Missing nutrient in breast milk may explain health challenges in children of women with HIV

UCLA study finds tryptophan is depleted in breast milk of mothers living with HIV
Photo Credit: Julia Koblitz

A new UCLA study reveals that breast milk from women living with HIV contains significantly lower levels of tryptophan, an essential amino acid likely important for infant immune function, growth, and brain development. This discovery may help explain why children born to women living with HIV experience higher rates of illness and developmental challenges, even when the children themselves are not infected with the virus. 

Approximately 1.3 million children are born to women living with HIV annually worldwide. Even with effective antiretroviral therapy that prevents HIV transmission, these children who are exposed to HIV but not infected continue to face a 50% increase in mortality in low-income settings along with increased risks of infections, growth problems, and cognitive challenges. Prior to antiretroviral therapy, these children had mortality rates that were two to three times higher than infants not exposed to HIV. Understanding why these children remain vulnerable despite not being infected has been a critical gap in maternal and child health research. This study provides the first metabolic explanation for these persistent health disparities and points toward potential nutritional interventions that could protect vulnerable infants.

Gluten sensitivity: It’s not actually about gluten

Photo Credit: Melissa Askew

A landmark study has revealed that gluten sensitivity, which affects approximately 10 percent of the global population, is not actually about gluten but part of the way the gut and brain interact.

The findings are expected to set a new benchmark for how gluten sensitivity is defined, diagnosed and treated.

The research review, published in The Lancet, examined current published evidence for non-coeliac gluten sensitivity (NCGS) to better understand this highly prevalent condition.

People with NCGS experience symptoms after consuming gluten but do not have coeliac disease, an autoimmune disease triggered by gluten. Common symptoms include bloating, gut pain and fatigue.

New findings on how breastfeeding affects the skeleton could boost development of drugs against osteoporosis

Within six months or less after the women stopped breastfeeding, the researchers observed a seven percent difference in bone density.
Photo Credit: Wendy Wei

Pregnancies do not weaken a woman’s skeleton. Breastfeeding, however, can reduce bone density considerably. These are findings from a research report produced at Lund University in Sweden. But breastfeeding women need not worry.

“There is a dip, but the body is absolutely fantastic at making up the loss,” says Kristina Åkesson, professor of orthopedics.

Breastfeeding and pregnancy both require large amounts of calcium. That is why Lund University researchers Lisa Egund and Kristina Åkesson wanted to examine how the reproductive cycle affects the bone density of women. The study followed 750 women over a ten-year period to investigate the effect of pregnancy and breastfeeding on the skeleton. 

The women were 25 years old when the study began – an age when bone density is normally highest. Ten years later, the data was collected: How many had been pregnant and had children? If so, how many children? Were the children breastfed, and if so for how long?

Dangerous E. coli strain blocks gut’s defense mechanism to spread infection

Isabella Rauch, Ph.D., is the senior author on a new study published in Nature that reveals how a dangerous strain of E. coli blocks the body’s immune defenses to spread infection.
Photo Credit: OHSU/Christine Torres Hicks

When harmful bacteria that cause food poisoning, such as E. coli, invade through the digestive tract, gut cells usually fight back by pushing infected cells out of the body to stop the infection from spreading.

In a new study published today in Nature, scientists from Genentech, a member of the Roche Group, in collaboration with researchers from Oregon Health & Science University, discovered that a dangerous strain of E. coli — known for causing bloody diarrhea — can block this gut defense, allowing the bacteria to spread more easily.

The bacteria inject a special protein called NleL into gut cells, which breaks down key enzymes, known as ROCK1 and ROCK2, that are needed for infected cells to be expelled. Without this process, the infected cells can’t leave quickly, allowing the bacteria to spread more easily.

When healing turns harmful: adrenal support cells tied to cancer origin

Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, shows that support cells in the adrenal gland can regenerate hormone-producing tissue after birth. The same cells may also act as a starting point for adrenal tumors, offering new insights into cancer development and potential treatment strategies.

“We found that these glial-like cells not only help maintain healthy tissue but, in some paragangliomas, also carry the same tumor-initiating genetic event,” explains Susanne Schlisio, group leader at the Department of Oncology-Pathology and last author of the study. 

“In tumors with germline VHL mutations, subsets of these support cells showed loss of chromosome 3p, the ‘second hit’ leading to VHL inactivation. This suggests they may be the origin of certain tumors,” says Dr. Michael Mints, docent at the same department and co-corresponding author of the study.

Combination of pre- and probiotics offers superior anti-inflammatory benefits compared with omega-3 or prebiotic alone

Photo Credit: Cosmin Ursea

A new study, led by experts at the University of Nottingham, has found that combining certain types of dietary supplements is more effective than single prebiotics or omega-3 in supporting immune and metabolic health, which could lower the risk of conditions linked to chronic inflammation.

The findings of the study, which are published in the Journal of Translational Medicine, show that a synbiotic - a combination of naturally fermented kefir and a diverse prebiotic fiber mix - produces the most powerful anti-inflammatory effects among the three common dietary supplements tested.

The kefir and prebiotic mix were provided by Chuckling Goat Ltd. It contains a mx of naturally occurring probiotic bacteria and yeasts, which form during the traditional fermentation of goat’s milk with live kefir grains. These grains are living cultures that house dozens of beneficial microbial species.

Did Lead Limit Brain and Language Development in Neanderthals and Other Extinct Hominids?

UC San Diego researchers have found high levels of lead in the teeth of both Neanderthals (left) and modern humans (right). However, a gene mutation may have protected modern human brains, allowing language to flourish.
Photo Credit: Kyle Dykes/UC San Diego Health Sciences

Ancient human relatives were exposed to lead up to two million years ago, according to a new study. However, a gene mutation may have protected modern human brains, allowing language to flourish.

What set the modern human brain apart from our now extinct relatives like Neanderthals? A new study by University of California San Diego School of Medicine and an international team of researchers reveals that ancient hominids — including early humans and great apes — were exposed to lead earlier than previously thought, up to two million years before modern humans began mining the metal. This exposure may have shaped the evolution of hominid brains, limiting language and social development in all but modern humans due to a protective genetic variant that only we carry. The study was published in Science Advances.

The researchers analyzed fossilized teeth from 51 hominids across Africa, Asia and Europe, including modern and archaic humans such as Neanderthals, ancient human ancestors like Australopithecus africanus, and extinct great apes such as Gigantopithecus blacki.

Study links wind-blown dust from receding Salton Sea to reduced lung function in area children

Researchers with the UC Irvine-led study sample dust at the southern edge of the Salton Sea. Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of California, Irvine

Children living near the Salton Sea, in Southern California’s desert region of Imperial County, are experiencing poorer lung function than children exposed to less wind-blown dust, according to a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Irvine’s Joe C. Wen School of Population & Public Health.

They found that higher dust exposure – measured in hours per year – was linked to lower lung function, with the negative effects most pronounced among children living closest to the lake. The work, published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, marks one of the first investigations to directly link dust events from a drying saline lake to measurable declines in children’s respiratory health.

A federal grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center funded the research in partnership with the Imperial Valley community-based organization Comite Civico del Valle.

Large Genetic Study Links Cannabis Use to Psychiatric, Cognitive and Physical Health

The study uncovered new relationships between gene variants associated with cannabis use and psychiatric, cognitive and physical health.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI generated

University of California San Diego of Medicine researchers, in collaboration with the genetic testing company 23andMe, have identified regions of the human genome associated with cannabis use, uncovering new relationships with psychiatric, cognitive and physical health. The findings may inform the development of prevention and treatment strategies for cannabis use disorder. The study was published on October 13, 2025 in Molecular Psychiatry.

“Cannabis is widely used, but its long-term effects on health remain poorly characterized,” said Sandra Sanchez-Roige, Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego School of Medicine and senior author of the study. The researchers were also interested in the relationship between genetics and traits that contribute to the development of cannabis use disorder, which can interfere with a person’s daily life.

“While most people who try cannabis do not go on to develop cannabis use disorder, some studies estimate that nearly 30% will,” said Sanchez-Roige. “Understanding the genetics of early-stage behaviors may help clarify who is at greater risk, opening the door to prevention and intervention strategies.”

New technique detects genetic mutations in brain tumors during surgery within just 25 minutes

During neurosurgery at Nagoya University Hospital
Photo Credit: Department of Neurosurgery, Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University

A research team in Japan has developed an innovative system that can accurately detect genetic mutations in the brain tumor within just 25 minutes. Genetic mutations are crucial markers for diagnosis of brain tumors.

Unlike conventional genetic analysis methods, which typically take one to two days to obtain results, this new system allows surgeons to identify genotyping of brain tumors and determine optimal resection margins during surgery.

The new system succeeded in detecting mutations in isocitrate dehydrogenase (IDH) and telomerase reverse transcriptase (TERT) promoters. These mutations are key markers for diagnosis of diffuse glioma—the most common type of brain tumor—which exhibit highly infiltrative nature. The findings were published in the journal Neuro-Oncology.

Researchers discover of a new type of diabetes in babies

Photo Credit: Rene Terp

Advanced DNA sequencing technologies and a new model of stem cell research has enabled an international team to discover a new type of diabetes in babies.

The University of Exeter Medical School worked with Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) in Belgium and other partners to establish that mutations in the TMEM167A gene are responsible for a rare form of neonatal diabetes.

Some babies develop diabetes before the age of six months. In over 85 per cent of cases this is due to genetic mutation in their DNA. Research led by the University of Exeter found that in six children with additional neurological disorders such as epilepsy and microcephaly identified alterations in a single gene: TMEM167A.

To understand its role, ULB researcher Professor Miriam Cnop’s team used stem cells differentiated into pancreatic beta cells and gene-editing techniques (CRISPR). They found that when the TMEM167A gene is altered, insulin-producing cells can no longer fulfill their role. They then activate stress mechanisms that lead to their death.

New hope for MS

Micah Feri (left) and Seema Tiwari-Woodruff.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of University of California, Riverside

Multiple sclerosis, or MS, is a chronic autoimmune disease affecting more than 2.9 million people worldwide. It occurs when the immune system mistakenly attacks the myelin sheath, the protective insulation around nerve fibers, causing disruption of nerve signals between the brain and body. Symptoms can include numbness, tingling, vision loss, and paralysis.

While current treatments can reduce inflammation, no therapies yet exist to protect neurons or restore the damaged myelin sheath. Researchers have now taken a major step forward in the development of such a therapy, supported by funding from the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. They have identified two compounds that could remyelinate damaged axons.

Published in the journal Scientific Reports, the research, led by Seema Tiwari-Woodruff, a professor of biomedical sciences at the University of California, Riverside, School of Medicine, and John Katzenellenbogen, a professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, or UIUC, was made possible through two National MS Society funding programs: a traditional investigator-initiated grant and the Society’s Fast Forward commercial accelerator program.

Lidocaine poisonings rise despite overall drop in local anesthetic toxicity

UIC researchers have found that poisonings from lidocaine, the most commonly used local anesthetic, increased more than 50% between 2016 and 2020.
Photo Credit: Nappy Studio

Over the last decade, poisonings and deaths linked to the use of local anesthetics have decreased. Even so, poisonings from one commonly used anesthetic, lidocaine, have increased in the United States, according to two new studies from the University of Illinois Chicago.

By analyzing data from reports to national Poison Control Centers and to the Food and Drug Administration from 2010 to 2020, UIC researchers found total reports of poisonings fell 50% in that period. But poisonings from lidocaine increased more than 50% in less than half that time, between 2016 and 2020. The findings are published in Regional Anesthesia & Pain Medicine and the British Journal of Anesthesia.

Local anesthetics, including lidocaine, are widely used in medical care to manage pain before, during and after surgical procedures. General anesthesia acts everywhere in the body and puts patients in a sleep-like state. Local anesthesia controls pain and immobilizes a specific region of the body while a patient remains conscious.

Breast Cancer Polygenic Risk Score Associated with Outcomes after In Situ Breast Disease

Photo Credit: National Cancer Institute

Studying a person’s genetic makeup can predict if they will go on to develop invasive breast cancer after abnormal cells have been found in their breast tissue.

For the first time, researchers at King’s College London have shown the connection between a person’s genetic risk score and their risk of developing the disease after irregular cells have been detected.

The research, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention and funded by Breast Cancer Now, included over 2,000 women in the UK who had been tested for 313 genetic changes, known as a genetic risk score.

These patients had already been diagnosed with either ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) – the most common types of abnormal cells found in breast tissue.

A genetic risk score estimates a person's inherited likelihood of developing a disease or trait by combining the influence of multiple common genetic variants.

Potential new therapeutic target for asthma discovered

Photo Credit: Cnordic Nordic

A new way to treat asthma symptoms and even repair previously irreversible lung damage could be on the horizon following the discovery of a potential new therapeutic target by scientists at the Universities of Aberdeen and Manchester.

Current treatments for asthma largely involve controlling the inflammation of lung tissue using steroid inhalers. However, 4 people die every day in the UK from asthma related complications. With funding from the Medical Research Foundation and Asthma UK, a team of researchers from the University of Aberdeen and the University of Manchester have investigated the scarring that occurs in lung tissue as a result of asthma and have been able to reverse these changes in animal models.

Although still in the early stages of development, this discovery paves the way for a new way to treat not only asthma, but many different diseases in which similar structural changes in tissues occur. Such diseases include conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic heart disease and cirrhosis of the liver and account for approximately 40% of deaths worldwide.

Asthma affects more than 7 million people in the UK and severe asthma can have a hugely detrimental impact on an individual’s quality of life. Even when treated, asthma can be fatal and the most recent data shows it contributed to 1,465 deaths in the UK in 20221 – this is despite the availability of new treatments which aim to dampen down inflammation in the lungs.

Hidden genetic risk could delay diabetes diagnosis for Black and Asian men

 

Photo Credit: Barbara Olsen

A common but often undiagnosed genetic condition may be causing delays in type 2 diabetes diagnoses and increasing the risk of serious complications for thousands of Black and South Asian men in the UK – and potentially millions worldwide.

The new study is conducted by the University of Exeter, in collaboration with Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) and funded through a Wellcome Discovery Award. It has found around one in seven Black and one in 63 South Asian men in the UK carry a genetic variant known as G6PD deficiency. Men with G6PD deficiency are, on average, diagnosed with type 2 diabetes four years later than those without the gene variant. But despite this, fewer than one in 50 have been diagnosed with the condition

G6PD deficiency does not cause diabetes, but it makes the widely used HbA1c blood test – which diagnoses and monitors diabetes – appear artificially low. This can mislead doctors and patients, resulting in delayed diabetes diagnosis and treatment.

Simple test can predict risk of severe liver disease

The researchers' new method can contribute to earlier detection of cirrhosis and liver cancer.
Image Credit: Scientific Frontline / AI Generated

A new study from Karolinska Institutet, published in the scientific journal The BMJ, shows how a simple blood analysis can predict the risk of developing severe liver disease. The method may already start to be applied in primary care to enable the earlier detection of cirrhosis and cancer of the liver.

“These are diseases that are growing increasingly common and that have a poor prognosis if detected late,” says Rickard Strandberg, affiliated researcher at Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Medicine, Huddinge, who has developed the test with his departmental colleague Hannes Hagström. “Our method can predict the risk of severe liver disease within 10 years and is based on three simple routine blood tests.” 

For the study, the researchers at Karolinska Institutet and their colleagues in Finland evaluated how well the method can estimate the risk of severe liver disease. The model, which is called CORE, was produced with advanced statistical methods and is based on five factors: age, sex and levels of three common liver enzymes (AST, ALT and GGT), which are commonly measured during regular health checks. 

UCLA researchers find “protective switches” that may make damaged livers suitable for transplantation

 

Photo Credit: Sasin Tipchai

In a mouse model of liver transplantation, UCLA researchers have identified proteins that act as “protective switches” guarding the liver against damage occurring when blood supply is restored during transplantation, a process known as ischemia-reperfusion injury.

The finding could increase the supply of donor organs by using molecular therapies to strengthen the liver’s protective pathways. By boosting this protection,  organs that would otherwise be discarded as damaged or suboptimal could be made suitable for transplantation and added to the donor pool, said Kenneth J. Dery, Ph.D , an associate adjunct professor of surgery in the division of liver and pancreas transplantation at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the study’s co-senior author.

“One of the most intractable problems in the field of organ transplantation remains the nationwide shortage of donor livers, which has led to high patient mortality while waiting for a liver transplant,” Dery said. “This could ultimately help address the national transplant shortage and lower mortality rates.”

Deaths Rose in Emergency Rooms After Hospitals Were Acquired by Private Equity

Researchers linked the increase in mortality to cuts in salary and staffing levels.
Photo Credit: Sungmin Cho

Patient death rates increased in the emergency departments of U.S. hospitals acquired by private equity firms compared to similar hospitals not acquired by private equity, according to a nationwide study of hundreds of hospitals conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School, the University of Pittsburgh, and the University of Chicago.

The results, published Sept. 23 in Annals of Internal Medicine, offer more concrete evidence that this for-profit ownership model of health care has led to higher patient mortality.

The federally funded study also found that private equity hospitals experienced large cuts in staffing and salaries, which the researchers propose is the likely explanation for the increase in patient deaths.

“Staffing cuts are one of the common strategies used to generate financial returns for the firm and its investors,” said senior author Zirui Song, associate professor of health care policy in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS and HMS associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, who has published extensively on the implications of private equity in health care.

Mammograms may benefit women well into their 80s, UCLA study finds

UCLA Health radiologist Dr. Tiffany Chan reviews a mammogram.
Photo Credit: Milo Mitchell/UCLA Health

For many older women, the question of whether to continue breast cancer screening has been uncertain. While most guidelines recommend mammograms up to age 74, advice for women 75 and older has been less clear. Now, a new study from researchers at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center suggests that regular mammograms may still offer significant benefits for women in their 80s.

The study is published in the Annals of Surgical Oncology, found that women in their 80s who get regular mammograms are more likely to have breast cancer detected early, need less aggressive treatment and live longer.

“When cancer is found on screening, it is often early stage,” said Dr. Nimmi Kapoor, an associate professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and senior author of the study. “In postmenopausal women with the most common hormone-sensitive breast cancers, we can often omit sentinel lymph node biopsy, chemotherapy, and sometimes even radiation. Screening is especially important in this era of de-escalation because early detection allows us to safely reduce the intensity of treatment while still achieving excellent outcomes.”