Medical Bulletin 25/March/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Dieting: Brain amplifies signal of hunger synapses

Many people who have dieted are familiar with the yo-yo effect: after the diet, the kilos are quickly put back on. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research and Harvard Medical School have now shown in mice that communication in the brain changes during a diet.

The nerve cells that mediate the feeling of hunger receive stronger signals, so that the mice eat significantly more after the diet and gain weight more quickly. In the long term, these findings could help developing drugs to prevent this amplification and help to maintain a reduced body weight after dieting.

Reference:

Dieting: brain amplifies signal of hunger synapses; Cell Metabolism

Risk of cervical cancer twice as high in women with mental illness

Women with mental illness, neuropsychiatric disability, or substance abuse are less likely to go for gynaecological smear tests for cervical cancer and run more than twice the risk of developing the disease. The findings are presented in The Lancet Public Health by researchers from Karolinska Institutet, who stress the importance of proactively approaching these women as a preventative measure against cervical cancer.

In May 2020, the WHO approved a global strategy for eliminating cervical cancer as a women’s health problem. Part of the strategy is a requirement that 70 percent of women are screened for the disease at least once before age 35 and twice before age 45.

Reference:

Risk of cervical cancer twice as high in women with mental illness; The Lancet Public Health

Artificial intelligence predicts genetics of cancerous brain tumors in under 90 seconds

Using artificial intelligence, researchers have discovered how to screen for genetic mutations in cancerous brain tumors in under 90 seconds - and possibly streamline the diagnosis and treatment of gliomas, a study suggests.

Molecular classification is increasingly central to the diagnosis and treatment of gliomas, as the benefits and risks of surgery vary among brain tumor patients depending on their genetic makeup. In fact, patients with a specific type of diffuse glioma called astrocytomas can gain an average of five years with complete tumor removal compared to other diffuse glioma subtypes.

Reference:

Artificial intelligence predicts genetics of cancerous brain tumors in under 90 seconds; Nature Medicine, DOI:10.1038/s41591-023-02252-4