Medical Bulletin 20/February/2024

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Uremic toxins associated with itching in haemodialysis patients

Individuals with advanced chronic kidney disease (CKD) rely on kidney replacement therapies like haemodialysis to manage their condition. However, these patients frequently endure various symptoms that diminish their quality of life and limit their activity.

Itching is a common symptom frequently observed in haemodialysis patients. Although its exact causes remain unclear, a survey conducted in Japan in 2000 found that itching was present in 73% of haemodialysis patients, and it was associated with elevated levels of β2-microglobulin, calcium, phosphorus, or parathyroid hormone in the blood.

Uremic toxins are a group of molecules whose concentrations increase in the blood due to kidney disease. Those molecules are associated with systemic diseases and prognosis in patients with end-stage kidney disease. Among them, molecules with high protein-bound properties, called PBUTs, such as indoxyl sulfate, are difficult to remove by dialysis therapy and have been reported to be associated with various pathologies.

Reference: DOI: 10.1093/ckj/sfae007

New research offers hope to those affected by aggressive brain cancer

New research from the University of Sussex holds promise for extending life expectancy and enhancing treatment options for a common and aggressive brain cancer affecting thousands in the UK annually and hundreds of thousands globally.

Published in the Journal of Advanced Science, the study revealed that the protein PANK4, previously overlooked, can hinder cancer cells' response to chemotherapy in glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer and if the protein is removed, cancer cells respond better to the main chemotherapy drug used globally for the treatment of glioblastoma.

Glioblastoma stands as one of the most aggressive types of brain cancer, with approximately 3,200 adults diagnosed annually in the UK and around 250,000 to 300,000 cases globally. Despite treatment with surgery, radiation, and the chemotherapy drug temozolomide, which initially yields positive responses, patients typically face a bleak prognosis, with a survival rate of just one to 18 months post-diagnosis due to the rapid development of resistance in cancer cells.

Reference: Viviana Vella, Angeliki Ditsiou, Anna Chalari, Murat Eravci, Sarah K. Wooller, Teresa Gagliano, Cecilia Bani, Emanuela Kerschbamer, Christos Karakostas, Bin Xu, Yongchang Zhang, Frances M.G. Pearl, Gianluca Lopez, Ling Peng, Justin Stebbing, Apostolos Klinakis, Georgios Giamas. Kinome‐Wide Synthetic Lethal Screen Identifies PANK4 as a Modulator of Temozolomide Resistance in Glioblastoma. Advanced Science, 2024; DOI: 10.1002/advs.202306027

Research unveils the mechanism by which Mpox virus enters brain cells

A study suggests that Mpox (Monkeypox) virus could be invading cells crucial for normal brain function, leading to neurological symptoms in infected individuals. This virus spreads primarily through close physical contact and induces a disease with symptoms resembling those of smallpox, albeit milder in intensity.

In newly published research in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers from the University of Alberta found mpox virus infiltrated the astrocytes -- a type of cell responsible for normal brain function -- triggering an extreme immune response.

"Astrocytes are the most abundant neural cells in the brain," said first author Hajar Miranzadeh Mahabadi, a postdoctoral fellow in medicine from the varsity. "We found that monkeypox virus can efficiently infect these cells and can induce a kind of brain cell death we call pyroptosis."

Reference: https://ianslive.in/study-decodes-how-mpox-virus-infiltrates-brain-cells--20240217124505