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Depression Can Reduce Income for Years

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Study shows that income remains lower for up to 10 years after diagnosis

Photo by Sydney Sims on Unsplash

A diagnosis of depression in connection with hospital treatment can have long-term consequences for personal finances. This is shown in a new registry-based study from the Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark, which follows nearly five million people in Denmark over time.

The study found that income is around 10% lower 10 years after diagnosis compared with people without depression, and the gap does not disappear. At the same time, the income loss for depression is greater than for several physical illnesses such as stroke and breast cancer.

Mental illness has the greatest financial impact

The study compares depression, alcohol use disorder, stroke and breast cancer. Income falls after illness in all four groups, but the decline is greatest for mental disorders.

“We see that mental disorders affect not only health, but also people’s economic life course to a considerable extent,” says Emily K. Johnson, PhD Student at the Danish Centre for Health Economics, Department of Public Health, University of Southern Denmark.

She is first author of the study, which has been published in JAMA Health Forum.

“The income loss grows over time and can still be measured 10 years later. Even though mental disorders are more common in women, losses are generally greater for men,” Emily K. Johnson explains.

Not just a temporary loss

While earlier studies have often focused on short-term sick leave, the new study shows that income loss persists and in many cases grows over time.

– It is not only about being away from work for a period. We see changes in the entire income trajectory, says Emily K. Johnson.

This may, among other things, reflect reduced ability to keep a job, change jobs or progress in a career.

May reinforce social inequality

Income loss is greatest among people in the middle of working life, when earnings would normally be increasing. At the same time, the loss grows over time for younger people.

“If you are affected early in your career, you may lose your footing in the labour market. That can be difficult to recover later,” says Emily K. Johnson.

People outside the labour market are also hit particularly hard. For them, illness may make it even harder to enter employment. The findings therefore suggest that illness can reinforce existing social inequality.

Income falls before the illness is registered

Income already begins to decline in the years before people receive a diagnosis of depression in hospital care. This suggests that the consequences begin before the illness is formally registered and treated.

The study includes people who had contact with a hospital, either as inpatients or outpatients, including psychiatric hospital care. People treated only by their general practitioner or by private psychologists or psychiatrists are not included.

“This suggests that the course of illness starts earlier and that the consequences for working life emerge gradually,” Emily K. Johnson explains. Job loss, income loss and poor mental health can reinforce one another over time,

The study is based on Danish registry data and includes all non-retired residents aged 18 to 65 between 2000 and 2018. People with illness were compared with similar people without a diagnosis, matched on factors including age, sex, education and income, and baseline health.

Income was measured as disposable income, meaning post-tax income including wages, transfers and capital income.

Can inform health policy priorities

According to the researchers, the findings can help improve decision-making in health and social policy.

“Priority setting should not be based only on how many people become ill, but also on how illness affects people’s working lives and finances, especially for those early in their careers,” says Emily K. Johnson.

The study adds new knowledge by comparing mental and physical illnesses using the same method, making it possible to assess their relative consequences.

Limitations

The study includes only people who had contact with a hospital and therefore does not cover everyone with depression. At the same time, it cannot establish cause and effect with certainty, especially in the case of mental disorders which are difficult to measure. In addition, only people who survive the course of illness are included in the analyses of income over time.

By Marianne Lie Becker

Source: University of Southern Denmark

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Neanderthals May Have Used Birch Tar for Its Anti-bacterial Properties

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Experiments confirm anti-biotic properties of birch bark extract

The bark of birch trees has been used to produce tar for more than 150 000 years. The centre photo shows birch bark tar condensed onto a rock that borders a hearth. When scraped off the rocks, the viscous tar can be used as both an adhesive and antibiotic.

Neanderthals probably used birch tar for multiple functions, including treating their wounds, according to a study published March 18, 2026 in the open-access journal PLOS One by a team of researchers led by Tjaark Siemssen of the University of Cologne, Germany, and the University of Oxford, UK.

Birch tar is commonly found at Neanderthal archaeological sites, and in some cases this tar is known to have been used as an adhesive to assemble tools. Recently, some researchers have raised the question of whether Neanderthals had multiple uses for this substance. For instance, Indigenous communities in northern Europe and Canada use birch tar to treat wounds, and there is growing evidence that Neanderthals also employed a variety of medical practices.

To investigate the medicinal potential of birch tar, Siemssen and colleagues extracted tar from modern birch tree bark, specifically targeting species known from Neanderthal sites. They used multiple extraction methods, including distillation of tar in a clay pit and condensation of tar against a stone surface, both of which would have been methods available to Neanderthals. When exposed to different strains of bacteria, all of the tar samples were found to be effective at hindering the growth of Staphylococcus bacteria known to cause wound infections.

These experiments not only support the efficacy of Indigenous medicinal practices, but also reinforce the possibility that Neanderthals used birch tar to treat wounds. The authors note that there are other potential uses of birch tar, such as insect repellent, as well as other plants to which Neanderthals had access. Further exploration of the multiple potential uses of these natural ingredients will enable a more thorough understanding of Neanderthal culture.

The authors add: “We found that the birch tar produced by Neanderthals and early humans had antibacterial properties. This has important implications for how Neanderthals may have mitigated disease burden during the last Ice Ages, and adds to a growing set of evidence on healthcare in these early human communities.”

“By bringing together research on indigenous pharmacology and experimental archaeology, we begin to understand the medicinal practices of our distant human ancestors and their closest cousins. Additionally, this study of ‘palaeopharmacology’ can contribute to the rediscovery of antibiotic remedies whilst we face an ever more pressing antimicrobial resistance crisis.”

“The messiness of birch tar production deserves a special mention. Every step of the production is a sensory experience in itself, and getting the tar off our hands after spending hours at the fire has been a challenge every time.”

Provided by PLOS

Press preview: https://plos.io/3P6QrS5

In your coverage, please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4le9beh

Contact: Tjaark Siemssen, tjaark.siemssen@arch.ox.ac.uk

Image caption: The bark of birch trees has been used to produce tar for more than 150,000 years. The centre photo shows birch bark tar condensed onto a rock that borders a hearth. When scraped off the rocks, the viscous tar can be used as both an adhesive and antibiotic.

Image credit: Tjaark Siemssen, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

High-resolution image link: https://plos.io/4cteLHD

Citation: Siemssen T, Oludare A, Schemmel M, Puschmann J, Bierenstiel M (2026) Antibacterial properties of experimentally produced birch tar and its medicinal affordances in the Pleistocene. PLoS One 21(3): e0343618. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0343618

Author countries: U.K., Canada, Belgium, Germany

Funding: Tjaark Siemssen is funded by the Boise Trust of the University of Oxford and the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung). Aderonke Oludare was funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Project Grant 420598 awarded to Matthias Bierenstiel. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

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Rapid Diagnostics Alone Do Not Cut Antibiotic Prescribing for Respiratory Infections

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Credit: Scientific Animations CC4.0

Two international studies, a clinical trial led by the University of Oxford and University of Utrecht, and a qualitative study led by the University of Oxford and University of Antwerp, report that point-of-care diagnostic testing, when used alone is unlikely to reduce antibiotic prescribing for respiratory tract infections in primary care. The findings indicate that testing must be embedded within broader antimicrobial stewardship strategies to be effective.

The results of the PRUDENCE trial, published in The Lancet Primary Care took place in 13 European countries. Part of the randomised controlled trial with 2639 patients in all 13 countries was an in-depth qualitative evaluation involving clinicians and patients in six countries.

Together, the studies provide the most comprehensive evaluation to date of whether rapid diagnostic testing can meaningfully decrease antibiotic use in real-world primary care settings without having a negative impact on patient recovery.

Around 90% of antibiotics are prescribed by GPs in primary care, and most of these prescriptions are for respiratory infections such as sore throats and coughs, which are usually caused by viruses and do not need antibiotics.

Point-of-care tests have been widely promoted as a diagnostic tools to help clinicians in treatment decision making, thereby reducing unnecessary prescriptions.

Clinical trial across 13 countries shows no overall reduction in antibiotic prescribing

The clinical trial ran from December 2021 to January 2024. The trial enrolled 2,639 patients aged one year and older who presented with a cough or sore throat. All participants were included because their clinician was considering to prescribe antibiotics.

Participants were randomly assigned to usual care alone or to usual care plus a point-of-care testing strategy. Depending on symptoms and season, testing could include a CRP test (a blood test measuring inflammation), a group A streptococcus test (a rapid throat swab), an influenza A and B test, or a combination of these tests depending on clinical presentation and influenza season.

Antibiotics were prescribed to 45.7% of patients in the point-of-care testing group and 47.1% in the usual care group, a difference that is not statistically significant. Both groups recovered at the same rate, taking an average of four days to return to their usual daily activities. The study also found no increase in complications or serious adverse events linked to the testing strategy.

The trial concludes that point-of-care testing, when introduced as a standalone strategy in situations where clinicians are already inclined to prescribe antibiotics, does not substantially reduce antibiotic prescribing.

Qualitative study reveals why testing alone is insufficient

The qualitative study embedded within the trial explored how clinicians and patients experienced and used point-of-care testing. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews with 56 patients and 33 clinicians across six countries.

The findings from this study help explain why the trial did not lead to a reduction in prescribing rates.

Clinicians often used test results to confirm decisions they had already made, rather than to change them. When the initial clinical assessment strongly suggested a bacterial infection, clinicians frequently prioritised clinical judgement over test results. They also highlighted importance of relying on clinical intuition, and questioned the accuracy of the test rather than revising their prescribing decision.

Point of care tests were more effective in cases of genuine diagnostic uncertainty, when symptoms were non-specific or when it was difficult to distinguish a bacterial from a viral infection. In these cases, a test result could change the prescribing decision in either direction. However, perceived patient expectations, perceived severity of illness, timing of presentation, and cultural norms around antibiotics often outweighed test results.

The question is no longer whether point of care tests work in primary care, but under what conditions they can function optimally and how policy and medical practice can actively create those conditions.

Professor Sarah Tonkin-Crine at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences and senior co-author of the qualitative study, said: ‘The results of our study suggest that diagnostic tests alone are not sufficient. Clinicians across six very different countries and health systems described the same patterns; the primacy of clinical intuition, the pressure of perceived patient expectations and the difficulty of acting on a test result those conflicts with your own assessment. are fundamental to how clinical decisions. This tells us that point-of-care testing needs to be part of a broader strategy, one that includes clinician training, communication support, and clear guidance on how to act safely on test results.’

Professor Chris Butler, Associate Head for Research at the Nuffield Department of Primary Health Care Sciences and lead author of the trial, said: ‘Point-of-care tests have real potential, but our study shows that diagnostics on their own do not inevitably change prescribing decisions. When clinicians are already leaning towards antibiotics, test results often reinforce that choice. To make a meaningful difference, rapid testing must be combined with clear guidance, clinician training, and support to manage patient expectations. In addition, we need better evidence about the safety of following the prescribing implications of tests.’

Diagnostic testing has been widely promoted in national and international action plans as a key mechanism to reduce inappropriate antibiotic use. The results of these studies suggest that diagnostics tests alone are not sufficient to reduce antibiotic prescribing. They must be combined with structured clinician training, clear guidance on the safety of following test results, and strategies to address the cognitive dissonance- the discomfort of holding conflicting information that arises when test results challenge a clinician’s initial assessment.

The paper, ‘Point-of-care testing strategy versus usual care to safely reduce antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory tract infections in primary care (PRUDENCE): a pragmatic, randomised controlled trial in 13 countries‘, is published in The Lancet Primary Care.

Source: Oxford University

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Revealing How Transplanted Neural Stem Cells Preserve Vision

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Photoreceptor cells in the retina. Credit: Scientific Animations

Cedars-Sinai investigators working to optimise a cell-based treatment for retinitis pigmentosa have uncovered how transplanted neural stem cells interact with host retinal cells to preserve vision. The findings, published in Nature Communications, may guide future research toward strategies to treat degenerative eye disease.

“We used single-cell analysis to show that neural stem cells can protect vision in several ways, including providing protective proteins, restoring retinal cells to a healthier state, reducing cellular stress, and maintaining retinal integrity,” said Clive Svendsen, PhD, executive director of the Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute and co-corresponding author of the study.

Investigators transplanted neural stem cells into the retinas of laboratory rats with retinal degeneration. Previous studies have shown the transplants significantly reduced vision loss in the animals for up to 180 days, the equivalent of about 20 years in humans. In this study the team examined interactions between the transplanted cells and diseased retinal cells to better understand the neural stem cells’ protective effects.

“Our study reveals that the interaction between neural stem cells and host retinal cells dynamically changes over time,” said Shaomei Wang, MD, PhD, professor of Biomedical Sciences and co-corresponding author of the study.  “Through a better understanding of this process, we may be able to develop more powerful approaches to treat eye diseases in the future.”

Investigators are now evaluating the use of neural stem cells engineered to express key protective proteins identified in this study to further improve the host retinal environment. 

Additional Cedars-Sinai authors include Saba Shahin, Shaughn Bell, Bin Lu, Hui Xu, Jason Chetsawang, Stephany Ramirez, Jorge S. Alfaro, Alexander Laperle and Soshana Svendsen.

Other authors include Somanshu Banerjee and Vivek Swarup.

Source: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

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COVID Lockdowns Found to Set Back Children’s Development by Years

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Even when controlling for age and family background, COVID’s impact was evident

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

The COVID pandemic disrupted children’s ability to self-regulate, according to research from three UK universities just published in the journal Child Development.

The study by Lancaster University, East Anglia and Durham reveals that the pandemic hampered children’s ability to regulate their behaviour, stay focused and adapt to new situations – skills known collectively as executive functions.

The greatest impact was seen among pupils who were in reception when the first lockdowns began – a crucial stage at four or five when youngsters normally learn to socialise, follow routines and navigate the busy world of the classroom. Primary school in the UK then begins at Grade 1, starting at age five or six.

These children showed less growth in their self-regulatory and cognitive flexibility scores over time compared to a second group of children who were in preschool when the pandemic started.

The research team say these children may still be feeling the effects years later.

How the research happened

Scientists were already running a long-term study tracking youngsters from toddlerhood to early school years when the COVID pandemic hit.

They followed 139 children aged between two-and-a-half and six-and-a-half years old over several years, including 94 families who joined the study before Covid struck.

This meant that they had a rare baseline of children’s abilities before the pandemic began, which allowed them to track exactly how development changed during and after the lockdowns.

Using a standardised assessment called the Minnesota Executive Function Scale, they were able to measure the same cognitive skills at regular intervals.

Dr Eleanor Johns from Lancaster University’s Department of Psychology said: “We began this study to understand how children’s executive function develops across early childhood, and we saw clear, steady growth between 2.5 and 6.5 years of age. However, because our longitudinal study spanned the COVID-19 pandemic, we also had a unique opportunity to examine how this unprecedented disruption affected the children we were already following.

“We found that children who had just started school when the first lockdown began showed a slower rate of growth in executive function compared to those who were preschool age. Starting school is a major developmental transition, as children learn new routines, adapt to classroom rules, and develop self-regulation alongside their peers. When schools closed almost overnight, those opportunities were suddenly removed.”

The research revealed that:

  • Individual differences in executive function abilities were remarkably stable. Children who had stronger skills at two-and-a-half years old tended to remain ahead at six-and-a-half years.
  • Children from lower socio-economic households consistently scored lower, echoing long-standing research on the impact of maternal education and home environment.
  • Even when controlling for age and family background, COVID’s impact was evident. Children who were in reception at the start of the pandemic made more modest improvements in executive function compared to those still in preschool.

Dr Johns said: “Our findings suggest that the structured school environment and regular interaction with peers play a crucial role in supporting the development of executive function. When those experiences were disrupted, children’s executive function developed more slowly than that of younger children who were still in preschool.”

The researchers say their work highlights a generation of children who may need more support from teachers, schools and health services in coming years.

Sources: Lancaster University and University of East Anglia

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Active Ingredient from Red Foxglove Helps with Heart Failure

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Foxglove helps with heart failure: Cardiologists Professor Dr Udo Bavendiek (left) and Professor Dr Johann Bauersachs have scientifically proven the life-prolonging effect of digitoxin for the first time. Copyright: pixabay, Karin Kaiser/MHH

A multicentre study has demonstrated a clear positive effect of digitoxin in heart failure, which is derived from the red foxglove plant. Results from ten years of research involving more than 1200 participants have clearly confirmed the safety and efficacy of the cardiac glycoside in people diagnosed with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

Digitalis has been used to treat heart failure for more than 200 years. The drug digitoxin also belongs to this group of active ingredients known as cardiac glycosides. Although there were indications that digitalis was beneficial in heart failure, it has only now been scientifically proven that digitoxin has a significant positive effect in heart failure due to reduced pumping function and insufficient emptying of the left ventricle – known in medical terms as HFrEF (heart failure with reduced ejection fraction). For ten years, researchers led by Professor Dr Johann Bauersachs, Director of the Department of Cardiology and Angiology at Hanover Medical School (MHH), and senior physician Professor Dr Udo Bavendiek thoroughly investigated the safety and efficacy of the active ingredient in a clinical study involving more than 1200 participants.

The large-scale DIGIT-HF study coordinated by them, involving more than 50 centres in Germany, Austria and Serbia, has now been completed and delivers a clear result: adjunctive therapy with digitoxin reduces mortality and the number of hospitalisations for heart failure in patients with advanced HFrEF. The results have been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. At the same time, they were presented at the end of August 2025 at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Madrid in the so-called Hot Line Session, where new clinical studies that promise significant changes in patient outcomes are presented.

No proof of effectiveness according to scientific standards to date

Our heart is a high-performance engine. It beats around 70 times per minute, pumping around five litres of blood through our vessels. In doing so, it supplies the body with vital oxygen and nutrients. If this pumping capacity is permanently reduced, physicians refer to this as chronic heart failure or cardiac insufficiency. Around four million people in Germany are affected. Symptoms include shortness of breath, low exercise tolerance, water retention, immobility and severe arrhythmia. The condition is one of the most common reasons for hospitalisation and even death. Until around 2020, digitalis preparations were still on the production list of major pharmaceutical companies. Currently, digitoxin is only produced as a generic drug. ‘However, it remains the most commonly used digitalis preparation in Germany – so far, however, without any scientifically proven evidence of its effectiveness,’ notes Professor Bavendiek.

Can also be used in cases of impaired kidney function

This has now been proven. ‘In the DIGIT-HF study, we examined patients who had exhausted all conventional treatment options,’ says Professor Bauersachs. ‘We were surprised ourselves that we were able to achieve such a significant improvement with the additional digitoxin treatment in these very well-treated study participants.’ The usual medications for heart failure include beta blockers and inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, which inhibit excessively activated hormone cascades and thus relieve the heart, as well as diuretics. Defibrillators, which are implanted in the patient’s body, also help against acute arrhythmias. Since 2021, so-called SGLT-2 inhibitors have also been used in Germany. These were originally approved for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, but also have positive effects in all forms of heart failure. Thanks to the DIGIT-HF study, digitoxin could now become another mainstay in the treatment of people diagnosed with HFrEF.

Previous clinical studies have been conducted almost exclusively with digoxin, another cardiac glycoside. However, digoxin can only be used to a limited extent in patients with impaired kidney function, which is often the case in patients with advanced heart failure, as it is excreted almost exclusively via the kidneys. ‘With digitoxin, however, the situation is different,’ explains Professor Bavendiek. This is because digitoxin is excreted via the liver and intestines to a greater extent in patients with impaired kidney function. The already approved drug is therefore also suitable for use in patients with pre-existing kidney weakness.

Safe and cost-effective

In addition, the results of the DIGIT-HF study dispelled fears that digitoxin is dangerous for certain groups of patients with heart failure and could lead to death. ‘When dosed correctly, digitoxin is a safe treatment for heart failure and is also suitable for controlling heart rate in atrial fibrillation when beta blockers alone are not sufficient,’ emphasises Professor Bavendiek. Another advantage of the drug sounds trivial, but is certainly interesting in view of rising healthcare costs: digitoxin costs just a few pence and is drastically cheaper than other drugs for heart failure. Based on the study data available to date, heart specialists have already developed recommendations for simple and safe dosing. Whereas 0.1 milligrams of digitoxin were often prescribed in the past, the current recommendations are 0.07 milligrams per day or even less. The DIGIT-HF study showed that this dosage reduced mortality and hospital admissions due to heart failure without any safety issues.

Source: Hannover Medical School (in German)

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New Study Reveals that Sex Hormones Reset Circadian Clocks

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Photo by Cottonbro on Pexels

The findings may shed new light on disruptions to the circadian clocks during menstruation, pregnancy and menopause

Disruptions to circadian clocks can lead to a wide range of health problems, from sleep disturbances to diabetes and cancer. But there has been no certainty about the identity of the body’s substances that can “shift” these clocks forward or backward and, when altered, potentially cause such disruptions.

A new study from Prof Gad Asher’s lab at the Weizmann Institute of Science, now published in Nature Communications, reveals that sex hormones play a central role in aligning the cellular clocks with one another and with the environment. The research team, led by Drs Gal Manella, Saar Ezagouri and Nityanand Bolshette, showed that female sex hormones – especially progesterone – together with the stress hormone cortisol, have a dramatic effect on the clocks.

It is already known that circadian clocks are affected not only by external signals such as sunlight but also by signals carried through the bloodstream. Until now, however, these blood-borne signals had not been fully mapped, and there was no certainty about the component within the clock that serves as their “point of entry.” The reason: Researchers lacked a precise method for tracking the clock’s response to different signals over a full 24-hour cycle.

In recent years, Prof Asher’s lab – an international leader in studying the molecular mechanisms of circadian clocks – developed an ingenious method that uses an array of human cells each representing a different “time of day.” It resembles a wall lined with clocks showing the current time in major cities around the world. The new approach enabled the researchers, for the first time and with unprecedented precision, to map how the cellular clocks are synchronized by blood-borne signals.

In addition to uncovering the influence of sex hormones, the study revealed that the clock component receiving these signals is the protein Cry2, rather than Per2, as previously believed.

The “ticking” of a circadian clock inside a human cell over the course of 24 hours. A fluorescent marker allows scientists to tell “what time it is” at any given moment

“The levels of sex hormones change throughout life – during menstrual cycles, pregnancy, hormone therapy, contraceptive use and various disease states. These conditions are also known to be associated with disturbances to circadian clocks,” Asher notes. “Our new findings suggest that these disturbances are linked to interactions between sex hormones and the mechanisms that synchronize circadian clocks.”

Source: Weizmann Institute of Science

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Review Finds Rapid Rebound from Weight Loss Medications

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Photo by I Yunmai on Unsplash

Obesity is a chronic, repeating disease: those who lose weight tend to put it back on after a time. In order to understand the impact of stopping weight management medications (WMMs), researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effect of these drugs on long-term health and body mass.

The research indicates that individuals typically experience rapid weight regain after treatment ends, with many returning to their original weight within approximately 1.7 years. Furthermore, cardiometabolic improvements, including blood pressure and glucose levels, were found to typically reverse and return to baseline shortly after the drugs are discontinued.

Notably, weight is regained significantly faster after pharmacological treatment than after finishing behavioural weight management programmes. Listen to our podcast for a summary of the paper published in The BMJ, along with the researchers’ conclusions.

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A Key Marker that Links Coronary Artery Disease to Cognitive Decline

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A new model combining a dozen metrics measures differences in white matter structure between older CAD patients and healthy controls

Source: Wikimedia CC0

Although coronary artery disease (CAD) increases the risks of strokes, cognitive impairment and dementia, the link between CAD and cognitive function is not fully understood. A new study led by Concordia researchers looks at how the disease affects the brain’s white matter, the network of nerve fibres that connects different regions of the brains and is critical to transmitting information efficiently.

The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, applied a novel multivariate approach using 12 separate metrics. The researchers compared test results and MRI scans of 43 patients with CAD to those of 36 healthy individuals. All participants were over age 50.

The researchers found that individuals with CAD had widespread structural changes in their white matter compared to their healthy counterparts. The changes were particularly noticeable in the parts of the brain fed by the middle cerebral (MCA) and anterior cerebral arteries. Both regions are key for cognitive and motor functions.

“This makes sense because those regions, especially the MCA territory, are most prone to strokes,” says PhD candidate Zacharie Potvin-Jutras, the study’s co-lead author. “We made sure that there was no history of strokes in our CAD cohort.

“Our goal is to examine conditions at the onset of a heart disease, before there has been any significant impact on the brain,” he says.

Stéfanie Tremblay, a 2023 Concordia Public Scholar now a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University, is the study’s other co-lead author.

Small measurements provide a bigger picture

The multivariate approach of bundling individual white matter metrics into one overarching metric provides advantages over past univariate studies. It allows the researchers to simplify complex aspects of brain health into a single metric that can be compared to the same metric in healthy controls. While individual metric variations between CAD patients and healthy controls may be very small, when seen together, they can provide significant indicators of early stages of cognitive impairment.

“The metrics are often overlapping, meaning they measure things that are related to each other,” says corresponding author Claudine Gauthier, an associate professor in the Department of Physics. “Having one single metric that captures many aspects of brain health allows us to identify differences between patients and controls that reflect a complex combination of changes in a single analysis. Then we can unpack it and see which aspects of white matter health drove the difference more than the others.”

The researchers found that the changes were mainly linked to reduced myelin content, the fatty envelope surrounding nerve fibres. Myelin loss can slow communication between brain cells and is often an early sign of cognitive ageing.

Interestingly, participants with higher measures of myelin integrity (specifically, in a marker called R1) performed better on tests of processing speed, a key aspect of thinking and attention. However, no significant differences were observed between groups in overall cognitive scores, suggesting that brain changes may precede noticeable symptoms.

“This study adds mechanistic insight into our understanding of how CAD affects white matter health,” says Gauthier. “Now that we know that myelin content is a good biomarker for coronary heart disease, the next step is to focus on potential interventions. If we have a preventive lifestyle intervention, we can optimize the intensity to improve myelin health and maintain cognitive function.”

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada and Brain Canada supported this research.

Read the cited paper: “Multivariate White Matter Microstructure Alterations in Older Adults with Coronary Artery Disease”

Source: Concordia University

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Boy Given World-first Gene Therapy for Hunter Syndrome Is ‘Thriving’

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Ollie Chu with his father, Ricky.

A young boy born with a devastating, rare genetic condition has been given a new lease of life thanks to a team of UCL scientists who manufactured a pioneering gene therapy for him.

Ollie Chu was born with Hunter syndrome – or MPSII – an inherited, life-limiting genetic condition which causes progressive damage to the body and brain.

In the most severe cases, patients with the disease usually die before the age of 20. The effects are sometimes described as a type of childhood dementia.

Due to a faulty gene, before the treatment Ollie was unable to produce an enzyme crucial for keeping cells healthy.

But in a world first, scientists at UCL have altered Ollie’s cells using gene therapy in a bid to halt the disease.

His parents are thrilled at Ollie’s progress which they say they has been “exponential” since his transplant. He is being treated in hospital in Manchester.

Dr Karen Buckland (UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Heath) said: “It’s really heart-warming to hear how well Ollie is doing – his progress is amazing.

“It’s also really, really rewarding for the team here. A lot of hard work has gone into manufacturing this new gene therapy. As well as the core team of five, around 50 staff were involved in total including all the clinical trial co-ordinators, project managers and quality assurance staff.

“It took two years just to check that the manufacturing process worked correctly. We then had to get regulatory approval before we could even begin treating Ollie’s cells.”

Dr Buckland and three other of her UCL Institute of Child Heath colleagues were directly involved with manufacturing his cells: Dr Winston Vetharoy, Edward Morgan and Raymond Nguyen. The fifth member of the team was Agrim Mahajan, from Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Dr Buckland said the project came about because she and colleagues had worked successfully on a previous project with the same Manchester team on a treatment for a similar condition called Mucopolysaccharidosis type III (MPS III) or San Filippo Syndrome.

In 2019 the Manchester team, then led by Professor Brian Bigger, approached Dr Buckland and her team again and asked them to manufacture the treatment for Hunter’s Syndrome.

In 2021 the UCL team began the process of checking the manufacturing process worked correctly.

That process, which is the first outside-of-the-body gene therapy to treat the condition, involves purifying a patient’s white blood cells to retrieve their stem cells, which are then added to a specialist growth medium.

A working copy of the gene is then added to a viral vector, which is used to transport the healthy copy of the gene into the patient’s own stem cells.

The cells are then washed and frozen and stored at -130 degrees C, in a process known as cryopreservation.

The cells are checked using several quality control tests to make sure they’re safe to be given back to the patient.

Having confirmed, in 2022, that the process worked correctly the University of Manchester applied successfully to the UK medicines regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), for approval. They could then use the process on a patient.

Ollie, from California, is the first of five boys around the world to receive the treatment.

The team treating him at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (RMCH) sent Dr Buckland and her colleagues some of his white blood cells.

Dr Vetharoy, who led the manufacture of the gene therapy product for Ollie, said: “Every stage of the process required meticulous attention to detail. We needed to maintain absolute control over contamination risks and ensure that all reagents and materials met the highest-quality standards.

“Seeing how well Ollie is thriving after such a short time is incredibly fulfilling for the entire team, and we wish him continued progress and good health in the years to come.”

In November 2024, the UCL manufacturing team made the altered cells for him, using the validated manufacturing process. In February 2025, those altered cells were transplanted into Ollie’s body.

Nine months on, his father, Ricky, says the improvement in his son’s condition is remarkable.

He said: “I don’t want to jinx it, but I feel like it’s gone very, very well. His life is no longer dominated by needles and hospital visits. His speech, agility and cognitive development have all got dramatically better.

“It’s not just a slow, gradual curve as he gets older, it has shot up exponentially since the transplant.”

Currently the only licensed treatment that can help to improve life for children with Hunter syndrome is Elaprase – a weekly enzyme replacement therapy that takes approximately three hours to administer, that children must take for their whole life. 

Dr Buckland and her colleagues manufactured the new gene therapy treatment at the specialist Cell and Gene Therapy Manufacturing Facility in The Zayed Centre for Research (ZCR) into Rare Diseases in Children, a facility jointly run by UCL and GOSH.

The clinical trial at RMCH is being done in collaboration with University of Manchester and the Manchester Centre for Genomic Medicine at Saint Mary’s Hospital.

Source: University College London