Day: August 2, 2024

Categories : Metabolic DisordersTags : Leave a comment

Body Appreciation Varies Across Cultures

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Body appreciation levels are associated with internalisation of thin ideals and with sociocultural pressure, which vary by culture and age

Photo by I Yunmai on Unsplash

People from different cultures show both similarities and differences in how body appreciation, sociocultural pressure, and internalisation of thin ideals vary, according to a study published July 31, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Louise Hanson from Durham University, UK, and colleagues.

Body image is a multifaceted and complex phenomenon encapsulating how we think, behave, and feel about our body. To date, most body image research has focused on young, White, Western women, and has focused on negative rather than positive body image.

By contrast, Hanson and colleagues examined body appreciation, encapsulating positive thoughts and feelings regarding one’s own body. They also included participants not only from Western countries (ie, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, United States of America), but also China and Nigeria. A final sample of 1186 women completed the questionnaires and were included in the analysis.

The results did not reveal significant difference in body satisfaction between women of different ages, but there was significant variation between cultures. Black Nigerian women had the highest body appreciation, followed by Eastern Asian Chinese women, with White Western women reporting lowest body appreciation. The findings suggest that ethnicity and culture are important influences on body appreciation and might act as protective factors that promote positive body image.

High internalisation of the thin ideal, and high perceived pressure about appearance from family, peers, and the media, were associated with lower body appreciation. Internalisation varied by age in some cultures: older White Western and Black Nigerian women reported lower thin-ideal internalisation than younger women, but Chinese women experienced the same thin-ideal internalisation across the lifespan.

For women from all cultures, older women reported lower perceived sociocultural pressure than younger women. White Western women experienced more perceived pressure from the media than Black Nigerian and Chinese women, but Chinese women reported the most pressure from peers. The results also showed that Black Nigerian women reported the lowest sociocultural pressure overall, and that Chinese women reported the most pressure.

The authors suggest that future studies should include more women in older age groups to obtain a fully representative picture of women’s body appreciation across the lifespan. In addition, further development of measurement tools is necessary for future research in cross-cultural contexts. According to the authors, the results of the current study could be used to target positive body image interventions to each culture. Further research may be required to develop effective interventions for each group.

The authors add: “We found that body appreciation was relatively stable across all ages and sociocultural pressure was evident in all cultures. However, the extent to which this pressure was experienced and where it came from differed across cultures.”

Provided by PLOS

Categories : HIVTags : Leave a comment

Zero HIV Infections in Trial of New Twice-yearly Prophylaxis

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Photo by Miguel Á. Padriñán

Finalised data published in the New England Journal of Medicine, has confirmed the stunning results of a trial in which a twice-yearly dose of lenacapavir completely prevented HIV infection in a group of adolescent girls and women in South Africa and Uganda.

A major challenge with HIV prophylaxis with cisgender women is adherence and persistence with daily oral regimens. The twice-yearly subcutaneous injection of lenacapavir helps to circumvent these problems by offering extended protection.

Based on the initial results announced by Gilead Sciences on the 20th of June, the PURPOSE 1 phase 3 clinical trial met its key efficacy endpoints of superiority of twice-yearly lenacapavir to once-daily oral (emtricitabine 200mg and tenofovir disoproxil fumarate 300mg; F/TDF) and background HIV incidence. Given the strength of these results, the blinded phase of the trial was halted and open-label lenacapavir was offered to all participants.

The double-blind, randomised, controlled trial recruited 5338 participants who were initially HIV-negative. They were randomised 2:2:1 ratio to receive subcutaneous lenacapavir every 26 weeks, daily oral emtricitabine–tenofovir alafenamide (F/TAF), or daily oral F/TDF (active control); all participants also received the alternate subcutaneous or oral placebo. They compared the efficacy of lenacapavir and F/TAF with F/TDF against the estimated background incidence of HIV infection.

Among the 2134 participants in the lenacapavir group, there were 0 infections (0 per 100 person-years). Meanwhile in the F/TAF group, there were 39 infections among 2136 participants (2.02 per 100 person-years) and 16 infections among the F/TDF group’s 1068 participants (1.69 per 100 person-years).

HIV incidence with lenacapavir was significantly lower than background HIV incidence and than HIV incidence with F/TDF. HIV incidence with F/TAF did not differ significantly from background HIV incidence, and no evidence of a meaningful difference in HIV incidence was observed between F/TAF and F/TDF.

The researchers did note that adherence to F/TAF and F/TDF was low. While no safety concerns were found, injection-site reactions were more common in the lenacapavir group (68.8%) than in the placebo injection group (F/TAF and F/TDF combined) (34.9%); 4 participants in the lenacapavir group (0.2%) discontinued the trial regimen owing to injection-site reactions.

Categories : CancerTags : Leave a comment

US Fast-Tracks a Promising New Therapy for Metastatic Prostate Cancer

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Credit: Darryl Leja National Human Genome Research Institute National Institutes Of Health

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Fast Track designation for SYNC-T SV-102 therapy for the treatment of patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC). SV-102 is part of Syncromune Inc.’s SYNC-T platform, an in situ personalised therapy that uses a combination multi-target approach to cancer treatment, aiming to improve outcomes and quality of life for patients.

The Fast Track designation was granted based on the potential of SYNC-T SV-102 therapy to address the significant unmet need in treating patients with mCRPC. This advanced form of prostate cancer affects over 40 000 men in the US alone and is associated with a very poor prognosis. The Fast Track process is designed to facilitate the development and expedite the review of therapies that treat serious conditions and fulfil an unmet medical need, with the goal of getting important new treatments to patients sooner. Fast Track designation provides Syncromune with several key benefits, including more frequent FDA interactions, eligibility for accelerated approval, and priority review.

“The Fast-Track designation for SYNC-T SV-102 therapy signifies another step forward in bringing our potentially groundbreaking therapy to patients who need it most,” said Eamonn Hobbs, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Syncromune. “This accomplishment builds upon the foundation of positive Phase 1 clinical data and recent IND clearance.”

Syncromune’s lead candidate, SYNC-T SV-102, is a platform therapy that combines an in situ vaccine via partial oncolysis of a tumour followed by intratumoural infusion of the SV-102 fixed-dose multi-target biologic drug into the lysed tumour. This combination is designed to provide both immune stimulation and block immune suppression to activate and proliferate T cells to elicit a systemic anti-tumour response. Interim data from a Phase 1 study of SV-102 in males with mCRPC demonstrated an overall response rate of 85% with a favourable safety profile and tolerability. The Fast-Track designation comes on the heels of clearance of the company’s investigational new drug (IND) application, with studies expected to begin in the US this year.

Charles Link, M.D., Executive Chairman of Syncromune added, “We believe that Fast-Track designation for SYNC-T SV-102 will significantly aid our development goals for this therapy for men with difficult to treat prostate cancer. We look forward to initiating trials at multiple US sites later this year to expand our efforts to develop the SYNC-T SV-102 Therapy.”

Source: Syncromune

Categories : Cardiovascular DiseaseTags : Leave a comment

Study Uncovers Connections Between Obesity and Heart Failure at the Cellular Level

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Right side heart failure. Credit: Scientific Animations CC4.0

A new small study led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers recently published in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research has revealed the impact of obesity on muscle structure in patients having a form of heart failure called heart failure with a preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). They observed swollen mitochondria, lipid droplets and tattered muscle fibre bundles, all independent of diabetes status.

According to the Journal of Cardiac Failure, HFpEF represents more than half of all heart failure world-wide. Originally, this form of heart disease was associated with hypertension and along with this, excess muscle growth (hypertrophy) to help counter the pressures. Over the past two decades, HFpEF is occurring more often in patients with severe obesity and diabetes according to the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. However, there are still very few effective HFpEF therapies, and a challenge in developing therapies has been the lack of studies in human heart tissue to determine exactly what is abnormal. As hospitalisation and death rates in HFpEF patients are quite high, (30–40% over 5 years), understanding its underlying causes is critical.  

“HFpEF is a complex syndrome, involving abnormalities in many different organs”, says lead investigator David Kass, MD, Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “We call it heart failure (HF) because its symptoms are similar to those found in patients with hearts that are weak. However, with HFpEF, heart contraction seems fine, yet heart failure symptoms still exist. While many prior efforts to treat HFpEF using standard HF drugs have not worked, success has since come from drugs used to treat diabetes and obesity.”

More specifically, the drug used to treat diabetes, known as an SGLT2 inhibitor (sodium glucose transporter 2 inhibitor) is currently the only evidence-based drug for HFpEF that has improved not only its symptoms but also reduced long-term rehospitalisation rates and endpoints of mortality. The weight loss drug GLP1-receptor agonist has been tested and found to improve symptoms in patients with HFpEF, and ongoing studies are determining if a similar hard end-point (mortality reduction, hospitalisation for HF reduction) are also possible outcomes. As such, these drugs have already been shown to be effective not only in diabetes where they started, but also in HFpEF.

To perform the study, the research team obtained a small piece of muscle tissue from 25 patients who had been diagnosed with varying degrees of HFpEF caused by diabetes and obesity and compared them to heart tissue from 14 organ donors whose hearts were considered to be normal. They examined the muscle using an electron microscope that shows muscle structure at a very high magnification.  

Mariam Meddeb, MD, MS, cardiovascular disease specialist at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, who conducted the study says that a scanning electron micrograph “provides a very clear picture inside the muscle cell, what we call ultrastructure, such as mitochondria that are the energy power plants, and sarcomeres (unit of muscle fibre) that generate force”.

The researchers found notable ultrastructural abnormalities were particularly present in tissue of the most obese patients who had HEpEF, which had mitochondria that were swollen, pale, and disrupted, had many fat droplets, and their sarcomeres appeared tattered. These abnormalities were not related to whether the patient had diabetes, and were less prominent in patients who were less obese.

“These results will help those trying to develop animal models of HFpEF, since they show what one wants to generate at this microscopic level,” notes Dr Kass. “It also raises the key question of whether reducing obesity, as is now being done with several drug therapies, will reverse these ultrastructural abnormalities, and in turn improve HFpEF outcome.”  

Source: John Hopkins Medicine

Categories : Environmental EffectsTags : Leave a comment

Climate Anomalies may Play a Major Role in Driving Cholera Pandemics

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Global climate change could create more opportunities for rise and spread of new cholera strains

Scanning electron micrograph image of cholera bacteria.

New research suggests that an El Niño event may have aided the establishment and spread of a novel cholera strain during an early 20th-century pandemic, supporting the idea that climate anomalies could create opportunities for the emergence of new cholera strains. Xavier Rodo of Instituto de Salud Global de Barcelona, Spain, and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Since 1961, more than 1 million people worldwide have died in an ongoing cholera pandemic, the seventh cholera pandemic to have occurred since 1817. The drivers of past cholera pandemics have been unclear, but one hypothesis holds that anomalous climate conditions may act synergistically with genetic changes of Vibrio cholerae—the bacterium that causes the disease—to facilitate the spread and dominance of new strains.

To help clarify potential links between climate and cholera, Rodo and colleagues applied a variety of statistical and computational tools to historical records of climate conditions and cholera deaths in various regions of former British India during the sixth cholera pandemic, which lasted from 1899 to 1923. They also compared past conditions with climate and cholera data for the ongoing pandemic.

This analysis revealed that anomalous patterns of cholera deaths from 1904 to 1907 occurred alongside out-of-the-ordinary seasonal temperatures and rainfall levels associated with an El Niño event; the timing of these occurrences correlates with the establishment of a new invasive strain during the sixth pandemic. In addition, these historical climate conditions show similarities to strong El Niño events that have been associated with cholera strain changes during the ongoing pandemic.

These findings support the possibility that anomalous climate events could help facilitate the establishment and spread of new cholera strains.

The researchers then explored future possibilities for climate-facilitated emergence of new cholera strains using standard climate prediction models. They found that climate change-driven increases in climate variability and extremes could boost the chances of emergence of novel strains through the end of the current century.

Meanwhile, to deepen understanding of this deadly disease, the scientists call for further research focused on the interplay of cholera evolution and climate anomalies.

Dr Rodó and co-author Dr Mercedes Pascual summarise: “Variation in climate conditions or the evolutionary change of a pathogen can be important drivers of major epidemics and pandemics. But these two drivers are typically considered separately in studies seeking to explain the emergence of unusually large outbreaks…here, we present indirect evidence that the two can act together to synergistically underlie the establishment and widespread transmission of a new strain.”

Provided by PLOS