Category Archives: Molecular Medicine

Fiber is an essential part of our diets. Otherwise known as roughage, it is the indigestible part of plant foods that helps reduce the risk of health conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

There are two types of fiber, both of which are non-starch polysaccharides that people cannot digest:

But not all dietary fibers are equal. A new study published in Cell Host & Microbe has found that health benefits vary between individuals and may depend on the type of fiber, the dose consumed, and the individuals microbiome.

Researchers from Stanford School of Medicine tested how two purified soluble fibers arabinoxylan (AX) and long-chain inulin (LCI) affected a group of 18 participants.

AX is found in whole grains, such as rye, wheat, oats, and rice; LCI is found in onions, chicory root, garlic, and Jerusalem artichokes. Both types of fiber can also be taken as dietary supplements.

The participants in the study had an average age of 56.9 years. Of the 8 men and 10 women, 14 had overweight or obese, and 11 were insulin sensitive. The researchers separated them randomly into 2 groups for three crossover trials. One group started with AX, the other with LCI then switched over. Both groups finished with a mixture of fibers consisting of AX, LCI, acacia gum, glucomannans, and resistant starch.

Each trial lasted 3 weeks. In the first week, the participants consumed 10g of fiber per day, rising to 20g in the second week and 30g in the third. The participants then had a 6-8 week break between the 3 trials.

This is a VERY small study of 18 participants who are free-living meaning their food is not being controlled so between the food and the sample size, its extremely difficult to draw meaningful conclusions. Like almost all good research I read on the microbiome, this raises as many questions as it answers.

Kate Cohen, M.S., R.D.N., of the Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine at Providence Saint Johns Health Center in Santa Monica, CA, speaking to Medical News Today.

The researchers collected plasma, serum, and stool samples from all participants at the start of the trial, then at the end of each week. They also measured their heart rate and blood pressure.

They measured changes in lipids, including cholesterol, the genetic material in the stool samples (to identify gut bacteria), plasma proteins, metabolites, and cytokines. Cytokines are inflammatory markers indicating inflammation in the body.

When taking AX, most participants had a significant drop in low-density lipoprotein (LDL), or bad cholesterol, and an increase in bile acids. The authors suggest that the increase in bile acids may contribute to the reduction in LDL. However, some participants saw no change in LDL levels.

For LCI, most, but not all, people saw a small decrease in inflammatory markers and an increase in Bifidobacterium. This gut microbe is generally regarded as beneficial to gut health. However, the highest dose of LCI (30g per day) reversed this effect. At this dose, participants saw increased inflammation and elevation in alanine aminotransferase, an enzyme associated with liver damage.

Mixed fiber supplementation yielded fewer significant changes.

The authors note that responses were not consistent for all people for either type of fiber, suggesting that each persons microbiome may determine responses.

Our results demonstrate that the physiological, microbial and molecular effects of individual fibers differ substantially.

Dr. Michael Snyder, senior study author, said in a press release.

Kate Cohen was excited to see where the authors would go next: Uncovering how different fibers interact with the microbiome is an essential step toward making personalized nutrition a reality. This research is also laying the groundwork for using food-as-medicine in a truly prescriptive way. This study confirms once again that the microbiome holds enormous potential for understanding human health.

The current recommended fiber intake is 14 grams for every 1,000 calories consumed, according to the American Academy of Nutrition.

Experts say it is best to get your fiber from food sources before using supplements.

Read more:
Dietary fiber and health benefits: Microbiome may be the key - Medical News Today

image:Dr. Vivian Wai Yan Lui view more

Credit: Michael Holahan, Augusta University

AUGUSTA, Ga. (April 28, 2022) About one-fifth of often deadly head and neck cancers harbor genetic mutations in a pathway that is key to normal cell growth, and scientists report those mutations, which enable abnormal cancer cell growth, can also make the cancer vulnerable.

Keys to targeting that vulnerability include individualized genomic analysis to identify a patients specific mutation, and finding the drugs that directly target it, investigations that should be given more attention in cancer therapy development, they report in a review article in the journal NPJ Genomic Medicine.

The MAPK pathway is a signaling hub for cells important to the usual development of the head and neck region, and activating key pathway constituents, like the genes MAPK1 and HRAS, is known to drive the growth of a variety of cancers, says Dr. Vivian Wai Yan Lui, molecular pharmacologist and translational scientist at the Georgia Cancer Center and Medical College of Georgia and the papers corresponding author.

But the mutations in the genes in the MAPK pathway that enable tumor growth can also make it sensitive to drug therapy, says Lui. While a lot of discovery is still needed to find more mutations in the MAPK pathway and the drugs that target them, Lui says they are among the most logical treatment targets for this tough-to-treat cancer.

As she speaks, she is looking in her lab for drugs that kill head and neck primary tumors from patients, and at the genetics behind how they kill.

Its critical to the survival of the cancer, says Lui, and every cancer type likely has one or more drug-sensitizing mutations that may vary in individuals depending on how they got cancer.

If these types of studies continue to find the methodology works, gene panels might need to be developed to expedite target discovery in this very heterogenous cancer, the scientists write.

More clinical trials around the globe at institutions like MCG and the Georgia Cancer Center are essential to identifying these specific mutations and drugs that target them in a precision manner, Lui notes.

Also, next on the horizon is combining this precision medicine approach with immunotherapy that better enables a patients immune system to also target the cancer, she says.

Luis interest in the MAPK pathway solidified almost a decade ago at the University of Pittsburgh where she did her postdoctoral studies and eventually joined the faculty. Her mentor was Dr. Jennifer R. Grandis (now at the University of California, San Francisco), who led the head and neck cancer program there. The patient in his 30s, a heavy smoker and drinker, had stage four head and neck squamous cell carcinoma that had metastasized to his lymph nodes. The patient went to Pittsburgh for removal of the lymph nodes and the primary tumor but was fortunate enough to be eligible for a window of opportunity trial there. Before starting any standard treatment, he received a trial drug for 13 days, in his case an epidermal growth factor receptor, or EGFR, blocker. The receptor is involved in cell growth, and is found on some normal cells, including in the head and neck area where there is a lot of natural cell turnover because of exposure to things like food and drink. However, in cancer cells, including head and neck cancer cells, EGFR is abundantly expressed for the rapid growth critical to a tumors spread and survival.

The patient was given the drug, erlotinib, which was not known to be particularly effective in these cancers but was being looked at to see if it would quieten signaling of this factor that was important to the cancers growth. When he went for surgery following the trial, the surgeon called to report there was no cancer on his tongue and studies of his 36 lymph nodes indicated they also now showed no evidence of cancer. The patient was still doing well by the time the Pittsburgh colleagues published the paper two years later in 2015 in JAMA Oncology.

His was rightly called an exceptional response, the first Lui and her colleagues had found in head and neck cancer, and she had to figure out the mutation the drug targeted to enable such a response. Exceptional responders are how the National Cancer Institute describes people who have more than a six-month response to a therapy when they are running out of treatment options.

An EGFR gene mutation was a logical choice for his mutation. Harvard investigators had previously found that in non-small cell lung cancer, EGFR activating mutations could activate tumor cell growth, which also made tumor cells addicted to the signal from the mutated EGFR. The drug erlotinib could break the addiction and inhibit cancer cell growth.

Lui didnt find an EGFR mutation in this young mans pretreatment biopsy but reasoned the mutation had to have something to do with the receptors signaling network. She was surprised and the first to find it was a MAPK1 gene mutation, MAPK1 p.E322K specifically, that could also be found in liver, breast and other cancers.

When they later engineered the mutation in head and neck cancer cells, the already aggressive cells grew even faster, Lui says of a mutation that can result from habits like heavy smoking and drinking. They would also find that the particular mutation was very common in the United States in patients with head and neck cancer, while there was a wider spectrum of mutations present in Asians with the cancer.

Erlotinib had actually failed in clinical trials because it wasnt given to the right patients, which is what precision medicine is, Lui notes. In fact, laboratory studies had indicated that activation of MAPK1 confers resistance to erlotinib, she says, while this patients response clearly counters that. Follow up work by Grandis indicated that in patients actually, the higher the MAPK1 activation, the better the cancer responded to erlotinib.

To help move cancer treatment forward, Lui encourages physicians who come across these types of exceptional responses to report them, work with scientists to study them, then pursue clinical trials when appropriate.

For patients, her message is not to give up because with more high-levelanalysis of tumors, there might be a certain mutation that makes their cancer vulnerable to a specific medication, she says of these gene-drug responses that are the focal point of her translational work.

There are secrets that make the cancer vulnerable, Lui says. When cancer cells have an important gene mutation that they are activating or that cancer cells are addicted to for survival, then when you hit that signaling pathway, the cancer cells will die or be really well controlled.

Prior to the era of genomic medicine, when scientists began to identify and target a specific gene mutation, non-precision drug treatment of the MAPK pathway in head and neck cancers as well as other cancers were futile, and typically failed miserably in clinical trials, Lui and her colleagues write.

While the reasons may be uncertain, they likely include the wrong drug for that specific, problematic mutation, Lui says, as well as the fact that some MAPK pathway mutations are known to convey drug resistance.

Either way, there is a lot of work to do. Today there are just a handful of drugs that target specific, cancer-causing mutations in head and neck cancer but there arent effective precision drugs for about 80% of patients, Lui and her coauthors write.

But there is mounting evidence that targeting specific MAPK pathway mutations in the pathway like MAPK1, HRAS, KRAS and BRAF can be very effective for these patients.

As an example, the RAS inhibitor tipifarnib received Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the Food and Drug Administration in February 2021 for patients with a specific recurrent or metastatic HRAS-mutant head and neck squamous cell cancer. HRAS is involved in cell growth signaling.

Also, studies indicate that EGFR targeted therapy in metastatic non-small cell lung cancer, increases progression-free survival to a median of 18.9 months and median overall survival beyond three years and reduces death rates about 52%. In 2016 the Food and Drug Administration modified its approval of erlotinib to treat non-small cell lung cancer patients with the specific EGFR mutations. In 2020, the FDA approved erlotinib in combination with ramucirumab, a monoclonal antibody that binds to a receptor for vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF, which tumors use to grow the blood vessels they need to thrive, as a frontline treatment for these cancers. The FDA granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation to tipifarnib, an inhibitor of a protein which has the downstream effect of interfering in this case with mutations of the gene HRAS, which is also involved in cell division and in the MAPK pathway. There are now more than 1.5 million people with non-small cell lung cancer on precision medicine because of investigators who continued to examine the initial few responders, Lui says.

Lui is a native of Hong Kong, who was on the faculty of The Chinese University of Hong Kong before joining the MCG faculty in October 2021. In 2020 Lui and her colleagues reported that MAPK pathway mutations are a factor in about one-fifth of head and neck cancer patients and that unexpectedly these mutations are associated with longer patient survival than other causes like human papillomavirus.

Head and neck cancer is typically aggressive and often both the disease and its treatment are painful and disfiguring. It carries a higher risk of suicide than many other cancer types. The incidence of head and neck cancer is going up across the world, with causes including tobacco and/or alcohol use, air pollutants, cancer causing viruses like the sexually transmitted HPV, and Epstein-Barr virus, one of the most common viruses that is primarily spread by saliva and can cause problems like infectious mononucleosis. Other causes include poor dental hygiene and chewing betel nut, a stimulant which comes from the Areca palm plant, and is used as a recreational drug and as a still-unproven treatment for problems like schizophrenia and glaucoma. Chewing betel nut is a common cultural practice in South and Southeast Asia and the Asian Pacific. Its often chewed with products like tobacco and has been associated with cancer and a host of other medical problems like a slow heart rate and stomach ulcers.

The carcinogens largely damage the lining of the head and neck region resulting in one or more mutations that can lead to cancer.

Read the full study.

npj Genomic Medicine

Precision drugging of the MAPK pathway in head and neck cancer

16-Mar-2022

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Gene mutations that contribute to head and neck cancer also provide precision treatment targets - EurekAlert

In the age of omicron, where COVIDs attack rate is higher than previous variants, entire households and friend groups are getting sick. If one person gets COVID, theres a good chance others in their home will also get infected.

Whats odd, though, is occasionally only one or two people in that friend group or family unit will test positive on a rapid test. The rest, though symptomatic, test negative. Are rapid tests missing more infections now than they did with previous variants?

Despite the anecdotal evidence, the latest research suggests the kits work just as well on omicron as they did with delta (meaning they can catch about 80% of cases confirmed by a positive PCR test).

In general, the rapid tests seem to be performing on par with omicron as well as the other variants, Wilbur Lam, a professor of pediatrics and biomedical engineering at Emory University and a researcher who has been evaluating COVID diagnostic tests for the federal government, told HuffPost.

Rapid antigen tests are designed to detect a specific version of a virus. As variants have emerged, scientists have wondered if the new mutations could impact rapid tests ability to detect the changing virus but this hasnt been the case.

Most evidence suggests that rapid antigen tests work just as well with omicron as they did with previous variants like delta and alpha. A study from UMass Chan Medical School found that rapid tests caught 92% of omicron infections and 82% of delta infections that had been confirmed on a positive PCR test.

Theres not as much research on how the tests hold up with omicrons subvariants, like the now-dominant variant BA.2, but Nathaniel Hafer, an assistant professor of molecular medicine at UMass Chan Medical School who worked on the UMass study, isnt too concerned.

My hunch is that these tests can still detect BA.2, he said. BA.2 is a subvariant of omicron and variants have been consistently detected by rapid antigen tests all along, largely because the piece of the virus these tests look for hasnt mutated too much, according to Hafer.

Oliver Helbig via Getty Images

Heres why the tests may be missing some cases.

Still, rapid at-home tests arent foolproof, and there have been enough anecdotes to show theyre missing some percentage of cases. Scientists have a few theories as to why this might be.

First, is the heightened transmissibility of omicron and its subvariants (like BA.2). These variants are spreading so quickly that many people are likely testing themselves too soon, before the virus has had a chance to really multiply in the body.

There might actually not be a high enough concentration [of virus] in the nose for it to pick up yet, Lam said.

Another theory: Omicron is more present in the throat than the nose. During the height of the omicron wave, tons of people shared their experiences on Twitter about how they tested positive via a throat swab after their nose swabs yielded negative results. However, Anne Wyllie, a microbiologist at Yale School of Public Health, said we dont have accurate estimates on this because the FDA hasnt authorized rapid antigen tests for oral swabs.

It is where omicron is first detectable, which is why people continue to test negative for days with nasal swabs, yet [are] exhibiting symptoms, Wyllie said. But studies have specifically looked at this and found that omicron is everywhere the throat, the nose, our saliva and oral swabs, though useful, are no better than nasal swabs.

Some scientists suspect that vaccination may decrease the viral load in certain peoples nasal cavities. Essentially, their immune systems may already be fighting the virus and preventing it from replicating itself rapid tests need a high viral load to produce a positive test, so if there isnt enough virus present, the test kit wont detect it. Lam and his research team are actively studying how vaccination status and the timing of vaccination and boosters impact viral load and sensitivity of the tests, but dont have results yet.

We think that perhaps a person thats recently boosted might be prone to having lower sensitivity but thats still our hypothesis, Lam said.

Everyones immune systems are a little bit different. Some peoples immune systems might simply fight and block the virus from replicating more successfully than others. Additionally, symptomatic people tend to have higher viral loads, which are more detectable on a rapid antigen test, than asymptomatic people, who typically have lower viral loads.

People who have higher viral loads in their nose and in their head cavities are definitely going to be more likely to be positive on an antigen test, Hafer said.

Theres always the chance people could also have symptoms for different reasons seasonal allergies and other common respiratory viruses are back and circulating, Hafer added.

Lastly, theres likely some human error involved. Some may not swab deep enough or enough times, which would impact how much virus a swab collects.

The tests also work best with serial testing, or testing over multiple days. This gives the viral load the opportunity to build up and reach levels that are detectable on a rapid test, Lam said. On average, PCR tests which are much more sensitive show positive results about two days before rapid tests.

So while you might get a negative test result on your first day of symptoms, theres a much better chance your rapid test will turn positive a couple days later once your viral load is higher.

Experts are still learning about COVID-19. The information in this story is what was known or available as of publication, but guidance can change as scientists discover more about the virus. Please check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for the most updated recommendations.

Link:
My At-Home Rapid Test Is Negative, But Could I Still Have COVID? - HuffPost

Carol Gregorio, PhD, professor and head of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Tucson, co-director of the Sarver Heart Center and assistant vice provost for Global Health Sciences, was named as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Dr. Gregorio is being honored for her internationally recognized contributions toward understanding heart and skeletal muscle structure, function and disease. The designation is one of the most distinct honors in the scientific community.

It is an honor to be recognized among people of such excellence in their research, Dr. Gregorio said.

Dr. Gregorio, who is also the director of the Molecular Cardiovascular Research Program and a member of the BIO5 Institute, earned her bachelors and masters degrees from the State University of New York at Buffalo and her doctorate from Roswell Park Cancer Institute in New York. She did her postdoctoral research at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

My research is focused on identifying the components and molecular mechanisms regulating contractile proteins in cardiac muscle, Dr. Gregorio said. By studying the effects of human mutations in contractile proteins those responsible for allowing the heart to beat my lab can decipher how the protein normally functions in health and development, which is important for predicting heart disease before it manifests and for designing potential therapeutics for cardiomyopathies.

Dr. Gregorio joined the University of Arizona Health Sciences in 1996 as a faculty member. I feel privileged to work with a strong team of faculty and researchers in the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, Molecular Cardiovascular Research Program and Sarver Heart Center who continuously challenge me to continue to be productive and to address critical gaps in our knowledge about heart and skeletal myopathies at the cellular and molecular levels, she said.

The AAAS is the worlds largest general scientific society and publisher of the Science family of journals. The AAAS Fellows tradition began in 1874 to recognize individuals for their extraordinary achievements across disciplines. Past fellows include scientists, engineers and innovators who have made significant contributions to research, teaching, technology, communicating and interpreting science to the public, and administration in academia, industry and government. Along with Dr. Gregorio, UArizona plant sciences professor A. Elizabeth (Betsy) Arnold, PhD, and professor of linguistics Cecile McKee, PhD, also were elected as fellows to the AAAS.

Read more from the original source:
Dr. Carol Gregorio Named AAAS Fellow | UArizona Health Sciences - University of Arizona

BioinformaticsMarket: Introduction

According to the report, the globalbioinformatics marketwas valued at US$24.7Bn in 2020 and is projected to expand at a CAGR of5.9%from 2021 to 2028. Bioinformatics is used to manage the data gathered from research & development projects in the biopharmaceutical, life sciences, and biotechnology industries. Growth of the bioinformatics market is driven by rise in applications of IT in the healthcare sector, along with robust technological advancements. The usage of information technology or IT has enabled easy storage, processing, access, and retrieval of data.

Additionally, the demand for advanced treatment of several diseases and effective preventive solutions is rising. Hence, healthcare professionals focus on research & development projects. Moreover, surge in R&D activities has led to rise in data generation, which increases demand for efficient technology for data management in the healthcare sector.

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Usage of Bioinformatics in High Throughput Screening

The high throughput screening is an emerging bioinformatics field that performs biological tests at high speed with the help of data processing software, sensitive detectors, and liquid handling devices. Increase in importance of high throughput screening in drug discovery is likely to drive the global bioinformatics market over the next few years.

Platforms Segment to Dominate Global Market

The global bioinformatics market has been segmented into services, tools, and platforms. These are commercially available for the purpose of processing the data obtained from various research & development projects employing bioinformatics. In terms of consumption, the platforms segment dominated the global market in 2020, accounting for leading share. The growth of the segment can be attributed to rise in usage of bioinformatics in the process of drug discovery and increase in research & development activities. However, the services segment is projected to dominate the global market during the forecast period.

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Molecular Medicine Segment to Dominate Market

Bioinformatics has applications in preventive medicine, molecular medicine, gene therapy, drug development, and others. Other application areas include forensic analysis of microbes, genetic research for antibiotic resistance, and veterinary science. The molecular medicine segment accounted for the largest market share in 2020. The drug development segment is anticipated to expand at the highest CAGR from 2021 to 2028.

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North America to Dominate Global Market

In terms of region, the global bioinformatics market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. North America dominated the global bioinformatics market in 2020, followed by Europe. Availability of developed technology, structured regulatory framework, higher adoption rate of new technology, and significant investment in research & development by companies boost the growth of the bioinformatics market in North America and Europe. Asia Pacific is a lucrative market for bioinformatics. Factors such as surge in government initiatives to boost biotechnology research & development activities in respective country, increase in funding, rise in awareness about bioinformatics, and surge in literacy rate are expected to fuel the growth of the bioinformatics market in Asia Pacific.

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Competition Landscape

The global bioinformatics market is fragmented in terms of number of players. Key players in the global market include Accelrys, Inc., ID Business Solutions, Ltd., Affymetrix, Inc., CLC bio A/S, Agilent Technologies, Inc., GenoLogics Life Sciences Software, Inc., Life Technologies Corporation, and Illumina, Inc.

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Bioinformatics Market Size will Grow Profitably in the Near Future - Digital Journal

Shes the second woman to hold the position!

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo has made history as the first Black editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association, MedPage Today reports.

Bibbins-Domingo holds a degree in molecular biology from Princeton University and a masters degree in clinical research from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF). She got her start as a biochemist, studying under Nobel Prize-winning scientist Harold Varmus, who also served as former director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). She is currently a professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF, previously making history as the first vice dean for population health and health equity. Now she has made history again, becoming the first Black editor-in-chief of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and the JAMA Network.

She spoke about the significance of her appointment, vowing to make the journal a trusted voice, again in medicine.

[Many things] shape how we think about health. Its the responsibility of a journal like JAMA and the JAMA Network to be able to put science in context of these broader voices I think theres never been [a] more important time for JAMA to be that trusted voice, said Bibbins-Domingo.

From 2010 to 2017, Bibbins-Domingo served as part of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force and as a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians and the National Academy of Medicine. Bibbins-Domingo is also co-founder of the UCSF Center for Vulnerable Populations at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.

American Medical Association EVP James L. Madara, spoke about Bibbins-Domingos appointment, saying, [We are] tremendously pleased and fortunate to welcome Dr. Bibbins-Domingo as the new editor-in-chief ... As a physician, scholar, and leader, she has focused on health equity, on cardiovascular disease prevention -- top priorities for the AMA -- and more recently on COVID-19I am confident Dr. Bibbins-Domingo -- with her remarkable professional background ranging from basic science to an array of scholarly approaches to clinical studies -- will effectively advance JAMA's mission that accelerates clinical research into practice at this critical time in health care in the U.S. and in global public health.

Bibbins-Domingo was selected by an 18-person committee of academic and medical experts. She will take over for former JAMA editor-in-chief, Howard Bauchner, who resigned in June due to insensitive racialized comments he made on a podcast. Bibbins-Domingo acknowledged the ever-present racism in the medical field, noting that it is why it's even more important to use journals as a way to build trust and rapport with the community.

"The entire scientific and medical enterprise has been plagued by the inability to acknowledge these important forces that shape the health of our patients. And we know that some of this blindness to seeing these forces has to do with who's in the room making the decisions, who's in the room conducting scientific studies, who's in the room shaping policy, [and] who's in the room deciding what gets published [JAMA has an opportunity to] not only help readers make sense of our changing world, but to communicate science and scientific discovery in a way that actually advances clinical practice, advances the health of all of our patients, and improves the health of the population nationally and globally," she explained.

Congratulations, Dr. Bibbins-Domingo. Because of you, we can!

Photo Courtesy of Social Innovation & Universal Opportunity Lab

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Journal of the American Medical Association Appoints First Black Editor-In-Chief - Because of Them We Can

A team of scientists, co-led by Luke Hoeppner, Ph.D., assistant professor and leader of the Cancer Biology research section at The Hormel Institute, and Stephen Ekker, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Mayo Clinic and Dean of the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, recently published findings from preclinical studies that could lead to treatments that reduce inflammation and pathology associated with sunburn.

The article, Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor as an Immediate-Early Activator of Ultraviolet-Induced Skin Injury, was published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings, a premier general medicine journal.

The negative effects of sunburn are relatively common and can range from simple redness to hospital visits and are known to eventually induce inflammation. For example, in the United States, sunburn leads to 30,000 emergency room visits every year.

Repeated sunburns can cause skin cancer.

While current treatments relieve the pain and symptoms, those approaches do not reverse the cumulative effects of sunburn, in part because they only target secondary or tertiary effects of UV exposure. Dr. Hoeppner and his team report on an early molecular cause of sunburn.

We hope that we can target this molecular cause to reduce the negative consequences of sunburn, Hoeppner said. We discovered a new step in the process of sunburn that occurs before inflammation, which opens a new post-exposure window to potentially inhibit all of the negative effects of sunburn. We found that targeting a molecule called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) reduces the subsequent inflammation and pathology associated with skin damage caused by sunburn.

The authors emphasize that future clinical studies would be needed to determine the possible value of VEGF inhibitors as a topical sunburn treatment in humans.

The approach we used in this study was designed to explore options for potential topical treatments, Ekker said. We added VEGF inhibitors after initial UV exposure, to model what happens when people are sunburned and also long after exposure. People often do not realize they are getting sunburned until after they start feeling warm or get flushed. We were able to see VEGF signaling activating in human samples and this strongly suggests there are options to develop interventions and prevent these negative effects.

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Institute and Mayo scientists publish research on preventing associated sunburn effects - Austin Daily Herald - Austin Herald

A spring Easter fully fills tourist places and restores confidence after two years of pandemic in Italy, but a study shows that Omicrom and its variants are lethal to the unvaccinated. Italy also has 10% more deaths than the rest of Europe, which maintains a certain concern.

Professor Fabrizio Precliasco, from the University of Milan, pointed out that the data from the study carried out in Hong Kong revealing that Omicron 2 and its variants more related ones are as deadly as the ancestral variants of Covid-19.

Pregliasco said that the illness does not turn into a cold with the advancement of omicron 2, the dominant virus. There is an objective reduction of the worst effects with those who have received the two, three and now fourth doses of Pfizer or Moderna, but the risk of mortality is similar to the times when they began to apply the vaccines, in 2021.

Easter is a test bench, says the expert Pregliasco, who invites citizens to use good senseto gradually recover normality because the virus is still circulating And it does a lot of harm.

In 2020 there were 79 thousand deaths from the pandemic in Italy, which fell to 53 thousand in 2021. Until the first fortnight of April, 22 thousand more deaths are registered.

CASES0.000.000

per million inhab.

DEATHS00.000

Fuente: Johns Hopkins Chart: Flourish | Infographic: Clarion

The government has begun to apply the fourth dose to those over 80 years of age and to frail patients with a series of diseases. Along the way, it is expected to advance to the other age groups. There is no certainty that the youngest should also be vaccinated But this will be indicated by the reality of the infections and the spread of the most serious cases, Pregliasco said.

Health Minister Roberto Speranza said that after May 1 they will adopt the new orientations. The day before expires the obligation to use masks in closed places.

Speranza said that he believes that in schools, students over the age of six should continue to wear a mask in class until the end of the school year.

The North American cardiologist Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine, confirmed that the Omicron 2 and related variants, already dominate in most of the world. And he highlighted the cases that have occurred in southern China and that led the government to establish the quarantine of the 26 million inhabitants of Shanghai.

People in protective gear walk the streets of Shanghai on Monday. Photo: EFE

With drastic measures of isolation, vaccinations and controls, it had prevented the penetration of the Covid 19 virus. In the first two years of the pandemic in southeastern China, 12,531 cases were registered with 213 deaths. The important wave came this year, guided by Omicron 2.2, which caused more than 1.1 million infected with 7,900 deaths.

Specialist Topol highlights how precious Hong Kongs experience with Omicron 2 is, which attacked a population with a previous low exposure to the virus, In the Italian case, local scientists warn that the greatest risk of a pandemic that is in a recession phase but remains activesuffered by infected patients who they did not complete the vaccination.

They appear to have a mortality risk similar to those who were infected in the ancestral strains of sars-Cov-2.

The famous microbiologist from the University of Padoa Andrea Crisanti, with several daily statements in front of television cameras, has its own theory. In his favor is that he always thinks and is rarely wrong.

With the rate of contagion that Omicron has, containment measures no longer work. In Shanghai they have been in quarantine for a month and the end is not in sight. If you can not contain it is better make it circulate more freely to the virus, strictly protecting the elderly and the frail sick.

Crisanti presents his strategy like this: No masks in closed places and quarantine for the one who is positive. With micron, the priority has changed, which is no longer controlling the spread of the virus but dont make the frail sickbecause if it infects a child under fifteen years of age, nothing happens and, on the other hand, if it happens to an elderly person with other diseases, they can still lose their lives .

The laboratory director virologist at the University of Padua launched his lunge, against giving the anti-Covid vaccine together with the flu. I think that It is a commercial operation because the flu with containment measures has practically disappeared.

On the weekend in Italy the infected and the dead decrease because there are fewer controls. Nevertheless deaths reached 210 and those infected were 115,148 between Saturday and Sunday.

In Italy there are currently 1.22 million infected in their homes. The data of the 9,758 common hospitalized patients are reassuring, with a decrease of 120 compared to Friday and only 403 in intensive care: less than eight in 24 hours. In March 2020, the maximum peak of 4,300 hospitalized in intensive care was reached, the most seriously ill.

Rome, correspondent

ap

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Pandemic: why in Italy about 100 people per day still die of covid? - Zyri

The new study was published in the journal Nutrients. It was the work of researchers associated with Zhejiang University of Technology in Huzhou, China and an employee of Longevity Valley Botanical Co., Ltd., in Hangzhou, a 113-year-old company devoted to the development of health products based on fungi. The research was funded by public and industry sources.

The researchers used acute gastric injury induced by ethanol in lab rats as a model to test the effects of various polysaccharides derived from Ganoderma lucidum, colloquially known as reishi mushroom.

Reishi is one of the longtime mainstays of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). The 2011 text Herbal Medicine: Bimolecular and Clinical Aspects published by Taylor and Francis has this to say about the fungus:

In Chinese, the name lingzhi (as rendered as reishi) represents a combination of spiritual potency and essence of immortality, and is regarded as the herb of spiritual potency, symbolizing success, well-being, divine power, and longevity. Among cultivated mushrooms, G. lucidum is unique in that its pharmaceutical rather than nutritional value is paramount. A variety of commercial G. lucidum products are available in various forms, such as powders, dietary supplements, and tea. These are produced from different parts of the mushroom, including mycelia, spores, and fruit body. The specific applications and attributed health benefits of lingzhi include control of blood glucose levels, modulation of the immune system, hepatoprotection, bacteriostasis, and more.

An issue with the effects of many TCM preparations from a Western scientific point of view has been that these are multicomponent formulas with many active constituents. That makes parsing out precise modes of action difficult. The same is true for reishi.

To drill down deeper into reishis effects the authors of the present study decided to focus on the polysaccharide fractions of the mushroom. After extracting the polysaccharide fractions of the fruiting body, the researchers used progressively finer filtration membranes of 100 kDa, 10 kDa ad 1 kDa to divide the polysaccharides into three groups by molecular weight that averaged 322.0 kDa, 18.8 kDa, and 6.4 kDa, respectively (kDa=kilodaltons).

The test rats were divided into several groups, with the experiment groups having had gastric injury induced by ethanol administration. Ethanol is what the researchers called an acute gastric mucosal injury model. Ethanol can act directly on the gastric mucosa, leading to erosion, bleeding, perforation, and other injuries.

Direct examination of the texture and integrity of the mucosal walls of the rats guts was one of the primary outcomes of the study. Other outcomes included measurement of antioxidant molecules in the serum, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPx-1).

The researchers found that the higher the molecular weight of the polysaccharide, the greater the effect in lessening the gastrointestinal injury caused by ethanol.

GLP100 has a greater improvement effect on acute gastric greater improvement effect on

injury than GLP10, and GLP10 has a better effect than GLP1, the researchers wrote.

There are still many contents that are worth further study. For instance, further separation and purification of GLPs are needed to determine efficacy. For instance, further separation and purification of GLPs are needed to determine efficacy. The synergistic effect of the components of each GLP fraction on gastrointestinal protection, and which proportion of GLP components are more effective when mixed in proportion are worthy of further study, so as to make the research results viable to application, the authors concluded.

Source: Nutrients2022, 14(7), 1476; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14071476Gastroprotective Effects of Ganoderma lucidum Polysaccharides with Different Molecular Weights on Ethanol-Induced Acute Gastric Injury in RatsAuthors: Tian B, et al.

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Study finds different gastroprotective potential for reishi components based on molecular weight - NutraIngredients-usa.com

Licorice root and black licorice candy. A licorice-derived substance may have anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects.

Licorice is more than a candy people either love or hate it may play a role in preventing or treating certain types of cancer, according to researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Gnanasekar Munirathinam and his research team are studying substances derived from the licorice plant Glycyrrhiza glabra to determine if they could be used to prevent or stop the growth of prostate cancer. Munirathinam is an associate professor in the department of biomedical sciences at the College of Medicine Rockford.

A research review into molecular insights of a licorice-derived substance called glycyrrhizin for preventing or treating cancer conducted by Dr. Munirathinam and student researchers suggests further research could lead to specific agents for clinical use.

The journal Pharmacological Research recently published the study titled Oncopreventive and oncotherapeutic potential of licorice triterpenoid compound glycyrrhizin and its derivatives: Molecular insights.

When we look at the research out there and our own data, it appears that glycyrrhizin and its derivative glycyrrhetinic acid have great potential as anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer agents, Munirathinam said. More research is needed into exactly how these could best be used to develop therapies, but this appears to be a promising area of cancer research.

Should everyone go out and eat a bunch of licorice? Probably not, because it may affect blood pressure, interact with certain medications, and cause serious adverse effects, including death, when used excessively. An occasional sweet treat of licorice candy or tea may be better options until more studies can show how to best harness the plants benefits.

Very few clinical trials in humans have been conducted, Munirathinam said. We hope our research on prostate cancer cells advances the science to the point where therapies can be translated to help prevent or even cure prostate and other types of cancer.

Reference: Oncopreventive and oncotherapeutic potential of licorice triterpenoid compound glycyrrhizin and its derivatives: Molecular insights by Rifika Jain, Mohamed Ali Hussein, Shannon Pierce, Chad Martens, Preksha Shahagadkar and Gnanasekar Munirathinam, 19 February 2022, Pharmacological Research.DOI: 10.1016/j.phrs.2022.106138

College of Medicine Rockford students Rifika Jain, Mohamed Ali Hussein, Preksha Shahagadkar, Shannon Pierce and Chad Martens are co-authors of the review, which was partly supported by the National Institutes of Health (R0CA227218) and Brovember Inc.

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Substance Derived From Licorice May Have Anti-Inflammatory and Anti-Cancer Effects - SciTechDaily