Using your new-found powers

Now that pharmacists can both order and administer monoclonal antibody treatment for Covid-19, a bunch of questions arise — starting with “What does that mean” and including “How do I get paid.” NCPA has some of those answers for you.

Breakthrough test being tested

The folks at Britain’s National Health Service are about to begin a trial of a blood test that, in theory, can detect more than 50 types of cancer in “the earliest stages of disease progression.” It’s one case where “game changer” might actually be accurate.

You’re gonna get schooled

GPhA is putting together its 2022 CPE lineup, and we need to know What kind of CPE classes do you want?

If you’ve ever said, “I wish there was a class about ,” here’s your chance to weigh in so we can offer the most current and very best CPE on the planet. (Are you tired of classes about Covid-19? Or do you want more more more? We won’t know unless you tell us.)

Do this, please: Take about five minutes to complete a survey about the CPE you want us to offer in 2022. Do it by Friday, October 1, 2021 and we’ll put you in a drawing to win a $100 Visa gift card.

Really, even if you don’t win, you win — you get the best courses, the best instructors, and the hottest topics. We’re counting on you — take the survey today!

Does J&J need a boost?

Pfizer and Moderna are getting all the love when it comes to booster shots. But what about all the folks who got the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine? Do they need boosters? If so, another J&J shot or something different? Questions, questions. The New York Times has answers, answers.

Boosting the power of cancer drugs

Checkpoint inhibitors work for some cancer patients, but not others. Good news, though: UCLA biochemists have found a surprise that could make them work a lot better. MAOI inhibitors (yep, those old things) “boosts the power of these [checkpoint] inhibitors in mice—and they suspect it could do the same in people.”

That MAO-A enzyme turns out to be pretty important for tumors.

[C]ompared with normal mice, tumors grew more slowly in mice engineered to lack the MAO-A protein in immune tissues and T cells were less exhausted, producing more molecules toxic to cancer cells. Giving three types of MAOIs to normal mice implanted with mouse melanoma or colon cancer cells caused the tumors to grow more slowly. And combining an MAOI with an anti–PD-1 drug worked better than either drug alone, wiping out tumors in some mice within 1 month.

A bit of good news

For the first time since late June, the CDC is reporting that the number of weekly new cases of Covid-19 in the U.S. has fallen — down 12.7 percent from the previous week.

And even better, about 178.3 million people (53.7 percent of the population) have received at least one dose of a Covid vaccine. The majority have had two doses.

A different view of obesity

Eat too much, you get fat. Calories in, calories out — the math is simple, and obesity results from eating too much. It’s called the energy-balance model.

But what if it’s wrong, ask nutrition researchers? What if overeating is the result, not the cause? Their hypothesis is that what you eat controls how much you eat by affecting how your body stores excess calories.

When you eat highly processed carbs (the theory goes), your body secretes more insulin and slows glucose processing. Fat cells store more, but more importantly the brain thinks you’re starving … and convinces you to eat more.

So yes, you gain weight because you eat too much, but the critical part is that you’re eating more because you’re not processing fat well. (They call this the carbohydrate-insulin model.)

More than flying rhinos

The 2021 Ig Nobel Prizes have been awarded — honoring the kinds of studies that “makes people laugh, then think.” For example, one that showed that the best way to transport a rhinoceros by helicopter is upside down*. (You never know when you may need that info.)

From interpreting cat meows to whether a beard protects you from a punch, they’re always a lot of fun.

* “The Pulmonary and Metabolic Effects of Suspension by the Feet Compared with Lateral Recumbency in Immobilized Black Rhinoceroses“