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  • Study links early depression to brain cell energy changes, hinting at a future blood test

    Study links early depression to brain cell energy changes, hinting at a future blood test

    New research suggests major depressive disorder may be tied to early disruptions in how cells generate and manage energy, a finding that could eventually support earlier and more targeted treatment. Scientists say the results add biological detail to a condition still often diagnosed mainly through symptoms and clinical interviews.

    The study focused on adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, sometimes described as the body’s energy currency because it powers basic cellular work. Researchers examined ATP-related signals in both the brain and blood, aiming to see whether measurable energy patterns track with depression in young adults.

    What the scientists measured

    Teams at the University of Queensland and the University of Minnesota analyzed brain imaging and blood samples from 18 participants aged 18 to 25 diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Their results were compared with samples from people without depression to identify differences linked to the illness.

    According to the researchers, the approach is notable because it looked for matching patterns across the brain and the bloodstream, not just in one system. That raises the possibility that, with more evidence, peripheral markers in blood could one day help flag risk or subtypes of depression earlier.

    An unexpected pattern under stress

    The researchers reported that cells from participants with depression showed higher energy-molecule production while at rest, but had difficulty ramping up energy output when challenged. That stress-response limitation, they argue, could align with common symptoms such as fatigue, slowed thinking, and reduced motivation.

    Scientists involved in the work suggest the pattern may reflect mitochondria that are effectively overcompensating early on, then struggling when demand increases. They caution that the study is small, but say it offers a plausible cellular mechanism worth testing in larger groups.

    What this could mean next

    Major depressive disorder is common and can take years to match with an effective treatment, particularly when fatigue is prominent and persistent. The authors argue that identifying measurable biological signatures could support earlier intervention and more personalized care, rather than trial-and-error alone.

    The research was published in Translational Psychiatry, and the team says follow-up studies are needed to confirm the findings, test whether they predict outcomes, and determine whether they apply across ages and different forms of depression. If replicated, the work could also help frame depression as a whole-body condition with detectable biological changes.

  • Microplastics and the brain: Researchers map possible links to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

    Microplastics and the brain: Researchers map possible links to Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s

    Microplastics, the tiny plastic fragments found in food, water and household dust, are under growing scrutiny as researchers examine how they may affect the brain. A new scientific review pulls together evidence suggesting these particles could contribute to processes seen in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.

    Dementia affects more than 57 million people globally, and experts expect the burden of neurodegenerative disease to rise as populations age. That backdrop is sharpening interest in whether environmental exposures such as microplastics may worsen inflammation or accelerate neurological decline.

    Five mechanisms under scientific review

    The review, published in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry by an international team including the University of Technology Sydney and Auburn University, outlines several biological routes of potential harm. It focuses on immune activation, oxidative stress, disruption of the blood-brain barrier, mitochondrial dysfunction and direct neuronal injury.

    Researchers argue that if microplastics weaken the blood-brain barrier, the brain may become more vulnerable to inflammatory molecules and immune responses that can damage delicate tissue. In parallel, they describe how oxidative stress could rise if reactive oxygen species increase while antioxidant defenses are depleted.

    Energy disruption and protein buildup concerns

    Another concern highlighted in the paper is mitochondrial interference, which could reduce cellular energy production and strain neurons that rely heavily on steady ATP supply. Over time, energy shortfalls may impair brain function and make nerve cells more susceptible to damage.

    The authors also discuss disease-specific hypotheses, including whether microplastics might promote protein changes associated with Alzheimer’s, such as beta-amyloid and tau accumulation. For Parkinson’s, they note a possible role in α-synuclein aggregation and stress on dopamine-producing neurons.

    What the evidence can and cannot show

    While the review raises plausible pathways, the researchers stress that confirming a direct causal link in humans will require further studies, including exposure measurement and long-term clinical follow-up. Much of the current understanding comes from laboratory and animal research, along with emerging evidence that microplastics can accumulate in organs.

    Even with uncertainties, scientists say practical exposure reduction may be reasonable while research catches up, particularly in everyday food and household contexts. The authors point to reducing reliance on plastic food containers and packaging, limiting plastic-related dust and fibers, and supporting policies that curb plastic pollution at its source.

    Ongoing work at the involved institutions is expected to further test how ingested or inhaled microplastics interact with cells and barriers in the body. Public health experts say clearer answers will depend on standardizing how microplastics are measured and comparing real-world doses across populations.

  • Explainable AI tool CANYA decodes protein aggregation patterns, offering new clues for amyloid diseases and drug manufacturing

    An AI tool has made a step forward in translating the language proteins use to dictate whether they form sticky clumps similar to those linked to Alzheimer’s Disease and around fifty other types of human disease. In a departure from typical “black-box” AI models, the new tool, CANYA, was designed to be able to explain its decisions, revealing the specific chemical patterns that drive or prevent harmful protein folding.

    The discovery, published today in the journal Science Advances, was possible thanks to the largest-ever dataset on protein aggregation created to date. The study gives new insights about the molecular mechanisms underpinning sticky proteins, which are linked to diseases affecting half a billion people worldwide.

    Protein clumping, or amyloid aggregation, is a health hazard that disrupts normal cell function. When certain patches in proteins stick to each other, proteins grow into dense fibrous masses that have pathological consequences.

    While the study has some implications for accelerating research efforts for neurodegenerative diseases, it’s more immediate impact will be in biotechnology. Many drugs are proteins, and they are often hampered by unwanted clumping.

    “Protein aggregation is a major headache for pharmaceutical companies,” says Dr. Benedetta Bolognesi, co-corresponding author of the study and Group Leader at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC).

    “If a therapeutic protein starts aggregating, manufacturing batches can fail, costing time and money. CANYA can help guide efforts to engineer antibodies and enzymes that are less likely to stick together and reduce expensive setbacks in the process,” she adds.

    Protein clumps are formed using a poorly understood language. Proteins are made of twenty different types of amino acids. Instead of the usual A, C, G, T letters that make up the language of DNA, a protein’s language has twenty different letters, different combinations of which form “words” or “motifs.”

    Researchers have long sought to decipher which combinations of motifs cause clumping and which others enable proteins to fold without error. Artificial intelligence tools that treat amino acids like the alphabet of a mysterious language could help identify the precise words or motifs responsible, but the quality and volume of data about protein aggregation needed to feed models have been historically scant or restricted to very small protein fragments.

    The study addressed this challenge by carrying out large-scale experiments. The authors of the study created over 100,000 completely random protein fragments, each 20 amino acids long, from scratch. The ability for each synthetic fragment to clump was tested in living yeast cells. If a particular fragment triggered clump formation, the yeast cells would grow in a certain way that could be measured by the researchers to determine cause and effect.

    Around one in every five protein fragments (21,936/100,000) caused clumping, while the rest did not. While previous studies might have tracked a handful sequences, the new dataset captures a much bigger catalogue of the different protein variants which can cause amyloid aggregation.

    “We created truly random protein fragments including many versions not found in nature. Evolution has explored only a fraction of all possible protein sequences, while our approach helps us peer into a much bigger galaxy of possibilities, providing lots of data points to help understand more general laws of aggregation behaviour,” explains Dr. Mike Thompson, first author of the study and postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG).

    The vast amount of data generated from the experiments was used to train CANYA. The researchers decided to create it using the principles of “explainable AI,” making its decision-making processes transparent and understandable to humans. This meant sacrificing a little bit of its predictive power, which is usually higher in “black-box” AIs. Despite this, CANYA proved to be around 15% more accurate than existing models.

    Specifically, CANYA is a convolution-attention model, a hybrid tool borrowing from two distinct corners of AI. Convolution models, like those used in image recognition, scan photos for features like an ear or a nose to identify a face, except in this case CANYA skims through the protein chain to find meaningful features like motifs or “words.”

    Attention AI models are used by language translation tools to identify key phrases in a sentence before deciding on the best translation. The researchers incorporated this technique to help CANYA figure out which motifs matter most in the grand scheme of the entire protein.

    Together, these two approaches help CANYA see local motifs up close while also spotting their bigger-picture importance. The researchers could use this information to not just predict which motifs in the protein chain encourage clumping, block it, or something in between, but also understand why.

    For example, CANYA showed that small pockets of water-repelling amino acids are more likely to spark clumping, while some motifs have a bigger impact on clumping if they’re near the start of a protein sequence rather than at the end. The observations align with previous findings researchers have seen under the microscope in known amyloid fibrils.

    But CANYA also found new rules driving protein aggregation. For instance, certain building blocks of proteins, so-called charged amino acids, are normally thought to prevent clumping. But it turns out that in the context of other specific building blocks, they can actually promote clumping.

    In its current form, CANYA primarily explains protein aggregation in yes or no terms, i.e. it works as a so-called “classifier.” The researchers next want to refine the system so it can predict and compare aggregation speeds rather than just aggregation likelihood. This could help predict which protein variants form clumps quickly and which do so more slowly, a vital factor in neurodegenerative diseases where the timing of amyloid formation matters just as much as the fact that it happens at all.

    “There are 1024 quintillion ways of creating a protein fragment that is 20-amino acids long. So far, we’ve trained an AI with just 100,000 fragments. We want to improve it by making more and bigger fragments. This is just the first step but our work shows it is possible to decipher the language of protein aggregation. This is incredibly important for our understanding of human disease but also to guide synthetic biology efforts” concludes Dr. Bolognesi.

    “This project is a great example of how combining large-scale data generation with AI can accelerate research. It’s also a very cost-effective method to generate data,” says ICREA Research Professor Ben Lehner, co-corresponding author and Group Leader at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Wellcome Sanger Institute.

    “Using DNA synthesis and sequencing we can perform hundreds of thousands of experiments in a single tube, generating the data we need to train AI models. This is an approach we are applying to many difficult problems in biology. The goal is to make biology predictable and programmable,” he adds.

    The study is a joint collaborative effort by ICREA Research Professor Ben Lehner’s lab at the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and Benedetta Bolognesi’s lab at the Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia (IBEC). Researchers from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and Wellcome Sanger Institute also collaborated in the study. It was funded by “La Caixa” Research Foundation, the European Research Council and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

  • Teen Diet and Depression Risk: A Major Review Points to Whole Foods Over Supplements

    Teen Diet and Depression Risk: A Major Review Points to Whole Foods Over Supplements

    A major review led by Swansea University researchers suggests teenagers’ overall diet quality may be linked to mental health, with healthier eating patterns more often associated with fewer depressive symptoms. The findings add to growing interest in nutrition as a modifiable factor that could support adolescent wellbeing.

    Published in the journal Nutrients, the paper assessed evidence from 19 earlier studies examining diet and mental health in adolescents. Across the studies, lower-quality diets were more frequently connected with higher psychological distress, though results varied by design and population.

    Whole-diet patterns stand out

    The review included six randomized controlled trials and 13 prospective cohort studies, allowing the authors to compare different types of evidence. While some studies hinted that specific supplements such as vitamin D might reduce depressive symptoms, the overall picture for individual nutrients was inconsistent.

    By contrast, broader dietary patterns showed clearer and more repeatable signals. The authors argue that focusing on overall balance and quality may be more useful than targeting single nutrients, particularly when translating research into school, family, and public health settings.

    Why adolescence is a key window

    Researchers highlighted adolescence as a critical period for brain development and emotional regulation, when depression symptoms can emerge and become entrenched. Because diet is part of daily life and can be shaped at scale, they see it as a practical area for prevention and early support.

    At the same time, the review notes that diet and mental health do not exist in isolation. Socioeconomic factors and sex differences may influence both what teens eat and how mental health outcomes present, complicating cause-and-effect interpretation.

    What the evidence still misses

    The authors flagged major gaps, including a heavy focus on depression compared with other outcomes such as anxiety, stress, self-esteem, externalizing behavior, and aggression. They also emphasized the need for more standardized methods and improved reporting so results can be compared across studies.

    To strengthen future conclusions, the team proposed a research roadmap that includes exposure-based designs, biological markers, and open science practices. In a statement, corresponding author Hayley Young said, “Overall, our findings suggest that public health and clinical strategies should prioritise whole-diet approaches over isolated supplementation when considering adolescent mental health.”

    The researchers cautioned that more high-quality studies are needed to determine which dietary patterns work best, and for whom. Even so, the review suggests that everyday food choices may play a bigger role in teen mental health than many families and clinicians have assumed.

  • University of Tokyo Study Finds Motor Exploration Builds a Stronger Sense of Agency in New Human-Computer Tasks

    Why do people feel they are in control of their own movements, especially when learning an unfamiliar task? New research from the University of Tokyo examines how the brain builds a sense of agency, the feeling that an action and its outcome are self-generated.

    Sense of agency is central to everyday activities, from walking and typing to manipulating objects in the environment. It is also increasingly relevant to modern human-computer interfaces, including virtual reality tools, assistive devices, and emerging brain-machine technologies.

    How the brain detects control

    Researchers often explain agency using the comparator model, where the brain predicts what should happen when a person moves and then compares that prediction with incoming sensory feedback. When prediction and feedback align, the feeling of control tends to strengthen.

    The Tokyo team noted a gap in this framework when applied to learning from scratch, when accurate predictions do not yet exist. In early learning, people often try actions first and only later infer the rules linking movement to outcomes.

    Testing agency during new motor learning

    In the study, participants used a specialized data glove to move a cursor on a screen through finger motions, learning the hand-to-screen mapping by trial and error. At different stages, the researchers assessed how strongly participants felt they controlled the cursor, including when the cursor was subtly shifted in space or delayed in time.

    During the earliest stage, participants relied heavily on timing, judging agency largely by whether the cursor moved in sync with their fingers. With practice, agency increasingly depended on whether the cursor followed the learned mapping, a pattern that was strongest among higher-performing participants.

    Why exploration mattered

    A second experiment reduced motor exploration by having participants imitate presented gestures aimed at reaching target positions. In that setup, the researchers did not observe the same growth in agency, suggesting that imitation alone may not produce the same internal understanding of control.

    The findings point to an important role for active motor exploration in forming a structural representation of how movements cause outcomes. The researchers argue this kind of rule discovery can help build more robust agency, with potential implications for rehabilitation training, VR interaction design, and future interface development.

  • Exercise emerges as a leading option for depression and anxiety, with group programs showing the biggest gains

    Exercise emerges as a leading option for depression and anxiety, with group programs showing the biggest gains

    A major evidence review in the British Journal of Sports Medicine reports that structured exercise can meaningfully reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety, often performing as well as established treatments. The authors assessed a large body of randomized trial data to compare different exercise types, intensities and settings.

    The umbrella review combined results from dozens of prior meta-analyses, covering hundreds of individual trials and tens of thousands of participants across a wide age range. Overall, the synthesis found a medium-sized improvement in depression symptoms and a small-to-medium improvement in anxiety.

    Which workouts seemed most effective

    Aerobic exercise such as running, swimming and dance stood out for depression, particularly when sessions were supervised or done in groups. For anxiety, shorter programs lasting up to about 8 weeks and using lower-intensity activity appeared to deliver the most consistent benefits.

    Researchers also found improvements across resistance training and mind-body approaches such as yoga, tai chi and qigong, as well as mixed programs that combine formats. Effects were observed regardless of sex, suggesting exercise can be broadly useful, even if the best “fit” varies by person.

    Who benefited most in the data

    The strongest reductions were reported among young adults ages 18 to 30 and among women after giving birth, groups that also face elevated risks of mood and anxiety symptoms. The authors note that social and practical factors, including support and accountability, may help explain why group formats performed well.

    While the results were generally comparable to medication or talking therapies, the study does not argue that exercise should replace clinical care for everyone. Instead, it points to exercise as a credible first-line or add-on option, especially where access to therapy or medication is limited or where people prefer non-drug approaches.

    Limits and what comes next

    The authors caution that definitions of intensity, frequency and program length differed across studies, making precise prescriptions harder to standardize. Some age groups and exercise formats were also represented by less pooled data than others.

    Even with those caveats, the review strengthens the case for tailoring exercise to individual needs, including supervision, setting and duration. Clinicians increasingly emphasize that the most effective program is one a person can start safely and sustain, while tracking symptoms and overall wellbeing.

  • Long-term gorilla study finds friendship can boost survival yet raise health risks

    Friendship among mountain gorillas can pay off in some ways while creating new risks in others, according to a new long-running field study tracking health and reproduction. Researchers say the mixed outcomes may help explain why some individuals are more sociable than others.

    The analysis drew on more than 20 years of observations of 164 wild mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Scientists compared patterns of close social bonds with measures including illness, injuries from conflict and reproductive success.

    Benefits shift with group size

    The study found that the advantages of social ties depended heavily on a gorilla’s group environment, including group size and stability. What looked beneficial in one setting could become costly in another as competition and exposure to disease changed.

    For females, strong and stable relationships were generally linked to less illness, but the pattern was not uniform across groups. In smaller groups, more socially connected females tended to fall ill less often but also had fewer offspring.

    In larger groups, the relationship appeared to flip in important ways, with friendly females showing higher birth rates while also experiencing illness more frequently. Researchers suggested that crowded social settings may increase exposure to pathogens even as they improve access to support and mating opportunities.

    Male bonds trade illness for safety

    For males, tight social bonds were associated with getting ill more often, but those connections also came with a protective effect. Well-bonded males were less likely to be injured in fights, a major threat in a species where conflict can be severe.

    Lead author Robin Morrison of the University of Zurich said the findings suggest it is not simply a case of more social contact causing more disease. One possibility raised by the team is that maintaining close ties may carry energetic and stress-related costs for males, potentially affecting immune function.

    The work, conducted with the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Zurich, underscores how social behaviour can be shaped by competing pressures. The authors argue that there may be no single best social strategy, because the optimal level of sociability shifts with sex, group context and life stage.

    The paper was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and adds to broader evidence that social environments can strongly influence health and lifespan across social mammals, including humans. At the same time, it cautions against assuming that more friends is always better, even in highly social species.

  • Study links sugary drinks to teen anxiety, and researchers say the trend may be harder to reverse than parents think

    Study links sugary drinks to teen anxiety, and researchers say the trend may be harder to reverse than parents think

    A new research review has found a consistent association between high consumption of sugary drinks and increased anxiety symptoms among teenagers. The analysis, led by researchers working with Bournemouth University, was published in the Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics.

    The team examined results from multiple earlier studies to see whether patterns held across different adolescent groups. Across the evidence base reviewed, higher intake of sugar-sweetened beverages repeatedly aligned with higher self-reported anxiety symptoms.

    Why drinks are under scrutiny

    Public health efforts have long focused on the physical harms of high-sugar diets, including obesity and type 2 diabetes. The authors argue that mental health outcomes linked to energy-dense, low-nutrient drinks have received comparatively less attention.

    The review covers a wide range of sweetened beverages commonly consumed by teens, including sodas, energy drinks, sweetened juices, and sweetened tea or coffee drinks. Many of these products can deliver large amounts of added sugar quickly, without offering lasting satiety.

    Correlation, not proven causation

    The researchers emphasize that the findings do not prove sugary drinks cause anxiety. Because the review synthesizes mainly observational, survey-based studies, it cannot determine whether sugary beverages lead to anxiety or whether anxious teens are more likely to consume them.

    They also note that shared factors could influence both outcomes, such as sleep problems, family stress, or broader lifestyle patterns. The authors say future research designed to test cause-and-effect is needed before drawing firm conclusions.

    What this could mean for families

    Even without proof of causality, the authors say the repeated link is concerning at a time when youth mental health problems are widely reported to be rising. They suggest sugary drink intake is a modifiable habit that could be considered alongside other daily factors like sleep, physical activity, and overall diet quality.

    The review’s lead author, Dr. Karim Khaled, previously completed doctoral work at Bournemouth University and now works at Lebanese American University in Beirut. Co-author Dr. Chloe Casey said mental health effects of diet deserve closer consideration in adolescent nutrition strategies.

  • African Starlings Show Long-Term Reciprocity, Offering New Evidence of Friendship-Like Bonds in Birds

    Researchers studying African starlings say the birds build durable social ties that can resemble human friendship, repeatedly helping specific partners over time. The findings add rare long-term evidence that cooperation among non-relatives can be sustained through reciprocity.

    The study, led by Alexis Earl with colleagues in Professor Dustin Rubenstein’s research group, drew on observations and genetic sampling spanning roughly two decades. By pairing behavioral records with DNA data, the team could separate assistance to relatives from help offered to unrelated group members.

    What the long data revealed

    Biologists have long understood why animals support close kin, since assisting relatives can boost shared genetic success. What has been harder to demonstrate is whether animals reliably invest in non-relatives with an expectation of future return.

    Across many breeding seasons on the East African savannah, the researchers documented thousands of interactions among hundreds of birds living in complex groups. They found that while helpers often favored relatives, many also provided consistent support to particular non-relatives even when kin were available.

    That pattern points to reciprocity rather than simple proximity or chance, the authors argue, because the same unrelated partners kept reappearing in helping roles over multiple years. The work suggests some starling relationships remain stable enough to function as long-term cooperative partnerships.

    Why reciprocity is hard to prove

    Detecting reciprocal helping typically requires large datasets collected over long periods, since favors may be returned much later. Shorter studies can miss these delayed exchanges and may misclassify them as one-off acts.

    The authors say the next step is to examine how these bonds form, what keeps them resilient, and why some cooperative pairs break down. More broadly, the results support the idea that similar reciprocity may exist in other animal societies but remains under-detected due to limited multi-year tracking.

  • Brain development may extend into your early 30s, reshaping the age 25 myth

    Brain development may extend into your early 30s, reshaping the age 25 myth

    The popular claim that the brain finishes maturing at 25 has become a shorthand explanation on social media for impulsive decisions and uneven judgment in young adulthood. Neuroscientists say the idea is rooted in older imaging work, but it oversimplifies a longer and more gradual process.

    Earlier longitudinal MRI studies tracked changes in grey matter across childhood and adolescence, including synaptic pruning that strengthens frequently used circuits and trims others. Because many of those datasets ended in the early 20s, age 25 emerged as a convenient estimate rather than a hard biological cutoff.

    New scans map longer maturation

    More recent research has shifted from single brain regions to how whole networks communicate via white matter, the fiber pathways that connect distant areas. In a large analysis spanning infancy to old age, researchers identified a prolonged phase of network reorganization that can stretch into the early 30s.

    One focus is how the brain balances segregation and integration as it matures. Segregation builds specialized clusters for different functions, while integration strengthens long-range connections that help coordinate complex tasks like planning and self-control.

    What changes after the early 30s

    Data suggest a turning point around the early 30s, when some developmental trends level off and the brain shifts toward maintaining well-used pathways. Rather than continuous expansion, the emphasis becomes efficiency and stability in the connections a person relies on most.

    Experts caution that labeling adults as unfinished can be misleading, because brain development is not a single finish line and varies across individuals. Maturation also depends on experience, education, sleep, stress, and health, all of which can shape brain organization over time.

    Why the finding matters

    The updated picture supports a more nuanced view of neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt across the lifespan. While younger brains often show faster structural change, learning and training remain possible well beyond the 20s, and there is no sudden switch that flips at 25.

    Researchers say the takeaway is not that people in their late 20s are incapable of adult judgment, but that key neural systems may still be refining how efficiently they communicate. That may help explain why many people report steadier decision-making and emotional regulation as they move through their 30s.