Treatments for autoimmune disorders might offer hope for methamphetamine addiction. Research published in Science Signaling indicates that blocking a specific immune protein dampens the drug’s effect on the brain’s reward centers.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 169
Brain-derived tau for monitoring brain injury in acute ischemic stroke
Monitoring markers of tau protein in the blood can predict functional outcomes in patients recovering from ischemic stroke better than MRI, according to a comprehensive study of more than 1,200 patients in ScienceTranslationalMedicine.
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Sci. Transl. Med. 18, eadz1280 (2026). DOI:10.1126/scitranslmed.adz1280
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The protein periostin may promote the spread of pancreatic cancer—and pain—through nerves
A new Brazilian study has revealed the key role of the protein periostin and stellate pancreatic cells in allowing pancreatic cancer to infiltrate nerves and spread early, increasing the risk of metastasis. The research demonstrates how the tumor reprograms part of the surrounding healthy tissue to acquire a high capacity for invasion. This mechanism is associated with the aggressiveness of the disease and the difficulty of treatment. It also points to possible targets for more precise therapies and personalized treatments.
The findings are published in the journal Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology.
The most common type of pancreatic cancer is adenocarcinoma, which originates in the glandular tissue that produces pancreatic juice. It accounts for 90% of diagnosed cases. Although it is not among the most frequent types of cancer, it is considered an aggressive and highly lethal tumor, with a mortality rate almost equivalent to its incidence rate. Globally, there are approximately 510,000 new cases and nearly the same number of deaths each year.
Tuning spin waves—using commercially available devices at room temperature
Physicist Davide Bossini from the University of Konstanz has recently demonstrated how to change the frequency of the collective magnetic oscillations of a material by up to 40%—using commercially available devices at room temperature.
“We now have a full picture,” Bossini says. For years, the physicist from the University of Konstanz has studied how to use light to control the collective magnetic oscillations of a material—known as magnons. In the summer of 2025, he was finally able to show how to change the “magnetic DNA” of a material via the interaction between light and magnons.
He now demonstrates how the frequency of oscillations can be controlled quasi instantly and on demand by means of a weak magnetic field and intense laser pulses. In this way, he can increase or decrease frequencies by up to 40%. The effect is due to the interaction of the optical excitation, magnetic anisotropy (directional dependence) and the external magnetic field.
Ultrasound-activated nanoparticles in immune cells trigger targeted inflammatory response
Piezoelectric nanoparticles deployed inside immune cells and stimulated remotely by ultrasound can trigger the body’s disease-fighting response, according to an interdisciplinary team of Boston College researchers.
The paper is published in the journal Scientific Reports.
Chemists determine structure of fuzzy coat that surrounds Tau proteins
One of the hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease is the clumping of proteins called Tau, which form tangled fibrils in the brain. The more severe the clumping, the more advanced the disease is.
The Tau protein, which has also been linked to many other neurodegenerative diseases, is unstructured in its normal state, but in the pathological state it consists of a well-ordered rigid core surrounded by floppy segments. These disordered segments form a “fuzzy coat” that helps determine how Tau interacts with other molecules.
MIT chemists have now shown, for the first time, they can use nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy to decipher the structure of this fuzzy coat. They hope their findings will aid efforts to develop drugs that interfere with Tau buildup in the brain.
This new tool could tell us how consciousness works
The technology has entered use in recent years, but it isn’t yet fully integrated into research. Now, two MIT researchers are planning experiments with it, and have published a new paper they term a “roadmap” for using the tool to study consciousness.
“Transcranial focused ultrasound will let you stimulate different parts of the brain in healthy subjects, in ways you just couldn’t before,” says Daniel Freeman, an MIT researcher and co-author of a new paper on the subject. “This is a tool that’s not just useful for medicine or even basic science, but could also help address the hard problem of consciousness. It can probe where in the brain are the neural circuits that generate a sense of pain, a sense of vision, or even something as complex as human thought.”
Transcranial focused ultrasound is noninvasive and reaches deeper into the brain, with greater resolution, than other forms of brain stimulation, such as transcranial magnetic or electrical stimulation.