Medical Xpress news

Medical Xpress / Dementia with Lewy bodies: Why are some brain regions more affected than others?

Dementia with Lewy bodies is one of the most common forms of dementia in older adults, after Alzheimer's disease. It takes its name from "Lewy bodies," abnormal clumps of a protein called alpha-synuclein, first identified ...

19 hours ago
Medical Xpress / Experimental Zika vaccine reveals T cells can drive protection without antibodies

Zika virus has been spreading for decades, but it first grabbed worldwide headlines in 2016. That February, with an outbreak sweeping the Americas, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the surge in Zika-linked birth ...

Aug 26, 2026
Medical Xpress / People say they would not want to test embryos for traits like low IQ. But if given the information, they act on it

A study of more than 2,000 people in the United States and China finds that the line between medical and nonmedical traits, which underpins rules on embryo testing in most countries, does not match public preferences.

Aug 26, 2026
Medical Xpress / Stress gene 'stuck on' in the brains of people with schizophrenia, study finds

Experts at the University of Sydney have found that a gene involved in regulating the body's response to stress switches on more easily in the brains of people who live with schizophrenia.

Aug 26, 2026
Medical Xpress / Maternity care improvements linked to fewer stillbirths and newborn deaths in sub-Saharan Africa

A combination of training, quality improvement and leadership support in hospitals across four countries in sub-Saharan Africa is linked to fewer stillbirths and deaths among newborns during the first 24 hours of life, according ...

Aug 26, 2026
Medical Xpress / Heart capillaries may build natural bypasses for blood flow after heart attacks

The heart powers a busy highway of arteries and vessels, providing a constant to-and-fro passage for blood. During a heart attack, this passage becomes blocked, usually when a blood clot forms on plaque in a coronary artery ...

Aug 25, 2026
Medical Xpress / Internal body awareness does not predict mental health, study finds

The human brain continuously receives information from inside the body that helps detect physical needs and emotional states, such as a racing heartbeat, shortness of breath, hunger, thirst, pain and body temperature. Its ...

Aug 25, 2026
Medical Xpress / New mRNA immunotherapy eliminates pancreatic tumors in mice

Inspired by the work of the RNA Therapeutics Institute at UMass Chan Medical School and the development of the COVID vaccine, Marcus Ruscetti, Ph.D., and Chaitanya Naimesh Parikh, Ph.D. '26, have developed an immunotherapy ...

Aug 25, 2026
Medical Xpress / First-in-human pilot trial improves stem cell collection and delivery for sickle cell gene therapy

Patients with sickle cell disease are often hesitant to undergo transformative gene therapy—the current lengthy process requires multiple hospital visits to collect enough stem cells. Researchers from Boston Children's Hospital ...

Aug 25, 2026
Medical Xpress / 'Teacher cells' coated with tumor fragments train T cells to attack cancer in lab tests

The immune system possesses legions of T cells that, if primed, could hunt down and destroy tumors. Now, a UC San Francisco team has invented a way to do this by combining immune cells grown in the lab with samples from a ...

Aug 25, 2026
Medical Xpress / 'Supportive' brain cells may actively drive cognitive decline

Brain cells that produce the protective coating around nerve fibers can become dysfunctional with age and may actively contribute to cognitive decline, according to new research.

Aug 25, 2026
Medical Xpress / First evidence of mirror-like activity found in individual human neurons

In the early 1990s, researchers studying nonhuman primates discovered a population of brain cells they called "mirror neurons." These specialized brain cells fired when the animal performed an action and also when the animal ...

Aug 25, 2026