Medical Xpress news

Medical Xpress / Genetic study reveals likely cause of common heart valve defect

New clues from genetic research may help explain what causes the most common heart defect present at birth. Researchers at KTH Royal Institute of Technology and Karolinska Institutet have identified rare DNA changes during ...

12 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Exploiting a new vulnerability that targets 'zombie' cells as an anticancer therapy

A new set of drugs exploit a recently revealed weakness in "zombie-like"—or senescent—cells that could lead to new treatments for cancer and age-associated diseases. The study from the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences (LMS) ...

13 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Animal-linked influenza D multiplies efficiently in human respiratory tissue, hinting at spillover

The influenza D virus that researchers say has been flying under the radar since its detection in animals in 2011 can vigorously make copies of itself in human cells and lung tissue samples, a new study shows. The findings ...

12 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Sweet discovery rewrites understanding of how our bodies store sugar

WEHI researchers have discovered a never-before-seen mechanism our bodies use to regulate sugar, in findings that rewrite the fundamental rules of biology and open a new frontier in science. Published in Nature, the study ...

16 hours ago
Medical Xpress / US dentists still prescribe far more opioids for pain than peer nations

People getting their teeth pulled or drilled by dentists in the United States are still much more likely to get powerful opioid medications than dental patients in other developed countries or even the U.S. territory of Puerto ...

15 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Common lab tests reveal 16 blood biomarkers associated with PTSD

Researchers at Mass General Brigham, the Broad Trauma Initiative, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health have identified scalable, blood-based biomarkers associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) across ...

12 hours ago
Medical Xpress / US approves first gene therapy for rare form of hearing loss

US health officials on Thursday greenlit a first-of-its-kind gene therapy to treat a rare form of hereditary hearing loss, a breakthrough that could pave the way for other such hearing impairment treatments.

21 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Early adaptive skills may shield children's brains after exposure to disaster-related prenatal stress

Researchers from the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center and Queens College suggest that building strong adaptive skills in early childhood may serve as a buffer against the detrimental effects of prenatal ...

23 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Large international study confirms similar efficacy and safety of common fluid treatments for pediatric sepsis

A major study, led by researchers at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Nemours Children's Health, and Children's National Hospital and involving an extensive network of medical centers across the United States and abroad, ...

Apr 24, 2026
Medical Xpress / Vitamin D may help prevent diabetes, depending on genes

More than two in five U.S. adults have prediabetes, a condition marked by higher-than-normal blood sugar levels that often leads to type 2 diabetes. A new study finds that vitamin D may help delay or prevent that progression, ...

Apr 23, 2026
Medical Xpress / AI squeezes individual breast cells to learn how to spot cancer risk

Researchers at City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment organization, and the University of California, Berkeley, have created a novel microfluidic platform that can assess women's breast cancer risk at the cellular ...

Apr 23, 2026
Medical Xpress / A global fertility reversal is unfolding, and it could upend who becomes parent in decades ahead

With few exceptions, birth rates are falling worldwide. What does this mean? Put simply, the fertility rate describes the average number of children a woman is expected to have over the course of her life, if exposed to the ...

Apr 23, 2026