E S Novikova

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Researchers studied a protein called Etv3 in dendritic cells, which are immune cells that normally keep the immune system from attacking the body's own tissues. Mice lacking Etv3 developed overactive immune cells, spontaneous inflammation across multiple organs, and worsened lupus-like disease. The findings identify Etv3 as a key brake on autoimmunity and may help explain why genetic variants near this gene are linked to lupus in people.

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This study recorded a full day of language in 29 American homes with toddlers using special microphones, measuring how much TV or video the children watched and what type. More total screen time was associated with fewer words spoken by the child, fewer words spoken by adults, and less back-and-forth conversation, regardless of whether the content was educational or entertainment. The findings reinforce guidance that less screen time means more language learning for young children.

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The study measured molecular markers of cellular waste accumulation and fat oxidation in pregnant women's blood at four time points from early pregnancy through delivery. Medium-weight molecules rose significantly in the third trimester, and lipid oxidation products increased near delivery, while the most toxic oxidation byproducts stayed stable. These patterns track normal hormonal shifts in pregnancy and show that one marker — medium-weight molecules at 280 nm — sensitively reflects internal stress on the body.

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Two species of marine worms were compared to understand why one can regrow its head after injury and the other cannot. Both species closed their wounds and showed cell division and cell death at the injury site, but the species that cannot regenerate its head failed at the very earliest stages of the restoration process. Identifying when regeneration fails may help researchers understand what biological machinery is required for head regrowth.

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Researchers developed a brain-computer interface experiment where participants mentally answered yes/no questions while EEG recorded their brain activity. When participants disagreed with a computer's guess about their answer, distinct brainwave patterns appeared — a larger N400 signal when reading questions and stronger feedback negativity when seeing the computer's guess. These findings could form the basis of communication devices for people who cannot speak or move.

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This study investigated why people with cerebral small vessel disease — a condition where small brain blood vessels are damaged — commonly develop depression and difficulty recognizing emotions (alexithymia). Brain imaging in 167 patients showed that emotional problems were linked to reduced communication between the brain's salience network and language network. The findings suggest that these emotional symptoms arise from disrupted brain connectivity, not just structural damage.

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Blood levels of a molecule called 16:0/18:1PEth were measured in 309 pregnant women across all three trimesters and compared with three self-reported alcohol questionnaires. Fifty to sixty percent of the women had blood levels indicating recent alcohol use, far exceeding what the questionnaires captured. The study shows that blood testing detects alcohol use during pregnancy at much higher rates than self-reporting alone.

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American cockroaches were kept under constant light, constant darkness, or normal day-night cycles for three months, then observed for behavioral changes. Constant light disrupted their normal activity rhythms and altered how their eyes adapted to light, while brief exposure to dim green light produced different reactions depending on which lighting regime the cockroaches had previously experienced. The results show that artificial lighting regimes significantly reshape insect physiology and behavior in ways relevant to urbanization and climate change.

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This literature review covers current understanding of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), including its classification, common co-occurring conditions like anxiety and autism, and how it changes across age and sex. It summarizes evidence from randomized trials showing that atomoxetine improves social functioning, school performance, and anxiety in children and adolescents with ADHD. In Russia, atomoxetine is recommended as the first-line medication for ADHD.

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This paper tackles a core challenge in federated learning — training machine learning models across many devices when each device's data looks different. The authors developed MFedBN, a modified training method that handles four distinct types of data skew by applying server-side updates inspired by gradient descent. On two real-world datasets (vehicle behavior sensors and cybersecurity traffic), MFedBN outperformed the standard approach and achieved up to 99.98% accuracy.

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Researchers tested whether the presence of a gut microbe called Methanosphaera stadtmanae was linked to oxidative damage and sleep quality in 98 menopausal women. Women with this microbe who also had sleep disorders showed higher markers of fat and protein oxidation compared to good sleepers with the same microbe. The findings point to a potential interaction between this gut organism and the body's oxidative stress levels.

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This study examined 96 menopausal women to see whether gut bacteria relate to sleep problems and to two antioxidant molecules, glutathione and the enzyme GSTP1. Specific bacterial groups in the gut correlated with both antioxidant levels and sleep quality, and those relationships differed depending on the type of sleep disorder. The results suggest gut bacteria influence oxidative balance in ways that vary by sleep problem type during menopause.

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This study tracked how donor-reactive immune cells behaved during a 61-day pig-to-human decedent kidney transplant. Specific T cell clones that attack pig tissue were detected expanding in blood and the organ, and innate immune cells also contributed to rejection. The findings clarify the combined immune barriers that must be overcome before pig-to-human transplants can succeed in living patients.

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Researchers transplanted a pig kidney-thymus combination into a deceased human and tracked the immune response over 61 days. T cells from the recipient infiltrated the organ and specific clones expanded in blood, tissue, and lymph nodes around rejection events. This reveals that T cell-driven rejection of pig organs in humans closely mirrors what happens with human-to-human transplants, informing how future immunosuppression strategies must be designed.

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This review covers how a protein called Nrf2 controls inflammation and antioxidant defenses and why it is a target for treating cancer, Alzheimer's disease, and autoimmune conditions. The article focuses on how nanoparticles and nanostructured materials can deliver Nrf2-activating drugs more effectively to target tissues, overcoming poor absorption and distribution that limit conventional formulations. The authors conclude that combining nanotechnology with Nrf2 modulation is a promising strategy for treating inflammatory and oxidative diseases.

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This study examined whether the brain's ability to sense internal body signals — interoception — declines with age and whether that decline contributes to alexithymia, the difficulty identifying and describing emotions. Brain imaging in 62 adults showed that older age was linked to reduced activation in body-sensing brain areas, and that this reduced activation mediated how age affected emotional awareness. The findings suggest that maintaining body-sensing brain functions as people age could protect emotional and cardiovascular health.

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A clinical case report describes two siblings with the same genetic mutation causing spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) — identical deletions in the SMN1 gene and the same number of backup SMN2 gene copies — who nonetheless had very different disease severity. Both patients were treated with risdiplam, an oral drug that increases functional SMN protein production, and showed improvement tracked over time. The case illustrates that identical SMA genetics can produce widely varying clinical pictures and that risdiplam benefits patients across this spectrum.

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This review summarizes decades of research on blood substitutes made from perfluorocarbon (PFC) compounds, which can carry oxygen like red blood cells. It explains why development of these products stalled — mainly because of safety and stability problems — and outlines what chemical properties an effective PFC-based blood substitute would need. The review suggests that chemically inert perfluorinated compounds with better emulsifiers remain the most promising path forward.

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Sixty-three men with chronic arterial insufficiency in the legs were treated with standard drugs, with half also receiving light therapy using blue-spectrum visible light applied to the blood. Blue light therapy combined with standard treatment significantly improved multiple blood clotting parameters, bringing levels in less severe patients close to normal and moving the most severe patients to the level of milder disease. The results support adding phototherapy to standard drug treatment for this condition.

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Seventy-one patients with early small vessel brain disease and cognitive problems were randomly assigned to three types of neurofeedback brain training: infra-low frequency, alpha frequency, or sham. The infra-low frequency training significantly improved executive brain functions — including mental flexibility, attention switching, and memory — and the benefits lasted at least 6–8 weeks after training ended. This type of brain training appears to be effective for the cognitive problems caused by early small vessel disease.

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Researchers used a bacterial enzyme called Pur6 as a guide to search bacterial genomes for new antibiotic compounds related to puromycin, which kills cells by jamming protein synthesis. They discovered a new antibiotic called cystocin produced by a soil bacterium, confirmed it works by the same mechanism as puromycin, and identified an enzyme that bacteria use to protect themselves from it. This enzyme can also be used to make human cells resistant, making cystocin potentially useful for selecting genetically engineered cell lines.

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This review examines published research on using non-invasive brain stimulation methods — including transcranial magnetic stimulation and electrical stimulation — as treatments for obesity. Studies showed these approaches positively affect eating behavior, metabolic markers, and clinical outcomes in obese patients of various ages. The review concludes that brain stimulation addresses obesity-related dysregulation at multiple levels, both in the brain and in the body's peripheral systems.

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This paper analyzes research on building profiles of cyber attackers for use in risk assessment and threat forecasting. The authors developed a two-level attacker model using raw data like command-line logs to calculate meaningful attacker characteristics, and tested it on real attack datasets. Results showed that attack team profiles can be distinguished using bash command history, though accurate individual profiling requires additional data types.

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Newborn mice were given common antibiotics (amoxicillin or azithromycin) during the first week of life, then their gut immune structures and antibody production were measured. Early antibiotic exposure reduced the size of gut immune patches and suppressed the development of antibody-producing immune cells, with effects that persisted into adulthood — a problem seen much less when antibiotics were given to adult mice. Reintroducing a specific gut bacterium after antibiotic treatment partially reversed these immune deficits, suggesting probiotics could help restore normal immune development.

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Thirty men with male infertility caused by high oxidative stress in semen were treated with Superlymph, a compound containing antimicrobial peptides and cytokines, for 60 days. Treatment increased sperm concentration by 56%, improved sperm morphology, and significantly reduced oxidative stress in the semen. The results support using this immune-modulating compound as a treatment for oxidative-stress-related male infertility.

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Researchers followed 110 patients with highly active multiple sclerosis who received either natalizumab or ocrelizumab for 12 months in standard clinical care. Both drugs dramatically reduced annual relapse rates and stabilized disability scores, with natalizumab slightly improving disability scores and both drugs showing similar MRI results. The real-world data confirm that both monoclonal antibody therapies are effective in the first year, including in patients who switched from earlier treatments.

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Researchers mapped the nervous system of the marine worm Pygospio elegans using antibodies against two signaling molecules, serotonin and FMRFamide, and tracked how the nervous system rebuilds after the worm is cut in half. The study identified the main stages of nerve regeneration, from individual fibers through loop structures to fully formed brain and segment ganglia. Comparing these results with other worm species helps build a broader picture of how nervous systems regenerate across the animal kingdom.

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Ninety children with a urinary tract obstruction condition called megaloureter were treated after surgery with three rehabilitation regimens: sound stimulation alone, colored light therapy (chromotherapy) alone, or both combined. All three improved urinary tract function and kidney blood flow, with combined therapy performing best and chromotherapy proving especially effective for children with additional bladder nerve dysfunction. The study establishes a new physical therapy protocol for post-surgical rehabilitation in children with this condition.

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This study examined whether specific gene variants related to energy and metabolism were linked to insulin resistance and hormone levels in 354 overweight Russian and Buryat adolescents. In Russian teenagers, combinations of variants in the leptin receptor gene and a melanocortin receptor gene were associated with metabolic problems, while in Buryat teenagers, variants in a gene linked to fat mass (FTO) were more relevant. The findings show that which genes drive metabolic risk in overweight adolescents depends on ethnic background.

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Researchers built and analyzed a new collection of 592 privacy policies from Internet of Things device manufacturers to support research on making these policies easier for users to understand. They developed a method to find these policies by starting from e-commerce platforms and filtering by device type, then analyzed the documents statistically and by content. The resulting dataset is designed to help train and test systems that can automatically assess whether privacy policies are clear and complete.

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This paper reviewed privacy protection methods used in federated learning — a way to train AI models across many devices without sharing raw data — and tested how those methods affected model performance in driver monitoring applications. Current privacy techniques like differential privacy and secure aggregation were found to significantly reduce model accuracy or slow training, limiting their usefulness to settings where devices from a single organization participate. The study concludes that stronger privacy tools need to be developed before federated learning can be widely used in consumer driver monitoring.

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Fifty-two men with chronic prostatitis and secondary infertility were treated with suppositories containing oxidized dextran or placebo for about 10 weeks. The active treatment group saw sperm concentration rise by 56%, total sperm count nearly double, and inflammatory cells in the ejaculate drop by almost 65%. The results position oxidized dextran suppositories as an effective and safe treatment for prostatitis-associated male infertility.

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Researchers published a dataset of brain imaging data collected during a heartbeat-detection task from 50 adults aged 40–65 and 12 younger adults, designed to study how the ability to sense internal body signals changes with age. The dataset also includes results from a rubber hand illusion experiment for a subset of participants. The data are intended as a shared resource for researchers studying age-related changes in body perception and interoception.

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Nine middle-aged women with mild emotional symptoms underwent 15 sessions of infra-low frequency neurofeedback brain training and had brain MRI scans before and after. After training, brain connectivity increased in regions involved in emotion processing, body awareness, and sensory integration, including the amygdala and temporal cortex. Participants also showed measurable reductions in alexithymia, depression, and anxiety, supporting larger controlled trials of this approach.

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This study examined how DNA repair proteins Rad26 and Rad1-Rad10 distribute across the yeast genome and whether they interact with the transcription machinery. Both proteins were found near actively transcribed genes even without DNA damage, and both physically associated with a key transcription coregulator called Mediator, but in different ways — Rad26 tracked closely with the RNA polymerase while Rad1-Rad10 was more influenced by Mediator binding at gene promoters. The work deepens understanding of how cells coordinate DNA repair with gene expression, which is relevant to cancer and rare genetic diseases.

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Using RNA interference to silence specific light-sensitive proteins in cockroach eyes, researchers measured how individual photoreceptor cells responded to light flashes. Silencing either the broadband or UV light-sensitive protein significantly slowed down the cells' responses, even though the cells looked structurally normal. The results show that the amount of light-sensitive protein directly controls how fast photoreceptors process light, a finding relevant to understanding visual evolution.

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Researchers analyzed the genes controlling the Hedgehog signaling pathway — a key regulator of body development — in two distantly related marine worm species. Both worms had nearly the complete set of Hedgehog pathway components seen in vertebrates, unlike fruit flies which have lost several members. This suggests that the worm versions better reflect the ancestral form of this pathway and can serve as models for understanding its original function before gene duplication complicated it in vertebrates.

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Researchers used antibody staining and confocal microscopy to map where histamine and GABA — two chemical messengers in the nervous system — are found in Pygospio elegans worms, and how these systems rebuild after the worm regenerates. Both chemicals showed distinct patterns, with histamine concentrated in the brain and GABA distributed more evenly, and GABAergic nerves regrew faster than histamine nerves after amputation. Comparing these patterns with other worms and mollusks reveals conserved features of nervous system organization across invertebrates.

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This prospective study of 418 young women with abnormal uterine cell growth (atypical hyperplasia) or early uterine cancer compared hormone therapy regimens that avoided hysterectomy to preserve fertility. Complete response rates were high across most regimens — 96% for hyperplasia and 88% for early cancer — and 42% of women attempting pregnancy successfully delivered a child. Having a successful pregnancy after treatment or continuing with a hormone-releasing IUD was strongly associated with lower rates of cancer recurrence.

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A study of 394 patients compared outcomes between standard large-incision brain surgery and minimally invasive approaches for treating cerebral aneurysms over five years. Both approaches achieved similar rates of surgical complications and functional outcomes, but minimally invasive surgery was faster, required shorter hospital stays, and produced significantly better cosmetic results. The authors recommend minimally invasive approaches for experienced neurosurgeons working in specialized centers.

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Computer simulations investigated how a cell's adhesion to surfaces is stabilized when two different types of molecular bonds are present — ones that strengthen under force (catch bonds) and ones that weaken under force (slip bonds). Adding slip bonds alongside catch bonds improved the adhesion cluster's stability at low forces without sacrificing its ability to strengthen under load. The study also showed that the two bond types sort into distinct spatial arrangements under force, matching patterns seen in experiments.

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Researchers studied how the shape of gold nanoparticles — specifically their length-to-width ratio — affects their ability to boost light emission and reactive oxygen production from molybdenum cluster compounds. Both light emission intensity and singlet oxygen production increased steadily as the gold nanoparticles became more elongated, with enhancements up to 6.7-fold and 13-fold respectively. These results are relevant for designing better photosensitizers for cancer photodynamic therapy.

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This review covers how Hox genes — which control body plan development in animals — are regulated not just by proteins but by RNA molecules transcribed from the opposite strand of the same DNA. These antisense RNA molecules control Hox gene activity, shape the chemical marks on the DNA that turn genes on or off, and can even produce small regulatory peptides. The review argues these RNAs act as unifying elements that coordinate the entire Hox gene cluster.

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A case report describes a 23-year-old with a severe inherited form of chronic intestinal pseudoobstruction — a condition where the gut cannot move food despite no physical blockage — complicated by multiple additional disorders. After six months of intensive care including parenteral nutrition, antibiotics, and gut decompression, the patient was stabilized enough to go home. The case illustrates the extreme management challenges posed by this rare condition.

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Thirty women underwent two body perception experiments — the rubber hand illusion and a heartbeat detection task done inside an MRI scanner — to study how the brain integrates signals from inside and outside the body. Women who relied more on direct sensory experience showed stronger thalamus-based brain connectivity, while those who relied more on internal mental models showed stronger amygdala-based connectivity. The study maps two distinct neural pathways for how the brain weighs incoming body signals against existing expectations.

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Researchers tested oxidized dextran suppositories in a mouse model of enlarged prostate (benign prostatic hyperplasia) and measured changes in bladder and prostate tissue. The 2% oxidized dextran solution produced the clearest reversal of the abnormal tissue changes, reducing bladder muscle thickening and restoring normal structure. The results support developing this compound as a treatment for benign prostatic hyperplasia.

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A two-year-old child was diagnosed with an extremely rare adrenal disorder called 11β-hydroxylase deficiency, caused by two mutations in the CYP11B1 gene, which led to excess male hormone production and required gender reassignment. The case illustrates how this condition can be mistaken for the more common 21-hydroxylase deficiency and highlights the importance of considering patient ethnicity during diagnosis, as mutation frequencies differ between ethnic groups.

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A case report describes a patient with recurrent bacterial prostatitis complicated by calcium deposits in the prostate gland, treated with suppositories containing oxidized dextran. Treatment reduced the size of the calcified areas, cleared the bacteria causing infection, and achieved long-term remission. The case supports further investigation of oxidized dextran suppositories for this difficult-to-treat form of prostatitis.

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Three clinical cases are described in which patients had demyelinating brain and spinal cord disease caused by antibodies against a myelin protein called MOG, rather than the more common MS-related antibodies. The cases included a young man with brainstem inflammation, an adolescent with neuromyelitis optica, and a child with focal brain inflammation and seizures, each with distinct disease courses. The report highlights that MOG-antibody disease looks different from typical MS and that antibody levels track with how severe and how reversible the disease is.