Tag: News Approved

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This implant can restore sight for patients with macular degeneration

Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) affects more than 5 million people around the world. And until now, no treatment could restore their vision. The Prima system, which was approved in Europe in July and is awaiting FDA clearance in the US, changes that. It combines a retinal implant with camera-­equipped eyeglasses to improve sight in patients who develop a blind spot in the middle of their vision due to advanced AMD. After training sessions, more than 80% of recipients were able to read, do crosswords, and use their phones.

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The retina processes light in three layers of cells: Photoreceptors convert light into electricity, bipolar cells process that signal, and ganglion cells transmit the signal to the optic nerve and the brain. Prima replaces the photoreceptors.
BROWN BIRD DESIGN

Developed by the California-based Science Corporation, the system takes advantage of the fact that AMD doesn’t damage all retinal circuitry; only photoreceptors—the cells that convert light into an electrical signal—die off. Prima’s implant mimics those cells and transmits visual information directly to healthy eye circuitry and on to the brain. “We’re leveraging all of the body’s own natural functions to process and transmit the information,” says Frank Brodie, an ophthalmologist at the University of California, San Francisco, and medical director for Prima. 

BROWN BIRD DESIGN

CAPTURE

Glasses outfitted with a miniature front-facing camera capture what someone is seeing in real time. The video feed is roughly five megapixels running at 30 frames per second, which is similar to TV. The raw video is transmitted to a connected processor via a fiber-optic cable.

CONVERT

A small, handheld processor, which can be set on a table or tucked in a pocket, converts the video feed into infrared light signals that route back to the glasses. The device also includes physical buttons that let the wearer adjust contrast, brightness, and zoom.

BROWN BIRD DESIGN

DISPLAY

A laser projector on the glasses faces the wearer and shines pulses of near-infrared light directly at the eye at 880 nanometers—an invisible wavelength. This signal passes through the pupil and on to the retinal implant in the back of the eye.

SEE

The implant is made up of 378 pixels, each with an electrode and two photovoltaic cells, which do double duty. They convert the light into a current that healthy bipolar and ganglion cells pass on to the brain. They also act as solar cells to power the chip, eliminating the need for a battery.

Linda Marsa is a former Los Angeles Times reporter and an author who covers medicine, health, science, and the environment. 

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Supporting Older Adults Remotely

Conditions: Severe Mental Illness

Interventions: Behavioral: Supporting Older Adults Remotely (SOAR); Behavioral: Peer support as usual

Sponsors: Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center; National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Not yet recruiting
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Understanding the Influence of Substance Use, Mental Health, and Stigma on Smoking Behavior Among People Living With HIV: Rapid Qualitative Analysis

Background: In Vietnam, an upper-middle-income country, the majority of people living with HIV smoke. Vietnam has established quitline services to support this population, but they remain underused. Text messaging is widely used in Vietnam, and studies in other countries have shown that text messaging interventions can promote smoking cessation. Our goal was to conduct a formative study to inform the development of a text messaging intervention to increase access to quitline services and promote smoking cessation among people living with HIV who smoke in Vietnam. Objective: This study aimed to identify factors influencing smoking behaviors among people living with HIV in Vietnam through qualitative interviews to inform a tailored text messaging intervention. Methods: In October 2022, study staff conducted 30- to 45-minute qualitative interviews with 20 people living with HIV from clinics in Hai Phong and Quang Ninh provinces, Vietnam. Interviews explored factors that influenced smoking, such as substance use, mental health, HIV stigma, social context, and health. A rapid qualitative analysis approach was used to synthesize themes from the data, including identifying key domains based on prior literature, developing a semistructured interview guide, and organizing data within domains to support iterative theme development. These interviews were used to develop prompts to guide people living with HIV who smoke in writing peer messages for a text messaging intervention. Results: Across 6 themes, participants described smoking as part of their everyday lives, shaped by social situations, stress, alcohol use, and their experiences living with HIV. Social smoking and early initiation were important influences on smoking behaviors, whereas financial concerns and protecting family members and others from secondhand smoke promoted cessation. Some participants used smoking to cope, whereas others wished to quit for better health. HIV stigma was a major contributor to smoking, with many participants describing increased smoking after diagnosis. Participants suggested that cessation support should be better tailored to their needs. Conclusions: Smoking behaviors among people living with HIV are shaped by overlapping influences, including societal norms, mental health, HIV-related stigma, and other structural stressors. An understanding of these overlapping factors can inform the development of text-based interventions that offer effective cessation support tailored to this population. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05863923; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05863923
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App-Based Stabilization Phase Within Blended Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy With Compassion for Adolescents With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Formative Qualitative Study

Background: Digital tools may support early phases of trauma therapy for adolescents, yet little is known about how an app-based stabilization phase functions in routine child and adolescent psychiatry clinics. To our knowledge, no previous study has qualitatively examined a compassion-integrated, app-based stabilization phase delivered before trauma processing within trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) for adolescents. Objective: This formative qualitative pretrial study explored the acceptability, feasibility, and contextual fit of an app-based stabilization phase within blended TF-CBT with compassion (bTF-CBT-C) for adolescents with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The aim was to inform the refinement of intervention content, caregiver support, and clinical workflow prior to a planned pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT). Methods: Four adolescent girls with PTSD (aged 14‐16 years) completed a 5-week app-based stabilization program integrating TF-CBT coping skills and compassion-focused practices, while 5 caregivers received parallel content in a nonapp format. Three adolescents and 4 caregivers participated in postintervention semistructured interviews, and 4 clinicians completed a brief open-ended survey. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results: One overarching theme, Navigating digital stabilization within shifting conditions,” captured how engagement fluctuated with emotional capacity, cognitive load, relational dynamics, and logistical stability. Adolescents and caregivers experienced the intervention content as grounding and meaningful but difficult to sustain amid fatigue, school pressure, neurodivergent attention patterns, and family strain. Clinicians similarly noted varying capacity, the need for scaffolding, and the importance of reminders and smooth access. Clear content could exceed users’ cognitive bandwidth; adolescents preferred autonomy, while caregivers were unsure how to support them; and technical friction sometimes disrupted momentum. Across the groups, participants described grounding and compassion-based practices as supporting emotional safety, shared understanding, and readiness for trauma-focused work. Conclusions: The findings suggest that app-based stabilization within bTF-CBT-C may be acceptable and potentially feasible for adolescents with PTSD, their caregivers, and clinicians. Feasibility appears to depend on flexible pacing, cognitive accessibility, caregiver guidance, and technical reliability. The study identifies candidate refinements to be evaluated in the pilot RCT and provides preliminary insight into how compassion-integrated digital stabilization may support preparation for trauma-focused therapy.
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A Digital Tool for Culturally Responsive Reflection and Case Conceptualization in First-Line Services to Support Children With a Refugee Background: Development and Usability Study

Background: In 2023, over 117 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide, 40% of them children. Refugee children are at higher risk for posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and anxiety, while professionals may struggle to address mental health and trauma-related concerns across unfamiliar cultural contexts. The Psychiatry Assisting the Culturally Diverse Community in Creating Healing Ties (PACCT) approach supports culturally responsive care for culturally diverse families, but first-line professionals often lack practical support to apply such an approach in routine care. Objective: The study aimed to (1) identify professionals’ support to inform the development of Implementing PACCT through a Culturally Contextualized Tool (IMPACCT), a digital decision-support tool; (2) map these needs onto the initial IMPACCT conceptualization; and (3) gather initial feedback from professionals to guide further refinement. Methods: We conducted a qualitative descriptive study in 3 phases. First, we analyzed 905 anonymized help desk questions submitted between May 2021 and November 2023 to Solentra, a Belgian center of expertise providing transcultural mental health support and consultation for refugees and other vulnerable migrant populations. Questions were coded using a predeveloped framework to identify recurrent professional needs. Second, we mapped all help desk question categories onto the different components of the first conceptualization of IMPACCT to ensure that its content reflected users’ questions and expectations. Third, 19 professionals working with refugee and migrant populations in Belgium were recruited through an open call between December 2024 and February 2025 using convenience sampling. After hands-on experience with a first iteration of IMPACCT, they provided feedback during semistructured interviews. These interviews were subsequently analyzed using deductive qualitative content analysis. Results: In the help desk questions, trauma-related concerns were the most common, followed by anxiety/stress and depressive symptoms. Acculturation was the most dominant culture-migration category. Most contexts were family- and school-oriented, and professionals were primarily asking for supervision or concrete next-step guidance. The interviews (N=19) found that the professionals thought that IMPACCT provided them with better-structured and early reflection, lessened some of the decision-making burden, and enabled a more structurally informed understanding of culture in the context of migration. Reported barriers included the time required and a lack of adaptation in workflow, with more experienced professionals reporting less perceived value. Additionally, participants suggested using IMPACCT as a training and/or supervision aid in first-line services and as standard decision support in ambulatory and inpatient care. Conclusions: The study offers first insights into the possible conceptualization of a digital decision-support tool for first-line professionals to help them support children with a refugee background. Further technical optimization of the tool, also taking into account first-user feedback, is, however, necessary before subsequently exploring its efficacy as well as effectiveness in strengthening first-line professionals’ competencies in working with the vulnerable population.
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Child and Adolescent Mental Health Misinformation on TikTok: Cross-Sectional Mixed Methods Study

<strong>Background:</strong> TikTok is an important source of mental health information for children, adolescents, and young adults, but the accuracy of psychoeducational content remains uncertain. Misleading information may be particularly consequential for younger users, who may have limited digital and health literacy. <strong>Objective:</strong> This study aimed to characterize misinformation and disinformation in TikTok content related to child and adolescent mental health, identify mental health topics disproportionately represented in misleading content, examine whether platform-observable video characteristics could discriminate videos containing misinformation, and explore how viewers responded to this content. <strong>Methods:</strong> We conducted a cross-sectional mixed methods secondary analysis of 122 child and adolescent mental health videos identified from a previously collected dataset of 1000 publicly available TikTok videos. Videos were independently coded for content, intent, authenticity, clinical topic, presenter characteristics, and engagement. An L2-penalized logistic regression using only platform-observable characteristics was evaluated using stratified 5-fold cross-validation; 95% CIs for predictive metrics were estimated using 5000 stratified bootstrap resamples of out-of-fold predictions. Disinformation was analyzed descriptively because only 2 cases were identified. An exploratory thematic analysis was conducted on 116 selected viewer comments. <strong>Results:</strong> Misinformation was identified in 21 of 122 (17.2%; 95% CI 11.5%-24.9%) videos, whereas disinformation occurred in 2 of 122 (1.6%; 95% CI 0.5%-5.8%). Misinformation was most frequent among videos addressing autism spectrum disorders (11/27, 40.7%), impulse control disorders (1/3, 33.3%), and mood disorders (4/13, 30.8%). Professional credentials were not disclosed in 63 of 122 (51.6%) videos, and only 9 of 122 (7.4%) referenced an external scientific source. The observable-feature model demonstrated modest discrimination, with an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.70 (95% CI 0.56-0.82), balanced accuracy of 0.69 (95% CI 0.58-0.79), recall of 0.67 (95% CI 0.48-0.86), and <i>F</i><sub>1</sub>-score of 0.44 (95% CI 0.32-0.56). Qualitative analysis identified 5 recurring patterns in viewer responses: sharing and validation of lived experiences, discussion of diagnosis and misdiagnosis, frustration with mental health care, peer support and encouragement, and exchanges about treatment and medication experiences. <strong>Conclusions:</strong> A substantial minority of the analyzed TikTok videos contained misinformation, with particularly high proportions among some neurodevelopmental and mood-related topics. Platform-observable characteristics provided only modest discrimination of misinformation, underscoring the difficulty of identifying misleading mental health content from surface-level features alone. Viewer comments further showed that TikTok mental health content is embedded within broader processes of self-interpretation, diagnostic discussion, peer validation, and treatment-related exchange. These findings support the need for developmentally appropriate digital health literacy initiatives and accurate, transparently sourced psychoeducational content for young social media users. <strong>Trial Registration:</strong>
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Newly Identified Microexons Offer Clues to Autism Spectrum Disorder’s Genetic Roots

Scientists from the University of Toronto, the Sloan Kettering Institute, King’s College London, and the Francis Crick Institute have published data that points to a role for several new microexons in the development of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). According to the findings, published today in Nature, the scientists identified hundreds of new microexons that appear to be involved in ASD and other neurological conditions, and developed a machine learning approach to predict the impact of ASD-associated genetic variants on how these segments are regulated. 

Full details are available in a paper titled “A microexon regulatory code reveals autism-linked genetic variation.” In it, the scientists described how they used a computational tool dubbed MicroExonator to analyze over 100 terabytes of publicly available RNA sequencing data. The tool was developed by Guillermo Parada, PhD, the study’s co-lead author and a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Benjamin Blencowe, PhD,  at King’s and the Crick. Using the tool, he identified more than 1,500 new microexons, of which nearly 300 appeared to be specifically spliced in the brain. Furthermore, many are concentrated in genes associated with critical brain-specific processes, supporting a potential link to neurological health. 

The scientists also explored whether DNA variants found in people with autism might preferentially impact the expanded repertoire of microexons. Specifically they built and applied a machine learning model designed to identify the key regulatory features governing whether a microexon is spliced in or out of messenger RNAs. “What surprised me was that the sequences the model identified as important closely matched those conserved throughout vertebrate evolution,” says Parada.

Next, the scientists applied the model to whole-genome sequence data from thousands of people with autism and neurotypical sibling pairs. Specifically, they analyzed the predicted impact of ASD-associated genetic variants on the microexon regulatory code. “We were able to show that rare genetic variants generally have the largest predicted effects on the splicing of neuronal microexons,” says Blencowe, one of the study’s senior authors and a professor of molecular genetics at University of Toronto. The model further pinpointed a subset of rare variants predicted to alter microexon splicing that are associated with autism.

Additionally, the team found that the variants predicted to affect microexons are predominantly detected among the 85% of autistic individuals that previously lacked a genetic link to autism. This is an important point because “hundreds of genomic variants have been associated with autism, and these deliver a genetic diagnosis in 15 percent of autistic individuals,” says Blencowe, who is also a part-time professor at King’s and the Crick. That means that for 85 percent of people with an ASD diagnosis, the genetic explanation for their condition remains unknown. The findings from this study could provide some answers. 

“In terms of future work, it will be important to understand how disrupted microexons affect interactions between proteins that are important for nervous system development and function,” Blencowe adds. One of the research programs in his lab is also exploring new therapeutic approaches to target microexon dysregulation.

Furthermore, the scientists believe that the machine learning model they developed can be used to characterize other newly discovered genetic variants and their effects in neurological conditions like schizophrenia and epilepsy where microexons are believed to play a role.

 

The post Newly Identified Microexons Offer Clues to Autism Spectrum Disorder’s Genetic Roots appeared first on GEN – Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News.

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Redox compromise as an early, modifiable entry point in schizophrenia: a staging framework for early intervention

Schizophrenia is understood as a disorder of dopamine signaling and is treated with dopamine receptor antagonists. These drugs reduce hallucinations and delusions but leave cognitive impairment, negative symptoms and functional decline largely untouched. This article advances a complementary view, as a hypothesis rather than an established account. It treats redox compromise, meaning chronic oxidative stress, glutathione depletion, mitochondrial inefficiency and the inflammatory state that accompanies them, as an early and modifiable point of entry into a self-reinforcing loop. The loop also involves NMDA receptor hypofunction, impairment of parvalbumin interneurons, disturbed circuit connectivity and, last, the dopaminergic phenotype that current drugs address. It runs in both directions: blocking NMDA receptors itself generates oxidative stress in animal models, so the claim is not that redox compromise comes first, but that it can be measured and modified early, before the changes that current treatment cannot reverse. The clinical staging framework of McGorry and the neuroprogression framework of Berk provide the architecture for translating this into intervention windows, with the first two levels treated as risk strata rather than disease stages. Impaired glucose tolerance in first-episode patients who have never taken antipsychotics, which neither medication nor chronicity can explain, is presented as evidence that metabolic disturbance is a parallel expression of the same systemic process. The progressive framing is contested. The principal counterevidence, including the contribution of antipsychotic exposure to brain volume loss and the largely stable course of cognitive impairment after onset, is set out together with the results that would require abandoning it. We organize the biomarker literature by stage and propose three predictions that a trial could refute: that biomarker-stratified prevention will outperform unselected prevention at the clinical high-risk stage; that medial prefrontal glutathione and mismatch negativity deficit will add predictive value beyond clinical assessment; and that removing the redox measures from a multimodal panel will worsen its prediction of transition. A biomarker-stratified phase 2b trial with a formal power calculation is proposed. The human evidence supports association and biological plausibility rather than proven causal direction.