Bulletins - Sci-Tech Bulletin

Carbon Dots are revolutionising cancer diagnosis, drug delivery, and advanced therapies

Carbon dots (CDs) are carbon-based nanomaterials that are emerging as a potential biomaterial with appealing applications in bioimaging, biosensing, drug delivery, and radiation therapies such as photodynamic therapy (PDT) and photothermal therapy (PTT). Carbon dots enable precise bioimaging, allowing real-time detection of cancer cells, and can selectively target tumours when functionalized with specific drug molecules while reducing side effects. Their low-cost production and versatility due to their brilliant fluorescence, high photostability, good biocompatibility, and low toxicity make them a promising nanotheranostic tool for practical clinical use at affordable costs.

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Rising Temperatures and Heatwaves may affect our mental health

A meta-analysis found that rising temperatures and heatwaves are linked to increased mental health problems, including higher mortality and hospital admissions. Each 1°C rise in temperature significantly raises risks for mood disorders, neurotic disorders, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and suicide. When the temperature stays extremely high for consecutive 3 days, older adults, males, and fragile populations living in tropical and subtropical climate zones are more vulnerable. As global temperatures rise, addressing heat-related mental health risks becomes increasingly important for healthcare systems and policymakers to adopt heat mitigation strategies and provide mental health support during extreme weather.

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Hibiscus Extract Stop Breast Cancer growth and Boost Treatment

Hibiscus extract has been studied for its ability to selectively kill breast cancer cells while sparing normal cells. The extract induced programmed cell death in triple-negative and estrogen-positive breast cancer cells in a dose-dependent manner. Moreover, it increases oxidative stress and disrupts mitochondrial function, thus enhancing the effectiveness of chemotherapies such as taxol and cisplatin at 50 folds lower drug doses. Thus, hibiscus can be potentially used as an adjuvant therapy for the long-term treatment of cancer and for improving the quality of life of patients.

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Microorganisms adapting to environmental changes such as temperature, pH, and nutrient availability

How microorganisms adapt to changing environments at molecular level and undergo evolution

Microorganisms adapt to changing environments through molecular and cellular mechanisms by pleiotropy, often driven by changes in gene regulation and signaling pathways. Organisms may evolve as specialists or generalists depending on environmental variability and predictability. Strategies include anticipatory regulation, cellular memory, and stochastic bet-hedging. Rapid adaptations like gene amplification or aneuploidy provide short-term benefits but are costly long term. Research shows that genetic background strongly influences outcomes, making evolution context-dependent. These insights are important for understanding antibiotic resistance, cancer evolution, biotechnology, and managing adaptation in natural and applied systems.

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AI-Powered Digital Twins Enable Early Alzheimer’s Diagnosis with 88% Accuracy

Early diagnosis has been made possible by a digital twin model (DADD) that derives personalized Alzheimer’s disease (AD) biomarkers from non-invasive electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings. DADD model could identify early stage alzheimer’s with 79% accuracy while also identifying cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers with 88% accuracy and future cognitive decline with 87% accuracy using only non-invasive data. The DADD model enables scalable, low-cost screening and early intervention for preclinical AD such as subjective cognitive decline (SCD), reducing reliance on invasive tests with strong diagnostic and prognostic value.

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Boosting Adiponectin Naturally is the key to better Metabolism and Longevity

Adiponectin, classified as adipokine is a hormone produced by adipose tissue that acts as a cytokine to regulate glucose levels, lipid metabolism, and inflammation in the body. Higher levels of adiponectin have been studied to improve insulin sensitivity, promoting fat oxidation, and protecting organs such as the heart, liver, brain, and kidneys. Its pronounced role in regulating obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and cancer makes it a highly valuable biomarker and a potential therapeutic target for monitoring the effectiveness of preventive and treatment interventions

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Multivitamins Improve Brain Health and Promote Healthy Aging

A randomised clinical trial carried on ~3500 patients for 3 years, shows that daily supplement of multivitamin like ‘Centrum Silver’ modestly improves cognitive abilities in older adults. The multivitamins are easily accessible, safe, low-cost strategy to maintain cognitive health in high-risk individuals suffering from lifestyle diseases. Daily supplements of multivitamins thus, has meaningful potential for population-level impact in promoting healthy cognitive aging.

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Community Service Boosts Preventive Care, Reduces Hospital Stays, and Supports Healthy Aging

Study conducted with ~7000 adults aged over 51, for 2 years found that volunteering for any social cause have least health risks and have better physical and mental health behaviours. Volunteers show greater use of preventive health services as they are more likely to undergo screenings such as flu shots and cancer tests, suggesting more proactive health behaviour. At the same time, they spent fewer nights in the hospital, indicating better overall health or reduced severity of illness. These findings suggest that volunteering may promote healthier lifestyles and potentially lower health care costs, most likely due to involvement of both psychological and social factors.

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School-based Gamified Therapy supports student mental health and prevent depression

SPARX-R is a gamified online cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) intervention, designed to prevent the development of exacerbation depressive symptoms in adolescents. Delivered in 7 modules, the tool covers key skills like relaxation, activity scheduling and behavioural activation, emotion regulation, interpersonal skills, problem solving, cognitive restructuring, and distress tolerance. Timely intervention of such CBT programs, before a major stressor like final exams, can reduce depressive symptoms in adolescents, particularly in the short to medium term.

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How Hot and Humid Weather Could Be Fuelling Influenza Pandemics

Study conducted on mice at various hydrothermal environments influences influenza H1N1 pandemics. The warm–wet environments supress our immune responses to influenza by reduction in cytokine production, suppressed T-cells differentiation, weakened T-cell activity, and impaired viral recognition RLH signalling pathway. As a result, infected hosts cannot effectively clear the virus, leading to persistent infections. These findings have implication in public health planning, highlighting the need to consider climate factors in disease prediction, surveillance, and early vaccine manufacture, especially in regions prone to warm and humid conditions.

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