Peanut allergies: One small step

The FDA has approved the first sort-of treatment for peanut allergies. Unfortunately it’s only a small step, but it could still offer some relief to people whose lives are literally in danger.

The treatment is a specially prepared peanut powder swallowed daily in tiny amounts that are gradually increased over months. It trains children’s and teens’ bodies to better tolerate peanut so that an accidental bite is less likely to cause a serious reaction, or even kill in severe cases.

Users still have to avoid peanuts; the treatment, Palforzia, can only reduce the severity of a reaction. There are some serious potential side effects as well, and it has to be taken every day — an users still need to carry their Epi-Pens just in case.

Outbreak watches

Worry: “At least 19M Americans sickened by flu so far this season“.

Don’t worry: “Trump says U.S. has ‘shut down’ coronavirus threat“; maybe that’s why “US officials release few details” on who has the virus and where they’ve travelled….

Speaking of the coronavirus….

The French Institut Pasteur has finished sequencing the virus’s genome and shared that information with the rest of the world. According to the movies I’ve seen, that means a cure and vaccine are only a montage or two away.

(But seriously, if you’re curious why knowing the genome is useful, Science magazine has you covered with “Mining coronavirus genomes for clues to the outbreak’s origins“.)

Arthritis is depressing

A prospective cross-sectional study of 464 patients finds that ‘Depression and anxiety are common in patients with rheumatoid arthritis.’ That is all.

Whatever doesn’t kill you…

Dogs with bladder cancer have been treated (successfully, it’s important to add) with a modified version of anthrax.

By tweaking the toxin to bind to a protein that’s common on bladder cancer cells, those cells engulf the toxin, “which then induces the cancer cell to commit suicide (a process called apoptosis), while leaving healthy cells alone.”

Parkinson’s target

Parkinson’s disease is tough to treat because the protein that needs to be targeted — α-synuclein — changes its shape too much for a drug to latch on. So Rutgers scientists tried a different tack: They used a small molecule to target not the protein, but the messenger RNA that builds it.

It worked.

[Their study] showed that by targeting messenger RNA, the team found a compound that prevents the harmful Parkinson’s protein from being made. This new compound, named Synucleozid, reduces specifically α-synuclein levels and protects cells against the toxicity of the misfolded form of the protein, suggesting that it has the potential to prevent disease progression.

HIV study ends unsuccessfully

“Experimental HIV vaccine regimen ineffective in preventing HIV”

Want to live longer?

Soy sauce. Fermented soy sauce.

Results, published in The BMJ, suggest the women who ate the most fermented soy were 11% less likely to die over the next 14 years than those who consumed the least. Among men, the odds went down by 10%.