Medical Bulletin 10/January/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

New KDIGO guidelines for treating patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease

Diabetes patients frequently have CKD. About one in three persons with diabetes also has CKD. Kidney disease can be brought on by either type 1 or type 2 diabetes.

The latest clinical practice guideline from the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) organization offers advice for treating patients with diabetes and chronic kidney disease (CKD). A synopsis published in the Annals of Internal Medicine focuses on the key recommendations pertinent to the following issues: comprehensive care, glycemic monitoring and targets, lifestyle interventions, antihyperglycemic therapies, and educational and integrated care approaches to management.

Reference:

AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS,Annals of Internal Medicine, doi 10.7326/M22-2904

Eating almonds increases beneficial fat after intense exercise session

For those who exercise regularly, eating almonds each day might be the ideal new year’s resolution. A randomized controlled trial in Frontiers in Nutrition showed that female and male participants who ate 57g almonds daily for one month had more of the beneficial fat 12,13-dihydroxy-9Z-octadecenoic acid (12,13-DiHOME) in their blood immediately after a session of intense exercise than control participants. This molecule, a so-called oxylipin (oxidized fat) is synthetized from linoleic acid by brown fat tissue, and has a beneficial effect on metabolic health and energy regulation.

Corresponding author Dr David C Nieman, a professor and director of the Appalachian State University Human Performance Laboratory at the North Carolina Research Campus, said: “Here we show that volunteers who consumed 57g of almonds daily for one month before a single ‘weekend warrior’ exercise bout had more beneficial 12,13-DiHOME in their blood immediately after exercising than control volunteers. They also reported feeling less fatigue and tension, better leg-back strength, and decreased muscle damage after exercise than control volunteers.”

Reference:

Dr David C Nieman et al,“Almond intake alters the acute plasma dihydroxy-octadecenoic acid (DiHOME) response to eccentric exercise,Frontiers in Nutrition, doi 10.3389/fnut.2022.1042719

Adoptive T cell receptor therapy shows early anti-tumor activity in tri

The goal of TCR therapies is to more accurately target solid tumor cells without the toxicities to normal cells often associated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-based cell therapies. Unlike CAR-based cell therapies, which recognize designated surface proteins, TCR therapies like afami-cel can target proteins normally found inside the cell.

Afamitresgene autoleucel (afami-cel; formerly ADP-A2M4), an adoptive T cell receptor (TCR) therapy targeting the MAGE-A4 cancer antigen, achieved clinically significant results for patients with multiple solid tumor types in a Phase I clinical trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Reference:

David S. Hong et al,Autologous T cell therapy for MAGE-A4+ solid cancers in HLA-A*02+ patients: a phase 1 trial,Nature Medicine,doi 10.1038/s41591-022-02128-z

Previous ideas regarding Alzheimer’s disease challenged in new study

A new USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology study challenges existing ideas of how buildup of a protein called amyloid beta (Aβ) in the brain is related to Alzheimer’s disease.

While buildup of amyloid protein has been associated with Alzheimer’s-related neurodegeneration, little is known about how the protein relates to normal brain aging, said University Professor Caleb Finch, the study’s senior author and holder of the ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging at the USC Leonard Davis School.

To explore the levels of Aβ in human brains, the researchers analyzed tissue samples from both healthy brains and brains of patients with dementia. More severe Alzheimer’s cases were indicated by higher Braak staging scores, a measurement of how widely signs of Alzheimer’s pathology are found within the brain.

Reference:

Caleb Finch et al,Amyloid futures in the expanding pathology of brain aging and dementia,Alzheimer s & Dementia, doi 10.1002/alz.12896