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Category: biotech/medical – Page 203

Abstract: In obesity, the heart muscle can thicken, preventing it from relaxing properly between beats

While diet and inflammation likely contribute, the underlying molecular mechanism has been unclear.

https://doi.org/10.1172/JCI196238 Here, Junichi Sadoshima & team find direct stimulation of IL-6 transcription by PPARα in cardiomyocytes plays an important role in mediating the initial development of obesity cardiomyopathy.

The figure indicates binding of PPARα to NFkB (via PLA assay).

1Rutgers New Jersey Medical School Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, Newark, New Jersey, USA.

2Precision Medicine Research Center, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Seoul, Korea.

Address correspondence to: Junichi Sadoshima, Cardiovascular Research Institute, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Science, 185 South Orange Ave., MSB G609, Newark, New Jersey, 7,103, USA. Phone 973.972.8619; Email: [email protected].

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Mitochondria-Associated MicroRNAs: Emerging Roles in the Pathogenesis of Parkinson’s Disease

💡 by Catanesi, M., et al. (2026). Biomedicines, 14, 313. 📖Read the full text: https://brnw.ch/21x1AQl.

Neurodegenerative diseases continue to challenge modern medicine, with mitochondrial dysfunction emerging as one of their most critical hallmarks. Among the most intriguing recent discoveries is the role of mitochondrial‑localized microRNAs (mito‑miRNAs), small regulatory molecules capable of influencing mitochondrial gene expression and cellular metabolism. As research uncovers their presence and function within the mitochondrial environment, these molecules are gaining attention for their potential involvement in the onset and progression of disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Understanding how mito‑miRNAs contribute to neuronal vulnerability may open new avenues for diagnostics and therapeutic strategies in neurodegeneration.

Neurodegenerative diseases (NDs) are the most prevalent age-associated disorders, characterized by progressive neuronal loss and cognitive decline. Mitochondrial dysfunction is strictly associated with NDs and represent one of the hallmarks of these disorders, with neurological syndromes frequently representing the primary clinical manifestations of mitochondrial abnormalities. As central regulators of cellular bioenergetics, mitochondria play a pivotal role in both the physiological maintenance and pathogenesis of disease by different regulatory approaches. One of these, microRNAs (miRNAs), a class of small non-coding RNAs, are well-established regulators of gene expression across different biological pathways.

A missing link in how the brain regulates appetite

Bile acids at the center of hepato-ocular crosstalk.

Hepatic dysfunction with ocular pathology has been linked to dysregulated bile acid metabolism.

Bile acid imbalance has been shown to drive ocular injury along the gut-liver-eye axis through direct cytotoxicity, disruption of retinal and lens homeostasis mediated by FXR and TGR5 signaling, and immune activation and these mechanisms are implicated across a spectrum of conditions, ranging from inborn metabolic disorders to acquired cholestatic diseases.

The researchers in this review discuss translational potential of targeting bile acid homeostasis and summarize emerging therapeutic strategies, including bile acid-based interventions, targeted drug delivery, and microbiome modulation, that aim to restore systemic bile acid balance.

Thus, bile acid homeostasis act as a unifying therapeutic framework for hepato-ocular comorbidities. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission https://sciencemission.com/Hepato-ocular-crosstalk

Health sciences.

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AI + Synthetic Biology: The Most Transformative Technology in Human History | Ben Lamm (Colossal)

This episode was filmed at the 2026 Abundance360 Summit.

This interview explores the groundbreaking work of Colossal in synthetic biology, de-extinction, and AI integration. Colossal CEO Ben Lamm explains how the company is revolutionizing biodiversity preservation, tackling plastic pollution, and creating living products with immense potential.

Get access to metatrends 10+ years before anyone else — https://qr.diamandis.com/metatrends.

Ben Lamm is Co-founder and CEO of Colossal Biosciences

Peter H. Diamandis, MD, is the Founder of XPRIZE, Singularity University, ZeroG, and A360.

Chapters:

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A ‘blob’ in a tank is helping scientists tease out the secrets of turbulence

In a tank on the bottom floor of a University of Chicago research laboratory, scientists summon “The Blob” into existence by firing water jets to create an artfully choreographed series of rings.

First created three years ago in the laboratory of UChicago Prof. William Irvine, in collaboration with graduate student Takumi Matsuzawa, The Blob is one of the only ways that researchers can study the strange properties of turbulence —the chaotic swirling of fluids such as air and water—in its purest form: stationary in a lab and isolated from boundaries.

Turbulence is a bit of a paradox. It governs everything from the movements of ocean currents and hurricane clouds to the swirling of cream in your coffee and blood in your veins. But as widespread as it is, turbulence has been fiendishly difficult for scientists to understand, compared with most other everyday physics phenomena.

This nasal spray rewinds the aging brain, restoring memory and reversing inflammation in preclinical models

Picture this: your brain is a high-performance engine. Over decades, it doesn’t just wear down, it also starts to run hot. Tiny “fires” of inflammation smolder deep within the brain’s memory center, creating a persistent brain fog that makes it harder to think, form new memories or even adapt to new environments, all the while increasing the risk to disorders like Alzheimer’s disease.

Scientists call this slow burn “neuroinflammaging,” and for decades it was thought to be the inevitable price of growing older. Until now.

A landmark study by researchers at Texas A&M University Naresh K. Vashisht College of Medicine suggests the inflammatory tide responsible for brain aging and brain fog might actually be reversible. And the solution doesn’t involve brain surgery, but a simple nasal spray.

Perovskite Nanocrystals, Quantum Dots, and Two-Dimensional Structures: Synthesis, Optoelectronics, Quantum Technologies, and Biomedical Imaging

💬Editorial: Decade-long follow-up highlights that patients with surgically treated ChronicSubduralHematoma have persistent excess mortality and long-term cognitive and functional impairment, even when overall quality of life appears preserved.

In the setting of aging populations and rising antithrombotic use, chronic subdural hematomas (cSDH) are increasingly common in high-income countries. While discussed in the medical literature for centuries,1 clinical research on cSDH in the modern era initially focused on surgical approaches and the risk of short-term mortality and recurrence.2-4 In this setting, cSDH was perceived to be a relatively benign disease; however, recent work has challenged this reputation. Patients with cSDH have persistently elevated long-term mortality when compared with controls,5 and those who survive are often left with functional and cognitive impairment.6 Unfortunately, most prior studies of long-term outcomes were small or had limited data on premorbid health, and none had data on functional status or quality of life.

In this issue of JAMA Neurol ogy, Petutschnigg et al7 expand on this work by examining mortality, function, and quality of life 10 years after surgical management of cSDH. To achieve this, they used patients who had previously been enrolled in a cSDH clinical trial from 2012 through 2016, which was conducted at a single center in Switzerland and examined the use of routine follow-up computed tomography scans in surgically managed patients with cSDH. The study authors obtained all-cause mortality for all 359 participants through 2023 using a nationwide data source. Each patient was then matched by age, sex, and birth month to controls from the Swiss population. Then, they obtained health-related quality of life by administering a validated survey to consenting participants, getting a response in 147 of 202 survivors at a mean of 10.55 years from the cSDH. Results from these participants were compared with normative values for a European population, using standardized age and sex strata.

The authors7 found a significantly higher mortality rate among patients with cSDH when compared with controls, with the absolute risk difference widening from 6% at 1 year to 18% at 10 years. Among those who survived, both men and women showed significant impairment in cognitive and role functioning (ie, how much their daily work/hobbies are impaired) when compared with normative controls. In addition, men (but not women) showed significant additional impairment in physical functioning and social functioning when compared with normative controls. Importantly, perceived quality of life was not reduced in either men or women. Discordance between functional impairments and perceived quality of life has been observed in other types of brain injury, a phenomenon termed the disability paradox,8 and should similarly caution against therapeutic nihilism when it comes to patients with cSDH.

Scientists Grow Electronics Inside the Brains of Living Mice

Yet most implants require extensive surgery and risk damaging the brain’s delicate tissue. The new technology would avoid these downsides by building electrodes directly at the target.

“Our work points to a future where doctors could ‘grow’ soft, wire-free electronic interfaces inside the brain using the patient’s own blood, then gently dial brain activity up or down from outside the head using harmless near-infrared light,” study author Krishna Jayant said in a press release.

The brain produces every one of our sensations, movements, emotions, and decisions. Scientists have long sought to decode and manipulate its activity with a range of hardware.

Slice and dice

MIT researchers characterize SNIPE, which stands for surface-associated nuclease inhibiting phage entry, which directly protects bacteria from phage, the viruses that infect them, by chopping up invading viral DNA as it enters the bacteria.

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