We knew that GLP-1 drugs like Ozempic and Wegovy did more than just help control type 2 diabetes and aid weight loss, but the extent of that potential really came to light in 2025
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A bacterial toxin disarms gut defenses against inflammation
A toxin-secreting gut bacterium may fuel ulcerative colitis by killing protective immune cells that maintain intestinal homeostasis, according to a new study in Science. The findings suggest potential for new treatment strategies.
Learn more in a new Science Perspective.
Macrophage-toxic bacteria from patients with ulcerative colitis worsen gut inflammation in mice.
Sonia Modilevsky and Shai Bel Authors Info & Affiliations
Science
Vol 390, Issue 6775
Scientists Gave Human Brain Cells to a Rat. Why?
Scientists transplanted human cerebral organoids (“minibrains”) into rats, to better study brain disorders. The neurons grown in vivo looked more like mature human brain cells than those grown in vitro, and they made better models of Timothy syndrome. The human minibrains formed deep connections with the rat brains, received sensory information, and drove the rat’s behavior. Points of Clarification (Q&A based on common comments) Support the channel: / ihmcurious More on how minibrains are grown and used, and the issue of organoid consciousness:
• Growing “Mini-Brains” in a Lab: Human Brai… On the topic of organoid sentience and playing pong:
• Lab-Grown “Mini-Brain” Learns Pong — Is Th… Organoid transplant study: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4158… music by John Bartmann: https://johnbartmann.com
Cell-Based Neurodegenerative Disease Modeling
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease characterized by progressive upper and lower motor neuron (MN) degeneration with unclear pathology. The worldwide prevalence of ALS is approximately 4.42 per 100,000 populations, and death occurs within 3–5 years after diagnosis. However, no effective therapeutic modality for ALS is currently available. In recent years, cellular therapy has shown considerable therapeutic potential because it exerts immunomodulatory effects and protects the MN circuit. However, the safety and efficacy of cellular therapy in ALS are still under debate. In this review, we summarize the current progress in cellular therapy for ALS. The underlying mechanism, current clinical trials, and the pros and cons of cellular therapy using different types of cell are discussed. In addition, clinical studies of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) in ALS are highlighted. The summarized findings of this review can facilitate the future clinical application of precision medicine using cellular therapy in ALS.
ALS is believed to result from a combination of genetic and environmental factors (Masrori and Van Damme 2020). ALS exists in two forms: familial ALS (fALS) and sporadic ALS (sALS). fALS exhibits a Mendelian pattern of inheritance and accounts for 5–10% of all cases. The remaining 90–95% of cases that do not have an apparent genetic link are classified as sALS (Kiernan et al., 2011). At the genetic level, more than 20 genes have been identified. Among them, chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9ORF72), fused in sarcoma (FUS), TAR DNA binding protein (TARDBP), and superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) genes have been identified as the most common causative genes (Riancho et al., 2019). Beyond genetic factors, the diverse pathological mechanisms of ALS-associated neurodegeneration have been discussed (van Es et al., 2017). The clinical symptoms of ALS are heterogeneous, with main symptoms including limb weakness, muscle atrophy, and fasciculations involving both upper and lower MNs.
Abstract: The mechanistic basis of chronic liver disease is still only partially understood
Harmeet Malhi & team discover ER-stress mediated S100A11 upregulation drives progression of fatty liver disease, revealing a new target for future treatments:
The figure shows reduction within the high-fat,-fructose, and-cholesterol,-lipotoxicity-influenced enhancer (FFC-LIE) mouse groups compared with FFC-scramble controls.
Address correspondence to: Harmeet Malhi, Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Mayo Clinic, 200 First Street SW, Rochester, Minnesota 55,905, USA. Phone: 507.284.0686; Email: [email protected].
Cerebral Microvascular Perfusion Assessed in Elderly Adults by Spin-Echo Dynamic Susceptibility Contrast MRI at 7 Tesla
Perfusion measures of the total vasculature are commonly derived with gradient-echo (GE) dynamic susceptibility contrast (DSC) MR images, which are acquired during the early passes of a contrast agent. Alternatively, spin-echo (SE) DSC can be used to achieve specific sensitivity to the capillary signal. For an improved contrast-to-noise ratio, ultra-high-field MRI makes this technique more appealing to study cerebral microvascular physiology. Therefore, this study assessed the applicability of SE-DSC MRI at 7 T. Forty-one elderly adults underwent 7 T MRI using a multi-slice SE-EPI DSC sequence. The cerebral blood volume (CBV) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) were determined in the cortical grey matter (CGM) and white matter (WM) and compared to values from the literature. The relation of CBV and CBF with age and sex was investigated.
Prognostic tool could help clinicians identify high-risk cancer patients
The MIT researchers have spent the past few years developing the Synthetic Survival Control causal inference framework, which enables them to answer complex “when-if” questions when using available data is statistically challenging. Their approach estimates when a target event happens if a certain intervention is used.
In this paper, the researchers investigated an aggressive cancer called nodal mature T-cell lymphoma, and whether a certain prognostic marker led to worse outcomes. The marker, TTR12, signifies that a patient relapsed within 12 months of initial therapy.
They applied their framework to estimate when a patient will die if they have TTR12, and how their survival trajectory would be different if they do not have this prognostic marker.