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Global Burden of Disease analysis found that in 2023, suboptimal diet was estimated to be responsible for 4 million deaths and 97 million morbidity burdens from ischemic heart disease.

Androgen activity in the male embryonic hindbrain prolongs hindbrain differentiation in male individuals and drives sex differences in the incidence and prognosis of posterior fossa type A (PFA) ependymoma, an aggressive childhood brain tumour.

This study mapped normative growth trajectories of 28 fetal brain phenotypes derived from 4,205 3D ultrasound scans collected across 7 international sites. The low variance between sites reinforces the principle that the brain develops similarly when environmental constraints are minimal.

Chronic care manages long-term, progressive conditions, while acute care handles short-term ones. Here, authors show chronic conditions account for most of the global health burden, with 68% of DALYs and 93% of YLDs attributed to chronic care needs.

Global Burden of Disease estimates show that between 1990 and 2023, the prevalence and burden of drug use disorders, inclusive of amphetamine, cannabis, cocaine and opioid use, have been increasing in high-income countries, particularly in the USA.

Genomic analyses applied to 14 childhood- and adult-onset psychiatric disorders identifies five underlying genomic factors that explain the majority of the genetic variance of the individual disorders.

Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) frequency and risk factors vary considerably across regions and ancestries. Here, the authors conduct a multi-ancestry genome-wide association study and fine mapping study of HNSCC subsites in cohorts from multiple continents, finding susceptibility and protective loci, gene-environment interactions, and gene variants related to immune response.

Zebrafish patient-derived xenograft models (zAvatar) can be used to study cancer biology as well as to predict patient clinical outcomes and response to therapies. Here, in a cohort of 55 patients with colorectal cancer, the authors report that the zAvatar-test can predict response to chemotherapy and clinical outcome with 91% accuracy.

An analysis of 24,202 critical cases of COVID-19 identifies potentially druggable targets in inflammatory signalling (JAK1), monocyte–macrophage activation and endothelial permeability (PDE4A), immunometabolism (SLC2A5 and AK5), and host factors required for viral entry and replication (TMPRSS2 and RAB2A).

Analysing camera-trap data of 163 mammal species before and after the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns, the authors show that responses to human activity are dependent on the degree to which the landscape is modified by humans, with carnivores being especially sensitive.

The advantage of living in cities compared with rural areas with respect to height and BMI in children and adolescents has generally become smaller globally from 1990 to 2020, except in sub-Saharan Africa.

Analysing >1,700 inventory plots from the Amazon Tree Diversity Network, the authors show that the majority of Amazon tree species can occupy floodplains and that patterns of species turnover are closely linked to regional flood patterns.

Inventory data from more than 1 million trees across African, Amazonian and Southeast Asian tropical forests suggests that, despite their high diversity, just 1,053 species, representing a consistent ~2.2% of tropical tree species in each region, constitute half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees.

Dietary factors are increasingly recognized to have an important role in triggering symptoms in a large proportion of patients with functional dyspepsia. This Review outlines the role of diet and specific foods and/or food components in symptom induction, summarizes potential mechanisms, and highlights the role that dietary interventions might have in treating functional dyspepsia.

A study using mouse models of food allergy shows that allergic sensitization drives antigen-specific avoidance behaviour mediated by immunoglobulin E antibodies and mast cells.

An analysis of viral genomes and epidemiological data from the 2022 mpox outbreak in Portugal sheds light on the heterogeneity of early transmission events, with national and international linkages.

A normative digital atlas of fetal brain maturation produced using 1,059 optimal quality, three-dimensional ultrasound brain volumes from 899 fetuses presents a unique spatiotemporal benchmark from a large cohort with normative postnatal growth and neurodevelopment at 2 years of age.

Genomic and epidemiologic analyses revealed that a novel reassortant viral lineage of the Oropouche virus, which has been circulating in the western Amazon region of Brazil for about a decade, is associated with the recent human outbreaks between 2022 and 2024.

From 1980 to 2018, the levels of total and non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol increased in low- and middle-income countries, especially in east and southeast Asia, and decreased in high-income western countries, especially those in northwestern Europe, and in central and eastern Europe.

Neutrophil activation has been shown to rely on the pentose phosphate pathway (PPP) for NADPH generation and reactive oxygen species production. In this study, the authors identify a mechanism of neutrophil activation that is independent of the PPP but relies on the glycolytic enzyme pyruvate kinase M2 instead.

The authors report genome-wide data from 34 ancient individuals spanning the Holocene, from what is now Brazil, illuminating connections and disjoints between Sambaqui shellmound societies and preceding and later peoples.

Some strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis seem to be able to avoid host defense systems. Here the authors stratify patients by severity of tuberculosis and find correlations with the level of IL-1β production by macrophages exposed to these isolates.

Macrophages undergo a Warburg-like switch from oxidative phosphorylation to glycolysis in response to inflammatory stimulus. Here the authors show that fungal melanin can trigger this switch in human macrophages by sequestering calcium in the phagosome and enabling protection against Aspergillus fumigatus infection.

High-resolution subnational mapping of child growth failure indicators for 105 low- and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2017 shows that, despite considerable progress, substantial geographical inequalities still exist in some countries.

It is unclear whether the sequence and timing of early life neurodevelopment varies across human populations, excluding the effects of disease or malnutrition. Here, the authors show that children of healthy, urban, educated mothers show very similar development across five geographically diverse populations.

Light-sensitive azobenzene compounds can be engineered to stably partition into the plasma membrane, thus causing its thinning in the dark and relaxation upon light stimulation. In neurons, the resulting light-dependent change in membrane capacitance induces a transient hyperpolarization followed by rebound depolarization and action potential firing.

This study of a cohort of over 3,500 pregnant women in six different populations worldwide identifies specific fetal cranial growth trajectories, measured by serial ultrasound scans early in gestation, that are related to postnatal growth and neurodevelopment up to the key milestone age of 2 years.

Analyses of the proportions of individuals who have completed key levels of schooling across all low- and middle-income countries from 2000 to 2017 reveal inequalities across countries as well as within populations.

Rebelo de Almeida et al. describe the application of zebrafish tumor xenografts (zAvatars) to analyse the efficacy of bevacizumab (FDA approved drug) to treat cancer patients with highly variable outcomes. The authors suggest that these zAvatars could be used as a predictive model to determine whether or not bevacizumab treatment would be efficient for individual patients.

Glucocorticoids are released in a diurnal pattern. Here, the authors show that EGF receptor (EGFR) signalling is negatively regulated by glucocorticoids, and that EGFR inhibitor has stronger antitumour effects when administered during the resting phase, when glucocorticoids are low, offering potential optimization of cancer therapy regimens.

Contrary to the view that urbanization is a major driver of the global rise in obesity, the global increase in body-mass index is shown to be mostly due to increases in the body-mass indexes of rural populations.

The measurement of the total cross-section of proton–proton collisions is of fundamental importance for particle physics. Here, the first measurement of the inelastic cross-section is presented for proton–proton collisions at an energy of 7 teraelectronvolts using the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider.