Depression involves a complex interplay of psychological patterns, biological vulnerabilities and social stressors, making its causes and symptoms highly variable. Equally complex is the treatment of depression, which requires a highly individualized approach that may involve a combination of medication, psychotherapy and lifestyle changes. In a decade-long multi-institutional study, U of A psychologists teamed up with Radboud University in the Netherlands to develop a precision treatment approach for depression that gives patients individualized recommendations based on multiple characteristics, ...

MINNEAPOLIS — Having a larger waistline, high blood pressure and other risk factors that make up metabolic syndrome is associated with an increased risk of young-onset dementia, according to a study published on April 23, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Young-onset dementia is diagnosed before the age of 65. The study does not prove that metabolic syndrome causes young-onset dementia, it only shows an association. Metabolic syndrome is defined as having excess belly fat plus two or more of the following risk factors: high blood pressure, high blood sugar, higher than normal ...

Rising temperatures could tip the scale in an underground battle that has raged for millennia. In the soils of Earth’s wetlands, microbes are fighting to both produce and consume the powerful greenhouse gas methane. But if the Earth gets too hot, a key way wetlands clamp down on methane could be at risk, according to a Smithsonian study published April 23. Methane is responsible for roughly 19% of global warming, according to the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration. And while wetlands are champions at removing carbon dioxide (CO2)—the more abundant greenhouse gas—they are ...

Neurodegenerative disease like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) are debilitating conditions that affect millions of people worldwide every year. These pathologies are notoriously difficult to prevent or effectively treat due to a complex interplay of genetics, lifestyle, co-infection, and many other factors impacting everything from diagnosis to treatment. While a comprehensive cure-all to these neurological conditions is unlikely, scientists are making headway into understanding their fundamental ...

Water quality could be degraded by development and conversion of forests upstream, with sediment levels and nitrogen concentrations also worsened, per modelling analysis of the Middle Chattahoochee watershed of Georgia, Alabama, and Florida. #### Article URL: https://plos.io/3Gi6Kaq Article Title: Projected land use changes will cause water quality degradation at drinking water intakes across a regional watershed Author Countries: United States Funding: This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) ...

Current ‘gold standard’ treatment does not work for up to 20% of population and kills beneficial bacteria Scientists screened nearly 500 FDA-approved compounds to assess effectiveness against Lyme Piperacillin effectively treats Lyme disease at 100-times lower dose than doxycycline CHICAGO --- Lyme disease, a disease transmitted when deer ticks feed on infected animals like deer and rodents, and then bite humans, impacts nearly half a million individuals in the U.S. annually. Even in acute cases, Lyme can be devastating; but early treatment with antibiotics can prevent chronic symptoms like heart and neurological problems and arthritis from developing.  Scientists ...

Up to 20% of patients treated for Lyme experience persistent symptoms Lyme’s post-infection features share some similarities to long COVID-19 and could be due to lingering antigens Individual differences in immune response to remnants of the Lyme bacterium’s cell wall likely play an important role in patient outcome. CHICAGO --- Symptoms that persist long after Lyme disease is treated are not uncommon — a 2022 study found that 14% of patients who were diagnosed and treated early with antibiotic therapy would still develop Post Treatment Lyme Disease (PTLD). Yet doctors ...

Inspired by the movements of a tiny parasitic worm, Georgia Tech engineers have created a 5-inch soft robot that can jump as high as a basketball hoop. Their device, a silicone rod with a carbon-fiber spine, can leap 10 feet high even though it doesn’t have legs. The researchers made it after watching high-speed video of nematodes pinching themselves into odd shapes to fling themselves forward and backward. The researchers described the soft robot April 23 in Science Robotics. They said their findings could help develop robots capable of jumping across various terrain, at different heights, in multiple directions. “Nematodes are ...

A team at UC San Francisco and Gladstone Institutes has developed new drug candidates that show great promise against the virus that causes COVID-19 and potentially other coronaviruses that could cause future pandemics. In preclinical testing, the compounds performed better than Paxlovid against SARS-CoV-2 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) virus, which periodically causes deadly outbreaks around the world. “In three years, we’ve moved as fast as a pharmaceutical company would have, from start to finish, developing drug candidates against a totally new pathogen,” said Charles Craik, PhD, UCSF professor ...

This release has been removed upon request of the submitting institution because it is a duplicate of an existing release. Please find the link here to the release: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1081239 Please contact Levi Gadye, levi.gadye@ucsf.edu for more information. END ...

Caltech professor of medical engineering Wei Gao and his colleagues are envisioning a smart bandage of the future—a "lab on skin" that could not only help patients and caregivers monitor the status of chronic wounds but also deliver treatment and speed up the healing process for those cuts, incisions, scrapes, and burns that are slow to heal on their own.   In 2023, Gao's team cleared the first hurdle toward achieving that goal by showing that a smart bandage they developed could provide real-time ...

“Our discovery has found a possible treatment that could specifically target and help patients with this disease” (Boston)—The global burden of chronic kidney disease (CKD) is rising, with more than 800 million people affected worldwide. Vascular diseases in patients with CKD are unique and grouped as uremic vascular diseases. One of them, calciphylaxis, typically affects patients with end-stage, advanced kidney disease. It is a condition characterized by severe, painful and non-healing skin ulcers with no known cure.   For the first time, researchers from Boston University Chobanian ...

Collagen is well-known as an important component of our skin, but its impact is much greater, as it is the most abundant protein in the body, providing structure and support to nearly all tissues and organs. Using their novel Freeform Reversible Embedding of Suspended Hydrogels (FRESH) 3D bioprinting technique, which allows for the printing of soft living cells and tissues, Carnegie Mellon’s Feinberg lab has built a first-of-its-kind microphysiologic system, or tissue model, entirely out of collagen. This advancement expands the capabilities of how researchers can study disease and build tissues for therapy, ...

Chinese scientists have discovered that fragile swamp forests in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region suddenly collapsed around 2.1 thousand years ago (ka)—with human activity as the cause. The study, led by researchers from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry and the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sheds new light on the role of human activity in ecosystem collapse. Published in Science Advances, the study focuses on Glyptostrobus pensilis (G. pensilis), a critically endangered species of Chinese swamp cypress that once thrived in extensive swamp forests in the PRD. Through palynological (i.e., pollen and ...

18.5% reduction in sick leave following LEZ implementation 10.2% decrease in respiratory issues Annual public health savings of over £37 million New research from the University of Bath has revealed that Greater London's clean air policies—the Low Emission Zone (LEZ) and the Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) are not only improving the city’s environment but are also delivering significant measurable public health and economic benefits. The study, published in the Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization  which analysed over a decade of data ...

In a breakthrough that blends ancient design with modern materials science, researchers at the University of Houston have developed a new class of ceramic structures that can bend under pressure — without breaking.  Potential applications for this technology range from medical prosthetics to impact-resistant components in aerospace and robotics, where lightweight - but tough - materials are in high demand.  Traditionally known for their brittleness, ceramics often shatter under stress, making them difficult to use in high-impact or adaptive applications. But that may soon change as a team ...

The antimalarial drug mefloquine could help treat genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, as well as some cancers. In these diseases, a mutation in the genetic code introduces a stop signal in completely the wrong place, leading to the production of a shortened protein. An international team of researchers, including scientists of the University of Groningen, have now demonstrated how the antimalarial drug mefloquine can enhance the effect of aminoglycosides, another class of drugs, to override ...

Ottawa, ON, April 23, 2025 – 20% of residents newly admitted to long-term care became permanently unable to make everyday decisions for themselves within five years, according to new research from Bruyère Health Research Institute and ICES.  A significant number of long-term care (LTC) residents experience states of severe cognitive and physical impairment, leaving them unable to make personal decisions—like what to eat or what to wear—and unable to communicate with staff or loved ones.   “Our study set out to trace the experiences of residents newly admitted to long-term care, and ...

About The Study: In this study, severe permanent impairment in function and cognition were common and often present near the end of life for long-term care residents, but a minority of residents lived in these states for years. These results suggest that building shared understanding and open communication about the natural course of frailty trajectories for long-term care residents may support resident-centered medical decision-making. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Daniel Kobewka, MD, MSc, email dkobewka@toh.ca. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link ...

About The Study: Despite the high prevalence of adverse social determinants of health (SDOH) in emergency department (ED) populations, in this survey study of 232 EDs, less than one-third performed screening, and one-fifth did not have policies requiring a response to positive screens. Bridging this gap may require expanding adverse SDOH screening practices while also ensuring that EDs have the resources and infrastructure to respond appropriately to identified social needs. Future research might explore advanced technological solutions ...

Early DNA Organization is Robust and Flexible When the egg and sperm fuse, a comprehensive reorganization of DNA begins within the nucleus. Epigenetics plays a crucial role in this process, regulating gene activity through chemical modifications on DNA and its associated proteins. “We wanted to understand how these epigenetic programs influence gene activity and ensure that the cell correctly executes its developmental tasks,” explains study leader Prof. Maria-Elena Torres-Padilla, Director at the Institute of Epigenetics ...

New multidisciplinary research led by Prof. Tomás Ryan from Trinity College Dublin shows that the brain forms memories of cold experiences and uses them to control our metabolism. This newly published study is the first to show that cold memories form in the brain – and map out how they subsequently drive thermoregulation. The discovery may have important applications in therapies designed to treat a range of disorders – from obesity to cancer – in which thermoregulation and metabolism (or a lack of control in this area) plays a role, as ...

To the point Secret of the Phoenician-Punic civilization's success: Their culture spread across the Mediterranean not through large-scale mass migration, but through a dynamic process of cultural transmission and assimilation. Melting pot of ancient people: The study found that Punic populations had a highly variable and heterogeneous genetic profile, with significant North African and Sicilian-Aegean ancestry. Highly interconnected: Ancient Mediterranean societies were cosmopolitan, with people from different regions trading, moving often over large distances and having offspring with each other. This provides new insights into the region's cultural and population history in ...

A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham showed that teens and young adults who took varenicline—an FDA-approved, twice-daily smoking cessation pill for adults—are more than three times as likely to successfully quit vaping compared to those who received only behavioral counseling. Results are published in JAMA. “Vaping is extremely popular among kids, and we know that this early nicotine exposure can make drugs like cocaine more addictive down the line, yet ours is the first ...

CINCINNATI—Scientists at Cincinnati Children’s along with an international team of researchers have discovered a surprising new connection between gut health and blood cancer risk—one that could transform how we think about aging, inflammation, and the early stages of leukemia. As we grow older—or in some cases, when gut health is compromised by disease—changes in the intestinal lining allow certain bacteria to leak their byproducts into the bloodstream. One such molecule, produced by specific bacteria, acts as a signal that accelerates the expansion of dormant, pre-leukemic blood cells, a critical step ...