Medical Xpress news

Medical Xpress / The magic of mushrooms: Psychedelic psilocybin shows promise for treating cocaine addiction

Cocaine addiction treatment has found a surprising new contender in the highly regulated substance psilocybin, a naturally occurring psychedelic compound found in mushroom species popularly known as magic mushrooms or shrooms. ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / Research into Friedreich's ataxia reveals how DNA folding can silence a key gene

Researchers have uncovered a fundamental rule that governs how genes are physically arranged inside the cell nucleus, and how disruptions to that organization can contribute to human disease.

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / AI chatbot shows promise in combating health misinformation

Can AI help people resist misinformation? Initial research findings suggest that artificial intelligence-driven conversations can strengthen people's resilience to health misinformation, outperforming traditional educational ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / Cold comfort? Icing injuries may prolong pain and slow recovery, preclinical results suggest

Icing a sprained ankle or sore muscle, long used to reduce pain and swelling, may in the longer run delay recovery and prolong pain, new research suggests. In a preclinical study published in Anesthesiology, McGill University ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / Brain histamine map connects genes to brain function and mental health

New research from King's College London and the University of Porto has mapped the histamine system in the brain. Histamine, a molecule more commonly associated with allergies, plays a separate but poorly understood role ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / Personalized vaccine shows promise against aggressive brain cancer

A personalized vaccine to treat glioblastoma, a fast-growing and incurable brain cancer that affects four in 100,000 people in the U.S., is safe and elicits robust and broad immune responses that appear to increase recurrence-free ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / Antibody spurs nerve fiber regrowth following spinal cord injury

An international research group has demonstrated that the antibody NG101 promotes the regeneration of damaged spinal cord tissue. Now, under the leadership of scientists at the University of Zurich and Balgrist University ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / HIV reveals more than 100 escape mutations against promising antibody therapies

Broadly neutralizing antibodies (bNAbs) are among the most promising new treatments for HIV, offering the potential to forego traditional daily doses of antiretroviral drugs. In one recent clinical study of bNAbs identified ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / Intestinal stem cells can fight back against Salmonella

Researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Weizmann Institute of Science have identified a previously unrecognized defense mechanism in the intestine, showing that intestinal stem cells can actively respond ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / Hantavirus is very different from COVID. Here's why the 'Andes virus' won't cause the next pandemic

For many people, news of a virus outbreak on a cruise ship immediately brings back memories of COVID spreading when the Ruby Princess docked in Sydney in March 2020. Of the passengers and crew who disembarked, 575 had COVID. ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / One overlooked factor before birth may help explain autism risk in children

Mothers who work in jobs where they are frequently exposed to toxic chemicals or experience high stress have higher odds of having a child with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), suggest the findings of original research published ...

May 12, 2026
Medical Xpress / How the timing of trauma leaves a lasting mark on the brain and behavior

A research team from the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT-Italian Institute of Technology), in collaboration with the IRCCS Istituto Giannina Gaslini in Genoa (Italy), has demonstrated that traumatic experiences occurring ...

May 12, 2026