Marine animals have spent hundreds of millions of years evolving short protein fragments that fight microbes, calm inflammation, and tame tumors. A new review in the Chinese Journal of Natural Medicines maps how researchers are finally catching up: extracting these peptides at scale, decoding their structures with high-resolution mass spectrometry, and using AI to predict which ones might become drugs. The global market for marine peptides already tops USD 310 million, and the authors argue the next wave of therapies for hypertension, diabetes, cancer, and drug-resistant infections may come from the bottom of the food chain.

A new study reveals that many oral cancers are no longer driven by traditional risk factors like smoking or Human papillomavirus infection. Instead, they arise from internal DNA damage and possible microbial influences. By analyzing tumor mutation patterns, researchers identified a distinct subtype of oral squamous cell carcinoma marked by immune evasion and antibacterial responses. These findings reshape our understanding of oral cancer and open the door to more precise, targeted treatments in the future.