Author: ModernMedia

Categories : Diet and NutritionTags :

The FDA Unveils a New Food Pyramid that Promotes Red Meat and Protein

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Jose Ignacio Pompe on Unsplash

For years, the federal government advised Americans to limit red meat and foods high in saturated fats. However, new federal dietary guidelines elevate protein, dairy and healthy fats to the top of a redesigned food pyramid — a shift that has drawn mixed reactions from nutrition experts.

The new food pyramid continues to emphasise fruits and vegetables and avoiding added sugar, but it also encourages Americans to cook with butter or beef tallow and increase their protein intake. The recommendations are now for adults to consume 1.2 to 1.6 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight, up from the previous guideline of  0.8 grams. Protein is recommended from both animal sources, such as red meat, and plant-based options. 

Experts said the new guidelines’ emphasis on avoiding processed foods and added sugar are sound. But some worry that encouraging more fats will conflict with existing guidelines on limiting fat to 10% of one’s daily calories — and that some Americans may not need additional protein. 

“These guidelines represent a significant shift, but they raise as many questions as they answer,” said Darin Detwiler, a food policy expert and assistant teaching professor at Northeastern University. “My concern is not the emphasis on ‘real food’ (over ultra-processed options). It’s how the scientific evidence and public health context were interpreted.”

“The message is simple: eat real food,” says the letter from U.S Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “To Make America Healthy Again, we must return to the basics. American households must prioritise diets built on whole, nutrient-dense foods — protein, dairy, vegetables, fruits, healthy fats and whole grains. Paired with a dramatic reduction in highly processed foods laden with refined carbohydrates, added sugars, excess sodium, unhealthy fats, and chemical additives, this approach can change the health trajectory for so many Americans.”

They also continue to encourage Americans to avoid added sugar and processed food, saying that the United States “is in a health emergency” due to chronic disease from poor diet.

The new 10-page document is a dramatic reduction from the length of the previous guidelines, something that Jing-Ke Weng, a plant biochemist and professor of chemistry & chemical biology and bioengineering at Northeastern, said is an improvement.

“It’s a simplified version of things,” Weng said. “It has basically encouraged people to not have highly processed foods and reduce added sugar. There is some controversy to it — it’s encouraging saturated fats like tallow or butter — but it’s still under the cap of less than 10 percent of recommended consumption of daily calorie intake.”

Detwiler added that the continued focus on reducing added sugars and processed foods is also a positive. However, he expressed concerns about the updated protein guidelines, which he said may unnecessarily encourage people to consume food that is expensive and high in saturated fat.

“My understanding is that most Americans already meet basic protein needs,” Detwiler said. “There is limited evidence that higher protein improves health for the general population. For people who are strength training or trying to preserve muscle in older age, higher protein can be useful. But this should not be the default for everyone without nuance.”

Similarly, Detwiler said the guidance on encouraging the consumption of red meat and full-fat dairy, along with cooking with beef tallow and butter, is contradictory, given the suggested cap on saturated fats. 

Research also shows saturated fats are linked to higher LDL cholesterol, which is a casual factor for cardiovascular disease, said Detwiler. This is not factored into the guidelines that he said could cause more long-term health consequences.

“Encouraging red meat and full-fat dairy without clear guidance on portion size or population risk profiles is not supported by the bulk of cardiovascular research,” he said. “Mixed messaging on saturated fat can lead consumers to misinterpret what constitutes a heart-healthy diet. In public health nutrition, clear evidence, consistency, and practical guidance matter.”

The new guidelines also note that people should eat what’s right for them, depending on factors like age and physical activity level.

Janice Maras, registered dietitian, director in the Dietary Assessment Center and associate teaching professor of public health and health sciences at Northeastern, emphasised this as well, saying people should focus more on getting vegetables, whole grains and adequate proteins while minimising ultra-processed foods.

“My approach to dietary guidance emphasises quality, variety, and personalisation rather than focusing on a single graphic,” she said. “Protein and dairy are important but needs vary across life stages and individual health contexts — more is not always better. Protein should come from a variety of sources, including both animal and plant foods, and dairy choices can reasonably differ depending on age and growth or maintenance needs. Helping people understand food quality and read labels is more important than emphasising one specific pyramid.” 

This story is republished courtesy of Northeastern Global News news.northeastern.edu.

Source: Northeastern University

Categories : Healthcare Politics and RegulationsTags :

Spotlight’s Top 9 Health Stories to Watch in 2026

On By ModernMedia
With several important developments on the horizon, 2026 is set to be another eventful year in healthcare. Photo by Anna Shvets

19th January 2026 | By Marcus Low

From the limited rollout of a new HIV prevention jab to developments with new weight loss medicines, to high-stakes court cases relating to National Health Insurance (NHI), 2026 is set to be another tumultuous year in healthcare. Here are nine stories that Spotlight will keep a close eye on.

 1. How will things go with the local rollout of a new HIV prevention jab? 

Given the high rates of HIV in South Africa, the biggest HIV story this year is likely to be the rollout of a new HIV prevention jab at around 360 (roughly 10%) of South Africa’s public sector clinics. The jab, which contains the antiretroviral medicine lenacapavir, provides six months of protection against HIV infection at a time. It could be a gamechanger for people who, for whatever reason, struggle to take daily prevention pills. We will be tracking how and to whom the jab is made available and whether uptake meets expectations. 

As we reported last year, work is also underway on a new lenacapavir formulation that could provide 12 months of protection per shot. We’ll be scouring journals and conference programmes for new data on this formulation. 

2. Will we see better access to weight loss medicines? 

The class of diabetes and weight loss drugs called GLP1-RAs have taken the world by storm in recent years. Until recently, drugs like semaglutide (brand names Ozempic or Wegovy) and tirzepatide (brand names Zepbound or Mounjaro) were only available as injections. The GLP1-RA market is, however, set to be upended by the introduction of some of these medicines in pill form. The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently registered a semaglutide pill for use for weight loss. Another weight loss pill called orforglipron is also expected to be registered this year. One big question is when these pills will be registered and made available in South Africa and at what price. 

Another important GLP1-RA development this year will be the expiration of a key patent on semaglutide in India. This will open the door to generic manufacturers bringing their own versions of semaglutide to market – something that usually leads to substantial price reductions. We will be keeping a close eye on how this situation plays out and analysing what the implications are for people in South Africa. 

3. Might we see earlier than expected findings from pivotal TB vaccine trials? 

The one TB vaccine we have is over a hundred years old and only provides limited protection for kids. Several experimental vaccines are, however, currently being evaluated in late-stage clinical trials. Arguably, the most notable of these is the M72 vaccine, which is being assessed in a massive phase 3 study, partly conducted in South Africa. 

While timelines suggest most of the key TB vaccine studies will not yet have anything to report this year, it is possible that we might see a surprise or two. Findings are sometimes reported early if it becomes apparent ahead of schedule that a medicine or vaccine is clearly working, or clearly not working, as the case may be. Whether or not we see findings this year, it is important to start thinking about what a rollout might look like in our health system should results be as good as hoped. The M72 vaccine had around 50% efficacy in phase 2 trials, so there is reason for optimism. 

4. Will we see a concrete plan to address public sector healthcare worker shortages? 

Arguably, the most important dynamic in South Africa’s public healthcare system today is that provincial health departments are not employing enough healthcare workers across multiple categories. One reason for this is simply that budgets have generally shrunk over the last decade – obviously corruption and mismanagement in several provincial departments have made things even worse. There was a glimmer of hope in last year’s budget in which we saw a meaningful upturn in health funding for the first time in years, but that was at best a good first step toward recovery. As we enter 2026, our understanding is that all of the nine provinces are still facing severe healthcare worker shortages. 

More money for health in the next budget will certainly help, but there is a broader sense that government doesn’t really have a big picture vision for how to address the crisis. We do have a 2030 Human Resources for Health Strategy, but as with many such strategies, it seems to have so far gone largely unimplemented. 

5. Will enablers be held accountable for corruption such as that at Thembisa Hospital? 

One of last year’s big media moments was a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) press conference in which they described the extensive corruption said to have taken place at Thembisa Hospital. One snag, however, is that while the SIU can recoup funds and take matters to the Special Tribunal, the SIU does not conduct criminal prosecutions – though they can refer matters to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) for prosecution. Whether we will see successful NPA prosecutions relating to the Thembisa Hospital corruption is one of the year’s top questions. 

Unfortunately, even when the SIU does sterling work and delivers cases to the NPA on a plate, there is no guarantee that the NPA will do its job. One depressing example is that of Buthelezi EMS. Last year, the Special Tribunal ordered Buthelezi EMS (and other companies with similar names) to pay over half-a-billion Rand back to the state. The SIU also referred a related matter to the NPA in 2024 for prosecution, but Spotlight understands that the NPA has rather mind-bogglingly decided to drop the matter. 

6. Which, if any, senior health leaders will lose their jobs this year? 

While we won’t have national or provincial elections this year, that is no guarantee that we won’t see any health leaders losing their jobs. Over the last two decades, there have after all been many examples of people being ousted between elections, be it for purely political reasons or due to corruption scandals. 

Possibly the political leader in the health sector at greatest risk is KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Health, Nomagugu Simelane. Should the currently governing coalition of political parties in the province crumble, as it seems it might do, chances are several new MECs will be deployed, including for the health portfolio. 

There is also an outside chance that the country’s top health official, Dr Sandile Buthelezi, Director-General for Health in the National Department of Health, might be forced to step down. As reported by AmaBhungane, Buthelezi played a central role in an “irregular” R836-million oxygen procurement process and is also “at the centre of a Hawks investigation into allegations that he solicited a R500 000 bribe”. Our understanding is that Buthelezi has not been charged and that in the absence of charges he will stay in the job. 

7. What will happen in the landmark NHI court cases? 

Despite a new call for dialogue from Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, chances for a political settlement over National Health Insurance (NHI) remains very low. The bottom line remains that Health Minister Dr Aaron Motsoaledi refuses to yield an inch on the version of NHI described in the Act and President Cyril Ramaphosa is not willing to force the matter. 

Instead, it seems the battle over NHI will this year be fought mainly in the courts. At our count, there are at least eight cases challenging the NHI Act, parts of the Act, or the process resulting in the Act. A first development to look out for is whether or not some of the cases will be combined and heard together. In case you missed it, last year we published a two-part series in which we tried to pin down the issues on which these court cases are likely to turn (see part 1 and part 2). 

While we will cover the NHI court cases in some depth, we will also try to foster constructive discussions on health reforms on our opinion pages and in our analysis. In our view, it is dangerously limiting to reduce the debate over South Africa’s healthcare reforms to a simple binary of whether one is for or against NHI. 

8. What will be left of the FDA, NIH, and CDC by the end of 2026? 

It used to be the case that United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decisions and health advice from the United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) carried a lot of weight around the world. In recent months, however, there have been increasing signs of political interference at these institutions and a turn away from evidence-based policy making. It seems inevitable that we will see more of the same in 2026 and the credibility of both the CDC and probably also the FDA will be further diminished. 

Similarly, the US National Institutes for Health (NIH) has been the world’s leading funder of health research for many years. But as with the CDC, the work of the NIH has been overly politicised over the last year and its reputation for rigour and scientific excellence has already been severely degraded. As with the FDA and CDC, the outlook is bleak. 

9. How well will SA and other countries recover from last year’s US aid cuts? 

With the dust settling after last year’s severe and abrupt cuts to US healthcare aid and US funding for medical research, the longer-term impacts of those cuts in South Africa and neighbouring countries should become clearer this year. Among others, we will get the first reliable estimates of key HIV and TB indicators for 2025 (reliable figures for a specific year are typically only published in the subsequent year). New HIV estimates from the Thembisa mathematical model (Spotlight’s preferred source for HIV estimates) should be out around the middle of the year, while new World Health Organization (WHO) TB estimates are usually released in November. 

Last year Motsoaledi was widely criticised by activists for underplaying the seriousness of the cuts for South Africa’s HIV response and the scale of specialised services and capacity that was destroyed here. Eventually some extra funds were made available in response to the cuts, but it amounted to only a small fraction of what was lost. The harsh reality is that in some places the aftermath of the aid cuts will be felt for years to come. 

At an international level, we are also not convinced that a clear roadmap has been set out for building back better after US withdrawal, though we’d be happy to be proven wrong. What is clear though is that entities like the WHO and UNAIDS are facing unprecedented financial and political pressures – it seems possible that UNAIDS will no longer exist a year from now. Much reform has already been undertaken at the WHO. By the end of the year, we should have some sense of whether things have stabilised and whether a coalition of willing nations is truly committed to keeping the WHO and multilateralism in health alive. 

We have outlined only nine health issues in the above, but there are of course many more questions that we could have added to this list. Some of those include: 

  • Whether we will see meaningful improvement in the South African government’s response to non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, cancers, and mental health conditions. 
  • How well implementation of South Africa’s latest TB recovery plan is going, and in particular how we are doing against the target of testing five million people in 12 months. 
  • How climate change will impact people’s health and whether the South African government is prepared for it. 
  • Whether South Africa will see real progress in addressing antimicrobial resistance. After adopting a good policy a few years ago, it appears momentum has been lost. 
  • Whether the state will start taking xenophobia in the healthcare system and around clinics and hospitals more seriously, as a recent court judgment requires it to do. 
  • Whether a serious effort will be made to better regulate private healthcare and to bring down the cost of private healthcare services and medical scheme membership – that after a half-baked effort to create a new tariff-determination framework was launched and then canned last year. 
  • Whether we will see legislation introduced amending the Patents Act in line with a policy adopted by government in 2018 and whether we’ll see progress on the much-delayed State Liability Bill, which should have relevance for the state’s vulnerability to medico-legal claims. 
  • Whether we will see concrete steps forward with the new electronic health records and data systems government is developing. 
  • What progress we might see with the local production of vaccines and pharmaceuticals – one of the areas in which we are quite optimistic, despite the lack of coherent and enabling government policy. 
  • What impact AI will, or will not, have in our healthcare system this year. 

Are there issues not mentioned here that you think Spotlight should cover in 2026? Let us know by commenting below this article or by tagging us on BlueSky. 

*Low is the editor of Spotlight. 

Republished from Spotlight under a Creative Commons licence.

Read the original article.

Categories : Expert Opinion Respiratory DiseasesTags :

Janet Giddy | If COVID-19, Why not TB? Mr President, it’s Time for a Family Chat

On By ModernMedia
President Cyril Ramaphosa addresses the nation in 2021 on developments in the country’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. (Photo: GCIS)

By Janet Giddy

South Africa had several “family chats” in which President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. He should do the same for tuberculosis, argues Dr Janet Giddy of the advocacy group TB Proof.

Recently, I was flying home and got chatting to the stylishly dressed woman in the window seat next to me. We asked each other the sort of questions that traveller’s often do. Suzie (name changed) was going to Cape Town to facilitate an artist’s workshop. I told her that I worked for an NGO that did tuberculosis (TB) research and advocacy. Suzie nodded pensively, then said: “My dad had TB”. I was just thinking how to respond, when she added: “he died from it”.

I have conversations about TB almost every day, and have previously written about high-altitude chats with fellow travellers. I get into these conversations not because TB work is my “day job” – which it is – but because I am a TB activist, and a survivor of childhood TB.

There are many remarkable things about TB that keep me engaged, enraged and activated. For example, that 29 934 people were diagnosed with TB in 2024 in the Cape Town metro, which was more than the combined number diagnosed with TB in the whole of the United States (10 347), the United Kingdom (5 480), France (4 217), and Canada (1 258). The population of these four countries combined is over 500 million, while Cape Town has a population of just under five million people. If you do the math, the risk of getting TB clearly depends massively on where you live. If these figures do not shock you, they should.

Why are so many people in South Africa unaware and seemingly unconcerned about the extraordinarily high numbers of people infected with TB in our country? Could we take TB more seriously as a country? My answer is yes.

If COVID-19, why not TB?

As expected, South Africa worked up a huge head of steam at every level of society about COVID-19. I think back on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s regular avuncular “family chats” to the nation. In the first COVID-19 “family chat”, our president told us:

“This is a decisive measure to save lives of South Africans from infection and save the lives of hundreds of thousands of our people. While this measure will have a considerable impact on people’s livelihoods, and on the life of our society and on our economy, the human cost of delaying this action would be far, far greater.”

Why has Ramaphosa not ever spoken in this intimate “family style” way to the nation about how important or urgent it is to tackle TB? A disease which continues to cause significantly more suffering and death than COVID-19 did.

In 2018, our president spoke to the international world about TB, when he addressed the President of the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN) and Director-General of the World Health Organization at the first ever UN High-Level Meeting on Tuberculosis. With great gravitas and in oratorial style, Ramaphosa said: “This … is a historic opportunity that we must embrace if we are to effectively respond to a disease that has killed more people than smallpox, malaria, the plague, influenza, HIV and AIDS, and Ebola combined. This meeting is taking place in the year of the centenary of the birth of South Africa’s founding President, Nelson Mandela. President Mandela was a survivor of tuberculosis, which he contracted while in prison, and was firmly committed to the campaign against the disease.”

Ramaphosa went on to highlight the social determinants of TB, including poverty, unemployment, poor nutrition, overcrowding and social stigma that fuel the spread of diseases. He also noted: “In South Africa, TB is the biggest cause of mortality in the general population, especially among men.”

This was an excellent message, but since 2018, our president has not had much to say about TB in public or to South Africans. It would be powerful and impactful if he were to talk about TB as a national emergency that requires a coordinated “family response” as a nation.

In considering the seriousness of TB as compared to COVID-19, let’s look at mortality.

By November 2022, the official number of deaths recorded as being due to COVID-19 in South Africa was around 102 000, approximately 34 000 per year when averaged out. Official numbers are however widely considered to be an underestimate. The Medical Research Council estimated in the region of 300 000 excess deaths relating to COVID-19 from 2020 to 2022, with around 85 000 in 2020, 200 000 in 2021, and around 15 000 a few months into 2022. Not all of these excess deaths would have been directly due to COVID-19, but it is likely that over 80% was (say 240 000 over the three years).

By comparison, TB has in recent years been claiming between 50 000 and 70 000 lives per year, based on estimates from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Thembisa mathematical model. Thus, while there were many more COVID-19 deaths in 2021 than there were TB deaths, TB deaths almost certainly surpassed COVID-19 deaths in 2022 and subsequent years. The more one zooms out, the more the steady torrent of TB deaths over the last five, 10, 20 years, dwarfs the spike in COVID-19 deaths around 2021.

‘We are all at risk’

Back to my recent high-altitude chat in the plane: somehow, it was a uniquely South African sort of conversation. What is the chance that, while cruising at 10 000 meters over the Atlantic on a flight between the United States and France, that you’d sit next to someone whose parent recently died of TB? An extremely small chance. So, I would contend that all South Africans do need to know about TB, which is a disease that affects families profoundly.

It’s time for South Africa to have family chats about TB. There are many reasons to have these chats, starting with the fact that we are all at risk of getting it, given that we live in a country with a high TB prevalence – it was estimated that 389 people per 100 000 in South Africa fell ill with TB in 2024. We could compare this with the 2024 figures for the United Kingdom, at 9.7 per 100 000, which is higher than the United States’ rate of 3.2 per 100 000. For those who are interested, you can look up the latest numbers for different countries on the WHO’s excellent TB data portal.

The bottom line is that the higher the TB prevalence in the country you live in, the more chance that you or a family member could get TB. This is because it is caused by a bacteria which is transmitted through the air via talking, singing and coughing, so anyone can breathe it in – as was the situation (and therefore, panic) with Covid.  The mode of transmission is the main similarity between TB and COVID-19 – there are lots of differences.

While some people are more at risk of getting TB, anyone can get TB, from any background. As a recent example: in 2024 Anna (name changed), a professional woman who lived in a green leafy suburb, was referred to me by her GP. Anna was shocked and outraged that she had been diagnosed with TB: “Janet, I feel as if I have been infected with a third world plague”. Anna wanted to believe that she had been infected with TB on a visit to India 18 months previously, but together we traced back her potential exposure and worked out she most likely was infected six months earlier, by a family member in a care home. Because Anna and her GP did not think about TB, it took more than a month of her coughing, losing weight and having no energy and taking several courses of antibiotics, before the diagnosis was finally made. By this time, she was very unwell, and her family members and many clients were at risk of getting TB.

Anna’s experience highlights how stigmatised TB still is as a disease. Stigma is a challenge to people from all backgrounds, and there are different reasons for it. Talking about TB more openly is one way to reduce stigma.

As with many other diseases, the earlier TB is diagnosed, the better the chance of full recovery, with no residual lung damage. There is effective medication to treat TB, and although treatment typically takes 6 months, it is not lifelong unlike chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and HIV. Young children with uncomplicated lung TB take medication for 4 months only.

Recent TB guidelines recommend that all close contacts of people diagnosed with TB (usually family or household members) should be tested for TB (even if they don’t have symptoms), and if they test negative, they can be offered TB preventive treatment (TPT), which will protect them against getting active TB disease. There is also more “user friendly” TPT now available, which consists of taking medication once a week for 3 months – a total of 12 doses only. Counselling people with TB needs to be family focused, given these new developments.

So, my challenge to readers is to have regular intentional conversations about TB with family and friends, with colleagues, in airplanes, and while waiting in queues.

Keely, a young women who read a previous Spotlight article I wrote, said she was amazed to discover that her colleague was very anxious because her mother was being treated for TB. If Keely had not decided to talk about TB at work, she would not have been able to offer her colleague support.

Try having a conversation about TB in the next week and see what comes of it.

*Giddy is a consultant at the TB advocacy group TB Proof.

Note: Spotlight aims to deepen public understanding of important health issues by publishing a variety of views on its opinion pages. The views expressed in this article are not necessarily shared by the Spotlight editors.

Republished from Spotlight under a Creative Commons licence.

Read the original article.

Categories : Uncategorized

Review Finds Rapid Rebound from Weight Loss Medications

On By ModernMedia
Photo by I Yunmai on Unsplash

Obesity is a chronic, repeating disease: those who lose weight tend to put it back on after a time. In order to understand the impact of stopping weight management medications (WMMs), researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effect of these drugs on long-term health and body mass.

The research indicates that individuals typically experience rapid weight regain after treatment ends, with many returning to their original weight within approximately 1.7 years. Furthermore, cardiometabolic improvements, including blood pressure and glucose levels, were found to typically reverse and return to baseline shortly after the drugs are discontinued.

Notably, weight is regained significantly faster after pharmacological treatment than after finishing behavioural weight management programmes. Listen to our podcast for a summary of the paper published in The BMJ, along with the researchers’ conclusions.

Categories : General Interest Medical IndustryTags :

Discovery Abandons R170 Million Clawback over Medicines Reimbursement Glitch

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Scott Graham on Unsplash

Discovery Health has recently abandoned its efforts to reclaim roughly R170 million from 16 507 members following a widespread administrative error in processing medical claims. This happened after the successful intervention of the advocacy group MediCheck, which argued that the affected members were being unfairly penalised for a technical glitch which they had nothing to do with.

The glitch, which happened last year, resulted in over-reimbursement of certain medicine costs that occurred throughout 2025. Several specific technical and procedural issues were involved which caused the problem to grow undetected for nearly a year, as detailed by Moonstone.

The main error was that certain claims were incorrectly reimbursed at 100% of the Discovery Health Rate, regardless of the specific benefit limits that should have applied to those categories, when they should have been reimbursed at a lower rate.

Because these claims were incorrectly reimbursed at higher rates, they were inaccurately accumulated towards members’ benefit thresholds. This caused members who had Above-Threshold Benefit (ATB) as part of their plan to reach it prematurely. Upon reaching the ATB, subsequent medical claims were funded by the scheme. Normally, these claims would have been covered by the members’ medical savings accounts or out-of-pocket contributions.

Delayed detection allowed the problem to grow. The error was particularly difficult to identify because it was a “second-order impact”. The systemic failure only became apparent late in the year when members began reaching the ATB and the financial discrepancies were finally flagged.

This snowballing error eventually affected some 16 507 members on specific Executive, Comprehensive, and Priority plans. While Discovery Health initially sought to recover these funds, ranging from thousands of rand to as much as R80 000 per member, the Council for Medical Schemes stepped in to exert pressure amid widespread media coverage of the situation. Discovery gave in and committed to refunding any recovered funds and absorbing the total financial loss itself – estimated between R130 million and R170 million.

Categories : GeneticsTags :

Certain DNA Sequences Grow and Become More Unstable with Age

On By ModernMedia
Photo by Sangharsh Lohakare on Unsplash

An analysis of genetic data over nearly one million individuals shows that certain stretches of DNA, made up of short sequences repeated over and over, become longer and more unstable as we age. The study found that common genetic variants can speed up or slow down this process by up to fourfold, and that certain expanded sequences are linked to serious diseases including kidney failure and liver disease.

Why it matters

More than 60 inherited disorders are caused by expanded DNA repeats: repetitive genetic sequences that grow longer over time. These include devastating conditions like Huntington’s disease, myotonic dystrophy, and certain forms of ALS. Most people carry DNA repeats that gradually expand throughout their lives, but this instability and what genetic factors control it hadn’t been fully analysed within large biobanks. This study demonstrates that DNA repeat expansion is far more widespread than previously recognised and identifies dozens of genes that regulate this process, opening new avenues for developing treatments that could slow disease progression.

What the study did

Researchers from UCLA, the Broad Institute, and Harvard Medical School analysed whole-genome sequencing data from 490 416 UK Biobank participants and 414 830 All of Us Research Program participants. They developed new computational methods to detect and measure DNA repeat lengths and instability from standard sequencing data. The team examined 356 131 polymorphic repeat locations across the genome, tracking how repeat lengths changed with age in blood cells and identifying genetic variants that influenced expansion rates. They also searched for links between repeat expansions and thousands of disease outcomes to discover previously unknown disease associations.

What they found

Common DNA repeats in blood cells expand as people age. The researchers identified 29 genetic locations where inherited variants modified DNA repeat expansion rates, with effects varying up to fourfold between individuals with the highest and lowest genetic risk scores. Interestingly, the same DNA repair genes had opposite effects on different repeats: variants that stabilised some repeats destabilised others. The study also discovered that expansions in the GLS gene, which have a prevalence of around 0.03%, were associated with 14-fold higher risk of severe kidney disease and 3-fold higher risk of liver diseases, representing a newly recognised repeat expansion disorder.

What’s next

The findings establish blood-based DNA repeat measurements as potential biomarkers for testing future therapies aimed at slowing repeat expansion in diseases like Huntington’s. The research team’s computational tools can now be applied to other large biobank datasets to discover additional unstable repeats and disease associations. Understanding why the same genetic modifiers have opposite effects on different repeats will require detailed mechanistic studies of how DNA repair processes vary across cell types and genetic contexts. The discovery of GLS repeat-associated kidney and liver disease suggests additional unrecognised repeat expansion disorders may be lurking in biobank data, waiting to be found.

From the experts

“We found that most human genomes contain repeat elements that expand as we age,” said Margaux L. A. Hujoel, PhD, lead author of the study and assistant professor in the Departments of Human Genetics and Computational Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “The strong genetic control of this expansion, with some individuals’ repeats expanding four times faster than others, points to opportunities for therapeutic intervention. These naturally occurring genetic modifiers show us which molecular pathways could be targeted to slow repeat expansion in disease.”

Source:

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease GeneticsTags :

New Cardiac Gene Therapy Trial Treats its First Patient

On By ModernMedia
Source: Wikimedia CC0

A Scottish patient has become the first person in the world to receive a pioneering therapy aimed at improving outcomes for those having heart bypass surgery. The treatment involves precisely editing DNA in veins to be used during heart bypass surgery to boost the production of a protective protein.

The treatment could help extend the lifespan of blood vessels used during the surgery and significantly improve patient health, experts say.

Cause of failures in bypass surgery

Heart bypass surgery – an operation to improve blood flow to the heart – is a life-saving treatment for patients with coronary heart disease.

The process typically uses one artery and two or more veins as bypass grafts – healthy blood vessels used to bypass a narrowed or blocked artery – creating a new route for blood to flow. 

Vein grafts used in this type of surgery can fail because they are not naturally designed to withstand the high pressure of blood flow from the heart.

Protecting vein grafts

The PROTECT study, led by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the University of Glasgow in collaboration with NHS Golden Jubilee and the University of Edinburgh, is trialling a new gene therapy designed to support newly grafted blood vessels. 

The treatment will introduce a gene, which produces a protein called TIMP-3, into the vein to be grafted. 

TIMP-3 is involved in tissue remodelling. Higher levels of the protein could help to prevent thickening and blockage of the blood vessel over time, scientists say.

Exciting milestone

The research team has developed a way to treat the graft directly at the time of surgery, safely and efficiently delivering the gene therapy to the affected tissue before grafting into the heart.

It is hoped the treatment will help to extend a patient’s healthy life expectancy and reduce the need for further surgeries, experts say. 

Source: The University of Edinburgh

Categories : CancerTags :

Tec-Dara Combo More Effective for Relapsed or Refractory Multiple Myeloma

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Depiction of multiple myeloma. Credit: Scientific Animations

Patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) multiple myeloma who received a combination of teclistamab, a bispecific monoclonal antibody, and daratumumab, a CD38-directed monoclonal antibody, were 83% more likely to be alive without disease progression compared with those who received standard second-line therapies at a median of nearly 35 months of follow-up, according to the results of a new trial presented at the 67th American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting and Exposition.

The trial is the first to test a bispecific monoclonal antibody as early as the first relapse after initial treatment for multiple myeloma. Based on the findings, researchers suggest the combination of teclistamab and daratumumab, known as Tec-Dara, could represent a new standard of care for R/R multiple myeloma.

“We were surprised by the efficacy data because we didn’t expect such a magnitude of benefit,” said lead study author María-Victoria Mateos, MD, PhD, physician in the haematology department and professor of medicine at the University of Salamanca in Spain. “These are the best data we’ve seen in patients with R/R multiple myeloma after one line of therapy. Patients will live longer overall and with no worsening of quality of life.”

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that causes excessive production of plasma cells, crowding out the production of other types of blood cells and harming the body’s ability to fight infections. It is most common in older adults. Patients who relapse or experience an incomplete response to initial treatment often have their cancer return after subsequent therapies, pointing to a need for improved second-line treatments.

Teclistamab is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for R/R multiple myeloma after at least four prior lines of therapy. Daratumumab is a therapy targeting the CD38 protein that has been approved for use in combination with other therapies for newly diagnosed and R/R multiple myeloma. Laboratory studies have suggested that teclistamab and daratumumab may work synergistically to eradicate cancer to a greater extent than either agent individually.

To test this hypothesis, researchers randomized 587 patients with R/R multiple myeloma to receive either Tec-Dara or standard second-line therapies. For patients in the control arm, treating physicians chose between two standard three-agent combination therapies which included daratumumab with dexamethasone plus either pomalidomide or bortezomib (known as DPd or DVd, respectively).

Study participants had a median age of 64 with a range of 25-88, and all patients were R/R after one to three prior lines of therapy. Participants remained on their assigned treatment regimen unless they experienced intolerable adverse events, and were followed for a median of nearly 35 months.

The 36-month rate of progression-free survival, the study’s primary endpoint, was achieved in 83.4% of participants who received Tec-Dara and 29.7% of those receiving DPd/DVd, a substantial improvement in favor of Tec-Dara. This benefit was consistent across subgroups of patients by age, prior treatment, tumor genetics, and other factors.

In addition to being a highly efficacious treatment for R/R multiple myeloma as early as the first relapse, researchers noted that the Tec-Dara combination could be more accessible than other second-line therapies for multiple myeloma as it could be delivered in community settings, not just academic centers.

Tec-Dara outperformed DPd/DVd in terms of the trial’s secondary efficacy endpoints as well as quality of life outcomes and had a safety profile comparable to the control arm. Patients receiving Tec-Dara were significantly more likely to achieve a complete response or better, which occurred in 81.8% of patients receiving Tec-Dara and 32.1% among the control arm. They were also more likely to test negative for minimal residual disease (MRD), a sensitive test for remaining cancer cells, with 58.4% of those in the Tec-Dara arm achieving MRD-negativity compared with 17.1% in the control arm. Overall survival was also higher in the Tec-Dara arm, with 83.3% of patients in this group being alive at 36 months compared with 65.0% in the control arm.

The results showed comparable rates of treatment-emergent adverse events, with 95.1% of patients in the Tec-Dara arm and 96.6% of those in the control arm experiencing grade 3-4 adverse events. Rates of serious adverse events and discontinuations due to adverse events were also comparable between groups, researchers reported.

The rate of infections was higher among those receiving Tec-Dara, with 96.5% of patients in this group experiencing infections compared with 84.1% in the control group. The onset of higher-grade infections decreased over time, and researchers noted that strategies for managing infections also improved over the course of the study. Low-grade cytokine release syndrome (CRS) was also common, with grade 1-2 CRS occurring in 60.1% of those receiving Tec-Dara.

One limitation of the study is that patients refractory to daratumumab were not included in the trial. However, some patients (5%) had received daratumumab as part of their first-line therapy and benefited equally from the Tec-Dara combination.

Dr. Mateos noted that future studies could help clarify how doctors might select which patients would benefit most from the Tec-Dara combination in comparison to other therapies. Trials involving other bispecific antibody combinations are also underway and could shed additional light on the optimal use of such combinations as early as the first relapse.

Source: American Society of Hematology

Categories : Mental HealthTags :

New Study Radically Shifts Ideas About Psychosis and Delusions

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New paper challenges old notions of ‘glitched brain’ idea of delusions and instead focuses on physical experiences of strong and deeply held emotion.

Photo by Alex Green on Pexels

People experiencing delusions during an episode of psychosis may be ‘living out’ a deeply held emotion, according to new research that provides a ‘radically different perspective’ on one of the most puzzling elements of psychosis.

About 2–3% of the UK and Australian population will experience psychosis at some point in their lives, with people commonly experiencing their first psychotic episode between the ages of 16 and 30 years old. Delusions are often described as fixed or false beliefs, understood to be reasoning or cognitive deficits and usually portrayed as incomprehensible and bizarre in popular culture.

New research by the University of Birmingham, University of Melbourne, and the University of York, in collaboration with the Australian youth mental health research institute Orygen, offers the first-known study of how delusions in psychosis are shaped by emotions and language, leading those experiencing delusions to ‘live in metaphor.’

The study has been published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Our research provides a radically different perspective on psychotic delusions, demonstrating how they emerge from the emotional, bodily, and linguistic fabric of people’s lives.Dr Rosa Ritunnano, University of Birmingham

Conducted with young adults receiving care from Early Intervention in Psychosis services, the research combines clinical assessment, phenomenological interviews, and life-story narratives to explore how people’s sense of self and their perception of reality change during psychosis.

Dr Rosa Ritunnano, from the Institute for Mental Health at the University of Birmingham, consultant psychiatrist and author of the study, said: “Our research provides a radically different perspective on psychotic delusions, demonstrating how they emerge from the emotional, bodily, and linguistic fabric of people’s lives.

“For a long time, clinicians have struggled to understand where delusions come from and how they take shape. Our research offers new insight by showing how delusions are grounded in emotional experiences that involve great bodily turmoil.”

Strong emotions

The findings reveal that delusions are not isolated ideas produced by ‘glitches in the brain,’ but they reflect distinctive patterns of the body reacting to strong emotions or experiences of dissociation.

Participants described alternating states of intense emotional embodiment, such as feeling exposed, powerful, or connected to God, and disembodiment, such as feeling unreal or detached from one’s body, other people, and the world.

Before the delusions started, people often went through upsetting or traumatic experiences that triggered the same intense feelings they later felt during the delusions, especially being shamed.

Repeated negative experiences such as being publicly mocked and shamed by bullies could induce the bodily perception of being surveilled by others when no one is present (so-called ‘reference delusions’). These turn into persecutory beliefs that others are out to get them, and that an audience can literally see what they are doing or hear what they are thinking at all times — leaving no space for privacy (delusions of ‘thought broadcasting’).

Importantly, delusional experiences were not always negative. For some participants, they involved powerful feelings of awe, love, and spiritual connection, fostering a positive sense of identity and a renewed sense of hope about the future.

Figurative language

A striking feature of participants’ accounts was their use of figurative and metonymic language (expressions linking bodily sensations with complex emotions or abstract ideas). This helps explain why delusional content can appear unusual or bizarre. For instance, feeling ‘exposed’ or ‘tainted’ might be expressed through the beliefs of being watched by cameras or being contaminated (as in delusions of parasitosis).

As a result of having endured strong (often negative) emotional experiences, which are then responded to by the body, and shaped by everyday language use, people experiencing psychotic delusions really are living in metaphor. People may feel delighted and say they are so happy they can ‘touch the sky’; this could lead them to experience the delusion of thinking they can fly.Professor Jeannette Littlemore, University of Birmingham

The language reflects how emotion concepts take shape in bodily experiences, establishing fundamental cognitive links between, for instance, the emotion of parental love and the physical sensation of warmth, or the emotion of shame and the physical sensation of being ‘seen’ by others.

Jeannette Littlemore, Professor of Linguistics and Communication at the University of Birmingham and co-author of the paper, said: “We all use metaphors and narratives to understand our experiences and make sense of our lives. But psychosis patients do so more intensely. As a result of having endured strong (often negative) emotional experiences, which are then responded to by the body, and shaped by everyday language use, people experiencing psychotic delusions really are living in metaphor. People may feel delighted and say they are so happy they can ‘touch the sky’; this could lead them to experience the delusion of thinking they can fly.”

The study argues that better insight into how delusions come about can be used to create more effective care for people experiencing psychosis. Participants felt that there was no space to talk about the meaning of their delusions in the context of their treatment and recovery from psychosis, which led to more shame and increased the sense of being dismissed and marginalised.

The researchers highlight the importance of attending to people’s bodily and emotional worlds, and how they express them, when developing compassionate, effective approaches to psychosis care.

The paper concludes that delusions are not simply beliefs gone wrong, but embodied attempts to restore meaning and emotional balance when life becomes overwhelming. The metaphors and narratives people use are keys to understanding their suffering and are not signs of irrationality.

Source: University of Birmingham

Categories : General InterestTags :

Hyundai Automotive South Africa Reaffirms Disability Inclusion and Mobility for All

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Photo by Ivan S

Hyundai Automotive South Africa reaffirmed its commitment towards embedding disability inclusion into its operations, through continuous  disability-related employee training, improving dealership layouts and vehicle modifications. 

The aim is to foster a culture that recognises disability as part of human diversity rather than a limitation.  “Mobility is not just about getting from one point to another, rather, about access and dignity,” said Stanley Anderson, CEO of Hyundai Automotive South Africa. 

“Our commitment is to ensure our vehicles and dealerships are adequately prepared to support the needs of all customers, including those with disabilities.  More importantly, we want to empower our customer-facing employees with deeper understanding of disability, dismantle misconceptions.  By so doing, we will ensure that customers with disabilities feel welcomed, respected and supported when visiting any Hyundai dealership.”

It has also implemented a range of practical measures to ensure its dealerships are physically accessible and welcoming to persons with disabilities.  This includes improving dealership layouts for ease of movement, ensuring wheelchair-friendly access points. 

The company works closely with a range of specialised suppliers who modify some of its vehicles to suit the mobility needs of persons with disabilities.  “These partnerships ensure that more South Africans can access safe, reliable and custom-adapted mobility solutions suited to their lifestyles and independence,” stated Christine Masinga, Human Resources Director at Hyundai Automotive South Africa.

The national disability prevalence rate in South Africa is estimated at around 7.5%.  Despite national government targets for 2% representation of persons with disabilities in workplaces, recent reports indicate that they comprise less than 1% of the total employees across both government and private companies.

According to the Department of Employment and Labour, eight out of ten disabled persons are unemployed nationally, which is significantly higher than the general unemployment rate.