Scientists

The European Union is close to passing legislation to facilitate the use of plants edited using CRISPR, a technology that makes it possible to modify the genome of living organisms with precision. The Council of Ministers of the EU is scheduled to deliberate on this legislation on 21 April, and in this article we explain what these techniques are, their potential benefits and risks, and how they will be regulated.

A review of studies conducted by the Cochrane Collaboration analyzed data from 17 clinical trials involving more than 20,000 participants who had been treated with amyloid-targeting drugs—such as lecanemab or donanemab—at a relatively early stage of Alzheimer’s disease. Results at 18 months of treatment show that “the absolute effects on cognitive decline and the severity of dementia were nonexistent or negligible, falling well below the thresholds established for a clinically meaningful difference,” according to a press release. Furthermore, the review concludes that these drugs likely cause more brain inflammation and microbleeds than the placebo.

The latest forecasts from the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) suggest that there is a likelihood that the phenomenon known as El Niño will return this year and that it will do so with greater intensity. In Europe, for June through August, the forecast indicates a slight tendency toward below-average precipitation in the northeast of the continent. As for the Iberian Peninsula, temperatures are expected to exceed the top quintile of the seasonal average. Although it is not yet certain that this will occur, forecasts for the coming months will either confirm or rule it out.

A study with Spanish participation has discovered in mice that semaglutide can improve the condition of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease not only through weight loss, but also independently, which would explain why some patients improve with minimal weight loss. “We are not saying that weight loss is unimportant, as many things improve when patients lose weight. But now we know that weight should not be the only measure of success, because GLP-1 drugs will improve liver health regardless of whether the patient loses weight or not,” the authors, who published the results in Cell Metabolism. 

A team from the United States has analysed the performance of 21 large artificial intelligence (AI)-based language models—including ChatGPT, Gemini and Grok—for clinical diagnosis. Their conclusions are that, despite advances in these models, their reasoning capabilities remain limited for initial diagnosis and that they should not be relied upon without the supervision of a medical professional. According to the authors, who published their findings in JAMA Network Open and aimed to “help distinguish reality from hype in the use of these tools”, the results “reinforce the idea that language models in healthcare still require human intervention and very rigorous supervision”.

Premature births, babies born with birth defects, bad luck, satellite and telecommunications failures… Eclipses are attributed with a wide variety of consequences that have no scientific basis and are largely rooted in cultural traditions and deep-seated misconceptions. With the help of expert sources, in this article we explain why some people believe in them, what the main risks are and how to counter them. 

Permanent splits in chimpanzee groups are extremely rare—an event that occurs once every 500 years, according to genetic evidence. The journal Science reports on the split of the largest known group of wild chimpanzees following 30 years of observations. This involves the Ngogo chimpanzees in Kibale National Park (Uganda). The group shifted from cohesion to polarization in 2015 and eventually split into two distinct groups in 2018. From that point on, violence escalated, and members of one group killed at least seven males and 17 infants from the other. In the 1970s in Gombe (Tanzania), another case of this type was documented, but the chimpanzees had been fed by humans-

For the first time, CAR-T cell therapy has been used to treat a patient with three different autoimmune diseases – autoimmune haemolytic anaemia, immune thrombocytopenia and antiphospholipid syndrome – which were life-threatening and had resisted years of treatment. The patient, who previously required daily blood transfusions, has been in remission for a year without the need for further treatment since then. The case report, published in the journal Med, suggests that these therapies may help treat complex and severe autoimmune diseases. 

GLP-1 medicines for the treatment of obesity show considerable variability between individuals. Using data from 23andMe, scientists at this genetic testing company conducted genome-wide association studies in nearly 28,000 people treated with these drugs, analysing self-reported weight loss and adverse effects. Their findings, published in Nature, identified variations in two genes involved in gut hormone pathways that regulate appetite and digestion, although the authors caution that the effects of genetics appear to be modest.