Hello Health Rounds readers!  Today we feature two potentially important discoveries – one that could lead to new drugs that improve the ability of people with schizophrenia to function independently, and another that may help prevent millions of food-borne Salmonella infections.   

In breaking news: Trump delays naming new CDC head; US Senate Republicans launch probe of abortion pill makers, escalate pressure on FDA; US Senators reach deal on capping insulin costs at $35 per month; Germany renews push for sugar tax and energy drinks ban for children and South Carolina could declare measles outbreak over by April 26.

Also: British drug regulator plans to reduce animal testing reliance; EU chemicals agency backs ban on PFAS 'forever chemicals'; Cuban doctors endure burnout, blackouts as once-vaunted healthcare declines; and China launches long-term care insurance system to alleviate aging challenges.

An anti-vaccine group aligned with U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is petitioning him to vastly broaden a federal list to include more than 300 injuries it says are linked to immunizations, and has threatened to sue ‌if he does not.

Researchers have identified a biomarker linked to schizophrenia that could lead to new treatments to tackle symptoms of the debilitating mental disorder not addressed by current medicines.

Currently available antipsychotic drugs can help to control a patient's hallucinations and delusions but they don't improve cognitive issues like disorganized thinking and executive dysfunction, which can often prevent individuals from living independently.

“A lot of people with schizophrenia cannot integrate well into society because of these cognitive deficits,” study leader Peter Penzes of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago said in a statement.

Analyzing cerebrospinal fluid samples from over 100 people with and without schizophrenia, researchers found those with the disorder had significantly lower levels of a brain protein called CACNA2D1 compared to healthy individuals, resulting in an overstimulation of the brain’s electrical networks that may contribute to cognitive symptoms.

The researchers created a synthetic version of the protein and tested it in a mouse model of genetic schizophrenia. A single injection into the animals’ brains corrected both the abnormal brain circuit activity and the behavioral problems linked to the disorder, without negative side effects such as sedation or reduced movement, they reported in Neuron.

“Our discovery could solve these challenges by establishing the basis of a revolutionary and completely novel treatment strategy through a tandem biomarker-peptide therapeutic approach,” added Penzes.

“The next step... would be to identify the (human) patients who could respond and treat them accordingly,” Penzes said.

Food-contaminating Salmonella bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics can be deactivated instead by a virus that is naturally present in the environment, Chinese researchers say.

The virus, called bacteriophage W5, “functions like a precision-guided missile, capable of eliminating harmful Salmonella on various foods and packaging materials, showing great potential as a novel guardian for food safety,” study leader Huitian Gou from the College of Veterinary Medicine, Gansu Agricultural University in Lanzhou said in a statement.

Salmonella is responsible for 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths in the United States alone each year, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates.

In lab tests, W5 reduced Salmonella and disrupted biofilms on milk, meat, eggs and on food-contact surfaces under realistic storage conditions, according to a report published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

As a natural biological entity, phage W5 offers a "green" solution for decontamination, leaving no harmful chemical residues on food or in the environment, the researchers said.

They say their findings open a new pathway for using bacteriophages to combat antibiotic resistance and enhance food safety.

The researchers envision several possible decontamination options for W5 along the food supply chain, "for instance, as a feed additive in livestock farming, a surface disinfectant in meat processing plants, or even a preservative spray for fresh produce at the consumption end,” Gou said.