University of California, Davis researchers have developed a new, neuroplasticity-promoting drug closely related to LSD that harnesses the psychedelic's therapeutic power with reduced hallucinogenic potential.

The research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, highlights the new drug's potential as a treatment option for conditions like schizophrenia, where psychedelics are not prescribed for safety reasons.

Is sauerkraut more than just a tangy topping? A new University of California, Davis, study published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology suggests that the fermented cabbage could help protect your gut, which is an essential part of overall health, supporting digestion and protecting against illness.

Authors Maria Marco, professor with the Department of Food Science and Technology, and Lei Wei, a postdoctoral researcher in Marco's lab, looked at what happens during fermentation - specifically, how the metabolites in sauerkraut compared to those in raw cabbage.

Tim-3 is an immune checkpoint molecule involved in immunity and inflammation recently linked to late-onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), but its role in the brain was unknown until now. In a paper published in Nature, researchers from Mass General Brigham used preclinical models to uncover Tim-3's role in microglia, the brain's resident immune cells, and have identified it as a promising therapeutic target for Alzheimer's disease.

Chinese scientists have revealed a hidden metabolic partnership between breast cancer cells and immune cells that drives aggressive tumor behavior and resistance to immunotherapies. The study sheds light on how tumor cells exploit the amino acid arginine to both fuel their growth and evade the immune system.

The research was led by Prof. HU Hai, who holds dual appointments as professor at the Hangzhou Institute of Medicine (HIM) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Chief Physician at Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, in collaboration with Prof. LUO Manli from Sun Yat-Sen University and Prof. LI Hongde from HIM.

Meeting the unmet need for a vaccine is the top priority for researchers studying Lyme disease, which infects about 476,000 people in the U.S. each year and can come with severe complications such as ongoing fatigue and joint issues. Vaccine developers have come close to success, but no human vaccine has yet been commercially viable.

After decades of trial and error, a promising new target is emerging - the Lyme bacterial protein CspZ, which the bacteria use to evade detection from the body's immune system.

A significant discovery has identified a missing "gatekeeper" protein as the root cause of dry mouth in Sjögren's syndrome - a finding that could change the way the disease is treated. Researchers pinpointed tricellulin, a protein that helps seal the junctions between saliva gland cells, as the key factor. When inflammation damages tricellulin, saliva production stops and harmful substances leak through.

Every year, millions of people around the world suffer ischemic strokes that block blood flow to a region of the brain.

Restoring blood flow rapidly is decisive and can save lives. But paradoxically, it can also lead to further damage to the blood vessels in the brain.