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Category: health

Smaller nanoplastics trigger stronger changes in brain neuron activity

Smaller plastic particles have more effects on neurons, the key information processing cells of the brain, new research from the University of Eastern Finland shows. In the study, neuronal cells were exposed to polystyrene nanoplastics at low doses to study subtle changes.

Plastic production continues to rise, despite worldwide concerns. In addition to environmental implications, there is an increasing interest in how exposure to plastics may impact human health, but our understanding is still limited. Only recently it was shown that plastics can accumulate also in the human brain.

Plastic particles smaller than 5,000 nm in diameter are called microplastics, and the smallest plastic particles with a diameter of less than 1,000 nm are called nanoplastics. The small size of nanoplastics enables them to interact with various cell types, and other particles or biological mass, such as bacteria. Compared to microplastics, nanoplastics have larger adsorption capacity and penetrate through biological barriers more easily. This makes them potentially more harmful and a compelling target for research in the field of neurobiology.

The impact of nanoplastics on neurons may depend on their size

Smaller plastic particles have more effects on neurons, the key information processing cells of the brain, new research from the University of Eastern Finland shows. In the study, neuronal cells were exposed to polystyrene nanoplastics at low doses to study subtle changes.

The study is published in the journal NanoImpact.

Plastic production continues to rise, despite worldwide concerns. In addition to environmental implications, there is an increasing interest in how exposure to plastics may impact human health, but our understanding is still limited. Only recently was it shown that plastics can also accumulate in the human brain.

Targeted therapy reduces risk of lung cancer recurrence by 83% in rare genetic subtype

A new study co-led by investigators at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center shows that the targeted cancer drug selpercatinib can significantly reduce the risk of lung cancer returning in patients with a rare genetic subtype of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), potentially offering a new treatment option to help keep the disease from coming back after standard therapy.

The international phase 3 clinical trial, called LIBRETTO-432, found that after two years, 92% of patients with stage II–IIIA RET fusion-positive NSCLC who received selpercatinib after standard treatment were alive without their cancer returning—a measure known as event-free survival—compared with 61% of patients who received a placebo. Overall, the treatment reduced the risk of cancer recurrence or death by 83%.

The results were shared during the Plenary Session on May 31 at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting by Dr. Jonathan Goldman, Health Sciences Clinical Professor in the Department of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. The paper was also published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

For real heart protection, the weekly exercise number climbs far beyond current advice

Adults should aim to do between 560 and 610 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical activity to achieve a substantial reduction in the risk of heart attacks and stroke, suggest the findings of an observational study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

This is between three to four times higher than the current public health recommendation that adults do at least 150 minutes a week of moderate to vigorous physical exercise such as brisk walking, running, or cycling.

People who are less fit need to do slightly more exercise than those who are very fit to get the same cardiovascular benefits, the study suggests.

⚠️ The X-Ray We Keep Refusing to Read

The fractures aren’t in our biology. They’re in our agreements, our economic systems, and our willingness to extend the definition of “us” to include the health minister in a lower-middle-income country holding a terrifying lab result and staring at a phone they are afraid to pick up.

A world on the edge global pandemic preparedness

A world on the edge – Priorities for a pandemic-resilient world, 2026 GPMB report

GHS Index: Homepage

Researchers 3D print key components for a point-of-care mass spectrometer

Year 2024

Caption :

MIT researchers have 3D printed a miniature ionizer, which is a key component of a mass spectrometer. The new miniature ionizer could someday enable an affordable, in-home mass spectrometer for health monitoring. Pictured are parts of the new device, including a green printed circuit board (PCB) with orange casing on top. Under the casing is a black rectangle where the electrospray emitter is located.

Inside Alzheimer’s neurons, tau may set off a genetic chain reaction that ends in cell death

Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a progressive decline in mental functions and memory loss. Along with frontotemporal dementia and some other neurodegenerative disorders, Alzheimer’s disease has been associated with an accumulation inside neurons of abnormal clumps of a protein called “tau.”

The tau protein is important for brain health, stabilizing structures called microtubules inside neurons. In Alzheimer’s disease and other tauopathies (i.e., diseases linked with the abnormal accumulation of tau), tau proteins aggregate into toxic and insoluble clumps that are harmful to brain cells, gradually leading to their death.

Researchers at Zhejiang University, Xiamen University and other institutes in China recently carried out a study aimed at better understanding the processes via which tau aggregation contributes to the death of neurons in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Their findings, published in Nature Neuroscience, suggest that these tau clumps prompt the reactivation of transposable DNA elements in neurons, which can in turn lead to their death.

Popular workout supplement may blunt heart benefits of exercise in women

A supplement widely promoted for athletic performance may interfere with some of the heart’s beneficial adaptations to exercise, according to new Dalhousie University research published in Scientific Reports.

While these supplements are often promoted to support exercise performance and cardiovascular function, researchers found the combination of sodium nitrate and running prevented several beneficial cardiac improvements normally associated with exercise in females.

Those benefits included changes linked to heart structure, ventricular function and calcium handling in heart cells, which helps regulate contraction and relaxation. The effects were much less pronounced in males, pointing to important sex differences that researchers say are too often overlooked in supplement research.

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