Pharmacist in your pocket

Have you heard the one about the diabetic who would inject an orange with her insulin, then eat it? Her doctor had used an fruit to teach her how to inject herself, and … well, “instructions unclear.”

We haven’t reached the point where diabetics and asthmatics can carry around a pharmacist to be sure they’re self-administering correctly, so mistakes are common.

To the rescue are engineers at MIT: They’ve developed a way to monitor how patients use injectors and asthma inhalers, then alert them if they do something wrong.

A mix of sensors on the devices, a bit of machine intelligence, and Bluetooth (which makes everything better) means patients have an tiny electronic pharmacist at their disposal — like Jiminy Cricket in a white coat.

Proof of concept at this point, but the tech isn’t radically new, so don’t be surprised if you see in on the shelf soon.

ICYMI

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine is 79 percent effective.

One dose STD treatment

If you’ve got mice who aren’t practicing safe sex, you might have mice with drug-resistant gonorrhea. It happens to the best of us. But now Emory and Penn State biochemists have developed a new antibiotic they say clears that gonorrhea in a single oral dose.

The trick is to mess with a different molecular pathway* — one that bacteria have but humans don’t. Their one-dose med is a proof of concept that this new type of drug can treat heretofore untreatable bugs.

* The trans-translation pathway, in case you want to Google

The medical equivalent of gas-station sushi

The American Academy of Dermatology is warning people not to use ‘do-it-yourself’ needles to inject cosmetics they buy from some random Internet store.

“While it may be tempting to use a needle-free ‘do-it-yourself’ device to inject hyaluronic acid filler purchased online…” No, no it’s not tempting at all.

Pain, men, and women

Men and women feel pain differently. (If you want to make jokes, knock yourself out. We’re not foolish enough to open that can of worms.)

In fact, medical researchers at UNC found that — at least in mice — male and female neurons actually process dopamine differently for regulating pain.

Researchers knew neurons released dopamine to relieve pain. But get this: All the previous tests had only been done on male mice. When the UNC folks brought females into the mix, they found that dopamine had a different effect on the dorsal raphe — a brain region involved in behavioral adaptation.

In particular, these experiments seem to indicate that dopamine helps males simply not feel as much pain, while in females, dopamine helps the mice focus attention elsewhere while in the presence of pain.

What does it mean? It means there could be “better pain management strategies, particularly for women, who are disproportionately affected by pain throughout their lifespans.”

Did anyone explain the side effects?

UCLA researchers found that many people, if not specifically informed by their physicians, assume their new meds have no side effects. They are often unpleasantly surprised.

[P]otential reasons for this finding included failure of physicians to mention or to use the term “side effects” during visits, the prescription of multiple medications during the visit, and lack of patient engagement in the conversation.

Once a week insulin

A new investigational drug, with the memorable name of “BIF” (basal insulin Fc), is a weekly insulin injection that works as well as daily shot for patients with type 2 diabetes.

The obvious takeaway: “The reduced number of injections with weekly insulin may improve adherence to insulin therapy,” and also make people more willing to start insulin therapy.

Pet news

For the first time, the UK variant of Covid-19 (B.1.1.7) has been found in pets. They don’t seem to get sick from it (“Infected pets appear to have symptoms ranging from mild to nonexistent“), but they may or may not help transmit the virus.

How many dogs and cats have it? No one knows, because no one is testing.

BUT… vets in Buckinghamshire, UK, have noticed an uptick in cats and dogs with myocarditis since the second wave — the B.1.1.7 wave — of the pandemic. Coincidence? “We don’t want to spread panic unnecessarily.” (Apparently they only want to spread panic when it’s necessary.)