Your brain’s “stop eating” signal may come from an unexpected source. Researchers found that astrocytes—once thought to just support neurons—actually play a key role in controlling appetite. After a meal, glucose triggers tanycytes, which send signals to astrocytes that then activate fullness neurons. This newly discovered pathway could lead to innovative treatments for obesity and eating disorders.
A phase 2 trial found that the apoE mimetic peptide CN-105 was safe and feasible in older adults after surgery, supporting the need for a phase 3 trial to assess effects on postoperative delirium.
This randomized clinical trial investigates the safety and feasibility of the apolipoprotein E mimetic peptide CN-105 vs placebo for reducing postoperative delirium in older patients.
University of Mississippi research offers hope that cancer drug therapies packaged in 3D-printed carriers could deliver medication directly to tumors while reducing many of the side effects that cancer patients endure. In a study published in Pharmaceutical Research, the Ole Miss team demonstrated that 3D-printed spanlastics—a tiny carrier filled with cancer-fighting drugs—could be implanted directly at the site of a tumor and kill those cells.
“This paper introduced a new 3D printing concept called FRESH 3D printing,” said Mo Maniruzzaman, chair and professor of pharmaceutics and drug delivery. “It uses spanlastics as a new nano-drug delivery vehicle for anticancer drug delivery. We actually applied this on breast cancer cells and we got some really, really promising data.”
Traditional chemotherapy is often given orally or injected into the bloodstream, where the circulatory system disperses cancer-fighting therapy throughout the body.
Materials that repel water are used in countless applications, including industrial separation processes, routine laboratory pipetting, and medical devices. When water touches these surfaces, the interface where they meet tends to acquire a small electrical charge—an effect that is ubiquitous, yet poorly understood. KAUST researchers have now studied this in detail and their findings could have broad implications. The findings are published in the journal Langmuir.
“This is not a niche laboratory curiosity,” says Yinfeng Xu, a Ph.D. student who led the experimental work in Himanshu Mishra’s laboratory. “This phenomenon plays a role in environmental processes such as dew droplets and raindrops; in industrial operations involving sprays, condensates, or emulsions; and in modern microfluidic and liquid-handling systems used in laboratories worldwide.”
Plant-infecting bacteria have a surprisingly direct way of taking over crops. Instead of slowly breaking down defenses, many of them inject proteins straight into plant cells, effectively hijacking the system from the inside.
For decades, scientists have tried to understand one particularly important group of these proteins, known as AvrE/DspE. These molecules are used by pathogens that attack a wide range of crops, including rice, tomatoes, apples, and pears. They are responsible for diseases such as bacterial speck, brown spot, and the devastating fire blight that can wipe out entire orchards.
Tattoo ink stays with you for life. Researchers are now asking how these pigments interact with the immune system and whether long-term exposure matters.
