2026 · Journal of cachexia, sarcopenia and muscle · open access
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, Sarcopenia and Digital Gait Characteristics in Older Adults: Insights Into the Brain-Muscle Axis
Zhang et al.
The finding, in our words
Higher plasma BDNF levels were associated with a lower prevalence of sarcopenia and better kinetic and spatiotemporal gait performance in older adults.
A paraphrase to the Library’s standard, never the abstract. The source is one link away and is always the authority.
In progressive multiple sclerosis, higher serum neurofilament light chain levels were associated with reduced daily step counts from wearables, while higher step counts were linked to lower sNfL. A ten percent increase in steps corresponded to a 0.015 decrease in sNfL z-score, suggesting rising sNfL may predict subsequent mobility decline.
Joseph et al., Annals of clinical and translational neurology (paywalled) · source ↗
The study found that smartwatch-based adherence monitoring showed consistent concordance over time and may be more reliable than app or pill count methods in measuring treatment adherence in a decentralised setting. This supports the use of wearable devices as objective tools in patient-centric monitoring for decentralised clinical trials.
Huh et al., Clinical and translational science · source ↗
This review establishes that microsampling across blood, saliva, urine and stool matrices offers validated workflows and regulatory recognition for human biomonitoring comparable to conventional methods. It finds that these decentralised approaches enhance participant acceptability and enable screening in remote or low-resource settings.
Menstrual blood offers a noninvasive, patient-centric matrix for detecting endometriosis, cervical cancer, and hormonal disorders through self-collected samples. Wearable in-pad biosensors enabling real-time monitoring and long-term tracking could transform fertility evaluation and early disease detection, though standardisation and large-scale validation remain critical gaps.
Shafiq et al., Annals of medicine and surgery · source ↗
Wearable biochemical monitoring requires a complete measurement chain that integrates quality-controlled biofluid sampling, sensor fusion and metadata capture to convert raw sensor outputs into clinically valid digital biomarkers.