Clinical intelligence & editorial.

PLOS

NLGN3 autism variants have distinct functional impact on synapses and sleep behavior in Drosophila

Neuroligin-3 (NLGN3) was first identified as a X-linked risk gene associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Most reported variants are identified in males who inherited their variants from an unaffected mother, but de novo variants have also been identified in both affected heterozygous females and hemizygous males. The p.R451C variant was the initial variant associating NLGN3 with ASD and has been heavily investigated, yet little is known about the functional consequences of other NLGN3 v...

Autism

Rebekah E. Townsley, Jonathan C. Andrews, Saurabh Srivastav, Sharayu V. Jangam, Shabab B. Hannan, Oguz Kanca, Paul C. Marcogliese, Shinya Yamamoto, Michael F. Wangler• October 16, 2026

PLOS

Zika virus serologic responses during pregnancy in a dengue-endemic setting: A prospective cohort study in Thailand

Background: Zika virus (ZIKV) infection during pregnancy has been associated with adverse birth outcomes, including severe neurological abnormalities. Confirmation of infection remains challenging due to the disease’s predominantly asymptomatic or mild nature. While real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) is the gold standard, its use in clinical settings and surveillance is limited. Serological point-of-care tests offer alternatives but pose interpretation challenges...

Pregnancy

Salin Sirinam, Dennopporn Sudjai, Supawat Chatchen, Watcharee Arunsodsai, Weerawan Hattasingh, Laura Pezzi, Thomas Jaenisch, May Chu, Thitiya Yakasaem, Kriengsak Limkittikul• October 15, 2026

PLOS

Network pharmacology and machine learning reveal kit as a target of roburic acid in anaplastic thyroid carcinoma: Preliminary in vitro validation

This study aims to systematically explore the potential molecular mechanism of Roburic Acid (RBA) in the treatment of Anaplastic Thyroid Carcinoma (ATC) through the approaches of network pharmacology, machine learning and in vitro experiments. Public databases were used to retrieve the potential targets of RBA and disease-related targets of ATC. Intersection analysis was performed to identify the common targets, followed by the construction of a Protein-Protein Interaction (PPI) network for thes...

Thyroiditis

Foxing Tan, Haolin Du, Longcheng Deng, Yaping Shen, Yan Yang, Kun Mei, Zilu Chen, Yan Huang• October 15, 2026

PLOS

Expert intuition vs. Algorithmic clustering: Mapping radiological subtypes in pulmonary sarcoidosis

Background: Pulmonary sarcoidosis is a heterogeneous granulomatous disease with a broad spectrum of clinical and radiological manifestations. While the traditional Scadding classification based on chest radiography remains a cornerstone of disease staging, it provides limited information regarding parenchymal involvement and poorly correlates with functional impairment. High-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) offers superior sensitivity in detecting subtle and early interstitial changes, yet...

Sarcoidosis

Justyna Sobczak, Adam J. Białas, Joanna Miłkowska-Dymanowska, Łukasz Gwadera, Patryk Sobczak, Katarzyna Torbiarczyk, Piotr Łacwik, Wojciech J. Piotrowski• October 15, 2026

PLOS

Healthy lifestyle as a protective factor against the risk of gastroesophageal reflux disease: Prospective population cohort analysis

Background: Lifestyle modifications are recommended by American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) for managing gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), a significant health issue; but evidence is scarce. This study aims to investigate the longitudinal association between healthy lifestyle behaviors and the risk of GERD. Methods: We analyzed data from 306,543 participants aged between 38 and 73 years without GERD at baseline from the UK Biobank. A summarized healthy lifestyle score (range, 0–7...

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Lei Peng, Xueqin Li, Jinfeng Qi, Liming Zhang, Zhenqing Yang, Xucheng Wu, Xueqing Jia, George O. Agogo, Guoju Liu, Kongxi Zhu, Zuyun Liu, Genxiang Mao, Honglei Wu• October 15, 2026

PLOS

Effects of microtrauma on joint structural changes in the Curdlan-injected SKG mouse model of ankylosing spondylitis

Although microtrauma is considered a potential environmental factor in the development of ankylosing spondylitis (AS), there is a lack of experimental research regarding its precise contribution to disease pathogenesis. To induce physiological microtrauma, the right ankles of SKG mice were immobilized for a week using surgical plaster and a pipette tip to stimulate compensatory mechanical overload in the contralateral limb. Following the removal of the immobilization, the mice were intraperitone...

Ankylosing Spondylitis

Seung Hoon Lee, Dongju Kim, Chanhyeok Jeon, Hye-Ryeong Jo, Jeehee Youn, Sungsin Jo, Tae-Hwan Kim• October 15, 2026

PLOS

STCP-Net: A few-shot learning approach based on spectral-temporal convolution and an improved prototypical network for ECG classification

To address the heavy reliance of deep learning models on manually labeled data in ECG classification, we need to tackle two major limitations. First, sample sizes are often limited in clinical settings, making data annotation costly and impractical. Second, existing few-shot learning methods still fall short in two key areas: 1) Existing strategies pay insufficient attention to rare arrhythmia types. This makes it difficult to effectively identify rare clinical cases. 2) Single feature represent...

Ecg

Jia Li, Dainan Gan, Xiaolin Zhan, Wei Yao, Bin Zou, Bin Zhang, Dong Li, Dan Li, Lin Li• October 15, 2026

PLOS

Demographic subgroup-aware analysis of blood pressure predictive models

Blood pressure (BP) is an important cardiovascular health indicator, usually monitored non-invasively with a sphygmomanometer, which can be bulky and inconvenient for real-time monitoring. Blood pressure estimation using photoplethysmography (PPG) waveform analysis offers a promising alternative for intermittent or continuous cuff-less BP monitoring. However, changes in vascularization due to individual physiology and age can directly affect the morphology of the PPG waveform. Thus, prediction a...

Blood Pressure

Blessing Kolawole, Sinuo Fan, Yingjie Lao, Valencia J. Koomson• October 15, 2026

PLOS

Impact of revised antral follicle count threshold on PCOS diagnosis: A comparative clinical study

Objective: To evaluate the clinical impact of the revised antral follicle count (AFC) threshold on polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) diagnosis. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional observational study including women diagnosed using the Rotterdam criteria, stratified by AFC: 12–19 (low AFC) and ≥20 (high AFC). Clinical, metabolic, and hormonal parameters were compared against controls and amongst low and high AFC group. Results: Of 336 PCOS women, 208 (62%) had an AFC between 12 and 19 and wo...

Pcos

Saloni Kamboj, Neena Malhotra, Reeta Mahey, Taruna Arora, Aditi Goyal, Snigdha Soni, Anshu Jyoti, Spondita Banerjee, Rintu Kutum• October 15, 2026

PLOS

Multi-feature Response Attention Network for kidney stone detection and measurement of stone size in ultrasound images

Kidney stones are hard deposits formed in the urinary tract due to excess waste and low fluid intake, causing severe abdominal pain. Ultrasound-based kidney stone detection involves identifying and locating stones in the kidneys using high-frequency sound waves to visualize renal structures. Measuring stone size is crucial for early treatment and preventing infection. However, detection is challenging because ultrasound images suffer from noise, lower contrast, and variable quality. To overcome...

Kidney Stones

Vijaya Padmanabha, Mohamed Sirajudeen Yoosuf, Anand Mahendran, Joseph Mani, Anisha Prima Rodrigues, Gururaj Bijur, Hothefa Jassim• October 15, 2026

PLOS

Bacterial infections and antibiotic susceptibility in children with sickle-cell anemia on malaria chemoprevention using Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) or Sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) in Uganda

Introduction: Over 300,000 babies are born annually with sickle cell anemia (SCA) in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite malaria chemoprevention and early penicillin prophylaxis, these children develop febrile illnesses. The effect of malaria chemoprevention regimens on the incidence of bacterial infections and antimicrobial resistance is unclear. We assessed incidence of bacterial infections and resistance patterns in children with SCA receiving weekly DP or monthly SP. Methods: This study was nested i...

Antibiotic

Winnie Nambatya, Moses Ocan, Grace Ndeezi, Dennis Kalibbala, Ritah Namusoosa, Freddie Bwanga, Thandile Nkosi-Gondwe, Joanita Kirikumwino, Alisen Ayitewala, Isaac Ssewanyana, John Ssenkusu, Robert Opoka, Feiko O. ter Kuile, Kamija S. Phiri, Bjarne Robberstad, Richard Idro• October 15, 2026

PLOS

Evaluation of pre-Omicron population immunity for SARS-CoV-2 in the Household Influenza Vaccine Evaluation (HIVE) cohort

Background: Continued serosurvey for SARS-CoV-2 population immunity is critical for vaccine strain selection and identification of susceptible groups such as young children. We aim to evaluate the use of a high-throughput, low-volume assay to describe strain-specific IgG measurement in a longitudinally followed community based cohort. Methods: The longitudinal Household Influenza Vaccine Evaluation study has observed around 300 households annually for acute respiratory illness. SARS-CoV-2 varian...

Vaccines And Immunization

Yangyupei Yang, Casey Juntila-Raymond, Amy Callear, Matthew Smith, Reilly K. Atkinson, Yan Zhao, Ruhi Shah, Jefferson J. S. Santos, Scott E. Hensley, Arnold S. Monto, Emily T. Martin• October 15, 2026