Since it was identified in 1984 as the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected more than 80 million people and been responsible for some 40 million deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently, the WHO reports more than 38 million people globally live with the retrovirus, and each year, another 1 million new cases are diagnosed.

Why do some people develop Alzheimer's disease while others don't? And, even more puzzlingly, why do many individuals whose brains are chock-full of toxic amyloid aggregates - a telltale sign of Alzheimer's brain pathology - never go on to develop Alzheimer's-associated dementias?

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers appear to have found the answer.

Initial findings from a study of nearly 10,000 Americans, many of whom had COVID-19, have uncovered new details about long COVID, the post-infection set of conditions that can affect nearly every tissue and organ in the body. Clinical symptoms can vary and include fatigue, brain fog, and dizziness, and last for months or years after a person has COVID-19. The research team, funded by the National Institutes of Health, also found that long COVID was more common and severe in study participants infected before the 2021 Omicron variant.

Taking a daily multivitamin supplement can slow age-related memory decline, finds a large study led by researchers at Columbia University and Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard.

"Cognitive aging is a top health concern for older adults, and this study suggests that there may be a simple, inexpensive way to help older adults slow down memory decline,"

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center studied the structure and function of a transporter involved in cancer and immunity. They captured six structures of the transporter, including when it was bound to an inhibitor, providing unprecedented insight into how it works. The findings, published in Cell, have implications for drug development.

A team led by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine is coming closer to delivering on the promise of personalized breast cancer therapy with a strategy to predict the most likely response of a cancer to a specific less toxic treatment regimen.

In this study published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, the scientists developed and validated in clinical trials a multiparameter molecular classifier test to predict with a high degree of confidence which patients with HER2-positive (HER2+) breast cancer would be candidates for anti-HER2 therapy alone without the need for chemotherapy.

Researchers at UCLA Health and Harvard have identified 10 pesticides that significantly damaged neurons implicated in the development of Parkinson’s disease, providing new clues about environmental toxins' role in the disease.

While environmental factors such as pesticide exposure have long been linked to Parkinson's, it has been harder to pinpoint which pesticides may raise risk for the neurodegenerative disorder.