Human health

Researchers traced pregnancy-related food seeking from the SK3 potassium channel to serotonin neurons and a reward circuit in the brain, revealing an unusually detailed biological pathway.

Inhibitory neurons and glioma interact in an unexpected way: GABAergic signals reduced calcium activity in tumor cells and restrained tumor growth in mouse models.

Researchers found disrupted monocyte production in the bone marrow in Alzheimer’s disease. In a mouse model, blocking type I interferon signaling restored myelopoiesis and reduced disease pathology.

Longitudinal MRI data from 1,095 participants showed clear cortical gray matter reductions across puberty and pregnancy, while the menopausal transition produced a strikingly different pattern.

In mice, Helicobacter pylori triggered a signaling relay between epithelial cells, immune cells, and fibroblasts. The result was a regenerative gastric state whose gene activity resembled early developmental tissue.

Vision is not a camera feed. The brain combines incoming sensory information with context and expectations, allowing us to interpret an incomplete world quickly — but sometimes producing remarkably convincing illusions.

Across three preregistered experiments in 57 healthy volunteers, focusing attention on sensations at a histamine skin-test site reduced the local inflammatory response compared with distraction.

Certain gut bacteria convert tryptophan into a metabolite that inhibited HIV and cytomegalovirus in cell models. In human cohorts, the same bacterial pathway was associated with several viral outcomes, but causality remains unproven.

Pancreatic tissue from 68 organ donors revealed that obesity is associated with denser cytotoxic resident T cells and a shift toward inflammatory macrophages that form tightly connected cellular neighborhoods.

MRI scans of retired collision- and combat-sport athletes revealed persistent blood–brain barrier disruption. The most extensive leakage was associated with poorer cognition and immune abnormalities.

A network of neurons inside the heart helps regulate cardiac function locally. In mice, one subset of these neurons protected the heart from stress-related dysfunction.