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Provinces Owe the NHLS Billions, Patients Could Pay the Price. It’s Time to Crack the Whip

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Through its countrywide network of quality-assured diagnostic laboratories, the NHLS is the sole provider of diagnostic pathology services to over 80% of the South African population. Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Comment & Analysis

By Faith Muthambi

Provincial debt to the National Health Laboratory Service is not just a financial governance matter, but also a public healthcare service delivery risk that affects diagnoses, treatment, disease surveillance, and government’s ability to protect vulnerable patients, writes Faith Muthambi, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health in the National Assembly.

When *Lungile Mbonambi, a hypothetical healthcare user, waits for a blood test at a public hospital, she is not thinking about all the zeros in provincial budgets or intergovernmental disputes. She is thinking about her health. Like some 80% of people in South Africa, she places her trust in the public healthcare system, the inner workings of which she will never see, and in laboratory professionals she will likely never meet. However, in using the system, she experiences its impact.

For her blood test, a nurse will draw the sample, seal the vial and send it to the closest National Health Laboratory Service (NHLS) facility. For patients, waiting for the results often feels uneasy and ridden with dread. In addition to the immediate health concern, patients also find themselves in the hands of a system that needs to function well, not only on paper and in policy, but also in the concrete reality of their particular case.

The NHLS plays a big role in public health in South Africa through epidemiology, surveillance and responding to public health outbreaks. Among other things, it is involved in HIV and TB programmes, conducting diagnostic tests for non-communicable diseases, and the screening for cervical cancer. In essence, contemporary healthcare would grind to a halt without the robust laboratory infrastructure that the NHLS provides.

Ballooning debt

Just recently at the end of May, the Portfolio Committee on Health in Parliament, which is tasked with overseeing the National Department of Health, met with representatives from the NHLS and all nine provincial health departments. The meeting revealed that outstanding debt to the NHLS had climbed to an imposing R11 billion as of March this year. Most of this debt stemmed from KwaZulu-Natal with around R3.94 billion, and Gauteng with roughly R3.3 billion, both of which include debt from previous years.

This meeting confirmed what many in the public health system have warned about for years. This outstanding debt is not merely a matter of the numbers not adding up, but is symptomatic of a serious failure in financial governance. Failing to pay or delaying payments for critical services already rendered to the public health system also reflects poor coordination among government departments and entities.

The consequences of this can be dire.

For the NHLS, without these funds, the institution cannot sustain research, do proper disease surveillance, detect outbreaks or monitor antimicrobial resistance, or upgrade equipment. When a laboratory cannot replace ageing instruments on time, fill critical posts, modernise information technology or plan procurement with certainty, it is felt in hospitals and clinics.

For patients, it means delayed diagnoses and disrupted care, and those living in rural and under-resourced communities often bear the brunt.

Time to act

Listening to presentations from all nine provincial health departments showed that this crisis can be prevented. There are provinces that are getting this right and paying their invoices to the NHLS within the required 30-day period. This shows that, even with budget constraints, laboratory services can be prioritised.

As Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health, I have made it clear that it is now time to shift our oversight from concern to action that leads to actual consequences for those provinces that fail to pay their NHLS debts.

There had been instances in the past where National Treasury intervened by withholding or redirecting funds when provinces failed to fulfil their responsibilities. The committee may need to engage the National Treasury on ways to protect funding for laboratory services, including the possibility of direct transfers or ring-fenced funding where provinces fail to prioritise their obligations to the NHLS. The message is clear: We cannot allow a situation in which a province destabilises another public institution by failing to pay for services central to healthcare provision.

Our next step cannot be to just accept more vague commitments and assurances that the debt will be paid. Provinces with outstanding debt must provide clear repayment plans linked to strict timelines, while continuing to pay current invoices within the required period. The committee will request quarterly progress reports on payments made to reduce the debt, as well as on actions taken against officials involved in this non-payment.

We live in an era marked by emerging health threats and increasing demands on health services. It is therefore important to remind ourselves that health systems do not collapse overnight. They deteriorate gradually through deferred payments and normalised delays, among other things. By the time patients experience the full impact, the horse may have already bolted because we ignored the warning signs.

To be clear – this, here, is a serious warning sign.

Yet notwithstanding these pressures, laboratory professionals continue to demonstrate extraordinary commitment. Samples are being processed, and results are verified. I commend these public servants who work beyond ordinary expectations to protect the service. However, we cannot bank on this devotion to become a permanent substitute for responsible governance.

The decision before us is whether we allow patients’ experience of the public health value chain between health facilities and NHLS laboratories to continue to be determined by delay and uncertainty, or by a public health system that understands the seriousness of its responsibilities and acts accordingly.

Patients like Mbonambi are placing their trust in the state. We must do better.

*Muthambi is a Member of the National Assembly and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health.

Note: Spotlight aims to deepen public understanding of important health issues by publishing a variety of views on its opinion pages. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily shared by the Spotlight editors.

Republished from Spotlight under a Creative Commons licence.

Read the original article.

Categories : Metabolic Disorders PaediatricsTags : Leave a comment

Link Between Parents’ and Children’s Weight is Mostly Genetic, Study Finds

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An analysis of 86 000 Norwegian children found that the association between parental and childhood body weight is largely explained by shared genetics

AI image created with Gencraft

The association between parents’ body mass index (BMI) and their children’s childhood BMI may be primarily due to genetic inheritance rather than to any direct biological effect of parental weight during pregnancy, according to a new study published June 23rdin the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Tom Bond of the University of Bristol, UK, and colleagues from the University of Queensland, Australia and more.

Higher parental BMI is consistently associated with higher childhood BMI. It has been difficult for researchers to disentangle how much of this association is due to genetics and how much is due to biological effects of maternal weight during pregnancy. This may have implications for interventions that aim to control childhood BMI by targeting pre-conception parental weight.

In the new study, researchers analysed data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study, a prospective birth cohort of children born between 1999 and 2009. Data on 86 000 children, including their birth weight and BMI from six months to eight years of age, as well as appetite-related eating behaviours at age eight, was available in the dataset. The researchers looked at twin, sibling, and half-sibling relationships across multiple generations to directly quantify how much of the parent-child BMI association could be attributed to genetic confounding.

Maternal BMI was more strongly associated with offspring birth weight than paternal BMI, consistent with an effect of maternal body weight on birthweight through the environment inside the uterus. However, after birth the associations of maternal and paternal BMI with offspring BMI were broadly similar from age two to eight. Models showed that genetic effects explained an estimated 79% of the statistical association between a mother’s BMI and her child’s BMI at age 8, and 94% of the association for fathers. Higher parental BMI was also associated with obesity-related eating behaviours in children, including greater food responsiveness and emotional overeating, although the study was not able to conclusively determine how much of this was genetically driven.

The authors caution that these findings do not support the idea that childhood obesity is inevitable for children of heavier parents. Children who inherit a genetic predisposition to higher BMI may still express those genes differently depending on their environment. The results also do not argue against the importance of maternal health in pregnancy, the authors say. Maternal obesity is well established to increase risk of adverse perinatal outcomes for both mother and child.

“Our results may have important public health implications, when considered alongside prior evidence,” they write. “Maternal BMI may be unlikely to have a large causal effect on child BMI beyond birth… and any causal effect of paternal BMI on offspring childhood BMI is likely to be similar to or smaller than that of maternal BMI. Consequently, reductions in the BMI of either parent before pregnancy may be unlikely to cause large reductions in childhood adiposity.”

Tom Bond states, “Obesity runs in families, but it is difficult to work out why this is. Our results suggest that the link between a mother’s or father’s body mass index (BMI) and their children’s BMI up to age 8 is mostly due to inherited genes. Expectant parents should be encouraged to maintain a healthy weight, but this may not be enough to ensure that their children also have a healthy weight.”

David Evans notes, “We were interested in examining whether obesity in mothers during pregnancy might also have adverse effects on the risk of obesity in their offspring when the children get older. We found that whilst maternal body mass index during pregnancy was likely to adversely affect offspring birthweight, it didn’t appear to have large effects on risk of offspring obesity in later life beyond that explained through the transmission of genes from mothers to their offspring.”

Alexandra Havdahl adds, “Our findings suggest that the link between parents’ and children’s body mass index is driven largely by shared genes rather than by the intrauterine environment or parenting behaviour.”

Provided by PLOS

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High-dose IV Vitamin C May Lower Risks of Death and Sepsis in Trauma Patients

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Biologically plausible, but more rigorous research needed before it can be recommended

Photo by Furkan İnce

High doses of intravenous (IV) vitamin C may lower the risks of death and sepsis in trauma patients, as well as shortening hospital stay, suggests a review of the available evidence published online in the journal BMJ Military Health.

Although its effects are biologically plausible, especially given its role in aiding tissue repair and recovery, among other things, the quality of the available evidence isn’t currently good enough to recommend the use of vitamin C in trauma patients, say the researchers.

Major trauma triggers a complex physiological response in those affected and carries a high risk of death. And vitamin C, which helps to boost blood pressure, regulate the vital interface between blood and tissues (endothelial function), and neutralise harmful free radicals, is rapidly depleted in critical illness, explain the researchers.

As such, vitamin C has been mooted as a potentially promising treatment to aid the recovery of trauma patients, including in the context of the war in Ukraine. But this approach is yet to be rigorously reviewed or formally implemented, they add.

In a bid to extend the evidence base, the researchers scoured research databases for relevant published studies on high dose IV vitamin C, published up to the end of 2025.

They focused on its impact on death within 30 days of hospital discharge; prognostic scoring systems (Apache II, SOFA); incidence of complications, including sepsis and organ failure; and length of hospital stay.

Out of an initial haul of 108 studies, six, involving a total of 5171 patients, were eligible for systematic review. Three studies were randomised controlled clinical trials; 3 were observational studies.

The included studies reported a significant reduction in 30 day mortality, with significantly shorter intensive care unit and hospital stays. And 4 studies showed lower rates of sepsis in patients receiving vitamin C; 2 found lower rates of multi-organ failure.

“Overall, our findings demonstrate evidence of possible benefit in using high-dose vitamin C in the management of trauma patients,” but the variation in the reported effects “suggests that treatment effects may be context-dependent rather than generalisable across all critical illnesses,” write the researchers.

And they highlight several limitations to their findings: namely, the small number of studies, half of which were observational; and differences in patient groups, methodology, dosing regimens, co-interventions and outcome reporting.

“As our included studies did not use IV vitamin C monotherapy, we cannot truly associate our results with vitamin C alone. No studies investigated the timing of vitamin C, and therefore the optimal timing to administer vitamin C remains unclear.

“These methodological constraints limit the ability to draw firm conclusions about the optimal treatment protocols to use the potential benefits of vitamin C and contribute to the low certainty of evidence identified in this review,” they add.

But they suggest: “Even slight reductions in mortality, sepsis, organ failure or critical care requirement could be used to consider its use in current operational settings, providing a clear rationale for future trauma-specific research before clinical adoption.”

Source: The BMJ Group

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Analysis Reveals Path to More Effective Probiotic Supplements

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Photo by Harrison Cohen on Unsplash

Commonly available probiotic supplements contain an assortment of microbes sold for specific health purposes despite limited understanding of the microbes’ connections to their marketed use, new University of Virginia School of Medicine research reveals. But the scientists have assembled sophisticated computer models that could lead to more effective products to shape our microbiomes to improve health.

UVA researchers led by Jason Papin, PhD, analysed more than 350 over-the-counter probiotics sold at the three largest pharmacy chains in the United States – CVS, Walgreens and Walmart. Those 352 products were found to contain, collectively, only 36 unique species of bacteria. The most common species were forms of Lactobacillus, a type of bacteria commonly found in yogurt. 

More than half the products contained only one probiotic species. The products with the most unique species topped out at 17. Some brands maintained a consistent number of bacterial strains across products, while others did not.

Based on their analysis, the scientists concluded that there was no real consistency in the combination of species used to support gut health, vaginal health or other health claims. 

“It is truly fascinating to discover that these probiotic bacteria hold a unique, specialized niche among the trillions of microbes in and on the human body,” said Glynis Kolling, PhD, a research faculty member in UVA’s Department of Biomedical Engineering who works closely with Papin. “By combining our advanced methods, we have the potential to vastly expand the pool of beneficial bacteria and pave the way for targeted solutions to support human health.”

Targeting the Microbiome

We have at least as many microorganisms living on and inside us than we have cells in our bodies. Scientists have increasingly come to appreciate the role these microorganisms – collectively known as the microbiome – play in maintaining our health. We can get beneficial bacteria from our diets, such as from yogurt and fermented foods, but there has also been an explosion in “probiotic” products over the last two decades.

So far, the federal Food and Drug Administration has approved only two microbial products for therapeutic purposes, and both are used to treat recurrent C. difficile infections in the colon. Supplements, however, are not regulated as strictly as drugs in the United States, and there is limited understanding of connections between bacteria and marketed use for many probiotic products, the UVA researchers found.

To improve the effectiveness of probiotic products, Papin and his team have developed HaPaPro, a collection of more than 1000 computer models of bacterial metabolism. They used these models to see if they could identify probiotics with the potential to improve women’s vaginal health.

The vaginal microbiome is a natural ecosystem of bacteria, fungi and other microbes that help support health. Bacterial vaginosis occurs when this natural ecosystem is disrupted, leading to pregnancy complications, pelvic inflammatory disease, higher risk of sexually transmitted disease and general discomfort. The researchers were able to use their models to identify microbes that have the potential to help prevent bacterial vaginosis

The successful results, Papin says, demonstrates HaPaPro’s potential for identifying ways to manipulate the microbiome will have concrete benefits. Such insights, he hopes, will lead to better probiotic products that deliver on their promises.

“It is remarkable how much microbes play a role in human health and well-being,” Papin said. “I love seeing how computational models of these complex biological systems are leading to new ideas for therapies and helping us understand such fundamental biological processes.”

Findings Published

The researchers have published their findings in the scientific journal Nature Microbiology. The research team consisted of Emma M. Glass, Kolling and Papin. The scientists have no financial interest in the probiotic industry, but Papin disclosed he has a stake in Cerillo, the manufacturer of instrumentation used in some of the analyses.

Source: University of Virginia

Categories : Neurodegenerative DiseasesTags : Leave a comment

Experimental Drug Offers Hope for Huntington’s Disease

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The image shows two halves of mouse brains: on the left, brain of an untreated mouse; on the right, brain of a mouse treated with the drug anle138b. It is clearly visible that the treated mouse has significantly fewer aggregates of mutant huntingtin. (Image: Miguel da Silva Padilha)

An experimental drug has been shown to alleviate symptoms of Huntington’s disease and extend lifespan in mouse models. Further studies are required to determine whether these results may also apply to humans.

The hereditary disorder Huntington’s disease has so far been considered incurable. Its clinical manifestations include impaired motor control and psychiatric symptoms. A new study offers promising insights. It shows that a specific drug candidate called anle138b can significantly reduce the toxic protein clumps in the brain that are characteristic of the disease.

Affected mice that were administered this compound retained their mobility for a longer time, their brains shrank less, and their lifespan was extended compared to untreated mice. Importantly, the compound not only alleviates symptoms but also addresses the underlying cause of the disease by preventing disease-specific harmful protein clumps from destroying nerve cells and their connections. These results were also confirmed in experiments with human stem cells from Huntington’s patients.

Promising Therapeutic Candidate

These are the key findings of a study that has now been published in the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. The study was led by Professor Irina Dudanova, who holds the Chair of Anatomy and Cell Biology I at the University of Würzburg since April 2026, and her doctoral student Miguel da Silva Padilha. The substance was developed by the teams of Christian Griesinger, Director at the Max Planck Institute of Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen, and Armin Giese from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, now at MODAG GmbH. Other participants of the study come from the Max Planck Institute of Biological Intelligence in Martinsried and the University of Cologne.

“Our data show that specifically targeting toxic protein aggregates with the compound anle138b is a promising approach for stabilizing neuronal health in the long term,” says Irina Dudanova, commenting on the study’s findings.

Cellular waste destroys nerve cells

Background: Huntington’s disease is an inherited movement disorder caused by a defect in a specific section of DNA, the gene that encodes the protein huntingtin. According to the health insurance organization AOK, approximately 10,000 people in Germany are affected by the disease. Several hundred new cases are diagnosed each year. A faulty repetition of the genetic code (known as CAG repeats) causes the huntingtin protein to take on an abnormal shape and form clumps.

The resulting protein aggregates can be thought of as a form of cellular waste that accumulates inside neurons. The protein aggregates disrupt vital cellular communication and lead to cell death, particularly in brain regions involved in for movement and cognition. An effective therapy that targets the underlying causes is not available. This is where the compound investigated anle138b comes into play, as it prevents the formation of the harmful structures.

The researchers investigated the efficacy of anle138b in two different mouse models: While one suffered from a severe, early-onset form of the disease, the other model mirrored the genetic situation in adult patients. The compound showed beneficial effects in both models.

A characteristic feature of Huntington’s disease is the loss of the protein PDE10A, which is found almost exclusively in the nerve cells that die in this disease. The amount of PDE10A decreases dramatically long before patients show the first severe symptoms. “If PDE10A levels drop, that is a clear signal that the disease is progressing. The protein is therefore well-suited as a biomarker for Huntington’s disease,” explains Miguel da Silva Padilha. If less nerve cells die, then the PDE10A levels stay high. This is exactly what the scientists observed: as a result of anle138b treatment, the concentration of PDE10A remained high in both mouse models.

Efficacy Demonstrated in Human Stem Cells

A key milestone of the study is the confirmation of these effects in human cells. “In our experiments with induced pluripotent stem cells – that is, precursor cells derived from Huntington patients’ cells – we also observed that the addition of anle138b reduced the amount of huntingtin aggregates,” says Irina Dudanova.

Since the compound targets a fundamental mechanism of protein aggregation, it is also of interest for research on other neurodegenerative diseases. Corresponding studies in mouse models have been so promising that two years ago a large clinical trial was started for the treatment of multiple system atrophy – a Parkinson’s-like disorder characterised by severe impairments of motor function, balance, and the autonomic nervous system.

Original publication

Anle138b ameliorates pathological phenotypes in mouse and cellular models of Huntington’s disease. Miguel da Silva Padilha, Seda Koyuncu, Evangeline Chabanis, Sergey Ryazanov, Andrei Leonov, David Vilchez, Rüdiger Klein, Armin Giese, Christian Griesinger and Irina Dudanova. EMBO Molecular Medicine, DOI: 10.1038/s44321-026-00459-9

Source: Universität Würzburg

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease ExerciseTags : Leave a comment

Irregular Heartbeat Risk Much Lower in Super‑fit People than Previously Thought

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Our study shows that atrial fibrillation risk in very fit people is smaller than previously thought. Pexels Photo by Freestocksorg

Axel Carl Carlsson, Karolinska Institutet; Marcel Ballin, Uppsala University, and Peter Nordström, Uppsala University

Exercise is important for your heart and cardiovascular health. But for years, research has suggested that very fit people – particularly young men – have a higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation (an irregular heartbeat) later in life than less athletic people do.

But our new large-scale study of more than one million young Swedish men challenges this long-held concern about fitness and heart health. The study shows that atrial fibrillation risk in very fit people is smaller than previously thought. And, importantly, the benefits of being fit – such as having lower rates of other cardiovascular diseases, such as stroke and heart attack – clearly outweigh the potential downsides.

To conduct our study, we analysed data from over one million Swedish men. Each of these men had completed a military conscription test between 1972 and 1995 when they were around 18 years old. During conscription, fitness was estimated using a maximal ergometer bicycle test.

We followed the participants using national health registries until 2023. Information was collected on diagnoses in specialised outpatient and inpatient care, as well as information on cause of death where relevant.

Nearly half a million of these men were siblings, allowing the team to compare brothers with different fitness levels. This method also helped control for shared genetics and upbringing to better understand risk.

In the population-wide analysis, where all men were compared based on their fitness levels, the fittest men did show a higher risk of atrial fibrillation until age 40. After 45, however, the benefits – fewer other heart problems – started to outweigh the risk.

But the sibling analysis told a different story. When comparing brothers, the link between high fitness and atrial fibrillation weakened significantly. The net positive effect of fitness on overall heart and cardiovascular health, although also weakening in the sibling analysis, was still evident from the start.

These benefits grew larger as the men aged. Across five decades of follow-up – from the age of 18 until the age of 65 – the benefits of being highly fit outweighed the overall risk of developing atrial fibrillation at all ages.

An advantage of our study is that we were able to compare siblings. Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels

While the higher risk of atrial fibrillation in the fittest men weakened in the sibling analysis, an elevated risk did remain. However, this risk was small overall. The potential risk of developing atrial fibrillation was also far outweighed by the positive benefits that being fit had on reducing risk of other cardiovascular diseases.

There was also some evidence that the increased risk of atrial fibrillation seemed to be driven by typically milder forms of atrial fibrillation.

Cardiovascular benefits of fitness

These findings suggest that earlier studies may have overestimated the risk of developing atrial fibrillation if you’re very fit because they couldn’t fully account for shared familial factors – such as genes and shared environmental factors – that may influence both fitness and heart health.

Because our study was able to account for these shared factors, we were able to show that we should potentially tone down the message that being very fit or engaging in endurance exercise poses a big risk to heart health. The risk of atrial fibrillation isn’t zero, but the benefits to heart health more generally are far greater.

Our results have also been confirmed in previous studies. However, our research builds upon this prior evidence by incorporating the sibling comparisons in the analyses, showing that the atrial fibrillation risk becomes weaker.

Our study also performed a more detailed examination of risk over time by following up with participants over a longer period of time, while also considering the benefits of high fitness. As such, our research has performed a more direct comparison of benefits and harms throughout life.

Overall, our research illustrates just how beneficial physical fitness is for overall cardiovascular health. Although very fit people do have a slightly higher risk of developing atrial fibrillation compared to people who are less fit, this risk of far lower than previously thought.

Plus, we show that the overall net benefits of fitness on cardiovascular health more broadly far outweigh any potential risk.

Axel Carl Carlsson, Researcher, Department of Neurobiology, Karolinska Institutet; Marcel Ballin, Associated Researcher, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University, and Peter Nordström, Professor, Department of Public Health and Caring Sciences, Uppsala University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Young UP Researchers Develop Citrus-based Supplement to Fight Diabetes and Obesity

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Dr Kadima Tshiyoyo, Marni Oberholzer and Ryan Bosch

A team of young researchers at the University of Pretoria (UP) is developing an innovative health supplement that transforms citrus peel waste into a potentially powerful tool against lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, obesity and high cholesterol, while also improving the affordability and accessibility of preventative health products for low-income communities.

The NutraPectin project is led by postdoctoral research fellow Dr Kadima Tshiyoyo, alongside recent Master of Science in Biochemistry graduates Ryan Bosch and Marni Oberholzer. Together, the team from UP’s Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences (NAS) is converting citrus processing waste into a pectin-rich nutraceutical using green extraction technology. When consumed with food, pectin can help slow sugar absorption, reduce cholesterol levels and support gut health.

“South Africa’s growing burden of lifestyle diseases and abundance of agricultural waste inspired our work,” Dr Tshiyoyo said. “NutraPectin uses sustainable green methods to extract bioactive compounds from waste, which are valuable and essential in the management of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes and obesity.”

Turning science into solutions

The development of NutraPectin addresses two growing challenges: the rising prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases and the environmental cost of agricultural and food processing waste. Citrus peel, which is typically discarded in large volumes by the citrus industry, is rich in pectin and other bioactive compounds that can be recovered and repurposed.

Bosch says the NutraPectin research was his honours-degree project under Prof Samkelo Malgas of UP’s Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology. “I was drawn to the project as I am passionate about maintaining the environment, and I was excited to investigate how food waste could be converted into useful healing products.”

For Bosch and Oberholzer, the project represents more than laboratory research. It is an opportunity to demonstrate how student-led science can be translated into solutions with tangible social and economic impact, particularly in a country where both healthcare access and food system sustainability remain pressing concerns.

“Sustainability should both underlie and overarch most research if we want to see true economic and social growth,” Oberholzer said. “South Africa has so much potential to sustainably improve and empower our agricultural industry by targeting circularity through waste valorisation. UP was foundational in this development, most markedly through our excellent supervisor’s guidance. We were allowed to explore beyond the strict boundaries of our degrees.”

The project is rooted in the Biocatalysis and Processing Research Group in the Department of Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology within the NAS Faculty, under the supervision of Prof Malgas. He says the work highlights the importance of university-based research in advancing both innovation and entrepreneurship, while also addressing societal challenges through science-driven solutions.

“This pectin extraction from citrus waste represents a remarkable advancement in enzyme biotechnology. The student-led innovation model effectively merges hands-on research with mentorship, equipping students with essential skills in biotechnological methods,” Prof Malgas said. “It demonstrates that active student involvement is crucial in driving innovation and developing talent. The technology promises significant environmental benefits by promoting sustainable waste use and reinforcing the circular economy. Additionally, it has the potential to drive economic growth for South Africa’s citrus industry through the production of high-value pectin.”

Catalyst competition winner

A major milestone for the project came in 2024 when NutraPectin was named the winner of the Catalyst competition, an early-stage biotech start-up pitch event organised by Immobazyme in partnership with UVU Bio. The competition brought together seven finalist teams developing biotech solutions aimed at real-world challenges.

NutraPectin stood out to judges for its dual impact: addressing lifestyle diseases while simultaneously offering a scalable approach to waste valorisation in the agricultural sector. The win signalled growing confidence in the commercial viability of the technology, moving it beyond academic research into the early stages of commercialisation.

Indeed, the Catalyst win also unlocked a structured support package designed to accelerate start-up development. This includes access to laboratory space, a reagent and consumables credit facility, mentorship from industry executives, business development training, and specialised technical support to help refine and scale production processes.

The team has also secured a Technology Innovation Agency Seed Grant, which will further support the optimisation of production methods and the transition from prototype to scalable manufacturing.

However, NutraPectin remains in the early stages of development. The current focus is on developing a production pathway that can support larger-scale manufacturing, enabling the product to be brought to market.

Looking ahead, the team envisions NutraPectin as a locally produced, widely accessible nutraceutical that supports preventative health while creating value from South Africa’s agricultural resources.

To move from a laboratory success to a market-ready product, the team is now seeking additional funding and industry partnerships to support pilot-scale production and regulatory development.

“It is envisioned that NutraPectin can move from optimisation and scale-up to a market-ready prototype supported by partnerships and collaboration to expand within South Africa,” Dr Tshiyoyo said. “Our long-term goal is to make the product affordable and accessible while creating sustainable health and commercial impact. We see NutraPectin growing into a versatile innovation with potential in the supplement, health additive, cosmetic, and pharmaceutical industries.”

As South Africa’s Youth Month draws to a close, the NutraPectin team’s work reflects the growing role of young researchers in developing solutions that integrate health, sustainability and innovation. Dr Tshiyoyo advises other young researchers to stay focused and work steadily towards their goals. “My message to the youth is think long term but act today; many consistent steps over the years can lead to your breakthrough,” he said.

Provided by University of Pretoria

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Researchers Develop a New Approach for Delivering Healing Treatment Deep into Wounds

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A bandage-like device delivers a naturally occurring gas directly to wounds, with the goal of improving blood flow and helping patients heal more effectively. Journal of Biological Engineering, 2026.

When wounds fail to heal, a common problem in patients with diabetes, the result can be infection, tissue damage and long-term complications. Now, researchers at the Texas A&M College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences (VMBS) are developing an approach that could improve healing by increasing blood flow directly at the wound site.

The research, which is published in the Journal of Biological Engineering, focuses on delivering hydrogen sulfide, a gas naturally produced in the body, through a device similar to a bandage that applies the gas directly to injured tissue. The device is being developed in collaboration with Exhalix, a company focused on developing diagnostic and therapeutic technologies for vascular health and wound healing. By targeting the wound itself rather than the entire body, the approach aims to improve circulation where it is needed most – a key factor in whether a wound is able to heal.

“If we can improve healing in these hard-to-treat wounds, it could make a real difference,” said Dr Cristine Heaps, interim head of VMBS’ Department of Physiology and Pharmacology. “People are losing limbs to wounds most of us would never think twice about.”

Improving blood flow to support healing

Hydrogen sulfide plays an important role in the body’s ability to heal by improving circulation by helping vasodilation and promoting angiogenesis. Together, these processes increase blood flow, allowing oxygen and nutrients to reach damaged tissue and support recovery.

This is especially important in patients with limited circulation, such as those with diabetes or ischemia, a condition in which tissues do not receive enough oxygen due to reduced blood flow. Chronic wounds are a significant challenge in these patients, often requiring ongoing treatment and increasing the risk of serious complications. Without adequate circulation, even minor wounds can struggle to heal.

“In many of these patients, the body just isn’t getting enough blood to the wound to support healing,” Heaps said.

Current treatments often involve cleaning the wound, managing infection and using specialised dressings or therapies to encourage healing, but they do not directly address the underlying lack of blood flow. The bandage-like device the research team is developing would, instead, apply hydrogen sulfide directly to the wound, using a specialised coating that generates controlled amounts of the gas at the wound site, a localised approach Heaps says is critical for safety.

For example, hydrogen sulfide distributed throughout the body could cause blood vessels to widen too much, reducing blood flow to vital organs like the brain.

“If that effect happened throughout the entire body, your blood pressure would drop too much because your vessels would all widen at once,” Heaps said. “By keeping it localised, we can target the wound without affecting the rest of the body.”

Early findings suggest that their device keeps the gas concentrated at the wound site, allowing it to act directly on damaged tissue without circulating through the rest of the body.

Building on existing treatments

In addition to developing this new approach, researchers are also exploring how it could work alongside current standards of care. One of the most widely used treatments for chronic wounds is negative pressure wound therapy, which uses controlled suction to remove fluids and promote healing.

“We’re using our device in combination with negative pressure wound therapy to see if we can improve outcomes beyond what either approach can do on its own,” Heaps said.

In this approach, hydrogen sulfide is delivered for a set period before suction is reintroduced, allowing the gas to act on the wound without being immediately removed. The team is studying whether this combined strategy can further improve blood flow and healing.

“This could apply to a wide range of patients – not just those with diabetes, but anyone with wounds that are slow to heal,” Heaps said. “It could also help surgical patients and those recovering from injuries that limit blood flow.”

The research remains in the early, preclinical stage and has yet to be evaluated in human patients.

“We’re still working to understand the best dosing and how often it should be delivered to get the greatest benefit,” Heaps said.

While more research is needed, early findings suggest that delivering hydrogen sulfide directly to wounds could offer a new way to improve healing – especially for patients who face the greatest challenges in recovery.

Source: Texas A&M University

Categories : Dentistry Implants and ProsthesesTags : Leave a comment

Why Antibiotics Fail Against a Common Dental Implant Disease

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By Alexmit art – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link

Dental implants have given tens of millions of people something dentures never could: a full set of fixed and fully functioning teeth. Unfortunately, 10% to 20% of implant patients eventually experience an aggressive jawbone infection called peri-implantitis. 

Antibiotics usually fail to stop the infection for reasons that researchers have never understood – until now.

A new study in PNAS Nexus by researchers with the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine found that bacteria corrode implants, causing them to shed microscopic titanium particles into the surrounding tissue. Those particles hijack the immune cells sent to clear the infection and lock them into a state of inflammation that destroys the jawbone they are supposed to protect.

Working with human tissue samples, cultured human immune cells and a genetically engineered mouse model, the team pinpointed a specific calcium channel in the body’s bacteria-eating macrophages that the titanium particles activate. Switching that channel off in mice prevented the disease. The result is the first credible drug target for a condition that affects up to one in five implant recipients and costs the global health system more than a billion dollars a year.

“For the first time, we show why all the antibiotic treatments that work around teeth do not work around implants,” said Georgios Kotsakis, the study’s senior author and the assistant dean for clinical research at the dental school. “Now that we know the cause, we can start developing therapeutics.”

Peri-implantitis has long been a puzzle because it initially looks like its counterpart in natural teeth, which is called periodontitis and begins with the same oral bacteria. In patients with natural teeth, antibiotics and routine cleaning resolve the infection. In patients with implants, the same drugs against the same bacteria succeed less than half the time, while the bone underneath continues to disappear.

Most research over the past 20 years has focused on the bacteria. Members of Kotsakis’ lab took a different approach and began looking at the implants. Bacteria living on the implant surface produce acidic biofilms that slowly corrode the titanium, releasing billions of particles smaller than a red blood cell. The same shedding can occur during routine cleaning, especially with instruments that dentists typically use on natural teeth.

Inside the gum, those particles get coated with a bacterial toxin called lipopolysaccharide. To the immune system, they suddenly look like enormous, indigestible bacteria – but macrophages cannot digest metal. The cells become trapped in a hyperinflammatory state, pumping out signalling molecules including interleukin-1 beta, an inflammatory protein also implicated in rheumatoid arthritis and Alzheimer’s disease. 

That inflammation eats away at bone. Worse, the immune cells lose their ability to deal with the original infection. In the lab, macrophages exposed to titanium particles took up less than half as many bacteria as unexposed cells. 

“These particles are little magnets that attract the bacterial toxin, and they hijack the immune system, preventing it from clearing bacteria,” said Kotsakis. “You have a perfect storm that defies antibiotics.”

Team members traced the cascade to a calcium channel (a specialised, pore-forming protein structure within cell membranes) called TRPC1. In mice engineered without it, the immune cells handled the same titanium-plus-bacteria challenge normally: abscesses were dramatically smaller, inflammatory cytokines dropped, and bacterial clearance was restored. 

Funded by the National Institutes of Health, members of Kotsakis’ group are testing drug candidates that target the same pathway in human cells.

For people who already have implants, the most useful finding may be a quieter one. The strongest known protective factor is regular professional cleaning, but the kind of cleaning matters. Until roughly a decade ago, many dentists scraped implants with the metal scalers used on teeth, a method the Rutgers lab and others have shown can itself corrode the implant and accelerate the disease. Nonabrasive techniques are now standard. 

By Andrew Smith

Source: Rutgers University

Categories : NeurologyTags : Leave a comment

How the Brain’s Physical Shape Guides its Internal Wiring

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Brain showing areas related to ADHD. Credit: Scientific Animations CC4.0

A breakthrough study led by Monash University researchers has shed light on the factors shaping the intricate wiring of our brains. The research, published in the world-leading journal Cell, reveals that the brain’s complex wiring diagram, known as the cortical connectome, does not form at random. Instead, a new mathematical model shows that connections preferentially form between locations that support natural, shape-driven “resonant patterns”.

Lead author Francis Normand, from the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University, likens the brain to a musical instrument, such as a bell or a drum.

“Just as the physical shape of a bell or a drum determines its vibrations and the music that it produces, the physical geometry of the brain constrains the patterns of neural activity it can support,” he said.

Mr Normand conducted the research, alongside Professor Alex Fornito and Dr James Pang, both from the Turner Institute for Brain and Mental Health at Monash University. By testing their mathematical formula against publicly available datasets, the research team showed that this geometric rule holds true across various species, from mice through to humans. This demonstrates that the physical shape of the brain has served as a blueprint in guiding its internal wiring for at least 90 million years of mammalian evolution.

Significantly, the researchers showed that the formula successfully predicts both how the brain is wired: its “topology”; and where the wires physically go: its “topography”, which are important properties that previous theories have failed to predict.

Mr Normand said that while the general idea of physical space constraining the brain has long been recognised, this study is the first to formalise and mathematically quantify the rule using a framework called neural field theory.

“Traditional models treat the brain as a collection of distinct regions sending signals through their connections. Our model suggests that the cortex can be treated like a continuous physical medium through which waves of activity propagate,” Mr Normand said.

“The model assumes that connections are strengthened between locations that show coordinated activity fluctuations when the brain expresses certain resonant patterns that it prefers due to its shape, much like the ripples formed by a raindrop will be influenced by the shape of a pond.

“Crucially, our model suggests the brain wires itself in an energy-efficient way to support these resonant patterns, strongly favouring low-frequency patterns, resembling a deep, low hum rather than a high-pitched chirp. These broad, brain-wide patterns require far less energy to sustain,” he said.

The research opens new doors for brain modelling in the future and could help understand how structural changes or malformations alter the brain’s wiring in psychiatric or neurological disorders.

“The fact that a single mathematical formula can accurately predict brain networks in both a tiny mouse and a human reveals just how powerful physical geometry is in shaping brain connectivity,” Mr Normand said.

Read the research paper: http://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2026.05.048

Source: Monash University