The Health Potential of Pine Terpenes and Bark Extracts

https://www.news-medical.net/health/The-Health-Potential-of-Pine-Terpenes-and-Bark-Extracts.aspx Pine oils and bark contain chemically distinct compounds, raising interest in how their biological activity could inform treatment development. Pines are coniferous trees and shrubs belonging to the genus Pinus, the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae (family Pinaceae).4 These plants are predominantly native to the Northern Hemisphere and occupy varied habitats. Pines are evergreen trees with modified, slender, needle-like leaves and woody, seed-bearing cones (pinecones).1 Historical records indicate that these plants have long been used in traditional medicine systems globally. Pine tissues contain secondary metabolites with protective functions, including terpenes and polyphenols, that are being investigated for their pharmacological activity.1,4

Anti-Inflammatory Diets for Joint Health: How Foods and Nutrients Affect Inflammation

https://www.news-medical.net/health/Anti-Inflammatory-Diets-for-Joint-Health-How-Foods-and-Nutrients-Affect-Inflammation.aspx From gut microbes to cartilage chemistry, researchers are investigating how dietary compounds influence joint inflammation and what these mechanisms could mean for arthritis care. Diet may influence joint health by affecting inflammation, gut microbial activity, and cartilage breakdown. Researchers are studying plant-derived polyphenols and omega-3 fatty acids for their ability to regulate these pathways, while advanced glycation end-products (AGEs), which form in the body and during food processing, may contribute to cartilage stiffness and inflammatory signaling. For people with osteoarthritis, some clinical trials suggest that selected polyphenol preparations and omega-3 supplements can modestly improve pain and joint function. Whether dietary changes can preserve cartilage or slow disease progression remains uncertain, making it important to distinguish symptom relief from lasting changes in joint structure

A study of 844,000 adults reveals what BMI misses about obesity

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20261112/A-study-of-844000-adults-reveals-what-BMI-misses-about-obesity.aspx Two people can have the same BMI but very different health profiles. A study spanning four countries examines whether waist measurements and organ function can provide a clearer picture of obesity and its long-term health implications. In a recent study published in the journal Nature, researchers analyzed data from more than 844,000 adults in four countries to examine how waist measurements and organ function affect obesity classification and its association with mortality.

One slope, many causes: a multiscale framework for interpreting 1/f-like neural spectra Georgina E. Cruz1 (++...)

https://www.academia.edu/3071-4087/2/3/10.20935/AcadNeurosci8480 Aperiodic, 1/f-like structure is prominent in power spectra from local field potential (LFP), electrocorticography (ECoG), magnetoencephalography (MEG), and scalp electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. Related scale-like structure is studied in slower blood oxygen level-dependent functional magnetic resonance imaging (BOLD fMRI) time series, although BOLD is hemodynamic rather than electromagnetic. Once treated mainly as background, aperiodic activity is now used to characterize neural state, cognition, development, disease, anesthesia, arousal, and pharmacological perturbation. Although an exponent, offset, or knee describes a recorded spectrum, it does not identify a microscopic mechanism. This review organizes interpretation around five questions: ingredients, dynamics, visibility, description, and test. Cellular and synaptic kinetics provide temporal ingredients; circuit interactions combine them; source geometry and recording modality determine visibility; spectral analysis compresses the measured mixture into fitted parameters; and perturbations and generative models test candidate explanations. The framework explains why excitation/inhibition balance is model-dependent, why a knee supports a timescale only under a specified relaxation model, and why different processes can yield the same finite-band exponent. Intracranial examples further show that parameter values vary across sources and should not be treated as modality-independent reference values. Mechanistic inference is strongest when selective perturbations and source-aware forward or generative models produce synthetic recordings analyzed with the same pipeline as the data. Thus, aperiodic spectra can reveal meaningful differences in neural state, but biological interpretation requires an explicit account of how activity is generated, projected, measured, and summarized. https://www.academia.edu/journals/academia-neuroscience-and-brain-research/articles?source=journal-top-nav

The 2026 Bispecific Antibody Drug Discovery Report

https://www.wuxibiologics.com/cro-services/resources/papers-posters/bispecific-antibody-report/?utm_campaign=49846937-2026%20Bispecific%20Antibody%20Drug%20Discovery%20Report&utm_source=DDN&utm_medium=Featured%20Ad&utm_content=DDN%20Newsletter%20Feature%20Top%20Ad%20%3A%202026%20Bispecific%20Antibody%20Drug%20Discovery%20Report What does it take to build a successful bispecific antibody program? The 2026 Bispecific Antibody Drug Discovery Report brings together perspectives from WuXi Biologics technical leaders, scientific advisors, and scientists, many with 10-25+ years of biologics drug discovery experience. Their expertise spans molecular design, engineering, production, early developability assessment, functional evaluation, and platform innovation across diverse biologics programs. These technical perspectives are complemented by strategic insights from our experience as a global CRDMO, along with curated tracking of the bsAb landscape since 2025.

Another OX40 therapy drops out of the race Psychedelic therapy updates, a novel application for bone marrow, and a hefty price tag for a priority review voucher led the news this week. Brought to you byDDN editorial team

Another OX40 therapy drops out of the race Psychedelic therapy updates, a novel application for bone marrow, and a hefty price tag for a priority review voucher led the news this week. Brought to you byDDN editorial team https://www.drugdiscoverynews.com/another-ox40-therapy-drops-out-of-the-race-17658 As part of their Q3 financial results, AbCellera announced they do not plan to continue developing their investigational antibody drug blocking the OX40 receptor for atopic dermatitis and other autoimmune conditions. This news came despite meeting all endpoints in the Phase 1 trial. The announcement follows similar decisions from companies developing OX40 inhibitor drugs for skin conditions, with Kyowa Kirin and Amgen announcing their decision to discontinue their anti-OX40 monoclonal antibody in March, and Sanofi who announced in July that they decided not to submit their monoclonal antibody for global regulatory reviews. Both times, the pharma companies cited safety concerns in their statements. OX40 drugs have also seen major setbacks in treating cancer, where the therapies are being used not as OX40 blockers but instead as OX40 activators to stimulate the immune system to attack tumors. This pursuit saw early high-profile drops from AstraZeneca, GSK, Genentech, and Bristol Myers Squibb. Yet, Inhibrx Biosciences designed a second-generation version and recently reported the first positive Phase 2 results when given alongside Keytruda in head and neck cancer, currently acting as the last remaining hope for the drug modality. – Allison Whitten

Five labs fail to replicate therapeutic effects of psilocybin in mice Despite using identical protocols, the group of researchers showed that many oft-reported positive effects of psilocybin were not reproducible. Written byAllison Whitten, PhD

Five labs fail to replicate therapeutic effects of psilocybin in mice Despite using identical protocols, the group of researchers showed that many oft-reported positive effects of psilocybin were not reproducible. Written byAllison Whitten, PhD https://www.drugdiscoverynews.com/five-labs-fail-to-replicate-therapeutic-effects-of-psilocybin-in-mice-17659 The field of psychedelic therapeutics is moving fast; there are now hundreds of clinical trials spanning early to late stages, led by small biotechs and Big Pharma companies alike. This Monday, Compass Therapeutics announced they submitted a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA for COMP360, a synthetic form of psilocybin, for treatment-resistant depression. Yet, these trials are rapidly progressing against a backdrop of inconsistent results in the foundational science investigating these drugs. Animal behavior experiments do not always show positive effects from psychedelic therapies, and discrepancies can arise from differences in the dose, experimental conditions, and behavioral tests used.