What the scientists are saying…
Long waits for autism assessment
An extraordinary rise in demand for autism assessments and ADHD treatments has overwhelmed the NHS, a new report warns. Since 2019, there has been a five-fold rise in people waiting to see a specialist who can diagnose autism, analysis of NHS England data by the Nuffield Trust has found. In December 2023, there were 172,000 patients with an open referral for suspected autism – the highest ever reported. There is no national data published on referrals for ADHD assessments, but surveys suggest long waiting times are the norm, and there has been a 51% increase in ADHD medication prescriptions since 2019. The report suggests the rise in demand is due to better awareness of autism and ADHD. However, it acknowledges that experts are undecided about whether there is a new awareness of unmet need, a rise in prevalence of the conditions, or “a rise in overdiagnosis”. Long waits can be very serious for children, said Thea Stein, the Nuffield Trust’s chief executive, as many schools won’t provide support without a diagnosis. “The challenge is that we have an obsolete health service model in place to deal with this avalanche of need,” she added.
Shipworm fish fingers, anyone?
Scientists hope that shipworms – slimy, shell-less molluscs that are said to taste like oysters – can help replace overfished stocks such as cod, says Katie Tarrant in The Sunday Times. The shipworm is generally viewed as a pest because it eats wood immersed in salt water, boring holes in ships, piers and docks. But its ability to turn that wood into highly nutritious, vitamin-packed protein has caught the attention of researchers at Cambridge and Plymouth universities. They have developed the world’s first system for farming shipworms and plan to grow them for the dinner table, as a sustainable alternative to the “big five” – cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns – that make up 80% of the UK’s seafood. They have also renamed the mollusc the “naked clam”, to make it sound more palatable. In the Philippines, shipworms are marinated in vinegar or lime juice, or battered and fried like calamari. But as for British consumers, “we’re thinking they’ll be mashed up like in fish fingers”, said researcher Dr David Willer.
What long Covid does to the body
Around one in ten people with Covid will be left with symptoms – brain fog, muscle pain, fatigue, shortness of breath – that last more than 12 weeks. Although scientists are learning more about long Covid, it remains hard to treat. Now, new research offers hope that existing drugs could help sufferers. For the study, published in Nature Immunology, scientists compared blood samples from 426 people with long Covid with blood from 233 people who’d fully recovered from the virus. They found that those with long Covid had distinct patterns of inflammatory proteins in their blood. This may be because the immune system is fighting tiny amounts of coronavirus lingering in the body. Or it could be that the Covid virus reactivated another virus, such as herpes, which was lying dormant in the body; or triggered autoimmunity – when the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues. Whatever the explanation, the finding raises the possibility that medicines for rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory conditions could treat it. “This work provides strong evidence that long Covid is caused by post-viral inflammation, but shows layers of complexity,” said lead researcher Prof Peter Openshaw.
Pregnancy speeds up ageing
Having children, we are sometimes told, helps keep us young – but it seems the opposite is true: pregnancy speeds up biological ageing, new research suggests. For the study, in the journal PNAS, 1,735 women in the Philippines gave two blood samples, one when they were aged 20 to 22 and another up to nine years later. They were also asked how many children they had. The scientists then examined the samples for subtle chemical changes to their DNA that are associated with ageing. This revealed that motherhood seemed to speed up biological ageing, with each child making a woman two or three months older. By contrast, signs of accelerated ageing were not seen in a similar group of young fathers. This suggests pregnancy, rather than parenthood, ages women.