Doctors usually focus on a person's average blood pressure, but research increasingly shows that how much blood pressure fluctuates from moment to moment is just as important. A group in University of Virginia School of Medicine's Department of Pharmacology has identified a group of nerve cells in the brainstem – a region that controls vital automatic functions – that act as a stabilizing system for blood pressure. The new research suggests these cells help prevent fluctuations when the body shifts between everyday activities such as sleeping, waking up, standing or exercising. What we found is that a loss of just a few hundred nerve cells leads to unstable blood pressure even though the mean blood pressure was normal. This shows that the system that keeps blood pressure steady from moment to moment is no longer working." Stephen Abbott, PhD, lead investigator of the study, UVA Loss or dysfunction of these same brain cells has already been documented in people with multiple system atrophy, a rare and fatal neurological disease related to Parkinson's disease that is marked by severe blood pressure problems. The findings suggest that similar brain-based mechanisms could contribute to blood pressure instability in other conditions where average blood pressure appears normal by standard measurements. The findings could open the door to treatments to stabilize blood pressure and prevent those harmful effects. "Our work emphasizes a new appreciation for how we think about blood pressure problems," Abbott said. "It's not just about lowering the numbers – it's about keeping blood pressure stable from moment to moment." Abbott and his colleagues have published their blood pressure findings in the scientific journal Circulation Research. Souza, Harsha Thakkalapally, Faye E. Berry, Leah F. Wisniewski, Ulrich M. Atongazi, Daniel S. Stornetta and Abbott. The institute aims to accelerate how quickly lab discoveries can be translated into lifesaving new treatments for patients. Control of Blood Pressure Variability Across Behavioral States by Brainstem Adrenergic Neurons. Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

New medical developments make it possible to treat an increasing number of severe and rare diseases with novel, high-cost pharmaceuticals. At the same time, there are limited resources. The findings can help inform Norwegian health policy in this field by contributing to the further development of national priority-setting processes and tools for allocating healthcare resources in clinical practice. The study shows that these cases engage a wide range of commentators, and that discussions about individual treatments increasingly moved out of party politics after the establishment of Nye Metoder.The second sub-study investigates which criteria the public emphasises when making priority decisions between hypothetical patient groups. Responses related to work ability depend on whether the respondents themselves are employed.The third sub-study is based on interviews with 18 physicians regarding the introduction of a new, high-cost treatment for cystic fibrosis in 2022. Two main findings are described: Physicians negotiate the content of clinical guidelines in their encounters with patients, and they interpret the treatment cost in ways that enable them to continue offering the therapy - even when the effect is uncertain - rather than discontinuing it.The thesis increases understanding of the priority-setting challenges associated with expensive pharmaceuticals for rare diseases. The findings show that physicians often face difficult situations when translating overarching priority-setting principles into clinical practice, particularly when both the costs and the consequences for other patient groups are unclear. Greater transparency in price agreements and clearer, evidence-based criteria in clinical guidelines for high-cost medicines can provide better support to clinicians when navigating uncertain treatment effects, while also contributing to fairer and more transparent priority-setting in the health service. Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please check the box above to proceed. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Certain neighborhood characteristics, including higher poverty, more uninsured residents, and lower educational attainment, may lead to an increase in COPD-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations, according to a new study in the January 2026 issue of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Journal of the COPD Foundation, a peer-reviewed, open access journal. It can be caused by genetics and irritants like smoke or pollution. Acute exacerbations, or flare-ups, are a sudden worsening of symptoms. People experiencing an acute exacerbation often require an emergency department visit or hospitalization, which can impact quality of life and health care costs. Census tracts are small, relatively permanent subdivisions of a county, averaging approximately 4,000 people. Population characteristics, economic status, and living conditions are consistent among each census tract. The results showed geographic patterns across neighborhoods when examining specific neighborhood characteristics for emergency department visits and hospitalizations related to a COPD exacerbation. Hospital readmission rates did not show the same geographic patterning. Our findings suggest that addressing the risk of COPD exacerbations requires not just prioritizing individual medical care but also implementing community-level interventions that target neighborhood risk factors. By combining population-based data with studies focusing on an individual's exacerbation risk profile, we can inform appropriate policies to help improve people's quality of life and reduce acute care use." Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases Journal of the COPD Foundation. Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have developed a method to predict when someone is likely to develop symptoms of Alzheimer's disease using a single blood test. In a new study published Feb. 19 in Nature Medicine, the researchers demonstrated that their models predicted the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms within a margin of three to four years. This could have implications both for clinical trials developing preventive Alzheimer's treatments and for eventually identifying individuals likely to benefit from these treatments. This massive public health burden currently has no cure, but predictive models could help efforts to develop treatments that prevent or slow the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms. Our work shows the feasibility of using blood tests, which are substantially cheaper and more accessible than brain imaging scans or spinal fluid tests, for predicting the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms." Suzanne E. Schindler, MD, PhD, senior author, associate professor in the WashU Medicine Department of Neurology Schindler noted that these models could allow clinical trials of potentially preventive treatments to be performed within a shorter time period. "In the near term, these models will accelerate our research and clinical trials," she said. These tests are not currently recommended in cognitively unimpaired individuals outside of clinical trials or research. To identify the interval between elevated p-tau217 levels and Alzheimer's symptoms, Schindler and lead author Kellen K. Petersen, PhD, an instructor in neurology at WashU Medicine, analyzed data from volunteers in two independent long-running Alzheimer's research initiatives: the WashU Medicine Knight Alzheimer Disease Research Center (Knight ADRC) and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), based at multiple sites in the U.S. Plasma p-tau217 was measured with PrecivityAD2, a clinically available diagnostic blood test for Alzheimer's disease from C2N Diagnostics, a WashU startup co-founded by WashU Medicine researchers David M. Holtzman, MD, the Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Distinguished Professor, and Randall J. Bateman, MD, the Charles F. & Joanne Knight Distinguished Professor of Neurology, both coauthors on the study. Plasma p-tau217 was also measured in the ADNI cohort using blood tests from other companies, including one cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Plasma p-tau217 has previously been shown to correlate strongly with the accumulation of amyloid and tau in the brain as shown on PET scans. The key hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease, amyloid and tau are misfolded proteins that begin building up in the brain many years before Alzheimer's symptoms develop. "Amyloid and tau levels are similar to tree rings - if we know how many rings a tree has, we know how many years old it is," Petersen said. "It turns out that amyloid and tau also accumulate in a consistent pattern and the age they become positive strongly predicts when someone is going to develop Alzheimer's symptoms. We found this is also true of plasma p-tau217, which reflects both amyloid and tau levels." Older individuals had a shorter time from when elevated p-tau217 appeared to the start of symptoms as compared to younger participants, suggesting that younger people's brains may be more resilient to neurodegeneration and that older people may develop symptoms at lower levels of Alzheimer's pathology. For example, if a person had elevated p-tau217 in their plasma at age 60, they developed symptoms 20 years later. If p-tau217 wasn't elevated until age 80, they developed symptoms only 11 years later. Additionally, Petersen developed a web-based application allowing researchers to explore the clock models in greater detail. "These clock models could make clinical trials more efficient by identifying individuals who are likely to develop symptoms within a certain period of time," Petersen said. "With further refinement, these methodologies have the potential to predict symptom onset accurately enough that we could use it in individual clinical care." Petersen added that additional blood biomarkers are associated with cognitive symptoms in Alzheimer's; as a direction for future research, these could be used to refine the estimates of symptom onset. Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. 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Researchers at Amsterdam UMC have discovered that a second pregnancy alters the female brain. These results are published today in Nature Communications. The research group also discovered that pregnancy changes brain functioning. For this follow-up study, they tracked 110 women: some became mothers for the first time, others had their second child, and a third group remained childless. Each pregnancy leaves a unique mark on the female brain." Elseline Hoekzema, head of the Pregnancy Brain Lab at Amsterdam UMC This part of the brain is important for many functions including self-reflection and social processes. During a second pregnancy, this network changed again, but less strongly. However, during a second pregnancy, there were more changes in brain networks related to directing attention and responding to stimuli. "It appears that during a second pregnancy, the brain is more strongly altered in networks involved in reacting to sensory cues and in controlling your attention", explains researcher Milou Straathof, who analyzed the data. "These processes may be beneficial when caring for multiple children." In addition, the researchers observed connections between structural brain changes and peripartum depression, both during a first and a second pregnancy, providing the first evidence that the changes taking place in a woman's cortex during pregnancy relate to maternal depression. "This knowledge can help to better understand and recognize mental health problems in mothers. It is important that we understand how the brain adapts to motherhood." This research provides new insights into how the female brain adapts to motherhood. The large majority of women become pregnant once or multiple times in their lives, yet we are only now starting to unravel how this impacts a woman's brain. The results can also contribute to better care for mothers, for example in preventing and treating postpartum depression. The findings also show that the brain is flexible and can continually adapt to major changes in a woman's life. The effects of a second pregnancy on women's brain structure and function. Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please check the box above to proceed. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. We do not provide medical advice, if you search for medical information you must always consult a medical professional before acting on any information provided. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Mass General Brigham's evaluation of low-field MRI performance lays potential groundwork for this technology to be a lower-cost, accessible option for breast imaging. Researchers at Mass General Brigham have demonstrated the technical feasibility of using ultra-low field (ULF) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for breast imaging. With further refinement and evaluation, the technology could offer an alternative to existing breast cancer screening methods and may reduce barriers to screening. "These results are a very encouraging proof of principle, though larger studies are needed to establish diagnostic performance," said project principal investigator and co-senior author Matthew Rosen, PhD, an associate professor of Radiology and director of the Low Field MRI laboratory in the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging in the Mass General Brigham Department of Radiology. "They motivate our continued pursuit of safe, comfortable, lower-cost screening approaches that can expand access for patients." Current U.S. guidelines recommend screening mammography for women aged 40 to 74 years. Unlike mammography, ULF MRI doesn't require breast compression, which many patients find uncomfortable. Another benefit of ULF MRI is that it doesn't use ionizing radiation. While higher risk patients may receive MRI screening for breast cancer, standard MRI machines are not used in routine breast cancer screening because they are expensive and not widely available. The authors note that discrepancies were likely related to the novelty of ULF MRI and may be reduced with additional training and experience. "This early evidence suggests that ULF MRI can detect essential breast features and some abnormalities without radiation or injected contrast," said co-first author Neha Koonjoo, PhD, an investigator at the Martinos Center. "We attempted this study in hopes that the breast features would be visible, but you don't always have success. We're very motivated by this study to continue our work on ultra-low-field MRI for breast screening." The researchers note that further study is needed to determine the diagnostic accuracy of ULF MRI for breast cancer screening, including studies in larger cohorts that include patients with benign and malignant lesions. They also emphasize that further refinements in ULF MRI technology are needed to meet clinical resolution standards for breast cancer screening. Sheng Shen, PhD, co-first author, Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging Shen, S., et al. (2026) Breast imaging with ultra-low field MRI. Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

A controlled human study reveals that coffee's complex chemical matrix may shape immune responses differently than pure caffeine, highlighting how everyday dietary exposures can subtly influence physiology. Coffee consumption and caffeine exposure are widely studied due to their potential metabolic and immunological effects, which affect quality of life and generate public health interest. Many individuals consume caffeine regularly, and understanding its physiological effects remains important, while recognizing that biomarker changes do not necessarily translate into clinical health outcomes. Dietary bioactive compounds, including caffeine and coffee polyphenols, have attracted attention for possible immunomodulatory effects. Caffeine is a methylxanthine present in coffee, acting partly through adenosine receptor antagonism rather than serotonergic pathways. Unlike pharmaceutical interventions, coffee intake represents a common dietary exposure rather than a clinical treatment, making its physiological impact relevant for everyday health research but not indicative of therapeutic effects. In the present study, researchers evaluated the acute effects of orally consumed coffee compared with an aqueous caffeine solution and water in healthy volunteers. Participants were aged 20 to 40 years, healthy, non-smoking regular coffee consumers with normal body mass index. Individuals with chronic disease, medication use, pregnancy, or other health conditions affecting metabolism or immunity were excluded. Subjects were administered coffee brew, a caffeine solution, or water containing an equivalent caffeine dose (130 mg/100 mL) after a standardized meal to control for postprandial metabolic effects. In each study phase, participants received one of the three beverages in randomized order with washout periods between sessions. The dose, approximately 130 mg caffeine per serving, was consumed orally. Safety monitoring included standard clinical observations appropriate for nutritional research. Statistical analyses involved repeated-measures comparisons of cytokine levels and caffeine pharmacokinetics between interventions. The study randomized 10 healthy participants to coffee, caffeine solution, and water crossover conditions. Participants were, on average, young adults and habitual coffee drinkers, with comparable baseline characteristics across interventions. Immune marker responses differed modestly between interventions. Pure caffeine produced more pronounced suppression of certain cytokines, including interferon gamma and selected interleukins, whereas coffee often elicited responses closer to the water control despite equivalent caffeine content. Systemic caffeine exposure was higher after coffee consumption than after the caffeine solution, suggesting potential matrix effects from other coffee constituents that may influence absorption or metabolism, although the authors interpreted this cautiously, given the pilot-scale design. Most physiological changes were acute and transient following beverage consumption, with no evidence of clinically significant adverse health effects and no indication of lasting immune alterations within the short observation period. The intervention was well tolerated among participants who received coffee or other caffeine-containing beverages. No serious adverse events or clinically meaningful abnormalities were reported, although minor transient physiological responses typical of caffeine intake were observed. Acute consumption of coffee, which delivers approximately 130 mg of caffeine, produced measurable but modest immunological effects in healthy adults, distinct from those observed with isolated caffeine, suggesting that non-caffeine coffee components may modify physiological responses. These findings should be considered preliminary due to the small sample size, short-term design, and healthy participant population. Larger, longer studies across diverse populations and habitual intake patterns are needed to further evaluate the health implications of coffee and caffeine consumption. His academic journey has allowed him to delve deeper into understanding the intricate world of microorganisms. He has worked on diverse projects in microbiology, biopolymers, and drug delivery. His contributions to these areas have provided him with a comprehensive understanding of the subject matter and the ability to tackle complex research challenges. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: Study reveals coffee triggers distinct cytokine responses compared with pure caffeine. "Study reveals coffee triggers distinct cytokine responses compared with pure caffeine". "Study reveals coffee triggers distinct cytokine responses compared with pure caffeine". Study reveals coffee triggers distinct cytokine responses compared with pure caffeine. Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. To start a conversation, please log into your AZoProfile account first, or create a new account. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. Please check the box above to proceed. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

The Brain Gym couples Center for BrainHealth's extensive expertise in developing science-backed brain health strategies and tools with the GoMo Health BehavioralRx® proprietary science of cognitive human engagement to deliver short, adaptive learning moments that fit naturally into daily life. The program is designed to support employees by strengthening cognitive flexibility, emotional regulation, stress management, and sustained mental performance, without stigma, labeling, or disruption to daily work. Early adopters of The Brain Gym include organizations operating in high-pressure environments where cognitive performance, stress management, and resilience are essential to optimal daily operations. Together, GoMo Health and Center for BrainHealth are advancing a shared mission: moving proactive brain health from research settings into actionable programs that can easily be adopted into daily life to meaningfully support performance, wellbeing, and resilience – at work and at home. Together, the organizations are advancing applied brain health by delivering science-informed, accessible tools that support cognitive performance, adaptability, and resilience in real-world environments. This collaboration helps brain health scale up, giving teams and organizations access to a trusted brain health and performance companion." "This expanded partnership reflects a shared commitment to translating brain science into practical, real-world impact," said Bob Gold, CEO, Founder and Chief Behavioral Technologist at GoMo Health. "By integrating Center for BrainHealth content into The Brain Gym program, we are helping organizations support cognitive performance and resilience for employees in ways that fit naturally into their daily lives." The announcement coincides with GoMo Health participation in BrainHealth Week 2026 (February 23-28), organized by Center for BrainHealth, including sponsorship of the Science Summit: Breakthroughs in Precision Brain Health, on February 26. Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

A newly discovered cellular mechanism shows promise for treating painful lymphedema. Scientists have made a breakthrough that could lead to effective treatments for lymphedema, a painful swelling condition for which there is currently no cure. It occurs when the lymphatic system, which moves fluid throughout the body via specialised vessels, is damaged, leading to fluid accumulation in tissues. Our group of researchers has discovered a cellular process that promotes lymphatic vessel growth. Dr. Jonathan Astin, senior lecturer in molecular medicine and pathology, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Auckland The scientists discovered that a growth-promoting molecule, known as ‘insulin-like growth factor', or IGF, accelerates the growth of lymphatic vessels in zebrafish, so has potential to repair damaged vessels. They then worked with a University colleague, senior research fellow Dr Justin Rustenhoven, to grow human cells in the lab and found the IGF, could also ‘instruct' human lymphatic vessels to grow. While IGF has long been studied, it was not previously known to have this role in promoting lymphatic vessel growth. “This work is of interest to the medical community as it provides an additional way to induce lymphatic vessel growth,” says Astin. In Aotearoa New Zealand, approximately 20 percent of women who have lymph nodes removed as part of breast-cancer treatment will develop lymphedema, and currently there is no cure.” The work was conducted in Astin's lab by then doctoral student Dr Wenxuan Chen and involved collaborations with Dr Kate Lee, Rustenhoven and Professor Stefan Bohlander, all in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, as well as a lab in the US. “The advantage of using fish is we can fluorescently label lymphatic vessels so that they glow and then image vessel growth in a whole larva or embryo and not impact its growth at all. Astin is cautious about promising too much but says this holds the potential to become a therapy for this painful, incurable condition in the future. Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. In our latest interview, News-Medical speaks with Rosanna Zhang from ACROBiosystems about utilizing organoids for disease modeling in the field of neuroscience research. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

A review of randomized controlled trials found little to no benefit of Ginkgo biloba for mild cognitive impairment or multiple sclerosis-related cognitive symptoms. Evidence suggests small symptomatic improvements in dementia, but findings are uncertain due to study variability and limited long-term data. Study: Ginkgo biloba for cognitive impairment and dementia. In a recent systematic review published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, researchers evaluated the clinical efficacy and safety of Ginkgo biloba (ginkgo) for individuals with cognitive impairment and dementia. The review analyzed data from 82 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) involving 10,613 participants, with 72 studies providing extractable outcome data; however, not all outcomes were suitable for quantitative pooling. The review aimed to elucidate ginkgo's impact on memory, cognitive function, and daily routine task performance. Review findings revealed that ginkgo offers little to no benefit for those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or multiple sclerosis-related cognitive impairment. While the authors noted small to moderate benefits for patients already diagnosed with dementia, the review highlights significant heterogeneity in study outcomes, emphasizing the need for standardized future protocols. Evidence for dementia benefits is of low certainty, and some analyses have shown very high statistical heterogeneity across trials. Dementia is an umbrella term for a spectrum of progressive neurocognitive disorders characterized by significant declines in memory, thinking, behavior, and cognitive function that often hamper routine life. The condition is increasingly recognized as a global health crisis, especially as advancements in modern medicine have led to projections of 1.4 billion people aged 60 and older by 2030. Despite decades of research, dementia and other forms of cognitive decline, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), have no scientifically validated cure or clearly established disease-modifying therapy. Current interventions aim to prevent dementia onset through risk assessment and delay progression once clinically diagnosed. Consequently, many individuals seek alternative remedies in traditional folk medicine and media-popularized cures. Among the most popular is Ginkgo biloba, ginkgo, an extract from one of the oldest extant tree species. Modern medicine typically uses a standardized extract known as EGb 761, which contains specific bioactive compounds, flavonoids, and terpene lactones. These compounds are believed to act as antioxidants, reduce brain inflammation, and protect neurons from damage, making the plant and its extracts biologically plausible candidates for treating cognitive disorders, although this Cochrane review evaluated clinical outcomes rather than mechanistic effects. Despite widespread use as an over-the-counter supplement, scientific evidence for ginkgo's effectiveness remains inconsistent, necessitating an updated synthesis of its potential cognitive benefits. This Cochrane systematic review synthesized trial evidence on ginkgo's efficacy across a large, diverse pooled sample. The review focused on RCTs investigating ginkgo supplementation in adults with subjective cognitive complaints, MCI, dementia, or multiple sclerosis-related cognitive problems rather than exclusively older adults. The final analysis included 82 studies with 10,613 participants, including people with subjective memory complaints, multiple sclerosis, MCI, and diagnosed dementia, such as Alzheimer's or vascular dementia. The primary endpoints included global clinical status, an overall clinician-rated impression of change in health or functioning, global cognitive function assessed using standard tools such as the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) or the Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-cognition (ADAS-Cog), activities of daily living (ADLs), and safety based on adverse events (AEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs). Analyses suggested that baseline health status altered ginkgo's apparent efficacy. For participants with multiple sclerosis-related cognitive impairment, ginkgo's effects were not statistically distinguishable from placebo, with moderate-certainty evidence of little or no cognitive benefit. Similarly, among 1,913 participants with MCI, ginkgo did not show a significant advantage over placebo at six months, with moderate-certainty evidence indicating little or no meaningful improvement in global clinical status, cognition, or daily functioning. In contrast, participants with a formal dementia diagnosis showed improved global clinical status and cognitive function, and a slightly improved ability to perform daily tasks compared with the placebo group. However, evidence certainty was low, results varied widely between trials, longer-term data beyond about six months were limited, and current evidence does not demonstrate disease-modifying effects, only possible symptomatic benefit. Safety assessments found no significant increase in adverse event risk compared with placebo in MCI and dementia populations. One short trial in people with subjective cognitive complaints suggested adverse events may occur more frequently with ginkgo, and evidence for serious adverse events remains uncertain. This review synthesizes randomized trial evidence and concludes that while ginkgo is not a preventive “magic pill” for cognitive decline in healthy or mildly impaired individuals, it may provide modest symptomatic improvement for people living with dementia based on low-certainty evidence and heterogeneous results. The review highlights substantial heterogeneity across RCTs and emphasizes the need for standardized methodologies and longer-term trials to identify which patients, such as those with Alzheimer's versus vascular dementia, are most likely to benefit from supplementation. Hugo Francisco de Souza is a scientific writer based in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. His academic passions lie in biogeography, evolutionary biology, and herpetology. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, where he studies the origins, dispersal, and speciation of wetland-associated snakes. Hugo has received, amongst others, the DST-INSPIRE fellowship for his doctoral research and the Gold Medal from Pondicherry University for academic excellence during his Masters. His research has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, including PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and Systematic Biology. When not working or writing, Hugo can be found consuming copious amounts of anime and manga, composing and making music with his bass guitar, shredding trails on his MTB, playing video games (he prefers the term ‘gaming'), or tinkering with all things tech. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: Brain microphysiological systems are reshaping in vitro neurotoxicity testing through functional validation and advanced disease modeling. Targeted protein degradation presents a promising strategy to address antimicrobial resistance, focusing on innovative approaches for gram-negative bacteria. 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