Inspired by advances in cancer therapy, a team at the Buck Institute has engineered immune cells equipped with specialized targeting devices called chimeric antigen receptors (CARs) that can distinguish and respond to tau tangles and various forms of toxic amyloid plaques, both of which are implicated in Alzheimer’s disease pathology. The proof-of-concept study, now online at the Journal of Translational Medicine, holds the promise of being able to precisely deliver therapeutic drugs directly to affected areas of the  brain with fewer side effects.

An intensive low-energy diet programme, similar to the NHS Type 2 Diabetes Path to Remission, significantly improved eating disorder symptoms in people with type 2 diabetes and excess weight who were at risk of developing eating disorders, according to a University of Oxford study published today in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Cambridge researchers urge public health bodies like the NHS to provide trustworthy, research-driven alternatives to platforms driven by profit.

Researchers, led by UC San Francisco, tested the effectiveness of a weeklong, web-based wellbeing intervention, known as the Big Joy Project. This consisted of daily micro-acts, which included asking someone to share a fun, inspiring, or proud moment, making a gratitude list, and performing a kind act to brighten someone’s day. Approximately 17,600 people from around the world participated: most were from the United States, Canada and Great Britain (71%), female (84%), white (74%), with at least some college education (94%).

There’s an urgent need to quantify the role of fungal toxins (aflatoxins), found on agricultural crops, such as maize and peanuts (groundnuts), in the escalating rates of liver cancer in Ghana, as well as elsewhere in Africa and Asia, concludes a commentary published in the open access journal BMJ Global Health. Maize and peanuts are dietary staples in many Asian and African countries. And with one of the highest rates of liver cancer in Africa, at 16/100,000 of the population. Ghana represents a critical case study in furthering international understanding of the link between aflatoxins and the rising global toll taken by liver cancer, say the authors.