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The vaccine of Dr. Moreau

What do you get when you fuse a bit of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a bit of the flu (H7N9) virus, and have it hitch a ride on a chimpanzee adenovirus?

According to surprised Chinese scientists, you get a vaccine for both Covid-19 and the flu … at least for mice:

Remarkably, the constructed vaccine effectively induced both SARS-CoV-2-targeting antibodies and anti-influenza antibodies in mice, consequently affording protection from lethal SARS-CoV-2 and H7N9 challenges as well as effective H3N2 control.

* The SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain, and the flu’s conserved stalk, if you’re interested.

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No, we’re not going to do any cow jokes

Cow’s milk can fight Covid-19. No, really. (Specifically it’s the lactoferrin, a protein in the milk.) That’s what researchers at the University of Michigan found, although they had to put it in science-speak:

Bovine lactoferrin exhibits a wide spectrum of antiviral activity in vitro against variants of SARS-CoV-2 including South African B.1.351, UK B.1.1.7, Brazilian P.1, and Indian Delta variants.

And no, we checked — this was not funded by the American Dairy Association, although it was published in the American Dairy Science Association’s Journal of Dairy Science.

Evusheld — double the dose, but not enough supply

Evusheld is a monoclonal antibody combo primarily given as protection to immunocompromised people who can’t get a Covid-19 vaccine. Two important pieces of information have just come out.

1. It might not work as well against Omicron, so the FDA says the initial dose should be doubled — to 300 mg of both tixagevimab and cilgavimab — and that people who got the lower dose go back for a second.
2. Despite the federal government ordering 1.1 million courses of the drug already, because there are about 7 million people who need it … well, you can do the math.

“There already is inadequate access to this product for those who need it, and that will become more challenging now.”

Different trips, same destination

Both psilocybin and LSD have gotten a bunch of press lately as treatment for depression, but as any child of the ’60s will tell you, magic mushrooms and acid are two very different trips.

But how do they compare as treatments?

Swiss researchers noticed that “no modern studies have evaluated differences in subjective and autonomic effects of LSD and psilocybin or their similarities and dose equivalence.”

Well then, let’s find out.

In a small, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, they found that both drugs worked about the same. There were physical differences in heart rate and blood pressure, for example, but in terms of depression treatment, they…

… produced qualitatively and quantitatively very similar subjective effects, indicating that alterations of mind that are induced by LSD and psilocybin do not differ beyond the effect duration. Any differences between LSD and psilocybin are dose-dependent rather than substance-dependent. (Emphasis ours.)

It’s like biofeedback for diabetes

What happens when you take patients newly diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and — rather than start them on meds — give them lifestyle coaching and hook them up to continuous glucose monitors?

It works really well.

Participants in a University of Colorado study (all recently diagnosed with T2D) were given a four-chapter pocket guide, diary, and of course the continuous glucose monitor.

At 3-month follow-up, 67% of the participants’ diabetes was in remission (HbA1c levels <6.5%), and only one participant started taking diabetes medication. Participants demonstrated a significant reduction in HbA1c levels (–1.8%; P<.001).

They also reduced their carb intake, kept their glucose down, and reduced their depression — and (despite that slick four-chapter pocket guide) gave most of the credit to the continuous glucose monitoring.

Touching the brain

Some brain glial cells — astrocytes — are, strangely enough, touch-sensitive. And they happen to be able to affect the function of neurons.

In most cases, though, you can’t stick your fingers in a patient’s head to see about treating neurological disorders like epilepsy. But British neuroscientists came up with something almost as good: “magnetomechanical stimulation” or MMS.

They took microscopic magnetic particles, and (through medical magic) attached them to those astrocytes in rats’ brains. Once their heads were sewn shut*, magnetic fields could be used to manipulate the astrocytes … and the neurons near them.

Next up: What can they do with this power? An army of brain-controlled rats is probably off the table, but MMS could be “an alternative, less invasive therapy compared to the currently used deep brain stimulation techniques that require the insertion of electrodes into the brain.”

* The rats’, not the scientists’.

They come out of the woodwork

If you make a hot new vaccine for a global pandemic, then earn billions of dollars (and euros, and yen) from it, you can bet other companies’ patent lawyers will be taking a very close look at your work: “After raking in billions with its Covid shot, Moderna faces patent infringement suit.”

Notably, the companies suing Modern have not demanded an injunction. “[W]e do not wish to impede in any way Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine from reaching as many people as possible.”

Today’s odd science/medical story

Heat makes you stupid — sorry, it “reduces cognitive performance”. Exercise makes you smarter (“enhances cognition”). But what if you do both?

The heat wins.

[J]ust 15 minutes of walking outside on a hot day impaired cognitive performance, and this was most striking in men who don’t get enough sleep.