Monthly Archives: June 2022

Nanotechnology is poised to shape the future of Healthcare – ETHealthWorld

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:03 am

By Srinivas Iyengar

One of the most awaited technologies on the verge of moving out of laboratories and set to enter commercial production is nanotechnology. There is so much buzz about nanotechnology that industries, from cosmetics, healthcare, and automobile to aerospace, expect big disruptions due to nanotech. In the race for nano supremacy, I see healthcare as the most exciting space with a variety of use cases that can have a profound impact on humankind. In fact, nanotechnology is the most radical and wide-reaching emerging technology, and healthcare is its most urgent application.

Before we delve deeper into the application of nanotechnology in healthcare, let us take a closer look at nanotechnology, its use cases, and its market share. This will give us a clearer perspective and some critical insights into this emerging technology.

Lets understand what a nanometer is all about. To give you a better perspective, A virus, on average, is 40- 100 nanometers in size! Isnt it amazing that we are now dealing with things 1/100th the size of a virus? And these subatomic particles are making big waves today! We are building nanorobots, nanotubes, nanodots, nanowires, and nanosheets that could be used for innovative and pathbreaking medical applications from diagnosis of disease and drug delivery to the disease-affected areas of the human body with great precision, something that hasnt been actively pursued until now.

The space where nanotechnology meets healthcare is called nanomedicine. Industry experts estimate the nanomedicine market share to grow up to $260Bn in 2025 from $141Bn in 2020.

While nanostructures occur naturally in soil, dust, oceans, plants, and animals, scientists today are building nano materials with newly manipulated attributes or engineered properties. This holds massive potential and opens new doors in drug delivery systems, body scans, gene therapy, identifying cancer cells, and health monitoring.

The lexicon of Nanotechnology Before outlining the possible use cases of nanotechnology in healthcare, it would serve us well to be acquainted with the basic verbiage of nanotechnology

Nanometer (m): A nanometer is a unit of measurement which is 1 billionth of a meter. The smallest things around us are measured in nanometers. To illustrate, a DNA molecule is about 2.5 m wide compared to a red blood cell which is about 7 m.

Nanoparticles (Nanodots/Quantum dots): These are small particles that range anywhere between 1 to 100 Nm. We all know well that the smaller the material, the surface area to volume ratio increases. This ensures that nanoparticles have distinct optical, physical, and chemical properties and produce quantum effects.

Nanotubes: These are tubes with atom-thick walls and a tube-like structure mainly made of carbon materials. Nanotubes are a few nanometers wide, and their length can be up to a few millimeters. What makes them more attractive in the healthcare arena is that they are non-toxic and, therefore, safe to use.

Nanorobotics: Nanorobotics is the process of building robots at the nanoscale and such robots are called nanobots. They are typically nanoelectromechanical systems that can be programmed to carry out specific tasks.

The most promising use-cases of Nanotechnology in HealthcareIndustry experts believe that nanotechnology will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of healthcare. Lets take a look at some of its most compelling use cases that are already show promising results

Targeted Drug Delivery System: In todays conventional drug delivery mechanism, did you know that when you take a medicine for a headache, it possibly goes through your entire body, including the head, to give you relief? This also means that the drug delivery mechanism is inefficient, slow, requires more drug consumption than needed, and may impact non-targeted organs. Nanotechnology can carry drugs to specific cells and release them when it reaches the targeted organ or area. This can be highly instrumental, for instance, in curtailing the side effects of chemotherapy.

Diagnosis: A biomarker, in general, is a measurement, substance, or chemical in the body which indicates a disease or a condition. It is seen that nanotechnology can bridge the gap between measurable biomarkers representing the physiology of a biological process and clinical outcomes. Nanoparticles injected into humans can detect these biomarkers with extremely high efficacy as compared to scanning the human body from the outside, thereby reducing the chances of drug failure/rejection.

Medical Imaging: Nanoparticles/Quantum dots are so small that their surface area to volume ratio is relatively high, thus producing excellent contrast and fluoresce. In generic terms, a nanoparticle is more like a glow-in-the-dark thing, and its ability to reflect light will help us in biological labeling at the molecular level. Nanoparticles in medical devices and drug therapy can give us much better diagnosis results and treatments with a higher success rate.

Wound Treatment: One of the major pain points of wound healing is contamination with microorganisms. Silver nanoparticles have antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties that provide better wound healing efficacy with less bacterial resistance. They can be used as scaffolds for skin regeneration. Nanofibrous materials can also be used as delivery systems for drugs, proteins, growth factors, and other molecules. This will help us in targeted drug delivery with minimal and effective drug usage.

Needless to say, there exists great scope for advancements in nanotechnology that hold the potential to revolutionize and reinvent healthcare systems despite existing hurdles. Nanomedicine, nano pharmacology, nanoimaging, and targeted drug delivery systems will make the diagnosis and prevention of diseases, and care delivery more efficient and patient-centric.

By Srinivas Iyengar, VP & Head of Healthcare & Life Sciences, Happiest Minds Technologies.

(DISCLAIMER: The views expressed are solely of the author and ETHealthworld does not necessarily subscribe to it. ETHealthworld.com shall not be responsible for any damage caused to any person / organisation directly or indirectly)

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New Silence ALS Initiative is Giving Hope to Nano-Rare Patients – BioSpace

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:03 am

Being diagnosed with any illness is unnerving, but imagine you are one of only 30 people in the world to suffer from the illness or at least a particular form of it. Now, imagine that that disease is 100% fatal. Thats the reality faced by the Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) patients being treated as part of a new initiative between Columbia University and non-profit biotech company n-Lorem Foundation.

These diseases or disease mutations have been dubbed nano-rare by San Diego-based n-Lorem, whose mission is to find effective treatments for these uniquely afflicted individuals and others like them.

There are few commercial incentives for pharmaceutical or biotech organizations to pursue the discovery and development of individualized treatments, n-Lorem Chief Development Officer Sarah Glass, Ph.D. told BioSpace. The 2021 FDA guidance documents for individualized antisense oligonucleotides have enabled this non-commercial route for n-Lorems non-profit model, which is driven entirely by the desire to help patients by embedding the same level of quality that is required for standard commercial drugs."

In recent years, researchers have come to the consensus that ALS is a heterogeneous disease. This is evidenced by patient subsets that have responded favorably to drugs like Radicava, which was approved in 2017 and BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics NurOwn, which is still fighting an uphill battle for approval.

Glass said that providing a blanket definition of ALS almost does [patients] a disservice given the many unique individuals within this patient group. Individuals with ALS that carry a nano-rare mutation are often one of only a few - or perhaps the only one - that are known to have this mutation worldwide."

Lisa Stockman Mauriellofaced a similar situation. Suffering from a particularly lethal A5V mutation within SOD1-ALS, Stockman Mauriello captured the nations attention and reinvigorated the ALS community in its fight for expanded access to investigational therapies.

Stockman Mauriello was fighting for access to the experimental therapy tofersen, which was being developed by Biogen and Ionis Pharmaceuticals. Tofersen is an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) that targets a mutation in the superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) gene believed to be responsible for the genetic driver in SOD1-ALS, the second most common form of inherited, or familial ALS. This category is rare itself, accounting for just 2% of all ALS cases. Ultimately, tofersen failed to achieve its endpoint in Phase III, and although Stockman Mauriello eventually did receive access to the drug, she succumbed to her disease in August 2021.

The n-Lorem-Columbia project, Silence ALS, is funded by medical nonprofit Target ALS and focuses on developing personalized experimental ASO medicines for nano-rare ALS patients. Currently, eight patients have been accepted into the program. These patients are afflicted with nano-rare mutations in either TDP-43 or CHCHD10.

In the first case, the TDP-43 protein is incorrectly ejected from the cells nucleus, preventing it from performing essential functions such as ensuring that mRNA is produced correctly, which can produce chaotic effects in affected nerve cells. Mutations in the CHCHD10 gene were identified as a genetic cause of ALS in 2014. While the process is not yet well understood, some studies suggest the mutations lead to impaired functioning of mitochondria, the cellular structures that provide the energy necessary for survival. Then, there are separate mutations within both.

These are genes that are well known in the ALS community. They are very well characterized and have been extensively studied by the research community. Unique mutations may occur in any gene and n-Lorem is learning more and more about the types of mutations and genes that ASOs can target, Glass said. The Silence ALS partnership will enable iterative learning to help the broader population over time.

She explained how ASOs can address these mutations.

These are short segments of single-stranded genetic material that bind in a sequence-specific manner to RNA to alter the behavior and performance of that target RNA. ASOs can target a specific mutation as well as different variants that uniquely differentiate that patient from others. Glass added that for some patients, it may be necessary to differentiate the disease-causing allele from the normal allele.

ALS is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease. From the time of diagnosis, a patient can expect to live between 2-5 years. During that time, they will become increasingly paralyzed, losing the ability to walk, talk, eat, swallow and finally, breathe. Glass shared that this is a big part of the reason n-Lorem teamed up with Neil Shneider at Columbia on this initiative.

The clock is ticking. One of the biggest goals of the partnership is really to introduce efficiencies such as proactive sequencing, acquiring patient cells and other elements that are required to be able to accelerate our ability to develop an individualized therapy, she said.

One of these efficiencies is ensuring that patients are characterized at an early stage in their disease prognosis. Then, the ultimate end goal would be to eventually get to the place where we can try to preempt, almost pre-symptomatically be able to develop these ASOs when the natural history of a particular mutation is known.

Glass shared that there are thousands and thousands of nano-rare diseases and patients with nano-rare mutations. Besides ALS, n-Lorem is primarily focused on helping patients with other neurodegenerative diseases as well as those with severe neurodevelopmental, ophthalmologic and kidney diseases. The foundations neurological concentration owes to it being where patients are mostly diagnosed from a genetics perspective, she explained.

Genetic testing and genome sequencing has become much more common in the rare neurological disease space and many neurologists are becoming increasingly aware of the potential of individualized therapies. This is reflected in the fact that many patients for whom n-Lorem is discovering an ASO are affected primarily by neurological manifestations. Glass said. She clarified that n-Lorem is also already developing ASOs for patients with diseases in other organ systems as well and will continue to expand the breadth of the patients it can help.

Its been understood for a while now that personalized medicine is the way of the therapeutic future, and initiatives like this one reflect that sentiment.

As genetic sequencing becomes more common, it has become apparent that more and more pathogenic mutations are nano-rare and will require individualized treatments that are out of scope for commercial organizations, she said.

Glass suggested that partnering is key to leveraging platform approaches and collective abilities to find commonalities [and therefore therapeutic efficiencies] across some of these nano-rare diseases. How can we learn and try to think across different genes, different mutations that have a number of similarities and commonalities? This could ultimately lead to the nano-rare becoming a little less rare.

Glass, who did her Ph.D. in a rare form of cancer, shared that she has always had a passion for genetics and rare diseases. Then in 2020, her own son was diagnosed with a rare disease. Being immersed in drug discovery and development and now having a child with an N-of-1 mutation as well, she wondered how one could go about successfully developing a therapy for individual patients.

At the time, I reached out to Dr. Stan Crooke [founder and CEO of n-Lorem], the pioneer of RNA-targeted drugs, she said. I immediately learned a lot and was drawn to the mission. My joining n-Lorem was an organic evolution of my career and represented the true intersection of my personal and professional passions. Since joining Crooke, Glass has been working feverishly to stand up an infrastructure to enable many more patients to be helped.

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Challenging the Standards of Care for ICI-Pretreated Patients With NSCLC – Targeted Oncology

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:02 am

Karen L. Reckamp, MD, explains the need for more treatment options for patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer who have been previously treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors and develop resistance.

Karen L. Reckamp, MD, a professor in Medicine, and director of the Division of Medical Oncology at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, as well as a medical oncologist at the Samuel Oschin Cancer Center, explains the need for more treatment options for patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have been previously treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) and develop resistance.

As upfront treatment for NSCLC, the majority of patients are administered immunotherapy with chemotherapy or immunotherapy alone. Although these strategies are very beneficial to patients, disease progression is inevitable, and some patients become resistant to their frontline regimen.

Once a tumor grows too large or patients are ICI refractory, no effective therapies are available. The Lung-MAP nonmatched substudy S1800A was designed to address the need for treatment option after frontline ICI therapy in patients with NSCLC. The phase 2 clinical trial (NCT03971474) investigates the combination of ramucirumab (Cyramza) and pembrolizumab (Keytruda) vs standard of care.

0:08 | All patients now receive either a combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy or immunotherapy alone as part of their frontline treatment for advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer. We're also starting to use immunotherapy in the treatment of earlier stage nonsmall cell lung cancer. So, most patients do get exposed to immune checkpoint inhibitors at some point during their therapy. And we know though there are great benefits that patients experience most will have tumor progression and develop some tumor resistance to immune checkpoint inhibitors.

0:47 | At this moment in time, we don't have the best therapies. We don't know the best therapies to provide patients once a tumor has grown on immune checkpoint inhibition and chemotherapy. So, this study is to evaluate what might be better therapies than our standard of care which generally include

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CAR T-Cell Therapy: The New Way To Fight Cancer – Black Chronicle

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:02 am

Usually contained in the human physique, T cells are assigned the obligation to detect and battle threatening micro organism or viruses. T cells guard and defend our immune system. Most cancers cells are a definite story. Most cancers cells are sneaky. They duplicate and switch throughout the physique in a stealthy technique inflicting points and havoc. Sadly for the immune system, T cells are normally not always able to detect most cancers cells.

Within the earlier, there have been many challenges treating positive types of blood and bone marrow cancers along with leukemia, lymphoma, and quite a few myeloma.

That is the place CAR T-cell treatment can step in and alter the immune system paradigm.

Here is the best way it really works. Step one is to retrieve frequent T cells from the affected individual or a specific donor. The affected individual or donors blood sample goes to a lab. The T cells are then separated from the blood. A singular receptor that binds to positive proteins on most cancers cell surfaces is added to the T cells. This imported receptor is named the chimeric antigen receptor or CAR. These new and improved T cells are administered once more into the physique like a blood transfusion.

As soon as the CAR T cells enter the physique, theyll destroy cancerous cells along with tumors. The excellent news is that these modified CAR T cells will not impact healthful cells. It is a win-win situation.

In 2017, the Moffitt Malignant Hematology & Mobile Remedy program was established in partnership with Memorial Healthcare System. Oncologists now have additional decisions to take care of blood and bone marrow most cancers victims. Medical professionals can also conduct evaluation that will revenue every newly recognized and relapsed blood most cancers victims.

Malignant Hematology & Mobile Remedy at Memorial Healthcare System, located on the campus of Memorial Hospital West, is the one facility in Broward and Palm Seaside counties to provide this array of distinctive corporations and most cancers treatments.

Were at all times trying to present our group probably the most progressive and highest high quality healthcare obtainable anyplace, says Memorial Hospital West CEO Vedner Guerrier, and this development with our companions at Moffitt does that for most cancers sufferers.

CAR T-cell treatment must be considered for a number of kinds of most cancers:

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Mantle cell lymphoma

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia

A number of myeloma

Follicular lymphoma

Remodeled follicular lymphoma

Major mediastinal B cell lymphoma

We see 70-80 new a number of myeloma instances every year and greater than 300 with relapse illness so, whereas not each affected person can be a CAR T candidate, were hoping many extra can be as progress continues, acknowledged Dr. Claudia Paba Prada, an assistant member of Moffitt Malignant Hematology and Mobile Remedy at Memorial Healthcare System. Were utilizing medicine underneath analysis that are not obtainable anyplace else in Florida.

Immunotherapy may be used to supply stem-cell transplants or preserve a higher top quality of life for victims who arent transplant candidates. CAR T-cell treatment can substitute or be used as a complement for chemotherapy. This implies the prospect for a lot much less toxins inside the physique all through most cancers remedy. In the long run new kinds of immunotherapies will help victims win the battle in the direction of most cancers.

For additional data, go to https://www.mhs.web/companies/most cancers/sorts/leukemia-lymphoma.

Content material provided by Memorial Healthcare System

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Water distribution in the fuel cell made visible in 4D – EurekAlert

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:02 am

video:The video shows the water build-up in the cathode channels during the first 600 s of the fuel cell start-up. The water starts to nucleate on the channel edges and corners. view more

Credit: HZB

"In a fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen are combined to form water. This produces electrical energy," explains Ralf Ziesche from the imaging group at HZB. "Probably the most important component inside the fuel cell is the membrane." It is only about 20 micrometres thick (half as wide as a human hair) and connected with various functional layers to form a separation area about 600 micrometres wide inside the fuel cell.

"The membrane composite snatches the electrons from the hydrogen atoms. Only the hydrogen nuclei - the protons - can pass through the membrane." The electrons, on the other hand, flow off via an electrical connection and are used as an electric current. Air is let in on the other side of the separating wall. The oxygen it contains reacts with the protons that come through the membrane and the electrons that flow back from the other side of the electric circuit. Pure water is produced.

"Some of the water is discharged. Another part must remain in the fuel cell, because the membrane must not dry out," Ralf Ziesche explains. "But if there is too much water in it, the protons can no longer penetrate the membrane. Dead areas develop at these points, and the reaction can no longer take place there. The efficiency of the entire fuel cell drops." To allow hydrogen, air and water to flow in and out, tiny channels are milled into metal plates on both sides of the membrane. These channels can be used to optimise fuel cells and increase efficiency. Hereby, the channel design is the key for a balanced cell wetting and optimal efficiency.

To do this, it is advantageous to have as accurate a picture as possible of the water distribution within the channels. This was the goal of a collaboration between the research group from the Electrochemical Innovation Lab (EIL) at University College London (UCL) and HZB. "In principle, we subjected the fuel cell to computed tomography, as it is used in medicine," explains Nikolay Kardjilov from the imaging group at HZB. But while X-rays are used for medical analyses, Nikolay Kardjilov and his team preferred to use neutron radiation. "Because X-rays provide far too low an image contrast between hydrogen and water on one side and the metal structure on the other. Neutrons, on the other hand, are ideal here."

This was quite tricky. Because in order to get a three-dimensional image, the radiation source has to go around the object to be imaged. In medicine, this is quite easy to solve. There, the radiation source and scanner rotate around the patient, who is resting on a table. "But our radiation source was the Berlin Experimental Reactor BER II, where we had set up our imaging station CONRAD. And we can't simply rotate it around our fuel cell sample," says Nikolay Kardjilov. But with an engineering trick, his team managed to move the fuel cell, including the supply lines for hydrogen and air, the discharge line for water and the electric cables, into the neutron beam. "Until now, neutron imaging has only been able to produce two-dimensional images from inside the fuel cell. Now, for the very first time, we have also made the water distribution visible in three dimensions and in real time," the physicist is pleased to report. The BER II is shut down since the end of 2019. But the work will be continued as part of the joint research group "NI-Matters" between HZB, the Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL, France) and the University of Grenoble (France).

Kai Drfeld

Nature Communications

Experimental study

Not applicable

High-speed 4D neutron computed tomography for quantifying water dynamics in polymer electrolyte fuel cells

25-Mar-2022

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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Researchers look to unleash the power of stem cells to repair brain injuries – University of Toronto

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:02 am

Scientists at the University of Toronto and Sinai Health say they have identified a new way to control the fate of neural stem cells, bringing researchers one step closer to unlocking the mystery of how to repair the brain after injury or stroke.

The findings, published recently in the journalNature Communications, outline a small set of molecules able to keep two major classes of neural stem cells from losing their ability to differentiate into critical components of a mammals cortex, a part of the brain that controls language and information processing.

This discovery is an exciting extension of platform technologies developed by our lab in recent years, which make cell therapy safe and universal with off-the-shelf products to treat degenerative diseases, saidAndras Nagy, who is principal investigator on the study,a professor ofobstetrics and gynaecologyU of Ts Temerty Faculty of Medicine,and a senior investigator at theLunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Instituteat Sinai Health.

GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons are two major neuronal subtypes in the mammalian forebrain, or cerebral cortex. Both classes develop from cells known as neuroepithelial progenitors and play an early and important role in brain development, but then quickly lose their ability to form other cortical cell types.

To overcome this limitation, scientists in the Nagy lab identified a set of small molecules capable of keeping the progenitor cells growing without losing their developmental potential.

Furthermore, when researchers withdrew that cocktail of molecules from the stem cells, the cells continued to differentiate into cells of the human forebrainin large numbers.

The ability to obtain an unlimited number of forebrain-forming neural epithelium from stem cells is essential for disease modelling and toxicity testing needed in the development of new drugs, said Nagy, who is also affiliated with U of T'sInstitute of Medical Scienceand holds the Canada Research Chair in Stem Cells and Regeneration. These cells could be used in cell therapies, with the potential to treat strokes and other neurological diseases.

Balazs Varga, first author on the paper who developed cell-based therapeutic approaches over the span of a decade for the project, said that understanding the forces orchestrating brain development will help identify underlying causes of diseases, leading to new treatments.

"Our work identified one way we can control the fate of neural stem cells, said Varga, formerly a post-doctoral researcher in the Nagy lab who is now a research associate at Wellcome Trust Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute. Better understanding the behaviour of the neuroepithelial cells will provide us with ideas about how we could control progenitor cell function and brain regeneration.

The research was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

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Computer vision tool improves the ability to distinguish rheumatoid arthritis from osteoarthritis in damaged joint tissue – EurekAlert

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:02 am

A new study led by Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) investigators in New York City has found that their computer vision tool effectively distinguishes rheumatoid arthritis (RA) from osteoarthritis (OA) in joint tissue taken from patients who underwent total knee replacement (TKR). The results suggest the machine learning model will help improve research processes in the short term and optimize patient care in the future. The findings were presented today at the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) Congress 2022.

TKR is often the only management option for patients with severe knee joint damage. Identifying which disease caused the joint damage is essential for guiding treatment plans, given that RA is a systemic, inflammatory disease that may also affect the eyes or lining around the heart, while OA affects just the joints. We know there are many more immune cells present in the synovium, or joint tissue, of patients with RA compared to those with OA, said Bella Mehta, MBBS, MS, rheumatologist at HSS and lead author of the study. But precisely how many more has not been clear.

Pathologists typically assess images of synovium to determine the extent of inflammation using a combination of approaches, including assigning the level of immune cell infiltration on a scale from 0 to 4, said Dana Orange, MD, MS, rheumatologist at HSS, assistant professor at Rockefeller University and senior author of the study. However, these methods are imperfect. For example, a recent study by HSS investigators found that assessments from two highly experienced pathologists evaluating the infiltration of one type of immune cells known as lymphocytes on the same slides agreed only 67 percent of the time.1

Drs. Orange, Mehta and colleagues at HSS and collaborating institutions developed and validated a computer vision tool that rapidly counts tens of thousands of cell nuclei in whole-slide images of synovium.2 For their present study, they measured 14 different pathologist-scored features in synovium from 60 patients with RA and 147 patients with OA who underwent TKR, and used the computer vision tool to determine cell density.

The investigators identified significant differences between RA and OA features in synovium. The RA samples showed increased cell density; low numbers of mast cells, a type of white blood cell; and lower evidence of fibrosis or scarring compared to the OA samples. The probability of correctly distinguishing between RA and OA in synovium was 85 percent when using the 14 pathologist-scored features alone, 88 percent when using the computers score for cell density alone and 91 percent when the researchers combined the pathologists scores and the computers cell density calculation. The researchers determined a cutoff point for distinguishing RA from OA, determining that synovium containing more than 3,400 cells per mm2 should be classified as RA.

While our innovation is not ready for clinical use yet, it holds promise for assisting pathologists in the future, Dr. Orange said. Right now, we see it as a valuable tool for research purposes because it provides an accurate and 100% reproducible score of inflammation and look forward to developing it further.

Dr. Orange added that in the future computer vision could be trained to glean other types of information from tissue samples, including which types of cells are present and whether they are close enough together that they are likely to be communicating with each other. This more granular assessment might enable clinicians to know more precisely which cells are causing tissue damage and tailor treatments accordingly.

Authors: Bella Mehta, MBBS, MS, Susan M. Goodman, MD, Edward F. DiCarlo, MD, Deanna Jannat-Khah, J. Alex Gibbons, Miguel Otero, PhD, Laura Donlin, PhD (HSS), Tania Pannellini, MD, PhD (Weill Cornell Medicine), William Robinson, MD, PhD (Stanford University), Peter K. Sculco, MD, Mark P. Figgie, MD, Jose A. Rodriguez, MD (HSS), Jessica Kirschmann (Stanford University), James Thompson, David Slater, Damon Frezza (The MITRE Corporation), Zhenxing Xu, Fei Wang, PhD (Weill Cornell Medicine), Dana Orange, MD, MS (HSS and Rockefeller University).

References

1. Orange DE, Agius P, DiCarlo EF, et al. Identification of Three Rheumatoid Arthritis Disease Subtypes by Machine Learning Integration of Synovial Histologic Features and RNA Sequencing Data.Arthritis Rheumatol. 2018;70(5):690-701. doi:10.1002/art.40428

2. Guan S, Mehta B, Slater D, et al. Rheumatoid Arthritis Synovial Inflammation Quantification Using Computer Vision.ACR Open Rheumatol. 2022;4(4):322-331. doi:10.1002/acr2.11381

About HSS

HSS is the worlds leading academic medical center focused on musculoskeletal health. At its core is Hospital for Special Surgery, nationally ranked No. 1 in orthopedics (for the 12th consecutive year), No. 4in rheumatology by U.S. News & World Report (2021-2022), and the best pediatric orthopedic hospital in NY, NJ and CT by U.S. News & World Report Best Childrens Hospitals list (2021-2022).In a survey of medical professionals in more than 20 countries by Newsweek, HSS is ranked world #1 in orthopedics for a second consecutive year (2022). Founded in 1863, the Hospital has the lowest complication and readmission rates in the nation for orthopedics, and among the lowest infection rates. HSS was the first in New York State to receive Magnet Recognition for Excellence in Nursing Service from the American Nurses Credentialing Center five consecutive times. An affiliate of Weill Cornell Medical College, HSS has a main campus in New York City and facilities in New Jersey, Connecticut and in the Long Island and Westchester County regions of New York State, as well as in Florida. In addition to patient care, HSS leads the field in research, innovation and education. The HSS Research Institute comprises 20 laboratories and 300 staff members focused on leading the advancement of musculoskeletal health through prevention of degeneration, tissue repair and tissue regeneration. The HSS Innovation Institute works to realize the potential of new drugs, therapeutics and devices. The HSS Education Institute is a trusted leader in advancing musculoskeletal knowledge and research for physicians, nurses, allied health professionals, academic trainees, and consumers in more than 145 countries. The institution is collaborating with medical centers and other organizations to advance the quality and value of musculoskeletal care and to make world-class HSS care more widely accessible nationally and internationally.www.hss.edu.

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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The paired perils of breast cancer and diabetes – EurekAlert

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:02 am

image:A breast cancer cell captured in the process of division, with tubulin (a structural protein) in red; mitochondria in green; and chromosomes in blue. view more

Credit: Wei QianNational Cancer Institute

Breast cancer and type 2 diabetes would seem to be distinctly different diseases, with commonality only in their commonality. Breast cancer is the second most diagnosed malignancy after some types of skin cancer; approximately 1 in eight U.S. women will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of their lifetime. More than 10 percent of the U.S. population has diabetes, with an estimated 2 in 5 Americans expected to develop the chronic disease during their lifetime.

However, past research has uncovered associations between the two diseases. Women with diabetes, for example, have a 20 to 27 percent increased risk of developing breast cancer. Insulin resistance a key characteristic of diabetes has been associated with breast cancer incidence and poor survival. Population studies suggest diabetes risk begins to increase two years after a breast cancer diagnosis, and by 10 years post-diagnosis, the risk is 20 percent higher in breast cancer survivors than in age-matched women without breast cancer.

But these epidemiological linkages are not clear-cut or definitive, and some studies have found no associations at all. In a new paper, publishing May 30, 2022 in Nature Cell Biology, a research team led by scientists at University of California San Diego School of Medicine describe a possible biological mechanism connecting the two diseases, in which breast cancer suppresses the production of insulin, resulting in diabetes, and the impairment of blood sugar control promotes tumor growth.

No disease is an island because no cell lives alone, said corresponding study author Shizhen Emily Wang, PhD, professor of pathology at UC San Diego School of Medicine. In this study, we describe how breast cancer cells impair the function of pancreatic islets to make them produce less insulin than needed, leading to higher blood glucose levels in breast cancer patients compared to females without cancer.

Wang said the study was inspired by early work and guidance from Jerrold Olefsky, MD, professor of medicine and associate dean for scientific affairs in the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Olefsky is co-senior author of the study with Wang.

The culprit, according to Wang and Olefsky, are extracellular vesicles (EV) hollow spheres secreted or shed by cells that transport DNA, RNA, proteins, fats and other materials between cells, a sort of cargo communication system.

In this case, the cancer cells were found to be secreting microRNA-122 into the vesicles. Wang said when vesicles reach the pancreas, they can enter the islet cells responsible for insulin production, dispense their miR-122 cargo and damage the islets critical function in maintaining a normal blood glucose level.

Cancer cells have a sweet tooth, Wang said. They use more glucose than healthy cells in order to fuel tumor growth, and this has been the basis for PET scans in cancer detection. By increasing blood glucose that can be easily used by cancer cells, breast tumors make their own favorite food and, meanwhile, deprive this essential nutrient from normal cells.

The research was conducted using mouse models, which found that slow-releasing insulin pellets or a glucose-lowering drug known as an SGLT2 inhibitor restored normal control of glucose in the presence of a breast tumor, which in turn suppressed the tumors growth.

These miR-122 inhibitors, which happen to be the first miRNA-based drugs to enter clinical trials, might have a new use in breast cancer therapy, Wang said.

Co-authors include: Minghui Cao, Roi Isaac, Wei Yan, Xianhui Ruan, Li Jiang, Yuhao Wan, Jessica Wang, Christine Caron, Donald P. Pizzo, Xuxiang Liu, Andrew R. Chin, Miranda Y. Fong, Oluwole Fadare, Richard B. Schwab, Wei Ying and Jack D. Bui, all at UC San Diego; Dorothy D. Sears, Arizona State University; Steven Neben and Denis Drygin, Regulus Therapeutics, Inc., San Diego; Xiwei Wu, Joanne Mortimer, Yuan Yuan and Susan E. Yost, all at City of Hope, Duarte, CA; Ziting Gao, Kaizhu Guo and Wenwan Zhong, all at UC Riverside.

# # #

Nature Cell Biology

30-May-2022

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

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The paired perils of breast cancer and diabetes - EurekAlert

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Effect of Genetic Variations on Rifamycins | PGPM – Dove Medical Press

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:01 am

Introduction

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease, which remains a major public health problem globally. In the year 2020, the estimated number of people who died from tuberculosis is 1.3 million among HIV-negative people and 214,000 among HIV-positive.1 Current pharmacotherapy of tuberculosis involves a combination of at least four drugs. Rifamycins are key components of pharmacotherapy for both active and latent TB.

Rifamycins are a class of antibiotics isolated from Amycolatopsis in 1957. Four distinct semi-synthetic rifamycin analogs (rifampicin, rifabutin, rifapentine, and rifaximin) are approved for clinical use. Rifampicin, rifabutin, and rifapentine are used for the treatment of TB and chronic staphylococcal infections.2 Rifapentine given once weekly for 12 weeks with isoniazid is effective and well tolerated in the treatment of latent TB.3 Rifaximin is poorly absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract and is indicated for the treatment of travelers diarrhea, functional bloating, irritable bowel syndrome, and small bowel bacterial overgrowth.4

Variable exposure to anti-TB drugs may be associated with unfavorable treatment outcomes.5 Factors associated with drug exposure variability of anti-TB drugs, such as age, gender nutritional status, human immune-deficiency virus, diabetes, and genetic polymorphism, were described in various previous studies.69 There has been a notable development in recent years on how genetic variations in drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters contribute to variation in exposure and response to the drugs.10,11 As the local and systemic concentrations of anti-TB drugs are affected by genetic variations in drug-metabolizing enzymes and transporters, pharmacokinetic and pharmacogenetic studies are increasingly performed to optimize TB treatments.12,13

Rifamycins are thought to be metabolized by microsomal hepatic carboxylesterases (CES), and serine esterase arylacetamide deacetylase (AADAC) to 25-deacetylrifamycins.14,15 The uptake, distribution, and excretion of rifampicin are mediated by membrane drug transporters. There are two transporters superfamilies; the solute carrier (SLC) transporters and the adenosine triphosphate (ATP)-binding cassette (ABC) transporters.16 SLC superfamily consists of more than 400 membrane-bound family proteins. Multiple studies revealed that the SLCO1B1 sinusoidal influx transporter influences rifampicin influx,17,18 and the SLCO1B1 *15 haplotype is associated with rifampin-induced liver injury.19 Most ABC transporters in eukaryotic cells mediate the efflux of the substrate from the cells. ABC transporters influence the hepatocellular concentration of rifampicin.2023 Rifamycins are substrates of P glycoprotein (P-gp), coded for by the polymorphic ABCB1 gene.24 Rifampicin also induces ABCB1 gene expression.25 Although SLCO1B1 and ABCB1 gene products have been reported to influence rifamycins pharmacokinetics, there is no candidate gene identified so far for therapeutic drug monitoring.

Recently, advances in technology and scientific discoveries in the medical arena have enabled the practitioner to individualize drug therapy. The keen interest to personalize TB treatment has been a point of discussion over the last decade.2629 The use of pharmacokinetics and pharmacogenetics of anti-tubercular drugs as tools for TB treatment optimization has been discussed previously.13,18 However, there is a scarcity of comprehensive data on the pharmacogenetics of rifamycins. This systematic review was, therefore, designed to evaluate the influence of genetic polymorphism in rifamycins metabolizing enzymes and transporters on their pharmacokinetics.

This systematic review was carried out following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statements (Table S1). The protocol has been registered at PROSPERO with registration number CRD42020206029.

Relevant studies were identified through a search of PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, and Scopus databases. The following combination of words was used: pharmacokinetics OR concentration OR drug concentration AND rifamycins OR rifampin OR rifampicin OR rifabutin OR rifapentine OR rifaximin AND SLCO1B1 OR ABCB1 OR carboxylesterase OR CES OR Arylacetamide deacetylase OR AADAC AND Genetic polymorphism OR pharmacogenetics OR pharmacogenomics OR single nucleotide polymorphisms OR SNP. Further, a hand-search was done from reference lists of studies included to identify eligible studies. There was no limitation on the dates of publication or publication status. Publications available only in the English language were included. The search was refined to studies of human participants.

The following were the eligibility criteria for the inclusion of studies: 1. Human participant studies; 2. Studies that reported on pharmacokinetic parameters of rifamycins; 3. Studies in which study participants were genotyped for rifamycins metabolizing enzyme or transporters gene; and 4. Studies that reported on the pharmacokinetic parameters of rifamycins and the effect of genetic variation on pharmacokinetics.

Validated tools exist for genetic association studies methodological quality assessment. We used the quality of genetic association studies (Q-Genie)30 tool to assess the quality of included studies. Using the checklist adopted (Table S2) from Q-Genie TS assessed the quality of selected studies.

Two (TS and GM) independently extracted data from all included publications using a pre-prepared data extraction format which included items as follows: first author, publication year, study drug, sample size, type of pharmacokinetic parameters assessed, a country in which the study was conducted, participant characteristics, genetic polymorphism investigated, pharmacokinetic parameter results and its association with genetic polymorphism. The disparity between the two reviewers during data extraction was resolved through discussion.

No contact with the authors was done for missing data and the data presented in this review were extracted from the articles.

A total of 115 articles related to genetic polymorphism of drug-metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters with the pharmacokinetics of rifamycins were retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, and Embase databases. Hand search identified two additional articles which were not obtained during the database search. As shown in the PRISMA flowchart (Figure 1) 51 duplicates were removed. The remaining 66 articles were screened by title and abstract for predefined criteria, and 47 were excluded. The reasons for exclusion of studies from titles and abstracts were (1) review articles (N=3); (2) studies focusing on drugs other than rifamycins (N=26); (3) studies that did not have information on the pharmacokinetics of rifamycins but only genetic information reported (N=8); and (4) studies in which only pharmacokinetics data were reported without genetic information (N=10). Furthermore, four articles were excluded after reading them fully. Of the four articles excluded; one article did not contain rifamycins data, one study was done on healthy participants and the other two articles did not contain pharmacokinetic parameters.

Figure 1 PRISMA flow diagram showing the literature search for studies that investigated the effect of genetic variations in drug metabolizing enzymes and drug transporters on the pharmacokinetics of rifamycins.

Notes: PRISMA figure adapted from Liberati A, Altman D, Tetzlaff J, et al. The PRISMA statement for reporting systematic reviews and meta-analyses of studies that evaluate health care interventions: explanation and elaboration. Journal of clinical epidemiology. 2009;62(10). Creative Commons.

Of the 15 articles selected for qualitative data synthesis, most of the studies (N=14) focused on SLCO1B1 gene polymorphism association with the pharmacokinetics of rifamycins (Table S3). Specifically, seven studies evaluated the association of SLCO1B1 gene polymorphism and pharmacokinetics,3137 three studies SLCO1B1 and ABCB1 gene polymorphism with pharmacokinetics,3840 one study SLCO1B1 and AADAC gene polymorphism with pharmacokinetics,41 one study SLCO1B1, and CES gene polymorphism with pharmacokinetics,42 and two studies SLCO1B1, AADAC, and CES gene polymorphism with pharmacokinetics.43,44 Only one study investigated the association between CES gene polymorphism with pharmacokinetics.45 The most studied rifamycins are rifampicin (thirteen studies) and rifapentine (two studies). No study is available that reported the pharmacokinetic-pharmacogenetic association for rifabutin and rifaximin.

There was variation among studies in sample size, the type of study participants, and the pharmacokinetics parameter compared with gene polymorphism. The smallest sample size was 34,39 while the largest was 256.34 The study participants were TB patients from 13 different countries and races. The majority of the studies were done on adults, but one study data were obtained from children.42 In some studies, participants were TB-HIV co-infected patients. The pharmacokinetics parameters commonly compared with gene polymorphism were maximum concentration (Cmax), AUC (area under the curve), and clearance. However, methods for blood sample collection and pharmacokinetic parameter determination varied among studies.

SLCO1B1 gene encodes for an Organic Anion Transport Proteins 1B1 (OATP1B1). It is located on chromosome 12. OATP1B1 is a transmembrane protein involved in the uptake of various drugs including rifamycins from the blood into the hepatocyte.46 Currently, 191 clinical variants have been reported. SLCO1B1c.521T>C (rs4149056), where the valine amino acid changed to alanine at position 174, was reported to affect drug response.47 Eight studies assessed the effect of rs4149056 SNPs on rifamycin pharmacokinetic parameters. Among these studies, only Huerta-Garca et al reported increased AUC among heterozygous CT for SLCO1B1 521T>C than the other genotypes. However, the observed increase in AUC was not statistically significant.39 A summary of specific transporters influence on pharmacokinetics is presented in Table 1.

Table 1 Summary of the Studies Reported the Drug Transporter (SLCO11 and ABC1B) Gene Polymorphisms Association with Rifamycins Pharmacokinetics Variation

SLCO1B1 g.38664C>T (rs4149032) was reported in twelve studies. rs4149032 is an intronic SNP most common in the African population.48,49 Gengiah et al reported high frequency in the SLCO1B1 (rs4149032) gene polymorphism and its association with low median rifampicin C2.5hr in the heterozygous and homozygous variant carriers.32 Similarly, Chigutsa et al reported high allelic frequency of the SLCO1B1 rs4149032 polymorphism and 28% reductions in the bioavailability of rifampin for homozygous variants.40 No statistically significant increase in the rifampicin exposure for the homozygous TT of g.38664 C > T (rs4149032) was observed in the study of Kim et al.37 However, the large number of studies reviewed here did not report any observed significant effect of SLCO1B1 rs4149032 SNP polymorphism with rifamycin pharmacokinetic variation.

SLCO1B1 c.388A>G (rs2306283) is another SNP in the SLCO1B1 gene. This SNP causes a change of asparagine amino acid to aspartic at 130, but the effect of this change on the transporter function is not clear yet. Huerta-Garca et al reported the AG genotype derived from SNP SLCO1B1 c.388A>G was associated with lower rifampicin AUC024 h values compared to those with AA genotype.39 In post hoc analysis, Dompreh et al observed that the SLCO1B1 c.388AA genotype was associated with low rifampin concentrations compared to those with c.388GG.42 The five remaining studies did not report any association between rs2306283 SNP and rifamycin pharmacokinetics. The SNP SLCO1B1 c.463 C>A (rs11045819) is another variant allele of the SLCO1B1 gene reported to affect rifamycin pharmacokinetics. According to Weiner et al, patients with SLCO1B1c.463C>A variant allele had 42% lower rifampin exposure, 34% lower peak concentration levels, and 63% greater apparent oral clearance compared with SLCO1B1 c.463CC.36 However, the remaining five studies did not report any association between rs11045819 SNPs and rifamycin pharmacokinetics.

ABCB1 (ATP-binding cassette sub-family B member 1) genes encode for P-gp also known as multidrug resistance protein 1 (MDR1). P-gp is a transmembrane protein, which acts as an energy-dependent drug efflux pump. It decreases intracellular drug accumulation, thereby decreasing the effectiveness of many drugs.50 The ABCB1c.3435 C>T (rs1045642), ABCB1c.G2677T/A (rs2032582) and ABCB1c.1236C>T (rs1128503) SNPs are the most common nonsynonymous and synonymous SNPs studied.51 Rifamycins are a substrate and inducer of the ABCB1 gene.52 The decrease in rifampicin exposure with the time of treatment is partly explained by the induction of the ABCB1 gene. Three studies assessed the effect of four ABCB1, rs1045642 rs2032582, rs1128503, and rs3842 (ABCB1c.4036A>G) SNPs. Huerta-Garca et al demonstrated that the rs1045642 TT genotype is a predictor that explains 34.8% of the variability in rifampicin Cmax and 48.5% of the variability in AUC024 h.39 However, the other two studies did not replicate this observed result of Huerta-Garca et al.38,40

Rifamycins are metabolized by esterase enzymes. The esterase enzymes implicated in the metabolism of rifamycins are hepatic carboxylesterases (CES), and serine esterase arylacetamide deacetylase (AADAC). Two carboxylesterases, CES1 and CES2, are recognized to play major roles in drug metabolism. These enzymes metabolize rifamycins to their respective deacetylrifamycins.14,15,53 Polymorphism of the CES1 and CES2 genes have been shown to influence the metabolism of several drugs.54 However, few studies investigated the effect of CES1 and CES2 gene variants on rifamycin metabolism (Table 2).

Table 2 Summary of the Studies Reported the Drug-Metabolizing Enzyme (AADAC and CES) Gene Polymorphisms Association with Rifamycins Pharmacokinetics Variation

Sloan et al investigated CES1 rs12149368 SNP effect on rifampicin pharmacokinetics in Malawian tuberculosis patients. The rs12149368 variant does not affect the plasma rifampicin concentration43 (Table 2). Song et al identified 10 variations in CES2 in Korean TB patients. Among the ten variants three closely linked SNPs, c.-2263A>G (rs3759994, g.738A>G), c.269965A>G (rs4783745, g.4629A>G), and c.1612+136G>A (g.10748G>A), may alter the metabolism of rifampicin by affecting the efficiency of transcription of the gene. In particular, the CES2 c.-2263A>G variant, which is found in the promoter region is associated with increased plasma concentrations of rifampicin.45

Shimazu et al reported that microsomes from a liver sample genotyped as AADAC*3/AADAC*3 showed decreased enzyme activities, compared with others. However, the allelic frequency is low, 1.3% European American, and 2.0% African American. The AADAC*2 (rs1803155) allele, which has a higher frequency has also shown reduced enzyme activity. The recent report of Francis et al and Weiner et al revealed that rs1803155 SNP has a significant effect on rifapentine exposure in tuberculosis patients. The mean AUC-24 of rifapentine decreased by 10.2% in black tuberculosis patient carriers of AADAC rs1803155 G versus A allele.44 The odds increase for GG allele carriers. A similar result was reported by Francis et al. Patients carrying the AA variant of AADAC rs1803155 were found to have a 10.4% lower clearance of rifapentine.41 However, another study from Malawi showed that AADAC rs1803155 SNP did not affect rifampicin pharmacokinetics.43

This systematic review provides current updates on the impact of genetic polymorphisms of drug transporters and drug-metabolizing enzymes on the pharmacokinetics of rifamycins. The overall finding suggests that the polymorphism in the drug transporter SLCO1B1 rs4149032, rs2306283, rs11045819, and ABCB1 rs1045642 and metabolizing enzyme AADACrs1803155 and CES2 c.-22263A>G (g.738A>G) of rifamycins partly contributes to the variability of pharmacokinetic parameters in tuberculosis patients.

The SLCO1B1 gene is located on chromosome 12. Fifteen exons and many variants have been identified in the SLCO1B1 gene. The missense mutation of rs4149056 (c.521T>C) where the wild type T is substituted with variant C causes a change in amino acid of OATP1B1 protein from valine to alanine at 174 positions. This change has been implicated in reduced OATP1B1 protein function and is associated with an increased risk for statin-induced muscle toxicity.55 However, an increase in the exposure to rifamycins was not reported in seven studies, and the one study, which reported an increase in AUC for the heterogeneous variant is also statistically non-significant. Lower frequency of rs4149056 CC variant in African populations56 where the majority of studies were done and small sample size may contribute to no difference in the pharmacokinetics. rs2306283 (388A>G) SNP causes a change of asparagine amino acid to aspartic at 130 positions. The consequence of this change on the transporter function is not well elucidated. The patients who were homozygous wild type (AA)42 and heterozygous (AG)39 were reported to have lower rifampicin exposure. Similarly, no myopathy was observed with rs2306283 polymorphism which was observed in other SLCO1B1 genes in patients taking statins suggesting no effect or increased activity of the mutant variant.57

rs11045819, which is located on exon 4, is another missense variant known in SLCO1B1gene. Of the four studies that assessed the impact of rs11045819 SNPs on rifampicin pharmacokinetics, only Weiner et al reported lower rifampicin exposure, lower peak concentration levels and greater apparent oral clearance with the SLCO1B1 rs11045819 variant allele (CA) compared to the wild-type allele (CC).36 This is consistent with a previous report that rs11045819 polymorphism increases OATP1B1 transporter activity and decreases systemic exposure of the OATP1B1 substrate.58,59

The well-studied SLCO1B1 gene SNPs believed to affect rifamycin pharmacokinetics is rs4149032. The rs4149032 is an intron-located SNP and is reported to have a high allelic frequency. The effect of SLCO1B1 rs4149032 on gene expression and OATP1B1 protein transporter function is not clear yet. Nevertheless, SLCO1B1 rs4149032 polymorphism was found to be associated with lower rifampicin exposures. Emmanuel et al and Gengiah et al reported that patients who are homozygous mutant and heterozygous for rs4149032 polymorphism have lower bioavailability and Cmax respectively of rifampicin.32,40 In addition, Kim et al observed lower oral clearance and higher rifampicin exposure for rs4149032 homozygous wild type (TT).37

Rifampicin significantly increases gene expression, protein levels, and efflux activity of ABCB1.25,60 It is also a substrate for P-glycoprotein.61 Huerta-Garca et al demonstrated that the rs1045642 SNPs, which is a silent mutation, is associated with rifampicin pharmacokinetics. Patients with CC or CT genotypes showed lower values of Cmax and AUC 24 compared to those with a TT genotype.39 Although the rs1045642 SNPs is a silent mutation, previous studies have shown that rs1045642 affects the P-gp protein either by being in linkage disequilibrium with other functional SNPs or by allele-specific differences in the codon usage affecting the protein folding and function.62,63 The observed change in the rifampicin pharmacokinetics with rs1045642 SNPs may be attributed to the above explanation.

Rifamycins are metabolized by the esterase enzyme family; microsomal hepatic carboxylesterases (CES), and serine esterase arylacetamide deacetylase (AADAC) to 25-deacetylrifamycins.14 Three esterase enzymes AADAC, CES1, and CES2 have been reported as enzymes responsible for rifamycin deacetylation. Several genetic polymorphisms of the CES1 and CES2 genes have been shown to affect drug metabolism. For example, variations of the CES1 gene have been reported to affect the metabolism of dabigatran oseltamivir, imidapril, and clopidogrel. Similarly, CES2 gene polymorphisms have been found to affect aspirin and irinotecan.54 Few studies are available that report the association of CES1 and CES2 variants and rifamycin pharmacokinetics. Song et al evaluated 10 SNPs of CES2 and found increased plasma rifampicin concentrations with the CES2 c.-22263A>G (g.738A>G) variants.45 Although Dompreh et al did not report similar results,42 the higher frequency of this variant allele warrants further investigation.

AADAC is primarily expressed in the liver and metabolizes clinically important drugs including rifamycins. Three, namely, AADAC*1 (wild-type), AADAC*2, and AADAC*3, where the latter two have decreased enzymatic activity, were reported so far.14,15 Recently, Francis et al and Weiner et al reported AADAC rs1803155 SNPs to have a significant effect on rifapentine metabolism. Shortly, a mutant variant of rs1803155 (AA) has decreased activity and decreased clearance of rifapentine. On the other hand, patients who have the wild type (GG) have shown decreased rifapentine exposure.41,44 Furthermore, Gabriele et al discovered the presence and inter-individual variation of AADAC in the human lung.64 These findings suggest the important role of AADAC pharmacogenetics in tuberculosis drug therapy.

Exposure to rifamycins in particular rifampicin is a crucial variable for successful tuberculosis treatment outcomes. The high inter-individual variability in rifamycins pharmacokinetics have been associated with various factors such as diabetes mellitus65 and partly HIV co-infection.66,67 The majority of studies included in this review included patients with co-morbid conditions. The sample size is also inadequate for some studies.

In conclusion, the genetic polymorphism of drug transporters and drug-metabolizing enzymes has an impact on rifamycin pharmacokinetics. However, based on the available data, it is difficult to identify candidate SNPs in the drug transporters SLCO1B1 and ABCB1 for therapeutic drug monitoring. On the other hand, the effect of drug-metabolizing enzyme SNPs on the rifamycin pharmacokinetics is promising but needs more studies. In general, further controlled clinical studies with adequate sample size are required to characterize the genetic variation influence on the pharmacokinetics of rifamycins for tuberculosis chemotherapy optimization.

A study reported in this publication was supported by the Fogarty International Center and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number D43 TW009127 and by the Center for Innovative Drug Development and Therapeutic Trials for Africa (CDT-Africa), Addis Ababa University. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health or CDT-Africa, Addis Ababa University.

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Effect of Genetic Variations on Rifamycins | PGPM - Dove Medical Press

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Sarepta Therapeutics Appoints Michael Chambers and Kathryn Boor, Ph.D., to Its Board of Directors – GlobeNewswire

Posted: June 4, 2022 at 2:01 am

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 02, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc. (NASDAQ: SRPT), the leader in precision genetic medicine for rare diseases, today announced the appointments of Michael Chambers and Kathryn Boor, Ph.D., to its Board of Directors. Both Mr. Chambers and Dr. Boor bring distinct and invaluable experience to the Sarepta board that will help guide the company on its mission to change the course of life-threatening rare diseases.

Were pleased to welcome two new board members whose participation will contribute to the realization of Sareptas strategic vision to create transformative therapies for patients with rare diseases, said M. Kathleen Behrens, Ph.D., Chairperson of Sareptas Board of Directors.

Mr. Chambers appointment brings tremendous bioscience and entrepreneurial leadership, along with deep expertise in areas of fundamental importance to genetic medicine innovators. Dr. Boor, in addition to her scientific and academic credentials, is an expert in environment, sustainability and governance, a topic of significant importance to Sarepta, said Doug Ingram, Sareptas president and chief executive officer. These new appointments add to the diversity of experience and perspective on our Board, providing outstanding leadership as we work with the greatest urgency to bring innovative genetic medicines to patients.

Mr. Chambers co-founded Aldevron, based in Fargo, N.D., in 1998, and served as its chief executive officer for more than 20 years before serving as Executive Chairman of the Board until 2021 when Aldevron was acquired for $9.6 billion. As founder, Chambers oversaw the growth of Aldevron into a world-class service organization, specializing in nucleic acid and protein production, antibody development, and custom services with operations in the United States and Europe. Chambers currently serves on the Board of Directors at Calviri, Inc.

In 2018, Chambers was named one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs by Goldman Sachs. He earned his bachelors degree in biotechnology, microbiology, and chemistry from North Dakota State University.

Dr. Boor is the Dean of the Graduate School and Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Cornell University. Previously, Dr. Boor served as the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) at Cornell.She earned a bachelors degree in food science from Cornell University, a masters degree in food science from the University of Wisconsin and a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of California, Davis. She joined the Cornell Food Science department as assistant professor in 1994, became its first tenured female faculty member in 2000, and led as department chair from 2007-2010.

Dr. Boor serves on the Board of Directors for Seneca Foods Corporation, International Flavors and Fragrances, the United States-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development (BARD) Fund, and the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research (FFAR).She serves on the Science Board for the US Food and Drug Administration and on the New York State Southern Tier Regional Economic Development Council.

About Sarepta TherapeuticsSarepta is on an urgent mission: engineer precision genetic medicine for rare diseases that devastate lives and cut futures short. We hold leadership positions in Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and limb-girdle muscular dystrophies (LGMDs), and we currently have more than 40 programs in various stages of development. Our vast pipeline is driven by our multi-platform Precision Genetic Medicine Engine in gene therapy, RNA and gene editing. For more information, please visitwww.sarepta.com or follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.

Internet Posting of InformationWe routinely post information that may be important to investors in the 'For Investors' section of our website atwww.sarepta.com. We encourage investors and potential investors to consult our website regularly for important information about us.

Forward-Looking StatementsThis press release contains forward-looking statements. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Words such as "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "will," "intends," "potential," "possible" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include statements related to Sareptas mission to change the course of life-threatening rare diseases and the potential benefits of the additions of Dr. Boor and Michael Chambers to Sareptas Board.

These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Sareptas control. Known risk factors include, among others: Sarepta may not be able to execute on its business plans, including meeting its expected or planned regulatory milestones and timelines, clinical development plans, and bringing its products to U.S. and ex-U.S. markets for various reasons including possible limitations of Company financial and other resources, manufacturing limitations that may not be anticipated or resolved for in a timely manner, and regulatory, court or agency decisions, such as decisions by the United States Patent and Trademark Office with respect to patents that cover Sareptas product candidates; and those risks identified under the heading Risk Factors in Sareptas most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as well as other SEC filings made by the Company which you are encouraged to review.

Any of the foregoing risks could materially and adversely affect the Companys business, results of operations and the trading price of Sareptas common stock. For a detailed description of risks and uncertainties Sarepta faces, you are encouraged to review the SEC filings made by Sarepta. We caution investors not to place considerable reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this press release. Sarepta does not undertake any obligation to publicly update its forward-looking statements based on events or circumstances after the date hereof, except as required by law.

Source: Sarepta Therapeutics, Inc.

Investor Contact: Ian Estepan, 617-274-4052iestepan@sarepta.com

Media Contact: Tracy Sorrentino, 617-301-8566tsorrentino@sarepta.com

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Sarepta Therapeutics Appoints Michael Chambers and Kathryn Boor, Ph.D., to Its Board of Directors - GlobeNewswire

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