Matthew Keeler
Professor Vejdemo-Johansson
HON 223
October 18, 2021
The article that I found very interesting when I was exploring various sources this week was titled “New Research Suggests Signs of Dementia Can be Detected in Blood” by Julia Musto in the New York Post. Within the news article I realized they utilized a lot of the quotes from the study with very little commentary to go along with this information. One of the main points they highlighted was a graph that came directly from the abstract of the paper but didn’t provide any further information in explanation of the deeper meaning behind it other than the basic gist of its meaning. The news article explains what the study generally conducted and explains that by viewing the cellular disease models of both humans and animals, healthy and unhealthy, they were able to identify a 3-microRNA signature pathological condition that could enhance phenotypes in the animal models that were studied. The majority of the news article is the reporting of the studies finding and how this information can be used for the developing cases of Alzheimers and Dementia that are continuously increasing and expected to affect 14 million by the year 2060.
When looking in depth at the research article that was published on EMBOpress, I was able to notice similarities between the abstract and the paper itself. One of the main components from the abstract highlighted why these studies and tests transpired in the first place due to the reason that scientists wanted to be able to identify any signs of disease at an early stage and be able to treat with causative therapy before it’s too late. By identifying any possible molecular biomarkers there can be further testing and screenings done in order to identify at these earlier stages anyone who has the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Diseases. When researching the healthy and unhealthy samples scientists were able to conclude that the molecular biomarker they were looking for was a 3-microRNA signature that can be detected in the blood samples of patients to give more information regarding the relevant patho-mechanisms functioning in the brain. With this information scientists make headway to RNA therapeutics to potentially ameliorate any disease phenotypes currently present in the animal models. In the future it is believed that this can be used as a point-of-care screening approach to find at-risk individuals in time to give them the proper care and therapies necessary to intervene and treat Alzheimer’s disease.
Furthermore, there were various similarities that I identified between the news article, abstract, and the scientific research paper. The news article identified a string of quotes that they gathered from the research paper in order to add depth and some science behind their attention-grabbing headline. However, I do believe that Musto does a great job encapsulating the research paper’s research and conclusions and drawing attention to the findings with suggestive, but accurate headings and information. One very striking similarity is the fact that the news article even utilizes the abstract’s graph in its article from a tweet by EMBO backed with findings that Fischer was able to conclude from gathering the research. The main difference that I saw is obviously the paper discussing their findings with the figures and data tables they collected, while the news article solely goes for attention grabbing lines and information to provide an accurate representation, while still making the article have standout information that will catch the eyes of an abundance of readers. Overall, I felt that the article, abstract, and the research paper all had the same collective agreements and information with the overall research and conclusions drawn are the same throughout all the works.
Works Cited
Islam, Md Rezaul, et al. “A microRNA signature that correlates with cognition and is a target against cognitive decline.” EMBO Molecular Medicine (2021): e13659
News, Fox. “New Research Suggests Signs of Dementia Can Be Detected in Blood.” New York Post, New York Post, 14 Oct. 2021, https://nypost.com/2021/10/14/new-research-suggests-signs-of-dementia-can-be-detected-in-blood/.
