Experiencing daytime sleepiness is something that is usually perceived as a minor inconvenience, but for older adults, it could be an early warning sign of Dementia. This neurodegenerative disease leads to the progressive decline of brain cells. This eventually

affects memory, cognition, and personality, making everyday tasks more difficult. As one of the fastest-growing neurological disorders across the world, dementia poses a significant health threat to ageing populations.

Is Dementia Linked To Poor Sleep?

For this study, researchers followed 445 older adults (average age 76) over three years, aiming to determine whether poor sleep could increase the risk of mild cognitive impairment (MCI), which often leads to dementia. At the start, none of the participants had MCI, but by the end of the study, 36 individuals had developed the condition.

The researchers discovered that participants with poor sleep were more likely to develop MCI compared to those who slept well. However, when depression symptoms were taken into account, the link between poor sleep and MCI became less pronounced, suggesting that while sleep issues are a concern, mental health also plays a key role in dementia risk.

To assess sleep quality, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) was used, evaluating factors such as sleep duration, disturbances, and daytime alertness. Among these, "daytime dysfunction"—defined as excessive sleepiness and low energy during the day—was most strongly associated with an increased risk of MCI. Those experiencing daytime dysfunction were more than three times as likely to develop MCI as those who didn’t report such symptoms.

There are many types of dementia:

Dementia is not a specific disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it is an overall term that describes a decline in mental ability that interferes with daily life. People with dementia often have symptoms like trouble remembering, thinking, or making everyday decisions. These symptoms tend to get worse over time.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, and it mostly affects the elderly. Each form of dementia has a different cause. Though dementia mostly affects older adults, it is not a part of normal ageing. An estimated 6.7 million older adults have Alzheimer's disease in the United States. That number is expected to double by 2060, as per data from the CDC.

In 2022, 3.8% of men and 4.2% women in US were diagnosed with dementia. The percentage of people increase with age from 1.7% for those aged 65-74 to 13.1% for those aged 85 and older. Alzheimer's accounts for 60 to 80% of all dementia cases and it is most prevalent in California, Florida, and Texas, as these states have the highest number of people.

The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is battling its 17th Ebola outbreak, caused by the rare Bundibugyo strain, which has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak in the continent's history.

Declared on May 14, 2026, the outbreak has rapidly expanded, with 1,873 confirmed cases and 672 deaths reported across five provinces, according to the country's health authorities.

Unlike the more common Zaire strain of Ebola, the Bundibugyo strain currently has no approved vaccine or antiviral treatment.

Earlier this month, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the launch of a clinical trial evaluating two potential treatments.

"The PARTNERS trial will evaluate the monoclonal antibody MBP134 and the antiviral drug remdesivir, alone and in combination," he said.

Now, researchers have reached another major milestone. The first vaccine candidate targeting the Bundibugyo Ebola virus (BDBV)—developed by the University of Oxford and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) with support from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)—has entered Phase 1 human clinical trials.

The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has approved the study, which will evaluate the vaccine in healthy adult volunteers.

What Is The Chadox1 BDBV Vaccine?

Also read: Ebola Bundibugyo Strain: All You Should Know About The Rare Virus

The University of Oxford has developed an experimental vaccine candidate called ChAdOx1 BDBV, designed specifically to protect against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola.

The vaccine uses the same ChAdOx1 viral vector platform that formed the basis of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine. It is reportedly the first of four Bundibugyo Ebola vaccine candidates currently under development to enter human clinical trials.

How Does The Vaccine Work?

The vaccine uses a genetically modified chimpanzee adenovirus (ChAdOx1)—a harmless virus that normally causes the common cold in chimpanzees—as a delivery vehicle.

Scientists have inserted genetic material from the Ebola Bundibugyo virus into this harmless virus. Once injected in humans, the modified virus trains the immune system to recognize the Ebola virus and produce protective antibodies and fight the infection.

The vaccine has already shown promising results in mice and macaque monkeys and is being manufactured to clinical standards by the Serum Institute of India, which has already produced and stockpiled around 620,000 doses.

Based on the preclinical data, the UK's MHRA approved the vaccine to move into human trials.

Read More: Ebola Outbreak: The Unique Symptoms Seen In Patients Infected With Bundibugyo

ChAdOx1 BDBV Vaccine: Phase 1 human trial

The Oxford researchers will recruit 50 healthy adults aged 18 to 55 years in the UK for the Phase 1 trial, with the first doses expected to be administered within weeks.

Scientists are also working with partners in Uganda to prepare future clinical trials in Africa. Participants will be monitored for one year, although researchers expect to know much sooner whether the vaccine generates the desired immune response and whether any unexpected side effects occur.

"We're doing phase one (early stage) trials of new vaccines all of the time, precisely to be ready for exactly this kind of outbreak," Dr Katrina Pollock, the chief investigator of the trial at the University of Oxford, told the BBC.

Can A Single-dose Vaccine Work?

Researchers are also exploring preventive vaccination strategies for healthcare workers and people who have been in close contact with infected patients.

One such approach is ring vaccination, in which individuals surrounding a confirmed Ebola case are vaccinated or given preventive treatment to stop further spread.

The goal is to develop a single-dose vaccine, similar to the licensed vaccine against the Ebola Zaire strain.

Scientists believe that both antibodies and T cells—immune cells that recognize and destroy infected cells—will play an important role in protection, although long-term immunity against the Bundibugyo strain is not yet fully understood.

"Pre-clinical models for these pathogens have already shown that a single-dose vaccine can protect animals. So, we are optimistic that a one-shot vaccine is achievable," Prof Teresa Lambe, Head of Vaccine Immunology, Oxford Vaccine Group, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford, told The Indian Express.

The vast underwater meadows of seagrass beneath the surface of the ocean may help fight one of the world's biggest public health challenges - malnutrition.

A new study published in Cell Reports Sustainability has found that fish living in seagrass ecosystems are significantly richer in essential nutrients than those found on nearby coral reefs.

It highlighted the critical role these habitats could play in improving nutrition for millions of people living in coastal regions.

How Was The Study Conducted?

Researchers from Stockholm University and Project Seagrass examined fish communities across 20 seagrass meadows and 20 coral reefs along a 3,000-kilometre stretch of the East African coastline, spanning Kenya to Mozambique.

These regions are home to communities that depend heavily on fishing for food and income, while also facing persistent challenges related to poverty and undernutrition.

Rather than focusing on individual nutrients, scientists evaluated fish as complete food sources. They measured six nutrients that are vital for human health - calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, vitamin A, and omega-3 fatty acids.

Also read: Eating Toxin-Tainted Seafood May Pose Serious Health Risks: Study

What Did The Study Find?

The findings showed that fish communities living in the seagrass meadows were 1.6 times more nutritionally dense than those living around nearby coral reefs.

Dr. Benjamin Jones, Chief Conservation Officer at Project Seagrass and lead author of the study said, “Fish don't nourish people one nutrient at a time. They come as a package. A single fish contains iron, zinc, calcium, selenium, vitamin A, and omega-3s. We wanted to understand which habitats produce fish with the best mix of these nutrients.”

The nutritional advantage became even more striking when researchers focused on the fish species most consumed by local communities. For the three key food fish species studied, seagrass meadows provided more than eight times greater nutritional support than coral reefs.

Species like rabbitfish and parrotfish, which are widely eaten in East Africa, were found to thrive in these underwater grasslands.

The findings challenge the traditional emphasis on coral reefs as the primary marine habitats supporting food security.

While coral reefs remain biodiversity hotspots, the researchers argue that seagrass ecosystems deserve equal recognition for their contribution to human nutrition and sustainable fisheries.

Environmental Benefits

Beyond nutrition, seagrass meadows provide many environmental benefits. They act as nurseries for commercially important fish, stabilize coastlines, filter pollutants, improve water quality and store vast amounts of “blue carbon”, fighting climate change.

Despite covering just 0.1% of the ocean floor, they store up to 18% of the ocean's carbon and support more than one-fifth of the world's largest fisheries.

However, these ecosystems are disappearing at an alarming rate due to coastal development, pollution, fishing industries and climate change.

Scientists warn that protecting the seagrass meadows is essential not only for marine biodiversity but also for safeguarding food security and public health.

The researchers stated, “If we want healthy oceans that feed healthy people, we need to protect the habitats that make this possible.”

Indian researchers have created the world's most detailed three-dimensional atlas of the human brainstem. This breakthrough could significantly advance research into neurological conditions like Parkinson's disease, sleep disorders, stroke, and Alzheimer's disease.

Developed by researchers at the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre at IIT Madras, the atlas is called ANCHOR (Atlas of Neurochemical Characterization of the Human Brainstem with 3D Reconstruction).

Also Read: US Senator & Trump's Close Ally Lindsey Graham Died Of Aortic Dissection: All About The Fatal Heart Emergency

It offers an unprecedented view of one of the brain's most vital yet least understood regions. The atlas integrates MRI scans, microscopic tissue imaging, and neurochemical mapping to reveal the brainstem at cellular resolution across prenatal, childhood, and adult stages.

About The Human Brainstem

The brainstem controls all the essential functions that keep us alive, including breathing, heart rate, sleep, consciousness, body temperature, and movement. It also serves as the communication bridge between the brain and the spinal cord.

Dr. Mihail Bota, neuroanatomist at IIT Madras and one of the project's lead researchers, told BBC News, “It's a huge controller of the brain. Without it, it's impossible to live.”

Despite its importance, the brainstem has remained understudied because of its highly complex structure.

According to Prof. Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, Head of the Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre, mapping it required overcoming major technological challenges. He also believes the atlas will open the door to many future discoveries.

“The brainstem is very heterogeneous and very densely packed,” Sivaprakasam explained. “To image it properly, digitise it, and then put it all back together is a pretty tough technological and engineering challenge.”

How The Atlas Can Help Study Neurological Diseases Better?

Also read: Long COVID May Be Damaging The Brain's Dopamine System, Major Study Finds

The atlas maps more than 200 tiny brainstem structures, known as nuclei and fibre tracts, allowing researchers to zoom from whole-brain MRI images down to individual brain cells. Experts say this level of detail could help scientists locate exactly which cells and neural circuits are affected in diseases.

One of the key examples is Parkinson's disease, where the degeneration of neurons in a brainstem region called the substantia nigra causes the symptomatic movements.

Researchers believe the atlas can also help understand the damage to the brainstem that occurs with stroke, sleep disorders, Alzheimer's disease, and age-related neurological decline.

“There are so many discoveries waiting to happen,” he said, noting that the research team now plans to expand the project by mapping brains affected by neurological diseases, including stroke, while creating similar atlases across different stages of human development.

A Major Milestone

Independent experts have also celebrated this milestone in neurology. Martin Parent, a neuroscientist at the CERVO Brain Research Center who was not involved in the project, described it as “really important work” because “we don't know that much about the brainstem.”

He added that the newly developed atlas could eventually become an important component in brainstem surgeries and improve the placement of electrodes used in deep-brain stimulation for neurological disorders.

Researchers hope the freely accessible ANCHOR atlas will become a valuable global resource, accelerating discoveries that could ultimately improve diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of brain disorders.