Biology & Medicine News and Discussions

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Bug-inspired coating could make for better bone and joint implants
By Michael Franco
May 09, 2023
https://newatlas.com/medical/bug-inspir ... -implants/

Inspired by the wings of dragonflies and cicadas, researchers have developed a new coating for orthopedic implants. It not only shreds harmful bacteria, but also monitors stress on the system, meaning it could warn of impending implant failure.

Biomimicry, the practice of creating man-made items based on observations of the natural world, has been a powerful driver of innovations in the medical community for years. We've seen a material that could make for better bone implants inspired by the different types of pores found in wood and animal horns; a cactus-inspired sensor that can collect sweat for analysis; and a coating for brain implants based on the leaves of the carnivorous pitcher plant.

Turning to nature once again for a coating solution, researchers at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UI) looked to the bacteria-fighting wings of dragonflies and cicadas to solve a persistent problem that arises from orthopedic implants: infection.

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Two-for-one treatment: Antidepressant agent found to also reduce stress
By Paul McClure
May 08, 2023
https://newatlas.com/science/antidepres ... s-as-well/

Stress and depression often go hand-in-hand. Now, novel research has shown that a known antidepressant agent, KNT-127, also reduces stress, providing insight into the physiological processes underpinning depression, and has potential for new treatments.

Psychological stress is a major driver of mental illness such as depression, a common condition that affects millions of people worldwide. But the association between psychological stress and depression is unclear.

Previous studies into the link between stress and mental health have used animal models to look at the effect of physical stress on depression, rather than analyzing psychological stress. A new study out of Japan has used a depression mouse model to focus only on animals repeatedly exposed to psychological stress.

For their study, researchers at the Tokyo University of Science tested the effectiveness of KNT-127, a delta opioid agonist, in treating depression in mice.

The opioid system, in addition to playing a central role in pain control, regulates the body’s stress response. Delta opioid receptors (DOPs) in the brain and nervous system have long been known to feature prominently in emotional processing. Genetic studies have shown that knocking out the DOP-encoding gene leads to higher anxiety-related responses and depression-like behaviors.

DOP agonists block the action of delta opioid receptors. Previous studies have demonstrated that KNT-127, a DOP agonist, is an effective antidepressant, producing fewer side effects than existing antidepressant drugs.

“We previously discovered that delta opioid receptor (DOP) agonists may [have a] quick action and have a low risk of side effects compared to existing drugs,” said Akiyoshi Saitoh, corresponding author of the study. “Thus, we have been working on their clinical development as a new treatment strategy for depression.”

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Making vaccines longer lasting: Findings could revolutionize how all vaccines could be made to last longer
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... onize.html
by Monash University

The SARS-Cov-2 pandemic illustrates how variable vaccines can be in their length of efficacy, with regular boosters needed to keep people protected. In comparison, the immunity generated by a single vaccination against the measles virus can last decades.

It has always remained a scientific mystery as to why only some vaccines lead to life-long protection. Now a paper published in the journal, Immunity, led by Prof. David Tarlinton and Dr. Marcus Robinson, both from Monash University's Central Clinical School in Melbourne, Australia, has found that the clue likely lies in the body producing a unique subtype of an immune cell in response to some but not other vaccinations. The finding could revolutionize how all vaccines could be made to be longer lasting.

Vaccines trick our immune cells into thinking the body has been infected. In response, we produce antibodies to fight off what is perceived as an infection. According to Dr. Robinson, "most vaccines work by generating high levels of antibodies against these invaders, but how long these antibodies persist in the body is highly variable by vaccine," he said. "Now we know that the clue is in whether vaccines generate a special subtype of immune cell that produces antibody for long times to fight off infection indefinitely."

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New breathalyzer for disease sniffs out COVID in real-time, could be used to detect cancer, lung disease
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-breathaly ... ancer.html
by Lisa Marshall, University of Colorado at Boulder

With each breath, humans exhale more than 1,000 distinct molecules, producing a unique chemical fingerprint or "breathprint" rich with clues about what's going on inside the body.

For decades, scientists have sought to harness that information, turning to dogs, rats and even bees to literally sniff out cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis and more.

Scientists from CU Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have made an important leap forward in the quest to diagnose disease using exhaled breath, reporting that a new laser-based breathalyzer powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can detect COVID-19 in real-time with excellent accuracy.

The results were published April 5 in the Journal of Breath Research.

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Skin patch could help ease peanut allergy in toddlers
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... lergy.html
by Amy Norton

A "peanut patch" worn on the skin may help protect toddlers who have potentially life-threatening peanut allergies, a new clinical trial shows.

The patch is a form of immunotherapy, which means it exposes peanut-allergic children to tiny bits of peanut protein over time—with the goal of training the immune system to better tolerate it.

In the trial, researchers found that of toddlers who wore the peanut patch every day for a year, two-thirds showed a significant reduction in their sensitivity to peanut protein: They were able to eat the equivalent of one to four peanuts without suffering an allergic reaction.

While that might sound like peanuts, experts said that level of tolerance is important.

The goal of immunotherapy is to prevent a severe reaction should a child accidentally ingest a small amount of peanut, said Dr. Alkis Togias, of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

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Researchers find compound that combats multidrug-resistant bacteria in less than one hour
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-compound- ... -hour.html
by Ricardo Muniz, FAPESP

Resistance to antibiotics is a problem that alarms the medical and scientific community. Bacteria resistant to three different classes of antibiotics, known as multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria, are far from rare. Some are even resistant to all currently available treatments and are known as pan-drug resistant (PDR). They are associated with dangerous infections and listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as priority pathogens for drug development with maximum urgency.

An article published in a special issue of the journal Antibiotics highlights a compound with antibacterial activity that presented promising results within one hour in laboratory trials.

The study was led by Ilana Camargo, last author of the article, and conducted during the doctoral research of first author Gabriela Righetto at the Molecular Epidemiology and Microbiology Laboratory (LEMiMo) of the University of São Paulo's São Carlos Institute of Physics (IFSC-USP) in Brazil.

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Novel antibiotic succeeds in trial against hospital-acquired pneumonia
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... monia.html
by Rutgers University-New Brunswick

A Rutgers researcher leading a trial found that the novel combination antibiotic sulbactam-durlobactam combats dangerous pneumonia at least as well as the best currently approved treatment.

The findings have led a unanimous expert committee to recommend that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approve the new drug, which could be available this summer to combat the often-fatal pneumonia strain known as carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii–calcoaceticus complex (ABC), typically acquired in hospitals.

"Antibiotic-resistant infections are a serious and persistent problem at healthcare facilities, and the [Centers for Disease Control] ranks ABC at the highest level on its threat list," said Keith Kaye, chief of the Division of Allergy, Immunology and Infectious Disease at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and first author of the trial report in The Lancet Infectious Diseases. "An estimated 8,500 hospital-acquired cases killed 700 patients and cost $280 million in 2019, so we greatly needed a breakthrough treatment like sulbactam-durlobactam."

The trial gave imipenem–cilastatin to 181 patients with laboratory-confirmed ABC and then randomized them to additional treatment with either sulbactam–durlobactam or the best existing treatment, an antibiotic called colistin. Mortality due to multiple causes after 28 days was 12 of 63 (19 percent) in the sulbactam–durlobactam group and 20 of 62 (32 percent) in the colistin group.

The trial was large enough to prove that sulbactam-durlobactam prevents at least as many fatalities as colistin but not large enough to prove its superiority in this trial will persist in real-world use, though it may.

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Scientists use AI to find promising new antibiotic to fight evasive hospital superbug
https://phys.org/news/2023-05-scientist ... pital.html
by McMaster University

Scientists at McMaster University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used artificial intelligence to discover a new antibiotic that could be used to fight a deadly, drug-resistant pathogen that strikes vulnerable hospital patients.

The process they used could also speed the discovery of other antibiotics to treat many other challenging bacteria.

The researchers were responding to the urgent need for new drugs to treat Acinetobacter baumannii, identified by the World Health Organization as one of the world's most dangerous antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Notoriously difficult to eradicate, A. baumannii can cause pneumonia, meningitis and infect wounds, all of which can lead to death.

A. baumanni is usually found in hospital settings, where it can survive on surfaces for long periods. The pathogen is able to pick up DNA from other species of bacteria in its environment, including antibiotic-resistance genes.

In the study, published today in the journal Nature Chemical Biology, researchers report they used an artificial intelligence algorithm to predict new structural classes of antibacterial molecules, and identified a new antibacterial compound, which they have named abaucin.

Discovering new antibiotics against A. baumannii through conventional screening has been challenging. Traditional methods are time-consuming, costly, and limited in scope.

Modern algorithmic approaches can access hundreds of millions, possibly billions, of molecules with antibacterial properties.

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Beating seizures by jamming the cellular circuitry
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-05- ... uitry.html
by Levi Gadye, University of California, San Francisco

Research at UC San Francisco has shown for the first time how the commonly prescribed seizure and pain medication, gabapentin, acts inside of cells, opening the door to new, more effective treatments for diseases like epilepsy and lupus.

The twin papers, published in Nature on May 17 and Nature Structural & Molecular Biology on March 27, show how gabapentin interacts with ion channels called voltage-gated calcium channels, which are critical to the function of numerous organs, from the heart to the brain to the gut.

"Gabapentin is a very important, widely used drug, but it has many side effects, including dizziness and nausea, and we don't understand how it works," said Daniel Minor, Ph.D., a biophysics professor in the UCSF Cardiovascular Research Institute and the senior author of both papers. "We have shown how gabapentin binds to calcium channels, giving the field the opportunity to design a new generation of therapies."

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More than 1 million dropped from Medicaid as states start post-pandemic purge of rolls
Source: ABC News/AP

More than 1 million people have been dropped from Medicaid in the past couple months as some states moved swiftly to halt health care coverage following the end of the coronavirus pandemic. Most got dropped for not filling out paperwork.

Though the eligibility review is required by the federal government, President’s Joe Biden’s administration isn’t too pleased at how efficiently some other states are accomplishing the task. “Pushing through things and rushing it will lead to eligible people — kids and families — losing coverage for some period of time,” Daniel Tsai, a top federal Medicaid official recently told reporters.

Already, about 1.5 million people have been removed from Medicaid in more than two dozen states that started the process in April or May, according to publicly available reports and data obtained by The Associated Press.

Florida has dropped several hundred thousand people, by far the most among states. The drop rate also has been particularly high in other states. For people whose cases were decided in May, around half or more got dropped in Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Utah and West Virginia. By its own count, Arkansas has dropped more than 140,000 people from Medicaid.

Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory ... -100186720

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Study reports drug that significantly reduces bacteria's ability to develop antibiotic resistance
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06- ... iotic.html
by Baylor College of Medicine

A team of researchers at Baylor College of Medicine is gaining ground in their search for solutions to the global problem of bacterial antibiotic resistance, which was responsible for nearly 1.3 million deaths in 2019.

The team reports in the journal Science Advances a drug that, in laboratory cultures and animal models, significantly reduces the ability of bacteria to develop antibiotic resistance, which might prolong antibiotic effectiveness. The drug, called dequalinium chloride (DEQ), is a proof-of-concept for evolution-slowing drugs.

"Most people with bacterial infections get better after completing antibiotic treatment, but there are also many cases in which people decline because the bacteria develop resistance to the antibiotic, which then can no longer kill the bacteria," said corresponding author Dr. Susan M. Rosenberg, Ben F. Love Chair in Cancer Research and professor of molecular and human genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology and molecular virology and microbiology at Baylor. She also is a program leader in Baylor's Dan L Duncan Comprehensive Cancer Center (DLDCCC).

In this study, Rosenberg and her colleagues looked for drugs that could prevent or slow down E. coli bacteria from developing resistance to two antibiotics when exposed to a third antibiotic, ciprofloxacin (cipro), the second most prescribed antibiotic in the U.S. and one associated with high bacterial resistance rates.

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Crocodiles are protected against fungal infections

Over the millions of years crocodiles and their relatives have roamed our planet, they have evolved robust immune systems to help combat the potentially harmful microbes in the swamps and waterways they call home.

Our study, recently published in Nature Communications, takes a closer look at antimicrobial proteins called defensins, found in saltwater crocodiles. These proteins play a key role in the reptiles’ first line of defence against infectious disease.

As the threat of antibiotic-resistant microbes grows, so does our need for new and effective treatments. Could the defensins of these beasts hold the answers to help create a new wave of life-saving therapeutics?

Defensins are small proteins produced by all plants and animals. In plants, defensins are usually made in the flowers and leaves, whereas animal defensins are made by white blood cells and in mucous membranes (for example in the lungs and intestines). Their role is to protect the host by killing infectious organisms.

Research into the defensins of different plant and animal species has found they can target a broad range of disease-causing pathogens. These include bacteria, fungi, viruses and even cancer cells.

https://www.latrobe.edu.au/news/article ... infections

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Scientists Just Developed Artificial Cells That Evolve Faster Than Natural Ones
by Miriam Fauzia
July 5, 2023

Introduction:

(Inverse) The Book of Life — a.k.a. the genome — is pretty darn long. Whether we’re talking about bacteria like Escherichia coli with 4.6 million base pairs or the Australian lungfish punching in at a cool 43 billion base pairs (14 times larger than the human genome), the number of genetic instructions determines the characteristics and function of a living organism.

But do genomes have to be so long? Nature is known to program redundancy to help an organism cope with environmental stress or to offset harmful mutations. What if you stripped down a genome to its barest essential genes — what would happen? Turns out, life would still find a way to survive and thrive, even evolve despite being dealt less than a full hand of genetic cards.

In a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature, an Indiana University and J. Craig Venter Institute-led team created a “minimal cell” from a bacterium called Mycoplasma mycoides, containing only about 493 genes, the smallest genome of any known free-living organism. These minimal cells were able to evolve and grow in number, regaining genetic fitness lost when downsizing their genomes.

“It appears there’s something about life that’s really robust,” Jay T. Lennon, the paper’s senior author and a professor of biology at Indiana University Bloomington, said in a press release. “We can simplify it down to just the bare essentials, but that doesn’t stop evolution from going to work.”

Mycoplasma mycoides is a bacterium behind contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, or “lung sickness,” that lives in the guts of ruminants like cows and goats. In 2016, J. Craig Venter Institute researchers pared down M. mycoides’s genome from 901 genes to 493 genes, creating a new synthetic strain of the bacterium dubbed JCVI-syn3B.

Read more of the Inverse article here: https://www.inverse.com/science/cells- ... -evolvve

For the rather technical presentation of study results as published in Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-023-06288-x

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US maternal deaths more than doubled over two decades, study estimates

The number of people in the US dying of pregnancy-related causes more than doubled over two decades, with Black, Native American, and Alaska Native people facing the highest risks, according to a new study in JAMA.

The US has the highest rate of maternal deaths compared to other high-income countries, despite spending far more on health care—both on a per-person and share of gross domestic product basis. And, while US maternal deaths have long been high, they've only gotten higher while other high-income countries have seen declines.

Still, digging into US maternal mortality data to understand the trend is difficult. States define maternal deaths differently, some have been slow to add a standard pregnancy-related question on death certificates, and some delay the release of their data.

In the new JAMA study, researchers tried to make up for those differences by modeling state-level trends in maternal mortality using national data, looking specifically at death rates by race and ethnicity for each year between 1999 and 2019. The research was led by Gregory Roth at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/07/ ... estimates/

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A breakthrough on treating PTSD

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... al-health/

All around the conference room in Atlanta last fall, jaws were dropping. Michael Roy, a physician from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, had just revealed to the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies the preliminary results of a study comparing two treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder: Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy, long regarded as the “gold standard,” and a novel approach called Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories or RTM.

In such a study, effectiveness is indicated by a complete remission of symptoms, a loss of diagnosis. Roy’s trial was ongoing and still double-blinded, so he could report only the outcomes of the two treatments combined. But the success rate was a stunning 60 percent. Every expert present knew that PE’s known remission rate hovers at 30 to 40 percent, so the 60 percent combined figure could only mean only one thing: The new RTM treatment was tracking dramatically higher.

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FDA has approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill,

WASHINGTON (AP) — FDA has approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill, a long-awaited milestone that will expand access for U.S. women and girls.

The US Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the birth control pill Opill to be available over-the-counter — the first nonprescription birth control pill in the United States.

“Today’s approval marks the first time a nonprescription daily oral contraceptive will be an available option for millions of people in the United States,” said Dr. Patrizia Cavazzoni, the director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a statement. “When used as directed, daily oral contraception is safe and is expected to be more effective than currently available nonprescription contraceptive methods in preventing unintended pregnancy.”

Opill is a “mini-pill” that uses only the hormone progestin.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/13/health/f ... the%20Unit

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New target for antibiotics promises treatment for multi-drug resistant superbugs
https://phys.org/news/2023-07-antibioti ... rbugs.html
by University of Groningen

The World Health Organization lists bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics as one of the top 10 global health threats. Therefore, researchers are looking for new antibiotics to counter this resistance. Adéla Melcrová, biophysicist at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands), and her colleagues have discovered that the relatively new antibiotic AMC-109 affects the cell membrane of bacteria by disordering its organization. This differs from most other antibiotics and could open up new directions for future treatment and drug development. The team's results were published in Nature Communications on 7 July.

AMC-109, developed at the UiT Arctic University of Norway, has shown promising results in the lab as well as in clinical trials against the notoriously difficult-to-treat methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). It will be tested on humans soon (phase 3 of clinical trials). However, it was not known exactly how AMC-109 works on bacteria.

"I found it surprising that no one knew exactly how it worked," says Melcrová. "So, I decided to have a look at it."