Ginger pain

Today I learned: Redheads have different pain sensitivities than normal people. It wasn’t clear, though, why this was true. So Mass General researchers figured to answer the question.

What they learned: Redheads have a slightly different kind of pigment-producing skin cell. (It’s the reason gingers don’t tan.) But that same cell variant also secretes lower levels of a molecule called proopiomelanocortin, which breaks down into hormones related to pain. Less proopiomelanocortin, fewer pain-regulating hormones.

The presence of these hormones maintains a balance between opioid receptors that inhibit pain and melanocortin 4 receptors that enhance perception of pain.

The bottom line: Skin pigment can affect how much pain someone feels.

InPharmD shout-out

High-five to GPhA board member Ashish Advani, who was featured — along with his company, InpharmD — in the AtlantaINNO business journal. The topic: countering misinformation.

“It’s pretty messed up that you can compare the effectiveness or cost of a blender on Amazon, but you can’t do it for a drug,” Advani said. “That’s what we’re building.”

Legislative update

We did it — we made it through another legislative session with a good medal for our advocacy team — our big bill passed and awaits the governor’s signature. But there’s more, of course, and Greg Reybold gives the details before taking a well-deserved break*.

From vaccine expansion to Covid-19 testing — to what other pharmacy and health bill passed or failed — check out this week’s update.

* Not really. He never sleeps.

Covid quickies

Three types of patients: Looking at more than 7,500 medical records, researchers at the University of Minnesota figured out there are three main types of Covid-19 patients:

• “Adverse phenotype” (23.1%; mostly hematologic, renal, and cardiac issues)
• “Phenotype II” (60%; pretty much in between the other two)
• “Phenotype III” (16.9%; mostly respiratory issues)

“The authors conclude that phenotype-specific medical care could improve COVID-19 outcomes.”

Hitting our stride: In the course of just the last two months, the U.S. went from lagging most of the world in Covid response to leading it. The latest: We’re giving out more than three million shots per day — well above what we hoped to do.

But for how long? Scientists are pretty sure the vaccines give at least six months’ of immunity, but after that it’s anyone’s guess. Which means if too many people remain unvaccinated, we could be caught in a Groundhog Day loop.

As if there’s any privacy left: So, um, what are chain pharmacies doing with all the info they collect about people getting a vaccine? “The stores’ online appointment portals usually don’t make explicit how the companies will use the information customers are providing.“

Many of the pharmacies require people to provide at least phone numbers or email addresses at the point of booking an appointment. Some others […] require that people create online user accounts before they can search their websites for still-limited vaccine appointments.

Let’s play “How Do You Think It Turned Out?”

A bar in Illinois. About 100 people in it, not one who was vaccinated. “Inconsistent mask wearing and lack of maintaining physical distancing.”

How do you think it turned out?

(The envelope, please!)

The result: At least* 29 people in the bar tested positive for Covid-19 within days (including one person who just got a first vaccine shot). One patron who tested positive was a CNA at a long-term-care facility.

One of those 29 also “reported 26 close contacts at a school,” which has so far resulted in two sick student athletes, and the school closing for two weeks. And at least 15 other non-patrons caught it from those 29.

* Not everyone would cooperate with health officials, so the real number is certainly higher.

Quicker breast cancer treatment

British breast cancer patients will be getting a new treatment — a drug combo called Phesgo (pertuzumab and trastuzumab) that’s injected, rather than given via infusions.

The treatment takes as little as five minutes to prepare and administer, compared with two infusions that can take up to two and a half hours, NHS England said.

First things first

Giving glioblastoma patients their chemotherapy in the morning appears to add several months to their lives. Apparently glioblastoma cells have a circadian rhythm of some sort, found Washington University researchers. And with the average life after diagnosis only about 15 months, those would be important months.

“These results are exciting because they suggest we can extend survival simply by giving our standard chemotherapy in the morning.”

Steroids make brain bad

Anabolic steroids (AASs) make some things bigger, some things smaller, and have a range of side effects. Add to that latter list: accelerated brain aging.

Norwegian researchers looked at data from about 2,000 guys (aged 18 to 92), figured out what their “brain age” should be, and then looked at what it actually was.

Not surprisingly, AAS users had a bigger brain age gap compared to non-users. Those with dependence on AAS, or with a longer history of use, showed accelerated brain aging. The researchers accounted for use of other substances and for depression in the men, which did not explain the difference between the groups.

This isn’t surprising; we know steroids affect the brain, especially in Barry Bonds-level doses. What was surprising was how bad this “deviant brain aging” actually was.

UGA streamlines pharmacy path for Jags

UGA and Augusta University have partnered to give chemistry students at Augusta a path to meaningful work with their degrees.

AU students in their junior year who maintain certain academic criteria and successfully fulfill all admissions requirements will receive a guaranteed admission interview at UGA. Those admitted then can complete their bachelor’s degree with transferred credits earned through the Pharm.D. program.

Overdoses were spiking

Just a reminder that there’s another story thread we’re going to have to pick up this season: “Drug Overdose Deaths Spiked To 88,000 During The Pandemic*” — that’s up 27 percent from the year before.

* September 2019 to August 2020