“I'm not great at the advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?”

This is what ‘Friends’ actor Matthew Perry’s character Chandler Bing was known for. He was known for being funny. However, he had his own struggles in his personal life and those struggles were acute depression. He was treating it with ketamine infusion therapy which is legal in the US and the UK.

What is Ketamine infusion therapy?

Ketamine is an anaesthetic used to treat depression, anxiety and pain under supervised and controlled medical settings. However, it does have its side effects, which can lead to distortion of sight, sound and time. It can also produce calming and relaxing effects.

Ketamine increases a person’s heart rate and blood pressure. If overdosed, it can leave users confused and agitated and can cause them to hurt themselves without even realising it. It can also lead to liver damage and bladder problems.

However, when used in moderation and under the supervision of medical doctors, it can treat depression where traditional antidepressants have failed.

Prof Rupert McShane, a University of Oxford psychiatrist who runs an NHS ketamine treatment clinic told BBC that ketamine “probably turns off the area of the brain that is involved in disappointment.”

Can Ketamine Infusion Therapy Kill Someone?

In simple terms, it cannot, be if the dosage is given in a controlled setting and as prescribed. Ketamine infusion therapy uses drugs in small doses than those used for anaesthesia. It acts faster than traditional anti-depressants, but the effects also wear off way quickly. Which is why it is important to monitor patients’ mental state for relapsing back into depression and discouraging them from overdosing on it.

There are ways of giving people ketamine. One of the ways is through “infusing”, which means to use an IV drip. However, injections, nasal sprays and capsules are also methods used to give people ketamine.

Since the dosage of ketamine used in the infusion treatment is small, it being the reason of actor Perry’s death was ruled out. The medical examiner also noted that Perry’s last ketamine infusion therapy session happened more than a week before his death, which means by the time he had died, it must have worn off.

So, What Happened To Perry?

Though Perry’s last session was more than a week before, his post-mortem showed that his blood contained a high concentration of ketamine. He had died of the “acute effects” of ketamine.

If it was not his session, then how did he get ketamine?

Prosecutors alleged that his assistant gave him at least 27 shots of ketamine in four days before his death, reported BBC.

Perry has been open about his personal struggles and this is what the doctors and dealers used against him. Martin Estrada, the US attorney for California’s Central District told the BBC that people took advantage of his condition. They charged him 165 times more than what vials of ketamine cost.

Names that have come up include Dr Salvador Plasencia, drug dealers “Ketamine Queen” aka Jasveen Sangha and Eric Fleming, and Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa.

Who Are These Names And What Did They Do?

Ketamine Queen or Sangha supplied drugs that led to Perry’s death. Her home was a “drug-selling emporium,” said Estrada. More than 80 vials of ketamine, and thousands of pills including methamphetamine, cocaine and Xanax were allegedly found in her house known as the “Sangha Stash House.”

Sangha is known to deal with high-end celebs and was a “major source of supply for ketamine to others as well as Perry,” said Estrada.

Dr Plasencia called Perry a “moron” while charging him $2,000 for vials that cost only $12. He sold Perry 20 vials of ketamine between September and October 2023, costing $55,000.

He was the one who taught Iwamasa, who had no medical knowledge to inject the drug. This is after he knew that “Perry’s ketamine addiction was spiralling out of control,” as per what the investigators told the BBC.

Another dealer Fleming was told by Sangha to “delete all our messages.” While Fleming pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs unlawfully, he also allegedly messaged Sangha: “Please call...Got more info and want to bounce ideas off you. I’m 90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Perry] only his assistant. So the assistant was the enabler.”

The court documents also revealed that he asked Sangha on whether the ketamine stays in your system or “is it immediately flushed out.”

Dr Pepper, Bots, Cans

The people who allegedly exploited Perry used coded language for ketamine and called it “Dr Pepper”, “bots”, or “cans.”

Selling overpriced drugs, taking advantage of Perry’s mental condition and falsifying medical records to make the drugs given to him look legitimate by Dr Plasencia is what took Perry’s life.

Iwamasa is said to have administered more than 20 shots of ketamine and three on the day Perry died. Whereas ketamine is only administered by a physician. Authorities also found that weeks before Perry’s death, Dr Plasencia allegedly bought 10 vials of ketamine and intended to sell to Perry.

He also injected Perry with a large dose, two days later. This caused him to “freeze up” and spiked his blood pressure.

When I Die, I Want Helping Others To Be The First Thing That’s Mentioned

Perry had always been open about his drug addictions, struggles with alcohol and his depression. He said that his openness would help others who are also struggling and wanted to be remembered by his quote which also is on the homepage of the Mattew Perry Foundation that helps others struggling with the disease of addiction: “When I die, I want helping others to be the first thing that’s mentioned.”

Five arrests have been made in the case so far.

In a major scientific breakthrough, researchers at Stanford University have used artificial intelligence (AI) to design entirely new viruses that do not exist in nature.

The AI-generated viruses successfully killed Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria that had become resistant to naturally occurring bacteriophages (phages)—viruses that infect and destroy bacteria—offering new hope for tackling antibiotic-resistant infections.

The study, published in the journal Science, also raises important biosafety concerns, as the same technology could potentially be misused to design harmful pathogens.

How AI Created the Viruses?

Chemical engineer Brian Hie and bioengineering graduate student Samuel King developed Evo 2, a generative AI model capable of writing complete DNA sequences and designing entirely new genomes.

The researchers focused on bacteriophages, viruses that infect bacteria and are already being explored as alternatives to antibiotics for treating difficult bacterial infections.

Using genomes designed by Evo 2, the team synthesized nearly 300 novel phages and tested them against E. coli. From these, they identified 16 highly effective phages that successfully killed bacteria resistant to naturally occurring phages.

The researchers believe the ability to rapidly design customized phages could transform phage therapy and expand the arsenal against antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The team redesigned bacteriophage ΦX174, one of the simplest known viruses. Despite its small size, ΦX174 efficiently infects and kills bacteria, making it a valuable model for developing new phage therapies.

A New Weapon Against Antibiotic Resistance

One of the biggest challenges in infectious disease treatment is that bacteria eventually develop resistance to antibiotics—and even to individual phages. To overcome this, the researchers designed a genetically diverse cocktail of 16 AI-created phages.

"If the bacteria gain resistance to a single phage, it's game over for the medication," Hie said. "But if you have multiple genetically distinct phages in a mixture, it would be harder for the bacteria to develop resistance to the entire cocktail."

The team showed that the phage cocktail successfully eliminated E. coli strains that had become resistant to the natural ΦX174 virus.

"We have a proof of concept in the paper, where we show that this cocktail of 16 phages rapidly overcomes resistance in E. coli that is immune to native ΦX174," Hie said.

Potential Beyond E. coli

Researchers believe the same AI-driven approach could eventually be used to develop phages against other drug-resistant bacteria, including:

• Mycobacterium tuberculosis (tuberculosis)
• Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
• Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a leading cause of antibiotic-resistant hospital-acquired infections

If successful, AI-designed phage cocktails could provide a powerful alternative to conventional antibiotics, whose effectiveness continues to decline because of antimicrobial resistance.

Biosafety Concerns Grow

The researchers have made Evo 2 freely available as open-source software, allowing scientists around the world to design and study new genomes.

While this could accelerate advances in medicine and biotechnology, experts say it also highlights the urgent need for stronger oversight.

"The ability to compose viral genomes using generative AI now exists; the governance to safely steer it does not," wrote Prof. Tom Inglesby and Dr. Moritz Hanke of the Center for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University in an accompanying Science commentary.

Tom Ellis, Professor of Synthetic Genome Engineering at Imperial College London, described the research as impressive but cautioned that AI could theoretically be used to design harmful viruses if trained on the genetic code of dangerous pathogens, The Guardian reported.

However, he said safeguards—such as restricting access to sensitive genetic data and screening synthetic genomes before they are manufactured—could help reduce those risks.

The Donald Trump administration is reportedly considering an executive order focused on the US childhood vaccination schedule and autism research, despite decades of scientific evidence showing no link between vaccines and autism.

According to a Washington Post report citing official sources, the proposed order would examine the childhood immunization schedule and autism research. However, its scope and timing have not been finalized and could still change.

The move comes even as some of Trump's political advisers have reportedly warned that elevating the issue could hurt Republican candidates ahead of the November midterm elections.

White House Pushes Greater Scrutiny of Vaccines

According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump wants "alleviating autism" to become part of his presidential legacy and has privately expressed frustration that US Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has not gone far enough in reducing the recommended childhood vaccination schedule. The report also said Trump believes that reducing the number of recommended childhood vaccines could lower autism rates.

In recent months, Trump has urged senior administration officials, including Kennedy Jr., to increase scrutiny of childhood vaccines.

Last year, Kennedy had cancelled roughly $500 million in mRNA vaccine research grants and replaced every member of a federal immunization advisory panel. However, he has been relatively quiet on vaccine policy this year after White House aides reportedly advised that vaccine skepticism was unpopular with many voters.

Scientists Reject Vaccine-Autism Link

Medical experts continue to emphasize that extensive research has found no evidence that vaccines cause autism.

"Donald Trump has been anti-vaccine at least since 2015," Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education Center and an infectious disease specialist at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, was quoted as saying by CNN.

During the 2015 Republican primary debate, Trump claimed autism had gotten "totally out of control" and suggested vaccines should be administered in "smaller doses over a longer period of time."

Trump Repeats Claims on Childhood Vaccines

Trump has repeatedly suggested there may be a connection between vaccines and autism, despite overwhelming scientific evidence disproving the claim. He has also argued that the US childhood vaccination schedule should be reduced, raising concerns among public health experts.

"I believe in vaccines, but I don't believe that, you know, you have to have a mandate for all of them," Trump said in a May interview with journalist Sharyl Attkisson. "I really feel that vaccines, if they were given in smaller quantities—they want to cut some out, and that's good, too. I agree with that."

Scientific Consensus Remains Unchanged

Multiple large-scale studies conducted over the past two decades have consistently found no causal link between childhood vaccines—including the MMR vaccine—and autism spectrum disorder.

Major health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), continue to recommend routine childhood immunization as one of the safest and most effective ways to prevent infectious diseases.

Alex Hughes, the son of former Wales and Manchester United footballer Mark Hughes, has died at the age of 38 from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS), also known as Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

Alex Hughes, who served as Grimsby Town's Head of Player Recruitment, was found collapsed on the bedroom floor of his Cheshire home by his two sons at around 7 a.m. on June 19, an inquest at Cheshire Coroner's Court heard.

According to the hearing, Alex's eldest son immediately began CPR before paramedics arrived. Despite prolonged resuscitation efforts, emergency responders were unable to revive him.

Area Coroner Victoria Davies concluded that Hughes died from Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS), a condition in which a fatal heart rhythm abnormality causes sudden cardiac arrest even though the heart appears structurally normal during a post-mortem examination.

Following his death, Mark Hughes and his wife, Jill, said they were "totally heartbroken by the sudden and unexpected loss of our beloved son."

What Is Sudden Arrhythmic Death Syndrome (SADS)?

SADS refers to a sudden, unexpected death caused by an abnormal heart rhythm in people whose hearts appear structurally normal after death. The condition is most commonly linked to inherited disorders that affect the heart's electrical system, triggering life-threatening irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias) that can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.

According to the British Heart Foundation, around 500 people die from SADS each year in the UK, with young adults—particularly men—being most commonly affected.

What Causes SADS?

Most cases of SADS are caused by inherited genetic conditions that interfere with the heart's electrical signals. Because these disorders often cause few or no symptoms, many people remain unaware they have them until a cardiac arrest occurs.

Early diagnosis through cardiac evaluation and family screening can help identify those at risk and prevent sudden deaths.

Inherited Conditions Linked to SADS

Several inherited heart rhythm disorders are associated with SADS, including:

• Brugada syndrome: Causes dangerous abnormal rhythms in the heart's lower chambers (ventricles).
• Catecholaminergic Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia (CPVT): Triggers dangerously fast heart rhythms during exercise or emotional stress.
• Long QT syndrome (LQTS): Delays the heart's electrical recovery between beats, increasing the risk of life-threatening arrhythmias.
• Short QT syndrome (SQTS): Causes the heart to recharge too quickly, raising the risk of atrial fibrillation and ventricular arrhythmias.
• Timothy syndrome: A rare form of Long QT syndrome associated with severe heart rhythm abnormalities.
• Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome: An extra electrical pathway in the heart causes episodes of rapid heartbeat.

Symptoms That May Signal SADS

Many people with inherited heart rhythm disorders experience no warning signs. However, symptoms that warrant medical evaluation include:

• Fainting or seizures, particularly during exercise, excitement or emotional stress.
• Chest pain during physical activity.
• Shortness of breath while exercising.
• Episodes of rapid or irregular heartbeat (palpitations).
• A family history of unexplained sudden cardiac death.