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Tag: Respiratory Diseases and Disorders

  • Extracellular Vesicles Could Be a Marker for Lung Disease Severity in Premature Infants

    Extracellular Vesicles Could Be a Marker for Lung Disease Severity in Premature Infants

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    Newswise — Rockville, Md. (April 6, 2023)—New research finds extracellular vesicles are present in the lungs of premature babies and may be involved in lung development and as a predictor of lung disease. The study is published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. It was chosen as an APSselect article for April.

    Approximately 75% of premature infants born between 22 and 24 weeks’ gestation develop bronchopulmonary dysplasia, a chronic disease that occurs when the lungs are not mature enough at birth to support normal function. Extracellular vesicles—the tiny particles released from all cells that facilitate intercellular communication and may aid in other physiological processes—have been found previously in the lungs, but it’s not clear what role they play in lung development.

    “Because proper lung development requires tremendous cellular and structural changes, it is possible that [extracellular vesicles] are both markers and mediators of these dynamic processes,” the researchers of the current study wrote.

    The research team analyzed samples collected from the airways of premature infants—gestational ages ranged from just over 22 weeks to just under 35 weeks—during standard treatment procedures for respiratory problems, such as intubation. Of the 34 four samples examined, 27 of them contained extracellular vesicles.

    The extracellular vesicles contained epithelial and immune proteins across all stages of lung development. Babies born in the earlier stages of lung development had higher CD24 expression, a protein expressed by a diverse population of cells, with CD24-loaded extracellular vesicles gaining recent attention for their therapeutic role in COVID-19. In addition, the newborns who developed bronchopulmonary dysplasia also had higher levels of CD14 extracellular vesicles, which have been identified as a potential marker for disease severity in adults with acute lung injury.

    “Given what is known about lung development and [bronchopulmonary dysplasia], it is interesting to hypothesize how [extracellular vesicles] carrying the markers identified in this study might participate in normal physiological and pathological processes,” the researchers wrote. “This work provides a foundation for future directions to elucidate the role of [extracellular vesicles] in lung development and injury, including determination of the role of [extracellular vesicles] throughout the stages of lung development.”

    Read the full article, “Developmental trajectory of extracellular vesicle characteristics from the lungs of preterm infants,” published ahead of print in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. It is highlighted as one of this month’s “best of the best” as part of the American Physiological Society’s APSselect program. Read all of this month’s selected research articles.

    NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: To schedule an interview with a member of the research team, please contact APS Media Relations or call 301.634.7314. Find more research highlights in our Newsroom.

    Physiology is a broad area of scientific inquiry that focuses on how molecules, cells, tissues and organs function in health and disease. The American Physiological Society connects a global, multidisciplinary community of more than 10,000 biomedical scientists and educators as part of its mission to advance scientific discovery, understand life and improve health. The Society drives collaboration and spotlights scientific discoveries through its 16 scholarly journals and programming that support researchers and educators in their work.

     

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    American Physiological Society (APS)

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  • Reducing the Appeal of Smoking: Study Confirms Tobacco Warnings on Packages Need Improvement

    Reducing the Appeal of Smoking: Study Confirms Tobacco Warnings on Packages Need Improvement

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    Newswise — CHAPEL HILL, NC – Smoking has been glamorized to consumers for decades, but the packaging of combustible tobacco products have been the central target in a global effort to get more people to not smoke. From colorful pictures to specific wording, what is seen on the surface packaging of these products has long served as the main component in advertising for tobacco companies. In an effort to implement warning labels to help communicate health risks to both current and potential consumers, one study confirms that effective warnings can increase knowledge of the grim realities of tobacco use and awareness of its risks.

    Research has been underway to assess adoption of warning labels for combustible tobacco products worldwide. Led by Leah Ranney, PhD, MA, associate professor in the UNC Department of Family Medicine and Adam Goldstein, MD, MPH, professor and director of Departmental Advancement at the UNC Department of Family Medicine, UNC School of Medicine researchers conducted a study published in the BMJ Open titled, “How do current tobacco warnings compare to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) guidelines: a content analysis of combustible tobacco warnings worldwide.” After identifying a total of 316 warnings from 26 English-speaking countries or jurisdictions– results showed only 53 warnings or just 17% included three key characteristics recommended by the WHO FCTC on a single warning: a marker word such as WARNING prior to the warning statement, cessation resources (i.e., quitline phone number or website) and a pictorial that was not a smoking cue (like a burning cigarette.)

    “Our systematic evaluation of combustible tobacco warnings was important to understand the current landscape of warnings worldwide and to assess at what level evidence-based research was being implemented into these warnings,” said Ranney, first author of the study and director of UNC’s Tobacco Prevention and Evaluation Program. “Our research is the first to compile existing English language combustible tobacco warnings, and our findings confirm that tobacco warnings can improve considerably to follow proposed WHO FCTC guidelines.”

    These guidelines from the WHO explicitly recommend removing advertising and promotion on tobacco product packaging, including all design features that make tobacco products attractive. Research supporting this recommendation concludes that plain packaging with health warning pictures increases visual attention to warnings, increases harm perceptions, and reduces pack appeal, but may not increase the effectiveness of the health warning labels. As of October 2020, 17 countries have adopted plain packaging.

    According to the study, 182 Parties/countries and jurisdictions, which is 90% of the world population, have signed the WHO FCTC treaty in agreement that they will strive to support and ratify these measures. Warnings included in this study were from countries that have signed and ratified the treaty with the exception of the USA, which signed the FCTC on May 10, 2004 but has yet to ratified the treaty (formally entered into the force of the FCTC).

    “Unfortunately, the US is the only country we reviewed with text only tobacco warnings and recent tobacco industry litigation in US courts for incorporating images to strengthen US tobacco warnings has been delayed for over a decade,” said Goldstein, a co-author on the study and director of the Tobacco Intervention Programs at the UNC School of Medicine.

    Current research suggests that larger warnings with pictures/images are more likely to be noticed and more effective in communicating the health risks of smoking. Warnings with pictures identified in the study were primarily from the UK, Canada and Jamaica. Compared with text-only warnings, warnings with images are rated as more personally relevant, more likely to draw attention and be remembered, promote cessation attempts and decrease consumption. Key recommendations from the FCTC include having a variety of warning labels that clearly communicate health risks as well as different issues related to tobacco use; such as, advice on quitting, the addictive nature of tobacco and adverse economic outcomes. The WHO guidelines also recommend several design elements for tobacco warnings, including: location, size, use of pictures, color, rotation, message content, language and source attribution.

    “These recommendations are a key component for implementing a comprehensive integrative approach to tobacco control,” said Ranney. “An abundance of research shows that well-designed warnings on tobacco products can increase public awareness of the health effects of tobacco use and be effective in reducing tobacco product use.”

    Goldstein said, “A person who smokes a pack a day will see a tobacco warning on their pack over 7,000 times a year, proving an incredibly potent stimulus to help them quit smoking.”

    Of these warnings, the study shows, 94% included warning text and an image. Warning text statements most often described health effects to the respiratory (26%), circulatory (19%) and reproductive systems (19%). Cancer was the most frequently mentioned health topic (28%). Fewer than half of warnings included a Quitline resource (41%). Few warnings included messages about secondhand smoke (11%), addiction (6%) or cost (1%). Of warnings with images, most were in color and showed people (88%), mostly adults (40%). More than 1 in 5 warnings with images included a smoking cue.

    Ranney said it’s important for readers to understand that this study, while it includes a great deal of combustible (i.e., cigarette, cigars, hookah, pipes, bidis) tobacco warnings from many countries, is not inclusive of all tobacco warnings globally. Also, there were some limitations: researchers collected only English-language warnings, all the warnings were identified through electronic database searches, and some of the warning images were poor making it difficult to identify and code all warning characteristics.

    While there’s still more research that needs to be done, this systematic study identified the key characteristics of existing combustible tobacco warnings to better understand how these warnings compare to current warning guidelines based on research.

    “Population-based tobacco control interventions like effective tobacco product warnings working synergistically with other tobacco control interventions (media campaigns, cessation programs, anti-tobacco policies, etc.) is the strategy for moving towards tobacco free environments and reduce tobacco product consumption,” said Ranney.

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    University of North Carolina Health Care System

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  • RSV hospitalizations spiked unusually high in late 2021, study finds

    RSV hospitalizations spiked unusually high in late 2021, study finds

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    Newswise — The COVID-19 pandemic posed an immense challenge on the health care industry in 2020 and 2021. While hospitals were inundated with COVID-19 cases, other illnesses such as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) saw a decrease in hospital visits, particularly in the fourth quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021.

    A Texas A&M University School of Public Health study recently published in the journal Frontiers found that while there were an unusually low number of hospitalizations in 2020, there was an unusual peak in the third quarter of 2021, when hospital admissions for RSV were approximately twice those in a typical year.

    “We found some really interesting data,” said Itza Mendoza-Sanchez, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH) and one of the lead authors on the study. “We had very low numbers in 2020 because of COVID, but then we saw higher numbers in 2021.”

    “Kids were not going into daycare and getting that exposure (to RSV), and that mirrored the dynamic,” added Natalie Johnson, PhD, associate professor in EOH, and one of the lead authors of the study,

    RSV is a common airway pathogen that most frequently results in mild, cold-like respiratory tract infections. In children younger than two years of age, RSV infection can result in severe lower respiratory illness, including acute bronchiolitis or pneumonia.

    The seasons are usually a strong predictor of RSV infection, with activity typically occurring in late fall, winter and early spring, peaking from late December to mid-February. According to the researchers, however, the COVID-19 pandemic had an effect on RSV seasonality.

    Additionally, the researchers found that the length of hospital stays in relation to RSV, which typically followed a seasonal trend prior to COVID-19, was longer during the pandemic despite the lower number of cases.

    “We can only hypothesize that during COVID they were only accepting the extreme cases, and on average the length of stay was longer,” Mendoza-Sanchez said. “We learned that what has happened in the past is informing us that if something similar happens in the future we have to be ready for the peaks in cases.”

    Additional authors on the paper include Inyang Uwak, Toriq Mustapha, Mariya Rahman and Tanaya Tonpay, all from the Department of Environmental & Occupational Health, and Annette K. Regan from the School of Nursing and Health Professions at the University of San Francisco.

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    Texas A&M University

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  • Where there’s smoke, there’s thiocyanate: McMaster researchers find tobacco users in Canada are exposed to higher levels of cyanide than other regions

    Where there’s smoke, there’s thiocyanate: McMaster researchers find tobacco users in Canada are exposed to higher levels of cyanide than other regions

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    Newswise — HAMILTON, ON – Mar 24, 2024 – Tobacco users in Canada are exposed to higher levels of cyanide than smokers in lower-income nations, according to a large-scale population health study from McMaster University.

    Scientists made the discovery while investigating the molecule thiocyanate – a detoxified metabolite excreted by the body after cyanide inhalation. It was measured as a urinary biomarker of tobacco use in a study of self-reported smokers and non-smokers from 14 countries of varying socioeconomic status. 

    “We expected the urinary thiocyanate levels would be similar across regions and reflect primarily smoking intensity. However, we noticed significant elevation of thiocyanate in smokers from high-income countries even after adjusting for differences in the number of cigarettes smoked per day,” says Philip Britz-McKibbin, co-author of the study and a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at McMaster.

    Tobacco-related illness remains the leading cause of preventable illness and premature death in Canada, contributing to approximately 48,000 deaths annually. According to researchers, the findings could be caused by the type of cigarettes smoked in high-income countries like Canada.

    “The cigarettes commonly consumed in Canada are highly engineered products with lower tar and nicotine content to imply they’re less harmful. Heavy smokers with nicotine dependence compensate by smoking more aggressively with more frequent and deeper inhalations that may elicit more harm, such as greater exposure to the respiratory and cardiotoxin, cyanide.”

    Smoking rates in Canada have declined from 26 per cent in 2001 to 13 per cent in 2020. But participation in smoking cessation programs has declined during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to concern about a potential uptick in smoking rates, including cannabis use and a plethora of vaping of products popular among young adults.

    Researchers say urinary thiocyanate can serve as a robust biomarker of the harms of tobacco smoke that will aid future research on the global tobacco picture, since most smokers now reside in developing countries. As smoking rates have decreased here in Canada, at-risk groups like youth and pregnant women have been prone to underreport their tobacco use when surveyed, making a reliable biomarker more valuable.

    “Historically assessing tobacco behaviors have relied on questionnaires that are prone to bias, especially when comparing different countries and local cultures. The idea is to find robust methods that can quantify recent tobacco smoke exposure more reliably and objectively, which may better predict disease risk and prioritize interventions for smoking cessation.” says Britz-Mckibbin.

    The study was published in the latest issue of Nicotine and Tobacco Research and received funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Genome Canada, the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Hamilton Health Sciences New Investigator Fund, and an internal grant from the Population Health Research Institute.

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    For more information please contact:

     

    Photos of Philip Britz-McKibbin can be found here

    Credit: McMaster University

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    McMaster University

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  • Immune cells have a backup mechanism

    Immune cells have a backup mechanism

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    Newswise — The enzyme TBK1 is an important component of the innate immune system that plays a critical role in the defense against viruses. Upon mutation-induced loss of TBK1 function, patients show an increased susceptibility to viral infections. Strikingly, if TBK1 is not expressed at all, this clinical effect is not seen. The mechanism behind this supposed discrepancy has now been elucidated by researchers led by Prof. Martin Schlee from the University Hospital Bonn and the Cluster of Excellence ImmunoSensation2 at the University of Bonn. The study was published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.

    In the human body, viral particles are recognized by so called pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) situated within the cell or on the cell surface. Upon activation, a signaling cascade is initialized which ultimately results in the production and release of signaling molecules such as interferons and cytokines. These messenger molecules alert neighboring immune cells and point out the viral infection, inducing an immune reaction.

    Part of this signaling cascade is the TANK Binding Kinase 1 (TBK1). If viral particles are detected by PRRs, TBK1 is activated. TBK1 in turn activates two transcription factors which travel into the nucleus where they induce the transcription of interferon and cytokine genes.

    Susceptibility to viral infections

    Point-mutations in the TBK1 gene may induce a loss of function of TBK1. In humans, this manifests itself in clinical susceptibility to viral infections. Strikingly, this effect is not to be observed if TBK1 is not expressed and entirely lacking in the cell. “Surprisingly, a complete absence of TBK1 expression in humans is not associated with a reduced antiviral response,” says Prof. Martin Schlee of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology at the University Hospital Bonn. Until now, it was unclear why a complete loss of TBK1 expression is better tolerated in terms of immunocompetence than a mutation of TBK1 affecting the kinase function.

    The Bonn researchers have now been able to provide an explanation for these previously unexplained observations. “A second enzyme that is very similar to TBK1 plays an important role in this: the IkB kinase epsilon, or IKKepsilon for short,” explains Dr. Julia Wegner, first author of the study. Just like TBK1, IKKepsilon acts downstream of PRRs and controls the expression of interferons. The two proteins are also very similar in structure, with more than 60 percent sequence homology. A novel finding is that TBK1 has a direct effect on IKKepsilon. “In myeloid cells, we could show that TBK1 regulates the expression of the related kinase IKKepsilon,” adds Dr. Wegner.

    No half measures

    TBK1 reduces the stability of IKKepsilon. This process is independent of the protein’s enzymatic function. “Accordingly, TBK1 that is nonfunctional due to point mutation is still able to destabilize IKKepsilon,” explains Prof. Gunther Hartmann, director of the Institute of Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Pharmacology and spokesperson of the ImmunoSensation2 Cluster of Excellence. “This leads to a continuous degradation of the kinase IKKepsilon in human immune cells.”

    Therefore, loss of TBK1 expression leads to an increased abundance of IKKepsilon. This mechanism ensures that an antiviral immune response can occur despite the absence of TBK1. Loss of function of TBK1 induced by point mutations, on the other hand, does not prevent destabilization and degradation of IKKepsilon, so that ultimately both factors are not available for viral defense. Increased susceptibility to viral infections is the result.

    Weapons of a virus

    In a healthy organism, increased amounts of IKKepsilon can thus compensate for the loss of TBK1. This becomes particularly important when viruses specifically seek to eliminate the body’s own defenses. Herpes simplex virus 1 (HSV-1), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) but also severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) are able to specifically induce TBK1 degradation. Also, several bacterial species are capable of causing the degradation of TBK1. “Our data clearly show that human immune cells have an important backup mechanism,” explains Dr. Wegner. “They are able to maintain an effective antiviral response even when pathogen-induced degradation of TBK1 occurs. Furthermore, the mechanism also takes effect in the case of genetic loss of TBK1.”

    Publication: Wegner Julia, Hunkler Charlotte, Ciupka Katrin, Hartmann Gunther, Schlee Martin (2023); Increased IKKepsilon protein stability ensures efficient type I interferon responses in conditions of TBK1 deficiency; Frontiers in Immunology , Vol. 14; DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2023.1073608

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    University of Bonn

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  • New Class of Drugs May Prevent Infection by Wide Range of COVID-19 Variants

    New Class of Drugs May Prevent Infection by Wide Range of COVID-19 Variants

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    RESEARCH SUMMARY

    Publication: Nature Genetics https://www.nature.com/articles/s41588-023-01307-z

    Dana-Farber Cancer Institute author: Cigall Kadoch, PhD,

     

    Summary:

    A new class of oral drugs can inhibit a wide range of SARS-CoV-2 variants, researchers report, potentially identifying new antiviral agents providing broad activity against the constantly emerging new strains of the COVID-19 virus. The researchers discovered that the mammalian SWI/SNF (also called BAF) chromatin remodeling complex, a regulator of gene expression –controls the expression of the ACE2, the cellular receptor or “entry point” used by COVID-19 viruses.  When mSWI/SNF complexes were disrupted, the cell could no longer make ACE-2 receptor protein and became resistant to infection by any virus that uses that receptor. Kadoch’s work on mSWI/SNF complexes over the years has led to experimental drugs currently in phase 1 trials as anti-cancer agents. These oral drugs now are looking promising for use in COVID-19, since they can inhibit ACE2 activity and nearly completely block viral infection in multiple cell lines and human lung organoids.

    Impact:

    The formerly potent array of monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 continue to lose their activity as new less-sensitve variants of the virus appear: indeed, one by one, they have gone off the market. The need for more broadly acting agents against new and drug-resistant viruses is great. With the identification of this new target – a druggable chromatin regulatory complex – inhibition of which prevents infection of host cells, Kadoch and co-author Craig Wilen, MD, PhD, of the Yale Cancer Center have found a promising novel approach to combating the constantly-changing SARS virus.

    Funding:

    This work was supported by NIH grants K08AI128043, Burroughs Wellcome Fund, Smith Family Foundation, Ludwig Family Foundation, Huffington Foundation, Mathers Foundation, Emergent Ventures Fast Grant, and NIH Director’s New Innovator Award 1DP2CA195762-01.

     

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    Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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  • With $13M, UIC scientists will study lung inflammation mechanisms

    With $13M, UIC scientists will study lung inflammation mechanisms

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    Newswise — Researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago hope to learn more about how the human immune system is regulated by the endothelium in lung tissue, thanks to a $13 million, multi-project Program Project Grant award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

    The researchers hope that the projects will lead to new avenues for research and treatments to help patients who suffer from conditions like chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder, pulmonary fibrosis and acute respiratory distress disorder, a common and serious complication of COVID-19.

    Conditions like these are known to be exacerbated by the body’s own immune response, such as when the inflammation meant to fight infections or heal injuries spirals out of control and winds up inflicting harm.

    The researchers think that these inflammatory conditions may be common in the lungs because of unique endothelial cells, which line blood vessels and shield the lungs from trauma and bacterial or viral infections.

    “Targeted therapies remain an urgent unmet need. It is now becoming increasingly clear that the lung endothelium is a complex monolayer, an organ itself,” said Dolly Mehta, UIC professor and interim head of the Department of Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine at the College of Medicine and the program director for the grant.  

    “Studying this enigmatic immune regulatory function of lung endothelium is crucial for understanding how endothelial cells control immunity and defensive function of the lungs,” she said.

    The research team consists of six investigators who will lead three separate project grants and three separate cores.

    Mehta is also the principal investigator for one of the projects, for $2.2 million, which supports research on a protein receptor in endothelial cells that promotes lung integrity.

    Asrar Malik, professor of pharmacology and regenerative medicine, and Dr. Jalees Rehman, professor and head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics, will lead the other two project grants.

    Malik’s lab will look at an enzyme called E3 ligase that influences the integrity of the lining of the blood vessels and the genes that activate the enzyme. Rehman’s lab will look at how mitochondria in endothelial cells can be leveraged to prevent out-of-control inflammation. The awards are $1.8 million and $2.2 million, respectively.

    “We know that in tissues like those found in the lung, heart and brain, the blood vessels present a unique and complicated immune environment, and we know that there is an interconnectedness between all the many cellular processes. The idea of this multi-project grant is to help create an infrastructure for collaboration among researchers looking at these various mechanisms,” Mehta said.

    Konstantinos Chronis, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular genetics, will lead the project’s epigenetics and transcriptomics core. Gary Mo, assistant professor of pharmacology and regenerative medicine, will lead the cellular imaging core. Yoshikazu Tsukasaki, a research assistant professor also from the department of pharmacology and regenerative medicine, will lead the intravital imaging and physiology core.

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    University of Illinois Chicago

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  • Flu vaccination rate holds steady but misinformation about flu and Covid-19 persists

    Flu vaccination rate holds steady but misinformation about flu and Covid-19 persists

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    Newswise — PHILADELPHIA – Although the public had been alerted that this winter could be a potentially bad flu season, barely half of Americans said in January that they had received a flu shot, a vaccination level unchanged in a representative national panel from the comparable period last year, according to a new Annenberg Science Knowledge (ASK) survey by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

    The panel survey, fielded with over 1,600 U.S. adults, finds that many have a base of knowledge about the flu but there is a reservoir of uncertainty about other consequential information about the flu, Covid-19, and vaccination. Among the findings of the ASK survey, which also inquired more broadly about attitudes toward vaccine mandates and the continuing “return to normal”:

    • Nearly half of Americans (49%) do not know it is safe to get a flu shot during pregnancy.
    • Over half of Americans (53%) say the Army should be able to require Covid-19 vaccination for soldiers who do not have a medical or religious exemption – and a plurality (45%) say public schools should be able to require Covid-19 vaccination of all children who do not have a medical or religious exemption.
    • Only 10% of those who had heard of NFL player Damar Hamlin’s on-field collapse think that vaccination was connected to his cardiac arrest – but many more are not sure whether the rate of heart-related deaths has increased among young athletes over the past three years.
    • More than half of Americans (52%) now say their lives have returned to a pre-pandemic normal, up significantly from 47% in October 2022.

    “Although the CDC indicated that seasonal flu activity is now low nationally, the fact that the level of reported flu vaccination in our panel was roughly the same in January of this year as a year before is concerning,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center. “Because this has been a more severe flu season than the one a year ago, we expected an increase in the reported vaccination rate.”

    The nationally representative panel of 1,657 U.S. adults surveyed by SSRS for the Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) of the University of Pennsylvania from January 10-16, 2023, was the tenth wave of an Annenberg Science Knowledge survey whose respondents were first empaneled in April 2021. The margin of sampling error (MOE) is ± 3.2 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. See the Appendix and Methodology for question wording and additional information.

    What the public knows: The flu and flu shot

    The latest wave of the ASK survey finds that many people know the basics about the flu:

    • Handwashing: 93% of respondents know that washing your hands helps you avoid getting sick from or spreading the seasonal flu.
    • Getting the flu again: 83% know it’s possible to get the flu more than once in a flu season.
    • Vaccine effectiveness: 77% know that the effectiveness of the seasonal flu shot in the United States can vary from year to year.
      • However, 19% of respondents also think, incorrectly, that the effectiveness of the measles vaccine can vary from year to year and 40% are not sure.
      • Nearly three-quarters of those surveyed (73%) think the seasonal flu shot is effective at reducing the risk of getting the flu this year.
    • Mask-wearing: 77% know that wearing a high-quality, well-fitting mask helps limit the spread of flu.
    • Contagion: 76% know it’s possible to spread the seasonal flu to others even if you have no symptoms.
      • 14% of our respondents say they have had the flu this season. Of this group, 8% had no symptoms; 29% had mild symptoms; 43% had moderate symptoms; and 19% had severe symptoms.

    A majority of the public knows that the following claims are false:

    • Flu vaccine and Covid-19: Three-quarters (77%) know it’s false to say that the seasonal flu shot increases your risk of getting Covid-19 – though 6% incorrectly think this is true and 17% are not sure whether it is true or false. (See APPC’s project FactCheck.org to learn more about the false claim linking the flu shot and Covid-19.)
    • Better late than never: 71% know it’s false to say that if you haven’t gotten your flu shot by November, there’s no value in getting it – though 11% incorrectly think this is true and 18% are not sure. (The CDC recommends vaccination even after November because significant flu activity can continue into May.)
    • Cold weather: Nearly two-thirds (65%) know it’s false to say that cold weather causes the flu – but a third either incorrectly think this is true (22%) or are not sure (13%).
    • The flu can be treated: 64% of respondents know it’s false to say there is no treatment for the flu – but 23% incorrectly think this is true and 13% are not sure if it is true.

    Areas of uncertainty

    But there are important claims about the flu that substantial parts of the public are confused about:

    • Pregnancy: Almost half (49%) do not know that it is safe to get a flu shot during pregnancy, including the 10% who think it is not safe and 39% who are unsure. Just 51% know it is safe.
    • Get flu from the shot? 46% do not know you cannot get the flu from the flu shot, including 29% who think you can get the flu from the shot and 16% who are not sure.
    • Antibiotics and the flu: 45% do not know that the flu cannot be treated with antibiotics, including 25% who think it can be treated with antibiotics and 20% who are unsure.
    • Antibiotics and viruses: 40% do not know that antibiotics do not work on viruses such as those that cause colds, the flu, and Covid-19 – including 20% who think it is false to say antibiotics don’t work on viruses, and 20% who are unsure.

    Attitudes toward flu vaccination

    • Tamiflu: Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed (65%) disagree with the statement that there’s no need for a flu shot because they can always use Tamiflu to treat flu symptoms.
    • Breakthrough infections: 58% disagree with the statement that breakthrough seasonal flu infections are evidence that flu shots don’t work – though 15% agree and 26% neither agree nor disagree.
    • Danger to children: 57% disagree with the statement that children do not need the seasonal flu shot because they are at a low risk of death from the flu – though 18% agree and 25% neither agree nor disagree.
    • Flu shots for all: Just 41% agree that every person older than six months should get a flu shot every year – 33% disagree and 26% neither agree nor disagree. The CDC recommends a flu shot every season for nearly everyone six months and older.

    How many have had a flu shot and why

    The ASK survey in January 2023 finds that 49% of respondents say they have had a seasonal flu shot, statistically unchanged from 47% in our January 2022 survey and 50% in April 2021. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), nearly 46% of U.S. adults 18 and older had a flu shot as of December 31, 2022.

    The CDC actively promoted flu vaccination amid concerns that the 2022-23 season would be severe.

    When the 49% of survey respondents who said they got the flu vaccine were asked in January why they got the shot (multiple responses were permitted):

    • 69% said I get it every year (down from 78% in January 2022)
    • 64% said to protect myself against catching the flu (up from 44% in January 2022)
    • 8% said to protect myself against Covid-19 (unchanged from 9% in January 2022)
    • 25% said because it is recommended by the CDC (this response was not previously offered)

    Concerns: The flu, Covid-19, RSV, polio, myocarditis

    Worries about family members contracting flu, Covid, or RSV: About a third of those surveyed say they are somewhat or very worried about family members contracting Covid-19 (36%), the seasonal flu (35%), or RSV, respiratory syncytial virus (33%). Only 11% say they are somewhat/very worried about a family member contracting polio, which reemerged as a public health threat in July 2022 after a case was reported in New York State. (FactCheck.org has more about poliovirus being found in New York City sewage.)

    Myocarditis: Rare cases of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, have been reported among those who have had mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, particularly young males following a second vaccine dose. (FactCheck.org has more on the Covid-19 vaccine and myocarditis.) The connection between myocarditis and the vaccine has drawn attention on social media and in news media.

    The survey found that over a third of respondents (37%) think that Covid-19 poses a higher risk for myocarditis than the vaccine against Covid-19. But 17% think that is false and nearly half of those surveyed (47%) are not sure which poses a higher risk.

    Damar Hamlin and young athletes dying of heart problems

    Much of the public rejects the notion that Damar Hamlin’s collapse during an NFL game had anything to do with the vaccine against Covid-19. But the survey finds that many people are uncertain about the broader unsupported claim that more young athletes are dying of heart problems these days.

    Hamlin, a safety on the Buffalo Bills, suffered a cardiac arrest during the Jan. 2, 2023, game against the Cincinnati Bengals, triggering a spate of unfounded, anti-vaccine conspiracy theories on social media about the cause. The overwhelming majority of those in our survey (87%) said they had heard, read, or seen reports of his collapse.

    But those respondents overwhelmingly reject the idea that a Covid-19 vaccine caused Hamlin’s injury. Only 10% of those who had heard of the incident attribute it to factors connected with the vaccine. Nearly half (49%) say that based on what they had heard of it, Hamlin’s cardiac arrest was most likely caused by being hit hard in the chest; 17% say an underlying heart condition; and 21% say they are not sure. (FactCheck.org writes about what was known about Hamlin’s injury.)

    While social media posts with millions of views quickly associated Hamlin’s collapse with vaccination, mainstream media sources noted the lack of evidence for such claims or dismissed them as misinformation. See, for example, stories such as The inevitable, grotesque effort to blame vaccines for Damar Hamlin’s collapse (Washington Post, Jan. 3) and Hamlin’s collapse spurs new wave of vaccine misinformation (Associated Press, Jan. 5).

    However, 26% of those surveyed say they think that the number of young athletes dying of heart problems increased over the past three years, and nearly half (49%) are not sure whether the number has increased or decreased. Only 23% say that the numbers of deaths have remained virtually unchanged. (See FactCheck.org’s article No Surge in Athlete Deaths, Contrary to Widespread Anti-Vaccine Claims on why this claim is unfounded.)

    Covid-19 and MMR vaccine mandates

    Schools and military: The ASK survey finds stronger support for a Covid-19 vaccine mandate in the military than in public schools, with over half supporting a military mandate:

    • 53% of those surveyed strongly or somewhat agree that the U.S. Army should be able to require Covid-19 vaccination of all soldiers who do not have a medical or religious exemption and 30% strongly or somewhat disagree (asked of a survey half-sample).
    • 45% strongly or somewhat agree that public schools should be able to require Covid-19 vaccination of all children who do not have a medical or religious exemption and 38% strongly or somewhat disagree (asked of a half-sample).

    MMR vaccine: Asked their views on the childhood vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), 63% agree that healthy children should be required to get the MMR vaccine in order to attend public schools, while 22% say parents should be able to decide whether to vaccinate their children who attend public schools and 15% are not sure.

    Getting back to ‘normal’

    The return to normal: Asked when they expect to be able to return to “your normal, pre-Covid-19 life,” more than half of Americans (52%) say they already have – up from 47% in October 2022. More than 1 in 5 Americans (22%) continue to say “never,” which is statistically unchanged since July 2022.

    Mask-wearing: Six in 10 people (61%) say they never or rarely wear masks, statistically unchanged from the 60% who said this in October 2022. And 18% say they always or often wear a mask, also statistically unchanged from the 17% who said so in October.

    See the Appendix for question wording and data and the Methodology for additional information. Read about prior Annenberg Science Knowledge surveys.

    The Annenberg Public Policy Center was established in 1993 to educate the public and policy makers about communication’s role in advancing public understanding of political, science, and health issues at the local, state, and federal levels. APPC is the home of FactCheck.org and its SciCheck program, whose Covid-19/Vaccination Project seeks to debunk misinformation about Covid-19 and vaccines, and increase exposure to accurate information.

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  • Tobacco and e-cigs may put healthy young people at risk of severe COVID illness, new UCLA research suggests

    Tobacco and e-cigs may put healthy young people at risk of severe COVID illness, new UCLA research suggests

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    EMBARGOED FOR USE UNTIL 5 p.m. PT/8 p.m. ET on Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023

    Newswise — New UCLA research suggests that smoking tobacco and vaping electronic cigarettes may increase healthy young people’s risk for developing severe COVID illness.

    This is among the first studies to find that not only smoking tobacco, but also vaping, may predispose people to increased inflammation and future development of severe COVID-19 and the lingering cardiovascular complications that can occur after initial illness from the virus, said Dr. Theodoros Kelesidis, the study’s lead author.

     “The key message is that smoking is the worst, but vaping is not innocent,” said Kelesidis, associate professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. “This has been shown for many lung diseases but not for COVID. It was a quite interesting and novel finding that vaping changed the levels of key proteins that the virus uses to replicate.”

    The study will be published Feb.9 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Molecular Medicine.

    The investigators examined plasma collected before the pandemic from 45 non-smokers, 30 electronic cigarette vapers, and 29 tobacco cigarette smokers, testing it to measure levels of since-identified proteins that SARS-CoV-2, the virus at the heart of the pandemic, needs in order to replicate. These proteins are ACE2, furin, Ang II, Ang 1–7, IL-6R, sCD163, L-selectin. The three latter proteins are collectively regulated in cells by a protein known as ADAM17.

    They found that plasma from healthy young people who smoke tobacco or vape had increased levels of furin, sCD163, and L-selectin compared to non-smokers. These data suggest that there may be increased activity of the proteins furin and ADAM17 in the immune cells as well as surface cells, such as those lining the lungs, in healthy young smokers and vapers.

    “E-cigarette vapers may be at higher risk than non-smokers of developing infections and inflammatory disorders of the lungs,” Kelesidis said.  “Electronic cigarettes are not harmless and should be used for only the shortest time possible in smoking cessation, and not at all by nonsmokers.”

    Limitations include the small size of the study, which suggests the need for research with a larger sample size; the reliance on testing blood plasma rather than tissue samples such as lung cells that are believed to be affected by smoking and vaping, which also warrants deeper research; and a lack of evidence of the role that the ADAM17 proteins may play in severe COVID illness among non-smokers.

    Study co-authors are Madhav Sharma, Sandro Satta, Elizabeth Tran, Rajat Gupta, Dr. Jesus Araujo, and Dr. Holly Middlekauff of UCLA.

    The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP 28IR0065), the University of California Office of the President (R00RG2749 Emergency COVID-19 Research Seed Funding), and by the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) UCLA CTSI (L1TR001881).

     

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    University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Health Sciences

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  • Scientists discover receptor that blocks COVID-19 infection

    Scientists discover receptor that blocks COVID-19 infection

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    Newswise — University of Sydney scientists have discovered a protein in the lung that blocks SARS-CoV-2 infection and forms a natural protective barrier in the human body.

    This protein, the leucine-rich repeat-containing protein 15 (LRRC15), is an inbuilt receptor that binds the SARS-CoV-2 virus without passing on the infection.

    The research opens up an entirely new area of immunology research around LRRC15 and offers a promising pathway to develop new drugs to prevent viral infection from coronaviruses like COVID-19 or deal with fibrosis in the lungs.

    The study has been published in the journal PLOS Biology. It was led by Professor Greg Neely with his team members Dr Lipin Loo, a postdoctoral researcher, and PhD student Matthew Waller at the Charles Perkins Centre and the School of Life and Environmental Sciences.

    The University study is one of three independent papers that reveal this specific protein’s interaction with COVID-19.

    “Alongside two other groups, one at Oxford, the other at Brown and Yale in the USA, we found a new receptor in the LRRC15 protein that can stop SARS-CoV-2. We found that this new receptor acts by binding to the virus and sequestering it which reduces infection,” Professor Neely said. 

    “For me, as an immunologist, the fact that there’s this natural immune receptor that we didn’t know about, that’s lining our lungs and blocks and controls virus, that’s crazy interesting.

    “We can now use this new receptor to design broad acting drugs that can block viral infection or even suppress lung fibrosis.”

    What is LRRC15?

    The COVID-19 virus infects humans by using a spike protein to attach to a specific receptor in our cells. It primarily uses a protein called the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor to enter human cells. Lung cells have high levels of ACE2 receptors, which is why the COVID-19 virus often causes severe problems in this organ of infected people.

    Like ACE2, LRRC15 is a receptor for coronavirus, meaning the virus can bind to it. But unlike ACE2, LRRC15 does not support infection. It can, however, stick to the virus and immobilise it. In the process, it prevents other vulnerable cells from becoming infected.

    “We think it acts a bit like Velcro, molecular Velcro, in that it sticks to the spike of the virus and then pulls it away from the target cell types,” Dr Loo said.

    “Basically, the virus is coated in the other part of the Velcro, and while it’s trying to get to the main receptor, it can get caught up in this mesh of LRRC15,” Mr Waller said. 

    LRRC15 is present in many locations such as lungs, skin, tongue, fibroblasts, placenta and lymph nodes. But the researchers found human lungs light up with LRRC15 after infection.   

    “When we stain the lungs of healthy tissue, we don’t see much of LRRC15, but then in COVID-19 lungs, we see much more of the protein,” Dr Loo said.

    “We think this newly identified protein could be part of our body’s natural response to combating the infection creating a barrier that physically separates the virus from our lung cells most sensitive to COVID-19.”

    Implications of the research

    “When we studied how this new receptor works, we found that this receptor also controls antiviral responses, as well as fibrosis, and could link COVID-19 infection with lung fibrosis that occurs during long COVID,” Mr Waller said.

    “Since this receptor can block COVID-19 infection, and at the same time activate our body’s anti-virus response, and suppress our body’s fibrosis response, this is a really important new gene,” Professor Neely said.

    “This finding can help us develop new antiviral and antifibrotic medicines to help treat pathogenic coronaviruses, and possibly other viruses or other situations where lung fibrosis occurs.

    “For fibrosis, there are no good drugs: for example, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis is currently untreatable.”

    Fibrosis is a condition in which lung tissue becomes scarred and thickened, causing breathing difficulties. COVID-19 can cause inflammation and damage to the lungs, leading to fibrosis.

    The authors said they are developing two strategies against COVID-19 using LRRC15 that could work across multiple variants – one which targets the nose as a preventative treatment, and another aimed at the lungs for serious cases.

    The researchers also said that the presence or lack of LRRC15, which is involved in lung repair, is an important indication of how severe a COVID-19 infection might become.

    “A group at Imperial College London independently found that absence of LRRC15 in the blood is associated with more severe COVID, which supports what we think is happening.” Dr Loo said. “If you have less of this protein, you likely have serious COVID. If you have more of it, your COVID is less severe.

    “We are now trying to understand exactly why this is the case.”

    The research involved screening human cell cultures for genes and investigating the lungs of human COVID-19 patients.

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    University of Sydney

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  • Omics and AI May Help Predict Lung Disease Risk in Premature Babies

    Omics and AI May Help Predict Lung Disease Risk in Premature Babies

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    Research Alert

    Article title: Development of a peripheral blood transcriptomic gene signature to predict bronchopulmonary dysplasia

    Authors: Alvaro Moreira, Miriam Tovar, Alisha M. Smith, Grace C. Lee, Justin A. Meunier, Zoya Cheema, Axel Moreira, Caitlyn Winter, Shamimunisa B. Mustafa, Steven Seidner, Tina Findley, Joe G. N. Garcia, Bernard Thébaud, Przemko Kwinta, Sunil K. Ahuja

    From the authors: “In conclusion, we show that the combination of omics and artificial intelligence can potentially predict [bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD)] and stratify neonates at risk for severe BPD.”

    This study is highlighted as one of February’s “best of the best” as part of the American Physiological Society’s APSselect program.


    Journal Link: American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology

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    American Physiological Society (APS)

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  • Abandoning wood cook stoves would be great for Africa, if families could afford it

    Abandoning wood cook stoves would be great for Africa, if families could afford it

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    Newswise — DURHAM, N.C. — Replacing traditional biomass-burning cookstoves across sub-Saharan Africa could save more than 463,000 lives and US $66 billion in health costs annually, according to a new analysis of the most socially optimal cooking technologies in Africa.

    But the promise of those outcomes alone may not be enough to hasten the adoption of cleaner alternatives, the researchers warn.

    The study, published in the open source journal Nature Sustainability, used a geospatial model to determine the best cooking options by location across the continent, weighing factors such as availability and cost of fuel, time spent gathering fuels and preparing meals, and impacts on health and the environment. In the model, everyone using a traditional cookstove – around 83 percent of households in sub-Saharan Africa, comprising nearly 1 billion people – would switch to stoves that delivered more benefits to both households and society.

    “From both a social perspective and a private perspective, it would be optimal for most of these households to use cleaner technologies,” says Marc Jeuland, Ph.D., an associate professor of global health and public policy at Duke who led the research. “And so that’s telling you that these polluting technologies are extremely damaging.”

    Traditional stoves typically burn wood or other solid fuels, generating indoor air pollution and climate-altering emissions. Cooking regularly on such stoves can cause respiratory disease, as well as contribute to global warming and deforestation. Stoves fueled by electricity or even liquid petroleum gas (LPG) mitigate those risks while also offering efficiencies in time and labor. Many African households using traditional stoves spend more than an hour a day gathering fuel to prepare meals, Jeuland notes.

    Despite those advantages, adoption of cleaner alternatives has been sluggish in Africa, which has lagged other regions in the transition away from polluting cooking technologies. In fact, according to the World Bank’s 2022 Energy Progress Report, the number of people using biomass-burning cookstoves actually increased by 50 percent between 2000 and 2020, as population growth outpaced conversion.

    Jeuland and colleagues describe the situation as a “severe market failure” that calls for new policies and incentives to stimulate growth of cleaner technologies.

    “Just because something may be beneficial from a social or private perspective doesn’t necessarily mean it’s affordable,” Jeuland says. The up-front cost of purchasing a new stove and ongoing fuel costs “are going to continue to be a barrier for many households in sub-Saharan Africa unless you really reduce those costs through subsidies of some form.”

    Jeuland favors subsidies that would reduce the cost of conversion for most families to “close to zero.” He also believes wealthy nations should help foot the bill, since a wide-scale shift to cleaner cooking technologies would lessen a climate problem that those countries bear the most responsibility for creating.

    “If rural Africans continue to harvest firewood for cooking, the contribution to climate change is pretty minimal. But because those damages are accumulating, the rich world should be paying to avoid them,” Jeuland says.

    But affordability is not the only obstacle. Many parts of Africa do not have reliable electricity or infrastructure to deliver gas for LPG stoves, Jeuland says. The researchers’ model, designed by a team of energy systems engineers at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, accounted for regional infrastructure differences, picking the technology best suited for each location’s unique circumstances.

    In the model selecting for the highest net benefits, about two-thirds of households across sub-Saharan Africa would be best off using LPG stoves, with another 30 percent, mostly in urban areas where grid power is available, using electric. Smaller populations in the poorest and most remote locations would use biogas or improved biomass stoves, which burn more cleanly than traditional cookstoves. Even when factoring only benefits to the household, the model suggests eight in ten people in sub-Saharan Africa should switch to cleaner technologies.

    The results can help governments and nonprofits target their efforts to encourage conversion, Jeuland says. Doing more to inform people about the potential benefits of switching and developing technologies that are well-suited to local cultures and customs will also be critical, he adds.

    But one other area Jeuland would like to explore is how to influence who is at the table when household cooking preferences are discussed. In traditional societies where women and children are exerting most of the cooking labor, men still often make most of the financial decisions.

    “Women tend to not have as much bargaining power, and their preferences are down-weighted in these households,” Jeuland says. “And so we need to be thinking about how to empower women in these decisions.”

    This research was partially supported by the Clean Cooking Alliance and The Royal Institute of Technology

    CITATION: “A Geospatial Approach to Understanding Clean Cooking Challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa,” Babak Khavari, Camilo Ramirez, Merc Jeuland, Francesco Fuso Nerini. Nature Sustainability, Jan. 12, 2023. DOI: 10.1038/s41893-022-01039-8

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  • Investigators capture a “molecular snapshot” to illuminate the origins of pulmonary arterial hypertension

    Investigators capture a “molecular snapshot” to illuminate the origins of pulmonary arterial hypertension

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    Newswise — Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a rare and incurable disease of the lung arteries that causes early death. In PAH, excess scar tissue and thickening of lung blood vessels occur as the result of increased cell “biomass.” These changes obstruct blood flow and are detrimental to the heart, but until now the basic features of biomass in PAH were not known. A team led by investigators at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a founding member of the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, in collaboration with Matthew Steinhauser, MD, a metabolism and cell imaging expert at the University of Pittsburg, and investigators at the University of Vienna, set out to better understand the origins of arterial biomass in PAH. Using an animal model of PAH, the team applied network medicine and advanced molecular imaging tools to identify chemical building blocks that are taken up by arterial cells and ultimately contribute to blood vessel obstruction. Using multi-isotope imaging mass spectrometry (MIMS) under the guidance of Steinhauser and Christelle Guillermier, PhD, at BWH, the researchers could pinpoint the location and abundance of key contributors to biomass, including the amino acid proline and the sugar molecule glucose. Using MIMS, the team visualized proline and glucose tracers injected into the bloodstream of an animal model of PAH. They saw that the molecules were used by arterial cells of the lung to build excess scar tissue (including the protein collagen), which contributed to blood vessel obstruction. 

    “Our study describes the world’s first use of multi-isotope imaging mass spectrometry (MIMS) in the study of lung disease,” said Bradley Wertheim, MD, of the Brigham’s Division of Pulmonary and Critical Medicine. “MIMS is a powerful microscopy tool that produces a ‘molecular snapshot’ that can provide information down to the resolution of a single cell.” 

    “These findings suggest that the uptake and metabolism of protein precursors may be fundamental to PAH biology.  Closer investigation of proline and glucose in human PAH may uncover opportunities to inhibit biomass formation, prevent obstruction of lung arteries, and decrease the chance of heart failure for PAH patients,” said co-senior author Bradley Maron, MD, of the Brigham’s Division of Cardiovascular Medicine.

    Read more in JCI Insight.

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  • AI improves detail, estimate of urban air pollution

    AI improves detail, estimate of urban air pollution

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    Newswise — ITHACA, N.Y. – Using artificial intelligence, Cornell University engineers have simplified and reinforced models that accurately calculate the fine particulate matter (PM2.5) – the soot, dust and exhaust emitted by trucks and cars that get into human lungs – contained in urban air pollution. 

    Now, city planners and government health officials can obtain a more precise accounting about the well-being of urban dwellers and the air they breathe, from new research published December 2022 in the journal Transportation Research Part D.

    “Infrastructure determines our living environment, our exposure,” said senior author Oliver Gao, the Howard Simpson Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering in the College of Engineering at Cornell University. “Air pollution impact due to transportation – put out as exhaust from the cars and trucks that drive on our streets – is very complicated. Our infrastructure, transportation and energy policies are going to impact air pollution and hence public health.”

    Previous methods to gauge air pollution were cumbersome and reliant on extraordinary amounts of data points. “Older models to calculate particulate matter were computationally and mechanically consuming and complex,” said Gao, a faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. “But if you develop an easily accessible data model, with the help of artificial intelligence filling in some of the blanks, you can have an accurate model at a local scale.”

    Lead author Salil Desai and visiting scientist Mohammad Tayarani, together with Gao, published “Developing Machine Learning Models for Hyperlocal Traffic Related Particulate Matter Concentration Mapping,” to offer a leaner, less data-intensive method for making accurate models.

    Ambient air pollution is a leading cause of premature death around the world. Globally, more than 4.2 million annual fatalities – in the form of cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease, stroke and lung cancer – were attributed to air pollution in 2015, according to a Lancet study cited in the Cornell research.

    In this work, the group developed four machine learning models for traffic-related particulate matter concentrations in data gathered in New York City’s five boroughs, which have a combined population of 8.2 million people and a daily-vehicle miles traveled of 55 million miles.

    The equations use few inputs such as traffic data, topology and meteorology in an AI algorithm to learn simulations for a wide range of traffic-related, air-pollution concentration scenarios.

    Their best performing model was the Convolutional Long Short-term Memory, or ConvLSTM, which trained the algorithm to predict many spatially correlated observations.

    “Our data-driven approach – mainly based on vehicle emission data – requires considerably fewer modeling steps,” Desai said. Instead of focusing on stationary locations, the method provides a high-resolution estimation of the city street pollution surface. Higher resolution can help transportation and epidemiology studies assess health, environmental justice and air quality impacts.

    Funding for this research came from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s University Transportation Centers Program and Cornell Atkinson.

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    Cornell University

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  • More than two billion are infected with this disease; Vitamin D can help

    More than two billion are infected with this disease; Vitamin D can help

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    Newswise — Sarcomas are cancer tumours found in e.g. the bones, muscles or fatty tissue. It is a rare type of cancer seen in only one per cent of cancer patients. It is complex and difficult to treat.

    However, a new study may have found a new treatment that can help the sickest sarcoma patients.

    “We have learned that sarcoma patients whose cancer cells have a high expression of the cep135 protein are worse off. But inhibiting a gene called plk1 also inhibits growth of the sarcoma cells, and this suggests that we can target the treatment of the sickest sarcoma patients,” says Associate Professor Morten Scheibye-Knudsen from the Center for Healthy Aging at the Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, who is responsible for the new study.

    Methods for identifying sarcoma patients’ prognoses are already available, as are different forms of treatment. But the new study has identified a new method.

    “This is a new way of stratifying and possibly a new and better way of treating sarcoma. And the introduction of yet another method is always good news to patients. Because no two cancers are alike. Ideally, treatment should always be tailored to the individual patient,” Morten Scheibye-Knudsen stresses.

    He hopes other researchers with access to the necessary test facilities will study his results in more detail and eventually design a new treatment. If the method turns out to work, he believes a new treatment may be available to patients in five to 10 years.

    Grey hair, wrinkles and loss of fatty tissue at an early age

    Morten Scheibye-Knudsen and his colleagues started out by studying patients suffering from the rare neurological disorders Werner’s syndrome, Nijmegen breakage syndrome and Ataxia-telangiectasia syndrome.

    These patients experience symptoms of early ageing such as grey hair, wrinkles and loss of fatty tissue – and they have a high risk of developing cancer at an early age.

    “Age-associated diseases such as cancer is one of my main areas of interest as a researcher at the Center for Healthy Aging. As we grow older, a lot of things happen to the body, and determining causality can be difficult. But in people suffering from e.g. Werner’s syndrome it is easier to see which genes are responsible for which processes. This gives us a molecular handle, so to speak,” says Morten Scheibye-Knudsen.

    In order to establish why these patients develop cancer at an early age, the researchers compared gene expressions across the three disorders. Here they worked together with the company Insilico Medicine, whose large Pandaomics platform made it possible to identify gene mutations in thousands of different disorders. It turned out that cep135 is a common denominator for the cancer genes of the three disorders.

    “This made us study the gene expressions of various cancers, and we learned that cep135 is associated with high mortality in i.a. sarcoma, but also in bladder cancer. Sarcoma was particularly interesting, as many Werner’s syndrome patients develop sarcoma,” explains Morten Scheibye-Knudsen.

    Finally, the researchers sought to find ways to inhibit the sarcoma. Cep135 is not a useful target, as it is a so-called structural protein, which are difficult to target. Instead, the researchers learned that by inhibiting the plk1 gene they were able to target the sarcoma.

    “The study indicates that we can use genetic diseases that exhibit accelerated aging to identify new treatment targets. In this study, we investigated cancer, but the method can in principle be used for all age-related diseases such as dementia, cardiovascular diseases and others,” says Morten Scheibye-Knudsen.

    Read the entire study, ”High-confidence cancer patient stratification through multiomics investigation of DNA repair disorders”, in CDDpress.

    What are sarcomas?

    Sarcomas are cancer tumours found in i.a. the bones, muscles or fatty tissue. There are two main types: bone sarcoma and soft tissue sarcoma (muscles, fatty tissue, connective tissue, blood vessels and neurilemma).

    Sarcoma affects one per cent of cancer patients. In Denmark, around 45 people are diagnosed with bone sarcoma each year and 220 with soft tissue sarcoma. Adults diagnosed with bone sarcoma have a 60-per cent five-year survival rate, while adults diagnosed with bone sarcoma have a 50-70-per cent five-year survival rate.

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    University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

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  • Actinidia arguta (sarunashi) juice inhibits lung cancer in mice

    Actinidia arguta (sarunashi) juice inhibits lung cancer in mice

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    Newswise — Lung cancer is the leading cause of death in Japan and across the globe. Among all the cancers, lung cancer has one of the lowest five-year survival rates. Smoking tobacco and using tobacco-based products is known to heavily contribute to the development of lung cancer. It is a clinically established fact that the active ingredients in various fruits minimize the risk of chronic diseases including cancer. “Sarunashi” (Actinidia arguta) is an edible fruit cultivated in Japan’s Okayama Prefecture. Using a mouse model, researchers from Okayama University led by Dr. Sakae Arimoto‑Kobayashi, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, have shown that Sarunashi juice and its constituting component isoquercetin (isoQ) help prevent and reduce lung cancer.

    A. arguta is one of the richest sources of polyphenols and vitamin C. Previously, the researchers had demonstrated the inhibitory effect of Sarunashi juice (sar-j) on mutagenesis, inflammation, and mouse skin tumorigenesis. They had identified the components of A. arguta responsible for the anti-mutagenic effects as water-soluble and heat-sensitive phenolic compounds. Subsequently, the researchers proposed the polyphenolic compound isoQ as a constituting component with anticarcinogenic potential.

    Dr. Arimoto‑Kobayashi explains, “In this study, we sought to investigate the chemo‑preventive effects of A. arguta juice and its constituting component isoQ on 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK)-induced lung tumorigenesis in A/J mice, and identify the possible mechanisms underlying the anti-tumorigenic effects of A. arguta.”

    To this end, the team induced tumor growth in mice using NNK, a known cancer-causing compound present in tobacco products. Using a series of experiments and controls, the team studied the effects of sar-j and isoQ on lung tumorigenesis in mice.

    The results were encouraging: The number of tumor nodules per mouse lung in the group that received NNK injections and oral doses of A. arguta juice was significantly lower than that in the group injected with NNK only. Moreover, the oral administration of isoQ also reduced the number of nodules in the mouse lungs.

    Next, the team broke ground by discovering the likely mechanism of action. NNK and 1-methyl-3-nitro-1-nitrosoguanidine or “MNNG” are known mutagens—agents that trigger DNA mutations. The team therefore designed a series of experiments to study the effect of sar-j and isoQ on NNK- and MNNG-mediated mutagenesis using Salmonella typhimurium TA1535—a bacterial strain commonly used for detecting DNA mutations. As expected, the mutagenicity of NNK and MNNG detected using S. typhimurium TA1535 decreased in the presence of sar-j. However, when similar tests were conducted using S. typhimurium YG7108, a strain lacking key enzymes responsible for DNA repair, sar-j was unable to decrease the mutagenic effects of NNK and MNNG. Based on this critical observation, the researchers concluded that sar-j seems to mediate its antimutagenic effect by accelerating DNA repair.

    Finally, using cell-based experiments, the team also showed that sar-j suppressed the action of “Akt,” a key protein involved in cancer signaling. It is a known fact that Akt and an associated protein called “PI3k,” get over-activated in several human cancers.

    Co-author Katsuyuki Kiura, a Professor in the Department of Allergy and Respiratory Medicine, Okayama University Hospital, muses, “Sar-j and isoQ reduced NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis. Sar-j targets both the initiation and growth or progression steps during carcinogenesis, specifically via anti-mutagenesis, stimulation of alkyl DNA adduct repair, and suppression of Akt-mediated growth signaling. IsoQ might contribute in part to the biological effects of sar-j via suppression of Akt phosphorylation, but it may not be the main active ingredient.”

    Their findings were published on 9 December 2022 in Genes and Environment.

    In summary, the study shows that lung tumorigenesis in mice was suppressed following the oral intake of sar-j. Although clinical trials are warranted, the constituting components of sar-j, including isoQ, seem to be attractive candidates for chemoprevention.

     

    About Okayama University, Japan

    As one of the leading universities in Japan, Okayama University aims to create and establish a new paradigm for the sustainable development of the world. Okayama University offers a wide range of academic fields, which become the basis of the integrated graduate schools. This not only allows us to conduct the most advanced and up-to-date research, but also provides an enriching educational experience.

    Website: https://www.okayama-u.ac.jp/index_e.html

    About Dr. Sakae Arimoto‑Kobayashi from Okayama University, Japan

    Dr. Sakae Arimoto‑Kobayashi works as an Associate Professor at Okayama University’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. Arimoto‑Kobayashi has multiple publications to her credit. Her research group primarily conducts studies on mutations and DNA damage induced by N-nitrosamino acids and near-ultraviolet irradiation, analysis of oxidative and alkylative DNA damage caused by the genotoxic agents, anti-carcinogenesis/anti-mutagenesis, and the chemopreventive effect of active ingredients in fruits and drinks.

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    Okayama University

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  • 您在这里：抽烟者的戒烟指南

    您在这里：抽烟者的戒烟指南

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    如果您是一名抽烟者，您可能正处于想要戒烟的阶段，但需要一份指南，指引您如何从抽烟的”这里”到达不抽烟的”那里”。以下是明尼苏达州曼凯托妙佑区域医疗系统的精神病学家Patrick Bigaouette医学博士关于如何开始您的无烟之旅的建议。

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    Mayo Clinic

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  • أنت “هنا”: دليل المدخن للإقلاع عن التدخين

    أنت “هنا”: دليل المدخن للإقلاع عن التدخين

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    إذا كنت مدخنًا ، فربما تكون قد وصلت إلى النقطة التي تريد التوقف عندها ، لكنك بحاجة إلى دليل ينقلك من “هنا” ، أي أنني أدخن إلى “هناك” ، أي تركت. فيما يلي نصائح حول كيفية البدء في رحلتك للإقلاع عن التدخين من MD ، MD ، Patrick Pejauette ، MD ، من Mayo Clinic Health System في مانكاتو ، مينيسوتا..

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    Mayo Clinic

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  • New Bacterial Therapy Approach to Treat Lung Cancer

    New Bacterial Therapy Approach to Treat Lung Cancer

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    Newswise — New York, NY—December 23, 2022—Lung cancer is the deadliest cancer in the United States and around the world. Many of the currently available therapies have been ineffective, leaving patients with very few options. A promising new strategy to treat cancer has been bacterial therapy, but while this treatment modality has quickly progressed from laboratory experiments to clinical trials in the last five years, the most effective treatment for certain types of cancers may be in combination with other drugs. 

    Columbia Engineering researchers report that they have developed a preclinical evaluation pipeline for characterization of bacterial therapies in lung cancer models. Their new study, published December 13, 2022, by Scientific Reports, combines bacterial therapies with other modalities of treatment to improve treatment efficacy without any additional toxicity. This new approach was able to rapidly characterize bacterial therapies and successfully integrate them with current targeted therapies for lung cancer.

    “We envision a fast and selective expansion of our pipeline to improve treatment efficacy and safety for solid tumors,” said first author Dhruba Deb, an associate research scientist who studies the effect of bacterial toxins on lung cancer in Professor Tal Danino’s lab in Biomedical Engineering, “As someone who has lost loved ones to cancer, I would like to see this strategy move from the bench to bedside in the future.”

    The team used RNA sequencing to discover how cancer cells were responding to bacteria at the cellular and molecular levels. They built a hypothesis on which molecular pathways of cancer cells were helping the cells to be resistant to the bacteria therapy. To test their hypothesis, the researchers blocked these pathways with current cancer drugs and showed that combining the drugs with bacterial toxins is more effective in eliminating lung cancer cells. They validated the combination of bacteria therapy with an AKT-inhibitor as an example in mouse models of lung cancer.

    “This new study describes an exciting drug development pipeline that has been previously unexplored in lung cancer – the use of toxins derived from bacteria,” said Upal Basu Roy, executive director of research, LUNGevity Foundation, USA. “The preclinical data presented in the manuscript provides a strong rationale for continued research in this area, thereby opening up the possibility of new treatment options for patients diagnosed with this lethal disease.”

    Deb plans to expand his strategy to larger studies in preclinical models of difficult-to-treat lung cancers and collaborate with clinicians to make a push for the clinical translation. 

    ###

    About the Study

    Journal: Scientific Reports

    The study is titled: “Design of combination therapy for engineered bacterial therapeutics in non-small cell lung cancer.”

    Authors are: Dhruba Deb 1, Yangfan Wu 1, Courtney Coker 1, Tetsuhiro Harimoto 1, Ruoqi Huang 1 & Tal Danino 1,2,3

    1 Department of Biomedical Engineering, Columbia Engineering
    2 Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University
    3 Data Science Institute, Columbia University

    The study was funded by the Pershing Square Foundation (PSF) PSSCRA CU20-0730 (T.D.), Cancer Research Institute (CRI) CRI 3446 (T.D.) and NIH-NIBIB RO1 EB029750 (T.D.). 

    The authors declare no financial or other conflicts of interest.

    ###

    LINKS:

    Paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-022-26105-1   

    DOI: 10.1038/ s41598- 022- 26105-1  

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    Columbia University School of Engineering and Applied Science

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  • Cystic fibrosis drug could help treat pneumonia

    Cystic fibrosis drug could help treat pneumonia

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    Newswise — Pathogens such as SARS-CoV-2 and pneumococcus can cause severe pneumonia. If the airways then fill with fluid, the patient risks developing acute respiratory distress syndrome. Researchers at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin have now discovered the molecular mechanisms that trigger fluid accumulation in the lungs. This also led them to discover a potential new therapy: A cystic fibrosis drug proved effective in their laboratory experiments, raising hope that this could be used to treat pneumonia regardless of the pathogen that caused it. The study has been published in the journal Science Translational Medicine*.

    Pneumonia is the most common cause of fluid buildup in the lungs. This condition, known as pulmonary edema, results in parts of the airspaces filling with fluid instead of air, which prevents them from doing their job of exchanging gases. Patients struggle to breath and their body can’t get enough oxygen. The diagnosis is acute respiratory distress syndrome, or ARDS. “Despite cutting-edge medical procedures, roughly 40 percent of patients with ARDS die in intensive care. The problem is that antibiotics, antivirals, and immune modulating therapies rarely work well enough,” says study leader Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Kuebler, Director of the Institute of Physiology at Charité. “That’s why we took a very different approach in our study. Instead of focusing on the pathogen, we focused on strengthening the barrier function of the blood vessels in the lungs.” This makes sense, as they are the source of the fluid in pulmonary edema. The lung vessels become permeable, allowing fluid from the blood to flow into the surrounding tissue – and thereby flood the airspaces. 

    But what actually causes this? What are the underlying molecular mechanisms? A Charité research team led by Prof. Kuebler set out to answer these questions. They performed experiments using cells, lung tissue, and isolated lungs. The study centered on the CFTR chloride channel, which scientists know is mainly found in the mucosal cells of our airways. There, it plays a major role in keeping our mucus thin so it can drain away easily. The researchers have now shown for the first time that cells in the blood vessels of the lungs also have CFTR and that its presence is drastically reduced in pneumonia. 

    To find out what role CFTR plays in the pulmonary vessels and what is happening at the molecular level when the chloride channel is lost, the researchers blocked the channel with an inhibitor and dictated the number of chloride ions in the cells. They then used a special imaging technique known as immunofluorescence imaging: “We saw that inhibiting CFTR triggered a molecular cascade that ultimately causes the lung’s blood vessels to begin leaking,” says Dr. Lasti Erfinanda, who also works at the Institute of Physiology and is the study’s lead author. “So CFTR actually does play a very key role in the development of pulmonary edema.” 

    The study findings indicate that the loss of CFTR causes chloride to accumulate in the cells because it stops being transported out of them. The excess chloride triggers signaling that ends with an uncontrolled flow of calcium into the cells via a calcium channel. “The increased calcium concentration then causes the vascular cells to contract – much like the effect that calcium has on muscle cells,” explains Prof. Kuebler. “This results in gaps between the cells – which allows fluid to spill out of the blood vessels. Chloride channels are therefore crucial in maintaining the barrier function of the pulmonary vessels.” 
     
    The research team then addressed another question: How could they attenuate or prevent the pneumonia-induced loss of chloride channels in the pulmonary vessels? To answer this, the researchers used a therapeutic agent that is classed as a CFTR modulator and currently used to treat cystic fibrosis. In cystic fibrosis patients, a genetic mutation prevents the CFTR chloride channel from working properly in the mucosal cells of the airways, resulting in very viscous mucus. “Ivacaftor is a drug that increases the chances of the chloride channel opening, which helps the mucus to flow through the airways,” says Dr. Erfinanda. “We wanted to see if it would also have a positive effect on the cells in the blood vessels of the lungs.” 

    Ivacaftor did make the chloride channels more stable: it led to less degradation in the channels than that typically caused by the lung’s inflammatory processes. Experiments on animal models showed the same effect: treatment with ivacaftor increased the probability of surviving severe pneumonia, reduced lung injury, and resulted in much milder symptoms and a much better general condition than without the drug. “We really weren’t expecting it to work so well,” says Prof. Kuebler. “We hope our findings will pave the way for clinical trials to test the efficacy of CFTR modulators in pneumonia patients. If this promising, pathogen-independent therapy finds its way into clinical practice, it could benefit a huge number of patients and prevent pneumonia from becoming life-threatening – even in the case of unknown pathogens.” 

    Prof. Kuebler and his team are now planning research projects aimed at developing other potential therapies based on the CFTR signaling pathway. They are also going to research which patients have an elevated risk of developing ARDS, so they can provide these patients with preventive, personalized treatment.

     

    *Erfinanda L et al. Loss of endothelial CFTR drives barrier failure and edema formation in lung infection and can be targeted by CFTR potentiation. Science Translational Medicine 2022 Dec 07. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abg8577ggf.

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    Charite – Universitatsmedizin Berlin

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