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Late-Diagnosed PKU Linked to Depression in Children

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A 2026 Egyptian study of 76 children found a sharp mental-health gradient in phenylketonuria (PKU): late-diagnosed children had higher depression scores, lower quality of life, lower IQ, and a 21.4% rate of reported suicidal thoughts. Early-diagnosed children still differed from controls on some functioning measures, but the late-diagnosed group carried the heaviest psychiatric and cognitive …

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Early Mental Illness Severity Tracks Genetics and Brain Volume in PRONIA

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A 2026 PRONIA preprint involving 727 discovery-sample participants found that early mental illness severity cut across psychosis risk, recent psychosis, and recent depression: groups with higher symptom severity also had poorer functioning, higher schizophrenia and depression polygenic risk, and lower gray matter volume. Research Highlights Severity crossed diagnostic labels: Ye et al. stratified 727 participants …

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NDST3 Suppression Restores Lysosome Acidity in Alzheimer’s Mouse Models

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A 2026 mechanistic Alzheimer’s study found that suppressing NDST3 shifted lysosomal pH in APP695Swe neuronal cells from 5.6 back below 5.0, then reduced amyloid-β, MAPT/tau pathology, neuronal injury, and memory deficits in 3xTg-AD mice.1 Research Highlights Lysosome pH moved back down: APP695Swe-overexpressing HT22 cells had lysosomal pH around 5.6, while NDST3 knockdown re-acidified lysosomes to …

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C9orf72 ALS Poly-GR Drives Ferroptosis via Nrf2-Slc7a11

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A 2026 Cell & Bioscience study found that poly-GR, one of the toxic dipeptide-repeat proteins produced in C9orf72-linked amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), pushed motor neuron-like cells toward ferroptosis: 4-HNE lipid peroxidation rose at p < 0.0001, labile Fe²+ rose at p < 0.001, and erastin caused more cell death in poly-GR-expressing cells than in control …

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Melatonin aMT6s GWAS Found No Hits, PRS Linked to Sleep and Diabetes

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A 2026 multi-ancestry genome-wide association study of urinary aMT6s, a melatonin metabolite used as a proxy for overnight melatonin secretion, found 0 genome-wide significant loci in 11,744 people, even though 23 variants reached suggestive significance and 8 were supported by 2 analytic methods. Research Highlights No common variant dominated: the 2026 GWAS meta-analysis involving 11,744 …

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Treatment-Resistant Depression in Pakistan: 34% TRD, 86% Polypharmacy

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A 2026 DIVERGE analysis of 3,677 antidepressant-exposed patients with major depressive disorder in Pakistan classified 34% as treatment resistant, while 86% received psychotropic polypharmacy and only 6% received psychotherapy.1 The CYP2C19 signal is real enough to study prospectively, but the main treatment-system finding is medication stacking in a setting where psychological care was rare. Research …

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Rare OCD Variants in NPY5R, DLGAP1, and MAPK8IP3 Segregate in Families

Editorial card for rare OCD variants in NPY5R, DLGAP1, and MAPK8IP3 across multiplex families.

A 2026 whole-genome sequencing preprint found rare variant signals in 2 multiplex obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) families: an NPY5R missense variant in 10 of 15 affected people in 1 pedigree, plus DLGAP1 and MAPK8IP3 signals that tracked all 3 sequenced cases in a branch of a second pedigree.1 The finding is a candidate-gene result, not a …

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