“It’s lower than what we hoped."
So attacking beta-amyloid with monoclonal antibodies may be the wrong approach.In our model of Alzheimer's, beta-amyloid helps to protect and bolster our immune system, but unfortunately, it also plays a central role in the autoimmune process that, we believe, may lead to the development of Alzheimer's.
When brain trauma occurs or when bacteria are present in the brain, beta-amyloid is a key contributor to the brain's comprehensive immune response. And this is where the problem begins.
Because of striking similarities between the fat molecules that make up both the membranes of bacteria and the membranes of brain cells, beta-amyloid cannot tell the difference between invading bacteria and host brain cells, and mistakenly attacks the very brain cells it is supposed to be protecting.
The study examined effects of two of the most common chemotherapy drugs, docetaxel and carboplatin. While both showed lymphatic system impacts, they were much more pronounced with docetaxel.
"What we see is a shrinking of the lymphatic vessels, and fewer loops or branches in the vessels," said Munson, who is also a professor in Virginia Tech's Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics. "These are signs of reduced growth that indicate the lymphatics are changing, or not regenerating in beneficial ways. Lymphatic health really declined across all three models measured in different ways."
Poor Tommy Flowers never got the recognition he deserved designing the first electronic computer.
The world’s first digital electronic computer, forerunner of the ones reshaping our world today, was built in Britain to revolutionise codebreaking during the second world war – a mind-boggling feat of creative innovation – but Turing wasn’t in the country at the time. Neither was it conceived by the mostly private school and Oxbridge-educated boffins at Bletchley Park. Rather, the machine Park staff called Colossus was the brainchild of a degreeless Post Office engineer named Tommy Flowers, a cockney bricklayer’s son who for decades was prevented by the Official Secrets Act from acknowledging his achievement.
And China is going big on robots, have you heard? They're not the robot arms that we're used to seeing here, but humanoid robots.
By comparing imaging data from 30 patients with Long COVID to 80 healthy individuals, the researchers found a notable and widespread increase in the density of AMPA receptors across the brains of patients. This elevated receptor density was directly correlated with the severity of their cognitive impairment, suggesting a clear link between these molecular changes and the symptoms. Additionally, the concentrations of various inflammatory markers were also correlated with AMPAR levels, indicating a possible interaction between inflammation and receptor expression.Since I've been doing this blog, there have been so many "theories" as to what the key culprit is;
- genetic variants associated with the FOXP4 gene (12 July 2023)
- persistence of SARS-CoV2 spike protein (5 September 2023)
- amyloid deposition in the muscles of those with LongCOVID (7 January 2024)
- a leaky blood-brain barrier (24 February 2024)
- detectable ghost proteins (fragment of viral spike protein) in their blood. (25 August 2025)
Happiness declines slowly over adulthood (about half a scale point). A low point is reached in the late 50s—at ages 55, 58, and 59. Subsequently, happiness increases slightly during the golden ages (about a tenth of a scale point), peaking at age 64. In old age, a steep decline in subjective well-being sets in.
Impressive. Let's see how well it holds up against new cases.they said the test had a sensitivity – or the likelihood of a test being positive if that patient has the condition – of 92%. It had a specificity – the probability the test will rule out negative cases – of 98%.