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Nature Cell Biology

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Preprints posted in the last 7 days, ranked by how well they match Nature Cell Biology's content profile, based on 99 papers previously published here. The average preprint has a 0.17% match score for this journal, so anything above that is already an above-average fit.

1
Tracking the Dynamic Trajectories: A Global-to-Local Pharmacovigilance Analysis of GLP-1 Receptor Agonists

Lu, S.; Ruan, X.; Wang, L.; Wang, X.; Sameer, M.; Liu, H.

2026-06-01 health informatics 10.64898/2026.05.28.26354401 medRxiv
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Although GLP1/GIP receptor agonists demonstrate unprecedented weight loss efficacy, their rapid clinical adoption has revealed significant real-world tolerability challenges. To evaluate their dynamic safety profiles, we developed a macro to micro pharmacovigilance framework by combining global FAERS reports with local UT Physician EHR. Macroscopically, we distilled 17 shared adverse events across the drug class from FAERS with disproportionality analysis. Microscopically, local EHR data (289,655 longitudinal treatment sessions across 71,316 patients) revealed 51.6% of GLP1 sessions terminated within 90 days. Furthermore, temporal stratified logistic regression demonstrated that initial exposure (0 to 30 days) correlated strongly with nausea and vomiting, which attenuated in extended sessions, whereas extended exposure (>2 years) uncovered late onset risks, notably incident hepatic steatosis. Ultimately, this time aware framework reveals that GLP1 safety profiles are profoundly duration dependent, providing critical insights into both acute intolerances and long-term medication safety.

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Multivariate determinants of wearable-measured sleep quality across a large observational cohort: roles of physical activity, gut microbiome, blood analytes, and lifestyle factors.

Cavon, J.; Perez, C.; Quinn-Bohmann, N.; Magis, A. T.; Gibbons, S. M.

2026-05-29 health informatics 10.64898/2026.05.27.26354250 medRxiv
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Emerging evidence links the gut microbiome to sleep quality, yet measuring sleep at scale remains challenging. Commercial wearables, such as Fitbit, capture objective sleep and activity data in naturalistic settings. We integrated Fitbit data from a large, deeply-phenotyped cohort with paired lifestyle and health questionnaires. Wearable-derived measures aligned well with self-reported sleep, activity, and happiness. We identified dozens of covariate-adjusted associations between Fitbit-derived sleep features, lifestyle factors, and multi-omic data. Among molecular feature sets, the gut microbiome showed the greatest number of associations with sleep quality: butyrate-producing genera were positively associated with sleep and amplified the benefits of physical activity. Oscillospira, in particular, was consistently associated with better sleep. In blood, insulin, omega-3, and cortisol correlated with poorer sleep, whereas lower alcohol intake and mineral supplements correlated with better sleep. These robust, covariate-adjusted findings advance mechanistic understanding of the gut-sleep axis and broader molecular and lifestyle determinants of sleep quality.

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Cell-Free DNA Genomic and Fragmentomic Features for Early Outcome Prediction in Large B-Cell Lymphoma.

Wang, S.; Mapar, P.; Moldovan, N.; van der Pol, Y.; Safrastyan, A.; van Werkhoven, E.; Tantyo, N. A.; Snieder, B.; Do Brito Valente, A. F.; de Jong, A. V.; Dinmohamed, A.; Drees, E. E. E.; Roemer, M. G. M.; Ylstra, B.; Klerk, C. P. W.; Strobbe, L.; Sandberg, Y.; Boersma, R. S.; Koene, H.; Pruijt, H.; de Heer, K.; van Rijn, R.; Bilgin, Y. M.; de Jongh, E.; Nijland, M.; van der Poel, M.; Koster, A.; Nieuwenhuizen, L.; Fijnheer, R.; Beeker, A.; Mous, R.; Vergote, V. K. J.; Vermaat, J. S. P.; Pegtel, D. M.; Chamuleau, M. E. D.; Mouliere, F.

2026-05-30 oncology 10.64898/2026.05.29.26353426 medRxiv
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Curative-intent immunochemotherapy fails in ~30% of patients with large B-cell lymphoma (LBCL), yet no validated molecular tool enables early identification of high-risk individuals to guide treatment intensification. Using shallow whole genome sequencing (sWGS) of plasma cell-free DNA from 190 LBCL patients, we developed and validated the ACT score (Aberrations, fragment Composition, Terminal motifs), a composite classifier integrating genomic and fragmentomic features from a single post-cycle-1 sample. ACT-positive patients had worse 2-year outcomes versus ACT-negative patients: time-to-progression 29% vs. 83% (HR 4.4, 95% CI 1.9 - 10.0; P = 1.5 x 10 - 4) and overall survival 47% vs. 93% (HR 8.7, 95% CI 3.0 - 25.4; P = 1.8 x 10-6). ACT score was independently prognostic of the International Prognostic Index, and their combination identified the highest-risk patients. Unlike mutation-based approaches, this assay requires neither tumor tissue, germline control nor a baseline plasma sample. Built on open-source tools and sWGS, the ACT score offers a feasible scalable strategy for early risk stratification in aggressive LBCL.

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Multimodal atlas of human atherosclerosis links granular vascular cell states to coronary artery disease risk

Mosquera, J. V.; Tang, I.; Murach, M.; Auguste, G.; Kodali, A.; Hart, P.; Shaw, D. M.; Li, M.; Turner, A. W.; Hodonsky, C. J.; Dworak, N. M.; de Oliveira, A. K.; Sol-Church, K.; Jhee, T.; van der Sijs, K. I. M.; Adkar, S. S.; Choi, R. B.; Vacante, F.; Wu, J. C.; Cheng, P.; Giannarelli, C.; Leeper, N. J.; Finn, A. V.; Bjorkegren, J. L. M.; Kovacic, J. C.; Yurdagul, A.; van der Laan, S. W.; Miller, C. L.

2026-05-26 cardiovascular medicine 10.64898/2026.05.24.26353986 medRxiv
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Advances in single-cell and spatial assays have revolutionized the scale and resolution of molecular tissue profiling. Here we present MetaPlaq, a multimodal atlas of human atherosclerotic arterial beds comprising over a million cells across single-cell transcriptomics, epigenomics and high-resolution spatial expression assays. We map granular cell states and disease-relevant transcriptional programs within the native tissue context of coronary arteries. Furthermore, we map cardiovascular GWAS signals to smooth muscle cells (SMCs) and endothelial cells (ECs) and uncover the cis-regulatory architecture governing their phenotypic transitions. Our comprehensive epigenomic reference allowed us to build cell-specific enhancer-gene link maps and multimodal gene regulatory networks (GRNs) underlying disease-relevant states such as osteogenic SMCs and ECs undergoing mesenchymal transition. We also integrate SMC and EC disease-associated gene sets with GRNs to nominate key transcription factors such as PRRX1, BNC2 and ELK3 regulating atherosclerosis-relevant transcriptional programs. Finally, we layer single-cell and spatial modalities to fine-map GWAS variants with improved cell and anatomical context. We highlight candidate cell-specific regulatory mechanisms at less characterized CAD loci, including FGD5 and MCF2L in ECs. Together, this atlas represents an important step towards fully interpreting genetic risk loci and informing new therapeutic strategies for cardiovascular disease.

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Prevotella stercorea links gut microbiome ecology to respiratory infection protection through a host-context-dependent, species-autonomous pathway

Ofordile, O. N.

2026-05-30 infectious diseases 10.64898/2026.05.26.26354151 medRxiv
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Using a longitudinal cohort of 633 Gambian children (IHAT-GUT, NCT02941081), we resolve two mechanistically distinct ecological pathways linking Prevotella stercorea to infection risk. Its abundance positively predicts gut microbiome richness, consistent with community-level colonisation resistance for enteric outcomes. However, its association with reduced acute respiratory infection (ARI) persists unchanged after richness adjustment, identifying a species-autonomous pathway independent of community diversity. Weight-for-age z-score (WAZ) is uncorrelated with microbiome richness within strata, supporting WAZ as a proxy for host immune-metabolic reserve rather than a determinant of microbiome composition. In Low-WAZ children, P. stercorea at Day 1 associates with suppressed CRP, whereas in higher-WAZ children, elevated Day 1 inflammation predicts subsequent P. stercorea colonisation at Day 85, consistent with host-context-dependent immune selection. ARI and fever protection is richness-independent and concentrated in Low-WAZ children. P. copri does not retain an independent protective association when modelled jointly. These findings have direct implications for microbiome-directed interventions.

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Personalized clinical reference intervals for routine precision medical care

Zhang, C.; Chen, Y.-L.; Jamilov, A.; Liu, E.; Shree, S.; Lam, B. D.; Foy, B. H.

2026-05-30 health informatics 10.64898/2026.05.28.26354363 medRxiv
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Most routine clinical markers are interpreted using population-based reference intervals, despite being regulated around patient-specific homeostatic setpoints. This mismatch obscures physiologic shifts, inhibiting detection of early disease signatures. Here, we develop a novel Bayesian inference method that adaptively constructs personalized reference intervals using each patients existing health records. In analysis of >100 million lab tests in >800,000 patients, these personalized intervals can be accurately constructed with only minimal prior data, meaning this method can be applied near universally. We show that across 43 common lab markers, patient setpoints are strongly associated with future morbidity, with signal strength increasing as more test data is collected. Deviation from personalized reference intervals provides strong and novel risk signatures across diverse disease states, including hypothyroidism, hematologic cancers, kidney disease, and pregnancy complications. Importantly, personalized reference intervals capture a different risk signature to existing population-based approaches, with the highest risk patients being those who deviate from both intervals simultaneously. In a targeted clinical use case study of iron infusion, use of personalized reference intervals greatly improved prediction of treatment efficacy and allowed precise tracking of treatment responses. Our results illustrate how existing health records can be used to construct personalized benchmarks for nearly all common clinical tests, driving a new paradigm for precision laboratory medicine.

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The Impact of Non-coding G-quadruplex Variants on Human Traits and Disease Susceptibility

Sharma, R.; Hu, F.; Li, X.; Campos, R.; Kundu, K.; Atanur, S.; Karpinski, M.; Wasilewski, S.; MacArthur, S.; Vitsios, D.; Dhindsa, R. S.; Georgakopoulos-Soares, I.; Burren, O. S.; Petrovski, S.; Mustoe, A. M.; Wang, Q.; Glodzik, D.; Zou, X. Z.

2026-06-01 genetic and genomic medicine 10.64898/2026.05.29.26354456 medRxiv
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Non-coding variants are important contributors to human traits and diseases but linking them to molecular mechanisms and phenotypes at scale remains challenging. G-quadruplexes (G4s) are four-stranded structures formed by guanine-rich sequences and have emerged as key functional elements within the non-coding genome. G4s are enriched in regulatory regions and can modulate gene expression at both the DNA and RNA levels, influencing transcription, replication, and RNA processing, positioning them as key mediators linking non-coding variation to complex biological traits. Here, we profile putative G4s across five regulatory regions in 459,449 UK Biobank genomes and perform phenome-wide association analyses spanning 2,941 plasma protein abundances, 13,321 binary traits, and 1,682 quantitative traits. We show that putative G4-modifying variants are depleted under purifying selection despite elevated local mutability and drive large, bidirectional associations with plasma proteins and clinical traits, including associations not captured by coding variants. Using a mechanism-aware collapsing strategy that groups rare non-coding variants by their predicted impact on G4 stability, we achieved stronger gene-level signals than those obtained with standard rare-variant collapsing approaches. Integrating non-coding and protein-truncating variants (PTVs) increases discovery power, revealing 843 significant associations missed by the PTV-only model. Replication in the Alliance for Genomic Discovery cohort demonstrates cross-cohort robustness. Our study suggests G4s as widespread mediators of non-coding regulation and provides a framework for mechanism-informed target discovery and prioritization across the non-coding genome.

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Pre-pandemic blood profiles predict COVID-19 hospitalization and death a decade later

Jacobs, L. A.

2026-05-29 epidemiology 10.64898/2026.05.27.26354230 medRxiv
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COVID-19 risk scores developed during the pandemic relied on measurements contemporaneous with infection, leaving unresolved whether the metabolic and inflammatory vulnerability they capture pre-existed as a stable trait or was triggered by acute illness. Here, using 501,946 UK Biobank participants whose blood was drawn between 2006 and 2010---at least ten years before SARS-CoV-2 emerged---we show that baseline proteomic and metabolic profiles predict both COVID-19 hospitalization (2,783 events; C-statistic =0.676 [0.666--0.686]) and COVID-19 mortality (1,564 deaths; C-statistic =0.730 [0.701--0.760]) from parsimonious, regularized feature sets. The IL-1 pathway index (xIL1, +0.093) was independently selected for hospitalization but not mortality, while the IL-6 trans-signaling index (xIL6, + 0.040) was selected for mortality but not hospitalization---a differential pathway weighting corroborated by independent LightGBM/SHAP analysis and mirroring the subsequent success of tocilizumab (anti-IL-6R) and the limited efficacy of anakinra (anti-IL-1R) in reducing COVID-19 mortality in randomized trials conducted years later. The mortality model was additionally characterized by central adiposity (waist-hip ratio, +0.386), a respiratory compromise index (xRSP, +0.149), and prodromal cardiovascular disease (pCVD, +0.246). These findings establish that vulnerability to a novel pathogen is, in substantial part, a pre-existing and measurable prodromal state, with implications for pandemic preparedness and population-level risk stratification.

9
The CRAC channel inhibitor Auxora interrupts inflammatory circuits between alveolar macrophages and T cells in patients with viral pneumonia

Casalino-Matsuda, S. M.; Guggilla, V.; Gao, C. A.; Demeulenaere, K. E.; Cusick, L. P.; Fenske, S. W.; Yu, Z.; Lu, Z.; Swaminathan, S.; Grant, R. A.; Schleck, M. J.; Prakriya, M.; Hebbar, S.; Stauderman, K.; Donnelly, H. K.; Pickens, C.; Morales-Nebreda, L.; The NU SCRIPT Study Investigators, ; Wunderink, R. G.; Misharin, A. V.; Singer, B. D.; Budinger, G. S.

2026-05-30 respiratory medicine 10.64898/2026.05.27.26354034 medRxiv
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Viral pneumonia is perpetuated by inflammatory circuits between activated T cells and monocyte-derived alveolar macrophages (MoAM). T cells and macrophages express ORAI1 and STIM1, which form calcium release-activated calcium (CRAC) channels that allow extracellular calcium entry in response to endoplasmic reticulum calcium store depletion. In a randomized, placebo-controlled, multicenter phase 2 trial (CARDEA), Auxora, a CRAC channel inhibitor, reduced all-cause 30-day mortality by 56% in patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. Here, we report a multi-omics analysis of serially collected alveolar samples from unvaccinated patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia treated with Auxora versus placebo. We found reductions in plasma levels of the monocyte- and T cell-chemokines, CCL8 and PDGF-AA. Using peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) from healthy volunteers, we show that Auxora directly targets T cells to inhibit the transcription of CCL8 and PDGFA in monocyte-derived macrophages, supporting a mechanism for its effects and a potential intermediate biomarker of efficacy.

10
A TAD-informed aging-brain xQTL atlas of multi-modal and cell-type-resolved regulatory variation

Cifello, J.; Feng, R.; Grenn, F. P.; Carter, L.; Liu, A.; Sun, H.; Li, R.; Empawi, J. A.; Greenfest-Allen, E.; Katanic, Z.; Valladares, O.; Kuzma, A. B.; White, H.; Farrer, L. A.; Goate, A. M.; Raj, T.; Wang, M.; Cruchaga, C.; Wang, L.-S.; Klein, H.; De Jager, P. L.; Chen, H.; Marcora, E.; TCW, J.; Zhang, X.; Kuksa, P. P.; Wang, G.; Leung, Y. Y.

2026-06-01 genetic and genomic medicine 10.64898/2026.05.21.26353713 medRxiv
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Understanding the regulatory consequences of genetic variation in the aging human brain requires molecular maps that span brain regions, cell types and regulatory modalities. We present the Alzheimer's Disease Sequencing Project Functional Genomics (FunGen-AD) xQTL Atlas, a harmonized resource of molecular quantitative trait loci from four postmortem brain studies, ROSMAP, MSBB, Knight-ADRC and MiGA. The atlas integrates histone acetylation, DNA methylation, gene expression, splicing and protein abundance QTLs across 14 brain regions, 7 major cell types and 17,566 samples, with standardized association, significance-filtered and fine-mapping outputs. To expand discovery beyond conventional 1-Mb cis windows, we include variants within Topologically Associating Domains (TAD) and their boundaries where appropriate, identifying on average 21% more variant-molecular-trait associations per dataset. Statistical fine-mapping reduced broad association sets by 95% into credible sets of candidate regulatory variants. Distributed through the NIAGADS xQTL portal and bulk-download services, the atlas provides a comprehensive functional-genomic foundation for interpreting genetic risk variants in Alzheimer's disease and aging-brain research.

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Genome-wide discovery reveals 30 loci for choroidal thickness and uncovers potential causal links with angle-closure glaucoma

Lee, S. S.-Y.; Wang, C. A.; de Vries, V. A.; van Hemert, D. J.; Schulze, A.; Brandl, C.; Aman, A. M.; Alonso-Caneiro, D.; Choquet, H.; Gorski, M.; Hammond, C. J.; Heid, I. M.; Hunter, M. L.; Hysi, P.; Jiang, C.; Jonas, J.; Klaver, C. C.; Kneepkens, S.; Konig, S.; Lingham, G.; Luber, C.; Melton, P. E.; Pennell, C. E.; Ramdas, W. D.; Read, S. A.; Schuster, A. K.; Wang, Y. X.; Zimmermann, M. E.; International Glaucoma Genetics Consortium, ; Khawaja, A. P.; Gharahkhani, P.; MacGregor, S.; Guggenheim, J. A.; Mackey, D. A.

2026-05-27 ophthalmology 10.64898/2026.05.26.26354075 medRxiv
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The choroid is critical for maintaining vision and implicated in several ocular diseases, being the sole source of nutrients and waste removal for the outer retina. Genetic discovery can help elucidate the pathways through which choroidal features influence disease risk. Our meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies (n= 78,682 participants) identified 30 genomic regions, including 20 novel loci, associated with choroidal thickness. Findings suggest inflammatory and vascular processes drive choroidal thickness, with overlapping mechanisms shared with refractive error. Genome-wide independently significant SNPs accounted for 18.7% of the genetic variance in choroidal thickness. Mendelian randomisation analyses showed a causal effect of age-related macular degeneration on choroidal thickness, and suggest a bidirectional causal effect between choroidal thickness and primary angle-closure glaucoma. These findings provide insight into the shared genetic architecture and biological pathways linking choroidal thickness and related diseases.

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Multimodal axes reveal individualized amyloid-β , tau, and neurodegeneration coupling in aging and Alzheimer s disease

Poulakis, K.; Ioannou, K.; Bezgin, G.; Chiotis, K.; Iturria-Medina, Y.

2026-05-26 neurology 10.64898/2026.05.24.26353955 medRxiv
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Can we decode Alzheimers disease (AD) heterogeneity into a few portable axes that capture how amyloid-{beta}, tau and neurodegeneration (A-T-N) spatially co vary in vivo? To answer this question, we built a pipeline that harmonizes longitudinal amyloid-{beta}/tau PET and T1 MRI (gray matter) from ADNI cohort (12,430 images) with mixed effects modeling and then derived stage specific multimodal axes (mVCs) using linked component analysis, with robustness tested in simulations and external validation in the OASIS cohort (4,958 images). We identified a small set of multimodal axes that (i) recapitulate early tau weighted variation in cognitively unimpaired (CU) individuals, AD like A-T-N coupling in cognitively impaired (CI) individuals and atypical CU and CI participants with posterior (precuneus/occipitoparietal) and fronto insular/frontal weighted patterns, (ii) map onto domain specific cognition, APOE e4, and blood/CSF biomarkers of neurodegeneration, neuroaxonal injury and astrocyte activation, (iii) predict clinical transitions, (iv) generalize in an independent cohort, and (v) demonstrate modelling robustness to missing data, high dimensionality, and cross-cohort variability, enabling direct application of the extracted axes to new datasets for biomarker discovery and stratification. Multimodal axes provide a portable, interpretable layer for quantifying amyloid-{beta}-tau-neurodegeneration coupling at the individual level, complementing current biomarker-based staging frameworks based on A-T-N status and tau PET topography, and can be computed on new datasets to aid clinical assessment and trial enrichment.

13
Positive-control Mendelian randomization highlights power constraints in disease-mortality GWAS

Su, C.-Y.; Butler-Laporte, G.

2026-06-01 genetic and genomic medicine 10.64898/2026.05.29.26354472 medRxiv
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Yang et al. recently published a systematic comparison of genetic effects on disease susceptibility and disease-specific mortality across nine common diseases and seven biobanks, concluding that susceptibility and survival architectures overlap only modestly. This is an important resource, but we argue that the current mortality genome-wide association studies (GWAS) require explicit power calibration before limited overlap can be interpreted biologically. Using two-sample Mendelian randomization (MR) with positive-control exposures, we show that even a well-powered positive control, body mass index (BMI), instrumented by 855 genome-wide-significant variants, produces a clearly detectable effect for heart failure (HF) mortality, with only weaker evidence for chronic kidney disease (CKD) mortality. However, when BMI instruments were stratified into quartiles by exposure-association strength, the heart failure association remained nominally significant only in the two strongest quartiles and was not significant in the two weakest quartiles. Further, using household income as a weakly instrumented socio-economic contrast has insufficient power to detect moderate effects on any disease mortality outcome. These analyses indicate that current disease mortality GWAS may be insufficiently powered to detect shared effects. In contrast, the same BMI instrument set produced large and directionally coherent effects when applied to case-control GWAS of the matched six diseases, with the HF and prostate cancer associations preserved under a within-family BMI sensitivity analysis, and nominal support for CKD. The HF mortality association was also preserved in a within-family BMI sensitivity analysis. Similarly, genetically proxied household income was associated with HF risk in the case-control GWAS despite null associations with disease-specific mortality, consistent with limited power in the mortality GWAS. These findings indicate that the limited BMI-mortality evidence across several outcomes is unlikely to reflect a weak BMI instrument or dynastic artefacts alone and instead supports limited effective power in current disease-mortality GWAS.

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Hierarchical organ aging signatures from routine abdominal CT add incremental disease risk stratification beyond blood biomarkers

Deng, Z.; Wang, Y.; Shi, Y.; Wang, L.; Qureshi, T. A.; Gaddam, S.; Javed, S.; Hsu, Y.-C.; De Righi, D. R.; Azab, L.; Diwan, G.; Yang, J. D.; Xie, Y.; Yuan, C.; Vendrami, C. L.; Rodriguez, A.; Specht, K.; Jeon, C. Y.; Chaudhry, H.; Buxbaum, J.; Pisegna, J. R.; Yaghmai, V.; Goessling, W.; Hernandez-Barco, Y. G.; Miller, F. H.; Tirkes, T.; Espinoza, S.; Musi, N.; Dey, D.; Sung, K. H.; Pandol, S. J.; Li, D.

2026-05-27 radiology and imaging 10.64898/2026.05.19.26353206 medRxiv
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Biological aging is heterogeneous across organ systems, yet whether CT-derived abdominal aging provides prognostic value beyond routine clinical data and whether organ decomposition adds beyond a unified estimate remains untested. We developed and evaluated organ-specific and ensemble biological age models from radiomic features across five abdominal organs in 68,675 CT scans from 32,883 subjects, evaluated on alignment with chronological age of healthy subjects (nested cross validation: MAE=3.68 years, R^2=0.90). In sequential analyses restricted to adults aged 20-60 years which is the stratum of strongest BAG-disease association, ensemble biological age gaps provided incremental prognostic value beyond demographic covariates for all-cause disease and mortality (Delta C-index=0.141, 0.051) and beyond routine blood biomarkers (Delta C-index=0.048), confirming CT-derived aging captures structural information beyond laboratory markers. Organ-specific biological age added incremental prognostic value beyond ensemble selectively for focal diseases: cardiovascular (aorta, Delta C-index=0.091) and hepato-pancreatic (pancreas, Delta C-index=0.096). These findings establish a hierarchical organization of CT-derived biological aging, positioning routine CT as a source that adds prognostic value to existing clinical biomarkers.

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Optical coherence tomography as a biomarker for frontotemporal dementia: a systematic review & meta-analysis

Wang, E.; Kohli, A.; Taha, H. B.

2026-05-27 neurology 10.64898/2026.05.19.26353366 medRxiv
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Background: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) lacks widely accessible disease-specific biomarkers. Optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) may provide non-invasive measures of retinal changes associated with neurodegeneration. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis evaluating retinal biomarkers in FTD compared with Alzheimer disease (AD) and controls. Methods: A systematic search of PubMed and Embase was conducted through April 25, 2026 according to PRISMA guidelines. Studies evaluating OCT/OCTA biomarkers in FTD with comparator groups were included. Inverse weighted random-effects models, publication bias assessments, and meta-regressions were performed. Results: Ten studies involving 139 individuals with FTD, 87 with AD, 29 with mild cognitive impairment, 14 with TDP-43 proteinopathy, 5 with tauopathy, and 255 controls were included in the systematic review; five studies were eligible for meta-analysis. Compared with AD, individuals with FTD demonstrated significantly thinner retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) thickness (SMD = -0.61, 95% CI -0.98, -0.24). Compared with controls, individuals with FTD exhibited significantly thinner ganglion cell layer-inner plexiform layer (GCL-IPL) thickness (SMD = -0.55, 95% CI -1.02, -0.08), whereas pooled analyses across multiple retinal biomarkers were non-significant (SMD = -0.19, 95% CI -0.52, 0.14). RNFL thickness correlated negatively with female % in FTD and positively with age in both AD and controls. Conclusions: Individuals with FTD exhibit lower RNFL thickness than AD and lower GCL-IPL thickness than controls, suggesting retinal alterations may reflect neurodegeneration. However, larger longitudinal studies with standardized OCT/OCTA protocols are needed to determine the diagnostic and prognostic utility of retinal biomarkers in FTD

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Vaginal Antisepsis for Major Gynecologic Surgeries Using Chlorhexidine Gluconate versus Povidone Iodine: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Dias, Y.; Gebrekidan, F.; Lowder, J.; Sutcliffe, S.; Yaeger, L.

2026-05-27 obstetrics and gynecology 10.64898/2026.05.26.26353429 medRxiv
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ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis (SRMA) of post-surgical outcomes, comparing chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) versus povidone iodine (PI) for vaginal antisepsis of major gynecologic procedures. DATA SOURCES: Ovid Medline, Embase, Scopus, Embase, Cochrane, and Clinicaltrials.gov were searched between 1986 and December 2023, for studies comparing CHG with PI for vaginal antisepsis of major gynecologic operations. STUDY ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA: We included Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) and non-RCTs comparing CHG to PI for vaginal antisepsis of major gynecologic operations. The primary outcome was surgical site infections (SSIs) and the secondary outcome was urinary tract infections (UTIs) and vaginal irritation. METHODS: Summary estimates were calculated by fixed effects models when I2 [≤] 25% and by random effects models when I2 > 25%. Statistical analysis was performed using RevMan 5.4.1. The protocol for this systematic review was registered on PROSPERO (ID CRD42022378101). RESULTS: Nine studies met the inclusion criteria, four of which were randomized controlled trials (RCTs). 9538 patients were included, 4300 (45%) of whom were allocated to CHG and 5238 (55%) to PI. No statistically significant difference in SSI incidence was found for vaginal antisepsis with CHG versus PI in pooled analyses (n= 9538 patients; RR 1.20; 95% CI 0.92-1.57; I2 =0%). In contrast, a significantly higher risk of UTIs was observed for vaginal antisepsis with CHG than with PI (n=6061 patients; RR 1.48 95% CI 1.03-2.14; I2 = 0%). CONCLUSION: In our SRMA, there were no significant differences in SSI risk when either CHG or PI was utilized for antiseptic vaginal preparation. Interestingly, vaginal antisepsis with PI was associated with a lower incidence of post-operative UTIs following major gynecologic surgery. Our findings support current guidelines that form of vaginal antisepsis can be used for SSI prevention. They also suggest that PI may result in fewer postoperative UTIs but further randomized studies are needed to support these findings. Key words: surgical site infection, surgical wound infection, urinary tract infection, urogynecologic surgery, Chlorhexidine, Povidone Iodine, surgical antiseptic,

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An ECG foundation model for generalizable cardiac function prediction across the lifespan

Yang, Y.; Peracchio, L.; Mayourian, J.; Miller, T.; La Cava, W.

2026-05-27 health informatics 10.64898/2026.05.26.26354128 medRxiv
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Background Artificial intelligence-enhanced electrocardiography (AI-ECG) enables scalable, low-cost cardiac dysfunction screening, but existing models are annotation-intensive and predominantly adult-derived, leaving paediatric generalizability uncertain. Paediatric cohorts exhibit highly variable cardiac morphology and function compared to adults, which may be useful for learning generalizable AI-ECG models. Methods We pretrained ECG-Fyler on a predominantly paediatric, all-age cohort at Boston Children's Hospital (1992-2023), annotated with a cardiology-specific coding system (Fyler codes), and evaluated it on assessments from echocardiography (echo) and cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) studies. We validated on an external adult cohort from Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Performance was benchmarked against several AI-ECG foundation models by AUROC across age groups, lesion types, and limited-data scenarios. Findings The pretraining cohort comprised 782,138 ECGs from 255,271 patients (median age: 10.9 years, IQR: [2.8-16.8]). Internal evaluation included 178,495 ECG-echo pairs (median age: 10.9 [3.7-17.0]) and 8,584 ECG-CMR pairs (median age: 20.7 [15.6-29.6]). External validation included 82,543 ECG-echo pairs from adults (median age: 64.0 [52.0-74.0]). ECG-Fyler improved AUROC across biventricular dysfunction and dilation tasks, with the largest gains in low-data settings. In internal validation, ECG-Fyler detected low left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF [&le;] 40%) from only 100 fine-tuning samples (AUROC: 0.80, 95% CI: [0.78-0.80]), outperforming other models (AUROC < 0.65) and improving with additional fine-tuning (AUROC: 0.94 [0.93-0.94]). Similar improvements were observed for CMR-derived LVEF, RVEF, and ventricular dilation. In external validation on adults, ECG-Fyler exhibited an AUROC of 0.83 (CI: [0.82-0.85]) for LVEF [&le;] 40%. After fine-tuning on less than 10% of external data, LVEF [&le;] 45% performance (AUROC: 0.87 [0.86-0.88]) outperformed a fully trained, site-specific prior model (AUROC: 0.85 [0.84-0.87]). Interpretation Pretraining on richly annotated, paediatric-dominant ECGs yields models that transfer efficiently across institutions and ages, supporting AI-ECG screening and triage when labels or imaging access are limited. Funding National Institutes of Health (R01LM012973); Kostin Innovation Fund, Boston Children's Hospital

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Patient Versus Prediction-Level Evaluation of a Dynamic Clinical Prediction Model of Sepsis

Tuttle, M.; Maas, C. C. H. M.; An, J.; Wessler, B. S.; Harvey, W. F.; Selker, H. P.; van Klaveren, D.; Kent, D. M.

2026-05-27 health systems and quality improvement 10.64898/2026.05.26.26354141 medRxiv
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The Epic Sepsis Model version 2 (ESMv2) is a prediction model embedded into the electronic medical record used to warn clinicians which hospitalized patients are at risk for sepsis. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of 31,951 hospitalizations of 25,760 patients to compare analyses conducted at the commonly used patient-level (where a maximum prediction prior to the onset of sepsis is used to measure performance) vs novel prediction-level (where each prediction is used to measure performance). Sepsis, defined by the Sepsis 3 criteria occurred during 1,049 hospitalizations (3.3%). Patient-level analyses suggested excellent discrimination AUC 0.86; [IQR 0.85, 0.87], whereas prediction-level analyses demonstrated lower performance AUC 0.62; [IQR 0.57, 0.65]. Low estimates of the positive predictive value (14.5% at the patient level vs 4% at the prediction level) imply a high number of false alerts. Common evaluation approaches may overstate the performance of dynamic prediction models and mislead clinical decision-making.

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A Multisite, Randomized Trial Testing a Community-Digital Health Intervention among Black and Latino Adults with Cardiometabolic Conditions: The Roots of Wellness (Raices del Bienestar) Protocol

Himmelfarb, C. R.; Chepkorir, J.; Miller, H.; Ogungbe, O.; Perrin, N. A.; Olawole, W.; Cain, G.; Kinlock, B. L.; Mullins, C. D.; Kutcherman, I.; Barger, P.; Diaz-Ramirez, M.; Rodriguez, J.; Trujillo, R.; Gonzalez-Salinas, A.; Clark, R.; Andrade, E. L.

2026-05-27 public and global health 10.64898/2026.05.26.26354175 medRxiv
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Background: Black and Latino adults in the United States experience a disproportionate burden of cardiometabolic conditions due to interacting behavioral, social, and structural drivers of health. Less is known about the impact of integrating digital health tools into CHW-led interventions to improve cardiometabolic health. This trial evaluates a multilevel community-digital health promotion model delivered by CHWs to improve service utilization, health behaviors and cardiometabolic health among Black and Latino adults. Methods: This community-partnered trial uses a randomized delayed-control group with a phased recruitment design. Four cohorts (N = 664) are enrolled through three community-based organizations (CBOs). Eligible participants are 18 years who self-identify as Black or Latino, and have prediabetes/diabetes, hypertension, or overweight/obesity. Participants are allocated to either (1) a multilevel intervention consisting of CBO and CHW capacity building combined with individualized CHW-led lifestyle coaching and group activities supported by digital tools, or (2) a delayed control group receiving SMS-only cardiometabolic health education. Data collected at baseline, 6, 9, and 18 months include surveys and health metrics. Qualitative data are collected from participants and community partners to assess intervention acceptability, implementation facilitators and barriers, and sustainability. Results: The primary outcome is health service utilization at 6 and 9 months. Secondary outcomes include health behaviors, health metrics, and social determinants of health. Sustainability of health behaviors and health metrics is assessed at 18 months. Conclusions: Findings will provide evidence to inform scalable, sustainable community-digital health models for CHW-supported cardiometabolic health interventions in underserved communities.

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Can Large Language Models Diagnose Primary Immunodeficiency from Patient-Described Symptoms?

Reteig, L. C.; Woloshin, S.; Maglione, P. J.; Farmer, J. R.; Ong, M.-S.

2026-05-27 allergy and immunology 10.64898/2026.05.26.26353818 medRxiv
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Patients with primary immunodeficiency (PID) often face prolonged diagnostic delays and may increasingly turn to large language models (LLMs) to interpret their symptoms during this period. We evaluated whether an LLM could recognize PID from symptom descriptions derived from interviews with 21 PID patients. In a prior study, we showed that GPT-4o identified PID in 96% of cases when prompted with physician-written patient histories (Rider et al., JACI, 2024). Here, when prompted with symptom descriptions in patients' own words, GPT-5 identified PID in only 7 cases (33%), although it more broadly suggested immune system issues in 18 cases (81%). The gap between these findings indicates that LLMs are sensitive to the language and framing of symptom descriptions, performing substantially worse when patients describe their own symptoms in everyday language than when clinicians summarize patient histories in structured medical terms. This study underscores the need to carefully evaluate how LLMs are used in patient-facing applications.