Sorry, ladies

One of the main treatments for severe Covid-19 is dexamethasone. Problem: A new study from the University of Calgary finds that the steroid, well, doesn’t work for women.

As one researcher put it, “It’s possible the mainstay therapy for severe Covid-19 that we’re giving everybody is only benefiting half the population. This is a big problem.”

Not enough big science words, you say? No problem:

“[I]n males, we see an exaggerated neutrophil interferon response, that is significantly restrained when a patient is given dexamethasone. But with females, relative to males, their neutrophil interferon response was much more tempered, so dexamethasone had little effect.”

The Georgia Pharmacy Foundation is doing good

Meet Kaitlyn Moss, Mercer University student pharmacist. She’s one of the recipients of the Georgia Pharmacy Foundation’s Neil L. Pruitt, Sr. Entrepreneurship Scholarship.

“I’m from a small town called Perry, Georgia,” she said, and the scholarship “will help me to achieve my goals as I strive to be an advocate for the profession of pharmacy as well as a voice for my community.”

Be a part of something good. Support the Georgia Pharmacy Foundation and the future of pharmacy — right here at home.

“Secure.” You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

The only samples of the smallpox virus remaining on Earth are stored by the two countries most trusted to keep them safe: the U.S. and Russia. They’re kept in secure labs, where no one c—

Several vials labeled “smallpox” have been found at a vaccine research facility in Pennsylvania, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday. “There is no indication that anyone has been exposed to the small number of frozen vials,” the CDC said in a statement.

“The frozen vials labeled ‘Smallpox’ were incidentally discovered by a laboratory worker while cleaning out a freezer in a facility that conducts vaccine research in Pennsylvania.

Big step to a herpes vaccine

One of the nasty things about herpes (HSV 1 or 2) besides the fact that it’s herpes — is that it’s permanent. One wrong smooch and it’s in your nervous system forever, even if symptoms never show.

If we’re gonna eradicate it, or at least have a vaccine, we first have to figure out how the heck it burrows its way so deep into the nervous system. Good news: Microbiologist/immunologists at Northwestern think they’ve figured it out.

To get to the nucleus (where it can inject its genetic code), the herpes virus “kidnaps a protein from epithelial cells [kinesin] and turns it into a defector to help it travel into the peripheral nervous system.”

“By learning how the virus is achieving this incredible feat to get into our nervous system, we can now think about how to take away that ability. If you can stop it from assimilating kinesin, you would have a virus that couldn’t infect the nervous system. And then you have a candidate for a preventive vaccine.”

Mark your calendars

How did the FDA go about ensuring the Pfizer covid-19 vaccine was safe and effective? A group of scientists and professors “from some of the country’s top schools” filed a Freedom of Information Act Request with the agency asking for documentation.

‘Sure thing,’ said the FDA. ‘We’ll need 55 years to get that to you.’

First trial of an Alzheimer’s vaccine

It may not be a game changer yet, but it is a “remarkable milestone” — neurologists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital are about to start a phase 1 human trial (!) of a nasal Alzheimer’s vaccine/treatment. It’s designed to both prevent the disease and to slow its progression.

The vaccine uses the immune modulator Protollin, an investigational intranasal agent that stimulates the immune system. […] Protollin is designed to activate white blood cells found in the lymph nodes on the sides and back of the neck to migrate to the brain and trigger clearance of beta amyloid plaques — one of the hallmarks of [Alzheimer’s disease].

The trial will involve 16 participants between 60 and 85 with early signs of Alzheimer’s. The goal right now: determine whether the vaccine is safe and effective.

How do you put a zebrafish to sleep?

You damage its DNA. Seriously. Israeli neuroscience researchers found that when DNA damage accumulates, zebrafish (research-wise, tiny humans that swim) catch some Zs.

So what? So a lot. Even in 2021, we’re still not sure what function sleep serves; there are plenty of theories, but rarely a solid breakthrough. “[This] study is ‘pivotal in providing evidence regarding sleep and its role in DNA damage and repair’.”

It’s all about an enzyme called Parp1.

[The] data suggest that DNA damage, Parp1, and the physiological urge to sleep all increase during the day. Then, “Parp1, at a specific threshold, drives sleep and says to the brain: You have to sleep. Otherwise, we have too much DNA damage and the cell maybe will start to degenerate.” […] How Parp1 signals the need to sleep is something the group is seeking to unravel next.

Crisscross or neck-waist?

While some researchers are trying to cure cancer, slow climate change, or help explore the cosmos, others have more … modest research topics: “How to hug, according to science”.

Article includes the helpful tip “You’re probably going to want to use your arms.”