A study led by researchers in Canada has analysed the relationship between perimenopausal symptoms and later cognitive and behavioural problems in nearly 900 women. Their findings are that those with more symptoms were more at risk of cognitive problems and dementia later in life. The results are published in the journal Plos One.

An international team has found that aspirin is capable of reducing the appearance of metastasis in mice, by enabling the activation of T lymphocytes capable of recognising tumour cells. The research showed that several different mouse cancer models — including breast cancer, colon cancer and melanoma — treated with aspirin showed a lower rate of metastasis in other organs, such as the lungs and liver, compared to untreated mice. According to the authors, who publish the results in the journal Nature, ‘the finding paves the way for the use of more effective anti-metastatic immunotherapies’.

Colossal Biosciences has announced the creation of genetically modified mice with characteristics reminiscent of the fur of extinct mammoths, such as fur colour, texture and thickness. The non-peer-reviewed results were shared today in the BioRXiv prepublication repository.

An article reviews evidence on the accumulation of microplastics in human brain tissue recently published in Nature Medicine. The authors highlight practical measures to reduce exposure, noting that switching from bottled water to filtered tap water could reduce microplastic intake from 90,000 to 4,000 particles per year. The paper is a commentary in Brain Medicine. 

Without urgent action and policy reforms, more than half of the world's adult population (3.8 billion) and a third of all children and adolescents (746 million) are expected to be overweight or obese by 2050. The figures are published today in The Lancet.

A team from the University of Iowa (USA) has found a relationship between specific species of microbiota bacteria and the severity of multiple sclerosis. Specifically, a lower ratio between the quantities of Bifidobacterium and Akkermansia was related to the disease and to a worse course of the disease, both in mice and in two cohorts of patients and people without the disease. According to the authors, who publish the results in the journal PNAS, the finding could be used to improve the diagnosis and treatment of multiple sclerosis.

A synthetic microbiome therapy, tested on mice, protects against the severe symptoms of a difficult-to-treat and potentially fatal intestinal infection in humans: Clostridioides difficile. Although inspired by the idea of human faecal transplants, the new approach does not require faecal matter. Instead, it uses fewer, but more precise, bacterial strains. The study is published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe.

According to a modelling study published in Nature Cities, the frequency of some types of fires in cities is expected to increase in the coming decades as a result of climate change. This increase would be seen in vehicle fires and in those that occur outdoors. The conclusions are based on data from more than 2,800 cities in 20 countries and could be useful for future urban planning and emergency response strategies.

The 16th meeting of the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP16) in Rome has concluded with an agreement to adopt the first global plan for financing nature conservation, after three days of meetings. This meeting meant resuming the negotiations that began last October in Cali (Colombia), where the parties failed to reach an agreement on how to finance the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework reached at COP15, which aims to protect a third of the land and oceans by 2030.

Research has analyzed how extreme heat influences the biological age of elderly populations, specifically in the United States. The study, published in Science Advances, used blood samples from more than 3,600 adults with an average age of 68 collected between 2010 and 2016. The team compared epigenetic aging trends with the number of days of extreme heat in the participants' places of residence. The models showed that more days of heat or long-term heat — over a period of one to six years — increased the biological age of the participants by more than two years.