Brewing protein from greenhouse gases: A greener, more profitable alternative to farming, fishing

Feeding a growing global population has long depended on expanding farmland and harvesting marine resources, often at significant environmental cost. A new study suggests a different approach may be viable: producing protein by cultivating methane-consuming microbes in controlled systems.

 

New MetaRing Sensor Spots Breast Cancer Drug Response in 10 Minutes

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have developed a biosensor that can quickly detect how breast cancer responds to paclitaxel. The system, called MetaRing, analyzes tiny biological samples and delivers results in about 10 minutes. The study, published recently, points to faster, more personalized chemotherapy decisions.

 

Lead levels only in food? Tests now find it in Children’s fast fashion clothing above Federal limits

A brightly colored shirt, soft to the touch and designed for everyday wear, may carry more than dye.

Preliminary tests conducted by researchers at Marian University, a private university in Indianapolis, found elevated levels of lead in children’s fast fashion clothing, exceeding federal safety limits.

The findings were presented March 23 at the American Chemical Society Spring 2026 meeting in Atlanta, a major scientific conference featuring thousands of research presentations.

Researchers tested 11 children’s shirts from four retailers, including fast fashion and discount brands, and found that all samples exceeded the U.S. regulatory limit for lead in children’s products.

Lead levels in children clothing exceed U.S. safety limits

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency responsible for product safety standards, sets a lead limit of 100 parts per million for children’s items such as toys and clothing.

Each of the tested shirts surpassed that threshold, according to the researchers.

Cristina Avello, a student researcher involved in the project, said the findings are particularly concerning for younger children.

“Not only are children the most vulnerable to the effects of lead, but they’re also the population that is going to be putting their clothes in their mouths,” she said. [1]

Lead exposure is considered harmful at any level. Health agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have linked it to neurological damage, behavioral problems, and developmental issues, especially in children under six years old.

The study found that brightly colored garments, particularly red and yellow fabrics, tended to contain higher levels of lead than more muted tones.

Researchers said this may be tied to the chemicals used in dyeing processes.

Some manufacturers use lead(II) acetate, a compound that helps dyes adhere to fabric and maintain bright colors over time.

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Vano3333)

Simulated ingestion tests show potential exposure risk for children

In a second phase of testing, researchers simulated stomach digestion to estimate how much lead could become bioaccessible if fabric is chewed or sucked.

The analysis modeled how gastric acid might break down the material and release lead into the body.

The results suggest that even brief mouthing behavior could expose children to lead levels exceeding daily intake limits set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Researchers described the estimates as conservative, meaning actual exposure could vary depending on behavior and frequency.

They said repeated chewing over time could raise blood lead levels to a point where clinical monitoring is recommended.

Kamila Deavers, the project’s principal investigator, said the research grew out of personal experience after her child showed elevated blood lead levels linked to toy coatings before stricter regulations were in place.

“I started to see many articles about lead in clothing from fast fashion, and I realized not too many parents knew about the issue,” she said.

commons.wikimedia.org

Fast fashion textile safety concerns and next research steps

Previous studies have identified lead in metal components of clothing, such as zippers and buttons, leading to recalls.

The new research expands that concern to the fabric itself, suggesting contamination may be more widespread than previously understood.

The team plans to test additional clothing items and examine whether washing affects the presence of lead compounds.

Researchers are also exploring whether contaminated clothing could transfer lead to other garments during laundering or leave residues inside washing machines. [

They said alternative dye fixing methods already exist, including plant based compounds and mineral mordants such as alum, which are considered safer.

Adopting those alternatives would likely increase production costs, which could slow industry adoption without regulatory or consumer pressure.

The researchers said their goal is to raise awareness and encourage more rigorous screening of clothing products.

“Everything that we’re doing is only important and helpful if we talk about it,” Avello said.

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Hydration strategy test for kidney stones is in water: Study

A large new clinical trial has taken a closer look at a long-standing piece of medical advice for kidney stone patients: drink more water. While the recommendation remains sound, the study suggests that actually sticking to it in real life is far harder than many assume.

Kidney stones are known for causing severe, often debilitating pain. In the United States, about one in 11 people will develop them at some point, and nearly half of those patients are likely to face a recurrence. Preventing that cycle has been a major focus for doctors, with high fluid intake widely seen as one of the most effective strategies.

To test how practical that advice is, researchers from the Urinary Stone Disease Research Network conducted what is now the largest behavioural study of its kind. The trial, coordinated by the Duke Clinical Research Institute and published in The Lancet on March 19, followed 1,658 adolescents and adults across six major U.S. medical centres over a two-year period.

Participants were split into two groups. One received standard care, while the other was enrolled in an intensive hydration programme designed to encourage higher fluid intake. This programme went beyond simple advice. It included smart water bottles that tracked how much participants drank, personalised daily hydration targets, reminder messages, financial incentives, and regular health coaching.

Each participant in the programme was given a tailored “fluid prescription,” calculated based on how much urine they typically produced and how much more fluid they would need to reach a target of at least 2.5 litres per day — a level believed to reduce the risk of stone formation.

The results showed that people in the programme did increase their fluid intake and produced more urine on average. However, the improvement was modest, and crucially, it did not translate into a significant reduction in the recurrence of symptomatic kidney stones across the group as a whole.

Researchers say this gap highlights a central challenge: adherence. Even with constant reminders, monitoring, and incentives, maintaining very high levels of daily fluid intake proved difficult.

Charles Scales, a senior author of the study and a professor at Duke University School of Medicine, noted that the findings underline how demanding such lifestyle changes can be. He pointed out that difficulty in maintaining these habits likely contributes to the high rate of recurrence seen in kidney stone patients.

Importantly, the study stands out for measuring actual stone recurrence rather than relying only on indirect markers such as fluid intake or urine output. Researchers used imaging and regular follow-ups to track whether new stones formed or existing ones grew, offering a more realistic picture of outcomes.

The findings are prompting experts to rethink a one-size-fits-all approach. Gregory Tasian, a co-senior author and paediatric urologist, said future strategies may need to be more personalised. Instead of asking every patient to meet the same hydration target, doctors may need to identify which patients benefit most from specific goals and why others struggle to maintain them.

The study also points to broader factors that may affect hydration habits — including work environments, daily routines, and individual health conditions — suggesting that behavioural solutions alone may not be enough.

Researchers are now calling for more tailored interventions, which could include customised hydration plans, better ways to address practical barriers to drinking more fluids, and even medical therapies aimed at preventing minerals from crystallising in urine.

For patients, the takeaway is clear but nuanced. Drinking more water still matters, but this study shows that turning that advice into a sustainable daily habit — and one that meaningfully reduces risk — is more complex than it appears.

As lead author Alana Desai put it, kidney stone disease is a chronic condition marked by sudden and often severe episodes that can disrupt everyday life. While many patients would welcome a simple solution, the path to prevention may require a more personalised and multifaceted approach.

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Python Blood is finding itself into a new way of making safer weight loss treatments

According to scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder, the next generation of weight-loss therapies may be shaped with the help of an unexpected source namely the python blood.

Researchers did name a compound found in pythons, which was published in Nature Metabolism on March 19, that seems to naturally inhibit appetite but maintain the muscle and general metabolic well-being. The discovery may open the path to some weight-loss medications that do not have some of the side effects experienced with the existing drugs.

The study, which was carried out in partnership with the researchers at Stanford and Baylor universities, focuses on the way in which the pythons cope with the extreme feeding patterns. These snakes are able to eat enormous meals and then spend months and even longer without eating it without ill-effect on their organs and even muscle tissue.

The senior author of the research, Leslie Leinwand, remarked that the work was a feeling of learning through the extreme of nature: the scientific perspective. Animals such as pythons, according to her, are capable of doing biological things that mammals cannot, and this provides hints on medical innovation.

Pythons are also characterized by great metabolic plasticity. Once they have eaten, their bodies change dramatically: the size of their heart may grow by approximately 25 percent and their metabolism may kick into overdrive to digest food effectively.

In a bid to determine the cause of these changes, scientists examined blood samples of ball pythons and Burmese pythons after feeding cycles. They discovered over 200 metabolites that were highly increased after a meal.

A single compound, para-tyramine-O-sulfate (pTOS) was outstanding. Its levels increased in almost 1000 times following feeding.

Subsequent experiments, which were implemented along with Baylor researchers revealed that, when pTOS was given to mice, it worked on the appetite-controlling centre in the brain- the hypothalamus, resulting in weight loss. Notably, this has been achieved without inciting gastrointestinal distress, muscle wastage or energy deficiency.

Gut bacteria in snakes synthesize the compound which is not inherent to mice. It is found in humans at low concentrations, especially after meals, but has remained largely undetected, since most metabolic research is done on rodents.

The results are published when the use of drugs affecting the GLP-1 hormone like Ozempic and Wegovy is popular in weight loss management, but may cause side effects and may be quit in the first year.

According to Leinwand, the new discovered compound might be another course. She indicated that even the available GLP-1 medicines were nature-inspired, namely, a hormone present in Gila monster venom.

Based on the finding, the research group has started a start-up, Arkana Therapeutics, to examine how python-related metabolic compounds may be converted into medication.

In addition to the loss of weight, the scientists are also exploring wider applications. Sarcopenia or age-related muscle loss is a significant unresolved medical issue and no current effective treatments exist. The fact that the python can maintain muscle mass, even with many days of starvation, could be of considerable importance.

The researchers intend to explore more into the pTOS mechanism in human beings and examine other metabolites that were found in the study some of which rose by up to 500 to 800 percent following a meal.

The present findings, he said, are but the tip of the iceberg as there is much more to discover about nature-inspired metabolic therapies.

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Stay Fit While You Fly: Ayush ministry launches Smart yoga regime to Air Travellers

Everything appears to get slower at 35,000 feet above ground, though the body does, as well. Even the most experienced traveller can get a sore back, tired and mentally exhausted because of hours in a tight seat. To combat such a contemporary issue of traveling, a very uncomplicated yet effective remedy is flying: Yoga for Air Travel – the 5-minute on-flight wellness system made with the intent of being very easy to follow.

An innovative project launched at Yoga Mahotsav 2026 by Shri Prataprao Jadhav, Hon. Union Minister of State (Independent Charge), Ayush This is an innovative project where the timeless yoga can be practiced in the octant and convert your seat into a rejuvenation zone. The protocol was designed by the Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga to suit the needs of the modern frequent fliers – giving a fast, safe and efficient method to refresh oneself in the air.

Emphasizing the idea behind the project, Hon’ble Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Ayush Shri Prataprao Jadhav, stated that yoga has an immense preventive health and well-being power. This in-flight yoga guideline is an indication of our desire to ensure that yoga is available in all environments including those at the 35,000 feet location so that people can remain active, relaxed, and balanced when people are on the move.

Why In-Flight Yoga Matters

Long-haul travel especially by air can cause a lot of immobility. This may cause muscle stiffness, lack of circulation, fatigue, jet lag and in some instances, more severe issues such as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The necessity to have a basic wellness intervention is clear in a combination with travel stress and change of cabin pressure.

The 5-minute Yoga protocol will help with these challenges with the help of gentle movements, mindful breathing and short meditation, and will help to restore the balance in the body and mind.

Insisting on the scientific and preventive touch, Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, the Secretary, the Ministry of Ayush, stressed that the practice of yoga in everyday life, even in rather limited conditions such as flights, may play an enormous role in enhancing circulation, alleviating stress, and maintaining the well-being. This is because such practical interventions simplify preventive healthcare and make it accessible.

Eating and Exercising at Your Desk

The protocol is easy and accessible and does not need any special equipment or can be conducted when one is seated. It is a smooth combination of physical mobility and breath awareness and mental relaxation:

Centring (15 seconds): Start with a silent awareness or intent to get yourself grounded.
Light Joint movements (45 seconds): rotations of shoulders, stretching of ankle, and any simple movements to enhance blood flow and lessen stiffness.
Seated Yoga Poses: Altered poses include Tadasana (Palm Tree Pose), seated Cat-Cow, spinal rotations, and mild movements involving the legs in order to relieve tension and posture.
Pranayama (Breathing Practices): Deep breathing, Anulom Vilom, Bhramari, and Sheetali to relax the nervous system and improve the flow of oxygen.
Meditation (30 seconds): A short break to re-focus the mind and help bring about relaxation.
Enhancing the greater picture of changing behaviour, Ms Monalisa Dash, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Ayush, stressed, “The initiative shows how yoga may be effectively applied in day-to-day circumstances. We want to establish a culture of wellness, which will accompany a person wherever he or she may go by encouraging so easy habit.

Small Practice, Big Impact

Within five minutes, this routine can:

Improve blood circulation
Decrease muscle stiffness and fatigue.
Ease stress and anxiety
Help in digestion and hydration awareness.
Help manage jet lag
Most importantly, it enables travellers to be in-charge of their well-being- even in-flight.

Wellness, Anywhere You Go

Yoga is beautiful because of its flexibility. It finds you at home, in the office, or at the altitude of the clouds. This in-flight procedure is an instructional notice that wellness does not need additional time or area–only purpose.

The next time you buckle in your seatbelt, take a moment to pay attention to yourself. It is better to stop and rest to reconnect with oneself sometimes, the best way to travel far.

Fly well. Breathe easy. Stay balanced.

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Shingles Vaccine Correlated with Stunning Plummet in Cardiac Risks: Study

New research provided at the Annual Scientific Session of the American College of Cardiology shows that a shingles vaccine could provide important protection against heart complications that are life-threatening in individuals who already have a cardiovascular disease.

The researchers used a huge population of over 246,000 adults with atherosclerotic heart disease in the United States to carry out the study and discovered that individuals who had at least one dose of a shingles vaccine had significantly lower risks of serious cardiac events within one year than those who were never vaccinated.

It was found that vaccinated people had almost twice the risk to experience major adverse cardiac events – which consists of heart attacks, strokes and cardiovascular-related deaths. These results complement an emerging body of literature that the shingles vaccine has some other positive effects other than protection against viral infection.

The analysis was performed based on 2018 to 2025 health records with the TriNetX database and comparing two matched groups (more than 123,000 patients each) one of them vaccinated with Shingrix or Zostavax and the other one unvaccinated. The respondents were 50 and above and with very similar demographic and health characteristics.

The changes were intense within a follow-up period of one month to a year after vaccination. It was discovered that vaccinated patients were 46 percent lower than unvaccinated ones to suffer a significant cardiac event and 66 percent less prone to death of any cause. Heart attack risk was reduced by 32 percent and the risks of stroke and heart failure also decreased by 25 percent.

Found in High Risk Individuals

The protective effect was found to be particularly potent in people who were already at high cardiovascular risk, said the lead author Dr Robert Nguyen of the University of California, Riverside. He observed that the risk reduction is equal to significant lifestyle change like smoking cessation.

It is not new to medical experts that shingles is an inflammatory condition caused by reactivation of the varicella-zoster virus and can result in development of blood clots that may cause cardiovascular complications. The vaccine can indirectly eliminate these risks by acting as a preventive measure towards infection.

U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now suggest the use of shingles vaccination to all adults above 50 years of age and to those younger with compromised immune systems. Although the vaccine is mainly meant to stop painful rashes and long-term nerve damage related to shingles, the new benefits on the cardiovascular system can reinforce the arguments in favor of increasing the coverage.

Within One Year of Vaccination

Nevertheless, scholars warned that the research was looking at the results within one year of vaccination. The impact of long-term effect may be wavering, though previous studies pointed out that protective benefits might last many years.

There were also other limitations that were appreciated in the study. People who vaccinate might be better placed to adopt healthier behaviours on the whole, which would somewhat affect the outcomes notwithstanding the ability to control socioeconomic and lifestyle differences.

Nevertheless, the size of the dataset and the agreement of the results of the research conducted on several outcomes give credibility to the conclusion that the shingles vaccination is linked to the significant decrease in cardiovascular risk.

The evidence emerges against the backdrop of more general campaigns against vaccine hesitancy and misinformation, with scientists highlighting the possibility of established vaccines having broader health utility than previously realized.

 

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Hidden acid imbalance in kidney disease raises red flags: Japan Study

A massive national survey in Japan has found a massive gap in the routine care of chronic kidney disease (CKD), and one of the major metabolic complications used to remain undiagnosed by lack of testing.

The researchers under the leadership of Mai Tanaka have conducted the study using the data of the Japan Chronic Kidney Disease Database Extension and analyzed the clinical records of over 21 university hospitals in the period between 2014 and 2021. It targeted individuals with moderate CKD (stages 3a to 4) that already have high susceptibility to disease progression and complications.

The results indicate a glaring omission: a simple and cheap test such as serum bicarbonate, which is used to diagnose metabolic acidosis, was ordered less than 10% per year. Consequently, the condition, which, as known, deteriorates kidney outcomes and general health, seems to be considerably under-measured in the everyday care.

Metabolic acidosis is a condition that develops when the body retains too much acid in it because of a deteriorated renal strength. It has also been associated with muscle atrophy, bone mineral loss, insulin resistance with accelerated kidney disease, and an increased risk of dying. The clinical practice is to intervene in cases where the bicarbonate of the body is lower than 22 mEq/L.

Nevertheless, the Japanese statistics indicate that the burden of the condition is being hidden by the low level of testing. Although the general prevalence seemed to be low in the general population of CKD, a more detailed look at patients that indeed underwent a test showed a significantly different pattern. Almost half of them fit the criteria of metabolic acidosis, and the rates were getting higher as the kidney function declined.

Follow up care was limited even among the patients who depicted definite biochemical signs of the condition. It was determined by the study that a gap between detection and clinical response was significant, with only 8.6% actually diagnosed and only 7.5% actually treated.

Metabolic Acidosis Undetected

The results are similar to those reported in North America where individual studies of the U.S. and Canadian cohorts have also indicated that metabolic acidosis is commonly undiagnosed in CKD patients. In such researches, less than every five patients was given sodium bicarbonate treatment in spite of the facts that acid retention was associated with persistent damage to the kidney by inflammation and fibrosis.

According to experts, the problem is not about access or price, since bicarbonate testing is readily available, but it is more about the failure to integrate it into a normal monitoring practice. Current guidelines, such as those of nephrology societies, suggest routine evaluation and correction of metabolic complications in CKD but this is not done so consistently.

The paper highlights a larger issue of concern of health systems where there has been a progressive growth in cases of CKD worldwide due to aging, increased incidences of diabetes and hypertension. Researchers indicate that regular bicarbonate testing may be an intervention that is scalable and practical as a part of the regular care panel.

Early identification of metabolic acidosis would enable clinicians to start treatment, either the use of alkali therapy or diet change at a time that might allow it to delay disease onset and minimize complications.

The authors have come to the conclusion that there is not as much a problem with the rarity of the condition but its invisibility in existing practice. In the absence of regular testing, there is a high-risk chance that a high and manageable element of kidney disease can be ignored, which has long-term patient consequences.

 

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Father’s health key to pregnancy, healthy child’s birth: Study

In a significant international study, it has been observed that the health, life experience of fathers can have a significant effect on the pregnancy outcome and future well being of the children which argues the long held maternal-based approach to reproductive care.

The study, which was published in The Lancet and conducted by the team of scientists at the University of Southampton in collaboration with other international partners, claims that the prenatal health of men has long been disregarded despite its quantifiable effects on maternal health and child development.

Based on the evidence of biological, behavioural and social sciences, the study describes the ways in which the physical health of a father, his age, mental health, substance use and childhood experiences could influence the results of pregnancy. There are instances where scientists asserted that paternal factors can be as intense as -or even more so, than the conventional maternal.

Professor Keith Godfrey, a principal researcher of the study, indicated that the results represented a breakthrough in the comprehension of the role of parental health on the future generation. He mentioned that although the health of mothers is important, paying attention to it only leads to the neglect of a larger number of factors that trigger well before pregnancy.

The study presents a framework based on preconception health, in which the upbringing, education, environment of a man and exposure to stress can be influenced and impact on his health in reproductive years. The same factors, in their turn, can also affect the health behaviours of a partner, such as access to prenatal care, and have direct biological impact on the developing foetus.

Next Generation’s Health

Co-author Dr Danielle Schoenaker emphasized the inter relatedness of parental health by stating that there is a chain of influence that starts in life and continues to the next generation. The study indicates that the problems would be improved by considering these factors and thereby the health of children and their pregnancies would be better in a population.

Another issue that the researchers concern themselves with is the social implication of making women the main responsibility in the health of children. They say that this kind of practice enhances gender disparities and ignores the aspect of collective responsibility in child-rearing.

Jonathan Huang, the lead author, emphasized the bigger picture of the structural context, how historical inequalities, such as racism and colonial heritage, have caused disruption in family and community roles, especially among black and brown men. The study indicates that these disruptions have led to disparities in health outcomes and health care access.

The authors advocate culturally sensitive public health that involves more active inclusion of men in the reproductive health planning as well as initiatives of strengthening the family and community support systems.

The research concludes that the enhancement of the health of the boys and the young males should be regarded as an investment in the public health in the long term. According to researchers, policies, clinical practices and awareness campaigns should be modified to be more cognizant of an inclusive model of reproductive care one that views the father as more of an active rather than a passive participant of the pregnancy and child development process.

The authors do not underline the fact that maternal health is still the core, but represent their results as the appeal to more balanced approach when both parents are taken care of prior to, during and after pregnancy to ensure better results in the following generations.

 

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Organ Donations After Cardiac Death Soar in US, Expand Transplant Lifeline 

One of the significant changes in the way people approach organ donation in the United States is the growing availability of transplantation organs, with almost half of all donors being patients whose heart has gone dead, according to latest studies.

According to the study by scientists at NYU Langone Health, it has been established that donation after circulatory death (DCD) has increased significantly in the last 25 years – marking an increase of 2 percent of all donors in 2000 to 49 percent in 2025. According to the findings published in Journal of the American Medicine, the development of medical technology is transforming transplant medicine.

The growth has been realized when demand is acute. According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, more than 100,000 individuals are already on transplant waiting lists in the U.S., and this fact requires finding new sources of viable organs.

Conventionally, organs donated have been infected out of patients who have been declared brain dead, those organs keep being oxygenated with the heart still beating. Conversely, DCD deals with patients who are not yet dead, but are on life support. In case life-sustaining treatment is withdrawn and the patient dies in a given period, then organs can be removed to be transplanted, though it must be otherwise previously agreed.

Drawbacks Overcome With Tech 

In past, organs transplanted by such sources were less viable because of a short period of lack of oxygen following the cessation of the heart. Nevertheless, these drawbacks have been overcome with the recent technology advances.

Improved organ preservation has been achieved using techniques like normothermic regional perfusion in which blood flow to organs is resumed following cardiac death and machine perfusion systems in which oxygenated fluids are delivered extravascularly. These inventions have made innovations through which the surgeons can safely utilize organs that were not considered to be perfect.

According to researchers, this has expanded the pool of donors. The researchers discovered that current DCD donors are older individuals with higher probabilities of underlying diseases like diabetes or hypertension as compared to previous generation, which is more inclusive in the selection of the donor.

Syed Ali Husain, the lead author, indicated that the increase in circulatory-death donations is already producing a tangible impact, and thousands of patients were already getting transplants who otherwise would not have been able to survive the wait.

Regional Disparity Persists

The national data on transplants also indicated that there were disparities in the connections of the regions. DCD donors contributed up to 73 per cent of all donations in certain regions of the country and only 11 per cent in other regions indicating a lack of balance in the practice.

The researchers working on the study underlined the importance of developing uniform national standards and ongoing involvement of the population to protect the ethics and preserve a trusting attitude towards the process of donating.

Researchers believe that more papers are required to understand long-term outcomes and enhance protocols as the DCD is becoming more popular. Further research will aim to enhance the process of donor identification and understand the performance of organs of donors who died of a circulatory death as opposed to the performance of organs of those who died of a traditional brain-death.

The results represent an important development in the field of transplant medicine – one that may aid in reducing the disparity between supply and demand of organs, and also pose new challenges to clinical practice, ethics and popular opinion.

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New strategy prevents pancreatic cancer removing microscopic lesions early

A recent preclinical trial using mice reveals that the precancerous cells of the pancreas can be disposed before they can develop into a tumor. Application of an experimental therapy to attack microscopic precancerous lesions in the pancreas was shown to increase survival in mouse models of a pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) by nearly 2 times even when the same therapy was administered when the cancer was already present.

The study was carried out under the leadership of physician-scientists of the Perelman school of medicine in the University of Pennsylvania and Abramson cancer center of Penn medicine, which is released to date in Science.

It is also the first instance that scientists have demonstrated that a medical intervention could prevent growth of pre-cancerous lesions in the pancreas before it becomes pancreatic cancer and this is a good indication to the growing area of cancer interception.

I believe that the next age of cancer treatment will be interception, and I am confident that such an endeavor will be developed by cancer treatment experts like Robert Vonderheide, the director of the Abramson Cancer Center. Pancreatic cancer has had a stubborn poor prognosis, scarce treatment options as well as no tested screening and prevention measures. And should we be able to get a means of intercepting it–of detecting and counteracting abnormalities in their first beginnings of malignancy, it would be an issue game changer.

Cancer interception is different to cancer prevention.

Contrary to prevention approaches, like HPV vaccination or ceasing a smoking habit, which seek to ensure that the cancer never develops at all, cancer interception focuses on the first stages of a cell becoming malignant. Colonoscopy can be taken to illustrate an instance of a mechanical interception where the precancerous polyps are removed before they turn into colorectal cancer. Since the harder the malignancy is to treat, the larger it is, the idea of curing the malignant growths before they become cancer is quite a logical one in theory, yet challenging to be proven.

“The paper is a preclinical evidence-of-concept demonstrating that medical cancer interception is better than treatment of a diagnosis,” said the lead author, Minh Than, a clinical and research fellow in the field of Hematology-Oncology. “This research demonstrates the strength of using a proactive approach to cancer, as opposed to a reactive one. This will be interesting to test in our patients in the second stage of this work.”

RAS inhibition is an efficient way of intercepting cancer in mice.

In this research, the researchers employed two experimental inhibitors that are directed to the cancer causing gene, KRAS. KRAS mutations that cause more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancers are the most frequent cancer-causing gene mutation found in all cancers and has been traditionally thought to be undruggable.

The first KRAS inhibitor was approved in 2021 to treat non-small cell lung cancer and since that time, there have been additional KRAS inhibitors entering clinical trials treating various types of cancer, such as pancreatic cancer.

The majority of PDAC tumors are seen to be as a result of microscopic lesions referred to as PanINs (pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasias), which are too small to be detected through scans, and nearly all the PanINs have KRAS mutations. PanINs are typical in adult pancreases, but the few who become cancer only rarely; researchers are yet to understand the reason behind this unusual malignant conversion. Though this study did not aim at learning the biology or at better detection of PanINs, the research team hypothesized that removing these early lesions with the help of KRAS inhibitors, regardless of their awareness of which have malignant potential, would be an effective approach to preventing their ever transition into PDAC.

The group evaluated the two compounds identified by Revolution Medicines whose scientists participated in the analysis.

Both the compounds are meant to block the RAS when it is in the active or ON form and mediate cancer growth. RMC-9945 is a preclinical tool compound a selective inhibitor of KRAS G12D, the most frequent type of KRAS mutation in pancreatic cancer and it is one of a class of oral RAS(ON) G12D-selective inhibitors, such as the investigational drug candidate zoldonrasib (RMC-9805). RMC-7977 is a compound of clinical tool that targets several variants of RAS(ON) and is an example of oral RAS(ON) multi-selective inhibitors that contains an investigational drug candidate daraxonrasib (RMC-6236).

The research team considered the gold standard in the preclinical assessment of potential therapies of PDAC using an immunocompatible mouse model that was developed by Penn and that had a healthy and functional immune system. They firstly laid a baseline of PanIN to PDAC progression development in a control group. Then they treated an intervention group to either RMC-9945 or RMC-7977, following PanIN development, but prior to tumor development. It was also found that the reduction of the precancerous lesions occurred after 10 days of treatment and further reduced upon 28 days of treatment. In this milestone, Tumors took longer to form, and the survival of the mice was higher than in those mice that were not given the intervention. The team then discovered that extended administration of RMC-7977 to PanIN-bearing mice increased median overall survival time threefold in comparison with untreated control group with PanINs. Lastly, the intervention group that was treated earlier before the development of tumors had almost twice the lifespan compared to the group of mice that was treated after tumor development.

Further clinical trial to target high-risk patients.

The direct analogy in this paper places PanINs on the map as the possible targets of intercepting cancer and opens the field to investigate KRAS inhibitors in a new context, co-corresponding author Ben Stanger, MD, PhD, the Hanna Wise Professor in Cancer Research and director of the Penn Pancreatic Cancer Research Center. Nevertheless, due to the fact that PanINs are not visible on imaging tests and we are dealing with the case of treating people who are not cancer-diagnosed, we should seriously consider how to transfer this preclinical study to the appropriate population so that human trials can be conducted.

The team seeks to apply the research to a clinical trial where it targets high-risk patients who are already under monitoring over growths that exceed PanINs in size but still at a low risk of cancer but are usually removed once they attain a specific size. Should such a strategy proceed, the research group believes that it would be most relevant to people with a genetic susceptibility to pancreatic cancer, such as BRCA1, BRCA2, or PALB2 gene mutations, hereditary pancreatitis, precancerous cysts, or other high-risk factors. Eventually, the strategy could be considered for a broader range of individuals at intermediate risk.

As a lifetime passes in front of our eyes, here’s the structure of how aging plays out

The daily habits of an animal may indicate their lifespan by the age of the midlife stage.

It is the disturbing end of a new study backed by the Knight Initiative of Brain Resilience at the Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute of Stanford where researchers placed scores of short-lived fish inside continuous, lifelong surveillance to investigate the connection between behavior and aging.

Growth of individual fish in the markedly different ways, although the genetics were similar and the environment was closely monitored. By the time the animals grew up to their youthfulness, those differences had already been shown in their swimming and resting habits–and were so great as to determine whether a fish would in the end live to a long or brief existence.

Although the study was in the case of fish, the results suggest that the ability to record minor, daily behaviors such as movement and sleep, which wearable devices now capture daily, might provide insights into the process of aging in humans.

It was published in Science on March 12, 2016, and was the result of a study headed by Neuro postdoctoral students Claire Bedbrook and Ravi Nath at Wu Tsai Neuro. The study was an extension of a Knight Initiative-funded project between the Stanford labs of geneticist Anne Brunet and bioengineer Karl Deisseroth, who were the senior authors of the study.

How to observe the process of aging?

In the majority of aging studies, the comparison is made between groups of young animals and groups of old ones. Though enlightening, those snapshots obscure the way ageing occurs in individuals over a period of time, and the way disparities among individuals occur.

Bedbrook and Nath were interested in what could be uncovered by observing aging throughout a lifespan in the entire adult lives. The aging trajectories of even animals of the same species, raised under comparable conditions, can be radically different, and they may greatly differ in length of life. The researchers posed the question whether in natural behavior the beginnings and the way of divergence of those individual paths can be found out.

The making of that question experimentally possible was done by the African turquoise killifish. Being one of the shortest-lived vertebrates examined in the lab with a typical lifespan of four to eight months, it still possesses certain important biological similarities with other longer-lived organisms, such as humans, such as a sophisticated brain.

This study is based on the Brunet lab pioneering the design of a killifish model to study aging, and the foundation of this research was the first to continuously follow individual vertebrates (day and night), and through their entire adult lives.

Bedbrook and Nath and their colleagues designed an automated apparatus where individual fish were kept in separate tanks which were monitored by a camera. Similar to a scientific version of The Truman Show, where the whole life of a man is filmed straight through, the installation filmed each and every moment of the animals lives. Overall, they trailed 81 fish and produced billions of video frames.

Based on those recordings the researchers extracted specific data concerning the posture, speed, rest and movement of the animals and were able to identify 100 different behavioral syllables or short recurrent actions that are the elementary building blocks of the movement and rest of a fish.

According to Brunet, the Michele and Timothy Barakett Professor of Genetics at Stanford Medicine, behavior is a marvelously coordinated display, a report on what is going on in the brain and in the body. Molecular markers are the crucial components, though they are mere slices of biology. Through behavior you observe the entire organism, incessantly and without any form of invasion.

Now having this life-long record of behavior, the researchers were able to start to ask another group of questions: When do animals begin to age differently? What is different about those paths at the beginning? And, can behavior in itself determine the length of lifespan of a person?

The indicators of an animal lifespan

The discovery of the early divergence in individual aging paths was indeed one of the most unexpected discoveries of the team. The researchers then tracked each fish throughout its lifespan and then clumped the animals according to the amount of time they eventually spent alive and then traced back to the point of behavioral distinction. They discovered at a young age (70 to 100 days of age) fish which would further survive shorter or longer lives were already acting differently.

Among the most obvious distinctions, there were sleep. Young adults had fish which lived shorter lives, were more likely to sleep at night, and more and more during the day. On the contrary, fish which survived longer in life tended to sleep at night.

But it was not sleep alone which signalled. Fish on paths to a longer life also swam more vigorously and faster when they ran about the tank–a gauge of spontaneous movement which, in other species, has also been found to be associated with longevity. Their nocturnal activities were also less.

Most importantly, such differences in behavior were not merely descriptive but predictive. The researchers demonstrated that only a few days of behavioral data of middle-aged fish were sufficient to predict lifetime with the aid of machine learning models. According to Bedbrook, behavioral changes at a very young age are informing us of future health, as well as, future lifespan.

Aging unfolds in steps

Their observations, also, showed that aging, at any rate in killifish, was not a gradual gradual drift. The majority of the fish passed through two or six fast behavior changes, with only a few days each, and then longer, more stable periods of several weeks. Notably, fish would develop in a certain sequence, as opposed to alternating between them.

“It was a slow process,” Bedbrook said, “of getting old. Rather animals are stable over a long period and then they change rapidly into a new level. The fact that this staged architecture can be seen as a result of unchanged behavior itself was among the most thrilling things we have discovered. This progressive trend follows the emerging evidence of human studies, such as the discovery that molecular characteristics of aging vary in waves, particularly in midlife and old age. The killifish results provide us with a behavioral perspective of the same thing.”

The scientists speculate that a life cycle of relative stability interrupted by short intervals of intense change might have been one of the processes of aging. It is more of a Jenga tower, where you can remove a lot of blocks without much impact, until you make one change that requires a re-organisation to take place, which will force a sudden re-organisation, than a gradual downhill slide.

The authors also compared the activity of genes in eight organs of adult fish at a time when behavior was predictive of future lifespan. Instead of studying specific genes, they sought concerted alterations between clusters of genes that collaborate in common biological activities.

The most distinguishable differences were in the liver, where those genes that played a role in protein synthesis and cellular homeostasis were more expressed in fish that took shorter aging pathways. These results provided a molecular clue that the internal biology of the animals in question is also being altered with the changing behavioral pattern during their growth.

Behavior reflects fresh perspective on old age

According to Nath, “behavior is a very sensitive measure of aging. One can observe two animals of the same chronological age and can know by the mere behavior of the animals that they are aging very differently.”

The sensitivity is manifested in most spheres of everyday life, and sleep became a significant indicator of the way the aging process was being experienced. Sleep quality and sleep-wake cycles tend to impair as an individual ages, and these alterations have been associated with age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disease in human beings. Nath also wants to inquire if it is possible to manipulate sleep to achieve healthier aging, and whether it is possible to change the aging process of individuals by acting early before they start to decline.

Another goal of the team is to test the possibilities of modifying aging paths with the use of specific interventions, such as diet modification, and also, genetic alterations that can potentially affect the rate at which aging will occur.

In the case of Bedbrook, the killifish research presents the possibility of exploration further on the subject of what motivates changes in transition during the aging process and the possibility to delay, prevent, or reverse changes in aging. She further takes interest in taking the experimental system further towards more naturalistic environments where animals are given the opportunity to socialize and live in richer environments closer to the real world.

Now, she said, “we can map the process of aging in a vertebrate on a continuous basis. As wearables and long-term tracking become a reality in human beings, I am interested to learn whether the same principles, namely: early predictors, staged aging, divergent trajectories, will also apply in human beings.”

The other significant frontier is the brain itself. The lab created by Deisseroth works on equipment to record the neural activity during extended durations of time, and, as a result, one can trace the variations of neural activity and the aging trajectory of the same animals. Such experiments may show whether the brain reflects aging in the rest of the body or is more directly involved in determining the rate of the aging process.

Both Bedbrook and Nath will proceed with answering these questions as they start their individual laboratories at Princeton University this July, carrying the equipment and concepts that were created at Stanford to the next level in their studies.

Ultimately, it is hoped that such a resolution of aging will explain why aging is so diverse, and will guide to emerging strategies of healthy aging.

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A folding sheet robot that can deliver drugs with precision is here

A new magnetorheological fluid-based soft robot created by the researchers includes reversible t robot with reversible gastrointestinal tract medical applications.

Millions of people around the world are infected with gastrointestinal tract diseases and the conventional drug delivery system lacks high targeting capacity with chances of side effects of systemic drug delivery. The development of magnetic soft robots has become an innovative solution to minimally invasive medical procedures, due to their miniaturity, untethered locomotion and their agile movements. Nonetheless, the current magnetic soft robots have severe constraints of multi-angle folding, real time reconfigurable magnetization, and compliance with the irregular and constrained gastrointestinal cavity, which are the barriers to clinical use of targeted drug delivery.

In order to solve these problems, a research team, comprising of researchers at China University of Mining and Technology, Soochow University, RWTH Aachen University and the University of Oxford created a magnetic soft sheet robot with magnetorheological fluids. The robot takes the form of a four-layered fully-soft sheet, which consists of upper and bottom layers of linear low-density polyethylene surface, a core layer of magnetorheological fluids and a polyamide nylon mesh support layer. The robot is non-magnetized in zero magnetic field, weighing 0.55 g (a weight of 30 mm in length, 10 mm in width, 1.5 mm in thickness), which is small (30 mm in length, 10 mm in width, 1.5 mm in thickness), which removes unwanted magnetic interference in the human body.

The main novelty of such robot is the magnetization, which can be reconfigured in real time, and the performance by reversible folding. The magnetic particle chains along the magnetic field direction can be generated by the internal magnetorheological fluids within milliseconds under the external magnetic and the magnetization direction can be dynamically readjusted using the spatial magnetic field. Propelled by a 5 degree of freedom magnetic field platform, the robot can be folded to a one third size of the original to move in slender intestinal tracts and unfolded to a large surface area to move in a stable fashion within the stomach cavity-achieving the flexible adaptation to the different spatial sizes of the gastrointestinal tract.

  • The research group used the fabrication of five prototypes of the soft sheet robot with varying magnetorheological fluid densities (3.0 g/mL to 4.2 g/mL) and a series of motion performance tests under various environments.
  • The robot was found to have a stable flip, steering and folding motion on smooth surfaces, on flexible fluff surfaces and on slope surfaces and also in environment with underwater. It was also able to maintain consistent performance of movement even under load (carrying biodegradable hydrogel drugs with a mass of 0.15 g, which is about 30 percent of the own mass of the robot).
  • The ex vivo porcine stomach experiments, which mimicked the human gastrointestinal environment, were done to have critical validation. The robot was able to reach any predetermined location in the porcine stomach in an average of 5 minutes and firmly secured to the point of drug release with the loaded hydrogel drugs dissolving within 30 minutes to create localized targeted therapy in 10 repetitions.
  • Also, the ultrasonic detection technology (Voluson E10), was able to trace real-time movements of the robot in closed gastric cavity, which proved traceable and controllable in closed biological environments- a technical assurance in monitoring robots in clinical practices.

The biocompatibility tests continued to confirm the safety of the robot when used in human body: the robot was immersed in the simulated gastric juice (pH 1.2) and intestinal juice (pH 6.8) at 37degC after 24 hours and no rupture of its surfaces, expansion of its volume and deformation of the shape were observed. It was revealed that no exceeding of the safety levels was detected in the extract solutions by the heavy metals and harmful substances and no bacterial colonies were obtained in the tests related to the growth of microbial cultures, which indicates the biocompatibility and non-toxicity of the robot in the gastrointestinal tract environment.

The research team observed that the magnetic soft sheet robot has overcome the technical bottlenecks of the conventional magnetic soft robots in terms of folding capability and magnetization ability. It has the benefit of untethered drive, complete soft-structure, and excellent targeting precision, which render it the best noninvasive medical device to deliver drugs to the gastrointestinal tract.

 

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Less psychedelic, more medical magic mushrooms

Could a hot cup of matcha dial down the ‘sneeze switch’ in allergic rhinitis?

This is another reason I love Japanese popular matcha: a mouse study states that the green tea powder might decrease the necessity to sneeze in persons with nasal allergies.

Matcha is a clear green powder created by the dried and grounded leaves of green tea, which have been particularly grown. It is consumed as a tea beverage, and also as a flavouring ingredient in a large variety of commodities. It has been demonstrated that tea has been found to have high concentrations of biologically active compounds, which include antioxidants and amino acids, and its use is associated with numerous health benefits, including better heart and brain functioning, and decreased inflammation.

Hiroshima University in Japan was especially interested in matcha effects on people with allergic rhinitis (also called hay fever) especially by Professor Osamu Kaminuma, of the Research Institute of Radiation Biology and Medicine. There is no clear understanding of the mechanism of action of green tea on allergic rhinitis despite human studies being in the process of pointing out that it can help relieve allergic rhinitis.

Kaminuma and colleagues published an early access article in NPJ Science of Food on March 5 stating that mice with symptoms of hay fever were fed matcha tea in 2-3 doses weekly over a period of greater than five weeks and a second dose of tea 30 minutes prior to allergen exposure to instigate symptoms of allergic rhinitis.

Matcha treatment reduced allergy in mice

The group discovered that the sneezing of the mice was significantly reduced than anticipated with matcha treatment but what was found to be more interesting was that the matcha did not seem to influence the allergenic reactions of immunoglobulin E (IgE), mast cells, and T cells.

The role of IgE antibodies attaching to mast cells is central to the process of an allergic reaction and the subsequent release of histamine and other inflammatory chemicals. The initial part of the allergic response is mediated by mast cells, whereas the T cells mediate more prolonged immune responses, such as the production of IgE.

Oral matcha suppressed sneezing without a definite alteration of key immune parameters. It instead had a strong suppressive effect on brainstem neuronal activation associated to sneezing reflex, Kaminuma explained.

The activity of a gene, c-Fos-indicator of neurological and behavioural reactions to a strong stimulus such as exposure to an allergen causing hay fever was studied in the ventral spinal trigeminal nucleus caudali or the part of the brain associated with sneezing. They discovered that, the mice were in a state of hay fever; the c-Fos gene expression was high but this was reduced nearly to normal by medication with matcha.

The second thing to do is to research as to whether these effects are present in humans as well. Kaminuma said: The aim is an evidence-based, food-based alternative that includes typical care of the symptoms of allergic rhinitis.

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Better brain health is linked with the enhancement of your biological age gap

The narrower the difference between your biological age and actual age the lower the risk of a stroke and the health of your brain.
The study involved 250,000 people. The scientists measured the level of 18 biomarkers in their blood to obtain their biological age. Brain scans were also done to a section of individuals.
Individuals that bridged the difference between their biological and chronological ages during the intervention were 23% less likely than the rest to experience a stroke in the future.
The research does not demonstrate that the reduction of the age gap is the reason of the reduced stroke risk and positive brain health changes. It only shows an association.
According to researchers, a healthy diet, regular exercise, proper sleep and blood pressure management can contribute to the age gap in the biology of the body, although this study has not assessed any lifestyle program.
The article is a preliminary study published in March of 2026 will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology 78th Annual Meeting in April 18-22, 2026 in Chicago. It found that the closer your biological age is to your chronological age, the lower the risk of stroke and the better the signs of damage in the brain.

Betterment of age gap

The research does not demonstrate that betterment of the age gap is the reason behind better brain health; it only presents a correlation.

The researcher Cyprien Rivier of Yale University and an American Academy of Neurology member, said that efforts to “change our biological age may be one of the ways to help our brains stay healthy. Lifestyle habit, such as healthy diet, physical activity, sleep and good blood pressure management, which can help to prevent cardiovascular and metabolic disease, might help reduce the biological age difference, but we did not assess lifestyle interventions in the study.”

In the study, the biological age of 258,169 individuals of a health care research database was analyzed. They quantified 18 biomarkers in the blood, including cholesterol, average red blood cell volume and white blood cell count, to assess biological age at the beginning of the study and six years later in a sub-group of the participants. Researchers then found the participants who had a stroke after an average of 10 years. A group of the participants also administered tests on memory and thinking ability and brain scans to examine indications of brain damage.

In the beginning of the study, the biological age of the participants was 54 on average and their real age was 56. Their actual age was 62 years but on average, they were 58 years biologically six years on.

Individuals whose biological age was more than their chronological age at the conclusion of the study exhibited poorer brain scans and also poorer scores in the cognitive tests. They were also at a higher risk of stroke by 41 percent.

Those who lengthened the distance between their biological and chronological ages between the beginning of the study and the repeat measure had their risks of developing a stroke in the follow-up phase reduced by 23%.

Individuals who had some improvement also contained a smaller amount of white matter hyperintensities, an indicator of tissue damage to the white matter, by the conclusion of the study compared to those who had no amelioration in their biological age gaps. The overall amount of damage that they could do was 13 per cent less with each standard deviation of progress.

These outcomes factored in other factors that might influence the risk of stroke and damage to the brain including high blood pressure and other blood vessels conditions and socioeconomic outcomes.

Study’s Insufficiency

One of the weaknesses of the research was that although it identified correlations, it was not a causal study. In addition, only a smaller number underwent repeat blood tests and this does not allow the researcher to draw conclusions of change over time especially on cognitive tests.

The Cannabis compounds are promising in the battle against fatty liver disease

Scientists have found out that non-psychoactive cannabis substances, CBD and CBG, can help to reduce liver fat significantly and improve metabolic health. The researchers have found out that these compounds act by establishing a buffer of energy in the liver and by the re-activation of the cleaning crews inside the cells to clear undesirable waste products. These results point to the existence of a novel, plant-based direction of treating the most frequent chronic liver disease of the world.

According to a study by Prof. Joseph (Yossi) Tam, Dr. Liad Hinden, a PhD student, Radka Kocvarova, and the team of researchers led by Tam, at the School of Pharmacy in the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, two compounds of the cannabis plant are useful in the treatment of fatty liver disease. The study indicates that the non-psychoactive and non-high-inducing Cannabidiol (CBD) and Cannabigerol (CBG) can help people live healthier lives due to its ability to alter how the liver processes energy and purifies itself.

The prevalent chronic liver disorder in the world is currently known as Maatotic asymptomatic liver disease (MASLD) which is associated with metabolic dysfunction. It is prevalent among about 1 in 3 adults, and strongly associated with obesity, hypertension and insulin resistance. Although lifestyle change such as diet and exercise is significant, it is not always easier to sustain it and known medicines approved to treat this condition are very limited. This renders the discovery of new medicines a top priority to the scientists.

The researchers demonstrated that CBD and CBG are not only fat-reducing tools with the help of sophisticated tools. In fact, they assist the liver to work more efficiently internally in a special mechanism of metabolic remodeling. The effect on the energy stores of the liver was identified as one of the most crucial findings. The compounds cause a rise in phosphocreatine levels which serve as a backup battery to keep the liver healthy despite the stress which is posed by high-fat diet. It is a novel finding because the liver is not normally dependent on such a system of energy in a heavy way.

Reinstate functions of cathepsins

Also, the experiment revealed that CBD and CBG reinstate the functions of cathepsins. They are enzymes that serve as the cleaning crew in the recycling centers of the cell and they are called lysosomes. With the help of getting this cleaning crew back at work the liver is able to better process and eliminate the harmful fats and waste. Another finding by the researchers was that the two treatments had significant lowering effects on the harmful lipids, including triglycerides and ceramides. Ceramides are those that are especially harmful since they have been identified to cause insulin resistance and liver inflammation.

The research found out that both compounds were useful but they had a slight difference in terms of benefit to metabolic health. CBD and CBG could all normalise blood sugar levels and enhance the glucose clearance in the body. Nevertheless, CBG seemed to influence some measures more strongly. It was much more effective in fat mass reduction in the body and insulin sensitivity than CBD. The CBG was also especially useful in reducing the total cholesterol and the bad LDL cholesterol levels.

Prof. Joseph Tam ssaid, “the findings of the research point to a new mechanism through which CBD and CBG improve the hepatic energy and lysosomal activity. Such dual metabolic remodelling results in a better process of lipids in liver and singling out such compounds as likely treatment options in MASLD.”

Though these findings are highly encouraging, the staff remarks that additional studies are required in order to comprehend how these findings can be optimally applied to human patients. The research provides a novel avenue in the use of plant-derived compounds to treat metabolic diseases because it is based on the energy and waste management in cells.

What are Zombie cells? Mayo Clinic researchers minimize cells in diabetic kidney disease

The results of these researchers in Jacksonville, Fla., are that a drug-and-supplement combination therapy can be used to lessen the harmful effects of senescent cells, or, to be more exact, zombie cells, in diabetic kidney disease.

In an article published by the Lancet, the team has found that the combination of the cancer drug dasatanib and a naturally occurring substance quercetin reduced inflammation and enhanced protective factors in the kidney.

Diabetic kidney disease is the number one cause of renal failure and goes over 12 million individuals in the U.S. Whereas there is a partial cure in newer treatments to slow the loss of kidney function, it has no cure at all.

According to LaTonya Hickson, a nephrologist with Mayo Clinic in Florida and the main researcher of the study, the combination therapy, administered on a short term basis, decreased the amount of senescent cells within a preclinical diabetes kidney disease model and also led to the enhancement of kidney functioning. In order to prolong the health of the kidney, researchers have been keen on the solution to the existence of senescent cells, which do not get to pass through the natural process of death and instead hang around in tissues leading to aging and disease.

Therapy to Attack Senescent Cells

The therapeutic strategy is senolytics, natural and synthetic substances that in combination selectively attack senescent cells.

In a clinical trial that was previously carried out and was a pilot study, researchers at the Mayo Clinic led by Hickson discovered that dasatanib combination with quercetin diminished senescent cells of skin and fat tissues in diabetic kidney disease patients. The impact of the combination therapy on senescence and protective factors on the diabetic kidney, however, had not been described yet.

“The need to demonstrate that this single, momentary, treatment has an outcome on the kidneys was informed by the necessity to do so without the use of invasive procedures in the patients,” says Xiaohui Bian, a nephrologist who did the work as a post-doctoral fellow at Mayo Clinic and leads the study.

The group identified that the combination therapy enhanced kidney performance and protective mechanisms and minimized injury, senescent cells, and inflammation in a preclinical model of diabetic kidney disease. The combination therapy also lowered the number of senescent cells and the inflammatory response caused by them in cultured human kidney cells.

According to Hickson, the results indicate that this combination treatment has a potential to assist in reducing and stopping the damage of kidneys caused by diabetes. These two studies are now promising and indicate that larger scale research in patients with senolytics is warranted to enhance the health of the kidneys.

Young people who have AI meal plans might be consuming less calories, but missing a meal

A large number of teenagers who have some weight problem are resorting to AI models as they seek to design meal plans in a bid to lose weight. A new study, however, indicates that the plans that are a result of this could not, at least in all cases, cover the required nutrients and calorie consumption.

In Turkey, five different AI models were compared in regard to their meal planning capabilities, which led researchers to develop meal plans to help teenagers lose weight and evaluated their findings against the recommendations of a registered dietician. They described their results in Frontiers in Nutrition.

According to Dr Ayse Betul Bilen, an assistant professor of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the Istanbul Atlas University, there is a significant underestimation of total energy and the main nutrient intake of diet plans generated by AI models compared to plans prepared by a dietitian based on guidelines. It is known that adherence to this type of imbalanced or excessively restrictive meal plans in the teenage years can have a detrimental influence on growth, metabolic health, and eating habits.

Missing a meal

The researchers were prompted to generate meal plans using five AI models, which were ChatGPT 4, Gemini 2.5 Pro, Bing Chat-5GPT, Claude 4.1 and Perplexity, using free versions of these models. Some of the prompts were age, height and weight of the individual the plan would be based on, and the directive to develop a 3 days plan that included three meals and two snacks a day. Four teenagers aged 15 years, one boy and one girl, who were in the overweight percentile and one boy and one girl who fell in the obese percentile were put on meal plans.

Comparing the results of AIs to generate meal plans to those of a dietician who specializes in adolescent diseases, it was found that the energy requirement that was estimated by the AI models was on average nearly 700 calories lower than the dietitian. This is a full meal worth of difference that has severe clinical implications. The intake of some macronutrients had been overcalculated whereas the intake of some caloric nutrients was grossly undercalculated.

The AI-generated diet plans never adhered to the recommended mix of macronutrients, which is quite dangerous among adolescents, as Bilen indicated.

In comparison, AI models suggested more protein intake (20g higher than the dietician), and this scheme led to about 21-24% of the energy intake as protein. Recommendations of lipid provided by AI were also significantly more than in the plans developed by dieticians, and lipids constituted 41-45% of energy intake.

The quantity of carbohydrates, however, was much inferior in AI plans and the difference was about 115g on average, that is, only about 32-36 percent of the energy intake would be derived as carbs. In comparison, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and medicine in the US advise that the proportion of lipids, proteins and carbs should be 30-35, 15-20 and 45-50 percent respectively.

Favoring plans to balanced diets

Although numerous pieces of information about healthy diet guidelines are found on national and international health organizations websites, such as the Turkish Nutritional Guidelines or WHO Adolescent Nutritional Guidelines, AI tools do not necessarily use evidence-based nutritional guidelines in their production. Bilen stated that AI models are mostly trained to produce answers that are most plausible and user-friendly, and not necessarily accurate, clinically. According to their findings, they might be dependent on generalized or popular diet patterns rather than incorporating the nutritional requirements of age.

Since not every teenager can hire the service of a dietician to help them plan their meals, the team recommended that a person using AI tools to create a diet plan should be cautious. The teenagers are also to remember that the diets that are too restrictive or that are constructed on the basis of extreme diets that are based on the dominance of either protein or fat.

The researchers claimed that they hope that their findings will contribute to the increased awareness of the narrow capability of AI tools to create well-balanced meal plans and assist in developing safer tools that are more consistent with the guidelines created by professionals. Although AI models are fast developing and models might be better now than they were at the time of analysis, AI models are not an alternative to professional dietary counseling especially to the vulnerable groups.

Bilen concluded that adolescence is a critical period with regard to physical development, bone development and cognitive maturation. The risks of a lower energy and carbohydrate intake and higher ratios of protein and fat could be dangerous at the adolescent growth stage.

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How being squeezed contributes to risk of breast cancer cells

A recent study conducted by scientists working in Adelaide University and published in the journal Science Advances has shown the reason as to why certain cancers may grow and survive the body, whereas others do not. It happens that the hard mechanical stress to which the early cancer cells undergo as they are squeezed into a narrow area, causes some of the cancer cells to grow quicker, not to grow, as would otherwise be supposed.

This squeeze worked to the favor of the early breast cancer cells as scientists discovered.

The key point that was explained by the lead researcher, Professor Michael Samuel, of the Centre of Cancer Biology at Adelaide University and the Basil Hetzel Institute is that these breast cancer cells steal a particular sensor – one that our bodies rely on to sense touch – and use it to divide quickly and aid them in making their escape off the major tumour.

The process creates an indefinitely lasting mechanical memory in the breast cancer cells and it still contributes towards aggressive behaviour even after the pressure itself has been removed, Professor Samuel said.

The tumours which are solid are exposed to a lot of physical pressure when the disease is at its early stage of development, as the cancer cells grow in tissues that are limited in space, e.g. the milk ducts of the breast. Up to this day, the mechanism by which these cancer cells detect this pressure and whether or not it impacts the progression of the disease is unknown.

We have a tendency to believe that cancer is a genetic disease, but through this work we know that there is the same importance of physical forces within the tumours as the cause of cancer as there are genetic changes that cause cancer.

The researchers discovered that cancer cells respond to pressure via a molecule named PIEZO1, which is a hole in the cell that relates the interior of a cell to the exterior environment. Upon pressure stimulation, PIEZO1 enables the movement of calcium ions into the cell and subsequent signal transduction containing the Rho-ROCK pathway – a central regulator of cell movement, shape and growth.

The team demonstrated that mechanical pressure of a short duration that is obtained through compressing cancer tissue was sufficient to cause tumour growth to increase significantly. Mechanically compressed tumours in laboratory models of breast cancer became larger and the cancer cells in them fragmented faster than control groups.

In addition to promoting growth, compression was also identified to drive cancer cells into a more aggressive, invasive, state in a process known as epithelial-mesenchymal transition. When either of the PIEZO1 or the Rho-ROCK pathway had, however, been inhibited with the help of suitable drugs, compression did not propel cancer aggressiveness, making their role in this process definite.

Co-lead author Dr Sarah Boyle mentioned that one of the most significant findings was that the cancer aggressiveness effects of compression remained even after removal of the force itself.

According to Dr Boyle, even relatively short durations of pressure can lead to a mechanical memory by altering the way the DNA is packed into the cell, by chemically modifying the histone proteins.

These changes, which are called epigenetic changes, are modifications of the interpretation of the DNA code by the cell, which enables the process of switching on some genes that promote tumour growth and aggressiveness.

This type of epigenetic mechanical memory offers a molecular basis to the long term effects of short term mechanical forces on the cell level of the behaviour of tumours.

Notably, the research established that PIEZO1 is over-expressed in human breast cancers compared to normal breast tissue, and that the level of PIEZO1 differs among the patients. The high PIEZO1 levels have been linked to low patient survival implying that the identical pressure-detecting system found in test animals would probably be applicable in human cancer.

The results indicate a little-known role of mechanical pressure in the development of cancer aggressiveness and represent the PIEZO1 -Rho-ROCK pathway as a possible new therapeutic objective that can be used as an early intervention.

According to the researchers, future therapies can restrict tumour growth and invasiveness by interfering with the sensory and response of cancer cells to mechanical pressure. The results can also be applied in diagnosing the patients who are susceptible to aggressive breast cancers due to excessively high concentrations of PIEZO1.

That work has opened up a whole new field of so-called mechanotherapy – the use of treatments that disrupt the mechanical signals that tumours are dependent on to develop and spread out, as cancers grow to be mechanically responsive diseases, said Professor Samuel.

Less psychedelic, more medical magic mushrooms

The psychoactive substance of magic mushrooms, psilocybin, is under scientific scrutiny as being useful in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, substance use disorder and some neurodegenerative diseases. It can be limited to broader therapeutic uses, however, by the hallucinogenic effects. A study on the effects of psilocin, the active compound in psilocybin, on mice published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry by researchers synthesized modified versions of psilocin which preserve its properties but have fewer hallucinogenic-like effects than pharmaceutical-grade psilocybin.

In line with the emerging scientific view that psychedelic and serotonergic works can be decoupled, one correspondent author of the study, Andrea Mattarei, states that their findings align with this emerging school of thought. This creates the prospect of developing new therapies that are more biologically active but less hallucinogenic, which might allow developing safer and more practicable treatment options.

Mood disorders as well as certain neurodegenerative ailments such as the Alzheimer disease entail an imbalance of the neurotransmitter molecule serotonin that aids in controlling moods and other brain processes. Psychedelics have been studied to have therapeutic effects against serotonin-signaling pathways in decades by scientists. But the hallucinations that can be used along with these drugs can cause people to fear their use even in case there is a medical advantage.

Brain Image (NIH)

Therefore, a group supervised by Sara De Martin, Mattarei and Paolo Manfredi chemically engineered 5 psilocin analogs to release gradually, slowly and possibly non-hallucinogenic into the brain. The initial test of the five compounds was conducted using human plasma samples and the laboratory parameters that replicate gastrointestinal absorption. These tests have enabled the group to determine a compound they refer to as 4e as the best prospect since it exhibited desirable stability to be absorbed and allowed a slow release of psilocin – a trait that has the potential to reduce the effects of hallucinations. Notably, 4e was also active at major serotonin receptors, and at similar levels as psilocin.

The researchers then compared the impact of the same dosage of 4e on mice with pharmaceutical quality psilocybin. The team orally gave the compounds to mice and assessed the degree to which psilocin was absorbed by the bloodstream and the brain after 48 hours. The compound had the capability of penetrating the blood-brain barrier in mice treated with 4e and had a lower yet more prolonged presence of psilocin in their brain than did their psilocybin-treated counterparts. In examining the behavior of the mice, the researchers found that the 4e-treated mice had reduced the number of head twitches, a well-established oral psychiatric effect of psychedelics in rodents, with the 4e-treated mice compared to those treated with psilocybin having far fewer head twitches. This difference in behavior seemed to be linked with the quantity and the time that psilocin was released in the brain.

According to the researchers, the results of their experiments testify to the possibility of creating stable derivatives of psilocin penetrating the brain and preserving the function of serotonin receptors without acute psychotropic effects. Their mechanism of action and complete description of their biological effects will require further research before their therapeutic capacity and safety in human beings are evaluated.

The authors admit MGGM Therapeutics, LLC. funding in partnership with NeuroArbor Therapeutics Inc. Some of the authors state that they are patent holders regarding psilocin.