Medical Bulletin 12/ April/ 2025 - Video

Researchers have identified a blood marker that reflects the amount of Alzheimer's pathology in the brain. This discovery may play a key role in determining who is most likely to benefit from the new Alzheimer's drugs.

Key points from the study:

The blood-based marker (P-tau217) may start to change several years before the onset of Alzheimer's symptoms. The marker can be measured using a simpler and cheaper analytical method.

Compared with a highly specialised analytical method, the fully automated method demonstrated a high level of accuracy.

The accuracy was over 90 percent regardless of age, gender, co-morbidity or whether the test is done in a specialist or primary care setting.

A multicentre study has now evaluated a simpler method of analysis for alzheimer’s disease. In total, 1,767 people with cognitive symptoms were included in the study.

The researchers used two cut-offs as the main method to determine whether the blood sample should be interpreted as positive or negative. If a test result is above the upper cut-off, it is classified as positive, i.e. the presence of Alzheimer's disease pathology. If it is below the lower cut-off, it is classified as negative. Values between these cut-offs fall into a grey area and are not assessed in the analysis.

The results were slightly less reliable (83-87%) for the oldest group included in the study if only one cut-off was used.

The simpler method of analysis means that a blood test for Alzheimer's disease can be introduced even in small hospitals.

"When the method was tested in patient groups, the accuracy was between 92 and 94 per cent," says Noëlle Warmenhoven, researcher and doctoral student in clinical memory research at Lund University, and first co-author. "This is very promising as this method is likely to become one of the more widely used methods in clinical practice worldwide, including Sweden."

Reference: https://www.lunduniversity.lu.se/article/more-opportunities-test-alzheimers-using-new-analytical-method

According to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS, antibiotic resistance generally stabilizes over time. This issue poses a significant public health threat, playing a role in an estimated 5 million deaths annually. Gaining insight into long-term resistance trends can aid public health researchers in tracking and understanding drug resistance, as well as assessing the effectiveness of efforts to combat it.

In this study, researchers analyzed drug resistance in more than 3 million bacterial samples collected across 30 countries in Europe from 1998 to 2019. Samples encompassed eight bacteria species important to public health, including Streptococcus pneumoniae, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. They found that while antibiotic resistance initially rises in response to antibiotic use, it does not rise indefinitely. Instead, resistance rates reached an equilibrium over the 20-year period in most species.

Antibiotic use contributed to how quickly resistance levels stabilized as well as variability in resistance rates across different countries. But the association between changes in drug resistance and antibiotic use was weak, suggesting that additional, yet unknown, factors are at play.

Senior author Sonja Lehtinen summarizes: "In this study, we were interested in whether antibiotic resistance frequencies in Europe were systematically increasing over the long-term. Instead, we find a pattern where, after an initial increase, resistance frequencies tend to reach a stable plateau."

Reference: Emons M, Blanquart F, Lehtinen S (2025) The evolution of antibiotic resistance in Europe, 1998–2019. PLoS Pathog 21(4): e1012945. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1012945

A research group has discovered that using "a unique sound stimulation technology" -- a device that stimulates the inner ear with a specific wavelength of sound -- reduces motion sickness. Even a single minute of stimulation with a unique sound, called 'sound spice' reduced the staggering and discomfort felt by people that read in a moving vehicle. The results, published in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, suggest a simple and effective way to treat this common disorder.

The discovery is an important expansion of recent findings about sound and its effect on the inner ear. Increasing evidence has suggested that stimulating the part of the inner ear associated with balance using a unique sound can potentially improve balance.

Using a mouse model and humans, the researchers identified a unique sound at 100 Hz as being the optimal frequency. To test the effectiveness of the devices, they recruited voluntary participants who were exposed to the unique sound.

Following the stimulation, motion sickness was induced by a swing, a driving simulator, or riding in a car. The researchers used postural control, ECG readings, and Motion Sickness Assessment Questionnaire results to assess the effectiveness of the stimulation.

Exposure to the unique sound before being exposed to the driving simulator enhanced sympathetic nerve activation. The researchers found symptoms such as "lightheadedness" and "nausea," which are often seen with motion sickness, were alleviated.

"These results suggest that activation of sympathetic nerves, which are often dysregulated in motion sickness, was objectively improved by the unique sound exposure," Masashi Kato at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine said.

Reference: https://www.nagoya-u.ac.jp/researchinfo/result-en/2025/04/20250408-01.html