GoKawiilAI chatbots informed users of the symptoms of ‘bixonimania’ after scientists published just two fake preprints. Plus, different psychedelics work in surprisingly similar ways and an influential report on the economic cost of climate change revisited.
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Psychedelic drugs boost some of the crosstalk between brain regions.Credit: K H Fung/SPL
Five psychedelic drugs have a strikingly similar effect on brain networks. Researchers saw this ‘signature’ pattern of brain activity in the brain scans of people who had taken mind-altering substances such as psilocybin, LSD and ayahuasca, despite these drugs having a different chemical make-up. A better understanding of how psychedelics affect the brain could inform their potential use in treating conditions such as depression, anxiety and addiction. Such a large study, which combines data from 11 brain-imaging studies, is the first step towards that understanding, experts say.
Nature | 4 min read
Reference: Nature Medicine paper
Researchers have identified hundreds of thousands of proteins that bacteria might use to fend off viral invaders. Two research teams developed machine-learning algorithms that screen bacterial genomes to catalogue the microorganisms’ defensive arsenals. Their analyses estimated that, on average, 1.5% of a bacterium’s genes correspond to antiviral proteins — three times more than previous estimates. The teams hope that their findings could lead to the next generation of molecular tools, with applications such as genetic engineering. “This is a treasure trove for any biochemist,” says microbiologist José Antonio Escudero.
Nature | 5 min read
Reference: Science paper 1 & paper 2
Fresh approaches to drug design are bringing researchers closer to effective cancer treatments that target KRAS — a protein that, when mutated, fuels some of the most lethal tumours. Mutant KRAS was once considered to be ‘undruggable’, but a new type of drug that tags the protein for destruction by the body’s ‘waste disposal’ has shown signs of success in a clinical trial. Another four trials are also exploring a separate drug that inhibits several different mutant forms of KRAS. In combinations, such treatments could create a regimen that KRAS-mutant cancers cannot escape, says gastroenterologist Dieter Saur.
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