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Immune signaling pathway protects newborn heart cells from injury

Researchers at the University Hospital of Bonn (UKB) and the University of Bonn have identified a previously unknown signaling pathway in the immune system that helps newborn heart cells survive and regenerate after injury.

17 Aug 2026

Why keto appears to lower blood pressure for some people but not others

A narrative review finds that ketogenic diets may modestly lower blood pressure through weight loss, reduced visceral fat, improved insulin sensitivity, fluid and electrolyte shifts, and anti-inflammatory effects. However, effects vary across studies, long-term cardiovascular evidence remains limited, and diet quality, hydration, electrolyte balance, and medication monitoring are important.

17 Aug 2026

Cocoa looks promising for mood, but the brain benefits come with a catch

A review of clinical and preclinical studies suggests cocoa polyphenols may support mood, neuroplasticity, cerebral blood flow, and gut-brain signaling through pathways involving BDNF/CREB, inflammation, and oxidative stress.

17 Aug 2026

Food fraud costs the UK up to £2 billion a year

Researchers developed the first model to estimate the total annual economic cost of food fraud in the UK, placing it between £0.4 billion and £2 billion. Although food fraud appears relatively rare, individual crime schemes can cause substantial harm, with businesses bearing most costs and strong quality controls helping protect major supply chains.

17 Aug 2026

A Mediterranean ingredient gave gluten-free pasta an unexpected upgrade

Researchers developed carob-enriched gluten-free tagliatelle that increased dietary fiber and antioxidant activity while reducing starch digestibility and improving pasta structure. A 20% carob substitution provided the best overall balance of functional properties, texture, and consumer acceptance, although clinical health benefits remain to be established.

17 Aug 2026

What 720,000 adults reveal about artificial sweeteners and diabetes risk

A meta-analysis of six prospective cohort studies involving 721,003 adults found that higher artificial sweetener intake was associated with a 31% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The evidence was rated low certainty because of substantial heterogeneity, observational study designs, and potential residual confounding, meaning the findings do not establish causation.

16 Aug 2026

What happens to body fat when people follow the Eatwell Guide?

Higher adherence to the UK Eatwell Guide was associated with lower BMI, waist circumference, total body fat, and trunk fat in more than 156,000 UK Biobank participants. The associations persisted prospectively across demographic, physical activity, and genetic-risk groups, supporting the role of diet quality in weight management.

16 Aug 2026

Sprint exercise sends a very different molecular signal through the body

Sprint-interval exercise triggers a much larger and faster shift in circulating proteins and metabolites than moderate-intensity exercise, revealing distinct patterns of predicted communication between organs. The findings suggest that exercise intensity shapes systemic molecular signaling, with skeletal muscle and adipose tissue emerging as potential source and target tissues linked to cardiometabolic health.

16 Aug 2026

Self-guided online compassion therapy may improve quality of life in chronic illness

A fully self-guided, internet-delivered attachment-based compassion therapy improved overall quality of life and reduced preoccupied attachment compared with a waiting-list control in adults with chronic medical conditions. The findings are preliminary, with high attrition, no active control, and most secondary psychological outcomes showing no significant between-group differences.

16 Aug 2026

Placental biology breakthrough could make biologic medicines safer during pregnancy

Biologic medicines have transformed the treatment of cancer, autoimmune diseases, migraine, inflammatory disorders and many other diseases.

14 Aug 2026

Blocking caspase-1 appears to reduce the risk of developing lung tumors

Every year, lung cancer kills more than 100,000 people in the United States. Smoking is the leading risk factor for lung cancer, but other environmental exposures can also contribute to the disease.

14 Aug 2026

Youth-associated protein reverses age-related microglial changes in mice

Researchers at The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have identified a role for the youth-associated protein TIMP2 in supporting the healthy function of microglia, the brain's resident immune cells.

14 Aug 2026

Brain activity before stimulation predicts treatment responses

Brain stimulation can produce very different effects at different moments, even when the stimulus is delivered the exact same way.

14 Aug 2026

$Muscle cells play a vital role in repairing fractured bones$

Muscle cells play a vital role in repairing fractured bones

Bone healing is a complex process that depends on the coordinated activity of many different cell types.

14 Aug 2026

AI-based "tissue clocks" measure the biological age of human organs

AI-based "tissue clocks" can estimate the biological age of human organs from histological images, researchers at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Network Medicine (LBI-NetMed) at the University of Vienna showed.

14 Aug 2026

New microscope tracks electrical activity across the brain on the scale of milliseconds

Within the brain, neurons compute by generating electrical impulses. These signals travel throughout neurons, which are in turn connected in vast networks that control brain functions such as sensory perception, memory formation, and control of movement.

14 Aug 2026

Opening the black box of biological aging clocks

What do "epigenetic clocks" actually measure? These lab tests have become popular tools for studying biological aging, or how the body's cellular function changes at a faster or slower rate than expected.

14 Aug 2026

New method enables more precise labeling of protein-protein interactions in cancer-specific cells

Using a photochemically driven labeling technique, a Cornell University-led research group has devised a strategy for capturing cancer-specific protein-to-protein interactions, which could one day spawn targeted therapies for prostate, small-cell lung, pancreatic and other deadly forms of the disease.

14 Aug 2026

Neuroscientists study the brain circuits mediating experience-dependent decision-making in mice

A brain must constantly cope with the highly variable, fast-paced nature of the world when trying to judge what's going on around it.

14 Aug 2026

Three minutes of sprinting dramatically reshape molecular contents of the bloodstream

Three minutes of sprinting can do something that 90 minutes of moderate exercise apparently cannot: dramatically reshape the molecular contents of the bloodstream.

14 Aug 2026