A landmark, multi-year observational study will profile thousands of individuals with depression, bringing together genomics, neuroimaging, clinical assessments, and patient-reported outcomes to identify biomarkers that can guide drug development and personalize depression care.
Why has psychiatry lacked major therapeutic advances?
The first antidepressants were discovered by accident, when clinicians noticed that a tuberculosis drug, iproniazid, lifted the mood of patients.
A group of international scientists have found that people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) could be at higher risk of developing cognitive impairment—one of the signs of dementia.
They also found that those with ADHD who developed cognitive impairment experienced worse health outcomes as a result of the disease as well.
The findings build on previous studies discovering an association between adult ADHD and a higher risk of developing dementia, and experts say this highlights the need for more research to understand the connection, as well as greater and more targeted monitoring and care for those with ADHD as they get older.
Two drugs sit at the center of the current prevention push. Lecanemab, sold under the brand name Leqembi, received full FDA approval in July 2023 as the first therapy proven to slow cognitive decline by clearing amyloid from the brain. The drug is made by the pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Biogen, and its Phase 3 data came from the Clarity AD trial, published in The New England Journal of Medicine. In patients with early Alzheimer’s, lecanemab reduced brain amyloid levels and slowed cognitive decline by 27% over an 18-month period. The AHEAD 3–45 trial is now taking that same drug into a preclinical population – people with no symptoms at all.
The second drug, donanemab (brand name Kisunla), came next. Manufactured by Eli Lilly, it targets amyloid beta administered intravenously and received FDA approval in July 2024. Its Phase 3 clinical trial data, published in JAMA, was striking. Cognitive and functional decline slowed on all outcome measures: 35% on the iADRS scale, 37% on the CDR-SB, 32% on the ADAS-Cog13, and 40% on ADCS-iADL measures – all statistically significant results. Looking at the data another way, 47% of people on donanemab stayed stable on the CDR-SB over one year, compared with 29% on placebo.
Both approvals share an important boundary. Both lecanemab and donanemab are currently approved for early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease – specifically, patients with mild cognitive impairment or mild dementia with confirmed amyloid pathology. The prevention trials now underway aim to move that window back considerably, to people who haven’t yet developed any symptoms at all.
A class of chemicals called phthalates is widespread in our lives, and there are growing concerns about what impact they’re having on our reproductive health.
The most common phthalate – DEHP (di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate) – is usually added to materials to make them more flexible. It’s used in PVC pipes, cling wrap, shower curtains, medical tubing, eyelash glue, and many other everyday items.
It can easily get into our bodies, particularly if it’s in our food or water, since it’s readily absorbed through the lining of the intestines. When DEHP enters the human body, our enzymes convert it to MEHP (mono-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate).
“Genes that come from transposable elements and that are repurposed for cellular functions are typically no longer transposable,” said Cedric Feschotte, a senior author of the study. “BC200 was itself created from a mobile element but has retained its mobility and yet it is also clearly serving a cellular function. Somehow evolution hasn’t been able to untangle these two things.”
A Rare Genetic Jump Into a Virus
Scientists have documented a handful of cases in other species in which transposable elements moved into viruses. One early example came in the late 1980s, when researchers working with cultured moth cells observed a transposon moving from those cells into a baculovirus, a type of virus that infects insects.
Oncopeptides AB (publ), a biotech company specializing in difficult-to-treat cancers, today announces data from the first patients in its ongoing clinical Window-of-Opportunity (WoO) study, OP-701 (INSULA), evaluating its proprietary Peptide Drug Conjugate (PDC) platform in glioblastoma. Data from the first three treated patients demonstrate successful penetration of the human blood-brain barrier (BBB) with intra-tumoral drug concentrations in line with preclinical models, alongside good tolerability where the first patient has received five monthly doses to date without any major drug-related toxicity.
The blood-brain barrier represents one of the greatest hurdles in neuro-oncology, causing more than 90 percent of conventional systemic cancer drugs to fail because they cannot reach the brain. By confirming meaningful, BBB penetration and delivery of a cytotoxic payload into brain tumor cells in the first patients, the findings provide a strong indication of a clinical proof-of-concept for the PDC platform’s mechanism in solid brain tumors.
“Reaching our primary objective to confirm that our PDC technology successfully crosses the human blood-brain barrier is a major breakthrough for Oncopeptides,” says Sofia Heigis, CEO of Oncopeptides. “For decades, the blood-brain barrier has locked out effective treatments for glioblastoma patients. Demonstrating meaningful drug penetration in resected brain tumors in patients after a single dose validates the fundamental strength and versatility of our platform, transforming our brain cancer program from an ambitious basic scientific premise into a true, clinically justified, opportunity.”
For decades, mathematicians have dreamed of a world where computers could do more than just crunch numbers—where they could actually think, reason, and help discover new truths. A major hurdle, however, has been the notorious “hallucination” problem of artificial intelligence: large language models (LLMs) are great at sounding confident, but they frequently make mathematical errors, making them unreliable for serious research.
Now, a groundbreaking study by researchers including Tsoukalas et al., published in Science, has shattered that barrier by combining the creative writing power of AI with the ruthless accuracy of a mathematical referee.
Their system—called AlphaProof Nexus—pioneers a new way of doing math by teaming up an AI with a specialized computer program called Lean is a “formal proof assistant,” a piece of software that acts as the ultimate skeptic. It doesn’t accept a mathematical proof unless every single logical step is airtight and verified by its strict compiler.
The endless loop of creativity and proof.
The magic of AlphaProof Nexus lies in its teamwork model:
1. The AI brainstorms: The large language model acts as the creative mathematician, generating ideas, strategies, and formal proofs in the Lean language.
2. The computer checks: The Lean compiler instantly tests the AI’s work. If there’s even a tiny flaw in the logic, it rejects it and points out why.