In a recent paper published in Stem Cell Reports, Hiroya Yamada’s team from Fujita Health University School of Medicine, Toyoake, Japan found that the performance of adult rats in learning and memory tests was impaired when the rats had been exposed to high fructose in before birth by feeding their mothers with high fructose corn syrup. The researchers discovered distinct changes in NSCs after high fructose exposure, which included reduced cell division and impaired generation of new neurons, and altered gene expression. 

Researchers with the Charbonneau Cancer Institute at the University of Calgary and McMaster University have identified a unique target present on a specific group of solid cancerous tumours. Using this discovery, UCalgary scientists developed an experimental chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T‑cell therapy that trains a patient’s immune system to recognize this target and kill the cancer cells. The work, reported in companion papers in Nature and Nature Cancer, offers a blueprint for tackling solid tumours that resist current treatments. 

As human cases of flea-borne murine typhus continue to occur in South Texas, researchers are working to better understand the role cats and their fleas may play in the disease’s transmission cycle.

In a recent study, researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) detected DNA from Rickettsia typhi — the bacterium that causes flea-borne murine typhus — in cat fleas (Ctenocephalides felis) collected from domestic cats in the Rio Grande Valley, a region that consistently reports some of the highest numbers of human cases of murine typhus in Texas.

The findings provide new insight into the pathogens carried by cat fleas and demonstrate how closely animal, human and environmental health are linked.

A long-term study found that post-COVID symptoms were most common during the Delta period and declined during the Omicron periods. Children consistently showed far lower rates than adults across all periods. Yet some adults continued to experience symptoms beyond two years, highlighting the continuing need for long-term support.