Medical Bulletin 27/December/2022

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.

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.

Reference:

Dhruba Deb et al,Design of combination therapy for engineered bacterial therapeutics in non-small cell lung cancer,Scientific Reports,DOI: 10.1038/s41598-022-26105-1

Research shows COVID-19 booster increases durability of antibody response

New research from the University of Virginia School of Medicine speaks to the benefits of a COVID-19 booster.

The new findings shed light on how mRNA boosters - both Pfizer and Moderna - affect the durability of our antibodies to COVID-19. A booster, the researchers report, made for longer-lasting antibodies for all recipients, even those who have recovered from a COVID-19 infection.

"These results fit with other recent reports and indicate that booster shots enhance the durability of vaccine-elicited antibodies," said senior researcher Jeffrey Wilson, MD, PhD, of UVA Health's Division of Asthma, Allergy and Immunology.

Reference:

Jeffrey Wilson et al, JOURNAL: Annals of Allergy Asthma & Immunology,DOI: 10.1016/j.anai.2022.10.003

Unique cellular hallmarks found in 6 neurodegenerative diseases

In a study appearing in the current issue of Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer' Association, corresponding author Carol Huseby of Arizona State University and her colleagues look at cellular alterations in six distinct neurodegenerative diseases: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Friedreich's ataxia, frontotemporal dementia, Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease.Carol Huseby is a researcher with the ASU-Banner Neurodegenerative Disease Research Center.

The study uses an innovative approach, which includes the machine learning analysis of RNA found in whole blood. By comparing multiple diseases, researchers can identify which RNA markers occur across several neurodegenerative diseases and which are unique to each disease.

Reference:

Carol Huseby et al,Blood RNA transcripts reveal similar and differential alterations in fundamental cellular processes in Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases,Alzheimer s & Dementia,DOI:10.1002/alz.12880