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Association between Coffee Consumption and Brain MRI Parameters in the Hamburg City Health Study

Despite the association of regular coffee consumption with fewer neurodegenerative diseases, it remains unclear how coffee is associated with pre-clinical brain pathologies such as lesions in the white matter, degeneration of the cortex, or alterations of the microstructural integrity. White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are hyperintense lesions on T2-weighted images and are associated with an increased risk for stroke and depression, cognitive deterioration, and gait disorders [13,14,15]. As a marker of cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) and vascular brain damage, WMH can vary in the degree of expression, depending on the age and the presence of cardiovascular risk factors, e.g., smoking or hypertension [16,17,18]. Previous studies have reported diverging results on the association of consumed coffee with imaging markers of CSVD. They found either beneficial associations of coffee with lacunar infarcts [7], beneficial [19] or detrimental [20] associations with WMH volume, or no significant associations at all [21,22].

A recently developed and valid imaging marker of microstructural integrity is the peak width of skeletonized mean diffusivity (PSMD), calculated as the distribution of the mean diffusivity (MD) between the 5th and 95th percentile in the white matter skeleton [23]. Only one study analyzed the association of coffee consumption with microstructural integrity, as quantified by fractional anisotropy, with a higher coffee consumption being associated with higher integrity of the white matter microstructure [24].

Damage to the brain structure is not restricted to white matter, but also extents to the cortex, e.g., in the form of atrophy. Except for one study focusing on the quantification of cortical thickness in regions susceptible for Alzheimer’s Disease [22], the link between coffee consumption and cortical thickness was only indirectly examined by measuring total brain volume or grey matter volume, with incongruent results between studies [7, 21,25,26]. This study aimed at investigating whether coffee consumption is associated with multiple brain MRI markers of vascular brain damage and neurodegeneration, including WMH, PSMD, and cortical thickness in a large, population-based cohort.

China’s Tang Jet: Electric Thrust, No Fuel Needed!

A Chinese professor has unveiled a bold plasma jet engine that converts electricity directly into thrust — no fuel, no combustion. Known as the “Tang Jet,” this prototype mimics lightning by superheating air into plasma to generate clean, powerful propulsion. While it’s not ready to lift a jetliner yet, this breakthrough could one day redefine zero-emission flight.

Electrical stimulation can reprogram immune system to heal the body faster

Scientists from Trinity College Dublin have discovered that electrically stimulating macrophages—one of the immune systems key players—can reprogram them in such a way as to reduce inflammation and encourage faster, more effective healing in disease and injury.

This breakthrough uncovers a potentially powerful new therapeutic option, with further work ongoing to delineate the specifics.

Macrophages are a type of white blood cell with several high-profile roles in our immune system. They patrol around the body, surveying for bugs and viruses, as well as disposing of dead and damaged cells, and stimulating other —kicking them into gear when and where they are needed.

Rare seasonal brain shrinkage in shrews is driven by water loss

Water cure: The study found that common shrews shrink their brains in winter not by losing cells, but by losing water.

Brain scans: The team used MRI scanning, the same technology used in hospitals, to peer inside the brains of live shrews across seasons.

What humans can learn: Brain shrinkage in humans is typically a sign of disease, like Alzheimer’s. But shrews can shrink their brain without compromising function or causing damage. Shrews could become a model system for exploring potential pathways for medica treatment of human brain disease.

Knowing how shrews loose brain volume over winter is the first step to understanding how they reverse this loss and regrow healthy brains in summer.

Brain.

Your Mother’s Germs May Have Influenced Your Brain’s Development

Our bodies are colonized by a teeming, ever-changing mass of microbes that help power countless biological processes. Now, a new study has identified how these microorganisms get to work shaping the brain before birth.

Researchers at Georgia State University studied newborn mice specifically bred in a germ-free environment to prevent any microbe colonization. Some of these mice were immediately placed with mothers with normal microbiota, which leads to microbes being transferred rapidly.

That gave the study authors a way to pinpoint just how early microbes begin influencing the developing brain. Their focus was on the paraventricular nucleus (PVN), a region of the hypothalamus tied to stress and social behavior, already known to be partly influenced by microbe activity in mice later in life.

Nutrition at the Intersection between Gut Microbiota Eubiosis and Effective Management of Type 2 Diabetes

Nutrition is one of the most influential environmental factors in both taxonomical shifts in gut microbiota as well as in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Emerging evidence has shown that the effects of nutrition on both these parameters is not mutually exclusive and that changes in gut microbiota and related metabolites such as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs) and branched-chain amino acids (BCAAs) may influence systemic inflammation and signaling pathways that contribute to pathophysiological processes associated with T2DM. With this background, our review highlights the effects of macronutrients, carbohydrates, proteins, and lipids, as well as micronutrients, vitamins, and minerals, on T2DM, specifically through their alterations in gut microbiota and the metabolites they produce.

Amazon disrupts Russian APT29 hackers targeting Microsoft 365

Researchers have disrupted an operation attributed to the Russian state-sponsored threat group Midnight Blizzard, which sought access to Microsoft 365 accounts and data.

Also known as APT29, the hacker group compromised websites in a watering hole campaign to redirect selected targets “to malicious infrastructure designed to trick users into authorizing attacker-controlled devices through Microsoft’s device code authentication flow.”

The Midnight Blizzard threat actor has been linked to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) and is well-known for its clever phishing methods that recently impacted European embassies, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and TeamViewer.

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