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Long-Term Personalized Adaptive Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson Disease: A Nonrandomized Clinical Trial

Long-term adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) provided tolerable, effective, and safe therapy in persons with Parkinson disease whose symptoms were previously stable while receiving continuous DBS.

Question Is long-term adaptive deep brain stimulation (aDBS) tolerable and as effective and safe as continuous DBS (cDBS)?

Findings In this nonrandomized clinical trial with an open-label comparison between cDBS and aDBS, the primary outcome was met as the majority of participants receiving aDBS achieved a performance goal of good on-time (ie, time when symptoms were well controlled) without troublesome dyskinesia relative to stable cDBS therapy.

Meaning Long-term aDBS provided tolerable, effective, and safe therapy in persons with Parkinson disease whose symptoms were previously stable while receiving cDBS.

An excitatory circuit in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray drives hypometabolic state during acute systemic inflammation

Xie et al. demonstrate that systemic inflammation activates a subset of glutamatergic neurons in the ventrolateral periaqueductal gray (vlPAG). Manipulating these vlPAG glutamatergic neurons and their projections to the nucleus tractus solitarius modulates inflammation-induced sickness behaviors and hypometabolic states, including hypothermia, cardiovascular depression, reduced locomotion, and appetite suppression.

Single-dose radiation before surgery can eradicate breast cancer

A single, targeted high dose of radiation delivered before other treatments could completely eradicate tumors in most women with early-stage, operable hormone-positive breast cancer, according to a study led by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers. The findings, published in JAMA Network Open, could shift the paradigm for patients with the most common form of breast cancer, who typically undergo surgery before a regimen of radiation therapy.

“This is a major advance in the field,” said study leader Asal Rahimi, M.D., Professor of Radiation Oncology, Associate Vice Chair for Program Development, and Medical Director of the Clinical Research Office at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center. “This provides patients a significant time savings, spares a lot of their tissue from irradiation, and allows them to still undergo any type of oncoplastic surgery they may choose, all while very effectively treating their disease.”

Dr. James Giordano: The Brain is the Battlefield of the Future

Dr. James Giordano, Chief of the Neuroethics Studies Program and Scholar-in-Residence in the Pellegrino Center for Clinical Bioethics at Georgetown University, speaks to cadets and faculty about how advancements in neuroscience and neurotechnology will impact the future of war. This event was hosted by the Modern War Institute at West Point.

Peace lily: why leaves turn brown and how to fix it, according to experts

It’s not random.

The Spathiphyllum is forgiving, but it signals stress fast. Brown patches and crunchy tips are a nudge from the plant about its air, water, or light. Here’s how specialists diagnose those signals and the small adjustments that bring foliage back to lush green.

Brown on a peace lily is usually a care mismatch, not a fatal disease. The plant is reacting to dry air, irregular watering, hard tap water, or harsh sun. Each cause marks leaves a little differently, which helps you zero in on the fix.

How T cells transform to defend our organs

We owe a lot to tissue resident memory T cells (TRM). These specialized immune cells are among the body’s first responders to disease.

Rather than coursing through the bloodstream—as many T cells do—our TRM cells specialize in defending specific organs. They battle viruses, , , melanomas, and many other health threats.

Pandurangan Vijayanand, M.D., Ph.D., William K. Bowes Distinguished Professor at La Jolla Institute for Immunology (LJI), has even shown that a greater density of TRM cells is linked to better survival outcomes in lung cancer patients.

Pro-inflammatory diets linked to accelerated brain aging in older adults

The study also utilized blood samples collected at the beginning of the research period. The investigators measured several biomarkers of systemic inflammation, including C-reactive protein and white blood cell counts. These markers were combined into a composite inflammation score. This score allowed the team to test if inflammation in the body explained the link between diet and brain changes.

The results revealed a significant association between dietary habits and brain aging. Individuals who consumed the most pro-inflammatory diets had a larger brain age gap compared to those who ate anti-inflammatory diets. Specifically, those in the most pro-inflammatory group had brains that appeared about half a year older on average than those in the healthiest diet group. This suggests that poor dietary quality may accelerate the biological clock of the brain.

This association was dependent on the age of the participants. The link between a pro-inflammatory diet and older brain age was much stronger in adults aged 60 and older. In this older demographic, a pro-inflammatory diet was associated with an advanced brain age of nearly a full year. This implies that older adults might be more vulnerable to the negative effects of a poor diet.

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