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Medical Xpress / Dysregulation of the immune system differentiates depression and psychosis in young adulthood

In the early phases of depression and psychosis, patients often show altered inflammatory markers in the blood and structural changes in the gray matter of the brain. This was demonstrated in the international study entitled ...

Feb 24, 2026 in Psychology & Psychiatry
Medical Xpress / How an anti-obesity drug improves metabolism beyond weight loss

Tirzepatide is one of the drugs that has revolutionized the treatment of obesity and other conditions such as diabetes in recent years. Despite its clinical success, its precise molecular and cellular mechanisms are still ...

Feb 24, 2026 in Overweight & Obesity
Medical Xpress / Could a gene lower nicotine dependence? What a CHRNB3 variant suggests

Variants in a nicotine receptor gene are associated with a lower likelihood of heavy smoking, according to a study published in Nature Communications. The findings are based on data from populations in Mexico and validated ...

Feb 24, 2026 in Genetics
Medical Xpress / Why do falls rise with age? Study points to cerebellar neuron firing

A new McGill University study has found a direct link between age-related declines in neuron activity in the cerebellum and worsening motor skills, including gait, balance and agility. While it is well known that these abilities ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Smarter tissue and organ repair thanks to next-gen hydrogel

A multidisciplinary team have built hydrogels built entirely from synthetic peptides so their properties can be precisely tailored through chemical design. By harnessing the power of collagen-inspired peptides and light-triggered ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Biomedical technology
Medical Xpress / Genetics helps explain who gets the 'telltale tingle' from music, art and literature

Why do some people feel chills when listening to music, reading poetry, or viewing a powerful work of art, while others do not? New research by Giacomo Bignardi and his colleagues from Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Genetics
Medical Xpress / Rising temperature may shift sex ratios at birth, analysis of five million births finds

"Temperature and sex ratios at birth," a new study led by researchers at the Department of Sociology at the University of Oxford and published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides new evidence that ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Obstetrics & gynaecology
Medical Xpress / Not just drainage: Dural venous sinuses actively regulate brain immunity and fluid flow, study finds

National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke investigators at the National Institutes of Health traced meningeal immune activity to dural venous sinuses that actively constrict and dilate, exchange fluid across ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Proximity to nuclear power plants associated with increased cancer mortality

U.S. counties located closer to operational nuclear power plants (NPPs) have higher rates of cancer mortality than those located farther away, according to a new study led by Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Oncology & Cancer
Medical Xpress / Shoulder scans in most people above 40 show rotator cuff abnormalities, pain or not

Shoulder pain is the third most common musculoskeletal complaint seen by doctors, affecting approximately 18–31% of the global population each month. Up to 85% of these cases are due to problems with the rotator cuff (RC)—the ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Radiology & Imaging
Medical Xpress / New 'liver-on-a-chip' device could make drug safety testing more reliable

Creating a drug that might help treat or cure a health condition in humans is a long, complex process. After developing a candidate drug that shows potential—a process that, in and of itself, can take decades—scientists ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Biomedical technology
Medical Xpress / Triggering self-combustion in fat cells for weight loss

Ordinary fat cells in obese animals can be induced to burn energy stores, generating substantial heat, according to a preclinical study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. In the study, published in Nature Metabolism, ...

Feb 23, 2026 in Overweight & Obesity