Tag: 16/11/20

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Steroids Indicated Only for Most Severe COVID Patients

On By ModernMedia

According to new research, treating COVID patients with steroids to manage inflammation and stave off a cytokine storm may only be useful in patients with severe COVID.

Most patients with moderate to severe COVID in fact have a suppressed immune system, suggesting that treatment with steroids such as dexamethasone should only be applied to patients with most severe COVID. Severe COVID patients develop a hyperinflammatory reaction known as a cytokine storm.

The researchers measured cytokine levels in 168 adults with COVID, 26 with flu and 16 that were healthy volunteers. When dexamethasone or other steroids are administered to patients with already lowered immune system, they can backfire.

“We did identify a subset of Covid-19 patients with the broadly upregulated array of cytokines.. But, overall, the average person with Covid-19 had less inflammation than the average person with flu,” said study co-author Paul Thomas of St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

The study authors thus believe that steroids should only be directed at the small subset of COVID patients with an overactive immune response. What they say is an urgent requirement now is a fast, reliable and cheap test to measure cytokines, thereby identifying those patients that are likely to benefit from dexamethasone.

Source: Times of India

Categories : GeneticsTags : Leave a comment

Diet can Affect Sperm through Epigenetics

On By ModernMedia

A team of researchers have investigated the effect of adding nuts to a Western style diet on epigenetic effects of sperm quality.

The epigenetic effects are expressed through DNA methylation, where methyl groups are added to DNA sequences, altering their activity without changing the actual sequence.

A range of lifestyle and environmental factors have been investigated in the search for the cause in the drop of human sperm fertility observed over the pasty 70years. Specific sperm DNA methylation signatures are associated with sperm quality.

The researchers took data from 72 young non-smoking adults from the FERTINUTS trial. In the assigned nut-eating group, the participants’ sperm was found to have significantly sperm count, viability, motility, and morphology. Additionally, alterations in 36 specific DNA methylation regions were observed compared to the control group, and hypermethylation was seen in 97.2% of them.  

Albert Salas-Huetos, first author of the article stated that, “This work demonstrates that there are some sensitive regions of the sperm epigenome that respond to diet, and which can result in changes in sperm and in its ability to fertilise.”

Source: Science Daily

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Moderna COVID Vaccine Confers 94.5% Protection

On By ModernMedia

The BBC reports that, hot on the heels of Pfizer/BioNTech’s announcement of 90% protection conferred by their vaccine, Moderna has announced that their trial with 30 000 participants has achieved a 94.5% level of protection.

This is based on the first 95 participants to develop COVID, with only five having received the vaccine while the others received the placebo. Additionally, although 11 participants developed severe COVID, none came from the vaccine group.

Slight, short-lived adverse effects including headaches, fatigue and pain were reported after receiving the vaccine by patients. Prof Peter Openshaw, of Imperial College London commented, “These effects are what we would expect with a vaccine that is working and inducing a good immune response.”

Moderna’s vaccine also has an advantage over the Pfizer vaccine in that it can be stored at -20C for up to six months, and in a refrigerator for one month. This will significantly improve the logistics of its distribution, requiring a less intensive cold storage chain.

Categories : Diseases, Syndromes and ConditionsTags : Leave a comment

Promising Drug May Worsen Instead of Treat Multiple Sclerosis

On By ModernMedia

A drug, TEPP-46,  that is being assessed to treat multiple sclerosis (MS) may in fact be worsening the progression of the disease, wrote University of Virginia on the Medical Xpress website.

MS is a debilitating disease which affects over one million people in America, in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheath, creating a range of effects in sufferers, from muscle spasms to numbness.

Presently available drugs to treat MS often have unwanted side effects, such as weakening the immune system. Originally developed to fight cancer, TEPP-46 is small-molecule drug that targets the changes in cellular metabolism that occur in both cancer and MS. However, the drug has been shown to produce off-target effects. In the mouse model used by the researchers, the inflammation was directed away from the spinal cord and into the brain. The researchers believed that this was the result of the drug harmfully changing T cells, but could not explain why. 

“It was not at all what we expected,” said MS researcher Alban Gaultier, PhD, of University of Virginia. “The take-home message is that we should be very careful and do more fundamental research before we propose to take this to clinical trials.”

Categories : Cardiovascular DiseaseTags : Leave a comment

A Bad Rap? Statins Have “Nocebo” Effect

On By ModernMedia

According to an article by the BBC, new research funded by the Imperial Heart Foundation indicates that a significant portion of statins’ adverse side effects are attributable to the “nocebo” effect. 

Statins are one of the most prescribed tablets in the UK, used to lower low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and triglycerides levels, and raise high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. The effects help prevent heart attacks and stroke, but nearly a fifth of patients stop taking them due to side effects such as joint pain, muscle ache, fatigue and nausea. In 60 patients were recruited, who had all stopped taking statins due to their adverse effects. On a scale of 0 to 100, those taking placebo tablets reported a similarly high score (15.4) to those taking statins (16.3), compared to a group receiving no tablets (8).  The effect was so strong that many patients discontinued the dummy pills. 

The nocebo effect is the inverse of the placebo effect, where patients experience adverse effects even when they are taking a placebo. This is thought to explain why there is such a high prevalence of penicillin allergies when testing proves otherwise. 

Once the patients were talked through the nocebo effect, most were able to resume statins. It is not known as to why statins have such a powerful nocebo effect, although some attribute this to media creating a “self-fulfilling destiny”.

“If you stopped a man in the street and asked how do you feel about an aspirin or a statin a day, I think people would be much more positive about the aspirin,” said one of the researchers, Dr James Howard.