Life and Health Today Weekly: Salk researchers map 1,000-plus unknown microproteins in Alzheimer's brain tissue
Issue of 5 October 2026
What happened last week.
- Longevity Salk researchers map 1,000-plus unknown microproteins in Alzheimer's brain tissue
A new atlas built from nearly 500 postmortem human brain samples has identified more than 1,000 tiny proteins that standard databases had missed entirely. One of them appears to be downregulated in Alzheimer's disease and, when removed from brain immune cells in the lab, impairs those cells' energy production. The atlas is publicly available, but what these microproteins actually do remains largely an open question.
- Longevity Early aggressive Crohn's treatment cuts surgery risk at five years, trial finds
A five-year follow-up of a UK randomised trial found that starting newly diagnosed Crohn's patients on powerful immune-suppressing drugs immediately, rather than working up to them gradually, sharply reduced the number who needed bowel surgery. The finding, published in The Lancet, challenges the cautious step-by-step approach that has dominated Crohn's care for decades.
- Performance Low energy availability in female athletes is common and underdiagnosed, ACSM warns
A position piece from the American College of Sports Medicine says that between 23% and 80% of female athletes may not be eating enough to support their training, a condition with serious consequences for bone health, reproduction and performance. Screening tools exist but carry significant limitations. The authors argue that adequate nutrition should be treated as a health requirement, not a body-composition strategy.
- Regenerative Quercetin blocks a clot-worsening protein in mice with deep vein thrombosis
A study published in the European Heart Journal found that a protein called syndecan-4 plays a role in worsening deep vein thrombosis, and that quercetin, a compound found in many plants, reduced clot size in mice by targeting a downstream molecule called Piezo1. The work was done largely in mice and in cells in a dish, so it is a long way from a treatment. But it points researchers toward a mechanism that was not well understood before.
- Longevity Semaglutide reduced heart and liver damage in animals without weight loss
A study published in the European Heart Journal found that semaglutide improved heart function and reversed liver scarring in two animal models of a common form of heart failure, even when the drug was given at doses too low to cause weight loss. The findings suggest the drug may have direct effects on heart and liver tissue that are separate from its weight-loss action. No human data exists yet for this specific question.
- Longevity Cancer treatment can damage the heart silently, decades after it ends
Certain chemotherapy drugs and chest radiation can injure heart muscle in ways that produce no symptoms for ten or twenty years. A Spanish nuclear medicine specialist says primary care doctors are often the first to catch it, and that monitoring should continue long after cancer follow-up ends. Here is what the evidence says about who is most at risk and what to watch for.
- Longevity Falling cardiolipin levels drive age-related muscle changes in mice
A lipid that shapes the inner membrane of mitochondria declines with age, and researchers have now shown in mice that this decline alone is enough to trigger the muscle-fiber shifts seen in ageing. Restoring the lipid reversed muscle loss and rescued the animals. The work has not yet been tested in aged mice or in people.
- Longevity Genetic risk scores for hearing loss sharpen when built on real test data, not billing codes
A team at Vanderbilt University Medical Center found that using actual audiometric measurements, rather than the diagnostic billing codes that most genetic studies rely on, produced far more accurate predictions of who is genetically predisposed to sensorineural hearing loss. The study, published in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, identified four genes linked to hearing sensitivity that the billing-code approach missed entirely. The finding matters because a gene therapy for hereditary hearing loss has already received FDA approval, making early genetic identification more than a research exercise.
- Longevity FDA approves once-monthly olanzapine injection that skips sedation monitoring
The US Food and Drug Administration has cleared a new subcutaneous, once-monthly injectable form of olanzapine, a long-established antipsychotic, for adults with schizophrenia. Unlike the only other long-acting olanzapine injection on the market, the new formulation requires no three-hour post-injection monitoring period for a potentially dangerous sedation reaction. The approval was supported by a phase III clinical trial in which all dose groups outperformed placebo on a standard symptom scale.
- Longevity Lack of community toilets linked to higher depression risk in older Indians
A large national study in India found that older adults living in communities with the fewest toilets were 38% more likely to show signs of depression than those in communities with the most. The finding points to sanitation as a mental health issue, not just a physical one. The study cannot prove cause and effect, but the association held across multiple measures of depression.
- Performance New US guidelines say movement, not bed rest, should be the first response to back pain
The American Academy of Pain Medicine has published new guidance on acute low back pain, putting self-care and gentle movement ahead of prescription drugs and imaging. The guidance, funded by the FDA and published in the journal Pain Medicine, also discourages routine opioid prescribing for this condition. Here is what it says and what it does not settle.
- Regenerative Sickle cell trait shapes which malaria parasites can infect you, study finds
A study of more than 2,000 schoolchildren in Cameroon found that people carrying one copy of the sickle cell gene are infected by a genetically distinct variety of malaria parasites compared with those who do not carry it. The finding, published in Nature Microbiology, suggests that the well-known protection sickle cell trait offers against malaria may work partly by filtering which parasites can establish an infection, not only by changing how the human body responds once infected.