Publisher Health

In recent years, there has been rising concern that tiny particles known as microplastics are showing up basically everywhere on Earth, from polar ice to soil, drinking water and food. Formed when plastics break down into progressively smaller bits, these particles are being consumed by humans and other creatures, with unknown potential health and ecosystem effects. One big focus of research: bottled water, which has been shown to contain tens of thousands of identifiable fragments in each container.
Now, using newly refined technology, researchers have entered a whole new plastic world: the poorly known realm of nanoplastics, the spawn of microplastics that have broken down even further. For the first time, they counted and identified these minute particles in bottled water. They found that on average, a liter contained some 240,000 detectable plastic fragments — 10 to 100 times greater than previous estimates, which were based mainly on larger sizes.
The study was just published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Nanoplastics are so tiny that, unlike microplastics, they can pass through intestines and lungs directly into the bloodstream and travel from there to organs including the heart and brain. They can invade individual cells, and cross through the placenta to the bodies of unborn babies. Medical scientists are racing to study the possible effects on a wide variety of biological systems.
“Previously this was just a dark area, uncharted. Toxicity studies were just guessing what’s in there,” said study coauthor Beizhan Yan, an environmental chemist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. “This opens a window where we can look into a world that was not exposed to us before.”
Worldwide plastic production is approaching 400 million metric tons a year. More than 30 million tons are dumped yearly in water or on land, and many products made with plastics including synthetic textiles shed particles while still in use. Unlike natural organic matter, most plastics do not break down into relatively benign substances; they simply divide and redivide into smaller and smaller particles of the same chemical composition. Beyond single molecules, there is no theoretical limit to how small they can get.
Microplastics are defined as fragments ranging from 5 millimeters (less than a quarter inch) down to 1 micrometer, which is 1 millionth of a meter, or 1/25,000th of an inch. (A human hair is about 70 micrometers across.) Nanoplastics, which are particles below 1 micrometer, are measured in billionths of a meter.

Plastics in bottled water became a public issue largely after a 2018 study detected an average of 325 particles per liter; later studies multiplied that number many times over. Scientists suspected there were even more than they had yet counted, but good estimates stopped at sizes below 1 micrometer — the boundary of the nano world.
“People developed methods to see nano particles, but they didn’t know what they were looking at,” said the new study’s lead author, Naixin Qian, a Columbia graduate student in chemistry. She noted that previous studies could provide bulk estimates of nano mass, but for the most part could not count individual particles, nor identify which were plastics or something else.
The new study uses a technique called stimulated Raman scattering microscopy, which was co-invented by study coauthor Wei Min, a Columbia biophysicist. This involves probing samples with two simultaneous lasers that are tuned to make specific molecules resonate. Targeting seven common plastics, the researchers created a data-driven algorithm to interpret the results. “It is one thing to detect, but another to know what you are detecting,” said Min.
The researchers tested three popular brands of bottled water sold in the United States (they declined to name which ones), analyzing plastic particles down to just 100 nanometers in size. They spotted 110,000 to 370,000 particles in each liter, 90% of which were nanoplastics; the rest were microplastics. They also determined which of the seven specific plastics they were, and charted their shapes — qualities that could be valuable in biomedical research.
One common one was polyethylene terephthalate or PET. This was not surprising, since that is what many water bottles are made of. (It is also used for bottled sodas, sports drinks and products such as ketchup and mayonnaise.) It probably gets into the water as bits slough off when the bottle is squeezed or gets exposed to heat. One recent study suggests that many particles enter the water when you repeatedly open or close the cap, and tiny bits abrade.
However, PET was outnumbered by polyamide, a type of nylon. Ironically, said Beizhan Yan, that probably comes from plastic filters used to supposedly purify the water before it is bottled. Other common plastics the researchers found: polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polymethyl methacrylate, all used in various industrial processes.

A somewhat disturbing thought: the seven plastic types the researchers searched for accounted for only about 10% of all the nanoparticles they found in samples; they have no idea what the rest are. If they are all nanoplastics, that means they could number in the tens of millions per liter. But they could be almost anything, “indicating the complicated particle composition inside the seemingly simple water sample,” the authors write. “The common existence of natural organic matter certainly requires prudent distinguishment.”
The researchers are now reaching beyond bottled water. “There is a huge world of nanoplastics to be studied,” said Min. He noted that by mass, nanoplastics comprise far less than microplastics, but “it’s not size that matters. It’s the numbers, because the smaller things are, the more easily they can get inside us.”
Among other things, the team plans to look at tap water, which also has been shown to contain microplastics, though far less than bottled water. Beizhan Yan is running a project to study microplastics and nanoplastics that end up in wastewater when people do laundry — by his count so far, millions per 10-pound load, coming off synthetic materials that comprise many items. (He and colleagues are designing filters to reduce the pollution from commercial and residential washing machines.) The team will soon identify particles in snow that British collaborators trekking by foot across western Antarctica are currently collecting. They also are collaborating with environmental health experts to measure nanoplastics in various human tissues and examine their developmental and neurologic effects.
“It is not totally unexpected to find so much of this stuff,” said Qian. “The idea is that the smaller things get, the more of them there are.”
The study was coauthored by Xin Gao and Xiaoqi Lang of the Columbia chemistry department; Huipeng Deng and Teodora Maria Bratu of Lamont-Doherty; Qixuan Chen of Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health; and Phoebe Stapleton of Rutgers University.

In social media posts on the community network Reddit, users reported reduced cravings for alcohol when taking drugs intended to treat Type 2 diabetes and obesity.
Across a number of threads — with titles such as “Did scientists accidentally invent an anti-addiction drug?” and “I don’t know if this is a side effect but … Mounjaro makes me drink less!!!!!” — users reported a changing relationship with beer, wine, and liquor.
An analysis of those posts, together with a remote study of individuals with obesity who reported using semaglutide and tirzepatide, found that the drugs decreased cravings and reduced alcohol consumption, according to a study by Virginia Tech researchers published Nov. 28 in Scientific Reports.
“These findings add to a growing literature that these medications may curb dangerous drinking habits,” said Warren Bickel, Virginia Tech Carilion Behavioral Health Research Professor at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC and corresponding author.
What they did
Scientists with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute’s Addiction Recovery Research Center combined two different studies to build on existing research, including studies that showed the drugs were effective in reducing alcohol consumption in animal models.
The first was an analysis of more than 68,000 Reddit posts from 2009-23 that included terms linked to GLP-1 approved medications. Semaglutide is a GLP-1 agonist, a class of drugs that reduce blood sugar and energy intake by mimicking the actions of hormones released after eating.

Among the keywords included in the search were Mounjaro, Wegovy, Ozempic, and Trulicity. After cleaning the resulting data — such as eliminating comments with fewer than 100 characters — the set was narrowed to 33,609 posts from 14,595 unique users. The study was unique in using Reddit to analyze the reported experience of thousands of users.
On examining alcohol-related discussions, researchers found that 962 individuals made 1,580 alcohol-related posts. Of those, 71.7 percent addressed reduced cravings, reduced usage, and other negative effects due to drinking.
In a second study, 153 participants who self-reported having obesity were recruited from various social media platforms. Roughly a third of these participants represented the control group, a third were taking either a semaglutide injection or tablet, and a third were using tirzepatide.
Participants on semaglutide or tirzepatide reported drinking significantly fewer drinks, on average, than those in the control group who were not on any medication for diabetes or weight loss. In addition, researchers found that both the average number of drinks and the odds of binge drinking were found to be significantly lower.
Results also found that the stimulative and sedative effects of alcohol intoxication are reduced when taking these medications. “Participants reported drinking less, experienced fewer effects of alcohol when they did drink it, and decreased odds of binge drinking,” said Alexandra DiFeliceantonio, assistant professor at Fralin Biomedical Research Institute and one of the study’s co-authors.
Researchers believe theirs is the first published report following tirezepatide, sold under the brand name Mounjaro, which was approved in 2022 and is used for treatment of Type 2 diabetes and weight loss.

Why this matters
Case studies and reports in the popular press hint at the drugs’ unexpected side effect of reducing addictive behaviors, including the desire to consume alcohol.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved only three medications to treat alcohol use disorder: disulfiram, naltrexone, and acamprosate. They have shown only modest success, have poor compliance, and are underprescribed.
The authors suggest further randomized controlled trials to explore the therapeutic potential of GLP-1 agonists and GIP/GLP-1 combination drugs to treat alcohol use disorder, which affects 5.9 percent of individuals in the United States ages 12 and older. In addition, the participants identified as mostly white and female, and further studies in more diverse populations are needed to examine sex and race differences.
“Although evidence supporting the use of these medications for alcohol use disorder is growing, the field still needs to learn considerably more about them, particularly in identifying the underlying mechanisms. We plan to contribute to that effort,” Bickel said.
The drugs are a promising development in the study of alcohol use disorder. Data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health indicate 15.7 million people in the United States meet the criteria for the chronic, relapsing brain disorder that is a significant contributor to global mortality yet remains one of the most undertreated conditions, Bickel said.

An average of 22 adolescents 14 to 18 years of age died in the U.S. each week in 2022 from drug overdoses, raising the death rate for this group to 5.2 per 100,000 — driven by fentanyl in counterfeit pills, new research finds.
Adolescent overdoses had more than doubled among this group between 2019 and 2020, and have since intensified to such an extent that the death count equals a high school classroom each week, and is now the third largest cause of pediatric deaths behind firearm-related injuries and motor vehicle collisions.
The increase is, however, not due to more illicit drug use — which has in fact fallen over the years; for example, excluding cannabis, the rate of any illicit drug use among just 12th graders had fallen from about 21% to 8% in the 20 years since 2002. Instead, the increase is the result of drugs becoming deadlier due to fentanyl, which is increasingly found in counterfeit oxycodone, benzodiazepines and other prescription pills that fall into the hands of adolescents.
But educators, physicians, and mental health practitioners can be instrumental in helping to stem this tide through pointed questions and guidance about drug use and the dangers that counterfeit pills present, the researchers write in a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In addition, policymakers can focus on “hotspot” counties, most in western states, with particularly high overdose deaths.
“Teenagers are likely to be unaware of just how high-risk experimenting with pills has become, given the recent rise in counterfeit tablets” said study co-author Joseph Friedman, a researcher at UCLA. “It’s often impossible to tell the difference with the naked eye between a real prescription medication obtained from a doctor and a counterfeit version with a potentially deadly dose of fentanyl. It’s urgent that teenagers be given accurate information about the real risks, and strategies to keep themselves and their friends safe.”
The researchers found that adolescent overdoses were occurring at double the national average in Arizona, Colorado and Washington State between 2020 and 2022. They identified 19 hotspot counties — that is, those with at least 20 overdose deaths and death rates higher than the national average, with Maricopa County in Arizona and Los Angeles County having the most fatal overdoses at 117 and 111, respectively, during this period.
The other 17 counties are Orange County, California (61 deaths), Cook County, Illinois (56), San Bernardino County, California (54), King County, Washington (52), Riverside County, California (41), San Diego County, California (36), Tarrant County, Texas (35), Clark County, Nevada (31), Kern County, California (30), Pima County, Arizona (29), Adams County, Colorado (25), Denver County, Colorado (24), Jackson County, Missouri (24), Santa Clara County, California (24), Bernalillo County, New Mexico (23), Davidson County, Tennessee (21), and Marion County, Indiana (21).
In addition, American Indian and Alaska Native adolescents had 1.82 times the overdose rates of whites between 2020 and 2022. And adolescents are overall likelier to use the pill form of the drug rather than powder, which was previously the main fentanyl source. For instance, while 0.3% of high school seniors in 2022 reported using heroin, which comes in powder form, 5% reported nonmedical use of prescription pills the same year.
The researchers provide the following recommendations to combat these trends: Pediatricians, other primary care physicians, and mental health practitioners should ask their adolescent patients if they or their peers were approached either in person or via social media about buying pills, or if they have used them without prescriptions Educators, along with parents, can discuss with adolescents the dangers associated with counterfeit pills; these efforts should be especially prioritized in hotspot locations Clinicians, educators and parents can highlight the Safety First curriculum that emphasizes abstinence from drugs and provides information about risk reduction for those who do experiment with drugs, such as where to find and how to use the overdose-reversal agent naloxone Finally, naloxone should be available in schools, which should also adopt “no-questions-asked” pill-disposal programs as well as provide anonymous mechanisms such messaging services that students can use to ask about counterfeit pills and substance use without risk of punishment or embarrassment.”Fentanyl has rapidly become a leading cause of death in American teens,” said Dr. Scott Hadland, chief of adolescent medicine at Mass General for Children and senior author on the paper. “Policymakers, clinicians, families and communities need to partner together to address this worsening public health threat.”

Researchers have developed a groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can rapidly detect COVID-19 from chest X-rays with more than 98% accuracy. The study results have just been published in Nature Scientific Reports.
Corresponding author Professor Amir H Gandomi, from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) Data Science Institute, said there was a pressing need for effective automated tools to detect COVID-19, given the significant impact on public health and the global economy.
“The most widely used COVID-19 test, real time polymerase chain reaction (PCR), can be slow and costly, and produce false-negatives. To confirm a diagnosis, radiologists need to manually examine a CT scans or X-rays, which can be time consuming and prone to error,” said Professor Gandomi.
“The new AI system could be particularly beneficial in countries experiencing high levels of COVID-19 where there is a shortage of radiologists. Chest X-rays are portable, widely available and provide lower exposure to ionizing radiation than CT scans,” he said.
Common symptoms of COVID-19 include fever, cough, difficulty breathing and a sore throat, however it can be difficult to distinguish COVID-19 from Flu and other types of pneumonia.
The new AI system uses a deep learning-based algorithm called a Custom Convolutional Neural Network (Custom-CNN) that is able to quickly and accurately distinguish between COVID-19 cases, normal cases, and pneumonia in X-ray images.
“Deep learning offers an end-to-end solution, eliminating the need to manually search for biomarkers. The Custom-CNN model streamlines the detection process, providing a faster and more accurate diagnosis of COVID-19,” said Professor Gandomi.

“If a PCR test or rapid antigen test shows a negative or inconclusive result, due to low sensitivity, patients may require further examination via radiological imaging to confirm or rule out the virus’s presence. In this situation the new AI system could prove beneficial.
“While radiologists play a crucial role in medical diagnosis, AI technology can assist them in making accurate and efficient diagnoses,” said Professor Gandomi.
The performance of the Custom-CNN model was evaluated via a comprehensive comparative analysis, with accuracy as the performance criterion. The results showed that the new model outperforms the other AI diagnostic models.
Fast and accurate diagnosis of COVID-19 can ensure patients get the correct treatment, including COVID-19 antivirals, which work best if taken within five days of the onset of symptoms. It could also help them isolate and protect others from getting infected, reducing pandemic outbreaks.
This breakthrough represents a significant step in combatting the ongoing challenges posed by the pandemic, potentially transforming the landscape of COVID-19 diagnosis and management.

Certain populations of mosquitoes are more heat tolerant and better equipped to survive heat waves than others, according to new research from Washington University in St. Louis.
This is bad news in a world where vector-borne diseases are an increasingly global health concern. Most models that scientists use to estimate vector-borne disease risk currently assume that mosquito heat tolerances do not vary. As a result, these models may underestimate mosquitoes’ ability to spread diseases in a warming world.
Researchers led by Katie M. Westby, a senior scientist at Tyson Research Center, Washington University’s environmental field station, conducted a new study that measured the critical thermal maximum (CTmax), an organism’s upper thermal tolerance limit, of eight populations of the globally invasive tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. The tiger mosquito is a known vector for many viruses including West Nile, chikungunya and dengue.
“We found significant differences across populations for both adults and larvae, and these differences were more pronounced for adults,” Westby said. The new study is published Jan. 8 in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.
Westby’s team sampled mosquitoes from eight different populations spanning four climate zones across the eastern United States, including mosquitoes from locations in New Orleans; St. Augustine, Fla.; Huntsville, Ala.; Stillwater, Okla.; St. Louis; Urbana, Ill.; College Park, Md.; and Allegheny County, Pa.
The scientists collected eggs in the wild and raised larvae from the different geographic locations to adult stages in the lab, tending the mosquito populations separately as they continued to breed and grow. The scientists then used adults and larvae from subsequent generations of these captive-raised mosquitoes in trials to determine CTmax values, ramping up air and water temperatures at a rate of 1 degree Celsius per minute using established research protocols.
The team then tested the relationship between climatic variables measured near each population source and the CTmax of adults and larvae. The scientists found significant differences among the mosquito populations.

The differences did not appear to follow a simple latitudinal or temperature-dependent pattern, but there were some important trends. Mosquito populations from locations with higher precipitation had higher CTmax values. Overall, the results reveal that mean and maximum seasonal temperatures, relative humidity and annual precipitation may all be important climatic factors in determining CTmax.
“Larvae had significantly higher thermal limits than adults, and this likely results from different selection pressures for terrestrial adults and aquatic larvae,” said Benjamin Orlinick, first author of the paper and a former undergraduate research fellow at Tyson Research Center. “It appears that adult Ae. albopictus are experiencing temperatures closer to their CTmax than larvae, possibly explaining why there are more differences among adult populations.”
“The overall trend is for increased heat tolerance with increasing precipitation,” Westby said. “It could be that wetter climates allow mosquitoes to endure hotter temperatures due to decreases in desiccation, as humidity and temperature are known to interact and influence mosquito survival.”
Little is known about how different vector populations, like those of this kind of mosquito, are adapted to their local climate, nor the potential for vectors to adapt to a rapidly changing climate. This study is one of the few to consider the upper limits of survivability in high temperatures — akin to heat waves — as opposed to the limits imposed by cold winters.
“Standing genetic variation in heat tolerance is necessary for organisms to adapt to higher temperatures,” Westby said. “That’s why it was important for us to experimentally determine if this mosquito exhibits variation before we can begin to test how, or if, it will adapt to a warmer world.”
Future research in the lab aims to determine the upper limits that mosquitoes will seek out hosts for blood meals in the field, where they spend the hottest parts of the day when temperatures get above those thresholds, and if they are already adapting to higher temperatures. “Determining this is key to understanding how climate change will impact disease transmission in the real world,” Westby said. “Mosquitoes in the wild experience fluctuating daily temperatures and humidity that we cannot fully replicate in the lab.”

Early symptoms can be subtle. A child’s personality and behavior may change, and clumsiness or stumbling develops between the ages of five and ten. Over time, cognitive impairment sets in, seizures emerge or worsen, vision loss begins, and motor skills decline. This is the course of Batten disease, a progressive inherited disorder of the nervous system that results from mutations to the CLN3 gene.
“It is a devastating neurodegenerative disorder of childhood,” said John Foxe, PhD, director of the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience and co-director of the University of Rochester Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (UR-IDDRC), “and while it is very rare, it is important to study and understand because it could inform what we know and how we treat it and other related rare diseases.”
A possible neuromarker
In a new study, out today in theJournal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders, Foxe and a team of researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center may be closer to that goal of understanding. The paper describes how they measured changes in brain function of participants with CLN3 disease, also known as ‘juvenile-onset’ Batten disease. Researchers found that the functioning of the auditory sensory memory system — the brain system required for short-term memory recall — appears to decrease as the disease progresses. They revealed this by utilizing electroencephalographic recordings (EEG) to measure the brain activity of participants with and without Batten disease as they passively listened to simple auditory beeps. The participants simultaneously watched a video of their favorite movie while the brain responses to these beeps were being measured. In the participants with Batten disease, the EEG revealed a decline in the response from the auditory sensory memory system as the disease progressed. There were no significant changes among the other participants. This finding suggests that this easy-to-measure brain process may be a target or biomarker in measuring treatment outcomes in clinical trials.
“We needed to find a task that did not require explicit engagement or attention, and this is one of those kinds of tasks,” Foxe said. “The brain produces the signal that we’re looking at, regardless of whether the participant is paying attention to the beeps or not. It is an objective method that provides new insight into the brain function of a population with varying communication abilities.”
Leading Batten disease research & treatment
There are 12 currently known childhood-onset forms of Batten disease, each genetically distinct from one another, and all significantly impact neurodevelopment. The University of Rochester Batten Center (URBC) is a recognized leader in research and treatment of this condition. URBC is designated a Center of Excellence by the Batten Disease Support and Research Association (BDSRA). The University is a designated Intellectual and Developmental Research Center (IDDRC), and its current principal project is aimed at neuromarker discovery in Batten disease. With several potential gene therapies for Batten disease currently in advanced stages of development, this recent finding continues the mission at URMC to identify biomarkers to evaluate the effectiveness of these experimental treatments.
Progressing scientific findings
Researchers in the Frederick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Lab, where Foxe is co-principal investigator with Edward Freedman, PhD, are using these findings to leverage a Batten disease mouse model. They aim to measure the impact pharmaceuticals have on the auditory perceptual system. Researchers are starting with treatments already on the market for other conditions. “We think this potential biomarker is key to the possibility for us to screen these treatments in the mouse models. The auditory sensory memory marker provides a sensitive measure,” Foxe said. “We’ll be able to tell you pretty quickly if a treatment is having an impact and know if it is actually changing dynamics — i.e., whether the system in the brain is improving, what the speed of improvement is, etc. I think that is a big deal.”
Additional authors include first author Tufikameni Brima, PhD, Edward Freedman, PhD, Kevin Prinsloo, PhD, Heather Adams, PhD, Kuan Hong Wang, PhD, Luke Shaw, and Emma Mantel of the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, Erika Augustine, MD, of the Kennedy Krieger Institute, and Jonathan Mink, MD, PhD. This research is supported by the Schmitt Program in Integrative Neuroscience (SPIN) through the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience pilot program, the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Researchers have found a gene that links deafness to cell death in the inner ear in humans — creating new opportunities for averting hearing loss.
A person’s hearing can be damaged by loud noise, aging and even certain medications, with little recourse beyond a hearing aid or cochlear implant.
But now, UCSF scientists have achieved a breakthrough in understanding what is happening in the inner ear during hearing loss, laying the groundwork for preventing deafness.
The research, published on Dec. 22, 2023, in the Journal of Clinical Investigation Insight, links animal studies on hearing loss with a rare type of inherited deafness in humans. In both cases, mutations to the TMTC4 gene trigger a molecular domino effect known as the unfolded protein response (UPR), leading to the death of hair cells in the inner ear.
Intriguingly, hearing loss from loud noise exposure or drugs such as cisplatin, a common form of chemotherapy, also stems from activation of the UPR in hair cells, suggesting that the UPR may underly several different forms of deafness.
There are several drugs that block the UPR — and stop hearing loss — in laboratory animals. The new findings make a stronger case for testing these drugs in people who are at risk of losing their hearing, according to the researchers.
“Millions of American adults lose their hearing due to noise exposure or aging each year, but it’s been a mystery what was going wrong,” said Dylan Chan, MD, PhD, co-senior author on the paper and director of the Children’s Communication Center (CCC) in the UCSF Department of Otolaryngology. “We now have solid evidence that TMTC4 is a human deafness gene and that the UPR is a genuine target for preventing deafness.”
How hair cells in the ear self-destruct

In 2014, Elliott Sherr, MD, PhD, director of the UCSF Brain Development Research Program and co-senior author of the paper, noticed that several of his young patients with brain malformations all had mutations to TMTC4. But laboratory studies of this gene soon presented a conundrum.
“We expected mice with TMTC4 mutations to have severe brain defects early on, like those pediatric patients, yet to our surprise, they seemed normal at first,” Sherr said. “But as those animals grew, we saw that they didn’t startle in response to loud noise. They had gone deaf after they had matured.”
Sherr partnered with Chan, an expert on the inner ear, to look into what was happening to the mice, which looked like an accelerated version of age-related hearing loss in humans. They showed that mutations to TMTC4 primed hair cells in the ear to self-destruct, and loud noise did the same thing. In both cases, hair cells were flooded with excess calcium, throwing off the balance of other cellular signals, including the UPR.
But they found there was a way to stop this. ISRIB, a drug developed at UCSF to block the UPR’s self-destruct mechanism in traumatic brain injury, prevented animals who were exposed to noise from going deaf.
The first adult human deafness gene
In 2020, scientists from South Korea, led by Bong Jik Kim, MD, PhD, connected Chan and Sherr’s 2018 findings with genetic mutations they found in two siblings who were losing their hearing in their mid-20s. The mutations were in TMTC4 and matched what Chan and Sherr had seen in animals, although they were distinct from those in Sherr’s pediatric neurology patients.

“It’s rare to so quickly connect mouse studies with humans,” Sherr said. “Thanks to our Korean collaborators, we could more easily prove the relevance of our work for the many people who go deaf over time.”
Kim, an otolaryngologist at the Chungnam National University College of Medicine (Korea), facilitated the shipping of cells from those patients to UCSF. Sherr and Chan tested those cells for UPR activity and found that, indeed, this flavor of TMTC4 mutation turned on the destructive UPR pathway in a human context.
When Chan and Sherr mutated TMTC4 only in hair cells in mice, the mice went deaf. When they mutated TMTC4 in cells from individuals in the Korean family who hadn’t gone deaf, and in laboratory human cell lines, the UPR drove the cells to self-destruct. TMTC4 was more than a deafness gene in mice — it was a deafness gene in humans, too.
Translating a discovery to prevent deafness
Understanding TMTC4 mutations gives researchers a new way of studying progressive deafness, since it is critical for maintaining the health of the adult inner ear. The mutations mimic damage from noise, aging or drugs like cisplatin.
The researchers envision a future where people who must take cisplatin, or who have to be exposed to loud noises for their jobs, take a drug that dampens the UPR and keeps hair cells from withering away, preserving their hearing.
The science also suggests that the UPR could be targeted in other contexts where nerve cells become overwhelmed and die, including diseases long thought to be incurable, like Alzheimer’s or Lou Gehrig’s disease.
“If there’s any way that we can get in the way of the hair cells dying, that’s how we’re going to be able to prevent hearing loss,” Chan said.

To encourage fruit and vegetable consumption among youth, experiential food education programs such as gardening and cooking lessons have increased across both community and school settings. A recent research article in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, revealed how this early learning positively influenced food decisions as children grew older.
Lead study author Christine St. Pierre, MPH, RD, Department of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, explained, “While food education programs are evaluated, much of the evidence of program impact comes from evaluations less than a year after the class, and little is known about the enduring impact through childhood and into adulthood.”
This study explored the experiences of current and alumni participants of the FRESHFARM FoodPrints food education program, which is embedded in more than 20 elementary schools within a large urban public school district in the eastern United States. The program’s first school partnership was established nearly 15 years ago, and the oldest alumni participants are now young adults. A network of alumni has been established and maintained as the program has grown, providing a unique opportunity to gain insight into the experiences of both current participants and those who have aged out of the program.
Researchers observed classes and interviewed program coaches and staff to prepare for focus group sessions. Focus groups were recruited among current and alumni students. Questions were designed to gain insights into the typical participant experience, current nutrition behaviors, food environment, and impression of the FoodPrints program.
Nine emergent themes were identified in three categories of impact: immediate, beyond the classroom, and sustained. The immediate impact of the programs included enjoyment of food experiences, hands-on learning of food skills, and connection with peers through a shared experience. Beyond the classroom experience, the programs shifted individual and family food choices and increased involvement of students in family food practices and interest in fresh food options at school. Appreciation for fresh food, openness to trying new foods, and confidence in making food decisions were the sustained benefits of the programs.
St. Pierre commented, “While we recognize the demands on education resources and the precious time of teachers, findings in this study suggest that investment in experiential food education in elementary school can provide an important contribution to the continuation of healthy dietary behaviors as children grow up.”

Babies and toddlers exposed to television or video viewing may be more likely to exhibit atypical sensory behaviors, such as being disengaged and disinterested in activities, seeking more intense stimulation in an environment, or being overwhelmed by sensations like loud sounds or bright lights, according to data from researchers at Drexel’s College of Medicine published today in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.
According to the researchers, children exposed to greater TV viewing by their second birthday were more likely to develop atypical sensory processing behaviors, such as “sensation seeking” and “sensation avoiding,” as well as “low registration” — being less sensitive or slower to respond to stimuli, such as their name being called, by 33 months old.
Sensory processing skills reflect the body’s ability to respond efficiently and appropriately to information and stimuli received by its sensory systems, such as what the toddler hears, sees, touches, and tastes.
The team pulled 2011-2014 data on television or DVD-watching by babies and toddlers at 12- 18- and 24-months from the National Children’s Study of 1,471 children (50% male) nationwide.
Sensory processing outcomes were assessed at 33 months using the Infant/Toddler Sensory Profile (ITSP), a questionnaire completed by parents/caregivers, designed to give insights on how children process what they see, hear and smell, etc.
ITSP subscales examine children’s patterns of low registration, sensation seeking, such as excessively touching or smelling objects; sensory sensitivity, such as being overly upset or irritated by lights and noise; and sensation avoiding — actively trying to control their environment to avoid things like having their teeth brushed. Children score in “typical,” “high” or “low” groups based on how often they display various sensory-related behaviors. Scores were considered “typical” if they were within one standard deviation from the average of the ITSP norm.
Measurements of screen exposure at 12-months were based on caregiver responses to the question: “Does your child watch TV and/or DVDs? (yes/no),” and at 18- and 24- months based on the question: “Over the past 30 days, on average, how many hours per day did your child watch TV and/or DVDs?”
The findings suggest: At 12 months, any screen exposure compared to no screen viewing was associated with a 105% greater likelihood of exhibiting “high” sensory behaviors instead of “typical” sensory behaviors related to low registration at 33 months At 18 months, each additional hour of daily screen time was associated with 23% increased odds of exhibiting “high” sensory behaviors related to later sensation avoiding and low registration. At 24 months, each additional hour of daily screen time was associated with a 20% increased odds of “high” sensation seeking, sensory sensitivity, and sensation avoiding at 33 months.

The researchers adjusted for age, whether the child was born prematurely, caregiver education, race/ethnicity and other factors, such as how often the child engages in play or walks with the caregiver.
The findings add to a growing list of concerning health and developmental outcomes linked to screen time in infants and toddlers, including language delay, autism spectrum disorder, behavioral issues, sleep struggles, attention problems and problem-solving delays.
“This association could have important implications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism, as atypical sensory processing is much more prevalent in these populations,” said lead author Karen Heffler, MD, an associate professor of Psychiatry in Drexel’s College of Medicine. “Repetitive behavior, such as that seen in autism spectrum disorder, is highly correlated with atypical sensory processing. Future work may determine whether early life screen time could fuel the sensory brain hyperconnectivity seen in autism spectrum disorders, such as heightened brain responses to sensory stimulation.”
Atypical sensory processing in kids with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and ADHD manifests in a range of detrimental behaviors. In children with ASD, greater sensation seeking or sensation avoiding, heightened sensory sensitivity and low registration have been associated with irritability, hyperactivity, eating and sleeping struggles, as well as social problems. In kids with ADHD, atypical sensory processing is linked to trouble with executive function, anxiety and lower quality of life.
“Considering this link between high screen time and a growing list of developmental and behavioral problems, it may be beneficial for toddlers exhibiting these symptoms to undergo a period of screen time reduction, along with sensory processing practices delivered by occupational therapists,” said Heffler.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) discourages screen time for babies under 18-24 months. Live video chat is considered by the AAP to be okay, as there may be benefit from the interaction that takes place. AAP recommends time limitations on digital media use for children 2 to 5 years to typically no more than 1 hour per day.

“Parent training and education are key to minimizing, or hopefully even avoiding, screen time in children younger than two years,” said senior author David Bennett, PhD, a professor of Psychiatry in Drexel’s College of Medicine.”
Despite the evidence, many toddlers view screens more often. As of 2014, children age 2 and under in the United States averaged 3 hours, 3 minutes a day of screen time, up from 1 hour, 19 minutes a day in 1997, according to a 2019 research letter in JAMA Pediatrics. Some parents cite exhaustion and inability for affordable alternatives as reasons for the screen time, according to a July 2015 study in the Journal of Nutrition and Behavior.
Although the current paper looked strictly at television or DVD watching, and not media viewed on smartphones or tablets, it does provide some of the earliest data linking early-life digital media exposure with later atypical sensory processing across multiple behaviors. The authors said future research is needed to better understand the mechanisms that drive the association between early-life screen time and atypical sensory processing.
In addition to Heffler and Bennett, authors on this paper include Binod Acharya, who completed the work while at Drexel’s Dornsife School of Public Health’s Urban Health Collaborative, and Keshab Subedi from Christiana Care Health Systems.

Climate change could pose a big risk to Australians’ reproductive health with a new, large-scale Curtin University study revealing a possible link between extreme bioclimatic exposure during pregnancy and babies’ birthweights for gestational age.
Researchers from the Curtin School of Population Health examined more than 385,000 pregnancies in Western Australia between 2000 and 2015, from 12 weeks prior to conception until birth.
These pregnancies included 9.8% and 9.9% of children born too small and large for gestational age, respectively.
The team focused on the relationship between low and high birthweights for gestational age and a person’s outdoor heat or cold (biothermal) stress exposures during pregnancy.
To do so, the researchers used the Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI), a modern composite biothermal tool that describes a person’s physiological response to the thermal environment.
It’s the first study to use the UTCI to measure bioclimatic exposure before and during pregnancy and the risks of being born too small or large for gestational age.
It found exposure to low and high biothermal stress during specific times in pregnancy appeared to be linked to a higher risk of babies being smaller or larger for their gestational ages at birth.

The average biothermal exposure was between 8.1 and 30.0 degrees Celsius, a range that indicated slight cold stress and moderate heat stress on the UTCI scale.
The study revealed extreme biothermal exposures — 1st percentile (cold stress) and 99th percentile (heat stress), as compared to the median (no thermal stress), seemed to be most associated with changes in birthweight for gestational age.
Study lead Dr Sylvester Dodzi Nyadanu said this was especially true during particular stages of pregnancy.
“A baby’s size at birth is strongly associated with mortality risk during the first year, with developmental problems in childhood and the risk of various diseases in adulthood,” Dr Nyadanu said.
“These findings support our concerns that the risk of having a baby too small or large for its gestational age appears to increase with exposure to environmental conditions that cause biothermal stress in the latter stages of pregnancy.
“We also found other subpopulations were at higher risk of abnormal fetal growth due to exposure to biothermal stress, including non-Caucasian people, male births, pregnancies in those aged 35 and above, those in rural areas, and those who smoked during pregnancy.”
Dr Nyadanu said the study was part of growing evidence of climate change’s threat to reproductive health by exacerbating heat or cold waves, vector-borne diseases, natural disasters such as cyclones, floods, droughts and wildfires, food and water insecurity and altering many natural and social environments which are worsening existing health challenges.

“Thermal stress exposures increase dehydration and induce oxidative stress and systemic inflammatory responses, leading to adverse reproductive and foetal health outcomes,” he said.
“Our research adds to the growing collection of observational studies reporting on maternal exposure to ambient temperature and pregnancy outcomes such as pregnancy complications, preterm birth, stillbirth, and low birth weight.
“There needs to be further studies into what interventions will achieve better results for parents and babies — especially in the specific vulnerable subpopulations identified in our study.
“Pregnancy is a vulnerable period for climate change and so any climate care intervention is reproductive health care.”