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Scientists have identified a weakened brain signal that may connect several seemingly unrelated symptoms of schizophrenia, including sensory processing difficulties, disorganized speech, and greater symptom severity. The surprising discovery could help explain the disorder's underlying mechanisms and potentially lead to earlier detection and new treatments.

A study of nearly 13,000 adults found that people consuming the most artificial sweeteners experienced a 62% faster decline in memory and thinking skills, equivalent to approximately 1.6 additional years of brain aging. Six popular sweeteners were linked to faster cognitive decline, raising concerns about the long-term brain health effects of common sugar substitutes, although causation was not established.

Rules governing credit and responsibility for machine-written papers may need a reboot

Getting more daylight could be linked to a surprisingly powerful benefit for brain health. In a study of more than 87,000 adults, researchers found that higher daytime light exposure was associated with a 16% lower risk of dementia, with longer exposure to bright light linked to even greater reductions. Remarkably, getting less than 42 minutes of bright daylight daily was a stronger predictor of dementia than six established risk factors.

Cranberry juice may offer an unexpected benefit beyond its reputation for helping prevent urinary tract infections: protecting teeth from decay. Researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago discovered that pure, unsweetened cranberry juice slowed the regrowth of dental plaque bacteria and reduced their production of acids that damage tooth enamel. The secret may lie in naturally occurring compounds called proanthocyanidins, which interfere with harmful bacteria.

In this issue of Cell, Brioschi et al. identify cellular musculoaponeurotic fibrosarcoma (cMAF) as a key regulator of brain perivascular macrophages that supports cerebrovascular function through insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) production. This cMAF-IGF1 program is enhanced in Alzheimer's disease (AD), potentially reflecting a protective response that is lost in APOE4 carriers.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by marked heterogeneity in the timing and extent of neuronal dysfunction and degeneration. Specific neuronal populations, including entorhinal cortex layer II stellate cells, hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons, basal forebrain cholinergic neurons, locus coeruleus noradrenergic neurons, and prefrontal parvalbumin interneurons, show different combinations of functional, pathological, and degenerative vulnerability during disease progression. The strength...

In this issue of Cell, Grońska-Pęski et al. examine how calorie restriction (CR) affects DNA mutation rates. While CR lowers the accumulation of mutations, this effect does not scale with the degree of lifespan extension. Their work raises important new questions about how CR impacts the causal mechanisms of aging.

Autocrine signaling through vascular endothelial growth factor receptor-1 (VEGFR-1) reprograms T cell metabolism upon TCR stimulation. We found that mice bearing conditional deletion of Flt1 (encoding VEGFR-1) in T cells developed spontaneous obesity with advancing age. Analyses of lymphoid and metabolic tissues identified a VEGFR-1^(+) T follicular helper (Tfh) population in Peyer's patches and mesenteric lymph nodes. Flt1 deletion impaired Tfh fitness and reduced secretory IgA in the gut,...

Mitochondria arose from an alphaproteobacterial endosymbiont that became integrated within an archaeal host during eukaryogenesis. The discovery of Asgard archaea has clarified host ancestry and supports reconstructions in which aspects of cytoskeletal and membrane complexity preceded mitochondrial acquisition. Organellogenesis involved genome reduction, gene transfer, protein import, metabolic coupling, and vertical inheritance. These evolutionary principles complement current mitochondrial...

Parental age influences offspring traits across species, yet the molecular pathways by which maternal state modulates progeny neural function remain poorly defined. Here we demonstrate that maternal age in Caenorhabditis elegans regulates progeny avoidance of the social pheromone by modulating the activity of a defined sensory circuit. Progeny of young mothers exhibit stronger activity of the pheromone-sensing ADL neurons and enhanced pheromone avoidance, whereas progeny of older mothers display...

Daniali et al. show that dopamine drives mitochondrial stress, mtDNA release, and cGAS-STING-dependent IL-6 production in human macrophages. These findings suggest a mechanism linking dopaminergic signaling to mtDNA damage signatures increasingly detected in blood from patients with Parkinson's disease.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fnagi.2026.1929453.].

The corneal nerve plexus is essential to ocular surface homeostasis through sensory detection, trophic support, epithelial repair, blinking, and lacrimal reflexes. In dry eye disease (DED), chronic hyperosmolar, inflammatory, mechanical, and age-related stressors alter nerve morphology and function, contributing to reduced nerve density, aberrant regeneration, microneuroma formation, sensory loss, and peripheral or central sensitization. This review summarizes the ultrastructure of corneal...

Biological age estimation is increasingly used in aging research, but evaluation often relies too heavily on mean absolute error (MAE) against chronological age. We conducted a narrative review of major molecular aging clocks and propose an operational framework that links clock selection to the intended task. Applications are organized into four tasks: chronological-age estimation, age-independent deviation, future disease or mortality risk, and longitudinal monitoring of aging pace or...

Chronic low-grade inflammation ("inflammaging") drives age-related decline, but whether anti-inflammatory medications preserve functional performance in older age remains unknown. This study evaluated the 5-year effect of aspirin on a modified Intrinsic Capacity (IC) index in older males and females. A post-hoc analysis of a randomised controlled trial comparing daily 100 mg aspirin to placebo in prolonging dementia- and disability-free survival (DFS) in community-dwelling individuals aged ≥ 65...

The locus coeruleus (LC) brainstem cell group is evolutionarily conserved across vertebrates and influences both mind (cognition) and body (cardiorespiratory, metabolic, and immune functions) via two-putatively distinct-spontaneous activity patterns. Yet, the degree to which spontaneous LC firing rates and patterns are homogeneous across species has never been assessed due to inherently limited sample sizes. To remedy this, we pooled cross-species data from 20 laboratories to show that firing...

Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) depletion and multiple deletions frequently coexist in mitochondrial disease, neurodegeneration, and aging, yet how the two relate and why deletions accumulate focally remain unresolved. Here, longitudinal bulk and in situ analyses of Mpv17^(-/-) murine muscle reveal that a compensatory rise in mitochondrial transcripts per mtDNA initially offsets severe, uniform mtDNA depletion, preserving the respiratory chain. However, this response carries a delayed cost: by six...

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, with global case numbers projected to reach 153 million in 2050¹. AD is highly heritable, with twin-based heritability estimates of 60-80%². Although 1,200 causal loci are predicted to exist for AD³, approximately 80 loci have been associated with AD in two recent studies^(4,5). Low single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability estimates have prompted the suggestion that little further common-variant risk remains to be...

Genome stability depends on the accurate repair of DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). While chromatin-based mechanisms have been well studied, emerging evidence reveals that nuclear mechanics actively shape repair outcomes, although the mechanisms remain unclear. Here we identify microtubule acetylation as a regulator of nuclear mechanics that promotes DSB repair via homologous recombination (HR). DNA damage induces progressive tubulin acetylation, leading to displacement of the perinuclear...