Mind & body, in brief

Scientists at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, injected threads of tau protein taken from the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease into the brains of ordinary mice. [1]

Tau normally helps build and hold up the inner scaffolding of nerve cells. [3] In Alzheimer's and more than 20 other brain diseases it folds wrongly and stacks into long threads. [1]

Nine months later the mice had tau threads that had spread from the injection site to other parts of the brain. [1] They were made of the mouse's own tau, and a stain that only marks human tau found none. [1]

Under a microscope powerful enough to show how the protein is folded, the new mouse threads had the same fold as the human seeds. [1] That a tau fold keeps its shape as it passes on had not been shown before. [1][2]

The team repeated it with tau from corticobasal degeneration, a rarer brain disease that also damages the brain's support cells. [1] The mice got that disease's fold and its pattern of damage, in support cells as well as nerve cells. [1]

This is how prions work. A misfolded prion protein makes normal copies of the protein fold the same wrong way, and those copies then do the same to others. [1] Prions cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare illness that leaves the brain full of holes. [6]

Sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the kind with no known cause, strikes about one or two people in a million each year. [5]

Earlier mouse models built tau threads with a different shape from the ones in human brains. [1] The authors say ordinary mice can now be used to study how each disease's fold does its damage. [1]

Alzheimer's causes 60% to 80% of dementia, which a 2022 study expects to grow from 57.4 million people in 2019 to 152.8 million by 2050. [4]

Drugs aimed at tau are already in trials, and some have slowed its build-up on brain scans. [9]

How much this copying drives the illness forward in people, rather than in injected mice, is still argued over. [7]

Why it matters. The next test is whether a drug or antibody that blocks one disease's fold can stop it spreading in these mice, which now copy the fold found in patients' brains. [1][9]

The Lampard Inquiry is examining the deaths of more than 2,000 people who died under the care of mental health services in Essex, England, between 2000 and the end of 2023. [10] It is an independent inquiry set up under law. [11] New hearings began on 5 October in Chelmsford, with evidence from NHS England, the Care Quality Commission, which inspects care, and the medicines regulator until 15 October. [10] One subject is Oxevision, a camera system that films patients' rooms and records breathing and pulse. [10]

Why it matters. The chair, Baroness Kate Lampard, said she would make early recommendations on resuscitation and patient monitoring if she found an urgent risk. [10] She said those issues are not specific to Essex, so any recommendation would reach mental health wards across England. [10]

Children and teenagers in Israel made 121% more visits to psychiatric emergency departments in the three years after the 7 October 2023 attack than in the two years before, a report by Clalit, Israel's largest health provider, found. [12] Across the population, anxiety diagnoses rose 45.5% and diagnoses of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), lasting distress after a terrifying event, doubled. [12] Among people evacuated from towns near Gaza, PTSD diagnoses were 18 times the pre-war level in the first year and six times in the third. [12]

Why it matters. Clalit's mental health director, Yarden Levinsky, said people who were in distress two years ago are still in distress, so the load on clinics is not falling. [12] Evacuees from the north also saw a 60% rise in new high-cholesterol diagnoses. [12]

NHS England began a pilot of a fast genetic test for brain tumours on 25 September, starting in five specialist hospitals. [13][14] A small piece of tumour goes into a shoebox-sized machine made by Oxford Nanopore, which reads its DNA as it passes through a tiny hole. [14] The result can reach the surgeon in under two hours, during the operation, instead of the up to eight weeks a microscope diagnosis can take. [14] There are more than 100 types of brain tumour, and each responds to treatment differently. [13]

Why it matters. Knowing the type during surgery helps the surgeon decide how much tumour to remove while sparing healthy brain. [13] It also lets some patients join trials that require the tumour's genetic make-up. [13]

Researchers studied every flu jab given in Zhejiang, a province in eastern China, from January 2020 to April 2025, and lined the weekly numbers up against three scares on social media. [17] After rumours in 2022 that a Sinovac vaccine caused lung nodules, weekly growth in jabs slowed from 4.8% to 1.8%. [17] After a 2024 story about a recalled batch of Sanofi Pasteur flu vaccine, jabs went from rising 7.3% a week to falling 9%. [17] A 2024 corruption case against a former Sinopharm engineer changed nothing. [17]

Why it matters. Free government-funded jabs, which the province gives to older adults, fell in both safety scares. [17] The study shows the timing lined up, which is a link rather than proof that the scares caused the drop. [17]

Two students at the University of Mississippi died in September with synthetic kratom-related products found at the scene, though authorities have not said kratom played a part. [19] Kratom is a leaf sold for pain, anxiety and opioid withdrawal; 7-OH is a stronger chemical made from it. [19] In July the US Drug Enforcement Administration proposed listing strong 7-OH in Schedule I, its strictest class. [19] The public comment period closed on 10 September with nearly 36,000 submissions. [19]

Why it matters. The agency has not said when it will decide, and some states and towns have issued their own bans. [19] A study of US poison centre reports found kratom exposures rose from 19 in 2010 to 1,242 in 2023, with smaller rises in states that ban it. [20]

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis treated mice bred to build up tau with an antibody that blocks CXCR3, a molecule T cells use to find damaged tissue. [15] T cells are immune cells, and the antibody kept them from gathering in the brain. [15] Treated mice lost 40% less brain tissue in memory areas and did better on memory tests, though their tau levels were similar. [15] A separate mouse study found the T cells are first switched on outside the brain, in the body's lymph tissue. [16]

Why it matters. If it holds in people, it would point to a treatment that does not have to get into the brain, as current Alzheimer's drugs must. [15] So far it is only in mice. [15]

At Vanderbilt University Medical Center in the US, 19 people with early Parkinson's disease, a brain illness that slows movement, stopped their dopamine medicines for a week. [18] All were aged 50 to 75 and had been treated for one to four years. [18] Off the drugs, they scored better on two harder tests, one of planning and one of thinking speed. [18] Memory, attention and the other tests did not change. [18]

Why it matters. The authors call the result a lead to test, not a finding, and say a study that varies the order of testing is needed. [18] If it holds, the medicines that help movement may slow some kinds of thinking early in the illness. [18]

Pharmacy researchers at David Umahi Federal University of Health Sciences in Nigeria tested herbal eye cleansers sold for eye irritation and infection. [22] One remedy showed strong antioxidant activity in the lab, a sign it holds active plant compounds. [22] The remedies carried arsenic and cadmium far above the amounts considered safe to take in each day. [22] The arsenic put the cancer risk many times over the accepted limit. [22]

Why it matters. Lead and copper were within safe limits and no mercury was found, so the danger came from two metals in particular. [22] The authors call for regulation and quality checks on traditional eye remedies. [22]

Tapping, humming, cold plunges and spiky acupressure mats are sold online as ways to reset the nervous system, the Guardian reported on 2 October. [21] Every expert it spoke to said there is no such reset, and nobody should want one. [21] The body needs its fight-or-flight branch to exercise and concentrate, and trouble starts when it does not settle once the demand has passed. [21] Slow breathing at about six breaths a minute is among the best-tested ways to move heart rate variability, a measure of the calming branch's control. [21]

Why it matters. Cold water first sets off the stress response and calms the body only afterwards. [21] The evidence for acupressure mats is thin, and cheaper, better-tested ways to relax exist. [21]

Researchers in Canada put 1,350 questions about moderate mental health worries to three open-source AI models, LLaMA, Mistral and DeepSeek. [26] The questions were written as people from a national health survey, using a First Nations mental wellness framework. [26] Crisis-line advice appeared in about 99.6% of answers from two models and 71.3% from DeepSeek. [26] Almost none said they were not medical advice or suggested seeing a clinician. [26]

Why it matters. Cutting DeepSeek's answers to 180 words dropped its crisis advice to 30%, because the advice came late in the reply. [26] The answers were also written at a harder reading level than is advised for patient leaflets. [26]

Psychologists define an attachment by six conditions set out by Mary Ainsworth: it lasts, the other cannot be replaced, it matters, you want to stay close, separation hurts, and you turn to it for comfort when threatened. [27] An article in Scientific American asks whether bonds with AI companion apps meet them. [27] A survey of 7,027 people in four countries said at least a third of chatbot users showed attachment behaviour. [27] Its three questions never asked whether people turn to the chatbot for comfort when truly distressed. [27]

Why it matters. The author says the honest answer is that nobody knows yet. [27] The word matters because it shapes how clinicians, parents and regulators read heavy use of these apps. [27]

UCLA Health researchers estimated how old the brains of nearly 1,500 adults looked, from scans of how brain areas signal to each other at rest. [23] People whose brains looked older than their age did worse on memory and planning tests and reported more symptoms of depression. [23] In one group, older-looking brains went with particular gut bacteria and their chemical products, including lower levels of a hormone called estetrol. [23] The study was published in eBioMedicine. [23]

Why it matters. The senior author, Arpana Church, said these signals may show up decades before memory problems appear. [23] The study found a link and did not test whether changing the gut changes the brain. [23]

Researchers pooled 39 Mendelian randomisation studies, which use the gene variants people are born with as a natural experiment, to ask whether gut bacteria affect cancer. [28] More Ruminococcaceae bacteria went with about double the risk of urinary-tract cancers and 24% higher cancer risk overall. [28] The same family went with lower lung cancer risk. [28] More Bifidobacteriaceae went with 47% higher bowel cancer risk. [28]

Why it matters. The authors say so few studies exist that every link needs checking. [28] If the links hold, they may help guide cancer screening in future. [28]

A genetic study compared gene data for cataract, the clouding of the eye's lens, with four kinds of heart disease. [29] It found shared genetic risk with irregular heartbeat, blocked heart arteries and heart failure. [29] There were 924 shared gene variants in 79 places in the genome. [29] Genes such as APOE pointed to how the body handles cholesterol. [29]

Why it matters. It offers one reason these two illnesses of ageing turn up in the same people. [29] The authors call the genes candidates to test, not proven causes. [29]

Researchers mapped reported tuberculosis, a lung infection, across 24 districts of South Sulawesi, a province of Indonesia, from 2018 to 2023. [30] Reported cases rose overall, and the gap between districts widened. [30] The worst-hit districts kept changing from year to year instead of staying the same. [30] Districts with more years of schooling and higher unemployment reported more cases. [30]

Why it matters. A list of high-burden districts drawn one year could be wrong the next. [30]

At Fujita Health University in Japan, 21 healthy young adults walked on a treadmill for 20 minutes at their own pace. [24] Researchers recorded their bowel sounds with an electronic stethoscope, because the sounds come from gas and fluid being pushed along the gut. [24] Within one to two minutes of stopping, the loudness of the sounds nearly doubled and they came more often. [24] The effect faded within two to three minutes. [24]

Why it matters. It may help explain why walking is often recommended for constipation. [24] The volunteers were healthy, so the study did not test people who are constipated. [24]

NPR reporter Elissa Nadworny had a bone scan, blood tests and a treadmill test at Ball State University's Human Performance Lab before training for the New York City Marathon in November. [25] Scott Trappe, who runs the lab, said training raises blood volume and improves heart and muscle health over about three months. [25] A UK study NPR cited scanned marathon runners' knees and found cartilage and bone improved during four months of training. [25] Cartilage behind the kneecap was worse just after the race and recovered by six months. [25]

Why it matters. About a million people try a marathon each year, NPR says. [25] The risk Trappe named was overuse injury, and her bone scan showed strong bones. [25]

Researchers released DeepDisco, a free program that estimates which brain wiring a stroke or other injury has cut, from an outline of the damage. [33] It takes under a second per injury, where the usual method needs heavy computing, special scans and expertise many places lack. [33] Its maps matched the usual method well across the whole brain, less exactly for single kinds of fibre. [33] Used to predict recovery, it explained up to 64% of the differences in movement scores. [33]

Why it matters. Which wiring an injury cuts helps explain what a person loses, such as movement or thinking. [33] The program is free and runs on any common computer system. [33]

Blastocystis is a common gut parasite in people, and it has been linked to irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a long-lasting gut disorder. [31] Researchers in Hamadan, western Iran, typed it in 28 stool samples, 14 from people with IBS and 14 without. [31] Subtype 3 was found in 12 of the 14 people with IBS. [31] Subtype 1 was most common in the people without it. [31]

Why it matters. The authors call the result preliminary, because only 28 of 80 samples could be typed. [31] Every sample in the study carried the parasite, so the difference lay in the subtype. [31]

A study of 123 adults aged 30 to 60 measured body mass index, waist and hip size, and asked about awareness of obesity. [32] None of the body measures tracked overall awareness. [32] People with overweight scored higher on one part of the test than people with obesity. [32] Having a family member with obesity, and a person's job, went with awareness. [32]

Why it matters. In this small sample, knowing about obesity and having it were separate things. [32] The study was a single snapshot, so it cannot say which came first. [32]