Category Archives: Molecular Medicine

Newswise MicroRNAs (miRNAs) have recently been addressed as novel mediators of cellcell communication, being secreted from cells, and are found in many different biological fluids. Such characteristics also make miRNA potential disease biomarkers. Alterations in miRNA expression have been linked to pathological features and these characteristics make miRNA potential disease biomarkers.

In a review article published in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences Special Issue Crosstalk between MicroRNA and Oxidative Stress in Physiology and Pathology 2.0, authors from the Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO), at the Center for Biotechnology, Temple University, and the University of L'Aquila, Italy, focused on miRNAs and their role in mitochondrial dysfunction in aging-related neurodegenerative diseases. The article, titled MicroRNAs Dysregulation and Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Neurodegenerative Diseases, explores the potential of both as diagnostic biomarkers and therapeutic targets. These aspects may have important implications for the design of new drugs and therapeutic interventions for these progressive and incurable diseases.

The ms points towards the roles of microRNAs (miRNAs) in mitochondrial dysfunction and neurodegeneration, says Annamaria Cimini of the University of L'Aquila, lead author of the review.

It appears clear that any neurodegenerative disease is characterized by specific miRNAs, with the consequent downregulation or up-regulation of specific genes, says Antonio Giordano, M.D., Ph.D., Founder and Director of the Sbarro Institute for Cancer Research and Molecular Medicine and the Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO). However, each condition analyzed shares some miRNA with the others, thus indicating an overlapping of some pathways. This is conceivable if the common presence of oxidative stress and mitochondrial impairment in diverse diseases is considered, Giordano concludes.

The authors would like to acknowledge support from the Ken and Ann Douglas Charitable Foundation.

About the Sbarro Health Research OrganizationThe Sbarro Health Research Organization (SHRO) is non-profit charity committed to funding excellence in basic genetic research to cure and diagnose cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and other chronic illnesses and to foster the training of young doctors in a spirit of professionalism and humanism. To learn more about the SHRO please visitwww.shro.org

See the original post:
Understanding Neurodegenerative Disease Such as Alzheimers and ALS by Examining the Overlap of microRNAs, Oxidative Stress, and Mitochondria...

The Global Bioelectric Medicine Market research report primarily aims to hint at opportunities and challenges in the Global industry. The report also underscores potential risks, threats, obstacles, and uncertainties in the market and helps clients in intuiting them precisely and operating their business accordingly. The report covers an extensive span of the global Bioelectric Medicine market ranging from historical and current events to futuristic stich of the market.

Click the link to get a Sample Copy of the Report:

https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/08262258324/global-bioelectric-medicine-market-size-status-and-forecast-2020-2026/inquiry?source=&Mode=48

The report presents the market competitive landscape and a corresponding detailed analysis of the major vendor/key players in the market. Top Companies in the Global Bioelectric Medicine Market: Medtronic, Abbott, Boston Scientific Corporation, Cochlear, Sonova Holding, Livanova, Biotronik, Nevro, Second Sight Medical Products, Electrocore

Technology is changing the world and bioelectric medicine is the fore front of technology revolution in medical science. The history of the pharmaceutical industry is based on therapies that target the molecular mechanisms. bioelectric medicine has a different drug therapies that are based on electrical pulses instead of a drug to trigger the body. Bioelectric medicine develops stimulate nerves and activation sensor technology to regulate biological functions and diseases treated by combining biotechnology, neuroscience, molecular medicine, electronics and computing technology could change the future of therapy for various diseases. Drug bioelectric action through targeted mechanisms of action to treat the disease. Although the concept of using bioelectric medicine to treat patients has been about a decade, technological advances are driving the market to grow in the near future. bioelectric medicine is a field in which the device is made for treating various kinds of diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, paralysis and cancer as well.

This report segments on the basis of Types:

Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators

Cardiac Pacemakers

Spinal Cord Stimulators

Cochlear Implants

Deep Brain Stimulators

Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulators

Vagus Nerve Stimulators

Sacral Nerve Stimulators

Retinal Implants

Other Electrical Stimulators

Split On the basis of Applications:

Hospitals

Research Institutes

Individual Users

Inquire for Discount:

https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/08262258324/global-bioelectric-medicine-market-size-status-and-forecast-2020-2026/discount?source=&Mode=48

Regional Analysis:

For comprehensive understanding of market dynamics, the global Bioelectric Medicine Market is analyzed across key geographies namely: United States, China, Europe, Japan, South-east Asia, India and others. Each of these regions is analyzed on basis of market findings across major countries in these regions for a macro-level understanding of the market.

Important Features that are under Offering and Key Highlights of the Reports:

Detailed overview of Market

Changing market dynamics of the industry

In-depth market segmentation by Type, Application etc.

Historical, current and projected market size in terms of volume and value

Recent industry trends and developments

Competitive landscape of Market

Strategies of key players and product offerings

Potential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growth

The report has 150 tables and figures browse the report description and TOC:

https://www.marketinsightsreports.com/reports/08262258324/global-bioelectric-medicine-market-size-status-and-forecast-2020-2026?source=&Mode=48

What are the market factors that are explained in the report?

Key Strategic Developments: The study also includes the key strategic developments of the market, comprising R&D, new product launch, M&A, agreements, collaborations, partnerships, joint ventures, and regional growth of the leading competitors operating in the market on a global and regional scale.

Key Market Features: The report evaluated key market features, including revenue, price, capacity, capacity utilization rate, gross, production, production rate, consumption, import/export, supply/demand, cost, market share, CAGR, and gross margin. In addition, the study offers a comprehensive study of the key market dynamics and their latest trends, along with pertinent market segments and sub-segments.

Analytical Tools: The Global Bioelectric Medicine Market report includes the accurately studied and assessed data of the key industry players and their scope in the market by means of a number of analytical tools. The analytical tools such as Porters five forces analysis, feasibility study, and investment return analysis have been used to analyze the growth of the key players operating in the market.

Finally, Bioelectric Medicine Market report is the believable source for gaining the Market research that will exponentially accelerate your business. The report gives the principle locale, economic situations with the item value, benefit, limit, generation, supply, request and Market development rate and figure and so on. This report additionally Present new task SWOT examination, speculation attainability investigation, and venture return investigation.

Note: All the reports that we list have been tracking the impact of COVID-19. Both upstream and downstream of the entire supply chain has been accounted for while doing this. Also, where possible, we will provide an additional COVID-19 update supplement/report to the report in Q3, please check for with the sales team.

We Also Offer Customization on report based on specific client Requirement:

Free country Level analysis for any 5 countries of your choice.

Free Competitive analysis of any 5 key market players.

Free 40 analyst hours to cover any other data point.

About Us:

MarketInsightsReports provides syndicated market research on industry verticals including Healthcare, Information and Communication Technology (ICT), Technology and Media, Chemicals, Materials, Energy, Heavy Industry, etc. MarketInsightsReports provides global and regional market intelligence coverage, a 360-degree market view which includes statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.

Contact Us:

Irfan Tamboli (Head of Sales) Market Insights Reports

Phone: + 1704 266 3234 | +91-750-707-8687

[emailprotected] | [emailprotected]

Excerpt from:
Bioelectric Medicine Market Competitive Analysis and Research Report 2020 to 2026 - Owned

WARSZAWA, Poland, Aug. 25, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --On September 30, 2020, opinion leaders in virology and epidemiology will participate in the International Conference COVID-19.

The event will bring together more than 150 specialists: doctors, professors, scientists, leading researchers of the Ebola vaccine, and other viruses. Among the speakers at the conference are Nobel Prize winner in Physiology and Medicine, Australian virologist Peter Doherty and Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry Michael Levitt.

Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization Zsuzsanna Jakab will make a welcoming speech at the opening of the conference.

Also, speakers at the conference will be:

Oyewale Tomori, Nigeria - Redeemer's University, former President of the Nigerian Academy of Sciences, has studied viral infections including Ebola, yellow fever and Lassa fever.

Pedro Simas, Portugal - The Institute of Molecular Medicine (IMM) at the University of Lisbon, one of the creators of the reusable mask that disables coronavirus upon contact with fabric

Polly Roy, UK - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Officer of the Order of the British Empire for service in Virus research.

Alla Mironenko, Ukraine - Gromashevsky Institute of Epidemiology and Infectious Diseases of the NAMS of Ukraine, Doctor of Science, 30 years experience in the field of infectious diseases.

Anupam Varma, India - President of the World Society for Virology, former President of the Indian Virology Society, Honorary Scientist of INSA Emeritus.

The event will be held as online broadcasts on YouTube and Facebook.

The first broadcast will start on September 30 at 6:00 GMT. The conference will be broadcasted in the format of two-hour sessions. Each session will bring together 15 speakers and will end with a block of questions from viewers and participants. One hour break between broadcasts will take place.

In total there will be 10 live broadcasts, the conference will last 30 hours and will end on October 1 at 11:00 GMT.

The final session summing up the event will start on October 1 at 12:00 GMT.

From October 2, 2020, all the video records of the sessions will be available on the conference website and the event channel on YouTube.

The conference is being organized by the Foundation for the support of International Projects based in Warsaw, Poland.

The media are welcome to cooperate with the organizers of the conference.

The partners of the conference will be able to talk to the participants by video call.

More detailed information about the conference and its participants is available on the project website https://www.education-forum.com/ru/covid.

In order to realize any of the 17 goals of sustainable development of the world, including defeating Coronavirus infection (COVID-19), we need to develop a quality education today. Today, COVID-19 does not defeat us, but makes us stop - the virus stops the growth of the global economy, and the global educational and medical community forces us to look for a solution and, most importantly, unite in finding a solution to defeat COVID-19.

The unification of the global medical community in the fight against COVID-19 once again confirms the correctness of the path we have chosen to achieve all the goals of sustainable development of the world.

This press release was issued through 24-7PressRelease.com. For further information, visit http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

SOURCE COVID-19 International Conference

https://www.education-forum.com/ru/covid

Read more here:
World-leading Virologists to Speak at COVID-19 International Conference - PRNewswire

Visit the News Hub

School of Medicine to become 1 of 10 sites under new Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis is one of 10 sites and a coordinating center forming the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The centers are a coordinated network with collaborators in different regions across the globe where emerging and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks have proven likely to occur.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are establishing a new international collaboration that aims to help scientists prepare for the next pandemic and, perhaps, provide insight into the current one.

The School of Medicine is one of 10 sites and a coordinating center forming the Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases, funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Washington Universitys center will be supported by a five-year, $8.1 million grant.

The Centers for Research in Emerging Infectious Diseases (CREID) is a coordinated network with centers that will each have collaborators in different regions across the globe where emerging and re-emerging infectious disease outbreaks have proven likely to occur. The Washington University-led center includes researchers at La Jolla Institute for Immunology in San Diego and international collaborators in China, Hong Kong, Nepal and Ethiopia. In recent years, these regions have seen the emergence of multiple dangerous viruses, including H5N1 influenza, SARS, MERS and, most recently, SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.

We want to be able to respond quickly and effectively to the emergence of a new infectious disease, said David Wang, PhD, principal investigator of the new center at Washington University. If we can understand the source of the infection, how it spreads and how it affects people, we have a better shot at preventing a new infectious disease from becoming a major threat to global public health.

Multidisciplinary teams of investigators will conduct surveillance of potential sources of new diseases and the local populations at risk of infection. The researchers will study transmission, disease progression, and immunologic responses in the host, and will develop diagnostic tests and animal models of the new diseases for improved detection of important emerging pathogens and the methods by which they spread.

Such information could help predict which new infectious diseases are at highest risk of reaching pandemic status and aid in efforts to understand the new disease and prevent its spread.

In addition to Wang, a professor of molecular microbiology, and of pathology & immunology, key researchers at Washington Universitys center include Michael S. Diamond, MD, PhD, the Herbert S. Gasser Professor of Medicine; Jacco Boon, PhD, an associate professor of medicine; and Scott A. Handley, PhD, an associate professor of pathology & immunology.

The international centers will monitor local populations for the most common red flags of an emerging infection: respiratory disease, inflammation of the brain, and unexplained fever. The researchers will study patient samples to look for new viruses or other microbes with the potential to cause disease. At the same time, investigators will survey local livestock, mosquitoes and ticks to help identify the potential origins of viruses that could be infecting people in a particular region.

The Washington University researchers will focus on the molecular biology and genetics of emerging viruses and on developing animal models, such as mice and other rodents, to help study potentially dangerous viruses, understand how they spread and set the stage for developing treatments.

If we find a new virus that we want to prioritize, we will develop diagnostic tests, and tools to study the virus and will begin to develop treatments, such as therapeutic antibodies, Wang said. We could use our animal models to test possible new drugs. We also will fine tune plans so that we are quick to respond to new emerging outbreaks, such as SARS-CoV-2, first reported in Wuhan, China.

Weve prioritized studies of COVID-19 at the university, Wang added. Were sequencing the genomes of SARS-CoV-2 viruses to understand the transmission and evolution of the virus that is circulating in the St. Louis region. Were also trying to understand how the proteins that the virus makes contribute to the severity of the infection.

The new centers are prioritizing the study of families of viruses that have shown the most potential to impact humans, including coronaviruses (SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV), paramyxoviruses (measles and respiratory syncytial virus), flaviviruses (West Nile, Zika and dengue) and alphaviruses (chikungunya virus), among others.

There are clear sets of viral families that we are most concerned about because they have the highest likelihood of causing major disease in humans, Wang said. At the same time, were definitely looking for everything with our surveillance studies. Every viral family has the potential to be highly dangerous. We hope this program will help identify those infectious diseases most likely to cause major problems, so we can take steps to lessen the impact.

For more information, visit: https://creid-network.org

This work is supported by the NIAID of the NIH, grant number U01AI151810.

Washington University School of Medicines 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

Read more:
Identifying emerging diseases focus of new international collaboration - Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Thursday, August 27, 2020

In this episode, Foley PartnersJudy WaltzandAntoinette Konskitalk withEdward Abrahams, the President of the Personalized Medicine Coalition, to discuss the issues facing personalized medicine and how the concepts underpinning the field may be applied to diagnose and treat COVID-19.

We encourage you to listen to thepodcast in its entirety.

Following is a transcript of this podcast. Please feel free to download aPDF version here.

Please note that theinterview copy below is not verbatim. We do our best to provide you with a summary of what is covered during the show. Thank you for your consideration, and enjoy the show!

Personalized or precision medicine is the field of medicine that finds the best treatment for each patient at the right time. Physicians use diagnostic tests, medical history, circumstances, and values, as well as information from prior patient therapies, to prevent disease and develop targeted therapies that can expedite a patient's treatment and recovery.

The Personalized Medicine Coalition, or PMC, is an advocacy and educational group that represents innovators, scientists, patients, providers, and payers to promote the understanding and adoption of personalized medicine concepts, services, and products. Dr. Edward Abrahams is the president of the PMC and has charted its growth from its original 18 founding members in 2004 to more than 200 members today.

I am pleased to have Ed as our guest to explore issues facing personalized medicine and how its concepts and emerging research may be applied to diagnose and treat COVID-19. Ed, thank you so much for being with us here today. Did I hit the mark on precision medicine? Is there anything you would like to add by way of introduction to yourself or the PMC?

I think you have defined personalized medicine very well indeed. Let me begin by noting, as you just did, that I have never met a patient who did not prefer getting the right medication the first time, rather than going through a process of trial and error because the right diagnosis could not be made in advance of selecting the right therapy.

The good news is that we have many more molecular diagnostics today to target the right treatments to the right patients at the right time, as is often said. But personalized medicine also promises lower costs for systems that incorporate the tests and treatments underpinning the field into their clinical work streams. This is very important. By becoming more efficient with targeted therapeutics and avoiding costly interventions that don't work, personalized medicine can help these systems save money, and, at the same time, provide better outcomes for individual patients.

In other words, and this is terribly important in today's context of constricted resources for health care, with personalized medicine, we can enjoy the benefits of innovation and reduce costs. But we have to be smart about how we develop these opportunities. At present, we have only anecdotal evidence that personalized medicine can deliver both clinical and economic benefits, which is why PMC is doing the research to demonstrate that even if individual therapies come with high price tags, as many in fact do, they can and will produce cost savings if we target them to only those patients who will benefit.

That, in brief, is the real promise of personalized medicine. We believe personalized medicine can provide tremendous value, not only to patients, but also to the systems and countries that in fact have the courage to implement it.

Thank you so much for that explanation and background on personalized medicine and how it is being used today to treat and prevent disease. Ed, for me, one of the highlights of the year is the publication of PMC's annual report that summarizes the key advances the industry has made over the past year. When will the 2020 edition be released, and can you give us a preview of what to expect?

Within the next eight weeks, the Personalized Medicine Coalition will publish the sixth edition ofThe Personalized Medicine Report. We used to call itThe Case for Personalized Medicine, but we now believe that the case has been made.

The report is our effort to define the field by explaining personalized medicine's opportunity, documenting its status, and discussing the challenges it faces. It's a widely read report that is written for laymen, particularly policymakers at federal agencies and on Capitol Hill.

The sixth edition will, for example, show that in 2008, there were only five personalized medicines, which we define as therapeutics with biomarker strategies on their labels, on the market. Today, there are over 250, so you can see there's been enormous progress over these past 10 years or so.

While most of these products are in oncology, we have also seen progress in other indications as well, including cardiovascular illness, depression, and especially rare diseases. The report will also show that today there are 75,000 genetic testing products on the market, up from fewer than 66,000 in 2016. In other words, this is an exploding field.

Also new in this report are discussions of how advanced analytics, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are yielding new insights about how other biological and environmental factors, in addition to genetics, influence a patient's disease risk and response to various treatments, thus opening the door to preventive medicine, one of personalized medicines most important if as yet unrealized promises.

The report documents how, by targeting effective treatments to those patients who benefit, personalized medicine can achieve key goals for patients and health systems. It can shift the emphasis in medicine from reaction to prevention with emerging technologies like liquid biopsies, which may be able to detect cancer before any symptoms occur. This is tremendously important and a great promise. It may reduce trial-and-error prescribing, which patients would absolutely love.

Personalized medicine can also cut the number of adverse drug reactions, which right now are the third or fourth largest cause of death in the United States. It can use cell-based or gene therapy to replace or circumvent molecular pathways associated with disease, thereby offering cures where none had existed before. It can reveal additional targeted uses for medicines and drug candidates. It will obviously increase patient adherence to treatment, as patients will be more likely to stay on medications that don't have dangerous side effects, for example.

Personalized medicine will also reduce high-risk invasive procedures, which it already has done in say, kidney transplants, for example. It will help move patient-physician engagement toward patient-centered care. And finally, as I mentioned, it could and should reduce the overall cost of health care.

The report makes the argument that outstanding challenges in regulation, reimbursement, and clinical adoption slow our efforts to capitalize on advances made possible by personalizing treatments. Overcoming these obstacles, as we write, will require a collaborative effort to keep up with the pace of progress in science and technology. And this is in fact the overall mission of the Personalized Medicine Coalition.

At the end of the dayand you mentioned this a bit in your commentsfor personalized medicine to be a success and available to patients, it has to be adopted by the clinicians. How does that happen, and are there obstacles to that success?

This is a key thrust of the Personalized Medicine Coalition because we are learning that clinical adoption is a much slower process than patients want and expect. For example, PMC will publish a study this week documenting that medically appropriate genomic testing is quite inconsistent across the United States.

That means, for example, that some patients in cancer are not getting available treatments they need. The study shows that coverage and reimbursement strategies are not the only barriers to personalized medicine, as you might expect. Other barriers include lack of awareness among providers and patients, not to mention socioeconomic factors, including distance and access issues.

In medicine, it doesn't necessarily follow that if you build it, they will come. There are many mediators along the way from discovery and development to adoption. We also know from another PMC-commissioned study of the value of genomic testing in cancer care, for example, that many patients who are eligible for effective targeted therapies, as determined by genomic sequencing of their tumor, still do not receive the best treatment option based on the results.

This practice gap can be attributed to the limitations in the availability and interpretation of test results, sample processing constraints, limited access to targeted therapies, and especially lagging awareness of the rapidly evolving field of personalized medicine among physicians and other providers.

We demonstrate in this study that if all patients who were eligible to receive a targeted treatment actually received it, the cost-effectiveness of genomic sequencing, which is sometimes alleged to be too high, would significantly improve. In short, along with public policy, we know that the downstream issues focused on clinical adoption are extremely important and must be addressed.

We are in a continuing debate with respect to drug pricing in the United States. How does that debate impact the future of personalized medicine and how would you address or make some recommendations as to how we price our drugs?

That's a very important question because as you know, the drug pricing debate has gripped public attention. But we are not considering all ramifications. The debate has particular implications for the development of personalized medicines, which tend to be more expensive but may together have a positive impact on the health care system and on overall costs.

We have to ensure that innovative products remain accessible, including to those who cannot afford them. But we also have to be careful not to remove the incentives to discover and develop those products in the first place, which I am afraid that price controlsno matter how they are implementedwould do. That is to say, they would stifle innovation. Drug development is a risky business. There are no guarantees. If we move or decrease the financial incentive to find new cures to unmet medical needs, it follows that we're going to see fewer interventions.

Late last month, President Trump issued an executive order to tie the prices paid for physician-administered drugs, many of which are personalized medicines, to those that are paid in other countries. That may be politically popular because those other countries pay less. But the policy, if implemented, will have disastrous unintended consequences for the development of say, new cell-based therapies, gene therapies, and targeted medicines that are only now reshaping health care in ways no one thought possible ten years ago.

This is so because there are incentives in place to encourage the development of groundbreaking therapies. It's important to understand that when a pharmaceutical company invests in, say, finding a one-shot cure for spinal muscular atrophya rare and debilitating disorder that affects fewer than 25,000 people in the United Statesit does so without any guarantee of success, and it does so also with very high up-front costs that must be recovered. If the company that develops the cure cannot get a return on its investment, it's unlikely to take these big risks upon which patients depend. Long story short, patients will suffer and the costs of providing carenot curesfor those patients will remain higher than they could be.

I'd like your opinion on a topic of current urgent and global concern. Today, we are challenged medically and economically with the COVID-19 pandemic. How have the principles of personalized medicine been applied to diagnosing and treating COVID-19?

I actually believe that the principles of personalized medicine that emphasize stratified responses, even when it comes to public health, have significant implications for diagnosing and treating COVID-19. Those principles, I believe, should inform future interventions to stem this terrible pandemic that has already killed over 170,000 people in the United States alone.

I don't think these principles are being adequately considered as part of the debate. PMC looks forward to introducing those principles, because they're so very important if we're going to effectively address this pandemic.

First, we have been very slow to develop and deploy real-time diagnosticsthe backbone of personalized medicine. These diagnostics give us the tools to determine who is at risk, so we don't have to put in place one-size-fits-all public health responses, including closing down whole economies, when that might not be necessary if we knew who had the disease or who was likely to get the disease.

To date, we have not been able to target long-term prevention and treatment plans to the most at-risk populations, which would be enormously helpful in reopening economies, which we would obviously like to do sooner than later.

Second, and equally important, we know that the coronavirus expresses itself differently among different populations. For example, older men, racial and ethnic minorities, and those with particular underlying conditions seem to be more vulnerable to disease. It behooves us, therefore, to understand the molecular and environmental reasons for this differentiated response, and to develop and deploy therapies and vaccines that are targeted to those who are in need.

Today, we are looking for one-size-fits-all solutions because there's an urgency to find one. But eventually, scientists in my opinion are going to recognize that, because not everyone responds the same, different medicines are going to have to be developed to treat COVID-19 and other viruses.

We've already seen this in AIDS, and so I don't think the coronavirus is going to be different. We have to be really smart about how we address this pandemic. By the way, on September 3rd, PMC is organizing a virtual seminar, titledCOVID-19 and Personalized Medicine: Current Status and Lessons Learned. It is free, and if you want to register, you can do so on ourwebsite.

Ed, thank you so much for being with us today, and as we wrap up, I'd like to invite you to make any closing remarks or comments on the topics we covered today.

I'd really like to thank you both for your loyal support to the Personalized Medicine Coalition, and for giving me the opportunity to discuss these very important issues with your audience. I hope people will pay attention to personalized medicine. We believe it represents the future, and we also believe that if we invest in it, if we come together collaboratively as a community, we can have a health care system that we deserve based upon the developments in science and technology, which have never been more promising. Again, thank you for your attention, and I look forward to working with you and everybody on this podcast to move this field forward. It's not going to happen by itself.

Read more:
COVID-19 & Healthcare: Personalized Medicine is the Future - The National Law Review

IRVINE, Calif., Aug. 27, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Oncocyte Corporation (NYSE American: OCX), a molecular diagnostics company with a mission to provide actionable answers at critical decision points across the cancer care continuum, today announced the appointment of Jennifer Levin Carter, MD, MPH, MBA to its Board of Directors.

Dr. Carter is a true pioneer in applying precision medicine in the world of oncology, said Cavan Redmond, Chairman of the Board of Oncocyte. Her work at N-of-One was instrumental in advancing a new paradigm in cancer treatment which harnessed the power of molecular panels to correlate, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. Dr. Carters deep expertise and understanding in this domain will be invaluable at Oncocyte as we push forward into the world of immunotherapy to leverage targeted response prediction and patient selection in both the clinic and Pharma services opportunities.

Dr. Carter added, Im honored to join the Board of Directors at Oncocyte and believe that their growing suite of molecular tests has the potential to markedly improve patient outcomes through a precision approach that identifies the right treatment for each patient. I look forward to leveraging my experience in developing molecular guided treatment strategies to advance Oncocytes rapid growth and physician adoption. Their strategic approach in identifying critical underserved decision points for patients has led to the development of two important tests for response prediction in NSCLC and now for immunotherapy, and I am thrilled to collaborate with the board and management as we work to broaden the patient population and partners that will benefit from these critically important tests.

Dr. Jennifer Levin Carter is a healthcare executive, board member and entrepreneur and was most recently VP, Head of Precision Health at Integral Health, A Flagship Pioneering company. She has founded and served as CEO at healthcare companies including N-of-One, Inc., where she was CEO from 2008-2012 and Chief Medical Officer from 2012 until its acquisition in 2019. At N-of-One, Dr. Carter led the creation of award-winning solutions that delivered novel treatment strategies to hundreds of thousands of patients with cancer globally.

In addition to her board appointment for Oncocyte, Jennifer serves as a Director of DFP Healthcare Acquisitions Corp.; on the Board of Directors of HouseWorks, LLC., a home healthcare company, eCaring, Inc., a digital health home care platform and Target Cancer Foundation where she has worked closely with the Executive Director on the design and launch of a precision medicine clinical trial for patients with rare cancer. She is a Founding Strategic Board member of XSphera Biosciences, Inc., an Ex Vivo Immuno-oncology diagnostic company and on the Directors Advisory Board at Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale University. She is an Advisor and has consulted for numerous healthcare and life sciences startups and venture-backed companies on strategy, product development, business model design and fund raising.

About Oncocyte CorporationOncocyte is a molecular diagnostics company whose mission is to provide actionable answers at critical decision points across the cancer care continuum, with the goal of improving patient outcomes by accelerating and optimizing diagnosis and treatment. The Company recently launched DetermaRx, a treatment stratification test that enables the identification of early-stage lung cancer patients at high risk for recurrence post-resection, allowing them to be treated when their cancer may be more responsive to adjuvant chemotherapy. Oncocyte is also developing DetermaIO, a gene expression test that identifies patients more likely to respond to checkpoint immunotherapies.

DetermaRx and DetermaIO are trademarks of Oncocyte Corporation.

Oncocyte Forward Looking StatementsOncocyte cautions you that this press release contains forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not historical fact (including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as will, believes, plans, anticipates, expects, estimates, may, and similar expressions) are forward-looking statements. These statements include those pertaining to the commercial launch of DetermaRx, development of DetermaIO, unexpected expenditures or assumed liabilities or other unanticipated difficulties resulting from acquisitions, implementation and results of research, development, clinical trials and studies, commercialization plans, future financial and/or operating results, and future opportunities for Oncocyte, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans, or prospects expressed by management. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, the potential impact of COVID-19 on our financial and operational results, risks inherent in the development and/or commercialization of potential diagnostic tests or products, uncertainty in the results of clinical trials or regulatory approvals, the capacity of our third-party supplied blood sample analytic system to provide consistent and precise analytic results on a commercial scale, potential interruptions to our supply chain, the need and ability to obtain future capital, maintenance of intellectual property rights, and the need to obtain third party reimbursement for patients use of any diagnostic tests we commercialize, and risks inherent in acquisitions such as failure to realize anticipated benefits, unexpected expenditures or assumed liabilities, unanticipated difficulties in conforming business practices including accounting policies, procedures and internal controls, greater than estimated allocations of resources to develop and commercialize technologies, or failure to maintain any laboratory accreditation or certification. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and accordingly such statements should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the business of Oncocyte, particularly those mentioned in the Risk Factors and other cautionary statements found in Oncocytes Securities and Exchange Commission filings, which are available from the SECs website. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date on which they were made. Oncocyte undertakes no obligation to update such statements to reflect events that occur or circumstances that exist after the date on which they were made, except as required by law.

Investor ContactBob YedidLifeSci Advisors, LLC646-597-6989bob@lifesciadvisors.com

Media ContactCait Williamson, Ph.D.LifeSci Communications, LLC656-751-4366cait@lifescicomms.com

Continue reading here:
Oncocyte Announces Addition of Experienced Healthcare Executive, Jennifer Carter, MD, MPH, MBA to Board of Directors - GlobeNewswire

Aug. 27, 2020 11:00 UTC

EMERYVILLE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- 4D Molecular Therapeutics (4DMT), a clinical-stage leader in the development of precision-guided AAV gene medicines based on directed evolution, announced the appointment of Susannah Gray to the Board of Directors. Ms. Gray brings more than 30 years of biopharmaceutical experience specifically in corporate finance and capital markets roles, most recently serving as EVP, Finance & Strategy of Royalty Pharma Management, LLC.

Susannahs extensive knowledge and experience in corporate finance and capital markets brings a valuable perspective to 4DMT. said David Kirn, MD, co-founder, chairman and chief executive officer of 4DMT. Susannahs appointment reflects our commitment to augmenting the capital markets expertise on the 4DMT board as we contemplate the capital required to support the clinical and preclinical development of our product candidates, two of which have recently entered the clinic. We look forward to benefiting from Susannahs extensive experience as we advance 4DMTs next-generation gene therapy programs.

Prior to joining 4DMT, Ms. Gray spent 14 years as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Royalty Pharma before retiring in 2019 just ahead of the Companys initial public offering. At Royalty Pharma, Ms. Gray led the Companys efforts to maximize its financial capabilities. She spearheaded the Companys successful implementation of a $2.3 billion credit facility in 2007 and has helped raise over $1.4 billion in equity capital for the Company. Prior to joining Royalty Pharma, Ms. Gray had a 14-year career in investment banking. In her most recent role, she was a managing director and the senior analyst covering the healthcare sector for CIBC World Market's high yield group from 2002 to 2004. She worked in a similar capacity at Merrill Lynch prior to joining CIBC World Markets. Ms. Gray joined Merrill Lynch in April 1999 after nine years at Chase Securities (a predecessor of JP Morgan), working in various capacities within the high yield and the structured finance groups. Ms. Gray received a BA with honors from Wesleyan University and holds an MBA degree from Columbia University.

I am excited to be part of this outstanding team at this key moment in the companys trajectory, said Susannah Gray. 4DMTs next-generation Therapeutic Vector Evolution platform enables the development of gene therapies with improved therapeutic profiles, enabling the company to pursue previously untreatable patient populations and to address a broad range of both rare and large market diseases. I look forward to working closely with the 4D team and supporting its mission to bring optimized gene therapies to patients.

About 4DMT

4DMT is a clinical-stage precision gene medicine company harnessing the power of directed evolution to unlock the full potential of gene therapy for rare and large market diseases in lysosomal storage diseases, ophthalmology, neuromuscular diseases, and cystic fibrosis. 4DMTs proprietary Therapeutic Vector Evolution platform enables a disease first approach to product discovery and development, thereby empowering customization of AAV vectors to target specific tissue types associated with the underlying disease. These proprietary and optimized AAV vectors are designed to provide targeted delivery by routine clinical routes of administration, efficient transduction, reduced immunogenicity, and resistance to pre-existing antibodies -- attributes that could enable the development of gene therapies that overcome known limitations of conventional AAV vectors. 4DMT vectors are designed to exhibit improved therapeutic profiles that enable the company to pursue previously untreatable patient populations and to address a broad range of rare and large market diseases.

4D Molecular Therapeutics, 4DMT, Therapeutic Vector Evolution, and the 4DMT logo are trademarks of 4DMT.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200827005202/en/

See the rest here:
4D Molecular Therapeutics Appoints Susannah Gray to Board of Directors - BioSpace

Dublin, Aug. 28, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Molecular Diagnostics Markets in the COVID-19 Era (Markets for Molecular COVID-19 IVD Tests, Respiratory Tests, Blood Screening, Cancer Markers and Other IVD Tests)" report has been added to *ResearchAndMarkets.com's* offering.Now more than ever, molecular diagnostics are the most important part of in vitro diagnostics. The analyst has, for many years, estimated the size of and forecasted the growth of the worldwide market for molecular diagnostics in all major segments, and does so in this edition as a pandemic has reached developed markets including the United States.

2020 was set to be a year of growth and innovations in molecular diagnostics under any circumstances. New products, higher growth than other in vitro diagnostic categories, continued acceptance of next-generation sequencing methods were driving. Liquid biopsy technologies and the increased use of predictive genetic tests were and still are areas of anticipated revenue growth. The sudden onset of SARS-CoV-2 and the resulting disease COVID-19 put the world's focus on molecular diagnostics in an unexpected way.

This will not be universally the case. In non-COVID-19 testing areas, such as cancer and inherited diseases, molecular diagnostics vendors need to continue to persuade. Here volumes may be reduced by social distancing measures. But they are expected to continue to make progress converting laboratory customers. New technologies such as molecular near-patient and next-generation sequencing are increasingly part of the mix. The report details these trends.

*This report provides 2020 market sizing and expected growth to 2025 for the following segments:*

COVID-19 Molecular IVD Test Market (Full Year 2020 Projected and Market 2H 2020)

COVID-19 Molecular IVD Test Market North America COVID-19 Molecular IVD Test Market Europe COVID-19 Molecular IVD Test Market Asia-Pacific COVID-19 Molecular IVD Test Market Rest of World

Infectious Disease Markets, including:

Hepatitis HIV Respiratory HAIs and Sepsis Tests TB Sexually Transmitted Diseases

NAT Blood Testing Molecular Histology Molecular Cancer Testing Molecular Transplantation Testing Inherited Disease Testing

NIPT Inherited Thrombophilia Pharmacogenomics

There has also been a huge influx of product introductions from small, obscure companies. These have mostly targeted the low end of the price range and often had poor performance, while a small number of high-end automated systems are mostly limited to certain segments of the market, such as independent reference laboratories and centralized hospital laboratories. Low-quality products from fly-by-night companies are the predictable result of the shortages and the relatively basic resources needed to produce mediocre antibody test kits with a low level of quality control. A few major companies are seeing the most test runs, particularly in the United States.

COVID-19 testing has also been a bit of a double-edged sword for labs generally, for in vitro diagnostics and for molecular tests. Boosting volumes in infectious disease have been notably paired with drops due to social distancing measures and hospital surgical postponements. What is the result? The report helps to sort out the array of news and reports about the current state of molecular diagnostics, reasonable global estimates for COVID, and the impact of COVID-19 on the rest of molecular testing.

*The report covers the global markets. For All Markets, the analyst provides the following:*

Impacts of COVID-19 on Market Segments Regional Market Distribution Profiles of Top Companies Major Companies with COVID-19 Tests Other Companies with COVID-19 Tests HIV Products on the Market Transplantation Products on the Market The Increasing Role of Next-Generation Sequencing Trends - Lab Automation and Molecular Diagnostics Trends - CRISPR Trends - Artificial Intelligence Company Profiles

The analyst has monitored 2020 secondary sources, trade publications, medical journals, government websites and policy documents, as well as financial statements from vendors to assess the market impact of COVID-19. In addition, the analyst has been tracking lab volumes with a survey since mid-April, and the analyst U.S. MasterFile product was used to keep track of instrument trends.

*Key Topics Covered*

*Chapter One: Executive Summary* COVID-19 Testing Hundreds of Tests on The Market, U.S. Labs Settle on a Few Emerging Trends Influencing the Market Landscape Reimbursement Environment Regulatory Status of Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) The Global Molecular Diagnostics Market in the Era of COVID-19 Next-Generation Sequencing on the Rise Molecular Diagnostics Markets

*Chapter Two: COVID-19*

Hundreds of Tests on The Market, U.S. Labs Settle on a Few Regional Variance in Cases and Testing Other COVID-19 RT-PCR Tests Testing trends, recommendations, consensus taking shape

*Chapter Three: Sequencing, CRISPR, Automation, and Other Trends*

Sequencing COVID and NGS Inherited Disease Companion Diagnostics Outlook For NGS Evolving Informatics Solutions in Clinical Sequencing Sample Preparation and Quality Control Lab Automation and Molecular Diagnostics CRISPR and Molecular Diagnostics CRISPR and COVID-19 Microbiome and Molecular Diagnostics Artificial Intelligence

*Chapter Four: Markets for Molecular Infectious Disease Diagnostics*

Global Market Overview Repiratory Diseases COVID-19 Impact Mycobacteria/Tuberculosis COVID-19 Impact Product Developments Hospital-Acquired Infections (HAIs) COVID-19 Impact COVID as a hospital infection? Product Developments Size and Growth of the Market Sexualty Transmitted Infections: CT/NG, Others COVID-19 Impact HPV Eliminating HPV Threat: Lancet Public Health Study COVID-19 Impact HPV Vaccine and Market Effects Product Developments Size and Growth of Market Hepatitis Hepatitis Types New HCV Screening Guidelines COVID-19 Impact Product Developments Tranisition to Molecular POC Size and Growth of the Market HIV New Guidelines COVID-19 Impact Product Developments Size and Growth of the Market

*Chapter Five: Markets for Molecular Blood Screening Diagnostics*

COVID-19 Impact Other Trends Declining Blood Transfusions in Developed Markets Growing Demand in Developing Nations New Infectious Disease Threats and Assay Introductions Nucleic Acid Testing Markets for Blood Screening Size and Growth of the Market

*Chapter Six: Markets for Molecular Histology and Cytology Diagnostics*

In Situ Hybridization (ISH) Histology Automation Prenatal Testing Moving from FISH to NIPT Size and Growth of the Market

*Chapter Seven: Markets for Molecular Cancer Diagnostics*

COVID-19 Impact Other Trends Predictive Biomarker Tests for Identifying Drug-Gene Match Liquid Biopsy Relevant DNA/RNA Variants Lung Cancer Study Provides Justification for MDx Cancer Rates Product Developments Size and Growth of the Market U.S. Reimbursement Structure Cancer Molecular Diagnostics Markets, Europe Reimbursement Structure, Challenges and Recent Activity Cancer Molecular Diagnostics Markets, APAC Japan China Reimbursement Environment in India ASEAN

*Chapter Eight: Markets for Molecular Transplant Diagnostics*

COVID-19 Impact Other Trends Role of NGS Increasing Competitive Situation in Transplantation Diagnostics Immucor Qiagen CareDX ThermoFisher GeneDX Omixon Biofortuna Size and Growth of the Molecular Transplant Diagnostics Market

*Chapter Nine: Markets for Molecular Inherited Diseases Diagnostics*

COVID-19 Impact Trends in the Market Pilot Program Baby Bear in the United States China India Thrombophilia and Coagulation Markers Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT) Product Developments Promising NIPT Studies Other Tests Autism Seizures Alzheimer's Disease Cardiovascular Disease Psychiatric Disorders Size and Growth of the Market

*Chapter Ten: Company Profiles*

3B BlackBio Biotech India Ltd ARUP Laboratories Abbott Diagnostics Advanced Cell Diagnostics Agena Bioscience Agendia BV Agilent altona Diagnostics GmbH Amoy Diagnostics Amoy Dx Anitoa AnyGenes Applied DNA Sci Applied Spectral Imaging Asuragen BGI BGI Genomics Co. Ltd Beckman Coulter Becton, Dickinson & Co. Berry Genomics Bio-Rad BioCore Co., Ltd. BioGX BioMerieux Biocartis Biomeme Bioneer Bioperfectus Technologies Co. Ltd Bruker CTK Biotech Care DX Cepheid Chroma Code Coyote Bioscience Credo Dx BioMed DNA XPERTS Danaher DiaCarta, Inc. DiaSorin Molecular LLC Diagnostics for the Real World Ltd Dian Biotechnology Co., Ltd EasyDiagnosis Biomedicine Co., Ltd Eiken Chemical Enzo Biochem Eurobio Euroimmun US Inc. Fluidigm GenMark GenScript, Gencurix, Inc. GeneMatrix, Inc. Genesystems (Pall sub) Genetic PCR Signatures Limited Genomictree, Inc., Genotypic Technology Pvt gerbion GmbH & Co. Gnomegen LLC Greiner Bio-One GmbH Grifols Haitai Biological Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd Hologic Illumina Immucor Leica Biosystems Maccura Biotechnology Medical & Biological Laboratories Co., Ltd Meridian Biosciences Mesa Biotech Inc. MobiDiag Molbio Dx Myriad Genetics Nanostring Neogenomics NeuromoDX Osang Healthcare Oxford Nanopore Perkin Elmer PlexBio Co., Ltd. PreciGenome LLC Prescient Medicine Primerdesign Ltd. Promega Promis Qiagen QuantuMDx Quidel Rheonix Rheonix, Inc. Roche Roche Molecular Systems, Inc. (RMS) Sansure Biotech, Inc. Seasun Seegene Seegene, Inc. Shahai GeneoDx Biotechnology Co., Ltd SolGent Co., Ltd Thermo Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc. Vela Veracyte Veredus Labs Vircell, S.L. Wuxi Shenrui Bio-pharmaceuticals Co. Ltd Zymo Research

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/9eza8i

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

CONTACT: CONTACT: ResearchAndMarkets.comLaura Wood, Senior Press Manager[emailprotected]For E.S.T Office Hours Call 1-917-300-0470For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call 1-800-526-8630For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

See original here:
Global Molecular Diagnostics Industry Analysis (2020-2025) and the Impact of COVID-19 - One News Page

After nearly 150 years, we may finally understand how general anesthesia makes us drift into unconsciousness although some of the specifics remain murky.

These drugs dislodge molecules held in the fatty membrane that surrounds brain cells. Once the drugs reach this fatty shell, the freed molecules bounce around like billiard balls within the membrane and alter the function of proteins embedded in its surface, according to a new study in cultured cells and fruit flies.

The new findings could help resolve a mystery that has lingered for decades.

Related: From dino brains to thought control 10 fascinating brain findings

"People have been seriously hammering on this for at least 100 years," said study author Scott Hansen, an associate professor in the departments of molecular medicine and neuroscience at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

But not everyone thinks the new study can reveal why anesthetics put humans "to sleep."

"Let's just say there's a large difference between the fruit fly brain and the human brain," said Dr. Emery Brown, a professor of Medical Engineering and Computational Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a professor of Anaesthesia at Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study.

Since dental surgeon Dr. William Morton first used the chemical ether as an anesthetic in the 1840s, scientists have sought to understand how the drug and other anesthetics interact with the brain. Nineteenth-century scientists suspected that anesthetics somehow disrupted the fatty membrane surrounding cells, including brain cells, as the drugs repel water while readily mixing with oils and fats, he said. Later research, conducted in the 1980s, suggested that anesthetics bind directly to proteins lodged inside the fatty membrane and directly interfere with the activity of said proteins, driving down the overall activity of brain cells, The Scientist reported. But Hansen and his colleagues suspected this wasn't the whole story.

In experiments in cultured cells and fruit flies, the authors found that anesthetics disrupt specific pockets of fat within the cellular membrane; those disruptions then free molecules and trigger chain reactions elsewhere on the cell surface. The authors posit that these molecular changes, among other mechanisms, caused fruit flies to lose consciousness, as evidenced by the insects becoming immobile for several minutes.

However, experts told Live Science that these animal experiments can only tell us so much about how the drugs work in humans.

While the study reconfirms that anesthetics are "dirty drugs," meaning they target multiple cellular systems at once, it cannot say exactly how disruptions to the fatty membrane alter consciousness, or even how those changes alter activity throughout the brain, Brown told Live Science.

The drugs disrupt the membrane, "okay, but now finish the story," he said. "How does that then drive [activity in] certain parts of the brain?" Understanding how anesthetics work could help doctors use the drugs more precisely in the clinic, Brown said.

This understanding might also hint at how the brain naturally shifts in and out of consciousness, as it does during sleep, Hansen added.

"Back in the day," when anesthetics first entered widespread use, scientists theorized that many of the physiological effects of drugs stemmed from changes to the fatty membrane of cells, a gateway that determines when molecules may enter or exit, said Francisco Flores, a research scientist and instructor in the Anesthesia Department at Massachusetts General Hospital who was not involved in the study. As technology progressed, scientists discovered that many drugs interact with specific proteins anchored in the fatty membrane, and subsequently, research efforts focused more on these membrane-bound proteins than the fats surrounding them, known as lipids, he said.

"However, for anesthetics, the lipid hypothesis survived for longer," Flores said. Anesthetics can cross the blood-brain barrier, a border of cells that separates circulating blood from brain tissue and allows only certain molecules to pass through. All anesthetics, as well as other drugs that pass the blood-brain barrier, repel water and readily interact with lipids, "so there's still a chance that they can do something in the membrane," he said.

But nineteenth-century scientists could not observe how anesthetics warped the lipid membrane; the task required superresolution microscopes that had not been invented at the time, Hansen said. Hansen and his co-authors used such a microscope, called dSTORM, to observe how cells reacted when bathed in the anesthetics chloroform and isoflurane.

Related: 10 facts every parent should know about their teen's brain

They found that different types of fats within the cell membrane reacted differently to the drugs.

One pocket of fats, known as GM1, contains high concentrations of cholesterol molecules, tightly packed together and dotted with specific sugar molecules. Upon exposure to anesthetic, the fats within these GM1 clusters spread out, and in doing so, release various proteins that were enmeshed with them. One such protein, called PLD2, escapes to a different bundle of fats and initiates a series of chemical reactions.

Specifically, the reaction opens a tunnel through the cell called a TREK1 ion channel, which allows positively charged particles to exit the cell. In a brain cell, this mass exodus of positive particles makes the cell more negatively charged and could suppress that cell's electrical and chemical activity. That, theoretically, could push the brain into an unconscious state, Hansen said.

But it may not be that straightforward, Brown noted.

To see if their cell experiments carried over to animals, the authors dissected the brains of fruit flies and found that, after exposure to chloroform, fats within the lipid membranes of the flies' brain cells spread out just as had been observed in cell culture. In addition, mutant fruit flies without the ability to make PLD2 became resistant to the chloroform treatment and required a larger dose to become sedated, researchers reported in the study, which was published May 28 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Because the mutant flies were not completely immune to chloroform, the authors concluded that multiple mechanisms likely allow the drug's anesthetic effect to take hold. Disruptions to cells' lipid membrane may contribute to this overall effect, but at this point, their relative influence remains unclear, Brown noted. "Dirty" anesthetics trigger a number of reactions in the brain through different chemical and metabolic pathways, and scientists don't yet know how membrane disruptions affect the overall activity within that circuitry, he said.

These interactions will be difficult to untangle in the somewhat-simple fly brain, and even more challenging to understand in the human brain, Brown said.

That said, Hansen and his co-authors hypothesize that membrane disruptions may play a broader, unsung role in the effects of anesthetics on humans. Theoretically, anesthetics may indirectly affect many proteins by first disrupting the lipid membrane, Hansen said. Many proteins lodged in the lipid membrane have fatty acids stuck to their structures, for instance, and some of these proteins interact with brain chemicals and help drive activity of brain cells. One hypothesis is that if anesthetics target the fatty acids attached to these proteins, the drugs could conceivably alter their function and sedate the brain, Hansen said.

"Again, this is speculative," and would need to be confirmed with future studies, he added. Similar studies should be done with other drugs that cross the blood-brain barrier, not just anesthetics, to determine whether the effect appears unique or common to many classes of drug, Flores said. Hansen said he wants to see whether chemicals with similar effects already exist in the brain, and perhaps help put us to sleep.

While the new study opens many interesting avenues for future research, for now, the results remain fairly preliminary, Brown said.

"Do I do something different in the operating room now that I've read that paper? No," Brown said.

Originally published on Live Science.

Read the original post:
Anesthesia may work by targeting the fat in our brains - Live Science

TSAILE, Ariz. A research paper authored by two Din College science professors about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and its impact upon Native Americans provides clarification of the transmission and virulence of the virus, the professors say.

The paper, The Medical Basis for Increased Susceptibility of COVID-19 among the Navajo and other Indigenous Tribes: A Survey, was written by Dr. Joseph DeSoto and Dr. Shazia Tabassum Hakim.

The paper concludes, in part, that ethnic and anatomic expression patterns of angiotensin converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) and associated pathophysiology suggests that Native Americans and Asians may be particularly susceptible to this disease (Covid-19).

It was submitted April 30 and accepted for publication May 29 in the Journal of Biomedical Research and Reviews. DeSoto and Hakim said the document represents the first comprehensive world-wide scientific understanding of the high rate of infectivity among the Navajo and Indigenous tribes of the SAR-CoV-2 from a molecular medical perspective on Covid-19.

Angiotensin Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) is a type of protein found on the surface of a number of cells in the respiratory, digestive, nervous and reproductive systems. The protein, in general, serves as a door where the virus enters the cells, the team explained.

And the key that the virus has is to open the door is a spike with the protein S, Hakim stated. When this right key S is inserted into the door lock (ACE-2), the magic happens and the virus enters the host cell, hijacks the host cells DNA machinery and starts producing its own proteins, multiplies, increases in number and infects more cells of the host body.

There are four things that aggravate COVID-19 as it pertains to the Navajo Nation, De Soto said. Medically, its the high rate of diabetes, hypertension, genetics and poor protein diets among the Navajo; poor health care infrastructure and technology; poverty, with the associated lack of water access; and dense multi-generational living arrangements.

The two professors work in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) division of the Din College. They said in December they had started talking amongst themselves about the causes of COVID-19, and then started reviewing the literature.

Late in December 2019, we read every single thing that was published out there in the scientific community, DeSoto said. We discussed it and evaluated it long before the virus came over here. Then based on the best medical evidence, we realized that this might soon be a problem. So, we started discussing, evaluating and analyzing and then we wrote and completed the paper.

Two more papers are being published within weeks in major peer reviewed Medical and Scientific Journals by De Soto and Hakim, The Medical Treatment for COVID-19, and with Dr. Fred Boyd, of Din College, a well-known molecular physiologist, The Pathophysiology of COVID-19, both of which have already received international attention via preprints.

The Navajo Nation has the highest COVID-19 rate in the United States which is 450% higher than the national average.

DeSoto, who was senior author and is a medical school graduate of Howard University. His specialty is molecular medicine and pharmacogenetics. Hakim has a background in microbiology and infectious diseases. She is a graduate of the University of Karachi in Pakistan.

Hakim said she and DeSoto are working on another manuscript related to the eating habits, food scarcity and the unavailability of the varieties of fruits and vegetables in Navajo communities.

The Journal of Biomedical Research and Review is an international, peer reviewed, open access, scientific and scholarly journal which publishes research papers, review papers, mini reviews, case reports, case studies, short communications, letters, editorials, books, theses and dissertations from various aspects of medicine, engineering, science and technology to improve and support health care.

Information provided by Din College

More:
Din College researchers believe more reasons behind high Covid-19 Cases on Navajo - Navajo-Hopi Observer