Author: Marie Benz MD FAAD
14 Oct Follicular T Cells May Play a Role in Development of Type I Diabetes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28869" align="alignleft" width="142"]
Dr. Tuure Kinnunen[/caption]
Tuure Kinnunen, MD, PhD
Academy Research Fellow
School of Medicine, University of Eastern Finland
Kuopio, Finland
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease where the immune system destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. It typically manifests in childhood and early adolescence.
Diabetes-associated autoantibodies are highly predictive of type 1 diabetes risk and they can be typically detected in the blood of patients even years before the onset of the disease.
Follicular helper T cells are a recently described type of immune cells that have a central role in activating B cells, which in turn are responsible for producing antibodies. Since the emergence of autoantibodies is a common feature of type 1 diabetes development, it is plausible that follicular T helper cells have a role in the disease process. This notion is also supported by evidence recently generated in the murine models of type 1 diabetes.
13 Oct Second-line Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma Treatment and Survival in Real-World Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28855" align="alignleft" width="130"]
Dr. Mathew Galesky[/caption]
Dr. Mathew Galsky MD
Associate Professor, Medicine, Hematology and Medical Oncology
Assistant Professor, Urology
Director, Genitourinary Medical Oncology
The Tisch Cancer Institute
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Since the development of combination cisplatin-based chemotherapy for the treatment of metastatic bladder (urothelial) cancer several decades ago, there have been few advances in the treatment of this disease. Further, until recently, there had been no global standard treatment options for patients with metastatic urothelial cancer progressing despite platinum-based chemotherapy. Several lines of evidence suggest that urothelial cancer may be sensitive to immunotherapeutic treatment strategies. Recently, in a phase I/II study published by Sharma and colleagues in Lancet Oncology, the anti-PD-1 antibody Nivolumab demonstrated a durable objective response rate of 24% in patients with metastatic urothelial cancer progressing despite platinum-based chemotherapy. To confirm to antitumor effects of Nivolumab in this patient population, we conducted a large global multicenter single-arm phase II study
13 Oct Specialized Surveillance Clinic For Patients At High Risk of Melanoma Reduced Procedures and Costs
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28969" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Dr. Caroline Watts[/caption]
Caroline Watts| Research Fellow
Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention Research
Sydney School of Public Health
The University of Sydney
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: A clinic for people at high risk of melanoma was established at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney in 2006 as part of a research project to look at the impact of surveillance regime which included regular full body skin examination supported by dermoscopy and total body photography at 6 monthly intervals. If a suspicious lesion was identified, the lesion was either removed or an image of the lesion was captured using digital dermoscopy and the patient returned in 3 months for review.
This study aimed to estimate the costs and benefits from a health system perspective associated with specialised surveillance compared with current routine care high risk people would receive in the community.
13 Oct Maternal Use of SSRIs May Be Related to Speech and Language Disorders in Offspring
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28737" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Dr. Alan Brown[/caption]
Alan S. Brown, M.D., M.P.H.
Professor of Psychiatry and Epidemiology
Columbia University Medical Center
Director, Program in Birth Cohort Studies, Division of Epidemiology
New York State Psychiatric Institute
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Maternal use of antidepressants during pregnancy has been increasing. A previous study from a team that I led in a national birth cohort in Finland showed that mother’s use of a serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressant is related to an increased risk of depression in offspring. We sought to evaluate whether these medications also increased risk of speech/language, scholastic, and motor outcomes in offspring. We found an increased risk (37% higher risk) of speech/language disorders in offspring of mothers exposed to SSRIs in pregnancy compared to mothers who were depressed during pregnancy but did not take an SSRI during pregnancy.
13 Oct Vitiligo Susceptibility Genes Associated With Immune Regulation Identified
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28848" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Richard Spritz,[/caption]
Richard A. Spritz, M.D.
Professor and Director,
Human Medical Genetics and Genomics Program
University of Colorado School of Medicine.
Aurora, CO 80045 USA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Vitiligo is an autoimmune disease in which depigmented skin results from destruction of skin melanocytes, with strong epidemiologic association with several other autoimmune diseases that include autoimmune thyroid disease, type 1 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, pernicious anemia, systemic lupus erythematosus, and Addison’s disease.
In previous genetic linkage and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) of vitiligo patients of European-derived white ancestry (EUR), we identified 27 vitiligo susceptibility loci. In the present study, we carried out a third GWAS of vitiligo in EUR subjects. The combined analysis, with almost 5,000 vitiligo cases and 40,000 non-vitiligo controls, identified a total 23 new confirmed vitiligo loci, as well as seven with suggestive significance.
13 Oct 10-Year Mortality Risk Raised With Atopic Dermatitis, But Lower Than Psoriasis
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_21019" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Alexander Egeberg[/caption]
Alexander Egeberg, MD PhD
Gentofte Hospital
Department of Dermatology and Allergy
Hellerup Denmark
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In recent years, numerous studies have examined the impact of psoriasis and associated comorbidities, and found a reduced lifespan in particular among patients with severe disease. However, little is known about the impact and burden of adults with atopic dermatitis. We looked at the 10-year survival among patients hospitalized for atopic dermatitis, and compared these with patients hospitalized for psoriasis, as well as with subjects from the general population.
Our main finding was that, although the mortality risk was higher for atopic dermatitis compared with general population control subjects, the risk was significantly lower compared with psoriasis patients.
12 Oct Big Data Using Predictive Analytics Aims To Improve Medication Adherence
[caption id="attachment_28837" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Neil Smiley[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Neil Smiley
Founder and CEO of Loopback Analytics
Editor's note: Loopback Analytics mission is to "integrate data across a myriad of healthcare information systems to bridge the expanding gaps within the care continuum". CEO Neil Smiley discusses the problem of medication adherence and possible means to address the issue.
MedicalResearch.com: What is meant by medication "adherence"? How big a problem does this represent in term of health care outcomes and costs?
Response: Medication adherence is the degree to which a patient is taking medications as prescribed. Poor medication adherence takes the lives of 125,000 Americans annually, and costs the health care system nearly $300 billion a year in additional doctor visits, emergency department visits and hospitalizations.
MedicalResearch.com: What can be done by health care providers, systems and pharmacists to improve medication adherence?
Response: There are many potential failure points after a prescription is written, that range from affordability, transportation, literacy, confusion over brand vs. generics, duplication of therapy. Many patients simply stop taking medications when they start feeling better or fail to refill chronic maintenance medications. Healthcare providers can improve adherence by anticipating and eliminating potential points of failure before they become problems. For example, high risk patients leaving the hospital are less likely to be readmitted if they get their prescriptions before they are discharged. Follow-up consultations by pharmacists can assist patients with side effects that may otherwise cause patients to abandon their treatment plan and provide patients with education on how to take medications correctly.
12 Oct Adverse Life Experiences are a Major Risk Factor for Youth Firearm Violence
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28833" align="alignleft" width="133"]
Dr. Steven A. Sumner[/caption]
Steven A. Sumner, MD, MSc
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention
Atlanta GA
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: In 2014, CDC was invited to Wilmington, Delaware, to conduct a study because the city had been experiencing a high level of homicides and shootings. Our investigation looked at multiple risk factors for youth violence involvement across a wide variety of areas of young people’s lives. For example, youth who had previously experienced a gunshot wound injury were 11 times more likely to later commit a gun crime than youth who had not been similarly injured. Study investigators looked at histories of violence victimization, educational problems, unemployment histories, child welfare experiences, and prior criminal involvement. The more adverse life experiences a young person had, the more likely they were to commit firearm violence.
12 Oct DuraGraft® Vascular Graft Evaluated to Prevent Vein Graft Failure After CABG
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28827" align="alignleft" width="169"]
Dr. Miguel Haime[/caption]
Miguel Haime, MD
VA Boston Healthcare System and Boston Medical Center
Boston, MA
Dr. Haime discusses an abstract about Somahlution DuraGraft during a rapid response session at the 2016 annual meeting of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS; 1–5 October, Barcelona, Spain)
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) surgery is the standard of care for multi-vessel coronary heart disease. During CABG, we use saphenous vein grafts as bypass conduits for surgical revascularization. Pathophysiological changes that occur in vein grafts during the surgical procedure can compromise the durability and patency of the graft and increase the risk of vein graft failure.
At the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery (EACTS) annual meeting, we presented results from a retrospective, non-randomized study conducted at VA Boston Healthcare System to evaluate the Real World Evidence of DuraGraft®, a vascular graft treatment designed to prevent vein graft failure after CABG.
12 Oct Significant Cardiovascular Mortality Following Early-Stage Breast Cancer
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28867" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Husam Abdel-Qadir[/caption]
Husam Abdel-Qadir, MD, FRCPC, DABIM
(Cardiology and Internal Medicine)
Graduate student, Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research
Elliot Philipson Clinician Scientist Training Program
University of Toronto
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Breast cancer is the most common malignancy among North American women. The successes of screening and treatment have led to a marked increase in the number of breast cancer survivors, whose cardiovascular health is becoming of prime concern. Many recent publications have raised alarm about the incidence of cardiovascular abnormalities after breast cancer treatment. However, there is a paucity of data about the frequency of death from cardiovascular disease rather than breast cancer. Contemporary estimates of the incidence of competing risks like cardiovascular disease are important to guide discussions about prognosis, subsequent follow-up, and survivorship plans. It is important that such incidence estimates are generated using methodology that appropriately accounts for competing risks to avoid providing results that are biased upwards.
12 Oct New Drug Blocks Frequency of Drinking Alcohol, But Not Amount Once Drinking Starts
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28814" align="alignleft" width="140"]
Megan Ryan[/caption]
Megan Ryan M.B.A.
Clinical Program Director, DMD
Technology Development Coordinator
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, MD
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) has been linked to the dysregulation of the brain stress systems (e.g. corticotropin-releasing factor, glucocorticoids, and vasopressin) creating a negative emotional state leading to chronic relapsing behavior. Several pre-clinical studies have shown that by blocking the V1b receptor with a V1b receptor antagonist, dependence induced compulsive-like alcohol intake is also blocked. This is the first multi-site trial to assess the efficacy of the V1b receptor antagonist novel compound (ABT-436) for the treatment of alcohol dependence.
12 Oct Who Returns To Work After First Hospitalization for Heart Failure?
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28842" align="alignleft" width="120"]
Dr. Rasmus Rørth[/caption]
Rasmus Rørth MD
From Department of Cardiology
Rigshospitalet
University of Copenhagen, Denmark
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Heart failure is considered to be one of the most common, costly, disabling and deadly medical conditions and is thus a major health care problem. The ability to maintain a full-time job addresses a vital indirect consequence and cost of heart failure, beyond the usual clinical parameters such as mortality and hospitalization. Ability to work is more than just another measure of performance status. As well as its financial importance, employment is crucial for self-esteem and quality of life in patients with chronic illness. Obtaining information on labour force inclusion should, therefore, shed light on an unstudied consequence of heart failure and provide a novel perspective on the impact of heart failure on the lives of those who, perhaps, have most to lose from this condition.
12 Oct One Stop Cancer Screening May Increase Participation Rates
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28808" align="alignleft" width="180"]
Dr. Amanda Bobridge[/caption]
Dr. Amanda Bobridge
University of South Australia
Adelaide
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Despite cancer screening being demonstrated to reduce cancer morbidity and mortality, current participation in established screening programs is variable. In Australia, the participation rates range from 37% for bowel cancer (FOBT) screening to 57% for cervical cancer screening.
This study aimed to determine the barriers to and enablers for cancer screening and whether the target population for screening would support the concept of combined cancer screening (all screening offered at the same time at the same location).
12 Oct Open Payment Data Discloses Industry-Dermatology Financial Relationships
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28564" align="alignleft" width="90"]
Dr. Hao Feng[/caption]
Hao Feng, M.D., M.H.S.
Resident, Department of Dermatology
NYU Langone Medical Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Recently, there has been an increased scrutiny on industry-physician interactions and emphasis on disclosures of interactions. While we know about the types of interaction between dermatologists and industry, we wanted to understand that relationship more in depth by probing the Open Payment database.
12 Oct Technology May Help Physicians Improve the Art of Medical Diagnosis
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28621" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Ateev Mehrotra[/caption]
Ateev Mehrotra, M.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Health Care Policy
Harvard Medical School
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Prior research has highlighted that physicians make diagnostic errors roughly 10 to 15 percent of the time. Over the last two decades, computer-based checklists and other “fail-safe” digital apps have been increasingly used to reduce medication errors or streamline infection-prevention protocols. Lately, experts have wondered whether computers might also help reduce diagnostic errors.
In the study, 234 internal medicine physicians were asked to evaluate 45 clinical cases, involving both common and uncommon conditions with varying degrees of severity. For each case, physicians had to identify the most likely diagnosis along with two additional possible diagnoses. Each clinical vignette was solved by at least 20 physicians. The same cases were also evaluated using 19 symptom checkers, websites or apps that use computers that help patients determine potential diagnoses for what is wrong based on their symptoms.
The physicians vastly outperformed the symptom-checker apps, listing the correct diagnosis 72 percent of the time, compared with 34 percent of the time for the digital platforms. Eighty-four percent of clinicians listed the correct diagnosis in the top three possibilities, compared with 51 percent for the digital symptom-checkers.
12 Oct Children Who Experience Early Parental Absence More Likely To Smoke or Drink Before Age 11
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28634" align="alignleft" width="80"]
Dr. Rebecca Lacey[/caption]
Dr Rebecca Lacey, PhD
Research Associate
Epidemiology & Public Health
Institute of Epidemiology & Health
Faculty of Pop Health Sciences
University College London
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We know from previous research that children who experience parental absence, whether due to death, divorce or some other reason, are more likely, on average, to have poorer health in later life. This includes being more likely to smoke and drink as an adult. However, what we didn’t know before we conducted our study was whether children who experienced parental absence were more likely to engage in the early uptake of risky health behaviours in childhood. This is what we looked at in our study.
12 Oct Exercise and Pregnancy in Recreational and Elite Athletes Reviewed
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28794" align="alignleft" width="180"]
Prof. Kari Bø[/caption]
Prof. Kari Bø PhD
Norwegian School of Sport Sciences
Oslo, Norway
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: The background is that more and more female elite athletes continue to exercise into their 30s and beyond and more want to become pregnant and some to continue to compete at the same level after giving birth.
MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?
Response: To date there is little scientific knowledge on elite athletes and others who perform strenuous exercise (eg women in the military) during pregnancy and after childbirth and we therefore have to be cautious when recommending intensity levels of both endurance and strength training exercise. However, given the knowledge we have now.
- Elite athletes planning pregnancy may consider reducing high impact training routines in the week after ovulation and refraining from repetitive heavy lifting regimens during the first trimester as some evidence suggests increased miscarriage risk.
- There is little risk of abnormal fetal heart rate response when elite athletes exercise at <90% of their maximal heart rates in the second and third trimesters.
- Baby birthweights of exercising women are less likely to be excessively large (>4000g) and not at increased risk of being excessively small (<2500g).
- Exercise does not increase the risk of preterm birth.
- Exercise during pregnancy does not increase the risk of induction of labour, epidural anesthesia, episiotomy or perineal tears, forceps or vacuum deliveries.
- There is some encouraging evidence that the first stage of labour (before full dilatation) is shorter in exercising women.
- There is also some encouraging evidence that exercise throughout pregnancy may reduce the need for caesarean section.
12 Oct Costs of Older Cancer Drugs Have Risen More Than New Medications
[caption id="attachment_28580" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Sham Mailankody[/caption]
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Sham Mailankody, MBBS
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The high price of older drugs has been increasingly criticized in part because of recent dramatic price hikes. There are some well known examples like pyrimethamine and more recently EpiPen. Whether and to what degree examples like pyrimethamine represent a common problem or exceptional cases remains unknown. Using Medicare data available for Part B, we sought to analyze the change in average sales price of cancer drugs between January 2010 and January 2015, and whether older drugs were more likely to undergo price increases than newer drugs.
12 Oct Antibiotics Encourage Spread of C.diff To Subsequent Patients Who Occupy the Same Bed and Haven’t Received Antibiotics
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28610" align="alignleft" width="199"]
Dr. Daniel E. Freedberg[/caption]
Dr. Daniel E. Freedberg MD MS
Division of Digestive and Liver Diseases
Columbia University Medical Center
New York, New York
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: We conducted this study because previous studies indicate that the gastrointestinal microbiome is easily shared between people who co-occupy a given space (such as a hospital room). We wondered if antibiotics might exert an effect on the local microbial environment.
12 Oct Mechanical Ventilation Doubles For Persons With Advanced Dementia
Posted at 11:24h
in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, End of Life Care, Geriatrics, JAMA
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
[caption id="attachment_28781" align="alignleft" width="142"]
Dr. Joan Teno[/caption]
Joan M. Teno, MD, MS
Department of Gerontology and Geriatrics,
Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence
University of Washington Medicine
Seattle, Washington
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: An important challenge for our health care system is effectively caring for persons that high-need, high-cost — persons afflicted with advanced dementia and severe functional impairment are among these persons, with substantial need and if hospitalized in the ICU and mechanically ventilated are high cost patients, who are unlikely to benefit from this level of care and our best evidence suggest the vast majority of persons would not want this care. In a previous study, we interviewed families of advance dementia with 96% starting the goals of care are to focus comfort. Mechanical ventilation in some cases may be life saving, but in cases such as those with advanced dementia and severe functional impairment, they may result in suffering without an improvement in survival.
12 Oct Early Use of Gene Therapy May Stop Plaques of Alzheimer’s Disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28670" align="alignleft" width="149"]
Dr. Magdalena Sastre[/caption]
Dr. Magdalena Sastre PhD
Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medicine
Senior Lecturer
Imperial College London
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Alzheimer’s disease is the most common neurodegenerative disorder, affecting over 45 million people around the world. Currently, there are no therapies to cure or stop the progression of the disease. Here, we have developed a gene therapy approach whereby we delivered a factor called PGC-1α, which regulates the expression of genes involved in metabolism, inflammation and oxidative stress in the brain of transgenic mice. This factor is also involved in the regulation of energy in the cells, because it controls the genesis of mitochondria and in the generation of amyloid-β, the main component of the neuritic plaques present in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients.
We have found that the animals with Alzheimer’s pathology treated with PGC-1α develop less amyloid plaques in the brain, perform memory tasks as well as healthy mice and do not have neuronal loss in the brain areas affected by the disease.
12 Oct Study Finds Pervasive Support of Health Organizations By Soda Companies
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28776" align="alignleft" width="125"]
Daniel Aaron[/caption]
Daniel G. Aaron, BS
Department of Community Health Sciences
Boston University School of Public Health
Boston MA 02118
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: The study began with the co-author and me noticing a few sponsorships of health organizations by Coca-Cola and Pepsi. This drove our curiosity to find out how pervasive these sponsorships were and what they meant for public health.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings?
Response: The main findings are the shear pervasiveness of soda company sponsorships of health organizations, as well as the anti-public health lobbying of the Coca-Cola Company and PepsiCo.
12 Oct Screening Programs For Congenital CMV Found To Be Cost-Effective
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28765" align="alignleft" width="97"]
Dr. Soren Gantt[/caption]
Dr. Soren Gantt MD, PhD, MPH
Investigator, BC Children's Hospital
Associate Professor, Department of Infectious and Immunological Diseases (Pediatrics)
Faculty of Medicine, University of British Columbia
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is a common virus that is usually transmitted through bodily fluids such as saliva, urine, blood, and breast milk, but it can also cause congenital infection (from a pregnant woman to her fetus). While it doesn’t usually cause problems for most children or adults, congenital CMV often causes serious problems. Congenital CMV causes 25 per cent of all childhood hearing loss and it’s the second most common cause of intellectual disability. Without screening, most infected newborns are not diagnosed in time to treat them with antivirals or provide other care that can make a big difference to improving their life-long outcomes.
Our study showed that screening programs for congenital CMV infection are cost-effective. We found that the cost of identifying one case of congenital CMV ranges from US$2000 to US$10,000 through universal screening, or US$566 to $2833 through a targeted screening approach. Our model showed that screening programs resulted in a net savings for the health care system of approximately USD$21 to $32 per newborn for universal screening or USD$11-$27 per newborn for targeted screening by reducing lifetime costs for therapies and lost productivity due to CMV-related health problems.
This finding addresses a major barrier to implementing CMV screening programs, as costs have often been viewed as an issue.
12 Oct Anti-Tumor Activity of PM01183 (lurbinectedin) in BRCA1/ 2-associated Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28758" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Judith Balmaña[/caption]
Judith Balmaña MD
Medical Oncology
Hospital Vall d’Hebron and
Vall d’Hebron Institute of Oncology
Barcelona, Spain
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Tumors with brca1 or brca2 mutations share homologous recombination repair deficiency, which confers sensitivity to different types of dna damaging agents. An understanding of the role of brca1 and brca2 in the repair of double-stranded dna damage opened a window of opportunity for treating brca mutation–associated cancers with targeted therapies.
Lurbinectedin is a trabectedin analog that specifically binds to cg-rich motifs with a selective mechanism of action: in living cells, lurbinectedin inhibits active transcription by degradation of elongating rna polymerase ii. This process occurs specifically on activated genes and is associated with the formation of double strand dna breaks and the collapse of replication forks. In addition, lurbinectedin exerts some antitumoral effect in the microenvironment by inhibiting the transcription of selected cytokines by tumor-associated macrophages, abrogating their protumoral properties. Observations that lurbinectedin was active against homologous-recombination-deficient cell lines led us to test it in patients with metastatic breast cancer having deleterious germline brca mutations.
12 Oct Use of Marijuana At Young Age Linked To Functional Brain Abnormalities and Lower IQ
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28754" align="alignleft" width="115"]
Dr. Elizabeth Osuch[/caption]
Elizabeth Osuch, M.D.
Associate Professor; Rea Chair
Department of Psychiatry
FEMAP--London Health Sciences Centre
London, ON
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: As a researcher and psychiatrist doing clinical work in youth aged 16-25 with mood and anxiety disorders I often see patients who are depressed and believe that using marijuana (MJ) improves their mood. Yet they remain depressed. This was the clinical inspiration for this brain imaging study, where we investigated emerging adults with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). Subject groups included patients with MDD who did and did not use MJ frequently. Our results showed that the MDD+MJ group did not have significantly less depression than the MDD alone group, and the brain abnormalities found in MDD were not corrected by MJ use in the MDD+MJ group. In fact, some of the brain differences were worse with the addition of MJ, while others were just different.
11 Oct Novel Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor Has Potential Against Variety of Tumors
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28818" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Bernard Vanhove[/caption]
Bernard Vanhove, Chief Operating Officer
Director of R&D and International Scientific Collaborations
Ose Immunotherapeutics
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: Myeloid suppressive cells, including tumor associated macrophages (TAM) and myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC), represent an abundant immune cell type in the microenvironment of solid tumors where they promote tumor growth, metastases, angiogenesis, inhibiting anti-tumor immune responses. Myeloid cells selectively express SIRPα, an immune tyrosine associated inhibitory receptor (also named CD172a), which controls myeloid functions.
We investigated the role of Effi-DEM, new generation checkpoint inhibitor specifically targeting the SIRP- α receptor on the strategic SIRP-α/CD47 pathway in human macrophages polarization and MDSC differentiation. CD47 the ligand of SIRP alpha is ubiquitously expressed in human cells and has been found to be overexpressed in many different tumor cells with a poor prognosis established. Effi-DEM is a selective antagonist of these myeloid suppressive cells as its target SIRP-α is expressed on these cells. Based on this rationale, the preclinical studies conducted with Effi-DEM have demonstrated its potential to transform suppressor myeloid and tumor associated macrophage cells in non-suppressive cells, thereby inducing a reactivation of the immune response. Effi-DEM has also shown to be effective in various aggressive cancer models with encouraging preclinical results, both in monotherapy and in therapeutic combinations with anti-PD-L1 (checkpoint inhibitors) and anti-CD137 (4-1BB) mAbs, activators of the T-cell response. Significant efficacy and survival increase data were demonstrated in models of hepatocarcinoma, melanoma and triple negative breast cancer.
11 Oct Tildrakizumab Offers Potential New Psoriasis Treatment With Quarterly Dosing
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Kristian Reich Professor of Dermatology at the Georg-August-University Göttingen and inflammation specialist Dermatologikum Hamburg in Germany MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: While there is ongoing research into the causes and triggers of psoriasis, recent studies have identified IL-23 as a main driver of the IL-23/IL-17 pathway which is now thought to be the predominant pathway in the psoriasis inflammatory cascade. Selective Inhibition of IL-23 may present a new targeted strategy for treating patients with the condition. The hope for molecules selectively targeting IL-23, specifically the p19 component of the cytokine, is that newer therapies, like tildrakizumab, can more selectively control the disease allowing more patients to achieve higher and even more durable clinical responses. The two pivotal Phase-3 studies (reSURFACE 1 and 2) evaluated the efficacy and safety of the IL-23 inhibitor tildrakizumab in adult patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, and results through week 28 were presented for the first time as part of the Late Breaking News Session at EADV. In the reSURFACE 1 and 2 pivotal Phase-3 studies, tildrakizumab, a selective IL-23p19 inhibitor, was evaluated against placebo and etanercept to assess efficacy, safety and tolerability. The co-primary efficacy endpoint of the two placebo-controlled studies was a) the proportion of patients with Psoriasis Area Sensitivity Index 75 (PASI 75) response at week 12 compared to placebo and the proportion of participants with a Physician’s Global Assessment (PGA) score of clear or minimal with at least a 2 grade reduction from baseline at week 12 compared to placebo. The reSURFACE 2 also included an etanercept comparator arm, with a key secondary endpoint comparing tildrakizumab and etanercept on PASI 75 and PGA. Other co-secondary endpoints of both placebo controlled studies included PASI 90 and PASI 100 responses at week 12 and PASI 75, 90 and 100 and PGA responses from baseline at Week 28.11 Oct Use of Health Supplements Varies By Age Group
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: [caption id="attachment_28740" align="alignleft" width="200"]
Dr. Elizabeth D. Kantor[/caption]
Elizabeth D. Kantor, PhD MPH
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
NY, NY
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?
Response: Prior studies show that use of supplements increased between the 1980s and mid-2000s, and despite much research conducted on the health effects of supplements, we know little about recent trends in use.
Given this gap, we decided to create an up-to-date, comprehensive resource on the prevalence and trends of supplement use among US adults using nationally representative data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Data were collected over seven continuous cycles (from 1999-2000 to 2011-2012).