The balance of microbes in the human gut varies substantially from morning to night and even more by season—with profound fluctuations completely transforming the microbiome from summer to winter, according to a study to be presented at Digestive Disease Week (DDW) 2023. The microbiome—bacteria that live in and on the body—accounts for about half of the cells that make a human, and fluctuations in the makeup of the microbiome could have wide-ranging implications for health and medicine. “The seasonal variations we see in conditions like allergies or the flu occur in context of completely different microbiomes,” said Carolina Dantas Machado, Ph.D., the study’s lead author and a researcher in the laboratory of Amir Zarrinpar, MD, Ph.D., at University of California, San Diego. “We may need to put our understanding of how seasons affect health and disease in context of a microbiome that is much more variable and dynamic than we have ...
The team developed a deep learning AI model that can identify which at-risk infants have ROP that may lead to blindness if left untreated, and they hope their technique could improve access to screening in the many areas with limited neonatal services and few trained ophthalmologists. The study, by an international team of scientists and clinicians in the UK, Brazil, Egypt and the US, supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre at Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, is published in The Lancet Digital Health. Lead author Dr. Konstantinos Balaskas (Director, Moorfields Ophthalmic Reading Centre & Clinical AI Lab, Moorfields Eye Hospital and Associate Professor, UCL Institute of Ophthalmology) said, “Retinopathy of prematurity is becoming increasingly common as survival rates of premature babies improve across the globe, and it is now the leading cause of childhood blindness in ...
Substance use among older drivers increases the probability of them being at-fault two to four times during a crash, a new study, analyzing nine years’ worth of US nationwide highway traffic data, shows. Although older drivers are less likely to report using substances, this research found that out of a sample of 87,060 drivers involved in two moving vehicle crashes, more than one-third were motorists over the age of 70 who tested positive for substances. Findings are published today in the journal Traffic Injury Prevention. “In general older drivers are at an elevated risk for being at-fault in a fatal car crash, this is especially the case when they are under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” explains the lead author, Dr. Satish Kedia, a Professor at the University of Memphis School of Public Health’s Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences. In 2020, there were almost 48 million licensed drivers ages 65 ...
In a paper recently published in PNAS Nexus, researchers from the Department of Comparative Biosciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign describe how they were able to inhibit the activity of a specific neuronal cell type in the hippocampus to induce cellular and behavioral changes associated with aging. Their study confirms a causal relationship between reduced function of certain interneurons in the brain and cognitive decline. In addition, their novel experimental model may be useful for studying age-related cognitive disorders. First author Jinrui Lyu, a graduate student in the Neuroscience Program and the Department of Comparative Biosciences, performed and analyzed the experiments for the study. Corresponding author Uwe Rudolph is professor and head of the Department of Comparative Biosciences in the College of Veterinary Medicine. These authors answered some questions about the design and significance of their study. What was the motivation for your study? Our lab is interested in why ...
The percentage of adults who smoked cigarettes in the United States fell to a historic low last year, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found. However, e-cigarettes are becoming even more popular. About 11% of adults told the CDC last year that they were current cigarette smokers, according to the latest preliminary data from the National Health Interview Survey, a biannual survey that provides general information about health-related topics. The survey includes responses from 27,000 people age 18 and older. In 2020 and 2021, about 12.5% of adults said they smoked cigarettes. This is a significant drop from when surveys like these started. Surveys of Americans in the 1940s found that about half of all adults said they smoked cigarettes. Rates began to decline in the 1960s, and more recently, in 2016, 15.5% of adults said they smoked cigarettes. Recent studies have shown some groups ...
Therapy is being used during pivotal phase 1 study into patients with pancreatic cancer Alligator Bioscience and Amphera have announced that the last patient in their REACTIVE-2 phase 1 research has been dosed. The research is evaluating mitazalimab when used in combination with MesoPher among patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. The single location, open-label trial is assessing the efficacy and safety of Alligator’s lead candidate mitazalimab along with Amphera’s cancer vaccine MesoPher. It involves patients who have already undergone standard of care treatment with mFOLFIRINOX. The REACTIVE-2 study is currently being performed at Erasmus Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, while initial results are expected later this year. Søren Bregenholt, chief executive officer at Alligator Bioscience, reflected: “Our CD40 agonist and Amphera’s cancer vaccine have both shown great promise in their own separate clinical studies emphasising the crucial role of dendritic cells and other myeloid cells in immune response to ...
A successful gene therapy trialed at Michigan State University in dogs with an inherited eye disease is ready to be developed for clinical use in human patients with a rare condition called retinitis pigmentosa. Simon Petersen-Jones, professor and Donald R. Meyers and William E. Dunlap Endowed Chair in Canine Health at the Michigan State College of Veterinary Medicine, and his collaborators have published “Development of a translatable gene augmentation therapy for CNGB1-Retinitis Pigmentosa” in Molecular Therapy. Retinitis pigmentosa encompasses a group of rare genetic diseases that cause vision loss due to death of the light-sensing cells in the retina. Vision loss begins at a young age, and progresses throughout the lifespan. “There is currently an unmet need for treatment to save the vision of patients with CNGB1-retinitis pigmentosa,” Petersen-Jones said. “This promising therapy that works so well in dogs is now sufficiently developed that the next step is to take it forward for ...
Immunotherapy with blinatumomab leads to a strongly improved survival rate—from 66% to 93%—for children with an aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). They also had fewer side effects from the treatment. Based on the results, blinatumomab will now become standard treatment worldwide for babies with this aggressive form of leukemia. Three quarters of babies with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)—three babies a year in the Netherlands—have a particular fault in the DNA of their leukemia cells. This so-called KMT2A rearrangement leads to an aggressive form of ALL with a poor prognosis. Despite intensifying chemotherapy, the prognosis for these babies has not improved in recent decades. Intensive chemotherapy works very well for half of the babies. But in the other half of the children, the disease returned within two years, or children died from the disease or sometimes from the side effects of the therapy. 90% of recurrences—when the cancer comes ...
March 23 (Reuters) – Sanofi’s (SASY.PA) asthma drug Dupixent met all targets in a trial to treat “smoker’s lung”, potentially adding billions to the French drugmaker’s growth prospects, but also underscoring a heavy reliance on its bestseller. In a late stage trial Dupixent, jointly developed with Regeneron (REGN.O), led to a 30% reduction in moderate or severe acute exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a potentially deadly disease marked by progressive lung function decline. Shares in Sanofi and Regeneron surged after they said in a joint statement on Thursday a Phase III trial involving 939 current or former smokers also showed improvements in lung function, quality of life and respiratory symptoms. The French group’s stock was up 5.2% at 1205 GMT, reaching a seven-month high and far outperforming the STOXX Europe 600 Health Care index (.SXDP), which was little changed. Regeneron jumped 8.6% in U.S. ...
The drug is available in 27 markets, with worldwide sales totalling over $139m in 2022. Eli Lilly will sell its low blood sugar drug Baqsimi to Amphastar Pharmaceuticals in a deal worth over $1bn, the two companies announced. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, Amphastar will pay Lilly $500m at closing and an additional $125m after one year, with Lilly also eligible to receive sales-based milestone payments of up to $450m. Baqsimi is the first and only nasally administered glucagon to treat severe hypoglycaemia – very low blood sugar – in diabetes patients aged four years and above. Classed as a diabetic emergency, severe hypoglycaemia is a complication that can occur in diabetes patients who take insulin and certain anti-diabetic tablets. The condition is characterised by altered mental or physical functioning, including confusion and disorientation, convulsions, loss of consciousness and coma. Lilly launched Baqsimi ...
Go to Page Go
your submission has already been received.
OK
Please enter a valid Email address!
Submit
The most relevant industry news & insight will be sent to you every two weeks.