Microplastics are everywhere—in our water, food, and even the air we breathe. A new scientific review highlights a growing concern: microplastics and nanoplastics are accumulating in human brain tissue. Researchers are now investigating what this could mean for brain health and how we can reduce our exposure.

Last month, the Japanese pharma deprioritized the development of mezagitamab, also known as TAK-079, in myasthenia gravis and systemic lupus erythematosus as part of a wider pipeline shake-up. But the team said at the time that it was still planning to continue to clinically evaluate the antibody in ITP.

If you rely on federal grants as your sole means of support, you’re tying your destiny to forces outside your control. There are other roads to success in health and medical research. By pursuing them, you might gain more freedom, fewer administrative hurdles, and the chance to save lives faster.

Balancing healthcare benefits and insurance costs requires research. From becoming a Difference Card member to offering wellness resources, there are many ways to improve healthcare at low cost.

For GLP-1 receptor agonists specifically, adherence challenges are a major concern, as these medications require long-term use to achieve meaningful health benefits in chronic conditions like diabetes and obesity.

New research found that most healthcare CFOs anticipate minimal financial gains this year due to high labor costs and insufficient payer rates. While providers are leveraging more data to improve financial planning, persistent challenges like wage pressures, recruiting difficulties and payers' increasing use of technology to deny claims continue to strain margins.

For decades, EMS has relied on blood component therapy, which was favored for its longer shelf life, efficiency, and lower risk of transfusion reactions. However, emerging data suggests that whole blood transfusion in the field could significantly improve survival rates, particularly in rural and remote areas where longer transport times pose additional risks.

AbbVie is licensing rights to a drug from Gubra that has encouraging early clinical data in obesity. The once-weekly injectable peptide is a dual agonist of the amylin and calcitonin receptors, both of which play key roles in metabolism.

Having some belly fat may be beneficial for brain health in younger individuals due to its role in maintaining healthy BDNF. Aging disrupts this benefit because of decreased production of a key protein, CX3CL1. This leads to lower BDNF levels and potentially contributes to cognitive decline. Excessive fat accumulation, particularly in obesity, is associated with overexpression of 11β-HSD1, which is linked to negative metabolic effects.

In the study, the DN gel rapidly reprogrammed differentiated cancer cells into cancer stem cells in just 24 hours in six different human cancer cell lines — brain cancer, uterine cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, bladder cancer, and sarcoma. After cancer cells were placed on the DN gel, they started to form spherical structures and produce specific molecules known to be markers of cancer stem cells such as SOX2 and Oct3/4, aka Yamanaka factors, named after the Nobel Prize laureate, suggesting they had been reprogrammed.

Each polymer reacts differently to ionizing radiation. Thus, it is important to verify that the maximum administered dose will not have a detrimental effect on the product’s function or the patient’s safety over the product’s intended shelf life.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration requires testing be performed on new medical devices requiring sterility and on legacy medical devices that a manufacturer desires to switch to another sterilization method to ensure safety (functionality, biocompatibility, and ability to sterilize). ISO 11137-1 guidance provides expectation of being able to transfer maximum acceptable dose from a low dose rate gamma sterilization process to a higher dose rate e-beam or x-ray process.

Considering that dose rate had no impact on sterilization efficacy,the data suggests that an easier transition can be obtained withindifferent ionizing radiation technologies without extensive work related to the sterilization effects as a function of the dose rate. That is, the results reported herein suggest that transfer of minimum doses required for inactivation is possible between irradiators of the same and/or different irradiation source without impacting the sterility assurance level (SAL), in accordance with ISO11137-2:2013.

Looking for alternatives to gamma irradiation? Many gamma sterilized products are compatible with electron beam. With the recent publication of AAMI TIR 104, the process for transferring products from gamma to electron beam is now simple and well defined.

Over about 3.5 years, Al-Aly and his colleagues tracked more than 200,000 people with diabetes on GLP-1 drugs and about 1.7 million people with diabetes using other blood-sugar-lowering medications. They tracked the effects of GLP-1 drugs on 175 health conditions. Compared with other diabetes medications, GLP-1 drugs were linked to a lower risk of dozens of conditions, including heart disease, stroke and kidney disease. They also lowered the risk of psychotic disorders by 18%, Alzheimer’s disease by 12%, and addiction disorders by an average of 13%.

Ces dispositifs miniaturisés peuvent accomplir des missions spécifiques telles que des biopsies, la délivrance de molécules ou encore l’implantation d’électrodes. « Ce financement représente une étape cruciale pour doter les neurochirurgiens des outils nécessaires pour transformer les traitements et les résultats pour les patients », ajoute-t-il.

Ce minirobot peut circuler dans la boîte crânienne pour traiter au plus près les cancers ou certaines maladies neurodégénératives. Pour commencer les essais sur les humains, la start-up française vient de lever 27 millions d'euros.

Researchers are developing the world’s first topical cream to prevent and treat skin cancer, especially for organ transplant recipients.

Measuring less than 5 mm in size, microplastics are formed over time as plastic materials break down but don’t biodegrade. Exposure to these substances can come through food, air, and skin absorption. While scientists are learning more about how these substances are absorbed by the body, questions remain about how much exposure is safe, what effect — if any — microplastics could have on brain function, and what clinicians should tell their patients.

The researchers created a digital twin of the gene network involved in the differentiation trajectory of normal cells. This computational model allowed them to simulate and analyze the intricate gene interactions that regulate cell differentiation. Through their simulations, the team pinpointed master molecular switches capable of steering cells from colon cancer back into a normal-like state. These findings were then validated through molecular experiments, cellular studies, and animal trials, demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach.