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Malnutrition-Related Diabetes Officially Named ‘Type 5’

Malnutrition-related diabetes, distinct from both type 1 and type 2, has now been officially recognized and named “type 5 diabetes.”

Malnutrition-Related Diabetes Officially Named ‘Type 5’ The new name and endorsement at the World Diabetes Congress are seen as long-overdue recognition that will spur more research.

Molecule of the Week

I used to be called a vitamin, but not anymore.

https://www.acs.org/molecule-of-the-week.html

Molecule of the Month: Assembly Line Polyketide Synthases

PDB101: Molecule of the Month: Assembly Line Polyketide Synthases Large multienzyme complexes that synthesize diverse small molecules in a stepwise manner.

📢📢📢 Thông báo về buổi seminar khoa học với chủ đề “𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫: 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐫𝐮𝐠 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝”

Trong khuôn khổ hợp tác giữa Trường Đại học Y - Dược, Đại Học Huế, Đại học Chicago, Hoa Kỳ phối hợp với Khoa Dược, Trường Đại học Y – Dược Huế tổ chức buổi seminar khoa học với chủ đề “𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐂𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐃-𝟏𝟗 𝐭𝐨 𝐂𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐫: 𝐋𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐍𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞’𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐃𝐫𝐮𝐠 𝐒𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐞𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐝” bao gồm các thông tin như sau:
- Thời gian: 08h00 – 09h30, ngày 23 tháng 8 năm 2023
- Địa điểm: Hội trường Viện Y Sinh học, tầng 3 nhà C, Trường Đại học Y – Dược Huế
- Đối tượng tham dự: Cán bộ, học viên và sinh viên có nhu cầu.
- Ngôn ngữ: Tiếng Việt và Tiếng Anh (có phiên dịch).
- Báo cáo viên:
+ GS. Marsha Rich Rosner, Đại học Chicago, Hoa Kỳ
+ TS. Nguyễn Chí Long, Đại học Chicago, Hoa Kỳ (phiên dịch).

Đăng ký tham dự: Quét mã QR trên poster hoặc liên lạc qua email [email protected] hoặc sđt 0971.406.111

Trân trọng,

🗞FDA Expands Inclisiran Statin-Adjunct Indication to Include Primary Prevention🗞

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a labeling update for the injectable LDL-lowering agent inclisiran (Leqvio) that expands its indications to include primary prevention for patients with elevated LDL cholesterol, Novartis has announced.

The first-in-class small interfering RNA (siRNA) agent was approved in 2021 as an adjunct to statins for patients with clinical cardiovascular disease or heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. The indications now include patients taking statins for primary dyslipidemia who have high-risk comorbidities such as diabetes but who do not have a history of cardiovascular events, the company says.

Inclisiran, with a mechanism of action unique among drugs for dyslipidemia, works by "silencing" RNA involved in the synthesis of proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 (PCSK9). The protein helps regulate the number of LDL cell-surface receptors.

Novartis says it has "global rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize Leqvio under a license and collaboration agreement with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals."

🗞Biodegradable Brain Implant Delivers Life-Saving Cancer Meds🗞

Scientists have developed a biodegradable implant that helps chemotherapy drugs pe*****te the blood-brain barrier and deliver a direct hit on brain tumors.

It's the latest advance in a rapidly growing field using ultrasound — high-frequency sound waves undetectable to humans — to fight cancer and other diseases.

The problem addressed by the researchers is the blood-brain barrier, a nearly impenetrable blood vessel lining that keeps harmful molecules from passing into the brain from the blood. But this lining can also block chemo drugs from reaching cancer cells.

So the scientists implanted one-centimeter-square devices into the skulls of mice, directly behind the tumor site. The implants generate ultrasound waves, loosening the barrier and allowing the drugs to reach the tumor. The sound waves leave healthy tissue undamaged.

"You inject the drug into the body and turn on the ultrasound at the same time. You're going to hit precisely at the tumor area every single time you use it," said lead study author Thanh Nguyen, PhD, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Connecticut.

The drug used in the study was paclitaxel, which normally struggles to get through the blood-brain barrier. The tumors shrank, and the mice doubled their lifetime, compared to untreated mice. The mice showed no bad health effects 6 months later.

Breaking Through the Blood-Brain Barrier
The biodegradable implant is made of glycine, an amino acid that's also strongly piezoelectric, meaning it vibrates when subjected to an electrical current. To make it, researchers cultivated glycine crystals, shattered them into pieces, and finally used a process called electrospinning, which applies a high electrical voltage to the nanocrystals.

Voltage flows to the implant via an external device. The resulting ultrasound causes the tightly adhered cells of the blood-brain barrier to vibrate, stretching them out and creating space for pores to form.

"That allows in very tiny particles, including chemo drugs," said Nguyen.

His earlier biodegradable implant broke apart from the force, but the new glycine implant is more flexible, stable, and highly piezoelectric. It could be implanted after a patient has surgery to remove a brain tumor, to continue treating residual cancer cells. The implant dissolves harmlessly in the body over time, and doctors can control its lifespan.

A New Wave of Uses for Ultrasound
Nguyen's study builds on similar efforts, including a recent clinical trial of a nonbiodegradable implant for treating brain tumors. Ultrasound can focus energy on precise targets in the body.

It's like "using a magnifying glass to focus multiple beams of light on a point and burn a hole in a leaf," said Neal Kassell, MD, founder and chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation. This approach spares adjacent normal tissue, he said.

Doctors now understand more than 30 ways that ultrasound interacts with tissue — from destroying abnormal tissue to delivering drugs more effectively to stimulating an immune response. A decade ago, only five such interactions were known.

This opens the door for treating "a wide spectrum of medical disorders," from neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's to difficult-to-treat cancers of the prostate and pancreas, and even addiction, said Kassell.

Kassell envisions using focused ultrasound to treat brain tumors as an alternative (or complement) to surgery, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or radiation therapy. In the meantime, implants have helped show "the effectiveness of opening the blood-brain barrier," he said.

Nguyen's team plans on testing the safety and efficacy of their implant in pigs next. Eventually, Nguyen hopes to develop a patch with an array of implants to target different areas of the brain.

🧠 Daily lecture 🧠

5-Alpha-Reductase Deficiency

Ambiguous genitalia is a very rare problem encountered in newborns, with the prevalence of 1 in 4500 live births. Even with the recent advances in the technology like genetic workup, an assay of hormones, karyotyping, only 20 to 40% of the time can the diagnosis be made in these children. 5 alpha-reductase type 2 (5alpha-RD2) deficiency is one of the important causes of ambiguous genitalia in children. The phenotype of children with 5α-RD2 deficiency can vary from under-developed male genitalia to a complete female phenotype.

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🗞Scientist Discover a Repair Mechanism for Hearing Cell Damage🗞

Researchers at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have learned how damaged hearing cells can heal, which is an understanding that could help with attempts to treat and prevent hearing loss. The inner ear contains “hair cells,” which are crucial for both hearing and balance.

Because they have been covered in hair-like features that act as mechanical antennae for sound detection, these cells are referred to as hair cells. However, according to recent research from UVA Health, these sensitive cells can recover from harm brought on by loud noises or other types of stress. When auditory hair follicles are killed, they are lost forever. The researchers published their findings in the journal eLife.

The regeneration of sensory hair cells has been the subject of extensive research. Although those studies are still ongoing, it’s also critical to comprehend the mechanisms that control cell maintenance and repair, according to UVA Department of Neuroscience researcher Jung-Bum Shin. We can find ways to efficiently fortify them if we have a better knowledge of these innate healing processes, Shin added. He suggested that in the future, medications could be used to encourage cell healing.

When replacing hair cells proves difficult, the emphasis moves to fixing them. This combined approach of regeneration and repair has the potential to significantly advance therapies for hearing loss and related disorders, according to Shin. Hair cells are delicate by nature. They need to be delicate in order to detect sound, but they also need to be able to tolerate the ongoing mechanical stress that comes with their duties.

The cores of the “hairs” themselves can be damaged as a result of prolonged exposure to loud noise, which affects hair cells in a number of other ways as well. Shin’s latest investigation reveals a method by which these stereocilia, which resemble hairs, heal themselves. A protein called XIRP2, which is secreted by hair cells, can detect damage to the actin-based actin cores. Shin and his team discovered that XIRP2 detects damage initially before migrating to the damaged area and repairing the cores by lining them with fresh actin.

According to Shin, this procedure is also pertinent to a more general study of cell biology. Shin and his associates will conduct more investigation into the cores’ repair processes. Scientists will be better able to combat hearing loss—even age-related loss—by understanding this, the researchers claim.

At least one-third of all older persons experience hearing loss as they age, according to Shin. “Identifying strategies to stop age-related hearing loss will depend on comprehending and utilizing internal mechanisms through which hair cells fend off wear and tear. Additionally, this information may have effects on related illnesses including Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia-related disorders.

🗞Multivitamins May Help Protect Memory in Older People: Study🗞

As individuals age, there is a tendency for memory and thinking skills to decline. However, certain lifestyle factors, such as maintaining a healthy diet, engaging in physical activity, and participating in social interactions, have been suggested to protect cognitive health in older adults.

Some studies have indicated that taking multivitamins or other dietary supplements may also have a positive effect on thinking and memory. However, there is a lack of large-scale studies directly examining the impact of dietary supplements on cognitive health in older adults, and the results of clinical trials conducted so far have been mixed.

To address this research gap, Dr. Adam M. Brickman and his team from Columbia University conducted a study involving over 3,500 volunteers aged 60 and above. Most participants were white (94%), and more than half had a college degree (56%). The participants were randomly assigned to receive either a daily multivitamin or a placebo pill, with neither the participants nor the researchers knowing which type of pill they were taking.

National Institute of Health reported that at the beginning of the study, the participants underwent a series of web-based online tests to evaluate their cognitive abilities. These tests were then repeated annually for a period of three years. After the first year, the group taking the daily multivitamin demonstrated significantly higher scores on a test of immediate recall compared to the placebo group. The test involved the participants viewing a series of 20 words, one at a time, for three seconds each. Immediately after the presentation of the words, the participants were asked to recall as many words as they could remember.

In the multivitamin group, the average score for recalled words improved from approximately 7.1 words to 7.8 words after the first year. In comparison, the placebo group showed a change from about 7.2 words to around 7.6 words. However, the improved scores in the multivitamin group did not exhibit a significant increase over the placebo group’s scores in the second and third years of the study. Additionally, no significant differences were observed between the groups in other types of cognitive tests.

An interesting finding was that participants with a history of cardiovascular disease had lower immediate-recall scores at the beginning of the study compared to those without such a history. However, after one year of taking multivitamins, the scores of individuals with cardiovascular disease significantly improved and became comparable to those without the disease.

These findings build upon the results of a related study supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which was published last year. That study, which involved more than 2,200 people aged 65 and older, found that a daily multivitamin led to improvements in a broad measure of cognitive function. Similarly, individuals with a history of cardiovascular disease experienced more pronounced improvements. Numerous vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients are necessary for normal brain function.

Lack of these nutrients may increase the risk of dementia and cognitive impairment as we age. Clinical studies on the influence of specific foods on cognition, however, have shown conflicting results. Flavanols, in particular—compounds present in high concentrations in raw cocoa—have been linked to positive effects on cognition in previous studies. Instead of using clinical trials, a lot of the research on flavanols was based on observational data.

Additionally, only a small number of brief clinical trials (less than 12 months) and a single lengthier experiment with older male physicians have previously been conducted to examine the effects of a multivitamin on cognition in older persons.

Dr. Brickman suggests that individuals with cardiovascular disease may have lower levels of essential micronutrients that multivitamins can help correct. However, the exact reason why the effect is stronger in this group is currently unknown. In conclusion, this study suggests that taking a daily multivitamin may offer a simple and affordable way for older adults to slow down the decline of memory, which is a major concern for many individuals as they age.

🗞Study Finds Safest Age for Pregnancy to Minimize Birth Defect🗞

Congenital anomalies (CAs), which account for many infant deaths worldwide, affect 3-5% of births globally. The EUROCAT survey indicates an average relative frequency of congenital disabilities in Europe of 23.9 per 1000 births. Studies suggest that CAs contribute to around 6% of infant deaths globally, while other research suggests that approximately 20% of neonatal and infant mortality is attributable to CAs.

Scientists from Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, conducted a study to determine the optimal maternal age for childbirth concerning non-genetic birth anomalies. Published in BJOG: an International Journal of Obstetrics & Gynaecology, the study revealed that the “safest age” to have a child is between 23 and 32, as the likelihood of specific congenital disabilities is lowest within that age range.

The research team examined the relationship between maternal age and non-genetic birth anomalies. They identified the ten years with the lowest occurrence of congenital abnormalities, which fell between 23 and 32 years of age. Additionally, they identified age groups with a higher risk of such anomalies than the safest period.

Analyzing data from the Hungarian Case-Control Surveillance of Congenital Abnormalities spanning 1980 to 2009, the scientists studied 31,128 pregnancies affected by non-chromosomal developmental disorders. They found that the risk of non-chromosomal abnormalities increased by 20% for births under the age of 22 and by 15% for births above the age of 32, compared to the ideal childbearing age of 23-32.

For young mothers, central nervous system malformations of the fetus were the most prominent anomaly. The risk of these malformations generally increased by 25% in the under-22 age category, with an even higher rise below the age of 20. Among older mothers, the risk of congenital disorders affecting the head, neck, ears, and eyes doubled (a 100% increase), particularly in pregnancies over 40.

Professor Nándor Ács, the director of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Semmelweis University, emphasized that non-genetic birth disorders can often be attributed to long-term exposure to environmental factors. Given the trend of delayed childbearing in developed countries, it becomes increasingly important to respond appropriately to this shift. While previous research has established a correlation between genetic disorders like Down syndrome and maternal age, knowledge regarding non-chromosomal anomalies remains incomplete.

The findings indicate that some NCAs are significantly correlated with maternal age: a noticeable increase in risk might be seen for very young or advanced maternal age or both – specific age limitations changing by disease. This calls for the use of enhanced screening procedures. Currently, neither fetal neuro sonography nor fetal echocardiography is recommended according to the maternal age, even though doing so would help find the corresponding NCAs. Furthermore, very young groups should have the same consideration as older mothers.