Medical Bulletin 6/January/2022

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Antibiotic residues in wastewater may be a threat to human health: Study

Bacteria that become resistant to antibiotics are a global threat that can lead to untreatable bacterial infections in animals and humans.

Antibiotics can enter the environment during their production, consumption and disposal. Antibiotic residues in the environment, such as in wastewater and drinking water, can contribute to the emergence and spread of resistance.

Antibiotic residues in wastewater and wastewater treatment plants in the regions around China and India risk contributing to antibiotic resistance, and the drinking water may pose a threat to human health, according to a comprehensive analysis from Karolinska Institutet published in The Lancet Planetary Health. The researchers also determined the relative contribution of various sources of antibiotic contamination in waterways, such as hospitals, municipals, livestock, and pharmaceutical manufacturing.

Reference:

”Antibiotic concentrations and antibiotic resistance in aquatic environments of the Western Pacific and South-East Asia Regions: a systematic review and probabilistic environmental hazard assessment”, Nada Hanna, Ashok J. Tamhankar and Cecilia Stålsby Lundborg. The Lancet Planetary Health, online January 4, 2023.

Blood pressure drug may be a potential treatment for PTSD

Clonidine is commonly used as a high blood pressure medication and for ADHD. It’s also already been studied in PTSD because clonidine works on adrenergic receptors in the brain, likely best known for their role in “fight or flight,” a heightened state of response that helps keep us safe. These receptors are thought to be activated in PTSD and to have a role in consolidating a traumatic memory. Clonidine’s sister drug guanfacine, which also activates these receptors, also has been studied in PTSD. Conflicting results from the clinical trials have clonidine, which has shown promise in PTSD, put aside along with guanfacine, which has not.

Scientists at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University say it’s time for another look at clonidine.

There is new evidence that a 50-year-old blood pressure drug could find new purpose as a treatment to mitigate the often life-altering effects of increasingly prevalent PTSD, scientists say.

Reference:

Qin Wang et al,Activation of a novel α2AAR-spinophilin-cofilin axis determines the effect of α2 adrenergic drugs on fear memory reconsolidation,Molecular Psychiatry.

Study finds B-cells can help predict HER2-positive breast cancer treatment response

Understanding why cancers respond, or don’t respond, to therapy is crucial to effective and personalized treatment. In HER2-positive breast cancer, the immune system is key to the effectiveness of response to anti-HER2 drugs. Important cells in the body’s immune system include B-cells, which create antibodies that neutralize cancer cells and infections as well as T-cells, which directly fight cancers and infections.

Researchers at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center and colleagues have found that measuring activation of immune-system B cells may be better than measuring either T-cell activation or the total number of immune cells in and around a tumor, called tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), in predicting whether HER2-positive breast cancer responds to treatment.

Reference:

Lisa A. Carey et al,Prognostic and Predictive Value of Immune-Related Gene Expression Signatures vs Tumor-Infiltrating Lymphocytes in Early-Stage ERBB2/HER2-Positive Breast Cancer,JAMA Oncology,10.1001/jamaoncol.2022.6288