brain. This can be done through a combination of brain imaging and CSF analysis. However, a lumbar puncture can be painful and people may experience headaches or back pain after the procedure, while brain imaging is expensive and takes a long time to schedule. Thomas Karikari at the University of Pittsburgh, who was involved in the study, said,” A lot of patients, even in the US, don’t have access to MRI and PET scanners. Accessibility is a major issue.”

The development of a reliable blood test would be an important step forwards. “A blood test is cheaper, safer and easier to conduct, and it can improve clinical confidence in diagnosing Alzheimer’s and selecting participants for clinical trial and disease monitoring,” Karikari said.

Although current blood tests can accurately detect abnormalities in amyloid and tau proteins, detecting markers of nerve cell damage that are specific to the brain has been harder. Karikari and his colleagues around the world focused on developing an antibody-based blood test that would detect a particular form of tau protein called brain-derived tau,which is specific to Alzheimer’s disease.

They tested it in 600 patients at various stages of Alzheimer’s and found that levels of the protein correlated well with levels of tau in the CSF,and could reliably distinguish Alzheimer’s from other neurodegenerative diseases.

The next step will be to validate the test in a broader range of patients, including those from varied racial backgrounds, and those suffering from different stages of memory loss or other potential dementia symptoms.

10 . Scientists have transfused lab-made red blood cells into a human volunteer in a world-first trial that experts say has major potential for people with hard-to-match blood types or conditions such as sickle cell (镰状细胞) disease. The research could someday mean an end to long searches for compatible (兼容的) donors or dangerous transfusion reactions.

The experimental transfusion was done at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge, England, as part of a collaborative (合作的) effort among UK scientists to understand how lab-made blood transfusions could work.

The scientists took whole blood from donors in a UK database and separated out the stem cells. These are the body’s raw materials — the cells from which all specialized cells, like a red blood cell, can generate. The researchers grew red blood cells from those stem cells and transfused them into two healthy volunteers. The transfusions involved only a tiny amount of blood: the equivalent of one or two teaspoons. A standard blood transfusion would involve many hundred times that amount. This stage of the trial involves two mini transfusions at least four months apart, one with a standard donation of red cells and the other with lab-made cells from the same donor.

The researchers are closely monitoring the volunteers to determine whether the process was safe. They say there have been with “no side effects” so far. They’re also watching how long the lab-grown cells last compared with an infusion (灌输) of standard red blood cells. Red blood cells typically last about 120 days, but a transfusion from a standard donation contains cells that are a variety of ages because the bone marrow (骨髓) continuously makes these cells.

Previous tests have shown that manufactured cells function like normal cells and that these lab-made cells are likely to survive longer overall while in circulation. This study will determine for the first time whether that’s true. Further trials will be necessary to determine whether there could be a clinical use of this lab-grown product.

The research could eventually make a difference to people with sickle cell disease, those who develop antibodies (抗体) against most donor blood types, or those with genetic disorders in which their body can’t make red blood cells or the blood cells they make don’t work well.