Medical Bulletin 7/February/2023

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Large study suggests no adverse effect of fertility treatment on cardiovascular health of offspring

A large study looking at the effects of fertility treatment has found no robust difference in blood pressure, heart rate, lipids, and glucose measurements between children conceived naturally and those conceived using assisted reproductive technologies (ART).

The study sought to address concerns around whether fertility treatment leads to adverse cardiometabolic health in offspring. The data sample included 8,600 children from Bristol’s Children of the 90s study, which has followed pregnant women and their offspring since 1991.

Since the first birth of a child by in vitro fertilisation (IVF), questions have been raised about the health risks to children conceived this way, however previous studies are limited by small sample size, short follow-up, and unsatisfactory comparison groups.

Reference:

‘Long-term cardiometabolic health in people born after assisted reproductive technology: a multi-cohort analysis’ by Ahmed Elhakeem et al. in European Heart Journal,doi 10.1093/eurheartj/ehac726

Novel cell death mechanism may hold potential for novel cancer treatment strategies: Study

A study from researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, details a previously unexplained type of cell death called disulfidptosis that could open the door for novel cancer therapeutic strategies.

Many cancers, such as lung cancer and kidney cancer, have an overexpression of SLC7A11, which codes for the cystine transporter.The SLC7A11 protein imports cystine, an important amino acid that can contribute to tumor growth, but elevated levels of cystine and other disulfide molecules can be toxic. To regulate this balance, cells are forced to use the molecule NADPH to quickly convert toxic disulfides into other non-toxic molecules. NADPH is mainly supplied from glucose, so cutting off the glucose supply can lead to an accumulation of disulfide molecules and cell death.

Reference:

Boyi Gan et al,Actin cytoskeleton vulnerability to disulfide stress mediates disulfidptosis, Nature Cell Biology,doi 10.1038/s41556-023-01091-2

Study finds hope for ovarian cancer patients in new immunotherapy

CAR T-cell therapy, a certain kind of cancer treatment in which the immune system’s T cells are programmed to attack tumour cells, is effective in mice with ovarian cancer, according to a study published in The Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer. The researchers hope that the discovery will pave the way for a clinical trial to see how effective the treatment is for women with the disease.

CAR T-cell therapy is a relatively new type of immunotherapy that involves extracting a patient’s immune cells (known as T cells) from the blood and injecting them in a laboratory with a new gene that specifically attacks a molecule called a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) on the surface of the tumour cells. When returned to the patients, the T cells are more aggressive, and attack the cancer cells like guided missiles.

Reference:

“Tuned activation of MSLN-CAR T cells induces superior anti-tumor responses in ovarian cancer models”, Esther Schoutrop, Thomas Poiret, Ibrahim El Serafi, Ying Zhao, Rui He, Alina Moter, Johan Henriksson, Moustapha Hassan, Isabelle Magalhaes, Jonas Mattsson, The Journal for ImmunoTherapy of Cancer, online 6 February 2023, doi: 10.1136/jitc-2022-005691