Psoriasis et alcoolisme, à priori, aucun lien entre ces deux maladies et pourtant, une nouvelle étude publiée dans le Journal of Clinical Investigation apporte des preuves précliniques et cliniques d'une diminution de la consommation d'alcoolgrâce à l'apremilast. Il s'agit d'une pilule utilisée pour traiter une maladie de peau courante : le psoriasis. D'après les résultats, les personnes qui ont reçu le médicament ont réduit leur consommation d'alcool de plus de la moitié (en moyenne).
Dans un premier temps, les chercheurs ont testé le traitement dans des modèles animaux qui présentaient un risque génétique de consommation excessive d'alcool. Ils ont découvert que l'aprémilast pouvait augmenter l'activité neuronale dans le noyau accumbens, une région cérébrale clé dans la régulation de la consommation d'alcool.
Une étude sur l'Homme en double aveugle et contrôlée par placebo a été menée dans un second temps. Sur onze jours de traitement, l'aprémilast (90 mg/j) a réduit la consommation d'alcool chez des personnes atteintes de troubles liés à l'alcool, mais qui ne cherchaient pas à se faire soigner pour cela. L'efficacité pourrait donc être supérieure pour des patients souhaitant diminuer leur consommation d'alcool.« L'ampleur de l'effet de l'aprémilast sur la réduction de la consommation d'alcool, combinée à sa bonne tolérance chez nos participants, suggère qu'il s'agit d'un excellent candidat pour une évaluation plus approfondie en tant que nouveau traitement pour les personnes souffrant de troubles de la consommation d'alcool », a déclaré la coauteure Barbara Mason, professeure au département de médecine moléculaire du Scripps (Californie). Le principal avantage de ce traitement prometteur contre l'alcoolisme est qu'il est déjà approuvé par la Food and Drug Administration pour le psoriasis -- faible incidence d'effets indésirables et excellent profil de sécurité.
FuturaSciences
2023 April 3
Explanation: What causes this unusual curving structure near the center of our Galaxy? The long parallel rays slanting across the top of the featured radio image are known collectively as the Galactic Center Radio Arc and point out from the Galactic plane. The Radio Arc is connected to the Galactic Center by strange curving filaments known as the Arches. The bright radio structure at the bottom right surrounds a black hole at the Galactic Center and is known as Sagittarius A*. One origin hypothesis holds that the Radio Arc and the Arches have their geometry because they contain hot plasma flowing along lines of a constant magnetic field. Images from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory appear to show this plasma colliding with a nearby cloud of cold gas.
2023 April 2
Explanation: It was noticed hundreds of years ago by stargazers who could not understand its unusual shape. It looked like a ring on the sky. Except for the rings of Saturn, the Ring Nebula (M57) may be the most famous celestial circle. We now know what it is, and that its iconic shape is due to our lucky perspective. The recent mapping of the expanding nebula's 3-D structure, based in part on this clear Hubble image,indicates that the nebula is a relatively dense, donut-like ring wrapped around the middle of an (American) football-shaped cloud of glowing gas. Our view from planet Earth looks down the long axis of the football, face-on to the ring. Of course, in this well-studied example of a planetary nebula, the glowing material does not come from planets. Instead, the gaseous shroud represents outer layers expelled from the dying, once sun-like star, now a tiny pinprick of light seen at the nebula's center. Intense ultraviolet light from the hot central star ionizes atoms in the gas. The Ring Nebula is about one light-year across and 2,500 light-years away.
2023 April 1
Explanation: Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans. Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar give it a hook-shaped appearance in this deep colorful image, with spiky foreground stars scattered across the telescopic field of view. The image also reveals the distant galaxy's obscuring dust lanes, young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions surrounding a core of yellowish light from an older population of stars. But the star forming regions seem more concentrated along the drawn-out (upper right) spiral arm. The distorted structure is likely the result of an ancient close encounter with the smaller galaxy seen near the top left of the frame. The two interacting galaxies are separated by about 150,000 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 2442.
2023 March 31
Explanation: Shrouded in a thick atmosphere, Saturn's largest moon Titan really is hard to see. Small particles suspended in the upper atmosphere cause an almost impenetrable haze, strongly scattering light at visible wavelengths and hiding Titan's surface features from prying eyes. But Titan's surface is better imaged at infrared wavelengths where scattering is weaker and atmospheric absorption is reduced. Arrayed around this visible light image (center) of Titan are some of the clearest global infrared views of the tantalizing moon so far. In false color, the six panels present a consistent processing of 13 years of infrared image data from the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) on board the Cassini spacecraft orbiting Saturn from 2004 to 2017. They offer a stunning comparison with Cassini's visible light view. NASA's revolutionary rotorcraft mission to Titan is due to launch in 2027.
Sur cette image, on peut apercevoir les tailles des différentes planètes du Système solaire ainsi que du Soleil . Ou comment se sentir tout...
