The Nanodots That Kill Cancer

…and other items from this week’s health news:

A new cancer treatment emerges

Whenever news emerges that some new thing “kills cancer cells in vitro” (i.e. in a petri dish), it’s always worth remembering “so does a handgun”.

However, when something selectively kills cancer cells while sparing healthy cells, then that’s a lot more promising (especially if we understand the mechanism of how it’s killing the cancer cells while sparing the healthy ones), and that’s what’s happening in this case.

Researchers (Dr. Farjana Haque et al.) created tiny molybdenum oxide nanodots that increase oxidative stress inside cells by releasing reactive oxygen molecules, pushing already-stressed cancer cells past their survival threshold while healthy cells can still cope.

Notably, in cell-culture experiments, the nanodots killed cervical cancer cells at about three times the rate of healthy cells over 24 hours and did not require light activation (as many such things do require).

This is a big discovery, since unlike many current cancer treatments that harm healthy tissue, this approach exploits vulnerabilities unique to cancer cells and will hopefully lead to gentler, more targeted therapies:

Read in full: These nanoparticles kill cancer cells while sparing healthy ones

Related: The Minerals That Neutralize Viruses (While Being Harmless To Humans)

ADHD medications work indirectly

Did you know that ADHD medications work primarily by making rewarding activities feel rewarding? If you did, then well, apparently science didn’t—until now.

You could be forgiven for thinking that was obvious (this writer certainly thought it), but apparently, it was previously widely believed that it had to do with increasing the function of brain regions that have to do with attention and focus specifically.

However, resting-state fMRI data from 5,795 children aged 8–11 in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study showed increased activity in arousal and reward regions among children taking stimulants, with no significant increase in classical attention networks.

This means that improved attention appears to be a secondary effect of increased alertness and task interest, rather than a direct enhancement of attention circuitry.

These findings also help explain why stimulants can reduce hyperactivity by making unrewarding tasks easier to tolerate, reducing the urge to seek alternative stimulation.

In terms of cognitive performance, stimulants erased brain activity patterns associated with sleep deprivation and reduced related cognitive and behavioral deficits, effectively reproducing the effects of good sleep. Further, stimulants were not linked to improved cognitive performance in well-rested neurotypical children.

This would also explain why children with ADHD who took stimulants showed stronger cognitive test performance, with the largest gains seen in those with more severe symptoms:

Read in full: Stimulant ADHD medications work differently than previously thought

Related: ADHD 2.0 – by Dr. Edward Hallowell & Dr. John Ratey ← an unusually good book on the topic

What vitamin C does to your skin from the inside

When it comes to vitamin C and skincare, most people think of topical serums, creams, and the like. But in fact, eating more vitamin C measurably increases vitamin C levels throughout your skin, leading to thicker skin (in a good way), stronger collagen production, and faster skin renewal.

The reason this can work better than topical applications, is because vitamin C dissolves easily in water and penetrates the skin barrier poorly when applied topically, while vitamin C consumed in food enters your bloodstream very easily and is efficiently transported into every layer of your skin, where skin cells actively prioritize uptake.

However, daily intake is important, not just an occasional megadose, because the body does not usefully* store vitamin C, maintaining steady blood levels through regular intake is essential for sustained skin benefits.

^{*it can store some, for a while, in the liver, but not enough to make up for a chronic dietary deficiency—much like a fridge can store some food, for a little while, but this will not compensate for failing to do the grocery shopping more than a few days in a row.}

The researchers had the participants eat two kiwi fruits per day, but you can do it with other sources of vitamin C, of course:

Read in full: Eating more vitamin C can physically change your skin

Related: The Best Foods For Collagen Production

Take care!