Search Medical Journals & Research Articles

Marine heatwave decimates fire coral populations in the Caribbean

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. Marine heatwaves (MHW) are common destructive events affecting coral reefs. After decades of degradation, the shallow reefs of the United States Virgin Islands have been depleted of scleractinian corals, leaving abundant colonies of the hydrozoan fire …

Interactions between long- and short-term synaptic plasticity transform temporal neural representations into spatial

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceNeurons in the brain communicate through spikes that are transmitted via chemical synapses that express both long-term and short-term plasticity. While long-term plasticity is thought to be the central site of learning and memory and has …

The potential existential threat of large language models to online survey research

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceSurveys are a primary source of data across the sciences, from medicine to economics. I demonstrate that the assumption that logically coherent responses are from humans is now untenable. I show that autonomous AI agents, operating from a …

Slow relaxation and landscape-driven dynamics in viscous ripening foams

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceFoams, like those in soap suds, shaving cream, or emulsions, can flow slowly and take a long time to recover after being squeezed or stirred. Scientists have long thought this sluggish behavior came from bubbles getting stuck in stable, jammed …

Structural basis of modified ligand selectivity from N-terminal PAC1R alternative splicing

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceThe PAC1R is a potential drug target for the treatment of migraine and other central nervous system disorders yet remains underutilized as a target. PAC1R exists as multiple splice variants, including PAC1R null variant (PAC1nR) and PAC1R …

Creatine kinase imaging (CKI) for in vivo whole-brain mapping of creatine kinase reaction kinetics

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceCreatine kinase (CK) is a key enzyme in brain bioenergetics, with its activity altered in various neurological disorders. This study introduces a CK Imaging (CKI) method to map CK forward rate constants across the entire brain in vivo. …

Students’ motives for restricting academic freedom: Viewpoint discrimination and prosocial concerns

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceAcademic freedom is under threat across the globe and is of vital concern to both researchers and society. We show that while limits on academic freedom are partly motivated by prosocial concerns, political viewpoint discrimination is another …

Static morphogen scaling enables proportional growth in a tissue growth model inspired by axolotl limb regeneration

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceRegeneration of lost body parts must not just recapitulate developmental programs, but also adjust to the size of the adult organism. The control mechanisms enabling such size-adaptive morphogenesis are not well understood. Here, we propose a …

Dynamics and variegation in the Treg response to Interleukin-2

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceInterleukin-2 (IL2) is essential for Treg cell maintenance, but how its effects on Treg cells unfold, and whether Treg cells are heterogenous in their responses to IL2, are poorly understood. By analyzing mRNA and chromatin responses to IL2 in …

ATP-dependent actin barbed-end fluctuations at steady state

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceEukaryotic cells rely on networks of actin filaments to move, divide, and maintain shape. Filaments in these networks continuously add and lose actin subunits at their ends. The prevailing view is treadmilling, where growth at one end is …

Ribonuclease RNase Z is an evolutionarily conserved deAMPylase

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceSelenoprotein O (SelO) is a conserved AMPylase found in bacteria and humans, underscoring its fundamental role in cellular regulation. While AMPylases act as writer enzymes by attaching AMP to proteins, the identity of the corresponding eraser …

Autism-associated Scn2a haploinsufficiency disrupts in vivo dendritic signaling and impairs flexible decision-making

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceSCN2Ais one of the strongest known genetic risk factors for autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Previous studies using brain slices showed that losing this gene lowers the excitability in dendrites of pyramidal cells in the cortex. However, it …

Small spaces have large impacts: Microsites determine plant litter decomposition rates in drylands

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificancePredicting rates by which dead plant material breaks down is essential for global carbon models. Dryland ecosystems are critical to the global carbon cycle, as they cover >40% of the terrestrial area, but modeled predictions of dryland litter …

An adipo-osteoprogenitor population in the endosteal niche contributes to bone and fat formation in adult mouse bone marrow

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceBone health in adult individuals requires constant regeneration of new bone to replace the old tissue. With aging or various diseases, bone formation is diminished and the decline is often accompanied with increased marrow fat accumulation. …

Rac1 promotes proximal tubule kidney repair by coupling the actin cytoskeleton to mitochondrial function

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume 122, Issue 47, November 2025. SignificanceAcute kidney injury caused by loss of blood flow to the proximal tubule is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. This is because this mitochondria-rich cell type is highly sensitive to ischemia. Here, we find that Rac1, a regulator of …