BackgroundDepressive symptoms are common among patients with cancer and can substantially impair quality of life, treatment adherence and overall well-being. Although exercise has been increasingly recognised as a promising non-pharmacological strategy for alleviating depression in oncology settings, existing evidence has focused predominantly on breast cancer, with limited attention to lung and digestive cancers. This meta-analysis aimed to evaluate the effects of exercise interventions on depressive symptoms in adults with lung and digestive cancer.MethodsA systematic search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, Cochrane Library and Scopus from database inception to March 2026. Randomized controlled trials investigating the effects of exercise interventions on depressive symptoms in adults with lung or digestive cancer were included. The primary outcome was depressive symptoms measured using validated instruments. Subgroup analyses were performed according to intervention format, exercise type and training frequency. Risk of bias was assessed using the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool version 1.ResultsEight randomized controlled trials were included in the meta-analysis. Baseline analysis showed no significant difference in depressive symptoms between the exercise and control groups before intervention. Post-intervention meta-analysis demonstrated that exercise significantly reduced depressive symptoms compared with control conditions (SMD = -0.45, P = 0.02), Although substantial heterogeneity was observed. Individually delivered programmes, walking-based exercise and moderate-frequency training (3–5 times per week) showed numerically larger effect estimates.ConclusionsExercise interventions may reduce depressive symptoms in adults with lung and digestive cancer and represent a promising adjunctive strategy for psychological care in these populations. Although subgroup differences were not statistically significant, certain intervention characteristics may be associated with greater benefit. Further large-scale, high-quality randomized trials are needed to confirm these findings and to establish the optimal exercise prescription for reducing depressive symptoms in adults with lung and digestive cancer.Systematic review registrationhttps://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/, identifier CRD420261336578.
One Antibody, Fewer Scientific Surprises
Sponsored content brought to you by
In biomedical research, promising programs rarely collapse for lack of scientific ambition. More often, they collapse under the weight of inconsistency. One assay produces compelling results, the next model delivers confusion, and suddenly, researchers are left wondering whether the biology changed or whether the tools did.
That uncertainty sits at the heart of translational continuity, a concept gaining increased attention as drug-discovery pipelines become more complex and expensive. According to Cody Spencer, PhD, Director of Scientific Affairs at Bio X Cell, maintaining continuity across experimental systems is less about rigidly replicating conditions and more about reducing unnecessary variability.
“I define translational continuity as the ability to study the same underlying biology as you move from early discovery into more complex preclinical models without introducing unnecessary variability,” Spencer explains.
In practice, translational continuity means researchers can move from in vitro assays to organoids to in vivo mouse models while remaining confident that their findings reflect real biological phenomena, not artifacts created by inconsistent reagents or shifting methodologies. That distinction matters more than many researchers realize.
The greatest threat to continuity, Spencer argues, is often surprisingly mundane: switching antibodies or suppliers midway through a research program. Even antibodies marketed against the same target protein can behave differently depending on clone selection, sequence, production methods, formulation, or purification standards. When an antibody’s functional profile—whether blocking, agonistic, or depleting—is well characterized, researchers can select tools aligned with their experimental goals from the start, reducing the need to switch reagents mid-program. “When you switch suppliers, you’re often introducing a new variable without fully realizing it,” Spencer says.
Those differences might seem subtle initially, but they can snowball dramatically in translational studies. Inconsistent potency, altered dose responses, or unintended immune engagement can suddenly emerge even when earlier experiments appeared rock solid. Researchers then face a dangerous interpretive trap: Are they observing a genuine biological effect or merely the consequences of a reagent change? “That’s where you start to see promising early data that doesn’t hold up in more complex models,” Spencer notes.
The consequences extend beyond scientific frustration. Failed translation burns time, funding, and institutional confidence. Entire programs can stall while teams attempt to reconcile conflicting datasets generated by technically different reagents presenting as equivalent tools. For companies operating in high-stakes therapeutic areas like immuno-oncology, autoimmune disease, and inflammatory disorders, that level of ambiguity can become extraordinarily expensive.
The formulation of antibodies also plays a surprisingly large role in reproducibility, particularly in vivo. Preservatives, endotoxin contamination, and formulation inconsistencies can introduce unintended biological effects that distort experimental outcomes. “For in vivo studies, antibodies need to have ultra-low endotoxin levels and be free of preservatives to avoid introducing unintended biological effects,” Spencer explains.
This emphasis on reproducibility has reinforced the case for recombinant antibodies, which are derived from defined sequences rather than traditional hybridoma methods. Recombinant production offers stronger lot-to-lot consistency and allows researchers to better control host species, isotype selection, and Fc functionality.
That predictability becomes even more critical as antibody engineering grows more sophisticated. Bispecific antibodies, for example, can engage two targets simultaneously, enabling researchers to model increasingly complex biological interactions. But those advanced formats also amplify the risks associated with inconsistency. “Small changes can significantly impact activity,” Spencer warns.
Ultimately, translational continuity is about preserving confidence. In an era where reproducibility concerns continue to challenge biomedical science, researchers are increasingly recognizing that experimental reliability depends not only on biological insight but also on the consistency of the tools used to generate it. “When translational continuity is strong, the data become much easier to interpret,” Spencer says. “If the biology is real, it should carry across systems.”
Learn more bioxcell.com.
The post One Antibody, Fewer Scientific Surprises appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.
Asynchronous Broadcasting of Audiovisual Content as a Telerehabilitation Strategy for Patients in Rural Areas: Development and Usability Study
Background: Geographical and economic barriers limit access to health care services in rural regions of Colombia. In San Vicente del Caguán, the lack of infrastructure and rehabilitation professionals forces patients to travel long distances. Asynchronous telerehabilitation using video broadcasting is a viable strategy to address these challenges. Objective: This study aims to design and validate a telerehabilitation model using asynchronous audiovisual content broadcasting for rural patients, evaluating functionality, usability, and clinical effectiveness. Methods: A 4-stage case study developed and validated the model in San Vicente del Caguán: (1) analysis of telemedicine experiences and video-based therapy; (2) solution design including telecommunications infrastructure (radio links and Wi-Fi), mobile app (HSRehabiAPP), and web platform (HSRehabiWEB); (3) fieldwork with 7 patients receiving physical, occupational, or speech therapy, evaluating functionality (11 criteria), usability (8 criteria), and content quality (5 criteria); and (4) results analysis. The infrastructure connected San Rafael Hospital with remote centers in Los Pozos and Tres Esquinas. Participants (aged 7-68 years) from urban and rural areas had conditions including stroke, shoulder injuries, knee pathologies, hypertension, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Results: All 7 patients achieved 100% compliance across functional, usability, and audiovisual content criteria. Functional evaluation covered login, navigation, therapy access, session viewing, exercise execution, pain assessment, therapist communication, and satisfaction surveys. Usability assessment evaluated initial access, content location, navigation comfort, instructional guidance, session organization, video playback, instruction clarity, and interface intuitiveness. Content criteria included exercise clarity, step-by-step instructions, visual quality, audio quality, and correct posture demonstration. Patients reported high satisfaction, noting reduced travel costs and time, family convenience, and effective outcomes. Offline functionality proved essential in areas with limited internet connectivity. Conclusions: The asynchronous audiovisual telerehabilitation model is an effective solution for improving access to rehabilitation services in rural areas. It successfully addressed geographical barriers and infrastructure limitations while maintaining clinical effectiveness across therapies. Implementation requires adequate technological infrastructure, user-friendly platforms with offline capabilities, and quality therapeutic content. Future work demands inclusive health policies, professional training, and research with larger sample sizes to assess long-term sustainability in diverse rural contexts.
<img src="https://jmir-production.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/thumbs/eba510aecc9c2ca2d8a859c04f88c558" />
Pain-side-specific alteration of structural networks in trigeminal neuralgia: a connectome analysis
ObjectivesTrigeminal neuralgia (TN) involves disruption in the integrity of the white matter, the side-specific pain topology of these alterations at the network has yet to be defined. In this study, we investigated the lateralization of structural network architecture and nodal characteristics in TN patients.MethodsWhole-brain structural networks (90 × 90 connectivity matrices) were reconstructed from diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) tractography data of 30 TN patients and 20 matched controls. We applied Network-Based Statistics (NBS) to detect altered connectivity sub-networks, and graph theoretical analysis to profile global and nodal properties. Our analysis aimed to delineate changes that were specific to the painful side.ResultsNBS analysis revealed that structural connectivity formed subnetworks involving multiple functional networks. A subnetwork involving the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) and postcentral gyrus (S1) was identified on the painful side, indicating that TN stimulation may enhance structural connectivity between regions related to salience and somatosensory processing, thereby facilitating the acceleration of pain perception and response. On the non-pain side, we observed enhanced structural connections between visual and attention-related regions. The third subnetwork was characterized by widespread and non-focal reductions in fiber tract connectivity. However, despite these localized alterations, the global network properties of the brain in TN patients remained stable, with node-specific properties undergoing alterations in multiple brain regions, including the cuneus, inferior parietal lobule, and superior frontal gyrus.ConclusionHerein, we applied NBS and graph theoretical analysis to investigate changes in the structural brain networks of patients with TN. Analysis revealed that specific subnetworks and key nodes can be affected by TN. We also confirmed obvious differences in the involved subnetworks between pain and non-pain sides in TN patients. These findings suggest that these specific subnetworks and nodes could represent valuable biomarkers for clinical evaluation and intervention in TN patients.
Emotion recognition based on the temporal patterns of electroencephalogram signals and electrodermal response signals using the TRANSFORMER network
IntroductionEmotion recognition using physiological signals plays an important role in affective neuroscience and human-centered artificial intelligence. Current methods still face challenges in long-range temporal dependency modeling and explicit central–autonomic coupling representation, while generalization under subject-independent protocols needs further improvement.MethodsThis study proposes a Transformer-based multimodal framework for four-class discrete emotion recognition (neutral, happiness, sadness, and fear) by jointly modeling EEG and GSR signals. The architecture integrates temporal self-attention and bidirectional cross-modal attention. Experiments were conducted on 42 neurologically healthy adults with a controlled audiovisual emotion elicitation paradigm, evaluated using subject-independent five-fold cross-validation.ResultsThe model achieved a mean classification accuracy of 87.42% ± 2.13%, with precision of 87.6%, recall of 87.4%, and F1-score of 87.5%. It outperformed CNN and Bi-LSTM baselines by 4.91% and 6.38%, respectively. Multimodal fusion significantly boosted high-arousal emotion recognition, with fear accuracy increasing from 82.11% (EEG-only) to 88.63% (p = 0.004).DiscussionThese findings confirm that long-range temporal modeling and explicit cross-modal interaction can substantially improve multimodal physiological emotion recognition. The proposed framework is scalable and interpretable, advances central–autonomic coupling modeling, enhances generalization via strict subject-independent validation, and supports physiological interpretability through attention visualization and modality sensitivity analysis.
Leveraging Synchrosqueezing Transform (SST)-based representations in a dual-stream attention framework to enhance sleep apnea detection and subtyping
IntroductionSleep apnea and hypopnea syndrome (SAHS) is a prevalent disorder with profound adverse effects on health and overall quality of life, thereby necessitating the development of accurate and accessible screening tools. Electrocardiogram (ECG)-based analysis, being non-invasive and readily deployable in low-cost hardware, offers a particularly convenient approach for SAHS screening and preliminary diagnosis. However, conventional time-frequency analysis often fails to capture the subtle yet critical patterns in ECG signals due to the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, leading to limited resolution and information loss.MethodsTo overcome these limitations, this study proposes a Dual Stream Cross Attention Fusion Network (DSCAFNet) based on the uncertainty-mitigated time-frequency representations generated via Synchrosqueezing Transform (SST). The framework uniquely constructs two complementary, high-fidelity SST-based representations, which are strategically designed to provide distinct yet synergistic perspectives on the complex, non-stationary dynamics of SAHS. A dedicated cross-attention fusion module then harnesses these complementary views, enabling the model to discriminatively integrate multi-resolution features for significantly enhanced pattern recognition.ResultsExtensively evaluated on the public Apnea-ECG dataset, DSCAFNet achieves an accuracy of 0.9572, a sensitivity of 0.9575, a specificity of 0.9584, and an F1-score of 0.9557, performing on par with state-of-the-art methods. More importantly, rigorous validation on a private Huashan-apnea dataset yields an accuracy of 0.9003 for binary classification and 0.7564 for four-class subtyping, demonstrating strong effectiveness and generalization.ConclusionThese consistent results across datasets highlight DSCAFNet as a promising framework for intelligent and accessible SAHS screening, with potential for integration into portable data acquisition systems combined with cloud-based analysis.
The Download: unlocking lithium and controlling Ebola
This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.
How a new extraction process could unlock the world’s lithium
A new method for extracting lithium could cut costs and emissions from one of the world’s most important materials for EVs and energy storage.
The technique uses a weak acid to dissolve silicate minerals. That frees not only the lithium but also other useful materials, including alumina and silica.
“At scale, we believe this will be the lowest-cost way of sourcing lithium in the world,” says Yet-Ming Chiang, an MIT professor who co-authored a study of the process published yesterday in Science.
Startup Rock Zero is already working to commercialize the research. Read the full story on a new way to unlock the world’s lithium.
—Casey Crownhart
The deadly Ebola outbreak is proving difficult to control
The alert was raised on May 5. Four health-care workers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo had died from an unknown illness within four days. Tests in Kinshasa revealed the culprit: the Bundibugyo virus, one of the causes of Ebola.
A couple of weeks ago, an outbreak of hantavirus erupted aboard a cruise ship. Three people died, but the outbreak was kept under control. The picture for Ebola is bleaker for several reasons, including the disease itself, the available treatments, and the local environment.
Find out why the outbreak is causing alarm.
—Jessica Hamzelou
This story is from The Spark, our weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things biotech. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday.
How the Pope’s Magnifica Humanitas offers a template for individuals to meet the AI moment
——Father Séamus Finn, a leader in faith-based and socially responsible investing with the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and Sister Susan Francois, assistant congregation leader and treasurer of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace
Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on artificial intelligence includes a statement that warrants serious attention from technologists and policymakers: “Technology is never neutral.”
Magnifica Humanitas is a call to act with courage and solidarity as AI transforms human life, framing the choice ahead as one between the Tower of Babel and the rebuilding of our common humanity. It warns that corporations alone cannot set the direction of such a transformation.
With governments slow to regulate AI, institutional investors are stepping into the gap. Here’s how they can build a better future.
The must-reads
I’ve combed the internet to find you today’s most fun/important/scary/fascinating stories about technology.
1 Anthropic is now valued higher than OpenAI
It hit a $965 billion valuation after a new funding round. (AP News)
+ Claude demand has driven annualized revenue to $47 billion. (WSJ $)
+ The funding round may be Anthropic’s last before an IPO. (TechCrunch)
+ What even is the AI bubble? (MIT Technology Review)
2 A Blue Origin rocket has exploded in a setback to NASA’s Moon plans
New Glenn burst into flames during testing on a Florida launchpad. (CNBC)
+ Blue Origin is heavily involved in NASA’s Moon base plans. (The Verge)
+ It also wants to compete with Elon Musk’s SpaceX. (Reuters $)
3 Adversaries are tracking US troop locations via mobile phone data
The Pentagon has long ignored warnings of this exact threat. (Reuters $)
+ The targeting uses commercially available location data. (Wired $)
+ LLMs could supercharge mass surveillance. (MIT Technology Review)
4 Anthropic plans a broad rollout of Mythos AI in the coming weeks
Despite concerns over its cybersecurity capabilities. (CNET)
+ Claude Opus 4.8 is now out, with a promise to be more honest. (The Verge)
5 Grok oversaw a crime spree in an AI safety test
Models were tasked with governing a simulated society. (Fortune)
+ Grok committed 180 crimes, while Claude ruled with restraint. (Gizmodo)
6 Amazon has scrapped an AI leaderboard after worker gaming
Employees were artificially inflating usage scores. (FT $)
+ We can build better AI benchmarks. (MIT Technology Review)
7 Political spending by AI and crypto groups is shifting elections
They’ve pushed their preferred candidates closer to power. (Axios)
8 China’s tech boom is fueling a new wave of industrial tourism
Visitors are touring AI labs and EV factories. (Rest of World)
9 Alibaba’s MuleRun aims to replicate the OpenClaw craze
The AI agent platform is positioned as a safer alternative. (SCMP)
10 Mysterious changes have emerged in the Sun’s magnetic field
They could reshape space weather forecasts. (404 Media)
Quote of the day
“What Peter Thiel is doing is terrible. His settling in Argentina is even worse.”
—Elisa Lilita Carrió, an Argentine politician, writes on X that Peter Thiel’s relocation to her country has angered her even more than his leadership of Palantir.
One More Thing
NASA, ESA, CSA, STSCI, WEBB ERO PRODUCTION TEAM
How the James Webb Space Telescope broke the universe
When the James Webb Space Telescope began full operations in 2022, astronomers were in awe of the flood of data that arrived.
“Every hour we were looking at a galaxy or an exoplanet or star formation,” says NASA scientist Heidi Hammel. “It was like a firehose.”
Since then, JWST has delivered nonstop discoveries, from distant galaxies to new planetary atmospheres. “We’re cracking open an entirely new window on the universe,” says Hammel.
Discover how JWST has transformed astronomy.
—Jonathan O’Callaghan
We can still have nice things
A place for comfort, fun, and distraction to brighten up your day. (Got any ideas? Drop me a line.)
+ Kubrick fans will love this Lego recreation of Dr Strangelove.
+ Here’s a fascinating explanation of why seven landlocked countries have navies.
+ This mesmerizing 4K remaster of a super typhoon turns weather data into cinematic art.
+ Go inside the genius of Queen with this track-by-track breakdown of “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
How the Pope’s Magnifica Humanitas offers a template for individuals to meet the AI moment
Pope Leo XIV’s new encyclical on artificial intelligence includes a statement that warrants serious attention from technologists and policymakers: “Technology is never neutral.” Magnifica Humanitas (“Magnificent Humanity”) is a clarion call to all people to act with courage and solidarity as we enter an age already being transformed by artificial intelligence, the greatest change in human life since the Industrial Revolution. As the pope says, the choice before us—the choice AI presents—is one between the Tower of Babel and the rebuilding of our common humanity.
In the biblical story of the Tower of Babel, humans sought to build a massive structure that reached all the way to Heaven, only to have their project thwarted when God made those involved unable to understand one another. It was a pursuit fixated on relentless growth, divorced from any concern about God’s commandments or the human cost. It resulted in failure and atomization.
The Book of Nehemiah, however, offers a contrasting narrative, in which the rebuilding of Jerusalem after a period of violence and displacement becomes an opportunity for humanity to show its collaborative resilience. As the encyclical puts it, “The city is reborn, not through the initiative of one man, but through the shared responsibility of all: men, women, priests, artisans, heads of households and young people all play a part. It is an undertaking with God at the center, which rebuilds relationships before rebuilding with stones.”
Is there any question which road we are currently barreling down? And can there be any doubt which we would do well to walk together?
We are both Catholics, members of religious communities and longtime advocates within the movement for socially responsible investment. Of particular interest to us and that movement is Pope Leo’s point that AI is not some force of nature or hyperrational, ineffable entity. Instead, he reminds us, AI is ultimately another commercial product, one emerging at a point in history when excessive power over commerce and the wider society has amassed in a vanishingly small number of hands.
It’s a powerful message. It’s also one that institutional investors have been acting on for years. This encyclical doesn’t break new ground so much as ratify a governance effort that’s already underway, led not by states or international bodies but by shareholders. When governments fail to meaningfully regulate, and corporations cannot be trusted to do what is beneficial beyond their own bottom line, people in society still have the power to set us on the right path, and indeed have the duty to do so.
Around the world, AI systems are being deployed at scale with remarkably little institutional oversight. There is no AI safety board. The US Federal Trade Commission has jurisdiction over unfair practices but limited authority over algorithmic design. The National Institute of Standards and Technology publishes guidance that most companies ignore. The EU AI Act is partially in force but addresses only a sliver of the deployment surface.
Institutional investors have stepped into this vacuum. Coalitions including the membership of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, representing investors managing over $400 billion in assets, have spent the past several proxy seasons filing resolutions demanding transparency, risk assessment, and accountability around AI deployment. Secular institutional investors have joined them, treating AI governance failures as material business risks.
Shareholders have called tech giants including Alphabet, Amazon, Nvidia, Palantir, and Uber to account and demanded that AI not be used for acts of violence or other violations of human rights. The importance of this aspect of corporate governance was highlighted tragically in the opening hours of the war against Iran, when AI was used to help identify targets for thousands of missile strikes that killed hundreds of people.
Investors have also challenged executives at CVS and UnitedHealth Group to ensure that AI not be used to undermine the well-being of patients and quality of health care across the United States.
At companies including Meta and Microsoft, shareholders have decried the environmental impact of AI data centers, which consume vast amounts of energy and precious water resources, and in turn can emit large amounts of greenhouse gases.
Within creative industries, investors have challenged the leadership at companies like Disney, Netflix, and Warner Bros. to demand transparency about the ways they are using AI and to defend the inimitable human element in storytelling.
Soon, with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Grok all set to enter the public markets, we will be able to exert similar influence over what are now all privately held entities.
These actions by concerned investors not only call out misdeeds but hold fast to an immutable truth: that it is wrong to use technology to kill, harm, or oppress people. Every human being has a right to safe and effective health care and the opportunity to earn a dignified living. The stories we tell each other matter and require the human creative spark.
Investor advocates hail from a range of faith traditions. Some have no formal religious faith. Yet in their informed and tenacious advocacy, all these people echo the calls embedded within Pope Leo’s encyclical and act on its declaration that “it is essential that the use of AI, especially when it touches on public goods and fundamental rights, be guided by clear criteria and effective oversight.”
Encyclicals mark time. A century from now, how will we be remembered for how we met this moment? Will we be seen as having been too timid or shortsighted to prevent a small group of unfathomably wealthy and self-interested people from seizing ever greater control over the human family’s shared destiny?
Or will the years ahead be remembered as a turning point that helped us rebuild our common humanity? Let this be a time when people of good will and diverse talents come together through their own magnificent humanity to build a future that honors our Creator.
Father Séamus Finn, OMI, is a global leader in faith-based and socially responsible investing and a priest of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, a missionary religious congregation.
Sister Susan Francois is the assistant congregation leader and congregation treasurer for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.
Evaluating Effects of Group-based CBT for Emotion Regulation in Adult ADHD
Conditions: Attention Deficit Disorder With or Without Hyperactivity (ADHD)
Interventions: Other: Group Therapy for Improving Emotional Acceptance and Regulatory Skills in Adults with ADHD (GEARS)
Sponsors: Karolinska Institutet
Recruiting
Interventions: Other: Group Therapy for Improving Emotional Acceptance and Regulatory Skills in Adults with ADHD (GEARS)
Sponsors: Karolinska Institutet
Recruiting
Detecting Alzheimer’s Early by Brain Scan or Blood
While Alzheimer’s disease accounts for about 60-70% of dementia diagnoses, the timing of these diagnoses occur late in disease progression. Identifying early signs of Alzheimer’s may allow individuals time to address potential risk factors in their lives.
“Alzheimer’s disease pathology begins years before symptoms emerge,” said Kristine Yaffe, MD, vice chair in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Yaffe and her team have spent years researching modifiable risk factors that may play a role in dementia development, including physical and cognitive activity, depression, smoking, and cardiovascular health.
A current trajectory of research into Alzheimer’s disease is focusing on ways to detect the disease early, before major symptoms manifest. Two new studies published in The Lancet present different methods for detecting Alzheimer’s disease that converge in their early detection ability.
Alzheimer’s disease is characterized by increased amounts of tau and amyloid-β plaques. Growing research indicates the importance of tau pathology and amyloid-β accumulation at initiating changes to the brain associated with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Tau is the biology most closely tied to symptoms and future decline,” said Tharick Pascoal, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and neurology at the University of Pittsburgh and a behavioral neurologist at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “If we can detect tau earlier and stage it more precisely, we can make better decisions about who is truly on an Alzheimer’s trajectory, which matters for clinical trials now and could shape clinical decision-making as new therapies emerge.”
Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh led by Guilherme Povala, PhD, and Bruna Bellaver, PhD, have focused their work on brain scan imaging to detect tau both more effectively, and earlier.
The team’s recently published work compared the ability of two tracers used in non-invasive PET scans to visualize Alzheimer’s-associated tangles of tau protein. To do this, participants underwent paired tau PET scans, the first using a standard tau tracer, Flortaucipir, or a new tracer, MK6240. Within 45 days of the PET scan, participants also received an amyloid-β PET scan and detailed cognitive assessments. Of the 775 initial participants, 682 completed all of the study components.
“Because participants received both tracer scans within a short window, we’re looking at the same moment in the disease course, so differences we see reflect the tracers, not changes over time,” explained co-lead author, Guilherme Povala, PhD, postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh, about the experimental design.
Analysis showed that imaging with the MK6240 tracer detected more tau than tracing with Flortaucipir. In participants with cognitive impairment and positive amyloid-β results, MK6240 identified move than twice as many tau-positive cases, 15% compared with six percent, which was an additional 23 patients per 100. Tracing with MK6240 also identified increased tau, 28% vs. 16% with Flortaucipir, in patients with mild cognitive impairment and dementia, resulting in 15 or 21 additional cases per 100 participants scanned.
“People typically seek evaluation because they have memory concerns or other symptoms,” pointed out co-lead author, Bruna Bellaver, PhD, research assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. “Tau PET is one tool that can help clinicians stage disease biology and make more informed decisions.”
Across the country in California, researchers from University of California, San Francisco, have drawn on their experience with blood biomarkers in an effort to develop a method for detecting Alzheimer’s before major symptoms develop.
The west coast study included 1,350 participants (out of an initial 2248) who were retained in the U.S. Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study. Participant blood plasma was tested from samples that were collected at project year 35 (2020-2022) and five years prior. Plasma biomarkers for amyloid-β (Aβ42 and Aβ40) and tau (p-tau217) were measured and used to calculate p-tau217-to-Aβ42 and Aβ42-to-Aβ40 ratios and then those were compared to the cognitive assessment scores that were measured at the same time period. Any participants missing materials were excluded from the initial cohort. During analysis, participants were also classified by Alzheimer’s disease neuropathy status of negative, intermediate and positive based on amyloid PET-validated cutpoints for each marker.
Results from the initial analysis showed that participants with high biomarkers also had both lower processing speeds and lower executive function in the first time point. After five years, the group that initially had high levels of biomarkers now had a 2.5 to 4 times increased risk of rapid decline in verbal memory, and three to four times the risk for rapid decline in processing speed. Together, these data suggest a connection between the observed cognitive decline and increase in biomarkers.
While brain scans, and spinal fluid tests are often used and widely available, blood tests are less invasive and relatively inexpensive, potentially enabling more patients access to diagnostics along with early detection prior to symptom development. While there is potential for measuring blood biomarkers for clinical use, senior author, Yaffe, prescribes cautious optimism. “There’s a possibility of false positives and [these markers] can only be used for Alzheimer’s, not other dementias, meaning about 60% to 70% of all dementia cases,” she said. “But for some people who discover they have the biomarkers, testing could open a window to embark on interventions that may postpone Alzheimer’s onset.” More work is still needed to clarify the utility of both early detection methods in the clinic.
Overall, both studies show significant progress in developing strategies to identify dementia, and specifically Alzheimer’s disease, earlier. Earlier diagnosis may lead to earlier intervention and potentially more positive outcomes for patients. As Yaffee concluded, “Detecting the disease early means patients can target modifiable risk factors and maybe seek other care.”
The post Detecting Alzheimer’s Early by Brain Scan or Blood appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.