Combining genetic risk with cardiovascular disease risk factors — such as high LDL cholesterol, obesity, and hypertension — may predict who is more likely to develop dementia, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco.

A major international study – the largest of its kind – has uncovered similar structural changes in the brains of young people diagnosed with anxiety disorders, depression, ADHD and conduct disorder, offering new insights into the biological roots of mental health conditions in children and young people.

The liver plays a central role in storing and supplying energy to the body. In type 2 diabetes and metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, commonly referred to as fatty liver disease), mitochondria—the cell’s power plants—cannot switch efficiently between fuel sources. Scientists at the German Diabetes Center (DDZ), Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf (HHU), the University Hospital Düsseldorf (UKD) and the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD) measured, for the first time, how well mitochondria in heart, muscle, liver, and kidney can use the breakdown products of fats – ketone bodies – to produce energy. Ketone body levels can be increased through fasting, exercise, or low-carbohydrate diets. The study shows that energy generation via ketone body metabolism is reduced in insulin resistance such as in type 2 diabetes and MASLD, highlighting a potential new target for improving energy metabolism in diabetes.

The roots of addiction risk may lie in how young brains function long before substance use begins, according to a new study from Weill Cornell Medicine. The investigators found that children with a family history of substance use disorder (SUD) already showed distinctive patterns of brain activity that differ between boys and girls, which may reflect separate predispositions for addiction. The research, published Nov. 21, in Nature Mental Health, analyzed brain scans from nearly 1,900 children ages 9 to 11 participating in the National Institutes of Health’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study. 

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have discovered a natural mechanism that clears existing amyloid plaques in the brains of mouse models of Alzheimer’s disease and preserves cognitive function.