Medical Bulletin 9/January/2022

Here are the top medical news for the day:

Poor treatment by others may push sensitive people later to self harm: Study

NSSI behaviors include cutting or carving skin, inserting objects under nails or skin, burning skin, scraping or picking skin to the point of drawing blood, and hitting self on purpose.

Engaging in self-harming behaviors without the intention to die, or nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI), increases dramatically in the transition from childhood to adolescence and continues to grow throughout the teenage years. Although engagement in NSSI is often associated with emotional reactivity and may occur in response to distressing social experiences, some youth are more likely than others to carry out self-injury. How both emotional and social-environmental vulnerabilities may interact within individuals to increase developmental risk for self-harm remains unknown.

Reference:

“Neural Reactivity to Social Punishment Predicts Future Engagement in Nonsuicidal Self-injury Among Peer-Rejected Adolescents," by Olivia H. Pollak, Seh-Joo Kwon, Nathan A. Jorgensen, Kristen A. Lindquist, Eva H. Telzer, and Mitchell J. Prinstein (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.09.030). Biological Psychiatry, published by Elsevier.

Shedding light on sugar’s role in common kidney disease

Clusters of cysts develop largely within your kidneys as a result of polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a genetic ailment that over time causes your kidneys to expand and become less functional.

A study of kidney organoids in a novel lab environment might have downstream implications for the treatment of polycystic kidney disease (PKD), an incurable condition that affects more than 12 million people worldwide.

One key discovery of the study: Sugar appears to play a role in the formation of fluid-filled cysts that are PKD’s hallmark. In people, these cysts grow big enough to impair kidney function and ultimately cause the organs to fail, necessitating dialysis therapy or transplant.

Reference:

Benjamin Freedman, et al,Glucose absorption drives cystogenesis in a human organoid-on-chip model of polycystic kidney disease,Nature Communications, doi 10.1038/s41467-022-35537-2

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

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.

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.