It’s still coming

It’s been months since we’ve seen a story about a universal flu vaccine coming Any Day Now. So … a high-five to the big group of researchers* who give us today’s story.

Their vaccine would target a “long-ignored section of the virus” that they call the “anchor” (as opposed to the head or stalk of the virus, which mutate more).

The anchor, they believe, is common among flu strains and a perfect target for antibodies.

The antibodies, they discovered, recognized a variety of H1 influenza viruses, which account for many seasonal flu strains. Some of the antibodies were also able to recognize pandemic H2 and H5 strains of influenza in lab tests.

Humans can already make these antibodies, in fact, “so it’s just a matter of applying modern protein engineering methods to make a vaccine that can induce those antibodies in sufficient numbers.”

* From the Icahn School of Medicine, Scripps Research, and the University of Chicago

DPH: Covid pills are on their way

As we’ve covered last week, both Pfizer’s Paxlovid and Merck’s molnupiravir can now be used to treat patients with early, mild Covid-19.

According to the Georgia Department of Public Health:

Initial orders for Paxlovid and Molnupiravir will be placed at the beginning of next week [the week of December 26] with shipment occurring shortly after ordering. Initial supplies of these products will be extremely limited.

Per guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), initial allocations will be made to federal pharmacy partners to ensure coverage across all areas of the state. As allocations increase, an ordering process will be made available to our therapeutics partners interested in ordering and dispensing these products.

CBD vs brain tumors

Mice with glioblastoma, like humans, don’t have a great prognosis. But, found immunologists at Augusta University and the Medical College of Georgia, when they (the mice) inhaled CBD, the tumors shrunk — and in only seven days.

So what’s going on? The CBD, apparently, interferes with the microenvironment the tumor creates for itself. But it does more — “reducing the tumor’s coopting of glial cells,” suppressing the P-selectin protein, inhibiting apelin, and more.

Best part: “[T]he approach is likely easily applicable to humans.”

At least people’s lives aren’t hanging in the balance

The Biden administration has accepted Georgia’s Medicaid waiver plan — an slimmer alternative to Medicaid expansion under the Affordable Care Act … but with one caveat: It would not permit the state’s proposed work requirements.

With that caveat, though, state leaders said they won’t accept it. (Instead, Georgia Health News reported, the response “could include pursuing such a court challenge, or just letting the waiver idea die.”)

Better guts, better treatment

People being treated for melanoma should add some more fiber* to their diet. It can improve their immunotherapy treatment (according to National Cancer Institute and University of Texas researchers) by improving their gut biome.

[A]mong patients with advanced melanoma who underwent immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) immunotherapy, those who consumed at least 20 g a day of dietary fiber survived the longest without their disease progressing.

But if you think you can get that same effect in a pill, think again:

[T]he use of probiotic supplements appeared to lessen the effectiveness of immune checkpoint blocker regimens.

* Older folks can add roughage.

Deuterium upgrade

Germans have always had a thing for deuterium, and now organic chemists at the University of Bonn have found a way to use it in pharmacy. Deuterium, you see, can keep drugs stable up to 50 times longer by inhibiting the enzymes that break the drugs down.

Deuterium to keep drugs stable isn’t new. What is new is a way to insert it in specific molecular locations. That’s important, because deuterium ain’t cheap, so being able to use it carefully can keep costs way down.

That’s what the Germans have cracked, using a new kind of substrates called “epoxides” to “introduce a deuterium atom at a single location and with a very specific and desired spatial orientation.”

They’ve tested the technique with precursors of ibuprofen and venlafaxine, and expect it can be expanded to a lot of drugs. More testing, of course, is required.

First-world problem (no, really)

Kids from wealthy backgrounds — whether personally rich or just doing well in a first-world country — are more likely to have worn out teeth than poorer kids.

The culprit: “easy access to soft drinks, energy drinks, and packaged juices” that increased their risk of tooth decay. (And it’s not just sugar, the Aussie researchers who did the study point out. A lot of these junk drinks have acid that helps the erosion.)

Cognitive decline declines

From 2008 to 2017, the percentage of older Americans experiencing cognitive decline dropped, big time: down 23% for women and 13% for men.

That, say the Canadian researchers who studied a survey of 5.4 million older Americans, means 1.13 million fewer Americans experienced cognitive impairment than expected.

What was the reason? Education played a big role. Since the 1920s, every generation has had “much greater opportunities to pursue post-secondary education.” And research has already shown that every year of school reduces the risk of dementia.

“It appears that these increasing educational opportunities continue to pay dividends more than half a century later. The short-term benefits of increasing educational attainment […] are well documented, but our research suggests the long-term benefits on later-life cognitive functioning are substantial.”

Don’t plan any surgery

Good news: Georgia is not one of the 13 states facing an emergency-level hospital-worker shortage. (Meaning more than 25% of the hospitals in the state report a critical staff shortage.)

Bad news: We’re on the cusp. Between the post-Thanksgiving and post-Christmas surges, Georgia is expected to cross that threshold within a week.

(States in the worst shape right now: Vermont, New Mexico, South Carolina, North Dakota, West Virginia, and Rhode Island.)