THE MEDICAL NEWS

A prespecified analysis of 17,604 SELECT participants found that higher baseline hsCRP was associated with greater risks of major cardiovascular events and death in people with overweight or obesity and established cardiovascular disease. Semaglutide produced rapid and sustained reductions in hsCRP, with changes emerging before substantial weight loss, although the study could not establish wheth…

A Cell perspective argues that neurodegeneration can emerge from disrupted communication between neural and immune networks, with peripheral immunity, microglia, and gene-regulatory programs all shaping disease processes. The authors propose that restoring immune homeostasis and recalibrating neuroimmune circuits could create new therapeutic and diagnostic opportunities, while emphasizing that ma…

Objective fitness tests in 13,423 Taiwanese adults aged 65 years or older linked better balance, agility, lower-body strength, and cardiorespiratory fitness with lower all-cause mortality over a median seven years. A multidomain fitness index showed the strongest association, suggesting that simple performance tests may add useful information to conventional geriatric risk assessment.

In the two-year DELISH randomized trial, adults with obesity achieved modest, sustained weight loss with either an adapted Mediterranean-style program or a commercial weight loss program. The Mediterranean-style intervention produced greater improvements in self-reported diet quality, while 24-month weight loss did not materially differ between groups.

A large Scottish birth cohort found that screen use showed limited and inconsistent associations with children’s emotional, behavioral, and social development from ages 5 to 15. Very high gaming in adolescence stood out, while several other associations weakened after adjustment, sensitivity analyses, or correction for multiple testing.

UK Biobank researchers examined whether sugar rationing during pregnancy and the first two years of life was associated with adult sweet-food preferences, sugar intake, brain structure, anxiety, and depression.

Single-cell immune profiling found that CD4 cytotoxic T lymphocytes become more abundant around age 100, showing stepwise differentiation and substantial clonal expansion. Ex vivo experiments also revealed cytokine plasticity within individual clones, supporting the hypothesis that these cells adapt to persistent antigens during healthy aging, although their direct role in longevity remains unpro…

Bad housing, high crime and poor schools are more important than transportation or income when it comes to accessing healthy food in neighborhoods historically subjected to "redlining" - the now-illegal practice once used to refuse loans, insurance or mortgages to people in certain neighborhoods that were disproportionately inhabited by racial and ethnicity minorities.

The Chagas disease parasite (Trypanosoma cruzi) undergoes a major transformation throughout its life cycle in order to infect humans and other mammals.

Precise activation of tens of thousands of genes is critical for healthy development and growth. Specialized segments of our DNA are responsible for carefully orchestrating genetic sequences that result in the production of enzymes, hormones, proteins and other crucial components underlying cell structure and function.