Children born to mothers who take antiseizure medications to manage seizures and psychiatric conditions during pregnancy may face increased risks of neurodevelopmental conditions, according to new data from researchers at Drexel’s Dornsife School of Public Health.

In what could one day become a new treatment for epilepsy, researchers at UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley have used pulses of light to prevent seizure-like activity in neurons.  

Researchers discovered an unexpected link between zinc deficiency, the pro-inflammatory cytokine interleukin-13 (IL-13), and Acinetobacter baumannii lung infection and demonstrated that blocking IL-13 prevented infection-associated death in an animal model. The findings, published Nov. 15 in Nature Microbiology, suggest that anti-IL-13 antibodies, which are FDA-approved for use in humans, may protect against bacterial pneumonia in patients with zinc deficiency.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have linked disease-related proteins and genes to identify specific cellular pathways responsible for Alzheimer’s genesis and progression. The proteins were gathered from cerebrospinal fluid and are a good proxy for activity in the brain. Several of them may be potential targets for therapies.