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Rising Cognitive Disability as a Public Health Concern Among US Adults
From 2013 to 2023, rates of cognitive disability nearly doubled among U.S. adults under 40.
Cognitive disability includes self-reported serious difficulty concentrating, remembering, or making decisions.
Rates are highest among people with chronic diseases or lower household incomes.
Background and Objectives.
Key driver of pancreatic cancer spread identified
A Cornell-led study has revealed how a deadly form of pancreatic cancer enters the bloodstream, solving a long-standing mystery of how the disease spreads and identifying a promising target for therapy.
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is among the most lethal cancers, with fewer than 10% of patients surviving five years after diagnosis. Its microenvironment is a dense, fibrotic tissue that acts like armor around the tumor. This barrier makes drug delivery difficult and should, in theory, prevent the tumor from spreading. Yet the cancer metastasizes with striking efficiency—a paradox that has puzzled scientists.
New research published in the journal Molecular Cancer reveals that a biological receptor called ALK7 is responsible, by activating two interconnected pathways that work in tandem. One makes cancer cells more mobile through a process called epithelial-mesenchymal transition, and the other produces enzymes that physically break down the blood vessel walls.
Enhanced CAR T cells emerge from genetic screening
CAR T cells are patient-derived, genetically engineered immune cells. They are “living drugs” and constitute a milestone in modern medicine. Equipping T cells, a key cell type of the immune system, with a “chimeric antigen receptor” (CAR) enables them to specifically recognize and attack cancer cells.
CAR T cell therapy has demonstrated its potential by curing patients with otherwise untreatable blood cancers. But it still fails for most patients, often due to T cell intrinsic dysfunction. To address their current limitations and to make CAR T cells intrinsically stronger, scientists at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Medical University of Vienna have developed a new method for systematic discovery of genetic boosters of CAR T cell function.
The new study, published in Nature, introduces CELLFIE, a CAR T cell engineering and high-content CRISPR screening platform, enabling researchers to systematically modify CAR T cells and evaluate their therapeutic potential.
Oral bacteria linked to Parkinson’s via the gut-brain axis
Korean researchers have uncovered compelling evidence that oral bacteria, once colonized in the gut, can affect neurons in the brain and potentially trigger Parkinson’s disease.
The joint research team, led by Professor Ara Koh and doctoral candidate Hyunji Park of POSTECH’s Department of Life Sciences, together with Professor Yunjong Lee and doctoral candidate Jiwon Cheon of Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, collaborated with Professor Han-Joon Kim of Seoul National University College of Medicine.
They have identified the mechanism by which metabolites produced by oral bacteria in the gut may trigger the development of Parkinson’s disease. The findings were published online in Nature Communications.