Preclinical News and Research

RSS

How a common gut bacterium may protect health

Akkermansia muciniphila's impact on immunity and pregnancy outcomes underscores its promise as a probiotic, with implications for infectious disease treatment.

4 May 2026

Finding new ways to mimic ketamine’s antidepressant effects

Weill Cornell Medicine investigators have "reverse engineered" ketamine's antidepressant effects to identify potential new strategies for treating depression.

4 May 2026

Semaglutide as a promising new treatment for alcohol use disorder

Research indicates semaglutide can significantly decrease alcohol consumption and cravings in individuals with comorbid obesity and alcohol use disorder.

4 May 2026

Identifying the ages when Alzheimer’s biomarkers sharply change

New research identifies critical ages for Alzheimer's biomarkers, enhancing screening strategies and understanding neurodegeneration across the aging spectrum.

1 May 2026

Five-target drug beats GLP-1/GIP therapy in obese diabetic mice

A Nature study reports a single-molecule GLP-1–GIP–lanifibranor quintuple agonist that targets incretin receptor-expressing cells while activating PPARα/γ/δ pathways. In obese and insulin-resistant mice, the compound reduced body weight, food intake, and hyperglycaemia more effectively than semaglutide or GLP-1R–GIPR co-agonism, while remaining a preclinical finding.

30 Apr 2026

Pretargeted radioimmunotherapy shows promise for colorectal cancer treatment

A new pretargeted radioimmunotherapy (PRIT) technique has been shown to be safe and effective in eradicating tumors from a preclinical colorectal cancer model.

30 Apr 2026

Extracellular vesicles from T cells enhance tumor immune response

Activated immune cells secrete tiny capsules bearing DNA that can enter other immune and tumor cells to stimulate the body's defense systems, according to a study led by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine.

30 Apr 2026

New CAR T cell design boosts persistence and reduces toxicity

CAR T-cell therapy has transformed the treatment of hematologic malignancies, yet many patients do not achieve lasting benefit – often because the infused cells fail to expand or persist.

30 Apr 2026

Study reveals new immune mechanism behind mevalonate kinase deficiency

Researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research have uncovered a critical mechanism driving inflammation in mevalonate kinase deficiency (MKD), a rare but devastating autoinflammatory disorder.

30 Apr 2026

New research shows weight loss is possible without GLP-1

Glucagon-like peptide-1 agonism - GLP-1, common in obesity medicines - is not essential to weight management, according to preclinical research led by Richard DiMarchi and Matthias Tschöp, with funding from their startup company Bluewater Biosciences.

30 Apr 2026

From killers to strategists: CAR T cells enter their multifunctional era

A review of 1,801 registered CAR T clinical trials shows that multifunctional designs now account for 533 trials and 33% of new CAR T products submitted for clinical testing in 2025. The field is shifting toward multitargeted, safety-controlled, cytokine-secreting, and checkpoint-modulating CAR T cells, but manufacturing, regulation, and limited clinical outcome data remain key barriers.

30 Apr 2026

Metabolic rewiring could help CAR-T cells fight solid tumors

This review explains how glucose scarcity, lipid disruption, amino acid deprivation, and toxic metabolites weaken CAR-T cells inside solid tumors. It highlights metabolic reprogramming as a promising strategy to improve CAR-T cell persistence, adaptability, and anti-tumor function.

29 Apr 2026

AHA calls for lifelong brain health strategy to prevent cognitive decline

The AHA scientific statement calls for a life-course approach to brain health that integrates cognitive, emotional, behavioral, vascular, environmental, inflammatory, sleep, microbiome, and social factors. It highlights how early-life exposures, mental health, pollution, chronic inflammation, poor sleep, gut dysbiosis, and socioeconomic adversity may shape brain resilience and later-life cognitive decline.

29 Apr 2026

New hybrid molecule uses Trojan horse approach to treat obesity

A team led by metabolism researcher Prof Timo D. Müller at Helmholtz Munich has developed a new approach for treating obesity and type 2 diabetes: a hybrid molecule uses the well-known GLP-1/GIP signalling pathway as a "door opener" and delivers an additional metabolic modulator specifically into the target cells.

29 Apr 2026

Eating creates temporary metabolic state that boosts T cell function

Diets and healthy eating habits hold promise for preventing and treating diseases, but far less is known about acute effects to the immune system shortly after a meal.

29 Apr 2026

AI eye screening shows promise for detecting six metabolic diseases

Researchers developed Reti-Pioneer, an AI retinal imaging framework that screened for six endocrine and metabolic diseases using color fundus photographs and clinical metadata. The system showed moderate-to-strong performance across cohorts, improved specialist decision-making, and demonstrated promising, though still preliminary, potential for faster, scalable disease screening.

29 Apr 2026

Epigenetic changes reshape Dicer enzyme function in cancer and reproduction

Activation of a specific part of the Dicer enzyme can change its shape in a way that affects its critical role in proper cell division, with implications for both cancer biology and fertility, according to researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

28 Apr 2026