The ABYSS trial found that interruption of beta-blocker therapy in patients after myocardial infarction (MI) was not noninferior to continuing the drugs. I will argue why I think it is okay to stop beta-blockers after MI — despite this conclusion. The results of ABYSS are, in fact, similar to REDUCE-AMI, which compared beta-blocker use or nonuse immediately after MI, and found no...
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Why a Diabetes Drug Fell Short of Anticancer Hopes
Pamela Goodwin has received hundreds of emails from patients asking if they should take a cheap, readily available drug, metformin, to treat their cancer. It’s a fair question: Metformin, commonly used to treat diabetes, has been investigated for treating a range of cancer types in thousands of studies on laboratory cells, animals, and people. But Goodwin, an epidemiologist...
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Heart diseases raise dementia risk: Could a common blood thinner lower it?
Heart problems can increase dementia risk, but a new study suggests that heparin, a common anticoagulant administered via injection, may help delay Alzheimer’s onset. Image credit: wang mengmeng/Getty Images. A new expert report, published in the journal Stroke, reviews the latest research and explains that three common cardiovascular diseases in adults — heart failure, atrial fibrillation (AFib), and coronary...
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Human skin map gives ‘recipe’ to build skin and could help prevent scarring
Cell segmentation stain of human skin. Using the xenium cell segmentation antibody panel. Pink = cell membrane. Blue = nuclei. Yellow/Green = internal cell stain. Credit: Wellcome Sanger Institute For the first time, researchers have created a single cell atlas of prenatal human skin to understand how skin forms, and what goes wrong in disease....
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‘Two for the price of one’—scientists discover new process to drive anti-viral immunity
Artistic depiction of the discovery. Credit: Prof. Luke O’Neill’s lab, Trinity College Dublin. Scientists at Trinity College Dublin have discovered a new process in our immune systems that leads to the production of an important family of anti-viral proteins called interferons. They hope the discovery will now lead to new, effective therapies for people with...
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Research shows that few with abnormal protein dipstick results have albuminuria testing
October 1, 2024 by Elana Gotkine Few patients with abnormal protein dipstick results have follow-up albuminuria quantification, according to a research letter published online Oct. 1 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Noting that guidelines recommend follow-up albumin-creatinine ratio (ACR) testing if the protein dipstick test result is abnormal, Yunwen Xu, Ph.D., from the Johns...
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Semaglutide a Potential Treatment Option for Opioid Use Disorder?
Medscape Medical News Eve Bender September 27, 2024 Semaglutide (Ozempic, Novo Nordisk) is associated with a significantly lower risk for overdose in individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD), new research shows. The findings suggest that the drug may be a promising treatment option for OUD, adding to the growing evidence of the potential psychiatric benefits...
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Distant relatedness in biobanks harnessed to identify undiagnosed genetic disease
September 28, 2024 by Leigh MacMillan, Vanderbilt University Medical Center This tool identifies groups of people who share an IBD segment spanning a specific genomic region (in this study, the gene KCNE1). A DRIVE first selects the pairwise IBD segments spanning the target gene/variant among clinic samples and biobank subjects. B DRIVE uses a random...
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Hydrogel with ultrasound activation enables sustained drug release
September 28, 2024 by University of Michigan Researchers at Michigan Medicine have developed a composite hydrogel capable of achieving sustained, steady drug release using ultrasound as a trigger. The team behind the breakthrough believes it could revolutionize drug delivery for various medical applications, in which constant drug levels are crucial for optimal therapeutic outcomes. The...
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Cellular power-up: Stem cells provide T cells a lifeline as cancer champions
October 1, 2024 by University of Los Andes Experimental workflow of MitoT to native and CAR engineered T cells. Credit: Journal of Translational Medicine (2024). DOI: 10.1186/s12967-024-05627-4In a pioneering study that bridges the gap between science fiction and reality, researchers have unveiled an innovative method to enhance T and CAR-T cells—our body’s natural and engineered...