Scientists used advanced data analysis and machine learning to identify the viral proteins that may trigger autoimmune disorders such as type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis.

The first atlas of mitochondria in the brain could help scientists develop brain scans that determine the health of a patient’s mitochondria and if they are contributing to disease. 

Compared to sugar, consuming sucralose—a widely used sugar substitute—increases activity in the hypothalamus, a brain region that regulates appetite and body weight, according to new USC research. Sucralose also changes how the hypothalamus communicates with other brain regions, including those involved in motivation. The study was just published in the journal Nature Metabolism. Researchers tested how 75 participants responded after consuming water, a drink sweetened with sucralose or a drink sweetened with regular sugar. They collected functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) brain scans, blood samples and hunger ratings before and after participants consumed the drink. Sucralose increased hunger and activity in the hypothalamus, especially in people with obesity. It also changed the way the hypothalamus communicated with other brain regions. Unlike sugar, sucralose did not increase blood levels of certain hormones that create a feeling of fullness. The findings show how sucralose confuses the brain by providing a sweet taste without the expected caloric energy and suggest that sucralose could impact cravings or eating behavior.

People with autism are typically diagnosed by clinical observation and assessment. To deconstruct the clinical decision process, which is often subjective and difficult to describe, researchers used a large language model (LLM) to synthesize the behaviors and observations that are most indicative of an autism diagnosis. Their results, publishing in the Cell Press journal Cell, show that repetitive behaviors, special interests, and perception-based behaviors are most associated with an autism diagnosis. These findings have potential to improve diagnostic guidelines for autism by decreasing the focus on social factors—which the established guidelines in the DSM-5 focus on but the model did not classify among the most relevant in diagnosing autism.