The Viruses In Our Genes: When Activated, They Damage Brain Development

▫️New Research Shows That Activation of Distinct Human Endogenous Retroviruses, Which Are Part of Our Genome, Impair Brain Development Dramatically. The Finding Could Help To Advance Research Into Therapies for Neurodegenerative Diseases.
▫️In Fact, Humans Possess Five Times More "Human Endogenous Retroviruses, Or HERVs" In Non-Coding Parts Than Coding Genes. So far, Strong focus Has Been Devoted To The Correlation of HERVs And The Onset Or Progression of Diseases.
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Immune System May Never Forget Mild Covid-19

▫️Months After Recovery from Mild Covid-19, When Antibody Levels In The Blood Have Declined, Immune Cells In Bone Marrow Remain Ready To Pump Out New Antibodies Against The Coronavirus, Researchers Reported on Monday In Nature.
▫️Months After Recovering from Mild Cases of Covid-19, People Still Have Immune Cells In Their Body Pumping Out Antibodies Against The Virus That Causes Covid-19, According To A Study from Researchers At Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
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Covid-19 Virus Variants Seen More Often In Young U.S. Children

▫️Young Children Appear To Be Significant Carriers of More Contagious Variants of The New Coronavirus, Such As The Ones Identified In The UK And In California, According To A New U.S. Study.
▫️From March 2020 To April 2021, Researchers At Nine Children's Hospitals Tested A Total of 2,119 Covid-19 Patients Age 18 Or Younger for So-Called Variants of Concern, Along With Key Mutations That Help The Variants Become More Contagious Or Hide From The Patient's Immune System.
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Belgium Halts Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 Vaccine for Under 41s After First EU Death

▫️Belgium Said on Wednesday It Was Suspending Vaccinations With Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen Covid-19 Vaccine for People Under The Age of 41 Following The First Death In Europe from Severe Side-Effects Associated With The Shot.
▫️The Woman Died on May 21 After Being Admitted To Hospital With Severe Thrombosis And Platelet deficiency.
- She Was Vaccinated Through Her Employer, Outside of The Official Belgian Vaccination Campaign.
▫️“The Inter-Ministerial Conference Has Decided To Temporarily Administer Janssen’s Vaccine To The General Population from The Age of 41 Years, Pending A More Detailed Benefit-Risk Analysis by The European Medicines Agency (EMA),” Belgium’s Health Minister Said In A Statement.
▫️Belgium Has So Far Administered About 40,000 J&J Shots, With 80% of Those To People Over 45 Years Old, The Statement Said.
▫️The EMA Said More Than 1.34 Million J&J doses Had Been Administered Within The EU.

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European Medicines Agency Reviewing Woman's Death In Belgium After Getting Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 Vaccine

▫️The European Union’s Drug Regulator Said on Wednesday It Is Reviewing The Death of A Woman In Belgium Who Suffered A Blood Clot And Low Platelets After Receiving Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 Vaccine.
▫️The European Medicines Agency (EMA) Said It Has Asked The U.S. Drugmaker To Carry Out A Series of Additional Studies To Help Assess A Possible Link Between The Shot And A Rare Clotting Condition Known As Thrombosis With Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS).
▫️It Said It Is Reviewing The Case In Belgium With Other Reports of Blood Clots With The Belgian And Slovenian Medicines Agencies.

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No Link Between Milk And Increased Cholesterol According To New Study of 2 Million People

▫️Regular Consumption of Milk Is Not Associated With Increased Levels of Cholesterol, According To Study Published In The International Journal of Obesity.
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US FDA Gives Emergency Use Approval To GSK-Vir Covid-19 Antibody Drug

▫️The U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA) On Wednesday Gave An Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) To The Covid-19 Antibody Treatment Developed by Vir Biotechnology Inc And GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
▫️The EUA Was For The Treatment of Mild-To-Moderate Covid-19 In People Aged 12 Years And Older, The US Health Regulator Said.
▫️Sotrovimab, The Antibody Treatment, Is Not Authorized For Patients Who Are Hospitalized Due To Covid-19 Or Require Oxygen Therapy, According To The Agency.
▫️The European Union’s Drug Regulator Last Week Backed The Use of The Drug for Patients Who Are At Risk of Severe Disease And Do Not Need Supplemental Oxygen.

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CRP Level May Help Guide Use of Tocilizumab In Covidd-19 Pneumonia

▫️It's Worth Considering Tocilizumab In Patients With Moderate-To-Severe Covid-19-Associated Pneumonia And High C-Reactive Protein (CRP) Levels, According To Follow-up Data from A Randomized Controlled Trial.
▫️The Study Published In JAMA Internal Medicine.
▫️They Found A Statistical Interaction Between Baseline CRP Level And The Primary Composite Endpoint At Day 14 (Need for Noninvasive or Invasive Ventilation or Death) And Survival At Day 90, With A Benefit of Tocilizumab In Patients With CRP Levels Above 15.0 mg/dL But Not In Those With CRP Levels At Or Below 15.0 mg/dL.

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Many Solid Organ Transplant Patients Make No Antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 After mRNA Vaccination

▫️Solid Organ Transplant Patients May Not Mount An Immune Response To SARS-CoV-2 mRNA Vaccines, A New Study in France Suggests.
▫️Data from 367 Solid Organ Patients Who Received Two Shots of The Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna mRNA Vaccines Revealed That The Vaccine Was Well-Tolerated But In Two Out of Three Patients Followed For Four Weeks, Vaccination Did Not Lead To Production of Antibodies To The SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein, According To The Report Published In The Annals of Internal Medicine.

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Researchers Uncover Mechanism Related To Severe Post-Covid-19 Disease In Children

▫️Researchers Have Determined That Viral Particles Remaining in The Gut Long After An Initial Covid-19 Infection Can Travel Into The Bloodstream, Instigating The Condition Called Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children (MIS-C).
▫️The Syndrome Can Occur Several Weeks After An Initial Infection; Symptoms Include High Fever, Abdominal Pain, Vomiting, Diarrhea, Rash And Extreme Fatigue. The Hyperinflammatory Response And "Cytokine Storm" Seen in MIS-C Can Lead To Extensive Damage In The Heart, Liver And Other Organs.
▫️Eighty Percent of Children Hospitalized With MIS-C Develop Severe Cardiac Pathology And Face A Prolonged Hospital Stay And Extensive Recovery Period.
▫️The Study Published In The Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine Study Found Safe, Effective In Adolescents

▫️Moderna’s Covid-19 Vaccine Was Shown To Be Effective In Adolescents Aged 12-17 And Showed No New Or Major Safety Problems In A Clinical Trial, The Developer Said on Tuesday, Potentially Setting The Stage for A Second Vaccine for School-Aged Children To Be Authorized In July.
▫️The Company Said That The Vaccine Efficacy Was 100% Beginning 14 Days Following The Second dose. Meanwhile, A 93% Vaccine Efficacy Was Observed In Seronegative Subjects Beginning 14 Days After The First dose.
▫️The Phase II/III TeenCOVE Study of Its Covid-19 Vaccine (mRNA-1273), Enrolled About 3,732 Subjects Aged Between 12 And 18 Years in The US.
▫️Co-developed With The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ (NIAID) Vaccine Research Center Researchers, The Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine Encodes for A Prefusion Stabilised form of The Spike Protein.

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For Men, Low Testosterone Means High Risk of Severe Covid-19, Study Suggests

▫️A New Study Suggests That, Among Men, Low Testosterone Levels In The Blood Are Linked To More Severe Covid-19.
▫️The Study Could Not Prove That Low Testosterone Is A Cause of Severe Covid-19; Low Levels Could Simply Serve As A Marker of Some Other Causal Factors.
▫️Still, The Researchers Urge Caution With Ongoing Clinical Trials Investigating Hormonal Therapies That Block Or Lower Testosterone Or Increase Estrogen As A Treatment for Men With Covid-19.
▫️The Study Appears Online May 25 In JAMA Network Open.

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Study: Sinopharm Covid-19 Vaccines Appear Safe, Effective

▫️Two Covid-19 Vaccines from China's Sinopharm Showed More Than 70% Efficacy Against Symptomatic Cases, But It Remains Unclear How Much Protection They Provide Against Severe Or Asymptomatic Cases, According To The First Detailed Result of A Large Late-Stage Study Published To The Public.
▫️A Vaccine Developed by A Wuhan-Based Subsidiary of Sinopharm Was 72.8% Effective Against Symptomatic Covid-19 At Least Two Weeks After Second Injection, Based on Interim Results, The Peer-Reviewed Study Published In The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Showed on Wednesday.
- This Is Slightly Better Than The 72.5% Rate Announced In A Company Statement In February.
▫️Another Vaccine Developed by A Beijing-Based Institute Linked To Sinopharm, Which This Month Obtained Emergency Use Approval by The World Health Organization (WHO), Showed a 78.1% Efficacy, The Paper Said.
▫️Researchers from Sinopharm And Its Local Partners In The Middle East Say The Trial Involved Around 40,380 Participants.

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DNA Vaccines for Covid-19 Effective In Mice, Hamsters

▫️Currently Available Covid-19 Vaccines Rely on mRNA Strands to Teach The Human Immune System To Recognize The SARS-CoV-2 Virus.
▫️Now, Researchers Reporting In PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases Have Reported The Successful Development of A Vaccine That Instead Uses DNA Encoding The Virus' Spike Protein.
▫️The Researchers Showed That Mice And Hamsters Immunized with The New DNA Vaccine Developed Long-Lasting Antibodies Against The SARS-CoV-2 Spike Protein.
▫️Those Antibodies Peaked At 8 Weeks Post-Immunization But Levels Remained Relatively High At Week 20.
▫️Hamsters That Received Two Immunizations At A 3-Week Interval And Were Exposed To Covid-19 After 7 Weeks Were Protected from The Virus, Showing No Loss of Body Weight And Less Viral RNA In Their Lungs Compared To Animals That Were Not Immunized.
▫️Recent Clinical Trials Have Indicated That DNA Vaccines Are Safe And Effective in Treating Infections Including HIV-1, Zika virus, Ebola Virus And Influenza Viruses.
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Plant-Based Vaccine Against SARS-CoV-2 Shows Promise

▫️Canadian Biotechnology Company Medicago And GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Report That Phase 1 Trials of A Plant-Based Vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 Are Underway And Showing Promise.
▫️The Team, Led by Dr. Brian Ward, Professor of Medicine And Microbiology At McGill University, Canada, Has Published Data From An Initial Clinical Trial Study In Which 180 Adults Aged Between 18 And 55 Were Injected With A Plant-Produced Virus-Like Particle (VLP).
▫️The Trial Indicates That This Novel VLP Developed To Combat SARS-CoV-2, The Causative Agent of Covid-19 Disease, Shows Strong Immunogenic Properties And No Serious Adverse Effects.
▫️Neutralizing Antibody Levels Rose Somewhat In The 21 Days After The First dose, And Jumped Over The 21 Days After The Second Shot.
▫️The Research Paper Is Available To Read At Nature Medicine.
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US FDA Approves Bristol Myers' Bowel Disease Treatment

▫️Bristol Myers Squibb Said on Thursday The U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA) Approved Its Oral Drug Zeposia® (Ozanimod) To Treat Adults With Ulcerative Colitis (UC), A Chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease.
▫️Bristol Myers Gained The Drug, Approved Last Year for Treating Multiple Sclerosis Patients, In 2019 Through Its $74 Billion Buyout of Celgene.
▫️Zeposia, An Oral Medication Taken Once Daily, Is The First And Only Sphingosine 1-Phosphate (S1P) Receptor Modulator Approved for Patients With Moderately To Severely Active UC.
- It Will Compete With Takeda’s Entyvio (Vedolizumab), Which Was Approved for UC By The FDA In 2014.
▫️Zeposia Last Year June Met The Main Goals of A Late-Stage Study, Showing Patients Who Took It Achieved Clinical Remission of Ulcerative Colitis When Compared To Placebo.
▫️The European Medicines Agency Is Currently Reviewing The Marketing Application for Zeposia To Treat Ulcerative Colitis.

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FDA Approves Janssen’s Rybrevant For NSCLC Treatment

▫️The US Food And Drug Administration (FDA) Has Granted The Accelerated Approval To Janssen Pharmaceutical of Johnson And Johnson’s (J&J) Rybrevant (Amivantamab) To Treat Adults With Locally Advanced Or Metastatic Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).
▫️Rybrevant Is Indicated for NSCLC Patients With Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor (EGFR) Exon 20 Insertion Mutations Whose Disease Advanced On Or After Using Platinum-Containing Chemotherapy. The Drug Is The First Targeted Treatment To Receive FDA Approval In This Indication. A Fully Human, Bispecific Antibody, The Drug Is Designed To Target EGFR And MET Receptors. It Attaches Extracellularly And Hinders Tumour Growth, Causing The Death of Tumor Cells.
- In Addition, The FDA Has Also Approved Guardant Health’s Guardant360 CDx Liquid Biopsy Blood Test, Which Can Be Used As A Companion Diagnostic Along With Rybrevant.

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Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine Recommended For Adolescents In Europe

▫️The Human Medicines Committee (CHMP) Of The European Medicines Agency (EMA) Has Recommended To Grant An Extension for The Covid-19 Vaccine Developed by Pfizer And BioNTech For Use In Those Aged 12 – 15 Years.
▫️The European Medicines Agency’s Endorsement Comes Weeks After It Began Evaluating Extending Use of The Vaccine.
▫️The EMA Said Two doses of The Vaccine, Branded As Comirnaty, Were Required in The 12-15 Age Group And Should Be Administered With An Interval of At Least Three Weeks, The Same As for Adults.
▫️This Month, The EU’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) And Centers for Disease Control And Prevention (CDC) Have Both Started Investigating A Possible Link Between Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine And Myocarditis.
▫️The American Heart Association (AHA) And American Stroke Association (ASA) Have Issued A Statement Saying That "The Benefits of The Vaccines Enormously Outweigh The Rare, Possible Risk of Heart-Related Complications, Including Inflammation of The Heart Muscle, Or Myocarditis.”

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AstraZeneca's Tagrisso Wins European Approval In Early Lung Cancer

▫️AstraZeneca’s Top-Selling Tagrisso (Osimertinib) Drug Has Been Approved For Use In The European Union To Treat Patients With Early-Stage EGFR Mutated Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC).
▫️The European Commission Has Approved The Lung Cancer Drug As An Add-on Treatment for Adults Diagnosed Early Enough For The Tumor To Be Surgically Removed, And Who Have A Mutation of The EGFR Gene, The British Drugmaker Said.
▫️The Approval Was Based on Positive Results From A Late-Stage Trial Called ADAURA, Which Showed Tagrisso Cut The Risk of The Tumor Growing Back In Patients Or Death by 80%.
▫️The Drug Is Now Approved To Treat Early-Stage Lung Cancer In More Than 50 Countries, Including, Most Recently, In The United States And China.
▫️The EGFR Mutation Is Found In About A Quarter of Global Lung Cancer Cases, And The Older Generation of EGFR Inhibitors Include Roche’s Tarceva And AstraZeneca’s Iressa.

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Platinum Chemotherapy Can Cause Leukemia In Children With Neuroblastoma, Shows Study

▫️Scientists from The Wellcome Sanger Institute And The University of Cambridge Found That In Children With Neuroblastoma, Treatment With Platinum Chemotherapy Caused Changes To The Genome That Could Then Cause Leukemia In Some Children Later on.
▫️The Findings, Published 27th May 2021 In Blood Could Lead To An Ability To Identify Which Children Are More Likely To Develop The Secondary Cancer.
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Distribution of Lithium In The Brain Plays Key Role In Depressive Disorders

▫️Lithium Is Familiar To Many of Us from Rechargeable Batteries. Most People Ingest Lithium on A Daily Basis in Drinking Water. International Studies Have Shown That A Higher Natural Lithium Content In Drinking Water Coincides With A Lower Suicide Rate Among The Population.
▫️Using Neutrons of The Research Neutron Source At The Technical University of Munich (TUM), A Research Team Has Now Proved That The Distribution of Lithium In The Brains of Depressive People Is Different from The Distribution Found In Healthy Humans.
▫️In Much Higher Concentrations Lithium Salts Have Been Used for Decades To Treat Mania And Depressive Disturbances. However, The Exact Role Lithium Plays In The Brain Is Still Unknown. See More
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