A New Way to See Inflammation in the Body

Being able to image inflammation can help doctors diagnose, treat, and predict the outcomes of many diseases. However, there isn’t yet a highly accurate and specific imaging method to detect inflammation. To solve this problem, researchers developed a new technique called CD45-PET imaging. This method provides clear and sensitive pictures of inflammation in different disease models.

One of the key findings is that CD45-PET imaging shows how severe a disease is by producing stronger signals in models of lung and bowel diseases. It works better than the current most-used method, called 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose PET, for detecting inflammation. CD45-PET can also track how inflammation changes over time in specific tissues.

The researchers also created a version of CD45-PET for humans, which successfully detects human immune cells in special mouse models that mimic the human immune system. This new imaging method has great potential to help doctors make better decisions by providing a precise, full-body view of inflammation in patients.

From the text: Fig. 1: 89Zr-CD45 nanobody PET probe clearly visualizes immune-cell-rich organs in vivo.

Salehi Farid, A., Rowley, J.E., Allen, H.H. et al. CD45-PET is a robust, non-invasive tool for imaging inflammation. Nature (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08441-6

Improving the Immune System’s Ability to Fight Cancer

The immune system uses a molecule called interleukin-10 (IL-10) to help control inflammation and avoid excessive damage to the body. However, tumors often increase IL-10 levels to suppress the immune system, which helps them grow and spread. Recent studies show that IL-10 production depends on signals from mitochondria, the parts of cells that produce energy.

We discovered that a substance called S3QEL 1.2, which blocks certain chemicals (reactive oxygen species or ROS) from being made in mitochondria, reduces IL-10 levels in immune cells called macrophages. Another substance, myxothiazol, also lowers IL-10 by targeting the same part of the mitochondria. This happens because these substances suppress a protein called c-Fos, which is needed for IL-10 production.

When tested in mice, S3QEL 1.2 lowered IL-10 levels and helped their immune systems fight tumors more effectively, slowing the growth of melanoma. This research shows that blocking specific mitochondrial signals may help improve the immune system’s ability to fight cancer.

From the text: Fig. 2. Complex III inhibition reveals a specific transcriptional signature in activated macrophages

Zotta, A., et al. (2025). Mitochondrial respiratory complex III sustains IL-10 production in activated macrophages and promotes tumor-mediated immune evasion. Science Advances, 11(4), eadq7307. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adq7307

Understanding How Cells Shape the Immune Response to Food

Our gut's immune system has a tough job—it needs to peacefully handle food and helpful microbes while staying ready to fight harmful germs. Special cells called antigen-presenting cells (APCs) help guide this balance. They "show" food particles to certain immune cells called CD4+ T cells, which can then decide to either calm down (becoming pTreg cells) or gear up for action (becoming Th cells).

To learn more about how this works, researchers used a tool called LIPSTIC to find which APCs present food particles during normal, calming conditions and during inflammation. They also looked at how this balance can be thrown off during infections. They found that worm infections (helminths) upset the gut's ability to tolerate food by changing the balance of APCs. Normally, cells like cDC1s and Rorγt+ APCs help keep the peace, but helminths boosted inflammatory APCs, mostly cDC2s, which didn’t respond to food particles. This prevented the immune system from overreacting to food during infection, avoiding unnecessary allergic responses.

Canesso, M. C. C., Castro, T. B. R., Nakandakari-Higa, S., Lockhart, A., Luehr, J., Bortolatto, J., Parsa, R., Esterházy, D., Lyu, M., Liu, T.-T., Murphy, K. M., Sonnenberg, G. F., Reis, B. S., Victora, G. D., & Mucida, D. (2024). Identification of antigen-presenting cell–T cell interactions driving immune responses to food. Science. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ado5088

Turning Bacteria's Weakness into Strength: A New Way to Fight Antibiotic Resistance

Carbapenems are strong antibiotics used when other medicines don’t work against bacterial infections. But some bacteria have become resistant to them by producing an enzyme called VIM-2, which helps them survive the antibiotics. Unfortunately, there are no medicines yet that can stop this enzyme.

Our research found that bacteria with VIM-2 don’t grow well when zinc, an important mineral, is low—like in human blood or animal infections. We studied their genes and processes to learn how they use zinc and found that blocking certain systems weakens them, making it harder for them to grow.

We also discovered that VIM-2 damages the bacteria’s protective outer layer, which makes them easier to kill with the antibiotic azithromycin. In tests with mice, azithromycin worked well to treat infections caused by these resistant bacteria.

These findings show ways we can target weaknesses in resistant bacteria, giving hope for new treatments against infections that are hard to cure.

From:

Tu, M.M., Carfrae, L.A., Rachwalski, K. et al. Exploiting the fitness cost of metallo-β-lactamase expression can overcome antibiotic resistance in bacterial pathogens. Nat Microbiol 10, 53–65 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41564-024-01883-8

The Landscape Approach to Global Health

The relationship between personal health, community health, and landscape health can be understood as an interconnected system, where each component influences and is influenced by the others. From a climate perspective, this connection is especially significant, as environmental changes—such as shifts in temperature, precipitation patterns, or biodiversity—create cascading effects that impact health at multiple levels.

For example, changes in the landscape, such as deforestation or urbanization, can directly degrade air and water quality, leading to increased respiratory illnesses, waterborne diseases, and heat-related conditions. Conversely, the resilience of the landscape—its ability to sustain diverse ecosystems and provide critical services—helps buffer communities from health risks associated with climate extremes, such as floods, droughts, and heatwaves.

Examining these linkages through a climate lens opens the door to innovative approaches to health and environmental stewardship. For instance, restorative practices like reforestation, wetland conservation, and regenerative agriculture offer co-benefits for both the environment and communities. These practices can improve food security, reduce exposure to pollutants, and enhance mental health by providing greater access to green spaces.

The concept of biophilia—our innate connection to nature—further highlights the importance of healthy landscapes. Biodiverse and aesthetically rich environments have been shown to reduce stress, enhance cognitive function, and foster social cohesion. This reinforces the mental and emotional benefits of living in harmony with nature.

Additionally, climate change alters disease dynamics, creating new challenges for public health. For example, shifting ecosystems may provide habitats for disease vectors like mosquitoes, enabling the spread of illnesses such as malaria or dengue fever to regions previously unaffected. This demonstrates the need to integrate climate resilience into public health strategies to mitigate such risks.

Ultimately, the interplay between personal, community, and landscape health forms a dynamic and complex system. Adopting a holistic, climate-informed approach allows us to address the interdependencies between environmental health and human well-being. By doing so, we can create solutions that are more sustainable, equitable, and impactful across scales.

Article

Health and landscape approaches: A comparative review of integrated approaches to health and landscape management

This article explores the relationship between health and the landscape approach, a form of systems thinking. It focuses on three distinct applications of the systems approach, each grounded in unique ontological foundations.

Link to article

Description:

Landscape approaches focus on managing specific areas by bringing together ideas from different fields to create sustainable solutions. The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on how people live, move, and interact with the environment, highlighting the need for health approaches that connect humans and nature. This has led to an increased focus on integrated health approaches in policy discussions.

Approaches like One Health, Ecohealth, and Planetary Health are all types of landscape approaches because they address the connections between health, the environment, and society. This study reviews these health-oriented approaches to understand their shared ideas and unique differences. It looks at their history, how they’ve developed, and their approaches to solving health and environmental challenges.

The study finds that all these approaches share key features, such as systems thinking, working across disciplines, and promoting collaboration across different fields. However, they differ in the specific problems they address, the areas they focus on, and the ontological roots (the underlying mindset) guiding their research. By examining these approaches together, the study suggests ways to strengthen landscape approaches by using health-focused methods to better understand the connections between health and landscapes.

Fish Oil Omega-3s and COVID-19 Clotting

COVID-19 is increasingly being seen as having its strongest impacts on the blood (rather than on the lungs) where it appears to promote clotting (thus affecting the lungs and heart). There is enough evidence to promote further research into the benefits of fish oil (omega-3s EPA and DHA) on COVID-19 induced deep vein thrombosis (clotting) since: "There is ... evidence that fish oil may reduce thrombotic events." (emphasis added) says this paper:

Fish oil and COVID-19 thromboses

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7362817/

New Reasons not to let Raw Milk Sit at Room Temperature

For the longest time, I've known that you should refrigerate raw milk (any milk really but especially raw milk). This is to prevent any stray pathogens that may have made their way into the milk from growing to levels that would lead to illness. Well, there is a new reason you should avoid letting raw milk sit a room temperature. That is to prevent the spread of antibacterial resistance, particularly to your gut. 

Apparently, there is a new food-health fad of making "clabber" (I have no idea what that is) which starts with letting milk sit for a long period at room temperature. Well, researchers have found that the bacteria in raw milk left at room temperature preferentially promote the sharing of antimicrobial resistance genes between bacteria leading to large "inoculations" of such bacteria into the guts of people who later drink the milk. The authors suggest that people making clabber use " a starter culture if they want to ferment raw milk."

See the news item here: https://www.labmanager.com/news/raw-milk-may-do-more-harm-than-good-study-finds-23173