A study conducted at the University of Campinas (Unicamp) in São Paulo State, Brazil, has shown that interleukin 6 (IL-6), a substance secreted by muscles in response to physical exercise, increases the survival of the pancreatic cells that produce insulin in a type 1 diabetes model. “Besides reinforcing the importance of physical activity in the control of diabetes, the discovery paves the way to the development of drugs that simulate the action of IL-6 in the pancreas,” said Claudio Cesar Zoppi, a researcher at the Endocrine Pancreas & Metabolism Laboratory of Unicamp’s Department of Structural & Functional Biology, and one of the article’s authors.

The Recognised Research Group (Grupo de Investigación Reconocido, GIR) on Memory and Cognition of the Universidad of Salamanca has been studying for years different processes of the human memory, in particular the frequent distortions it suffers under normal conditions. One of these lines of research, which is being carried out in collaboration with experts from the United States, has led it to analyse what occurs when a person is driving a car. Experiments show that the efficiency of remembering the information received in this situation is very low.

An extensive study carried out by the Faculty of Health Sciences of the Universidad de Beira Interior of Covilhã, in collaboration with the Universidad del Miño of Braga, has found that over 28% of Portuguese children aged nine are exposed to cigarette smoke when they travel by car. Experts thus draw attention to this problem, which is particularly serious as these children are inhaling toxic substances in enclosed spaces, and recommend that measures should be taken.