Medical Xpress news

Medical Xpress / Muscle repair may hinge on a timed metabolic 'switch,' study suggests

Scientists at the University of California, Irvine's School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences have discovered how muscle stem cells "flip a switch" to rebuild damaged muscle—a finding that could help address muscle ...

Feb 27, 2026 in Endocrinology & Metabolism
Medical Xpress / Engineered protein markers read living brain gene activity in monkeys via blood

Gene therapy has been successfully used to treat a number of diseases, including immune deficiencies, hereditary blindness, hemophilia and, recently, Huntington's disease, a fatal neurological disorder.

Feb 27, 2026 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / Screaming, vomiting, and daily weed: The rise of 'scromiting' among chronic cannabis users

Kennon Heard, MD, Ph.D., was skeptical when he first heard about cases in emergency departments of severe, recurring episodes of nausea and vomiting associated with chronic use of marijuana. In 2004, Australian researchers ...

Feb 27, 2026 in Addiction
Medical Xpress / AI accurately spots medical disorder from privacy-conscious hand images

An AI can accurately diagnose a rare endocrinological condition just by analyzing pictures of the back of the hand and the clenched fist. The privacy-conscious achievement by Kobe University holds promise for establishing ...

Feb 27, 2026 in Health informatics
Medical Xpress / Understanding GLP-1 signaling: A path to better therapies

About one in eight U.S. adults are currently taking a GLP-1 drug such as Ozempic, Wegovy, or Zepbound to treat diabetes, obesity, or other conditions, according to a KFF Health Tracking poll. But many suffer from significant ...

Feb 27, 2026 in Medications
Medical Xpress / Refugee and immigrant children show lower rates of emergency department use for non‑urgent conditions, study finds

Refugee and immigrant children are less likely to visit the emergency department (ED) for minor illnesses (e.g., respiratory infections) compared to children born in Ontario, according to a new study from ICES and The Hospital ...

Feb 27, 2026 in Pediatrics
Medical Xpress / A potential immunotherapy strategy for early-stage prostate cancer

Immunotherapy has been generally ineffective for prostate cancer because the tumors are considered immunologically "cold," meaning they do not attract enough immune cells to mount a strong attack. Hormone therapy commonly ...

Feb 26, 2026 in Oncology & Cancer
Medical Xpress / More than eco-anxiety: Study exposes emotional fallout of climate crisis for youth

A few years ago, researcher Maya Gislason's young child came home from school with her crayon drawing of Earth in 2020 and 2050. "The first was blue and green; the second was a planet on fire," she says. "Her question to ...

Feb 26, 2026 in Psychology & Psychiatry
Medical Xpress / First-ever in-utero stem cell therapy for fetal spina bifida repair shows safe results

A Phase I clinical trial published in The Lancet has shown that combining stem cell therapy with standard fetal surgery before birth is a safe and promising approach to treat myelomeningocele, a severe form of spina bifida. ...

Feb 26, 2026 in Pediatrics
Medical Xpress / Jumping 'DNA parasites' linked to early stages of tumor formation

A study published in the journal Science reveals how jumping fragments of human DNA, a type of genetic parasite, destabilize the cancer genome. Unstable genomes are a fertile playground for cancer evolution, giving malignant ...

Feb 26, 2026 in Oncology & Cancer
Medical Xpress / Novel delivery method bypasses blood-brain barrier to treat ALS symptoms

A researcher at the University of Missouri has made a promising breakthrough in the quest to help people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the neurodegenerative disorder commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease. In ...

Feb 26, 2026 in Neuroscience
Medical Xpress / A simple energy molecule gives female mice a memory boost

A team of scientists from the U.S. has discovered that acetate, a simple molecule involved in how our bodies create energy, can significantly increase long-term memory in female mice. The researchers were looking for a direct ...

Feb 26, 2026 in Neuroscience