Category: 8. Health

Sharing that research suggests sleeping less than seven hours a night can increase the risk of heart disease, he said, “The National Library of Medicine (NIH) reports that sleeping just one hour less than 7 hours increases heart disease risk by 11 percent. Sleep is an underrated aspect of heart health. It not only resets the body but also keeps the heart strong and healthy. Yet, Sleep is ignored as optional, compromising for work, social media, and late-night binge-watching.”

How sleep benefits heart health

Explaining how sleep resets the cardiovascular system, he said, “The state of sleep acts like a reset button for the cardiovascular system. The blood pressure naturally decreases, the heart rate slows down, and the body starts to repair any kind of injuries, stress, and muscles.”

Dr D’silva added that sleeping relieves the human body from the exhaustion and tension experienced all day. “Good sleep also helps increase melatonin, cortisol, and antidiuretic hormone (ADH) levels, which are responsible for protecting blood vessels from oxidative stress, reducing hypertension, controlling excessive stress on the heart, and protecting the heart from any kind of risk in the long run,” he said.

What are the risks of poor sleep?

Lack of sleep can lead to increased blood pressure, straining the cardiovascular system. According to Dr D’silva, “Sleep is one of the basic needs for the human body. The lack of sleep affects the body physically and mentally, making the body tired and sleepy and adversely affecting heart health.”

The doctor explained that poor sleep can disrupt hunger hormones, leading to weight gain and obesity, and affect insulin release, increasing the risk of type 2 diabetes. Here’s how:

⦿ Blood pressure

“Lack of sleep can shift hormone levels, leading to increased blood pressure. This can produce stress and strain on the cardiovascular system,” Dr D’silva said.

⦿ Obesity

He added, “Insufficient sleep can disturb the hormones that regulate hunger, which can lead to conditions like weight gain and obesity. Obesity is a big contributor to heart disease as it can lead to conditions like high cholesterol.”

⦿ Diabetes

Dr D’silva said, “Poor sleep affects the human body’s ability to release the insulin hormone, which increases the chances of developing type 2 diabetes. A maintained sleep cycle can preserve the heart young and healthy.”

10 tips for better sleep

Dr D’silva said proper sleep stimulates the required hormones that regulate growth hormones and repair tissues – these are an essential part of better heart health. According to Dr D’silva, you should go to bed and wake up at the same time every day, include fruits, green vegetables, and protein-rich foods in your diet, limit screen time, avoid heavy meals, as well as plan your tasks, and try relaxation techniques to reduce stress, among other things.

Here are some tips from Dr D’silva for deep sleep:

1. Stick to a regular sleep schedule, go to sleep and wake up at the same time every day.

2. Include healthy foods like fruits, green vegetables, and protein-rich foods in your diet. Avoid alcohol, caffeine, smoking, and high fats or sugar.

3. Don’t eat heavy meals before bed for better digestion and restorative sleep.

4. Limit screen time at least 1 hour before bed time.

5. Don’t overhydrate before bed.

6. Try to get proper sunlight during the day. Go for a morning or a launch walk.

7. Exercise daily for better blood circulation. Try not to exercise a few hours before sleeping.

8. Plan the next day’s tasks to reduce stress.

8. Treat prostate problems to support better, uninterrupted sleep.

10. Keep your bedroom cool, dark and quiet, and make a comfortable and clean bed.

When to consult a doctor

If you struggle with sleep or experience issues like depression, consult a doctor for proper diagnosis and treatment. Dr D’silva said, “A constant struggle for sleep could be a sign of a sleep disorder. It can cause depression and other mental health issues. If you have doubts about symptoms, see a doctor.”

He added Teleconsultation can be a convenient option to discuss your symptoms and monitor your heart health, and said, “Teleconsultation facilities make it effortless and easy to connect with doctors. Monitoring heart health through blood pressure checks and ECG screening helps. Consulting a doctor beforehand can prevent any serious heart risks in the future.”

Note to readers: This article is for informational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the advice of your doctor with any questions about a medical condition.

An Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has killed at least 15 people, further straining health services in the country.

The virus, which is spread by bodily fluids, is endemic in animal populations in Central and West Africa, and there are periodic outbreaks. The largest, originating in Guinea in 2014, killed over 11,000 people, and another in 2018 killed a further 2,000; other flare-ups have died away more quickly.

The DRC is already struggling — its healthcare system is weak, and there is a civil war raging in the east. Approximately 50% of people infected with Ebola die of the extensive hemorrhaging the disease causes, although that figure varies widely depending on the strain and the available medical care.

More advanced and cheaper to run, the OPM-MEG is only one of 14 in the world and the only one in Ireland.

A one-of-a-kind wearable brain scanner has just arrived in Trinity College Dublin (TCD), touted to be a “gamechanger” for researchers attempting to identify the earliest signs of life-changing conditions such as epilepsy, dementia or Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The wearable, called the Optically Pumped Magnetometers Magnetoencephalography, or OPM-MEG for short, uses quantum technology to track brain networks in real time as they respond to different cognitive demands.

One of only 14 such machines in the world, the OPM-MEG system is housed in a shielded room in Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience (TCIN) which eliminates external magnetic fields. This is the first time such a device has been set up in the country.

Unlike other brain scanning techniques such as MRIs where participants are required to lie motionless while a machine scans their brain, the OPM-MEG uses a lightweight and adaptable helmet which allows participants to sit or even move around.

This makes it possible to study brain activity while doing more typical tasks during the day or scan children and people with brain disorders.

The MEG is a neuroimaging technique that measures brain activity by detecting magnetic fields produced by electrical currents in the brain. The system allows scientists to construct 3D images showing changes in brain activity that occur through time.

However, conventional MEG scanners are large, heavy and do not allow for participant movement, making it difficult for them to stay still over long periods of time. They are also expensive to maintain due to their need for cryogenic cooling.

The new OPM-MEG systems, however, are worn like a helmet. They adapt to any head size and allow participants to move freely during a scan. The new system also offers higher sensitivity and better spatial precision and do not require cooling, making them cheaper to run as well.

The OPM-MEG scanner is “the most important breakthrough in human brain imaging in the last two decades” said Prof Redmond O’Connell, director of the new MEG facility at Trinity.

“The new OPM-MEG system here in Trinity will provide scientists with unique information about the timing and location of brain activity which will deepen our understanding of how the brain works and advance our understanding of the origins of brain disorders. It’s a gamechanger for researcher[s] working on brain disorders and wider research on the human brain,” O’Connell said.

For now, the scanner is only available for research use, but it is hoped that it will become available as a clinical diagnostic tool to improve treatment outcomes for patients. A team of scientists from Trinity, Beaumont Hospital and the National Children’s Hospital are working to have the OPM-MEG system recognised as a diagnostic and presurgical mapping tool by the HSE.

“The launch of the new MEG facility is a major milestone for Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience which is this year celebrating its 25th birthday,” said Prof Sinéad Ryan, TCD’s dean of research.

“TCIN has long been at the forefront of brain imaging research internationally and its role in pioneering new techniques and technologies continues with its early adoption of OPM-MEG.

“This exciting new tool will further enhance TCIN’s mission to advance our knowledge of the human brain and mind, contributing to our university’s strategic commitment to intensify our research,” Ryan added.

“The MEG scanning system will allow brain researchers in Trinity and Ireland to continue to push the frontiers of cognitive neuroscience and apply this knowledge to improve the quality of human health and welfare.”

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Air pollution is associated with an increased risk of developing dementia, according to a new study.

Fine particles in the air can contribute to devastating forms of the disease, the research suggests, by propagating toxic clumps of protein in the brain.

Exposure to airborne particles makes it more likely to misfold into clumps, which can then destroy nerve cells in the brain. This is a common cause of Lewy body dementia, which researchers describe as a “devastating and increasingly prevalent neurodegenerative disorder”.

It is the second most common form of the disease after Alzheimer’s.

In light of the findings, scientists have called for a concerted effort to improve air quality by cutting emissions, improving wildlife management, and reducing wood burning in homes.

Dr Xiaobo Mao, neurologist at Johns Hopkins University and lead investigator of the study, said: “Unlike age or genetics, this is something we can change.”

“The most direct implication is that clean air policies are brain health policies,” he told The Guardian.

To draw their findings, researchers first analysed the hospital records of 56.5 million US Medicare patients, looking at those who were admitted between 2000 and 2014 with protein damage. By cross-referencing the symptom with the patients’ zip codes, they were able to estimate their long-term exposure to PM2.5 pollution – airborne particles smaller than 2.5 thousandths of a millimetre.

They theorised that long-term exposure to the particles, which can be inhaled into the lungs, raised the risk of Lewy body dementia.

Lewy bodies refer to the abnormal clumps that lead to the disease, which are made from a protein called alpha-synuclein. While the protein is essential for regulating brain function, it can misfold, meaning it assumes the wrong structure and is harmful.

They can kill nerve cells and cause diseases by spreading through the brain.

To confirm their findings, researchers tested their theory on mice by exposing them to PM2.5 pollution every other day for ten months. Some were normal mice, while others were genetically modified to prevent them from producing alpha-synuclein.

The experiment saw nerve cells die off in the normal mice, leading to brain shrinkage and cognitive decline. Meanwhile, the genetically modified mice showed little change.

Further research on mice showed that PM2.5 pollution was driving the formation of toxic clumps of alpha-synuclein that bore a resemblance to Lewy bodies in humans. These findings are considered compelling evidence despite being confirmed in mice.

“Our findings have profound implications for prevention because they identify air pollution as a modifiable risk factor for Lewy body dementia,” said Dr Mao.

“By lowering our collective exposure to air pollution, we can potentially reduce the risk of developing these devastating neurodegenerative conditions on a population-wide scale.”

At first, the patient’s symptoms were a puzzle: swelling of the brain tissue and membranes as might be seen with meningitis, but without any sign of the bacteria and viruses that typically cause it.

Medical staff at the hospital on the Italian island of Sardinia excluded potential causes one by one until they were left with something unexpected. It was West Nile virus, one of several formerly tropical diseases that have become increasingly established in Europe as climate change favours the spread of the mosquitoes that carry the illnesses with their bite.

“It was practically unknown here,” recalls Dr Maria Valentina Marras of that first case in her province of Oristano in Sardinia, little more than a decade ago. “From then until now, every summer we have a West Nile emergency.”

She now leads containment efforts as head of the department of hygiene and prevention in Oristano, a region of 147,000 people that, on the day we spoke, reported its 15th case of West Nile so far this year.

The new patient was a 71-year-old man who presented at accident and emergency with the symptoms that have become familiar – high fever, confusion, neurological symptoms, encephalitis – which now trigger an automatic test for West Nile.

The detected cases indicate a much larger outbreak in reality, as 80 per cent of those who are infected show no symptoms. About 20 per cent suffer a flu, and 1 per cent are hospitalised. Older people, with conditions such as diabetes, heart or respiratory trouble, or obesity are more susceptible to severe illness due to their weakened immune response.

Each confirmed case triggers an immediate crackdown to contain the spread: the patient’s house is cordoned off, and fumigators move in with insecticides to treat the entire area around the home in a 200m radius. The disease does not spread from human to human, but only through infected mosquitos.

Despite these efforts, the spread of the virus is proving difficult to contain.

“This summer was a very hot summer, a terrible humid heat that started in June and is still going now in September,” Dr Marras says. “The mosquito found the ideal environment to reproduce, exponentially.”

Italy has detected 430 locally-transmitted cases of West Nile virus and 27 deaths so far in 2025, according to national data.

In the last week, France reported 71 new locally-acquired cases of Chikungunya, a virus that can cause chronic debilitating joint pain, bringing this summer’s record outbreak of a disease that originated in Tanzania to 227 cases across 30 clusters.

Various Mediterranean countries have reported cases of the viral infection Dengue, which is usually associated with tropical and subtropical regions of the world.

This summer’s record-breaking outbreaks of Chikungunya and West Nile virus represent a “new normal”, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. It says climate change and increased international travel mean the tiger mosquito is established in 16 countries in Europe, and likely to spread further.

“As the mosquito-borne disease landscape evolves, more people in Europe will be at risk in the future,” the ECDC’s Dr Céline Gossner said in a statement.

With the new diseases, communities must learn to adjust. Information brochures sent to every house and pharmacy in the region of Oristano explain how West Nile virus spreads and how to prevent it. Never leave out bowls of water for pets overnight, as the mosquitos breed in the smallest amounts of stagnant water. Wear long sleeves and trousers in the evening, even if it’s hot. Avoid wearing dark clothing, which attracts them. Cover all windows with mosquito screens.

As it is a region that attracts plenty of tourists, English-language information campaigns target visitors, too.

To the local community facing the outbreak, the warnings and news reports are all a rather unpleasant reminder of a pandemic that seems very recent history.

“The community is afraid of this disease,” Dr Marras said. “Like all the world, we had Covid in 2020, so people are very scared of this disease. Even though there isn’t human-to-human transmission.

The University of Pennsylvania has developed a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model capable of designing brand new antibiotics, marking what researchers say is a major step forward in the fight against drug-resistant bacteria.

In a study published in Cell Biomaterials, engineers at Penn Engineering and colleagues across the university present AMP-Diffusion, a generative AI tool that designs antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) – short amino acid chains that kill bacteria. In animal trials, several of the AI-designed molecules worked as effectively as existing FDA-approved antibiotics and showed no detectable side effects.

For decades, scientists have warned of the looming crisis of antibiotic resistance. New drugs have proved difficult and slow to develop, leaving health systems around the world struggling to keep up. Generative AI, best known for producing images and text, could offer a radically faster approach.

“Nature’s dataset is finite; with AI, we can design antibiotics evolution never tried,” says César de la Fuente, presidential associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who co-led the work.

Pranam Chatterjee, assistant professor at Penn Engineering who began the project while at Duke University, adds: “We’re leveraging the same AI algorithms that generate images, but augmenting them to design potent new molecules.”

From mammoths to microbes

De la Fuente’s lab has long used AI to scour unconventional biological sources for antimicrobial properties, from the proteins of woolly mammoths to animal venoms and ancient microbes. Yet the rate at which resistance emerges has outstripped these discoveries. “Unfortunately, antibiotic resistance keeps increasing faster than we can discover new antibiotic candidates,” he says.

Chatterjee’s group, meanwhile, has focused on using AI to design peptides for hard-to-treat diseases. Their collaboration was a natural match. “It seemed like a natural fit,” says Chatterjee. “Our lab knows how to design new molecules using AI and the de la Fuente Lab knows how to identify strong antibiotic candidates using AI.”

Drug-resistant bacteria are on the rise worldwide, spreading faster than new antibiotics can be developed. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls it one of the biggest threats to global health. Credit: Saiful52/Shutterstock

A diffusion model for medicine

While large language models such as ChatGPT predict the next word in a sequence, diffusion models generate content by starting with random noise and progressively refining it into a coherent whole. This is the principle behind creative AI systems like DALL·E and Stable Diffusion.

AMP-Diffusion applies the same concept to biology. Instead of denoising pixels, it shapes amino acid sequences into plausible peptides. “It’s almost like adjusting the radio,” says de la Fuente. “You start with static and then eventually the melody emerges.”

Unlike other teams that have tried diffusion models for antibiotics, Penn’s approach leans on ESM-2, a protein language model from Meta trained on hundreds of millions of sequences. By building on an existing ‘mental map’ of how proteins fit together, AMP-Diffusion generates candidates more quickly and with a higher chance of being biologically valid.

“Instead of teaching the model the ABCs of biology, we started with a fluent speaker,” says Chatterjee. “That shortcut lets us focus on designing peptides with a real shot at becoming drugs.”

From 50,000 ideas to two winners

AMP-Diffusion generated around 50,000 peptide sequences. But testing even a fraction in the lab would be impossible. To narrow the field, the researchers turned to another AI tool, APEX 1.1, developed in de la Fuente’s lab. It ranked the candidates based on predicted bacteria-killing power, novelty and diversity. 

From this, the team synthesised 46 peptides for laboratory and animal testing. In mouse models of skin infection, two molecules stood out – performing on par with levofloxacin and polymyxin B, well-established antibiotics used against resistant bacteria. Crucially, no harmful side effects were observed.

“It’s exciting to see that our AI-generated molecules actually worked,” says Chatterjee. “This shows that generative AI can help combat antibiotic resistance.”

What’s next

The researchers see this as just the beginning. AMP-Diffusion could eventually be refined to design antibiotics for specific infections or tuned to prioritise molecules with particularly desirable drug-like properties. “We’ve shown the model works and now if we can steer it to enhance beneficial drug-like properties, we can make ready-to-go therapeutics,” says Chatterjee.

For de la Fuente, the long-term ambition is radical speed. “Ultimately, our goal is to compress the antibiotic discovery timeline from years to days,” he says.

With drug resistance now listed among the top global health threats by the World Health Organization, breakthroughs like this could prove transformative.

A rigorous new study finds that a single dose of LSD can ease anxiety and depression for months.

The study involved 198 adults with generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, a disabling form of anxiety that affects about one in 10 people over the course of a year.

Participants who got lower doses of LSD (25 or 50 micrograms) did no better than those who got a placebo. But people who received higher doses (100 or 200 micrograms) responded quickly, a team reports in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“By the next day, they were showing strong improvements,” says Dr. David Feifel of Kadima Neuropsyciatry Institute in San Diego, one of the 22 centers that participated in the study. “And those improvements held out all the way to the end of the study, which was 12 weeks.”

But it’s unclear whether some of the improvement was related to non-drug factors like the sensory environment in which people were treated, says Robin Carhart-Harris, a psychedelics researcher at the University of California, San Francisco who was not involved in the study.

“The safety looks good, the tolerability looks good,” he says, “but where is the depth of information about the way you delivered this product?”

Carhart-Harris, like many scientists who study psychedelics, believes that successful treatment is more likely if a person has the right mindset when beginning a trip and if the trip occurs in a place with the right sensory environment.

Not your everyday anxiety

Generalized anxiety disorder involves extreme worry or dread that interferes with a person’s ability to function.

“It’s characterized by continuous worry, inability to relax, and all the physical manifestations, racing heart rates and sweatiness,” Feifel says. It’s also frequently accompanied by depression.

Current antidepressant and antianxiety drugs are inadequate for about half of people diagnosed with GAD.

So 22 outpatient psychiatric research sites agreed to test a proprietary form of LSD called MM120, which comes from the company MindMed.

The drug is not at all like Prozac or Zoloft, which are among the usual treatments for GAD.

“This is something that has a very, very distinct subjective experience,” Feifel says, “what people might call a trip.”

MM120, like other versions of LSD, can alter a person’s perceptions and cause them to see, hear, or feel things that aren’t there.

In the study, participants were far more likely to improve if they received a dose of MM120 high enough to induce a psychedelic experience. The higher doses also were more likely to lift a person’s depression.

Non-drug factors

Psychedelic treatment often involves guides or therapists who help ensure that a patient’s psychedelic experience is safe and effective. In addition, treatment centers often provide rooms with soft lighting, a naturalistic decor, and music or other sensory stimulation.

But in this study, it’s unclear whether these environmental factors played an important role in the treatment.

The sessions were overseen by two “dosing session monitors,” who also provided an education session about the treatment. The sessions were conducted in a “private aesthetically pleasant room,” the researchers say, and participants were offered “standardized music and eyeshades.”

All of these factors could have contributed to the outcome, Carhart-Harris says, but it’s hard to tell because they weren’t specified in the study protocol and could have varied greatly from one center to another.

“To not say anything about music listening, for example, when it’s been present in virtually 100% of the trials that have been published to date on psychedelic therapy, is an obvious omission,” Carhart-Harris says.

A psychedelic future

The new research represents an emerging trend in psychedelic research: bigger, more rigorous studies that are more likely to be supported by a pharmaceutical company.

Such studies are needed to get psychedelic drugs like LSD, MDMA and psilocybin approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Feifel says. And giving doctors access to approved psychedelics could “revolutionize treatment” of psychiatric conditions ranging from depression to PTSD and addiction.

“Give it a couple of years and we’ll be seeing drugs like psilocybin [and] magic mushrooms as medicines,” Carhart-Harris says. “A whole mindset shift is going to happen around that.”

The FDA seems open to that possibility. It has already given MM120 “breakthrough therapy” status, which is meant to speed up the evaluation of promising new drugs.

MindMed, for its part, has already launched a pair of “phase 3” studies of MM120. The company expects to complete those trials in 2026.

The new Plasma Immuno Prediction Score achieves 96% accuracy in forecasting TNBC outcomes, offering laboratories a powerful tool for precision oncology.

For laboratory professionals, the latest findings in plasma proteomics underscore how the clinical laboratory is becoming central to guiding cancer treatment decisions. The discovery of blood-based protein signatures that can predict immunotherapy outcomes in triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) demonstrates how lab-developed tests and biomarker assays can directly influence patient care, moving precision oncology forward.

A news release explained that a team of researchers in China has identified a set of plasma proteins that can reliably predict whether patients with TNBC will respond to immunotherapy, potentially transforming treatment strategies for one of the most aggressive forms of breast cancer.

The study, published July 4, 2025, in Cancer Biology & Medicine, analyzed blood samples from 195 TNBC patients. Using high-sensitivity assays, scientists at Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Center and the Shanghai Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Technologies tracked 92 immune-related proteins before, during, and after immunotherapy.

They found that three proteins in particular—arginase 1 (ARG1), nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS3), and CD28—were strongly linked to treatment outcomes. From this, the team developed a predictive model called the Plasma Immuno Prediction Score (PIPscore), which achieved nearly 86% accuracy in forecasting responses.

“This study transforms how we approach TNBC immunotherapy,” said Yizhou Jiang, MD, co-corresponding author. “By translating complex plasma proteomics into a practical score, we’ve bridged the gap between research and clinical utility.”

Breaking the Bottleneck in TNBC

Triple-negative breast cancer accounts for about 15% of breast cancer cases worldwide and is notoriously difficult to treat because it lacks the hormonal and HER2 targets used in other subtypes. Immunotherapy has emerged as a promising option, but predicting which patients will benefit remains a challenge.

Currently, clinicians rely on biomarkers like PD-L1 expression or tumor mutational burden. However, these markers often fail to capture the complexity of immune responses, leaving doctors without reliable tools to guide decisions. Tumor biopsies, another option, are invasive and impractical for frequent monitoring.

How the Study Worked

The research team analyzed dynamic changes in plasma proteins over the course of immunotherapy. Patients who responded to treatment showed sharp rises in immune-activating proteins such as CXCL9 and interferon-gamma (IFN-γ). Those who achieved a pathologic complete response (pCR)—meaning no detectable cancer remained after treatment—had higher levels of ARG1 and CD28, but lower levels of NOS3.

According to the study, these proteins appear to regulate critical aspects of immune activation and tumor suppression. Elevated NOS3, for example, correlated with fewer CD8+ T cells in tumors, suggesting an immunosuppressive role. In contrast, ARG1’s role in arginine metabolism may boost T-cell function and strengthen immune attack on tumors.

To integrate these findings, the researchers developed the PIPscore, a composite of six proteins including ARG1, NOS3, and IL-18. This model stratified patients into high- and low-response groups with impressive precision. The area under the curve (AUC)—a common measure of predictive performance—was 0.858, indicating strong accuracy.

Perhaps most strikingly, the PIPscore predicted 12-month progression-free survival with 96% accuracy, highlighting its potential clinical value.

Linking Blood to Tumor Biology

To strengthen their conclusions, the team also used single-cell RNA sequencing to link blood protein signatures with changes in the tumor microenvironment. For example, patients with higher NOS3 levels showed reduced infiltration of CD8+ T cells into tumors, aligning blood-based findings with tissue-level biology.

“This dual approach—measuring proteins in the blood and validating them against the tumor microenvironment—offers a holistic view of how immunotherapy works,” Jiang said. “It underscores that systemic immunity, not just local tumor factors, dictates treatment success.”

Clinical Implications

The potential benefits of this approach are wide-ranging. Oncologists could use the PIPscore to determine upfront whether a TNBC patient is likely to respond to immunotherapy, sparing non-responders from ineffective treatments, unnecessary side effects, and high costs. Because the test is blood-based, it could be repeated over time, allowing clinicians to adjust treatment plans in real time.

“The PIPscore not only predicts response but also opens doors to targeting metabolic pathways like arginine deprivation to overcome resistance,” Jiang noted. “These findings underscore the importance of systemic immunity.”

Beyond TNBC, the researchers believe the method could be applied to other cancers where immunotherapy outcomes are highly variable.

In addition to plasma proteomics, the field of pharmacogenomics offers another layer of precision in cancer care by examining how genetic variations influence drug response.

When combined with tools like the PIPscore, pharmacogenomic profiling could help oncologists tailor both immunotherapy and supportive treatments to individual patients. For laboratory professionals, this integration underscores the expanding role of molecular diagnostics in personalizing therapy—ensuring patients not only receive the right drug but also the right dosage based on their genetic and immune profiles.

Next Steps

The study’s authors acknowledge that further validation is needed before the PIPscore can enter routine clinical practice. Larger, multi-center trials will be necessary to confirm its reliability across diverse patient populations. Still, experts view the findings as a major step toward more precise cancer care.

As immunotherapy adoption grows, laboratory professionals will be essential in validating, standardizing, and implementing predictive tools like the PIPscore in clinical practice. Their expertise in assay development, quality control, and biomarker interpretation ensures that discoveries at the research level can be reliably translated into real-world diagnostics, ultimately improving outcomes for patients with aggressive cancers like TNBC.

—Janette Wider

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