Author Interviews, Infections / 09.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ed Breitschwerdt, DVM, DACVIM The Melanie S. Steele Distinguished Professorship in Medicine Professor, Internal Medicine NC State College of Veterinary Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Bartonella species represent a medically underappreciated group of vector-transmitted bacteria that are increasingly implicated in a spectrum of animal and human diseases. Most recently, our research group has focused on the potential role of these bacteria as a cause or co-factor in patients with neuropsychiatric symptoms. This focus is based upon prior case reports and case series generated by our research group and others. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Hematology / 08.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Steven Pipe, MD Professor of Pediatrics and Pathology Laurence A. Boxer Research Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases Pediatric Medical Director, Hemophilia and Coagulation Disorders Program Director, Special Coagulation Laboratory University of Michigan MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Hemophilia B is an inherited bleeding disorder where patients are missing clotting factor IX (9), a critical blood clotting protein.  Patients with a severe deficiency are at risk for traumatic and spontaneous bleeds – primarily into joints.  Repeated bleeding into joints causes more than acute pain and swelling but also leads to inflammatory and degenerative changes in joints that eventually leads to severe debilitating arthritis that can be crippling.  To try to prevent this, patients as young as infants are placed on regular infusions of clotting factor IX concentrates.  The relatively short half-life of factor IX means patients must infuse on average once to twice a week.  These can only be delivered intravenously – parents and then patients themselves have to learn this.  Prophylaxis must be continued lifelong to try to prevent bleeding events and protect joint health over the lifespan.  This is a tremendous burden on the patient and their caregivers. Even with regular prophylaxis, joint bleeds may still occur and arthropathy may still ensue.  This is because the blood levels often reach critically low levels prior to the next infusion.  Gene therapy aims to deliver a functional copy of the factor IX gene such that the patient’s own liver will make a continuous supply of factor IX that is delivered to the bloodstream.  At steady state with levels close to or within the normal range, patients would no longer be subject to bleeding events and would not require prophylaxis any longer.  We hope that such a one-time treatment would produced durable, “functionally curative” levels of factor IX. (more…)
Author Interviews, Education / 08.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Martin J. Bergee Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs School of Music University of Kansas MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: The idea that listening, participating, or achieving in music makes you better at another subject, say, math, science, or reading, has been around for a while.  Indeed, there’s a relationship between achievement in music and achievement in other content areas.  But I’ve always assumed that the relationship was spurious, that is, driven my any number of such background influences as urbanicity, ethnicity, SES, level of parent education, the type of school one attends, and so forth.  Essentially, I set out to demonstrate once and for all that with these background influences accounted for statistically, the relationship is considerably attenuated.  Much to my surprise, however, music achievement’s relationships with reading and math achievement remained quite strong. (more…)
Alcohol, Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 07.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Sitara Weerakoon, MPH (she/her) PhD Candidate | Epidemiology & Biostatistics Graduate Research Assistant Center for Pediatric Population Health UTHealth MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Measures to control the spread of COVID-19 included stay-at-home mandates and business lockdown policies which resulted in many facing a loss of income or employment and more time spent isolated at home. Life stressors (like job loss and social isolation) have been shown to be associated with increased drinking at unhealthy levels. Those with a history of mental health problems may be even more at risk. We aimed to see if binge drinking (5 or more drinks [male] or 4 or more drinks [female] in one session) and levels of alcohol consumption among binge drinkers were impacted by these pandemic-related factors. We found that increased time spent at home (in weeks) was associated with a 19% increase in the odds of binge drinking and binge drinkers with a previous diagnosis of depression and current depression symptoms (during the early months of the pandemic) had a 237% greater odds of drinking more alcohol (vs drinking the same amount) compared to those with no history and current symptoms of depression. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus / 07.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Martin Scholz Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Primary care physicians should have options available to effectively treat newly diagnosed COVID-19 patients in the outpatient setting to avoid severe COVID-19 progression, hospitalizations, and mortality. Already since the beginning of the pandemic different early treatment options were evaluated. My co-authors, Dr. Zelenko, Dr. Derwand, and myself were keen to confirm retrospectively the observed evidence for beneficial early treatment effects of an already applied  triple therapy in combination with a risk stratification approach. The defined risk stratification allowed to differentiate between patients at low and high risk for disease progression and guided treatment decisions. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Leukemia / 06.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: William Wood, MD Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology UNC School of MedicineWilliam Wood, MD Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Hematology UNC School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In the earliest days of the COVID-19 pandemic, there were concerns that individuals with cancer, and especially those with hematologic malignancies, could be at higher risk for adverse outcomes following COVID-19 infection than the general population. For this reason the ASH Research Collaborative developed a voluntary data collection registry in which providers or sites caring for patients with hematologic malignancies and COVID-19 infection provided de-identified data via an online data collection platform. We believe that our findings – that 20% of patients with blood cancers who had COVID-19 infection died, including 33% of those who required hospital or ICU level-care – indicate that patients with blood cancers are a medically vulnerable group when it comes to COVID-19. The risk of dying was highest in patients who were older, had more severe infection, opted to forego more intensive treatment, and/or had poorer prognosis before their COVID-19 infection, as determined by their treating clinicians (more…)
Allergies, Author Interviews, Dermatology / 06.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jonathan Silverberg, MD, PHD, MPH Associate Professor Director of Clinical Research Director of Patch Testing George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences Washington, DC MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study Response: Chronic hand eczema was previously shown to be associated with higher rates of allergic contact dermatitis. Yet, little is known about recent trends in North America with respect to the clinical presentation and allergen profile in chronic hand eczema. This study sought to determine the clinical characteristics and etiologies of hand eczema in a large North American cohort of adults referred for patch testing. The patients in the study were patch tested using the North American Contact Dermatitis Group’s allergen screening series. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy / 05.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Corina Dutcus MD Vice President of Clinical Research Oncology Business Group Eisai MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain how lenvatinib works? Is it used for any other malignancies, ex. thyroid cancer? Dr. Corina Dutcus Response: LENVIMA (lenvatinib), discovered and developed by Eisai, is an orally available multiple receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor that inhibits the kinase activities of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptors VEGFR1 (FLT1), VEGFR2 (KDR), and VEGFR3 (FLT4). LENVIMA inhibits other kinases that have been implicated in pathogenic angiogenesis, tumor growth, and cancer progression in addition to their normal cellular functions, including fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors FGFR1-4, the platelet derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRα), KIT, and RET. LENVIMA is approved in combination with everolimus for the treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) following one prior anti-angiogenic therapy. The approved starting dose for LENVIMA is 18 mg daily. The objective of Study 218, a randomized, open-label, Phase 2 trial, was to assess whether the lower starting dose of LENVIMA (14 mg daily) in combination with everolimus (5 mg daily) would provide similar efficacy with an improved safety profile compared to the FDA-approved starting dose of LENVIMA (18 mg daily) plus everolimus (5 mg daily) in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) following prior treatment with an antiangiogenic therapy. In the US, LENVIMA is also indicated for:
  • the treatment of patients with locally recurrent or metastatic, progressive, radioactive iodine-refractory differentiated thyroid cancer (RAI-refractory DTC);
  • for the first-line treatment of patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC);
  • and in combination with pembrolizumab, for the treatment of patients with advanced endometrial carcinoma that is not microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR), who have disease progression following prior systemic therapy, and are not candidates for curative surgery or radiation. This indication is approved under accelerated approval based on tumor response rate and durability of response. Continued approval for this indication may be contingent upon verification and description of clinical benefit in the confirmatory trial.
Please see Prescribing Information for LENVIMA (lenvatinib) at http://www.lenvima.com/pdfs/prescribing-information.pdf. (more…)
Author Interviews, Dermatology, Environmental Risks / 04.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jeremy M. Gernand, PhD, CSP, CRE Associate Professor Environmental Health and Safety Engineering Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Given concern in the public about exposure to nanoparticles in cosmetics, we decided to investigate the exposure potential for inhaling nanoparticles during the application of aerosol mineral-based sunscreens that are typically marketed as safer for children. We choose three commercially available sunscreens to test in the lab in a manner intended to capture the amount of inhaled particles that would typically occur during application of sunscreen to the mid-point of one’s own arm.  (more…)
Allergies, Author Interviews, Immunotherapy, Pediatrics / 04.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lianne Soller, PhD Allergy Research Manager BC Children’s Hospital Allergy Clinic Vancouver, BC, Canada MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Peanut oral immunotherapy (also known as OIT) has been studied for many years in clinical trials and has been found to be safe and effective in preschoolers. However, we know that clinical trials do not always reflect what happens in the real world. We wanted to see study whether peanut OIT would work as well in the real world. This is a follow up of our preschool peanut OIT safety study published in April 2019 which noted only 0.4% severe reactions and 4% epinephrine use during build-up. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Infections, JAMA, NYU, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 04.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gbenga Ogedegbe, MD, MPH Dr. Adolph & Margaret Berger Professor of Population Health Director, Division of Health & Behavior Director Center for Healthful Behavior Change Department of Population Health NYU Langone Health NYU School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The background for the study is the disproportionately higher rates of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in Blacks and Hispanics compared to Whites in major cities across the country. We asked two questions: 1) are there racial/ethnic differences in COVID-19 outcomes (likelihood of testing positive, hospitalizations, severe illness, and deaths) among patients who receive care at NYU Langone Health? If there are differences, are they explained by comorbidity and neighborhood characteristics (poverty, educational status, employment, housing, proportion of Blacks and Hispanics in communities)? (more…)
Author Interviews, JAMA, Social Issues / 04.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Amal Trivedi, MD, MPH Professor of Health Services, Policy & Practice Director of Graduate Studies, Health Services Research Brown University School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Nearly all hospitals in the United States, including all Veterans Affairs Medical Centers (VAMCs), report mortality rates for patients hospitalized for common medical and surgical conditions. But these mortality rates do not adjust for socioeconomic factors that are associated with worse outcomes following hospitalization. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Hematology / 04.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: George Sakoulas, MD Sharp Memorial Hospital and Sharp Rees-Stealy Medical Group Associate Adjunct Professor UC San Diego School of Medicine San Diego MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain what is meant by IVIG?   Response: IVIG stands for intravenous immunoglobulin. It is a preparation from pooled blood donors isolating antibodies in their blood and highly concentrated for use. It's uses are to either replace immunoglobulins in patients who do not produce enough of them because of some underlying immunodeficiency or, as in the case of COVID, they take advantage of the immune signaling properties of the non-variable part of the antibodies. Many immune cells have receptors that bind the non-variable (also called the Fc-gamma region), and when bound, the activity of these activated immune cells is modulated. IVIG is used in many immunologic complications of infections like Guillan-Barre, Kawasaki's disease, immune mediated encephalitis from mycoplasma, just to name a few. We decided to study IVIG because:
  1. Our anecdotal yet successful use of IVIG in treating ARDS due to influenza and other viruses.
  2. Our very definitive successful use of IVIG in a very sick patient with COVID early in the pandemic.
  3. The weak yet positive retrospective data from China of IVIG in COVID.
  4. The mechanism of IVIG inhibiting neutrophil extracellular trap (or NETS) thought to play an important role in COVID severe disease.
  5. IVIG has been around to 4 decades and many physicians have a level of prescribing comfort.
It is worth clarifying that the benefit here is NOT from neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 virus but rather the immunomodulatory effect. It will be very interesting to see if the effect/benefit changes over time as pooled blood donors feeding the IVIG supply do develop more antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, but this is not yet known.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Kidney Disease / 03.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Khurram Jamil, MD Vice President, Clinical Research in Hepatology Critical Care Division, Mallinckrodt MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for the new data of terlipressin presented during Kidney Week 2020 Reimagined? Would you briefly describe hepatorenal syndrome type 1? Whom does it affect and how frequently does it progress to ESRD? Response:  Results from two post-hoc analyses of terlipressin, an investigational agent in the U.S. for adults with hepatorenal syndrome type 1 (HRS-1), were presented at Kidney Week 2020 Reimagined, the annual meeting of the American Society of Nephrology. The first was an oral presentation titled, “Terlipressin Improves Renal Replacement Therapy–Free Survival in Hepatorenal Syndrome Type 1” and included a pooled post-hoc analysis to assess the incidence of renal replacement therapy (RRT) and its impact on survival among patients from three Phase 3 trials. The second was a poster presentation titled, “Treatment of Hepatorenal Syndrome Type 1 with Terlipressin Reduces Need for Renal Replacement Therapy After Liver Transplantation,” which focused on a post-hoc analysis of the CONFIRM study and evaluated the need for RRT among patients who had liver transplantation within 90 days of HRS treatment. HRS-1 is an acute and life-threatening syndrome involving acute kidney failure in people with cirrhosis.[i] HRS-1 can progress to life-threatening renal failure within days,i and has a median survival time of approximately two weeks and greater than 80 percent mortality within three months if left untreated.[ii],[iii] It is often a challenge to effectively diagnose in a timely manner due to its diagnosis of exclusion.iii In general, the average patient with hepatorenal syndrome (HRS type 1 or type 2) is in their 50s,[iv] and up to 73 percent of HRS patients are men.[v]  HRS-1 is estimated to affect between 30,000 and 40,000 patients in the U.S. annually.[vi],[vii] (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, JAMA, Pediatrics, Smoking, Stanford, Tobacco, Tobacco Research / 03.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD, FSAHM (pronouns: she/her) Professor of Pediatrics Taube Endowed Research Faculty Scholar Professor (by courtesy), Epidemiology and Population Health Professor (by courtesy), Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Director of Fellows’ Scholarship, Department of Pediatrics Director of Research, Division of Adolescent Medicine Co-leader, Scholarly Concentrations, Pediatrics Residency Program MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: To examine adolescent and young adult e-cigarette use during the COVID-19 pandemic. There were 4 main findings:
  • About 2/3 of adolescent and young adult ever-e-cigarette users reported either quitting or cutting back on e-cigarette use since COVID-19 began.
  • Users least likely to quit or cut back e-cigarette use were those showing higher levels of nicotine dependence and those who had used e- cigarettes a large number of times.
  • Adolescent and young adult e-cigarette users found it harder to access e-cigarettes, but unlike studies before COVID-19, the dominant source of purchasing e-cigs was online instead of brick-and-mortar during COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Youth below 21 years were able to purchase e-cigarettes without any age verification, and those whose age was verified were asked to physically show ID or provided an email, which are less effective means to prevent underage youth use.
(more…)
Addiction, Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, JAMA, Opiods, UCLA / 03.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joseph Friedman, MD/PhD student David Geffen School of Medicine UCLA MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Numerous researchers, clinicians, officials, harm reduction agencies, and people who use drugs have sounded the alarm that the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating the United States overdose crisis. However, data sources typically used to track overdoses in the US often have long lags that impede timely monitoring and response. For example, the CDC released preliminary overdose figures for 2019 in July 2020, and even these numbers may change. As they are available in near real-time, emergency medical services (EMS) data have increasingly been used as a source of up-to-date information to monitor epidemiological shifts during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we used data from the National EMS Information System (NEMSIS), a large registry of over 10,000 EMS agencies in 47 states that represented over 80% of all EMS activations nationally in 2020. We used the data to track shifts in overdose-related cardiac arrests observed by EMS.   (more…)
Aging, Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues / 03.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Susanna Rosi, Ph.D.  Lewis and Ruth Cozen Chair II Professor, Brain and Spinal Injury Center Weill Institute for Neuroscience Kavli Institute of Fundamental Neuroscience Departments of Physical Therapy Rehabilitation Science, Neurological Surgery University of California San Francisco MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Everybody has experienced a “senior moment” forgetting where the car keys are, or where you put your glasses. These forgetful moments are not always indicative of a disease, but rather can be a consequence of normal aging. Normal aging is associated with decline of cognitive abilities, such as memory, spatial orientation, problem solving and executive functioning. Investigating what changes happen in the brain with age, can help us to understand why these ‘senior moments’ occur. When we understand what causes these moments, we can design therapeutics with the hopes of preventing or reversing them.  With increased life expectancy age-associatedmemory decline becomes a growing concern. We wanted to investigate (i) What causes memory decline with age? (ii) Are there ways to reverse it?  (more…)
Author Interviews, Weight Research / 03.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gurmukh Singh, MD, PhD, MBA Department of Pathology, Section of Clinical Pathology Walter Shepeard Professor of Pathology Section Chief, Clinical Pathology. Associate Medical Director, Clinical Laboratory GRMC and Children's Hospital of Georgia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain what is meant by the obesity paradox? Response: Obese people tend to get more diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, cancer etc. However, when they get seriously ill, e.g., sick enough to require admission to intensive care treatment unit (ICU), obese people tend to have better outcomes than normal weight people. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, JAMA, Lifestyle & Health, USPSTF / 03.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. John Epling, M.D., M.S.Ed Professor of family and community medicine Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine in Roanoke, VA. Medical director of research for family and community medicine Medical director of employee health and wellness for the Carilion Clinic Dr. Epling joined the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force in January 2016. MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Cardiovascular disease, which includes heart disease and stroke, is one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Nearly half of all adults have at least one risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Evidence shows that counseling aimed at helping people improve their diet and increase their physical activity can help prevent cardiovascular disease. This typically involves a trained counselor who provides education, helps people set goals, shares strategies, and stays in regular contact.  The Task Force recommends behavioral counseling interventions that promote a healthy diet and physical activity to help people at risk for cardiovascular disease stay healthy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Mental Health Research, Psychological Science / 01.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Gert Martin Hald, PhD Head of Section (Environmental Health), Associate Professor Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen Copenhagen, Denmark MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Basically, much of previous research has investigated mental and physical health of divorcees only after extensive separation periods, which is mandatory in most countries before juridical divorce unless infidelity or violence is involved in the divorce. During the time of data collection (2016-2019), Denmark where data was collected did not require separation periods before granting divorce. This means that as a first, we could investigate the mental and physical health of divorcees within days of them filling for divorce and perhaps better and more accurately pick up well-known adverse effects of mental- and physical health states of divorcees at the time of their divorce.   (more…)
Author Interviews / 01.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Daniel Maloney, Ph.D Farrar Lab Smurfit Institute of Genetics Trinity College Dublin MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly describe the condition of Dominant optic atrophy? Response: Dominant Optic Atrophy (DOA) is a progressive blinding disorder that affects roughly 1:10,000 to 1:30,000 people. It is primarily caused by mutations in the OPA1 gene, which plays a pivotal role in the maintenance of the mitochondrial network. There is currently no way to prevent or cure DOA. We sought to build upon previous work to test if OPA1 could be delivered as a potential gene therapy intervention.  (more…)
Asthma, AstraZeneca, Author Interviews / 01.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Frank Trudo, MD MBA Vice President, US Medical, Respiratory & Immunology AstraZeneca  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: PONENTE is a multicenter, open-label, single-arm, Phase IIIb trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of reducing daily oral corticosteroids (OCS) use after initiation of 30 mg dose of FASENRA (benralizumab) administered subcutaneously in adult patients with severe eosinophilic asthma on high-dose inhaled corticosteroids plus long-acting beta2-agonist and long-term use of OCS therapy with or without additional asthma controller(s). The trial expands on OCS-sparing data previously seen in the ZONDA Phase III trial by using a faster steroid tapering schedule in patients who did not experience adrenal insufficiency to reduce OCS use from higher doses. Compared to published trials of other biologics, PONENTE has a personalized OCS tapering schedule that allows for more rapid OCS tapering from higher OCS doses, followed by an assessment of the adrenal function as part of decision-making to manage the risk of adrenal insufficiency. PONENTE also has a longer maintenance phase (approximately 24-32 weeks), allowing assessment of the durability of OCS reduction. FASENRA is a monoclonal antibody that binds directly to IL-5 receptor alpha on eosinophils and attracts natural killer cells to induce rapid and near-complete depletion of eosinophils via apoptosis (programmed cell death). MedicalResearch.com: How is it administered?  Response: FASENRA is injected under your skin (subcutaneously) one time every 4 weeks for the first 3 doses, and then every 8 weeks. In 2019, FASENRA was approved in the US for self-administration in a single dose prefilled autoinjector, the FASENRA pen. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, Medical Imaging, Mental Health Research / 01.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Maria Vittoria Spampinato, MD Neuroradiology Division Director Department of Radiology and Radiological Science Medical University of South Carolina Charleston, SC 29425-3230 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) represents a major public health crisis worldwide. More than 5 million people currently have AD in the United States. AD is a slowly progressing neurodegenerative brain disorder with a long preclinical phase. Many people with AD first suffer from mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a decline in cognitive abilities like memory and thinking skills that is greater than that associated with normal aging. A person with MCI is at an increased risk of developing AD or another dementia, although some individuals with MCI remain cognitively stable or improve. Anxiety is frequently observed in individuals with MCI. The reported prevalence of anxiety in MCI patients varies between 10 and 50%.  In this study we evaluated a cohort of 339 individuals with MCI participating in the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative study (ADNI2). During the five years of study participation, 72 patients experienced cognitive decline and were diagnosed with AD. We did not find difference in age, gender and education among patients with and without AD conversion. Patients who progressed had greater atrophy of the hippocampi and entorhinal cortex on their MRI scan, as expected (hippocampal atrophy is often used as a marker of neurodegeneration in AD), as well as greater prevalence of APOE4 is the strongest known genetic risk factor for AD.   Patients who progressed to Alzheimer’s disease also had greater severity of anxiety during the study, as measured using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory-Questionnaire. Next we determined the effect of the MRI findings (hippocampal and entorhinal cortex atrophy), of the genetic risk factor (APOE4) and of the severity of anxiety on the time to progression to AD. We found that higher levels of anxiety were associated with faster progression from MCI to AD, independently of whether they had a genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease or brain volume loss. We still need to understand better the association between anxiety disorders and cognitive decline. We do not know whether increased levels of anxiety are a consequence of cognitive decline or if anxiety exacerbates to cognitive decline. If we were able to find in the future that anxiety is actually contributing to cognitive decline, then we should more aggressively screen for anxiety disorders in the elderly population.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Genetic Research / 01.12.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Nina Bhardwaj MD PhD Director of Immunotherapy Tisch Cancer Institute Icahn School of Medicine at Mt Sinai Ward-Coleman Chair in Cancer Research Professor of Hematology and Oncology MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Neoantigens are novel antigens expressed by tumors as a result of somatic mutations or frame shift mutations. They can be very immunogenic and consequently they are being incorporated into cancer vaccine platforms. In most cases it is necessary to determine each patient’s individual mutations and customize their vaccine antigens accordingly. We sought to identify shared mutations in cancer antigens which are deficient in DNA repair mechanisms namely microsatellite unstable tumors. These tumors have mutations in genes that normally are responsible for ensuring that DNA is properly replicated. Because these genes encode proteins that ensure proper repair around micro-satellite areas (which contain short repeated sequences of DNA and are present in similar regions from one person’s genome to the next), when they are mutated, these regions may not be repaired. Consequently due to nucleotide deletions and insertions one gets frame shift mutations which result in new protein expression which can be shared across tumors, as has been observed for a few regions. We therefore did a comprehensive study of a subset of tumors to determine the breadth of shared frame shift mutations. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Inflammation, JAMA, Pediatrics, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 30.11.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ellen H. Lee, MD Incident Command System Surveillance and Epidemiology Section New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Long Island City, New York  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Published reports of the COVID-19-associated multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) have described higher proportions of cases among Black and Hispanic children. However, case series are limited by the lack of population-level data, which could help provide context for the racial/ethnic distribution of cases described in these reports. The New York City (NYC) Department of Health and Mental Hygiene required reporting of all possible cases of MIS-C among NYC residents, and for cases meeting MIS-C criteria, applied population denominators to calculate MIS-C incidence rates stratified by race/ethnicity. To help characterize the burden of severe COVID-19 disease in NYC, we also calculated COVID-19 hospitalization rates stratified by race/ethnicity. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Women's Heart Health / 30.11.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Justin A. Ezekowitz, MBBCh, MSc Professor, Department of Medicine Co-Director, Canadian VIGOUR Centre Director, Cardiovascular Research, University of Alberta Cardiologist, Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Are women older, sicker when they experience heart disease? Response: Previous research looking at sex-differences in heart health has often focused on recurrent heart attack or death, however, the vulnerability to heart failure between men and women after heart attack remains unclear. Our study includes all patients from an entire health system of over 4 million people and includes information not usually available in other analyses. Women were nearly a decade older and more often had a greater number of other medical conditions when they presented to hospital for their first heart attack, and were at greater risk for heart failure after the more severe type of heart attack (also known as a ST-elevation MI). This gap between men and women has started to narrow over time. (more…)
Author Interviews, Infections, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 26.11.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jessica Miller PhD Postdoc Fellow Murdoch Childrens Research Institute  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Cesarean section (CS) may be a lifesaving intervention for women and babies. However, the global proportion of CS births is rapidly increasing and may not be medically justified. As CS has implications for both mother and child, the increasing rates warrant population-level analyses of potential risks. Many suggested long-term outcomes in CS-born children relate to altered immune development. It is possible that differences in the newborn microbiome by mode of birth contribute to the development of early immune responses which may influence the risk of immune-related outcomes, including infection. CS has been associated with an increased risk for specific infection-related hospitalisations, mainly lower respiratory tract and gastrointestinal infections, but it remains unclear whether CS is associated with increased risk of overall infection-related hospitalisation or only certain infection types, and whether risk differs for emergency versus elective/pre-labour CS. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Cancer Research, Chemotherapy, JAMA, Yale / 26.11.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lajos Pusztai, M.D, D.Phil. Professor of Medicine Director, Breast Cancer Translational Research Co-Director, Yale Cancer Center Genetics and Genomics Program Yale Cancer Center Yale School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: In HER2-positive early stage (stage I-II) breast cancer, several different preoperative (also called neoadjuvant) chemotherapy options exist, each of these is associated with a different rate of complete eradication of cancer from the breast and lymph nodes (called pathologic complete response or pCR). Patients who experience pCR have excellent long term survival. The complete response rates range from 20% to 80%, the rates are higher with regimens that include several different chemotherapy drugs and dual HER2 blockade. Unfortunately, these highly effective multi-drug treatment regimens are also more toxic and more expensive.  We also learned that patients who do not achieve pCR after preoperative therapy, have high rates of recurrence, but the recurrence rate can be improved by administering postoperative adjuvant therapy. These two observations together, (1) different regimens with different toxicities and costs resulting in different pCR rates, and (2) existence of effective postoperative therapies for patients with residual cancer after preoperative therapy, sets the stage for combining various pre- and post-operative treatment strategies. Starting with a shorter, less toxic and less expensive neoadjuvant regimen would allow a substantial minority (20-45%) of patients who archive pCR to be spared of longer and more toxic regimens, whereas those with residual disease could receive the remaining part of the currently most effective regimens post-operatively as adjuvant therapy. In this study we examined the cost effectiveness of different neoadjuvant followed by adjuvant treatment strategies from a healthcare payer perspective. (more…)
Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 26.11.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Monika K. Goyal, MD Associate Division Chief, Emergency Medicine Children’s National Hospital Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine and Health Sciences The George Washington University Washington, District of Columbia MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: There has been growing attention to the disproportionate use of police force in communities of color. Therefore, we sought to investigate whether Black and Hispanic teenagers have higher rates of death due to police shootings when compared to white youth. (more…)
Author Interviews, Education, Pediatrics / 26.11.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Lukas D. Lopez Doctoral Candidate Psychological Sciences, Developmental Psychology University of California, Merced MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: "This study is unique because it uses LENA recording devices which are small recording devices that infants wear in the pocket of a vest that record all infant babbles and caregiver responses in the home. We then had trained listeners annotate infant-adult vocal exchanges within sections of those recordings focusing on the specific types of sounds infants made and specific types of adult responses to those sounds. Using this combination of methods is distinctive because it allowed us to capture a more natural picture of a family's language environment in the home context, whereas most research on this topic is conducted in the laboratory. We then related this information to caregivers' reports of their infant's vocabulary. Our study finds that the caregivers who scaffold and elaborate on their infant’s babbling report that their infants can say more words." (more…)