Healthy cells work hard to maintain the integrity of our DNA, but occasionally, a chromosome can get separated from the others and break apart during cell division. The tiny fragments of DNA then get reassembled in random order in the new cell, sometimes producing cancerous gene mutations.

This chromosomal shattering and rearranging is called “chromothripsis” and occurs in the majority of human cancers, especially cancers of the bones, brain and fatty tissue.

People with weakened immune systems are at constant risk of infection. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common environmental bacterium, can colonize different body parts, such as the lungs, leading to persistent, chronic infections that can last a lifetime - a common occurrence in people with cystic fibrosis.

But the bacteria can sometimes change their behavior and enter the bloodstream, causing chronic localized infections to become acute and potentially fatal.

In a new study published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, University of Minnesota researchers found that metformin, a drug commonly used to treat diabetes, prevents the development of long COVID.

The study, called COVID-OUT, investigated if early outpatient COVID-19 treatment with metformin, ivermectin or fluvoxamine could prevent long COVID. Long COVID is a chronic illness that can affect up to 10% of people who have had COVID-19.

A deficiency of taurine - a nutrient produced in the body and found in many foods - is a driver of aging in animals, according to a new study led by Columbia researchers and involving dozens of aging researchers around the world.

The same study also found that taurine supplements can slow down the aging process in worms, mice, and monkeys and can even extend the healthy lifespans of middle-aged mice by up to 12%.

In an international study co-led by UCLA, scientists have shown that a new targeted therapy drug can extend the amount of time people with a subtype of glioma are on treatment without their cancer worsening. The finding suggests a possible new treatment option for people with the slow-growing but deadly brain tumor.

The team found the drug vorasidenib more than doubled progression-free survival in people with recurrent grade 2 glioma with IDH1 and IDH2 mutations.

Since it was identified in 1984 as the cause of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS), the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has infected more than 80 million people and been responsible for some 40 million deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Currently, the WHO reports more than 38 million people globally live with the retrovirus, and each year, another 1 million new cases are diagnosed.

Why do some people develop Alzheimer's disease while others don't? And, even more puzzlingly, why do many individuals whose brains are chock-full of toxic amyloid aggregates - a telltale sign of Alzheimer's brain pathology - never go on to develop Alzheimer's-associated dementias?

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers appear to have found the answer.