EurekAlert! News by Subject: Medicine & Health - Home

Medicine & Health

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Oct-2026 13:16 ET (21-Oct-2026 17:16 GMT/UTC)

Feeling confident about a relationship’s future may be linked to romantic attachment

Waseda University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Feeling confident that a romantic relationship will remain stable may be important for how people experience their relationships, finds a study by researchers at Waseda University and Nagoya University. Comparing gay and heterosexual men, the researchers found higher levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance and lower perceived relationship stability among gay men. The study suggests that differences in attachment may be linked not only to experiences within relationships, but also to the surrounding social environment.

Journal: BMC Psychology

Blocking enzyme reduces heart failure risk after heart attack in mice

Nagoya University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers in Japan discovered that blocking the enzyme BCAT1 can reduce fibrosis, or harmful stiffening, in mouse hearts after a heart attack. This intervention preserved heart function even when administered after tissue damage had begun. The findings suggest BCAT1 as a promising, targeted therapy for heart failure in humans, with the potential for fewer side effects.

Journal: Journal of Clinical Investigation
Funder: Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, Takeda Science Foundation, Mochida Memorial Foundation for Medical and Pharmaceutical Research, Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund, Ono Medical Research Foundation, Hoansha Foundation, Yasuda Medical Foundation, KOSÉ Cosmetology Research Foundation, Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Grant-in-Aid for JSPS Research Fellow, Make New Standards Program for the Next Generation Researchers

New modified acupuncture needle enables minimally invasive lymph node sampling for molecular profiling

International Society for Health Data Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

On July 25, 2026, Cui Baiping, Li Mingyu, Zhou Pingzhu, Cheow Lihfeng, Ma Hailong, Liu Dongdong published an article online in iMetaMed, titled "Minimally Invasive Sampling for Molecular Profiling of Lymph Nodes Using a Modified Acupuncture Needle." This study introduces a minimally invasive lymphatic sampling platform capable of directly extracting DNA from lymph nodes as an alternative to traditional tissue sampling. The extracted DNA can be utilized for downstream molecular profiling, offering a complementary tool to existing histopathological evaluations.

Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Shanghai Excellent Overseas Young Scientists

Unraveling a new pathogenic mechanism of SMA: Splicing defects of the conserved Pcyt2 minor intron in specific neuroglia drive disease onset

Science China Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a severe neuromuscular disease caused by insufficient SMN protein, yet the critical downstream mechanisms underlying its pathogenesis remain unclear. We previously identified that splicing of the conserved minor intron of Pcyt2 (Phosphocholine cytidylyltransferase 2) depends on sufficient SMN protein. Here, we reveal that simply replacing the minor intron of Pcyt2 with a major intron is sufficient to reverse SMA-associated phenotypes. Based on our discovery that Pcyt2 is specifically expressed in certain neuroglial subtypes, we further show that restoring Pcyt2 in these subtypes significantly alleviates SMA-associated phenotypes in both Drosophila and mouse models. These findings identify Pcyt2 minor intron mis-splicing as a key driver of SMA, offering opportunities for new therapeutic and diagnostic strategies.

Journal: Science Bulletin

N6-methyladenosine in inflammatory bowel disease: An emerging regulator of pathogenesis and a novel therapeutic frontier.

International Society for Health Data Science
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the intestine. In recent years, it has been unveiled that N6-methyladenosine (also named m6A) modification, the most prevalent internal mRNA modification in mammalian cells, plays a pivotal role in the pathogenesis and development of IBD. m6A modification exerts on all four components of the intestinal barrier, including the intestinal mechanical barrier, intestinal chemical barrier, intestinal immunological barrier, and intestinal biological barrier. This paper reviews previous studies that focused on the role of m6A modification in IBD, aiming to elucidate the epigenetic mechanisms underlying IBD pathogenesis and progression, and offering novel perspectives for IBD diagnosis, treatment and prognosis prediction.

Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China, Capital Health Research and Development of Special Fund, Peking University People’s Hospital Scientific Research Development Fund

Pharmaceutical company marketing negatively influences prescribing

Cochrane
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Doctors’ prescribing habits are heavily influenced by payments, gifts, and free meals from pharmaceutical companies, leading to more expensive, less appropriate and more drugs being prescribed, a new Cochrane review finds. This can seriously harm both individual patients and health systems.

Journal: Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Researcher in immune cell activation, hypertension and CVD to receive the 2026 Joseph A. Vita Award

American Heart Association
Grant and Award Announcement

https://newsroom.heart.org/news/researcher-in-immune-cell-activation-hypertension-and-cvd-to-receive-the-2026-joseph-a-vita-award.

Meeting: American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2026

Nearly 1 in 3 new nurse practitioners educated at for-profit schools, study finds

Brown University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

For-profit schools appear to be playing an outsized role in training the nation’s expanding nurse practitioner workforce, according to a study that found nearly one-third of newly licensed nurse practitioners in four states were educated at for-profit programs in 2024, up from just 2.4% in 2010.

Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine
Funder: National Institute on Aging, Arnold Ventures

NIH grant awarded to treat breast cancer with bacteria

Weill Cornell Medicine
Grant and Award Announcement

A scientist at Weill Cornell Medicine is working with colleagues at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on new, complementary research efforts engineering therapeutic Salmonella to target critical gaps in treatment for drug-resistant triple-negative breast cancers. The team has received a five-year, $13.1 million grant, the first of its kind for bacteria cancer therapies awarded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, to support research to design nontoxic bacteria strains that can deliver three treatment options.

48
49
50
51
52