A Cell Reports study tied C9orf72-related ALS/FTD inflammation to a gut-bacterial product: inflammatory microbial glycogen appeared in 15 of 22 ALS fecal samples, 1 of 1 C9orf72-frontotemporal dementia sample, and 4 of 12 healthy controls.1 The result supports a narrower gene-by-microbial-product mechanism that makes C9orf72 loss of function more inflammatory. Research Highlights Human samples carried …
A 2026 controlled study of 96 people found severe long-COVID fatigue across 3 validated fatigue scales, but the tested peripheral inflammation, cellular-stress, neuroprotection, and autoimmunity markers did not significantly differ by group or explain fatigue severity.1 The finding argues against a simple blood-marker story, not against the reality of long-COVID fatigue. Research Highlights Fatigue was …
A 2026 Journal of Neuroinflammation review organized parasite-linked neuropsychiatric risk around 5 gut-immune-brain routes; direct CNS parasitic disease carries the clearest signal, while broader mood and cognition associations usually remain observational and confounded.[1] Research Highlights 5 pathways converge on brain function: the 2026 review connected parasite exposure to peripheral cytokines, gut dysbiosis, intestinal permeability, blood-brain …
A 2026 exploratory analysis of the ABCD cancer dyspnea trial found that higher baseline cytokines predicted less placebo symptom improvement than lower baseline cytokines across 33 of 40 cytokine-symptom combinations at day 7 and 29 of 40 at day 14.1 The signal is not ready for clinical prediction, but it sharpens a trial-design problem: patients …
The broad cytokine story failed its most direct community test: in 972 adults, depression, alcohol use, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) were not associated with C-reactive protein (CRP) or a pre-registered pro-inflammatory cytokine index. The only multiple-testing-corrected cytokine hits ran opposite the hypothesis — AUD was linked to lower IL-1β, IL-4, IL-10, and IL-12 — …
Chronic low-grade inflammation rises with age, and a growing body of work asks whether peripheral inflammatory markers in blood track subtle changes in brain white-matter microstructure on MRI. A 2026 preprint from the Healthy Minds for Life cohort by Mishra and colleagues at Johns Hopkins examined 457 dementia-free adults aged 50–79 and found that higher …
‘Depression is inflammation’ holds for a subgroup of patients, not for everyone. Community-sample and twin data weaken the broader version of the claim.