Medical Research

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The FDA has granted accelerated approval to Etcamah, a new targeted breast cancer treatment designed for certain patients with ESR1-mutated advanced breast cancer, potentially offering more time before the disease progresses.

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An NIH-funded study reported that semaglutide increased median lifespan by nearly 100 days in older female mice treated until death. The drug also improved muscle and cognitive function and differed from calorie restriction on some measures. The animal findings do not show that GLP-1 drugs extend lifespan in people.

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Researchers led by MIT scientists mapped 31 neuronal subpopulations in the human striatum, offering new clues about Huntington’s disease and opioid biology. The study identified differences in gene activity between cell types and found that a key opioid-receptor pattern seen in humans does not match mice, highlighting limits in translating some mouse research to people.

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A Nature Neuroscience study used whole-exome sequencing in 3,964 people with OCD or chronic tic disorders to identify 36 high-confidence risk genes. The findings greatly expand the genetic map, but rare damaging variants appear in only an estimated 3–8% of affected people. The research does not create a diagnostic test or predict an individual’s future.

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A Yale study has uncovered a surprising clue about how semaglutide may produce sustained weight loss. In female mice, chronic treatment recruited brain neurons normally associated with hunger, while disrupting those neurons impaired weight-lowering effects. The findings suggest GLP-1 drugs may influence more than appetite alone, although researchers have not yet established whether the same mechanism occurs in humans.

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Researchers at the University of Zurich used live imaging in mice to track a group of astrocytes repairing small brain lesions. The cells extended projections into damaged tissue and transported newly formed nuclei along them, a process the team says revises assumptions about astrocyte replacement. The work has not tested a human treatment.