Drug discovery: Full speed ahead

Creating new drugs means testing millions of molecules to see if any do what you want. It can take a while, as you might imagine. But now those shifty Danes say they have a better, faster way, using (obviously) nanotechnology*.

Instead of using gigantic drops, these use nanoscale bubbles — so small that “More than 40,000 molecules can be synthesized and analyzed within an area smaller than a pinhead.”

That means a heck of a lot less material is needed, and the process is fast. Really fast. Like, a million times faster, they claim.

So, if you do the math, a drug that would have taken a year to discover could now take …

• One year = about 8,766 hours or 525,960 minutes.
• A million times faster would mean it would take 0.526 minutes — about 32 seconds.

* Plus “synthetic biochemistry […] DNA synthesis, combinational chemistry, and even machine learning.”

Supplement warning

If you sell — or, worse, take — SAMe (S-adenosylmethionine) as a supplement, you might want to stop.

Forget the claims on the bottle; British and Japanese biologists found that rather than do your body good, SAMe breaks down into adenine and methylthioadenosine, neither of which is particularly healthy.

“When we gave the supplement to mice we expected they would become healthier. But instead we found the opposite. We found that when SAMe breaks down in the body, it produces very toxic molecules, including adenine which causes gout, kidney disease and liver disease.”

They do note, though, that “SAM could potentially be used to correct circadian misalignments caused by shiftwork or jetlag.”

Covid, kids, and atopic dermatitis

The effects of Covid, the lockdowns, the masks … we’re still learning all the effects they’ve had. Here’s a new one: Irish kids born during the lockdown(s) were more likely to have atopic dermatitis.

• Kids born in 2008: 15.5% had atopic dermatitis in the first year.
• Kids born in early 2020: 25.3% had it in the first year. (They also tended to be more sensitive to eggs. Go figure.)

Lithium vs aging kidneys

Everyone’s favorite mood stabilizer might have some other uses. Specifically (and surprisingly), lithium may slow the aging of your kidneys.

Well, maybe not completely surprising, as the lithium/longevity link has been pondered for a while. But now University of Toledo researchers found that 1+1=2.

1: Turning off the gene that produces the GSK3-beta enzyme keeps kidneys from aging.

1: Lithium happens to target GSK3.

2: Giving mice lithium chloride lowered protein levels in urine and improved kidney function: “Our results very clearly showed low-dose lithium attenuates kidney aging in mice.”

A face full of aprotinin makes the Covid virus go down

If you want a Covid patient out of the hospital sooner, a spritz of aprotinin might do the trick.

Aprotinin is a protease inhibitor, and SARS-CoV-2 needs proteases for its spike protein to bind to cells. Ergo, inhibit the protease and you inhibit the virus. The Germans discovered this, and now the Spanish have confirmed that it works in the real world.

[A] Spanish research consortium has published the findings of a phase III clinical study investigating the use of an aprotinin aerosol in COVID-19 patients. Among other improvements, aprotinin treatment reduced the length of hospital stays by five days.

How do you do, fellow kids?

Solving a problem we didn’t know we had, psychologists at Penn State (and one from the University of Washington to keep them in line) have developed a new way for young folks to describe the effects of alcohol and marijuana.

Gone (they hope) would be the 1-to-100 scale of “How drunk/high do you feel?” which, they said…

… might not adequately differentiate between various levels of effects and might not be in line with the common language used among young adults.

Instead, they crowdsourced that question to learn the words Today’s Kids use. The result: a new, more-accurate replacement with a mere four options: relaxed, calm/chill, high, and stoned/baked.

He who hesitates…

Two interesting studies on vaccine hesitancy.

One, out of New Zealand and Duke University, found that…

… many vaccine-resistant adults had histories of adverse experiences during childhood, including abuse, maltreatment, deprivation or neglect, or having an alcoholic parent.

This, they think, might have “contributed to a lifelong legacy of mistrust in authorities.”

The other, from the University of South Alabama, found something surprising. Sure, being psychotic or narcissistic was “related to more anti-vaccination perceptions and behaviors” — no surprise there. But it also found that conscientiousness was correlated with anti-vax views. Why would “the tendency to be organized and exhibit self-discipline” lead someone to eschew a life-saving shot?

“Conscientious people may believe that they can compensate for vaccinations via other health behaviors (e.g., social distancing), but further research is needed to explore this surprising finding.”

Up practice-scope

The president of the Pacific Research Institute argues in Forbes that it’s time to expand the scope of practice of “physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and other qualified professionals”. It worked during the pandemic, freeing up physicians and helping more patients.

The same will be true after the public health crisis ends. Permanently rolling back restrictive scope-of-practice laws—and letting experienced healthcare workers do their jobs—is a common-sense reform that could benefit patients and the healthcare system alike.

PAs and NPs … it seems other health professionals might have been left off her list. Any ideas?

The Long Read: Curbside Pickup edition

Curbside pickup is great for customers who don’t want to venture into the depths of your pharmacy. One problem: They don’t get to impulse buy the way you want. When Junior can’t grab the Snickers at eye level by the register, what’s a pharmacy owner to do?

Drug Store News has some answers to help “Get them to crave candy.”