Researchers have uncovered how combined alcohol intoxication and burn injuries disrupt gut bacteria and lower the production of key anti-inflammatory molecules called short-chain fatty acids. The resulting inflammation could worsen patient outcomes, but the study offers hope: restoring beneficial gut metabolites like butyrate may help limit intestinal damage after trauma.

Chronic pain often leads practitioners to prescribe opioids, though prescribed opioids have created a nationwide crisis that reportedly killed more than 107,000 Americans from December 2020 through December 2021. Therefore, an urgent need exists to develop novel non-opioid and non-addicting therapies for managing chronic pain. To help develop these therapies, the National Institutes of Health recently awarded a five-year grant to Mahmoud Salama Ahmed, Ph.D., from the TTUHSC Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy. 

Researchers at the University of Michigan have demonstrated that a single dose of a psychedelic compound significantly improves cognitive flexibility in mice for at least three weeks after administration. This groundbreaking finding suggests potential therapeutic applications for conditions characterized by cognitive rigidity, including depression, PTSD, and Alzheimer's disease.