What’s in Georgia‘s sewers could destroy the world

UGA researchers, diving where angels fear to tread, have discovered bacteria carrying the MCR-9 gene in the sewer water of an undisclosed “urban setting” in Georgia.

MCR-9 is the gene that makes bacteria resistant to colistin, an antibiotic of last resort, so finding it — and in an unexpected bacteria no less — “means that the problem could be considerably more widespread than initially thought.”

Considering that antibacterial resistance is already considered a widespread problem, that’s really not a good sentence to read.

Thank you, whoever you are

A shout out to the unnamed pharmacist in Savannah who alerted authorities to a questionable oxycodone prescription. That alert, through the usual twists and turns, led to the cracking of a multi-state prescription drug conspiracy.

Get ready for your close-up

What with provider shortages, probably more pandemics, and patients really really liking you, a Columbia University report says “pharmacists in the U.S. are well-trusted by patients and projected to play an increasingly integral role in care management.”

Looking toward the field of pharmacy in 2030, a majority of pharmacists see a transition from transactional care to more direct patient care responsibilities.

Don’t go looking for Omicron

Yeah, yeah, plenty of people are thinking it’s better to catch the ‘mild’ variant, which hopefully will provide immunity against something worse. Don’t be an idiot, say people who know about these things. “It is not a bad cold. It’s a life-threatening disease.“

In other words, less dangerous doesn’t mean not dangerous.

Omicron will find you

Anthony Fauci, Janet Woodcock, and health officials in general figure, “Most people are going to get Covid.“ But if that makes you think, “Better Omicron than, say, Upsilon or Omega,“ see above. “Most people” doesn’t mean “Every people.”

Cut that out

What’s one way to help people overcome opioid withdrawal? How about … cut out part of their brains?

UCLA researchers knew that people treated for narcolepsy didn’t become addicted to the drugs that most people would. What was the difference? Those patients were missing most of the brain cells that produce hypocretin.

Flip it: They also found that people addicted to heroin have a lot more hypocretin-producing neurons.

Hmm. Cue the mice experiments! Turns out (they reported) that yes, it’s all about the hypocretin.

Their findings confirmed this hypothesis showing that the lack of hypocretin producing neurons reduced both the physical and emotional symptoms of opioid withdrawal

Problems, problems

With Buprenorphine

The FDA is warning that people who use buprenorphine meds that dissolve in the mouth might report “tooth decay, cavities, oral infections, and loss of teeth.”

With blood pressure meds

Long-term use of hypertension meds, notably ACE inhibitors, interferes with renin cells in the kidneys, causing (say UVA researchers) “hardened kidney vessels.”

With laxatives

Taiwanese researchers have found that being exposed to laxatives in utero might mess with babies’ microbiomes and cause kids to develop allergies and autoimmune diseases later in life.

Talkin’ ’bout degeneration

Want to avoid macular degeneration? Eat dried goji berries. So suggest biologists at UC Davis, who found that eating berries increased the eyes’ levels of lutein and zeaxanthin — pigments that “are like sunscreen for your eyes.”

“The higher the lutein and zeaxanthin in your retina, the more protection you have. Our study found that even in normal healthy eyes, these optical pigments can be increased with a small daily serving of goji berries.”

The Long Read: Peaky? Blinders

The New York Times answers the question, “Is Omicron Peaking?” with a resounding “Maybe.”

“We really try not to ever make any predictions about this virus, because it always throws us for a loop. But at least the wastewater is suggesting a steep decline, and so we hope that means cases will decline steeply as well, and then hospitalizations and deaths will follow.”