Year: 2023

Categories : Metabolic DisordersTags :

Public Urged To Use Registered Ozempic Products

On By ModernMedia
Photos supplied by Novo Nordisk

The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) is aware of the falsified Ozempic products currently being sold on the market and online.

SAHPRA has been informed of advertisements regarding unauthorised Ozempic/semaglutide-containing products that are being disseminated through radio stations and social media platforms.

The Regulator is warning the public to be wary of products claiming to be Ozempic (semaglutide) which are not approved by SAHPRA.  

Ozempic is a Schedule 4, prescription-only medicine, authorised by SAHPRA only for the treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus in adults. SAHPRA has not authorised/registered Ozempic for weight-loss, therefore, use in that regard would be off-label. It must be noted that only a healthcare practitioner can make a Schedule 4 product available off-label as they would provide the requisite guidance and support to the patient/individual.

Novo Nordisk South Africa, who is the Holder of Certificate of Registration (HCR) has confirmed a national shortage of Ozempic stock; this resulted in limited access to treatment for diabetic patients. This may have created an opportunity for falsified/counterfeit products flooding the market claiming to be Ozempic and being used off-label for weight loss. Consumers should be wary of online offers for products claiming to be Ozempic or semaglutide.

Currently, there are no generic versions of this medicine being lawfully manufactured. Therefore, any product not manufactured by Novo Nordisk claiming to contain semaglutide is likely to be fake or counterfeit. The public is being exposed to many different types of unregistered/unauthorised products that are either substandard or falsified thereby putting their health at risk. See examples of registered vs counterfeit products.

Registered products safe to use
Ozempic solution for injection is a registered product by SAHPRA belonging to the HCR, Novo Nordisk South Africa.

There are only two (2) registered presentations of the pre-filled pen for Ozempic available in South Africa namely, Ozempic 0,25 mg and 0,5 mg/dose pen and Ozempic 1 mg/dose pen.

What the public should know

  • Using unregistered semaglutide products claiming to have the effects of Ozempic bought from unverified/illegally trading suppliers could be detrimental to your health as these have not been evaluated by SAHPRA for safety, quality, and efficacy.
  • These falsified/fake Ozempic products may contain certain active ingredients found in the registered Ozempic products; however, the formulations or manufacturing processes may be different. These formulations have not been evaluated by SAHPRA.
  • SAHPRA urges the public to first consult their medical professionals for their health treatment and prescriptions, and only purchase or use SAHPRA registered/authorised products sold at registered pharmacies.
  • Any medicines that are bought outside of the legal supply chain:
    • May not contain any active ingredient.
    • May contain dangerous levels of the active ingredient.
    • May contain another active ingredient such as insulin instead of semaglutide.
    • May contain harmful inactive ingredients.
    • May be nonsterile and contaminated with microbes, therefore not suitable for injection.

“Protecting the health of South Africans is top of mind for the regulator. The scourge of unregistered, substandard, and falsified medicines on the market is a serious health risk for the public. SAHPRA is listening to the public concerns, and we have an ongoing investigation into these falsified Ozempic and unregistered semaglutide-containing products”, indicates SAHPRA CEO, Dr Boitumelo Semete-Makokotlela.

Public are urged to report any suspected products that are falsely claiming to work like Ozempic. You can report through these whistle blower platforms, SAHPRA’s 24-hour hotline (0800 204 307) or via our web reporting facility: .

Categories : Pain ManagementTags :

Patients Are Now Getting Fewer Post-op Opioids, but Decline is Slowing

On By ModernMedia
Photo by cottonbro studio

Post-surgery pain relief has shifted away from opioid-containing medications over the past seven years, but the downward trend has slowed since 2020, a new University of Michigan study shows.

Overall, the rate of surgery-related opioid prescriptions dropped by 36% from 2016 to the end of 2022, and the average amount of opioids in those prescriptions dropped by 46%, the study of pharmacy data finds.

That combination of declines means that the total amount of opioids dispensed to surgical patients in late 2022 was 66% lower compared with early 2016, according to the findings published in JAMA Network Open.

But the rate of decline was much faster before the pandemic, the researchers report after comparing surgical opioid patterns before and after 2020.

That’s even after they took into account the unusual circumstances of spring 2020, when most elective surgery temporarily stopped to free up hospital capacity for COVID-19 patients and reduce unnecessary exposure to the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Even with the overall declines, American surgery patients in late 2022 still received the equivalent of 44 5-milligram pills of hydrocodone from pharmacies after their operations on average.

That’s far higher than what patients need for most procedures.

“These data suggest surgical teams have substantially reduced opioid prescribing, but also suggest that efforts to right-size opioid prescriptions after surgery must continue,” said Kao-Ping Chua, M.D., Ph.D., the senior author of the new study and an assistant professor of pediatrics at U-M. He worked with first author and former U-M research assistant Jason Zhang, who is now in medical school at Northwestern University.

The researchers also find that some types of surgeons have reduced the amount of opioids dispensed to patients more than others.

For instance, reductions were particularly large in cardiothoracic surgery and ophthalmology.

Orthopedic surgeons still account for more than half of all surgical opioids dispensed to American patients, even as the rate and size of prescriptions filled by their patients dropped.

Right-sizing prescribing

The authors note that surgeons should not strive to eliminate opioid prescribing altogether.

“The goal should be to ensure that opioids are only prescribed when necessary, and that the amount of opioids prescribed matches the amount that patients need,” said Zhang.

“Achieving these goals could help reduce the risk of opioid misuse, persistent opioid use, and diversion of pills to other people besides the patient.”

The potential for accidental exposure to opioids by others in the household, and interactions between opioids and other substances including alcohol and prescription drugs, are other reasons to focus on non-opioid surgical pain care.

Chua and colleagues have studied procedure-related opioid prescribing multiple times, including a recent study showing that the reduction in the rate of dental opioid prescribing has similarly slowed in recent years.

Surgical organisations and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised surgeons to rely less on opioid-based acute pain relief for their patients since the mid-2010s.

But no studies have examined surgical opioid prescribing trends using pandemic-era data.

The new study is based on data from a company called IQVIA that tracks prescriptions dispensed at 92% of US pharmacies.

Source: Michigan Medicine – University of Michigan

Categories : Metabolic DisordersTags :

Scientists Identify New Cause of Diabetes – and Potential Treatment Target

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Photomix Company on Pexels

Researchers have identified an enzyme that blocks insulin produced in the body – a discovery that could provide a new target to treat diabetes. Their study, published the journal Cell, focuses on nitric oxide, which dilates blood vessels, improves memory, fights infection and stimulates the release of hormones, among other functions.

How nitric oxide performs these activities had long been a mystery.

The researchers at Case Western Reserve University and University Hospitals discovered a novel “carrier” enzyme (called SNO-CoA-assisted nitrosylase, or SCAN) that attaches nitric oxide to proteins, including the receptor for insulin action.

They found that the SCAN enzyme was essential for normal insulin action, but also discovered heightened SCAN activity in diabetic patients and mice with diabetes.

Mouse models without the SCAN enzyme appeared to be shielded from diabetes, suggesting that too much nitric oxide on proteins may be a cause of such diseases.

“We show that blocking this enzyme protects from diabetes, but the implications extend to many diseases likely caused by novel enzymes that add nitric oxide,” said the study’s lead researcher Jonathan Stamler, professor at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine.

“Blocking this enzyme may offer a new treatment.”

Given the discovery, next steps could be to develop medications against the enzyme, he said.

Many human diseases, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, heart failure and diabetes, are thought to be caused or accelerated by nitric oxide binding excessively to key proteins.

With this discovery, Stamler said, enzymes that attach the nitric oxide become a focus.

With diabetes, the body often stops responding normally to insulin.

The resulting increased blood sugar stays in the bloodstream and, over time, can cause serious health problems.

Individuals with diabetes, the Centers for Disease Control reports, are more likely to suffer such conditions as heart disease, vision loss and kidney disease.

But the reason that insulin stops working isn’t well understood.

Excessive nitric oxide has been implicated in many diseases, but the ability to treat has been limited because the molecule is reactive and can’t be targeted specifically, Stamler said.

“This paper shows that dedicated enzymes mediate the many effects of nitric oxide,” he said. “Here, we discover an enzyme that puts nitric oxide on the insulin receptor to control insulin. Too much enzyme activity causes diabetes. But a case is made for many enzymes putting nitric oxide on many proteins, and, thus, new treatments for many diseases.”

Source: Case Western Reserve University

Categories : Respiratory DiseasesTags :

Biologics Alone may be Able to Control Severe Asthma

On By ModernMedia
Credit: Pixabay CC0

A European study showed that 92% of patients using the biologic therapy benralizumab could safely reduce inhaled steroid dose and more than 60% could cease entirely. The results, published in The Lancet, could be transformative for severe asthma patients by minimising or eliminating the unpleasant, and often serious, side effects of inhaled steroids.

These include osteoporosis which leads to increased risk of fractures, diabetes and cataracts.

Around 3 to 5% of the 300 million people with asthma worldwide have severe asthma. This leads to daily symptoms of breathlessness, chest tightness and cough, along with repeated asthma attacks which require frequent hospitalisation.

The SHAMAL study was led by Professor David Jackson, head of the Severe Asthma Centre at Guy’s and St Thomas’ and Professor of Respiratory Medicine at King’s College London.

Professor Jackson said: “Biological therapies such as benralizumab have revolutionised severe asthma care in many ways, and the results of this study show for the first time that steroid related harm can be avoided for the majority of patients using this therapy.”

The monoclonal antibody benralizumab targets interleukin-5, reducing eosinophil count, which is elevated in the airway of patients with severe asthma and is critically involved in the development of asthma attacks.

Benralizumab is injected every four to eight weeks.

The SHAMAL study took place across 22 sites in the UK, France, Italy and Germany.

The 208 patients were randomly assigned to taper their high dose inhaled steroid by varying amounts over 32 weeks, followed by a 16 week maintenance period.

Approximately 90% of patients experienced no worsening of asthma symptoms and remained free of any exacerbations throughout the 48 week study.

Similar studies to SHAMAL will be necessary before firm recommendations can be made regarding the safety and efficacy of reducing or eliminating high dose steroid use with other biologic therapies.

Source: King’s College London

Categories : Neurodegenerative Diseases New Compounds and TreatmentsTags :

New Drug with a Different Approach Holds Promise as a Treatment for Multiple Sclerosis

On By ModernMedia
This is a pseudo-colored image of high-resolution gradient-echo MRI scan of a fixed cerebral hemisphere from a person with multiple sclerosis. Credit: Govind Bhagavatheeshwaran, Daniel Reich, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health

Researchers have found in pre-clinical studies of a small molecule drug that it has promise as a potential new treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS). The results from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health-led study have been published in the journal Science Advances.

Expanding on Dr Fang Liu’s earlier work that identified a novel drug target for the treatment of MS, she and her team have now created a small molecule compound that is effective in two different animal models of MS. This represents a key advancement that brings this MS research closer to the clinic to impact patient care.

MS is a progressive neurological disease that currently has no cure.

It is associated with a wide-range of debilitating symptoms, including problems with coordination, cognition, muscle weakness and depression. For unknown reasons, it is more common in northern latitudes and more than twice as common in women.

It is known that MS damages myelin, a protective sheath that forms around nerves in the brain and spinal cord. As the myelin damage is triggered by inflammation in the immune system, up until now all current drug treatments for MS target the immune system.

In this study, CAMH Senior Scientist Dr Fang Liu and her team treated MS in a completely different way – targeting the glutamate system. Study results showed that the newly synthesised lead compound not only reduced MS-like symptoms, it also may repair the damaged myelin in two different pre-clinical models of MS.

“Our compound had a stunning effect on rescuing myelin and motor function in the lab models, and I hope these effects will translate to the clinic to add to current treatments and bring new hope to patients with MS,” said Dr Liu.

“As with cancer chemotherapy drug cocktails, simultaneous targeting of the MS disease pathway at multiple points can have synergistic effects and result in better outcomes.”

Dr Iain Greig, Reader in Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Aberdeen, alongside his team, are working to turn the molecules identified by Dr Liu into advanced “drug-like” molecules suitable for continued development towards clinical use in patients.

He added: “In all my years as a medicinal chemist, I have never seen a more promising starting point for a drug development project. It has been a huge pleasure to be involved in this program and I am looking forward to continuing to drive it towards to the clinic.”

Much of the funding for this novel treatment for MS, which Dr. Fang and her team have been investigating for over a decade, has come from the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society USA’s Fast Forward commercial research program.

“We are pleased to have helped enable the early development of a novel neuroprotective strategy for MS, and look forward to seeing it progress through the critical next stages needed to determine its potential benefits for people living with MS,” said Walt Kostich, PhD, head of the National MS Society (USA)’s Fast Forward commercial research programme.

Dr. Liu believes that the evidence of efficacy and tolerability generated in this study for the small molecule drug makes it a good candidate to be developed for human trials. The next steps in drug development will involve some further pre-clinical research, including investigating safety and stability of the compound. CAMH and the University of Aberdeen have already filed patent applications to protect this research and are actively seeking industry partners to further advance this work towards clinical trials over the next few years.

Source: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

Categories : Healthcare Politics and Regulations Medical IndustryTags :

The EU Protects its Companies from Big Pharma. South Africa Needs to do the Same

On By ModernMedia
Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

By Fatima Hassan

Critical work done by South African scientists on mRNA vaccines for several diseases is at risk from patent claims from the pharmaceutical giant Moderna. Yet the government could easily protect this and other programmes by speeding up the passage of amendments to patent laws.

Every year, industry’s biggest players spend a combined US$4-billion on legal action. Even then, there was an audible gasp from the world’s media when Moderna, which developed a Covid vaccine with the US government, announced it was suing rivals Pfizer and BioNTech for “patent infringement”.

All three companies have made a fortune from selling Covid vaccines, and are now at war over the rights to the publicly-funded mRNA technology behind it.

After a year of suing and counter-suing in multiple jurisdictions, the European Patent Office stepped in two weeks ago and revoked one of Moderna’s patents covering “respiratory virus vaccines”. In doing so, the European Patent Office was seemingly defending BioNTech, a German company, from a ‘’threat’’.

This is not unusual. In most countries, governments can intervene to protect companies viewed as important to their national interest and can review, revoke, or withdraw patents. Most countries, but not South Africa.

Under Nelson Mandela, South Africa fought Big Pharma to secure affordable generic HIV medicines, and in the pandemic, the government made a valiant attempt to do the same for Covid vaccines by seeking a global waiver of intellectual property rules. But arcane apartheid-era laws still accept patent requests from companies – without substantive examination of the merits of the patent application and without the due process right to challenge it before it is granted. And, once a patent is granted, patient advocacy groups cannot easily revoke it.

There is legislation drafted which could give us the ability to challenge patents before they are granted, among other much needed mechanisms such as compulsory and government-use licensing.

In 2018, Cabinet approved a new Intellectual Property Framework which would give us this most basic right. It is compliant with international trade rules and should not be controversial. But, despite the fact the government has said it wants this legislation, has drafted it, and has even trained examiners on it, the law has sat languishing on the desk of the Minister of Trade, Industry and Competition Ebrahim Patel for several years. This has enabled Moderna to be granted far-reaching mRNA related patents in South Africa.

These patents put our widely-acclaimed mRNA vaccine manufacturing project, backed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and others, at risk.

While the world quickly developed effective vaccines to combat Covid, intellectual property rules prevented us from making shots for ourselves. Western governments blocked our government’s efforts to suspend these global rules, leaving South Africa to wait at the back of the global queue, eventually paying unreasonably high prices for vaccines. Then at the height of our third wave of Covid infections, Johnson & Johnson exported vaccines which had been completed at a factory in the Eastern Cape to Europe, prioritising European customers over South Africa and the continent.

It was a dark time for South Africa. But amid the devastation, some hope came in the form of a small biotech company in Cape Town, Afrigen, when the WHO announced it would be at the centre of a new Global South programme to deliver vaccines.

Sharing technology

Moderna, Pfizer, and BioNTech have all refused to share their technology with the programme. But scientists from Afrigen and universities in South Africa as well as the South African Medical Research Council developed an mRNA vaccine of their own, using the publicly available information from the vaccine which Moderna developed with the US government. They have now begun sharing the technology with partners across the Global South – and are exploring vaccines for diseases such as TB too.

In a future pandemic, the programme could be used to rapidly share vaccine technology between low and middle-income countries, so that we don’t repeat the global inequality of the Covid vaccine rollout.

Except that Moderna filed far-reaching patents in South Africa which could be interpreted as covering any mRNA technology. And, under our faulty, unchanged intellectual property regulation system, the patents were granted.

Dozens of health and legal organisations have warned that the mRNA programme is vulnerable to patent claims from Moderna. While the company has given assurances that it will not enforce patents on its Covid vaccine in some lower-income countries, including South Africa, the work of the programme on other diseases remains under threat.

The Medicines Patent Pool, which is implementing the project for the WHO, wants each programme partner (in the Global South) to resolve the issue of patents itself. But, by suing Pfizer and BioNTech, Moderna has signalled that it wants a total monopoly on mRNA technology. What, then, is Plan B if Moderna turns on the WHO-backed programme next?

When earlier this year, the Health Justice Initiative took legal action to force the Department of Health to disclose secret contracts with Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers, we won – and the documents revealed that vaccine procurement negotiations were one-sided, with pharmaceutical companies pressuring our government into unfair prices, terms and conditions.

Back to court

Now we are once again preparing to take the government to court to pass key provisions of the Patent Amendment Act. At the very least, we need proper patent examination, ways to oppose patents before and after they have been granted, and easy-to-use compulsory and government-use procedures in place. And we need this quickly.

We have seen how big pharmaceutical companies including Johnson & Johnson use our patent provisions to evergreen patents and then charge the state and sick patients more than they should by holding on to their patent monopolies.

We want to ensure that:

  • monopolies are not granted without examining their merits;
  • the public can exercise its right to oppose a patent before it is granted; and
  • the government can override patents and allow generic production where needed, as do the governments of many other countries.

It is our right in a constitutional democracy.

Hassan is founder and director of the Health Justice Initiative.

Views expressed are not necessarily those of GroundUp.

Republished from GroundUp under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Source: GroundUp

Categories : General Interest HIVTags :

Interview: “I Used That Anger to Feed My Activist’s Soul,” Says Former TAC General Secretary

On By ModernMedia
Dr Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola, the former General Secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign, reflects on her journey and new role at the Global Fund. PHOTO: Joyrene Kramer

By Biénne Huisman for Spotlight

Dressed in a dark jacket, rain is pelting Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola’s face as she rushes past bare trees in Geneva, Switzerland. Along with her two children, Dubula-Majola has newly moved into a house in nearby Genthod, from where she commutes to work by train.

In October, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis [TB] and Malaria, appointed Dubula-Majola as head of their community, rights and gender department. The Global Fund has allocated tens of billions of dollars around the world to fight HIV since its inception in 2002.

Five weeks into the job, Dubula-Majola tells Spotlight that a big challenge for her will be to hone a new tool – that of diplomacy.

Laughing, the former General Secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) says that in the past, diplomacy has not been her greatest strength.

“In this new job, I am required to be diplomatic,” she says. “Basically, diplomacy is being nice in the face of atrocities, and I am not that person. So it will be a huge challenge for me, it’s going to take a shift. I will have to keep asking myself, ‘what value I can add in this position?’ While developing new tools and new ways of fighting, without being the noisy person in the room.”

The power of collective action

Known for not mincing her words, the activist-scholar is talking to Spotlight over Zoom while walking to the Global Fund’s offices in central Geneva. She adds: “Activists don’t like bureaucracies by nature, but you have a voice here. You have political currency to shift things. It’s a tough one, but I’m there.”

In a 2014 TedX talk hosted in London, an inflamed Dubula-Majola told the audience that she is angry – angry with her father, angry with her government, angry at everyone. But that she was using her anger to fuel her work.

Vuyiseka Dubula-Majola was recently appointed at head of the Global Fund’s community, rights and gender department. PHOTO: Supplied

While she is in Switzerland, Dubula-Majola’s heart still brims with African proverbs, such as: “When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion.” She has experienced the power of such collective action first-hand at the TAC, but now she’ll be applying it on a different stage. Indeed, her new job is “to ensure that the Global Fund strongly engages civil society and promotes human rights and gender equality”, with a particular focus on supporting community led organisations.

As a role model for her new diplomatic duties, Dubula-Majola cites American public health official Loyce Pace. “Loyce Pace who runs the health program in the United States government, she is very effective in what she does while hardly saying anything in public. But she is shifting norms – bringing priority to black and poor people. She uses her allies and many other people similar to her to say things louder than she could…I guess this is another step of growth in my activist journey – to still be as effective, as radical, the very same eagerness and passion, but silently.”

‘There was no time to dream’

Dubla-Majola grew up in a village near Dutywa in the Eastern Cape. Aged 22 in Cape Town in 2001, she spiralled with depression after being diagnosed with HIV. But instead of resigning herself to what was then still a death sentence for most people, she joined the TAC – working night shifts at the McDonalds drive-through in Green Point, while by day she joined the fight to bring antiretrovirals and other medicines to South Africa.

“As a 22-year-old, I did not have fun, there was no time to dream,” she recalls. “I was fighting for my life and the lives of others. I never thought I would have children, I never thought I would get married, I never thought I would love again. Because there was also the issue of who infected me, how did this happen? You start resenting relationships.”

At the forefront of social justice activism for most of South Africa’s young democracy – a role model for people living with HIV, and for those fighting inequality – Dubula-Majola lead the TAC from 2007 to 2013, after which she joined Sonke Gender Justice as director of policy and accountability. She holds an MA in HIV/AIDS management from Stellenbosch University; her PhD from the University of KwaZulu-Natal examined “grassroots policy participation after a movement has succeeded to push for policy change,” using MSF’s [Médecins Sans Frontières] pioneering antiretroviral sites in Khayelitsha and Lusikisiki as samples.

‘Build and regain the dignity of poor people’

In 2018, when Stellenbosch University offered her a job as director of its Africa Centre for HIV/AIDS Management, Dubula-Majola was circumspect. Why take up appointment at a white male-dominated institution shackled by slow transformation, in an elitist town? But she took on the challenge to become the transformation she wanted to see.

Dubula-Majola tells Spotlight that while relishing the privilege of academia – a space to reflect – it saw her away from “the heat of the activist fire” for too long. Five years later, a new challenge awaits.

Reflecting on Stellenbosch, she says: “This [job at the Global Fund] is even harder, because it’s not just one country, one university. This is all the continents of the world. All of them facing the same thing, the struggle here is to build and regain the dignity of poor people around the globe.”

Despite her early misgivings about relationships, Dubula-Majola married fellow TAC activist, Mandla Majola. Their children, now aged 10 and 16, are HIV-negative. Presently Majola is helping with their friend Zackie Achmat’s independent campaign for the 2024 general elections, after which he will join his wife in Geneva. The family will unite in Switzerland for Christmas though – “which will be the most miserable and cold Christmas,” says Dubula-Majola, laughing. “It will be our first winter Christmas and our last. As we just arrived a month ago, it doesn’t make sense to travel back to South Africa for the holidays.”

Overall she says she remains hopeful, adding that movements like #MeTo are lessons in global solidarity.

Her thoughts on continuing the fight against HIV: “It is up to HIV positive people, and those who want to remain HIV negative, to steer towards an AIDS-free generation. We must stop complaining, thinking politicians will do everything for us, and do it ourselves.”

Meanwhile, Global Fund representatives have voiced confidence in Dubula-Majola’s ability to lead. Marijke Wijnroks, head of the organisation’s strategic investment and impact division, said in a statement: “Following an extensive search process, I am delighted to say that we found the ideal person for this role. As a person living with HIV, Vuyiseka’s lived experience and leadership style are well aligned to what we need from this critical role.”

Note: Dubula-Majola is a former General Secretary of the TAC. Spotlight is published by SECTION27 and the TAC, but is editorially independent – an independence that the editors guard jealously. Spotlight is a member of the South African Press Council.

Republished from Spotlight under a Creative Commons Licence.

Source: Spotlight

Categories : Cancer Metabolic DisordersTags :

GLP-1 Agonists may Reduce Colorectal Cancer Risk

On By ModernMedia
By HualinXMN – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=133759262

A groundbreaking study by researchers at Case Western Reserve University suggests that glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1 RAs), normally used to treat diabees, may also reduce the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). The findings, published in the journal JAMA Oncology, support the need for clinical trials to determine whether these medications could prevent one of the deadliest types of cancers.

Eventually, the medications may also show promise in warding off other types of cancer associated with obesity and diabetes.

“Our results clearly demonstrate that GLP-1 RAs are significantly more effective than popular anti-diabetic drugs, such as Metformin or insulin, at preventing the development of CRC,” said Nathan Berger, the Hanna-Payne Professor of Experimental Medicine at the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine and the study’s co-lead researcher.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, or GLP-1 RAs can lower blood-sugar levels, improve insulin sensitivity and help manage weight. They’ve also been shown to reduce the rates of major cardiovascular ailments. Importantly the protective effect of GLP-1 RAs are noted in patients with or without overweight/obesity.

“To our knowledge,” said co-lead researcher Rong Xu, a professor at the School of Medicine, “this is the first indication this popular weight-loss and anti-diabetic class of drugs reduces incidence of CRC, relative to other anti-diabetic agents.”

Berger and Xu are members of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center.

In the US, the American Cancer Society estimates CRC is the third-leading type of cancer in both sexes, with 153 000 new cases per year. It is also the second-leading cause of cancer mortality with 52 550 deaths per year.

Since GLP-1 RAs have been shown to be effective anti-diabetic and weight-loss agents, the researchers hypothesized they might reduce incidence of CRC.

Using a national database of more than 100 million electronic health records, the researchers conducted a population-based study of more than 1.2 million patients.

These individuals had been treated with anti-diabetic agents from 2005-19; the CWRU team examined the effects of GLP-1 RAs on their incidence of CRC, as compared to those prescribed other anti-diabetic drugs.

Population-based research means matching as many people as possible with the same characteristics, such as sex, race, age, socio-economic determinants of health and other medical conditions, to accurately compare the drug’s effects.

Among 22 572 patients with diabetes treated with insulin, there were 167 cases of CRC. Another 22 572 matched patients treated with GLP-1 RAs saw 94 cases of CRC. Those treated with GLP-1 RAs had a 44% reduction in incidence of CRC.

In a similar comparison of 18 518 patients with diabetes treated with Metformin, compared to 18 518 patients with diabetes treated with GLP-1 RAs, had a 25% reduction in CRC.

“The research is critically important for reducing incidence of CRC in patients with diabetes, with or without overweight and obesity,” Berger said.

Source: Case Western Reserve University

Categories : NeurologyTags :

Magnetic Stimulation may Ameliorate Memory Deficits in Schizophrenia

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Alex Green on Pexels

Schizophrenia is often accompanied by extensive impairment of memory, including prospective memory, which is the ability to remember to perform future activities. In a randomised clinical trial published in Neuropsychopharmacology Reports, researchers found that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a non-invasive method that uses alternating magnetic fields to induce an electric current in the underlying brain tissue, may help ameliorate certain aspects of prospective memory in individuals with schizophrenia.

The trial included 50 patients with schizophrenia and 18 healthy controls. Of the 50 patients, 26 completed active rTMS and 24 completed a sham rTMS. Healthy controls received no treatment.

Investigators assessed event-based prospective memory, which is remembering to perform an action when an external event occurs, such as remembering to give a message to a friend when you next see them and also time-based prospective memory, which is remembering to perform an action at a certain time, such as remembering to attend a scheduled meeting.

Both event-based prospective memory and time-based prospective memory scores at the baseline of the trial were significantly lower in patients with schizophrenia than in controls. After rTMS treatments, the scores of event-based prospective memories in patients were significantly improved and were similar to those in controls, while patients’ scores of time-based prospective memory did not improve.

“The findings of this study may provide one therapeutic option for prospective memory in patients with schizophrenia,” said co–corresponding author Su-Xia Li, MD, PhD, of Peking University, in China.

Source: Wiley

Categories : Metabolic DisordersTags :

Can Weight Loss Drugs Reduce Mortality Risk in Knee or Hip Osteoarthritis?

On By ModernMedia
Source: Pixabay CC0

Besides its significant impact on disability, symptomatic OA is associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality. Current guidelines advise weight loss to improve function and reduce pain but there is little data on whether it also reduces mortality risk.

New research published in Arthritis & Rheumatology suggests that for people overweight or with obesity and also knee or hip osteoarthritis, a slow-to-moderate – but not fast – rate of weight loss caused by anti-obesity medications may lower their risk of premature death.

Researchers enrolled 6524 participants with knee or hip osteoarthritis who were taking orlistat, sibutramine, or rimonabant to the study. The five-year death rate was 5.3%, 4.0%, and 5.4% for the “weight gain/stable”, “slow-to-moderate weight loss,” and “fast weight loss” groups, respectively. Compared with the “weight gain/stable” group,” the risk of death was 28% lower for the “slow-to-moderate weight loss” group and only 1% lower for the “fast weight loss” arm.

“A slow-to-moderate rate of weight loss induced by anti-obesity medications may lower the risk of death in overweight/obese people with knee/hip osteoarthritis”, said first author Jie Wei, PhD, of Xiangya Hospital, Central South University, in China.

Source: Wiley