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Category: health – Page 2

Signal, Speculation, and Standards of Proof in Iatrogenic AD

💬 Editorial: Current evidence supports iatrogenic transmission of cerebral amyloid angiopathy but not AlzheimerDisease; a definitive causal link between contaminated growth hormone exposure and AD remains speculative.

Neurodegenerative diseases caused by protein misfolding (eg, Alzheimer disease [AD], frontotemporal lobar degeneration, Parkinson disease) share many similarities with prion diseases. All demonstrate template-directed protein misfolding and propagation in vivo. However, with 1 exception, they have not exhibited interindividual or zoonotic transmission as observed in iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease and variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, respectively. An important unresolved question is whether other proteinopathies are transmissible between individuals, and if so, their potential impact on public health. To address these concerns, several prion centers have re-assessed cases of iatrogenic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease due to cadaver-derived human growth hormone (c-hGH) and dura mater grafts. Although amyloid ÎČ (AÎČ) plaques and cerebral amyloid angiopathy were commonly seen, tau pathology necessary for a diagnosis of AD was not.1,2 Thus, while there is adequate evidence that cerebral amyloid angiopathy may be acquired through iatrogenic mechanisms, iatrogenic transmission of AD pathology remained speculative.3

In 2024, Banerjee et al published an article entitled, “Iatrogenic Alzheimer’s Disease in Recipients of Cadaveric Pituitary-Derived Growth Hormone.”4 This assertion of iatrogenic AD (iAD) was largely predicated on the detection of AÎČ seeds contaminating the c-hGH used in 8 recipients who later presented with concerns of cognitive impairment. The recipients had a variety of premorbid neurologic conditions that led to the need for hGH, many of which are themselves associated with later-life neuropathology, perhaps most notably radiotherapy and epilepsy. This report was met with some skepticism, given how the cases were diagnosed and the lack of biological evidence to confirm AD pathology in most participants.5,6

In this issue of JAMA Neurol ogy, the same group presents a report of an autopsy-confirmed case of AD in a c-hGH recipient and describes the clinical phenotype of 3 other c-hGH recipients.7 In their autopsy case, they describe cerebral amyloid angiopathy and high-level AD neuropathologic change (A3B3C3), providing the strongest confirmation of an AD diagnosis in their cohort. Additionally, this individual had limited premorbid medical conditions (complex partial seizures) and required hGH due to idiopathic growth hormone deficiency. They describe the clinical presentation as a mixed primary progressive aphasia phenotype and remark that 3 other c-hGH recipients presented similar primary progressive aphasia phenotypes. One of these was diagnosed with atypical AD due to unspecified single-photon emission computed tomography imaging findings and the other through a reduced AÎČ42/40-cerebrospinal fluid ratio.

Eyal Aharoni — Breaking the Moral Turing Test

Dr. discusses one of the most provocative frontiers in technology: the automation of moral judgement — in his talk focusses on outcomes of a comparative moral Turing test (AI outperforms humans across a range of metrics), as well as AI assisted medical triage!

Link in reply🔗

Eyal Aharoni

Dr. Eyal Aharoni (Georgia State University) to the Future Day 2026 stage to discuss one of the most provocative frontiers in technology: the automation of moral judgement.

Breaking the Moral Turing Test: Studies of human attribution and deference to AI moral judgment and decision-making.

Continue reading “Eyal Aharoni — Breaking the Moral Turing Test” | >

Scientists uncovered the nutrients bees were missing — Colonies surged 15-fold

Scientists have developed a breakthrough “superfood” for honeybees by engineering yeast to produce the essential nutrients normally found in pollen. In controlled trials, colonies fed this specially designed diet produced up to 15 times more young, showing a dramatic boost in reproduction and overall health. As climate change and modern agriculture reduce the availability of natural pollen, this innovation could offer a practical way to support struggling bee populations.

Microwave carrots, air-fry tomatoes: Researchers identify sustainable cooking methods for better nutrition

Researchers at the University of Seville’s Food Color and Quality Laboratory have studied the effects of different cooking methods used for tomatoes and carrots (in the oven, microwave or air fryer, among others) on the amount of carotenoids that are potentially available for absorption by the body following the digestion of these foods. According to the study, the bioavailability index varies significantly depending on how these foods are cooked. Carotenoids are compounds of great importance due to their positive health effects.

In the case of carrots, the bioavailability of total carotenoids increased ninefold when cooked in the oven. For tomatoes, the highest bioavailability values were obtained by cooking them in either an air fryer (190 °C for 10 minutes) or a conventional oven (180 °C for 20 minutes). There were no significant differences between the two methods. Although the increase in bioavailability was more modest (a 1.5-fold increase), it was also significant compared to raw tomatoes.

The researchers also highlight that the increases in the bioavailability of the vitamin A precursor carotenoids in tomatoes (α-carotene and ÎČ-carotene) ranged from 26 to 38 times and 46 to 71 times, respectively, compared with those in raw carrots. Cooking is, therefore, a sometimes-overlooked strategy for combating vitamin A deficiency, one of the world’s most serious nutritional problems.

Triple pre-surgery therapy may boost immunity against soft tissue sarcoma

Early results from preclinical studies and a clinical trial led by researchers at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center and Stanford Medicine suggest that combining targeted radiation therapy with an experimental immune-boosting drug called BO-112 and anti-PD-1 therapy before surgery may help the immune system fight aggressive soft tissue sarcomas.

The findings, published in Cancer Discovery, show that the approach can reshape the tumor microenvironment to activate the body’s immune cells against cancer.

Soft tissue sarcomas are a rare and often hard-to-treat group of cancers that typically require a combination of surgery, radiation therapy and other systemic treatments. However, these tumors may still be resistant to standard therapies, highlighting the need for new treatment strategies.

DNA shape explains crucial gene-therapy challenges

CRISPR is a powerful DNA-editing tool that has underpinned huge advancements in human health care in the last decade. It is a precision tool, but is not perfect, and misplaced DNA edits can compromise safety and efficacy, costing billions each year. Researchers at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS), Imperial College London and the University of Sheffield have published research in Nature showing that the physical twisting of DNA plays an important role in these mistakes. Using a newly developed platform of tiny (nanometer-sized) DNA circles, called DNA minicircles, the team captured never-before-seen interactions between CRISPR and DNA, providing insights that could help eradicate errors altogether.

CRISPR-Cas9 has transformed biology by giving scientists a programmable way to cut and edit DNA. Its ever-growing impact includes groundbreaking therapies for genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia and an increasing role in personalized cancer treatment and rapid diagnostics. But even carefully designed CRISPR systems can sometimes cut DNA sequences that were not the intended targets.

“It’s a tool that is not perfect and can introduce errors and make edits where it shouldn’t make them,” says Professor David Rueda, head of the Single Molecule Imaging group at the LMS and Chair in Molecular and Cellular Biophysics at Imperial College London. “And it’s an important problem for the industry. It’s been estimated to be $0.3 to $0.9 billions per year in industry costs, in profiling off-targets, redesigning guides and delays.”

Your clothes may become smarter than you

You’re probably used to the sight of smartwatches on people’s wrists. But what about smart clothes? Researchers at the University of Georgia are exploring how the clothes people wear can potentially track and protect their health. Smart textiles are fabrics that can monitor the body’s vitals and movement in real time. They’re flexible and lightweight, making them more comfortable to wear while moving.

The present publication focuses on MXenes, a class of two-dimensional, microscopic materials made from metals that can be coated or printed onto fabrics. The researchers conducted a comprehensive analysis of hundreds of published studies to examine the different properties of MXenes and how they could be used in smart textiles. The paper is published in the journal ACS Omega.

“MXenes have some advanced properties,” said Joyjit Ghosh, corresponding author of the study and a doctoral student in UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences. Not only can they detect body temperature, blood pressure and heart rate, he said, but they are also antimicrobial, making them ideal for hospital settings.

Belt-like VO₂(B) single crystals unlock high-sensitivity gas detection at room temperature

An international research team has successfully synthesized oriented belt-shaped vanadium dioxide (VO2(B)) single crystals via a hydrothermal reduction method, using one-dimensional vanadium pentoxide (V2O5) nanofibers as the starting material. This work, published in the journal ACS Sensors, provides a new material platform and design guidelines for the development of next-generation low-power gas sensors capable of operating at room temperature.

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted from industrial activities and vehicle exhaust are major urban air pollutants. Because VOCs pose serious environmental and health risks, developing effective monitoring for them is a global concern. Gas sensors can monitor for VOCs, but it has been a major challenge for scientists to develop sensors that work reliably at room temperature. Currently, metal oxide semiconductor gas sensors operate at 200°C–400°C.

“This heating requirement greatly increases power consumption and limits their use in portable devices, battery-powered systems, and large-scale Internet of Things sensor networks,” said Professor Shu Yin from the Institute of Multidisciplinary Research for Advanced Materials (IMRAM), Tohoku University (also affiliated with the Advanced Institute for Materials Research, WPI-AIMR).

New NMR method allows the observation of chalcogen bonds

Toward the right side of the periodic table below oxygen, are the chalcogens, or “ore-forming” elements. The chalcogens that occur naturally, including sulfur, selenium and tellurium, are all somehow involved in biological processes. Molecules containing sulfur, like the antioxidant glutathione, play a central role in redox regulation, the balance between oxidation and reduction that is essential for maintaining cellular health.

Recent studies have suggested that the heavier selenium and tellurium are active in biological redox systems as well, but the instability of molecules containing chains of different chalcogen atoms has made structural analysis difficult.

Traditional methods have largely relied on mass spectrometry, which cannot be used to directly observe molecular bonds. This limitation motivated a team of researchers at Kyoto University to develop a method that would allow them to more clearly observe chains of chalcogens. The paper is published in the journal ACS Measurement Science Au.

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