Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Ophthalmology, Science / 12.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: eye-eyecolor-geneticsDr Pirro Hysi Senior Lecturer in Ophthalmology Kings College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: - Iris (eye) color is an important human trait. It is one of the main features that makes our faces unique and recognizable. Iris color is similar to other pigmentatio traits, like hair and skin color, in that it is determined by the concentration and relative ratios of the melanin pigment. Pigmentation traits are roughly determined by several of the same genes regulating pigmentation, but many other genes seem to selectively determine pigmentation in any of these tissues. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Kidney Disease, Transplantation / 12.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jamil R. Azzi MD Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School Medical Director, Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation Associate Director, Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation Director, Kidney Transplant Fellowship Engineering in Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital Renal Division, Brigham and Women's Hospital MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you explain what is meant by an exosome?  Response: Kidney transplant recipients are always at risk of developing rejection where the immune system recognizes the transplanted kidney as “foreign body” and attacks it. The risk is up to 20% the first year after transplant and many more develop chronic rejection which ultimately leads to kidney failure. Currently, most clinicians monitor for kidney rejection by measuring serum creatinine and urine protein. However, creatinine is neither sensitive nor specific for rejection. On the other hand, performing kidney biopsies to make accurate diagnosis of rejection is invasive and has many complications. In our study, when clinicians decided on performing biopsies based on the clinical informations they have including changes in serum creatinine, the biopsies did not show rejection in almost 70% of the cases. Furthermore, serum creatinine can remain stable while the patient may be undergoing a rejection (subclinical rejection). In fact, some centers currently perform routine biopsies at different time points for all their patients regardless of creatinine despite the high risks, costs and inconveniences of doing biopsies. Out of this frustration with the current tools, we have been working on novel technologies to diagnose rejection through the urine. The idea started from the bench as we were studying exosomes, those are tiny vesicles (less than 100 nm in size) released by all cells. We were interested on how immune cells communicate via those vesicles so we developed assays to identify them. We then showed that if immune cells are invading the kidney during rejection, vesicles derived from those immune cells are found in the urine. This gave us the idea of developing a urine test based on these findings. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, JAMA, Kidney Disease, Yale / 11.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jim Nugent, MD MPH Pediatric Nephrology Fellow Yale University School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: It is now well-established that acute kidney injury is common in patients hospitalized with COVID-19. In addition, patients with COVID-19 tend to have more severe acute kidney injury than patients who have acute kidney injury due to other causes. However, the intermediate and longer-term kidney outcomes after COVID-19-associated acute kidney injury have not yet been described. Our study compares the rate of change in estimated glomerular filtration rate after hospital discharge between patients with and without COVID-19 who experienced in-hospital acute kidney injury. Due to their more severe acute kidney injury in the hospital, we hypothesized that patients with COVID-19-associated acute kidney injury would have greater decline in kidney function after discharge compared to patients with acute kidney injury who tested negative for COVID-19. In order to answer this question, we reviewed the medical records of adult patients at 5 hospitals in Connecticut and Rhode Island admitted between March and August 2020 who had developed acute kidney injury during their hospitalization, survived until discharge, and were discharged off dialysis. For our study, we included patients who had at least one outpatient serum creatinine measurement after discharge. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Dermatology, JAMA / 11.03.2021

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: The COVID pandemic hit the Orthodox Jewish community in the United States particularly hard, especially in the early days when much was unknown. At that time of great loss, Jewish communities around the United States rallied to help the millions of other people impacted by the pandemic. A partnership was established of local community organizations across 5 states with premier academic universities across the United States and Canada. Over a 10 day period in May 2020, more than 6500 people came out to participate in the The Multi-Institutional Study Analyzing anti-CoV-2 Antibodies (MITZVA) cohort. Participants completed surveys and donated blood in order to become potential convalescent plasma donors and help learn more about the science of COVID. (more…)
Author Interviews, Chocolate, Heart Disease / 09.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Anne Yuk-Lam Ho, MPH Million Veteran Program (MVP) Data Core MVP Coordinating Center VA Boston Healthcare SystemAnne Yuk-Lam Ho, MPH Million Veteran Program (MVP) Data Core MVP Coordinating Center VA Boston Healthcare System MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) has been the leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally. Prevalence of CVD among US population is approximately 7% which places huge burden on our healthcare systems. And prevalence of CVD is as high as 28% among veterans at the VA healthcare system as veteran users are primarily older male with more histories of comorbidities.  Most CVD risk factors including lipids and blood pressure can be controlled by lifestyle modifications, such as diet. Chocolate is among dietary factors that play a role in modulating CVD risk factors is widely consumed in the US (~2.8 billion pounds annually. Although previous studies have reported beneficial effects of chocolate and/or cacao products (rich in flavonoids) on lipids, glucose metabolism and risk of diabetes, and lipids, little is known about the association of chocolate intake with coronary artery disease (CAD) among US veterans. Thus, sought to test the hypothesis that chocolate consumption is associated with a lower risk of CAD among xxx US veterans enrolled in the Million Veteran Program.  (more…)
Annals Internal Medicine, Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Tobacco, Tobacco Research, UCLA / 09.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brian P. Lee, MD, MAS Assistant Professor Clinical Medicine University of Southern Californi Keck School of Medicine Los Angeles, California MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with mental health stressors, including anxiety, loneliness, and social instability. We hypothesized the pandemic may have led to increased alcohol and tobacco use as a coping mechanism for these stressors. National retrospective questionnaires had suggested higher reports of substance use, but these are limited by selection and recall biases, in addition to subjective report – we sought to address this knowledge gap by using a nationally-representative longitudinal cohort (Nielsen National Consumer Panel) tracking real-time purchases of households across the US.  (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Heart Disease / 08.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Giordano Bottà, PhD CEO and Co-founder Allelica The Polygenic Risk Score Company MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Previous research identified that polygenic risk score (PRS) has the highest predictive power compared to other risk factors and identifies individuals with the same risk of those with familial hypercholesterolemia, but are invisible to traditional risk assessment. We explored for the first time the interplay between the main causes of atherosclerosis, LDL cholesterol and PRS.  We were interested in helping cardiologists understand why some individuals have bad arteries full of plaques while others don't in presence of the same LDL levels and no additional risk factors. Our findings explain why this is the case: LDL does not affect everyone the same. We believe that we are at the forefront of a change of paradigm in cardiovascular risk assessment: LDL levels cannot be accessed without considering the genetics of an individual. (more…)
Author Interviews, Autism, JAMA, Mental Health Research, Pediatrics, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 08.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Kevin Lu PhD Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences College of Pharmacy Medical University of South Carolina MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study?  Response: It is documented that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been increasing in the past few years. However, no information on potential racial and ethnic disparities in ASD diagnosis can be found in the literature. Most recently, the possible structural racism and health inequities have been a concern for the public and policy makers. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, JAMA, OBGYNE, Pediatrics / 08.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Erica M. Wymore, MD MPH Assistant Professor, Neonatal- Perinatal Medicine Department of Pediatrics, Section of Neonatology University of Colorado School of Medicine Children's Hospital Colorado Maya Bunik, MD, MPH  |  Professor, Pediatrics Medical Director, Child Health Clinic, Primary Care  |  Breastfeeding Management Clinic Adult and Child Consortium for Health Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS) School of Medicine| University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus Children's Hospital Colorado MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Marijuana legalization has been increasing in the United States, with increasing consumption of marijuana products. Currently, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine (ABM) do not recommend marijuana use during pregnancy or lactation due to concerning though limited data on the effects of perinatal marijuana exposure. As there has been increasing prevalence of women using marijuana during pregnancy due to legalization and perceptions of safety, we sought to determine the duration of THC excretion in breast milk among women who had evidence of marijuana use at delivery and abstained post-partum.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Environmental Risks, Pediatrics, Toxin Research, Weight Research / 08.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alison P. Sanders, PhD Pronouns:  She/Her Assistant Professor Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Department of Environmental Medicine and Public Health Department of Pediatrics Director, Interdisciplinary Environmental Health Postdoctoral Fellowship MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: My research group is dedicated to understanding environmental and early life risk factors that contribute to kidney function decline. While some of the pathobiology leading to chronic kidney disease remains unclear, we understand that the process is complex and, like many chronic diseases, begins long before clinical diagnosis. My research investigates how the environment and mixtures of environmental chemicals/toxicants interact with traditional risk factors such as obesity, preterm birth, and nutritional status to hasten or prevent chronic kidney disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, FDA, JAMA / 07.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Marie C. Bradley, PhD, MPharm, MScPH Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology Center for Drug Evaluation and Research US Food and Drug Administration Silver Spring, Maryland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Long-acting insulin analogs, insulin glargine (glargine) and insulin detemir (detemir) are increasingly used in the management of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM).  In recent years the price of long-acting insulin analogs has increased substantially2 Higher costs for these insulin analogs may limit patient access.1 Clinical trials showed the risk of severe hypoglycemia did not differ between long-acting insulin analogs and neutral protamine Hagedorn (NPH) insulin in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). An observational study examining severe hypoglycemia in T2DM patients found similar results. However, these previous studies did not focus on patients aged ≥65 years, who are at an increased risk for hypoglycemia, or did not include patients with concomitant prandial insulin use. Therefore, to investigate this further we used Medicare data to assess the risk of severe hypoglycemia among older T2DM patients who initiated a long acting analog ( glargine or detemir) compared to NPH in real-world settings. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Critical Care - Intensive Care - ICUs, JAMA / 05.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ninh T. Nguyen, MD Chief of Gastrointestinal Division, Surgery UCI  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings  Response: There are limited national data on hospitalized patients in the US. To our knowledge, the current publication provides data on the largest cohort of COVID-19 patients hospitalized at US academic centers. (more…)
AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Stroke / 05.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Fernando D Testai, MD, PhD, FAHA Associate Professor of Neurology and Rehabilitation Stroke Medical Director University of Illinois Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Stroke constitutes a leading cause of disability and mortality in the United States. Large observational studies have shown that up to 90% of the strokes are caused by modifiable vascular risk factors, including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and several others. In addition, previous history of stroke is one of the most powerful predictors of recurrent stroke. Thus, controlling vascular risk factors in patients with stroke is of paramount importance. To this end, the American Heart Association and the American Stroke Association have developed specific targets for blood pressure, glycemic, and cholesterol levels. (more…)
Author Interviews, Columbia, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Exercise - Fitness, Heart Disease, JAMA / 05.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: David J. Engel, MD, FACC Division of Cardiology Columbia University Irving Medical Center New York, New York MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: ​​Early reports and observations in the COVID-19 pandemic found that patients recovering from mild to severe forms of COVID-19 illness had a higher prevalence of cardiac injury in comparison with what historically has been seen and reported with other viruses. This cardiac injury, categorized as inflammatory heart disease, could have serious implications, including a risk for exercise-triggered sudden cardiac death, for athletes and highly active people who have had prior COVID-19 illness and who return to intensive exercise activity with unknowing subclinical cardiac injury. To address these concerns in COVID positive athletes, the ACC generated return to play cardiac screening recommendations (troponin blood test, ECG, resting echocardiogram) for all competitive athletes after COVID-19 infection prior to resumption of competitive and intensive sport activity. The professional leagues were among the first organizations to return to full-scale sport activity in the setting of the pandemic, and they uniformly adopted and implemented the ACC return to play screening recommendations for all athletes that tested positive for COVID-19. The leagues recognized that there was value in collaborating and formally analyzing their pooled cardiac data, not only for league athlete health and safety purposes, but also to share broadly this information to add to the growing body of knowledge about the virus. (more…)
Author Interviews, Breast Cancer, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Stem Cells / 05.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Khalid Shah, MS, PhD Vice Chair of Research, Department of Neurosurgery Director, Center for Stem Cell Therapeutics and Imaging Director, Center for Excellence in Biomedicine Brigham and Women's Hospital Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School Principal Faculty, Harvard Stem Cell Institute  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Approximately 15-to-30 percent of patients with metastatic breast cancer have brain metastasis (BM), with basal-like breast cancer (BLBC) metastasizing to the brain most frequently. The prognosis for BLBC-BM patients is poor, as the blood-brain barrier prevents most therapeutics from reaching the brain. Testing candidate therapies in clinical trials is also challenging because animal models that mimic BM are limited. In this study we engineered a bimodal tumor-suppressing and killing molecule that can be delivered to the brain by stem cells and tested them in mouse models of brain metastases that mimic clinical setting. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, JAMA, Pediatrics, Pulmonary Disease / 04.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dott.ssa Silvia Bloise MD Prof. Riccardo Lubrano MD PhD Pediatric and Neonatology Unit Maternal and Child Department Sapienza University of Rome Rome Italy MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Pending new evidence, the universal facial masking, with other preventive measures remain the only strategies to limit the spread of SARS-CoV-2 infection. The use of face mask is particularly debated in the children, especially in younger children. Therefore, we wanted to test whether their in children was associated with episodes of desaturation or respiratory distress. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Cost of Health Care, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Electronic Records, JAMA, Technology / 04.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Carlo Giovanni Traverso, MB, BChir, PhD Associate Physician, Brigham and Women's Hospital Assistant Professor, Peter R. Chai, MD, MMS Emergency Medicine Physician and Medical Toxicologist Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women's Hospital Department of Medicine   Dr-Spot-HealthCare-Assistant.jpgMedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are some of the functions that Dr. Spot can facilitate? Response: During the COVID-19 pandemic, we wanted to consider innovative methods to provide additional social distance for physicians evaluating low acuity individuals who may have COVID-19 disease in the emergency department. While other health systems had instituted processes like evaluating patients from outside of emergency department rooms or calling patients to obtain a history, we considered the use of a mobile robotic system in collaboration with Boston Dynamics to provide telemedicine triage on an agile platform that could be navigated around a busy emergency department. Dr. Spot was built with a camera system to help an operator navigate it through an emergency department into a patient room where an on-board tablet would permit face-to-face triage and assessment of individuals. (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, MD Anderson, Menopause, University of Pittsburgh, Weight Research / 04.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Samar El Khoudary, PhD, MPH, BPharm, FAHA Associate Professor of Epidemiology University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Research increasingly shows that it isn’t so important how much fat a woman is carrying, which doctors typically measure using weight and BMI, as it is where she is carrying that fat. To investigate this, we looked at 25 years of data on 362 women from Pittsburgh and Chicago who participated in the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN) Heart study. The women, who were an average age of 51, had their visceral adipose tissue—fat surrounding the abdominal organs—measured by CT scan and the thickness of the internal carotid artery lining in their neck measured by ultrasound, at a few points during the study. Carotid artery thickness is an early indicator of heart disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Vaccine Studies / 03.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Laura M. Bogart, PhD Senior Behavioral Scientist RAND Corporation Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Recent media polls continue to show that Black Americans are less likely to intend to get the COVID-19 vaccine than White Americans, and initial state data show a similar racial/ethnic disparity in vaccination rates. Initial uptake of the vaccine has been significantly affected by inequities in vaccine access and supply. In addition to these challenges, other factors contribute to hesitancy around vaccination, including self-perceived risk of infection, trust in the vaccine itself, trust in healthcare systems, healthcare providers, and policymakers who support the vaccine, and trust in the pharmaceutical industry and clinical research. In this study, we conducted a survey of a nationally representative sample of 207 Black Americans in late 2020, after initial COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness and safety data were released to the public. We also did in-depth interviews with a subsample of those surveyed who said that they would not get vaccinated. In addition, we engaged with a stakeholder advisory committee comprised of individuals who represent different subgroups and organizations in Black communities in the U.S., in order to discuss the results and make recommendations for policies to increase COVID-19 vaccination among Black Americans. (more…)
Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, UCSD / 03.03.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Steven L. Wagner PhD University of California, San Diego Department of Neurosciences Professor in Residence School of Medicine, Medical Teaching Facility Room 150 La Jolla, California 92093-0624  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Response: Amyloid plaques are pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease (AD)—clumps of misfolded proteins that accumulate in the brain, disrupting and killing neurons and resulting in the progressive cognitive impairment that is characteristic of the widespread neurological disorder.  Amyloid plaques are composed of small protein fragments called amyloid beta (Aβ) peptides. These peptides are generated by enzymes called β-secretase and γ-secretase, which sequentially cleave a protein called amyloid precursor protein on the surfaces of neurons to release Aβ fragments of varying lengths. Some of these fragments, such as Aβ42, are particularly prone to forming plaques, and their production is elevated in patients with mutations predisposing them to early-onset AD. Several attempts have been made to treat or prevent AD using drugs that inhibit either β-secretase or γ-secretase, but many of these drugs have proved to be highly toxic or unsafe in humans, likely because β-secretase and γ-secretase are required to cleave additional proteins in the brain and other organs. Instead, Wagner and colleagues investigated the therapeutic potential of drugs known as γ-secretase modulators or GSMs, which instead of inhibiting the γ-secretase enzyme, slightly alter its activity so that it produces fewer Aβ peptides that are prone to form plaques while continuing to duties cleaving other protein targets. “GSMs offer the ability to mitigate mechanism-based toxicities associated with γ-secretase inhibitors,” said Wagner.  (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Circadian Rhythm, JAMA, Occupational Health / 27.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Tapio Räihä Center for Life Course Health Research University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? sleep-work-occupational-chronotypeResponse: In ageing societies, understanding risk factors for pre-term disability pensions and poor work ability is an important research priority. We studied whether individual-level chronotype could contribute to these.  Previous research has shown that evening chronotypes (E-types) have poorer health compared with morning chronotypes (M-types), and that E-types may have difficulties to function during standard morning working hours. This study was the first population-level study with register linkage to find out whether eveningness would be associated with poor work ability and disability pensions, too. We surveyed chronotype (with the Morningness–Eveningness Questionnaire) among 5831 non-retired Finns born in 1966 when they were at age 46 years, and compared it with their current perceived work ability. We then followed the emergence of new registered disability pensions during the next 4 years. Multivariate logistic and Cox regression analyses of the associations between chronotype and the outcomes were separately adjusted for sleep, health and behaviours, sociodemographic and economic factors, or working times  (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Heart Disease, Nature, Statins / 27.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Aakriti Gupta MD MS Fellow, Interventional Cardiology Columbia University Irving Medical Center NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital  MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: While taking care of patients with COVID-19 last spring and summer at the height of the pandemic, we observed that patients who got very sick and required hospitalization had high rates of hyperinflammation with elevated CRP levels, and thromboembolic phenomena. As cardiologists who frequently prescribe statins for hyperlipidemia, they were a class of drugs that came naturally to mind for their anti-inflammatory, anticoagulant and immunomodulatory properties in addition to their cholesterol lowering properties. As such, we decided to look at the association of statin use with in-hospital mortality in patients who are hospitalized with COVID-19. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research / 25.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: group-picture Catharina Svanborg M.D., Ph.D. Professor at Lund University Department of Laboratory Medicine, Division of Microbiology, Immunology and Glycobiology Founder/Chairman of the Board at HAMLET Pharma MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? HAMLET PharmaResponse: Like many unexpected scientific developments, this finding was serendipitous. In our search for the molecular basis of host susceptibility to infection, we discovered that infection directly affects MYC levels. Gene expression analysis revealed that MYC itself was inhibited and that genes regulated by MYC were affected in children with acute kidney infection. Rapid reductions in MYC levels was further confirmed by infecting human kidney cells with the pathogenic E. coli bacteria isolated from patients with acute pyelonephritis, allowing us to formulate the hypothesis that bacteria regulate host MYC levels during acute infection and to investigate the mechanism leading to this inhibition. This work was conducted by the Laboratory Medicine group at Lund University in Sweden led by Professor Catharina Svanborg. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Hepatitis - Liver Disease, Race/Ethnic Diversity / 25.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Andrea D. Branch PhD Professor of Medicine Division of Liver Diseases Associate Professor of Surgery Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Liver cancer is a deadly condition with a high mortality rate. About 90% of people who develop liver cancer have cirrhosis (advanced liver scarring) due to a chronic underlying liver disease. Patients with cirrhosis are advised to undergo liver cancer surveillance. Early detection improves survival, but diagnosis requires more than a blood test, which makes surveillance complex and expensive. Black individuals are more likely to develop liver cancer than white individuals and are more likely to die from it. Black patients also have more advanced liver cancer at the time of diagnosis than Whites. We aimed to identify additional factors that distinguish liver cancer in African Americans, focusing on patients with hepatitis C virus infection, the most common chronic liver disease in people who die from liver cancer in the United States. (more…)
Author Interviews, Microbiome, UCSD / 24.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Richard Gallo, MD, PhD Ima Gigli Distinguished Professor of Dermatology Chair of the Department of Dermatology UC San Diego School of Medicine MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Would you briefly explain what is meant by atopic dermatitis/eczema? How common is it and what are the symptoms. Response: Atopic Dermatitis is a common inflammatory disease of the skin that appears in up to 20% of children and 3% of the adult population. People suffering from atopic dermatitis have red, itchy skin. In many cases this rash will disrupt sleeping and severely impact quality of life. Also, people with atopic dermatitis are more susceptible to infections of the skin and are more likely to have other allergies and asthma. (more…)
Allergies, Author Interviews / 24.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:  Authors: Mike Kulis, Johanna Smeekens, Edwin Kim, Vladimir Zarnitsyn, Samirkumar Patel MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Peanut allergy is an IgE-mediated disease affecting approximately 2% of young children in the United States. Over the past decade, various forms of immunotherapy have been investigated with the goal of repeated daily allergen exposure leading to a desensitized state. One of these therapies, oral immunotherapy, or OIT, received FDA approval for treating peanut allergy in January 2020 with Aimmune’s Palforzia drug. While OIT effectively induces desensitization in a majority of patients, there is a substantial burden related to side effects, with an ever-present risk of systemic anaphylaxis. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Sugar, Weight Research / 24.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Eric Crosbie, PhD, MA Assistant Professor School of Community Health Sciences Ozmen Institute for Global Studies University of Nevada Reno MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: My colleague Dr. Laura Schmidt and I established a framework for studying preemption (when a higher level of government limits the authority of lower levels to enact laws) by studying the history of state preemption of local tobacco control policies in the U.S., which we published last year (2020) in AJPH. We noticed the same strategies that the tobacco industry employed were now being used by the beverage industry to suppress local taxation policies on sugar sweetened beverages (e.g. soda, coffee drinks, energy drinks, etc). We used this preemption framework to publish a new study this year in AJPH that analyzed state preemption of local sugar sweetened beverage taxes in the U.S.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Kidney Disease / 24.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. FotiKathryn Foti, PhD, MPH Postdoctoral fellow Department of Epidemiology Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) 2021 Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Blood Pressure (BP) in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) provides recommendations for the management of BP in individuals with nondialysis CKD, incorporating new evidence since the publication of its previous guideline in 2012. The 2021 KDIGO guideline recommends a target systolic BP <120 mmHg based on standardized office BP measurement. This BP goal is largely informed by the findings of the SPRINT trial which found targeting SBP <120 mmHg compared with <140 mmHg reduced the risk of cardiovascular disease by 25% and all-cause mortality by 27%. The benefits were similar for participants with and without CKD. In our study, we sought to examine the potential implications of the 2021 KDIGO guideline for BP lowering among US adults with CKD compared to the 2012 KDIGO guideline (target BP ≤130/80 mmHg in adults with albuminuria or ≤140/90 mmHg or under without albuminuria) and the 2017 American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association (target BP <130/80 mmHg) guideline. Additionally, we determined implications of the 2021 KDIGO guideline for angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEi) or angiotensin II-receptor blocker (ARB) use for those with albuminuria (recommended at systolic BP ≥120 mmHg) compared to the 2012 KDIGO guideline (recommended at BP >130/80 mmHg).  (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Education, JAMA, UCLA / 22.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Frederick Zimmerman, PhD Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management Fielding School of Public Health UCLA   MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: The science on school transmissions of COVID is becoming clearer all the time in its conclusion that there is little to no transmission in school environments as long as reasonable precautions are taken.  Yet one recent study got a lot of attention for claiming that states that allowed their schools to remain open in the early days of the pandemic saw more cases.  That study did not control for several important factors that might explain this association, so our study aimed to correct that work. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brain Cancer - Brain Tumors, Cancer Research, Immunotherapy, Pharmaceutical Companies / 22.02.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: https://www.inovio.com/Jeffrey Skolnik, MD Senior Vice President, Clinical Development INOVIO MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this technology? Would you tell us a little about the brain tumor, Glioblastoma Multiforme? How common is it, whom does it primarily affect?  Response: Glioblastoma (GBM) is the most common malignant brain tumor, affecting more than 10 thousand people each year in the United States. Most people diagnosed with GBM are above the age of 60 years, although GBM can be diagnosed at any age, including in children and young adults. Despite decades of research, GBM remains almost universally fatal. GBM is a tumor of the glial cells of the brain, and current therapies are directed at removing tumor with surgery and killing residual tumor cells with radiation and chemotherapy. More recently, with the introduction of immunotherapies such as immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) for the treatment of cancer, clinical studies have tried to add this promising technology to the treatment of GBM. Unfortunately, despite success in other types of cancer, ICIs have not demonstrated any clinical benefit in treating GBM. Newer clinical studies aim at introducing a combination of newer therapies together to try to tackle this terrible disease, and INOVIO’s GBM-001 study is one such example of an innovative approach to treating GBM.    (more…)