Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Imperial College, NEJM / 29.02.2024

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Adam Hampshire Ph.D. Faculty of Medicine, Department of Brain Sciences Professor in Restorative Neurosciences Imperial College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Cognitive symptoms after coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), the disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), are well-recognized. Whether objectively measurable cognitive deficits exist and how long they persist are unclear. (more…)
Author Interviews, Biomarkers, Infections, Inflammation, Pediatrics / 18.08.2023

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Myrsini Kaforou, PhD Senior Lecturer in Bioinformatics Department of Infectious Disease Imperial College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response:  Children very often present to hospital and clinics with fever, but fever is a non-specific disease symptom. The identification of the cause of fever poses a great challenge for the clinical teams worldwide. The available diagnostic tests are neither quick or accurate enough to fully base decisions on, such as withholding or administering antibiotics. For example, cultures may take days or even weeks to provide a result. In our research group, we are working on novel approach; instead of trying to identify the causative pathogen, which is often inaccurate or impossible, we are studying the genes in the patient's blood that are "switched on" or "switched off" during the infection or the disease in general. Using computational/bioinformatics methods, we are able to identify out of thousands of genes, the combinations of genes, "the biosignatures" for each disease. In the past we had shown that this approach works to distinguish bacterial from viral infection, or tuberculosis disease from other conditions that mimic its symptoms. But with this work we have shown for the first time that a single set of genes, a "single gene panel" can be used to discriminate between 6 broad and/or 18 specific infectious or inflammatory conditions that cause fever in children. (more…)
Author Interviews, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Vaccine Studies / 02.08.2022

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Emma Wall Senior Clinical Research Fellow, UCLH-Crick Legacy study Consultant Infectious Diseases UCLH MedicalResearch.com:  What is the background for this study?  Response: Since April 2022, both the UK and US have changed their COVID-19 isolation and testing policies. The impact these changes in the guidance and vaccination on community-acquired COVID-19 caused by recent SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) has not been fully tested, including infections with BA.2. We aimed to characterise both symptoms and viral loads over the course of COVID-19 infection in otherwise-healthy, vaccinated, non-hospitalised adults, to assess whether current guidance remains justified. All participants were included in the UCLH-Crick Legacy study, a prospective, observational cohort study of otherwise healthy adults who have been taking part in regular workplace testing for SARS-CoV-2 in London We sent swabs by same-day courier every other day to all adults who reported a positive PCR or lateral flow test to the study team up to day 10 after the start of each infection. We confirmed which variant caused the infection by PCR and sequencing. All participants completed linked symptom diaries. We compared symptoms and changes in the amount of virus detected in the nose and throat during infection between study participants reporting COVID-19 caused by VOCs Delta and Omicron BA.1 and BA.2. We then analysed how many of our participants would meet current UK/US isolation guidelines. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cannabis, Neurology, Pediatrics / 15.12.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Rayyan Raja Zafar BSc. MSc. MRSB. Medical Research Council Doctoral Training Partnership (MRC DTP) PhD Candidate Centre for Psychedelic research & Neuropsychopharmacology Division of Psychiatry Department of Brain Sciences, Faculty of Medicine Professor David Nutt DM, FRCP, FRCPsych, FSB, FMedSci Faculty of Medicine, Department of Brain Sciences The Edmond J Safra Chair in Neuropsychopharmacology Imperial College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Since 2018 medical cannabis prescription has become legal in the UK for patients to access. In spite of this legal change less than 3 NHS prescriptions have been made available and access to whole-plant medical cannabis products has been restricted largely to private prescriptions with very few clinicians prescribing such products. There has been a lot of anecdotal and real world evidence of the value of whole-plant medical cannabis in children suffering with treatment resistant epilepsy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, COVID -19 Coronavirus, Imperial College, Lancet / 28.07.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Adam Hampshire PhD Faculty of Medicine Department of Brain Sciences Imperial College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: During 2020 I was leading a study that sought to map the distribution of cognitive abilities and aspects of mental health across the UK population. The study generated a lot of interest because it was a collaboration with BBC2 Horizon, leading to ~390,000 participants. When the pandemic began to escalate in the UK a number of my colleagues at Imperial and elsewhere contacted me to note that the study could be used to investigate the impact of both the pandemic and direct illness on daily life, mental health and cognition. I had been thinking along similar lines so decided to add questionnaires about peoples' experiences with the pandemic and Covid-19 illness. (more…)
Author Interviews, Gastrointestinal Disease, Imperial College, Probiotics, Pulmonary Disease, Weight Research / 16.05.2021

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Benjamin Mullish PhD NIHR Academic Clinical Lecturer Department of Metabolism Digestion and Reproduction Imperial College MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Which probiotic did you use and why?  Response: We recently reported the results of a randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial in which participants who were overweight or with obesity (aged between 30-65 years of age) were randomized to receive probiotics or placebo for six months.  The primary focus was on weight loss and metabolism.  The probiotic used was Lab4P, containing three different strains of Bifidobacteria and two of Lactobacilli, which have shown to be safe and efficacious for use in rodent models and earlier clinical studies. Of note, probiotics have also been shown to have other beneficial effects upon human health.  Previous studies have suggested that they may have a role in preventing upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) in healthy people and children; however, this has not been explored in older people or overweight/ people with obesity, even though such groups have higher rates of URTIs. We looked back at our trial, and reviewed symptom diaries completed by participants daily during the study.  We were looking at recorded symptoms most consistent with upper respiratory tract symptoms (including cough, wheezing and headache), and explored if rates of these were different between those participants taking probiotics compared to placebo over the six month course of the study.   (more…)
Author Interviews, C. difficile, Gastrointestinal Disease, Imperial College, Infections, Transplantation / 30.04.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Julian Marchesi PhD Professor of Digestive Health Faculty of Medicine, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction   Dr. Benjamin Mullish PhD Faculty of Medicine, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction NIHR Clinical Lecturer Imperial College London       MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Many patients are colonized with bacteria that are resistant to nearly all the antibiotics that we currently have. This antibiotic resistance is a huge public health problem, not least because it may lead to the scenario where a bacterial species moves from the gut and into the bloodstream, causes an infection, and cannot be treated. Such scenarios particularly occur in patients who are particularly prone to getting multiple and frequent courses of antibiotics; this may include patients with particular kidney conditions (who may be vulnerable to recurrent urinary tract infections (UTIs)), and patients with blood cancers (such as leukaemia, who have weak immune systems and are therefore prone to infections). Furthermore, in both sets of patients, to help treat their disease, they may be offered transplants, either a new kidney or new bone marrow. When this transplant happens, the clinician needs to ‘switch off’ their immune system to allow the transplant to work. When the immune system is dialled down, it can no longer stop any invading bacteria, increasing the chance of antibiotic resistance bacteria causing infections, which frequently leads to patient death.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Heart Disease, Imperial College, JAMA / 19.02.2020

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Ioanna Tzoulaki Imperial College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Considerable progress has been made in identifying genetic variants that are associated with heart disease. We aimed to investigate whether genetic information can be used to assess the risk of individuals developing heart disease in the future and whether genetic tests can improve current risk assessment strategies which are based on easy to measure factors such as age, sex, smoking status, cholesterol levels, blood pressure and presence of type 2 diabetes. (more…)
Author Interviews, Brain Cancer - Brain Tumors, Imperial College / 20.08.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Georgios Giamas, (Dr. Biol. Hum.) Professor of Cancer Cell Signalling Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange University of Sussex -School of Life Sciences Visiting Professor, Imperial College, London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: This study focuses on Glioblastoma (GBM), which is one of the most aggressive solid tumours for which treatment options and biomarkers are limited. MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings? - Glioblastoma cells produce nanosized vesicles (aka: extracellular vesicles) that contain specific protein signatures, which can indicate the behaviour and phenotype of the respective cells of origin. -We have identified and described certain vesicle-associated biomarkers that correspond to the most aggressive brain cancers. -Our results can provide insights for the development of new diagnostic and therapeutic methods as well as personalized treatment strategies (more…)
Author Interviews, Heart Disease, Imperial College, Lipids, NEJM, Statins / 13.03.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Kosh Ray, MB ChB, MD, MPhil Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health Chair in Public Health (Clinical) Imperial College London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Bempedoic acid is the first in class of a new therapy for lowering LDL cholesterol. This is the largest and longest study to date with this therapy and involved about 2200 pts with patients with either established cardiovascular disease or familial hypercholestrolaemia and in whom LDL was > 70mg/dl or 1.8 mmol/L despite maximally tolerated statins. %0% were on high intensity statins and the majority of the rest on moderate intensity. The aim was to show long term safety 1 year and efficacy at 24 weeks and at 1 year.  (more…)
Allergies, Author Interviews, Immunotherapy / 25.02.2019

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Paul Turner FRACP PhD MRC Clinician Scientist and Clinical Senior Lecturer, Imperial College London Honorary Consultant in Paediatric Allergy & Immunology Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust Hon Consultant, Royal Free Hospital / Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Foundation Trust Clinical trials specialist (Paediatrics), Public Health England Clinical Associate Professor in Paediatrics, University of Sydney, Australia Dr. Nandinee Patel, MD Section of Paediatrics Imperial College London London, United Kingdom MRC & Asthma UK Centre in Allergic Mechanisms of Asthma London, United Kingdom MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? Response: Current desensitisation protocols for peanut allergy use defatted roasted peanut flour, which can be difficult to accurately measure in very low doses needed for desensitisation (and thus has resulted in the development of AR101 by Aimmune which is likely cost many thousands of dollars for a course of treatment). We have previously observed that some children with food allergy to roasted peanut (such as peanut butter) are nonetheless able to tolerate boiled peanuts without reacting. We performed in vitro protein analysis studies which demonstrated that boiling peanuts resulted in around 50% of protein leaching out of the peanut into the cooking water. Furthermore, we found evidence for preferential leaching of allergen epitopes such as Ara h 2 as well aggregation of proteins resulting in a hypoallergenic peanut product. We therefore sought to assess whether boiled peanuts could be as effective and safe to induce desensitisation. (more…)
AACR, Author Interviews, Cancer Research, Imperial College, Kidney Disease / 20.08.2018

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. David C. Muller PhD Faculty of Medicine, School of Public Health Research Fellow in Epidemiology and Biostatistics Imperial College, London MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Our colleagues in the U.S. have been working on KIM-1 for years, particularly in the context of chronic kidney disease. Recently they found that KIM-1 is also elevated at the time of diagnosis of kidney cancer. We wanted to see if KIM-1 concentrations could predict the chances of a future diagnosis of kidney cancer. We found that KIM-1 was a strong predictor of being diagnosis with kidney cancer in the next 5 years. We also found that higher pre-diagnostic KIM-1 was associated with worse survival after diagnosis.  (more…)