A year in review: The most popular medical research of 2016

As the curtain call for 2016 approaches, we reflect on the year’s medical advances and clinical research. Here, we will revisit the peer-reviewed studies that have garnered the most fascination and debate on Medical News Today.

This year certainly hasn’t been lacking in major events; NASA’s Juno spacecraft entered Jupiter’s orbit, the final videocassette recorder was manufactured in Japan, and the world’s longest and deepest traffic tunnel opened underneath the Swiss Alps.

The last 12 months also bore witness to the deaths of a bewildering array of legends, including Prince, Leonard Cohen, David Bowie, Gene Wilder, and Muhammad Ali, to name but a few.

Away from celebrity demises, medical research has been bubbling along at breakneck speed.

This year’s findings include the discovery that reading books is linked to a longer lifespan. Also, scientists finally proved that, even if you pick up dropped food within 5 seconds, it is still not safe. According to the researchers, “bacteria can contaminate instantaneously.”

Marijuana as popular as ever

Marijuana’s state of legal flux has seen it appear increasingly in the scientific literature. In total, 23 states (and the District of Columbia) have passed laws allowing some level of medicinal use.

A number of MNT articles covering the most recent findings in cannabis research sparked both interest and discussion.

The active ingredient in cannabis – THC – creates the associated “high” by interacting with the CB1 receptor. In October, a study published in the journal Cell added to scientific understanding of how cannabis produces its mind-altering effects by creating a 3-D model of the CB1 receptor.

One of the primary goals of the endeavor was to understand how synthetic cannabinoids work. These drugs, such as K2 and Spice, were responsible for around 8,000 calls to poison centers in the United States in 2015. Understanding their mechanism of action in more detail could save lives.

Because cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in America, studies investigating associated health consequences often gain a great deal of attention. For instance, a study published this year in the American Journal of Medicine linked heavy cannabis use to reduced bone density and increased risk of osteoporosis.

Another study revealed details of how marijuana increases memory loss by activating CB1 receptors in mitochondria.

On a more positive note, Alzheimer’s researchers published a study in the Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, backing up findings about cannabis’ neuroprotective properties. They found that THC reduced beta-amyloid levels and prevented the death of nerve cells.

The sobering rise of Zika

Sadly, Zika was big news in 2016, and not just within medical research; it is a global concern. Caused by a virus and transmitted primarily by mosquitoes, the disease has relatively vague, flu-like symptoms, such as a low-level fever, rash, muscle and joint pain, and headache.

This year, the Zika virus’ ability to interfere with the growing fetus was proven.

However, it has now been linked to microcephaly (a condition where a baby’s head is smaller than normal) and Guillain-Barré syndrome (a serious and rare condition affecting the peripheral nervous system).

MNT covered researchers’ claims that “up to 1.65 million childbearing women could become infected.”

We also wrote about the groundbreaking work at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine that described how the Zika virus attacked fetal brains and the confirmation that Zika did indeed cause a range of birth defects.

WHO have now downgraded Zika from a Public Health Emergency, but the troubles are far from over; many scientists are concerned that this change in status will reduce the amount of funding available to researchers delving into the details of this poorly understood disease.

Pokémon Go dramas

Worthy of a brief mention is the furor that surrounded Pokémon Go – a simple but addictive smartphone game that has players roaming around in the real world, on the hunt for cyber creatures. Although fun and, according to some, beneficial to psychological and physical health, it led to a range of unfortunate incidents, including multiple injuries and the discovery of a dead body.

Cancer advances

As with every year in science, thousands of cancer research projects produce new and innovative papers. Whether investigating ways to treat cancer or studying how it develops, the findings are always fascinating.

In June, Nature Communications published research that deepened scientific understanding of how cancer cells break away and spread to other areas of the body.

Once cancer departs from its point of origin, it becomes much more difficult to treat. They found that cell surface proteins, called integrins, bind and communicate with their surroundings. These proteins seem to play an important role in the survival of cancer cells once they have left the primary tumor.

The team – from Queen Mary University London in the United Kingdom – produced a video to explain the findings further:

In other positive cancer news, MNT covered the discovery of a drug combination – trastuzumab and lapatinib – that eradicated breast cancer tumors in just 11 days.

Another cancer-related finding that was heralded as “groundbreaking” was published in Science in March. Researchers from University College London in the U.K. made tentative steps toward an intervention that might be able to coerce a patient’s own immune system into destroying cancer cells.