Neurons of nausea

Fun fact: We don’t exactly know what causes nausea, which makes anti-nausea drugs hit-or-miss. But now a Harvard neuroscience postdoc has found a major clue.

Meet the brain’s area postrema, part of the medulla oblongata. Some neurons there, it turns out, induce nausea*. Good to know. But even better, some others inhibit it. And even better better, a hormone called glucose insulinotropic peptide (GIP) activates those inhibitory neurons. And when they’re activated — presto! No nausea!

Finding the neurological target is step one; confirming it comes next. And then … you know the mantra: “Further research is needed to translate the finding into anti-nausea therapies.”

* “Electrical stimulation of the region induces vomiting” — fun!

When you can’t decide between “Nautilus” and “Queen of the Sea”

Get ready for your booster (maybe)

A panel of FDA advisers has sorta kinda recommended Covid-19 vaccine boosters for the fall.

Important notes:

• This was an advisory panel, not (yet) the full FDA.
• They didn’t decide whether the recommendation will cover everyone or just vulnerable people.
• Still up in the air is how the booster will tackle Omicron — what subvariant(s) it will target, and whether it will also include the original variants as well.

While we’re talking about the vaccine…

Covid vaccines have saved almost 20 million lives (and probably more) according to a model out of Kings College, London — most importantly, that included 1.9 million Americans.

It’s full of math, and it’s based on excess deaths, vaccine effectiveness,

There are a bunch of caveats that will keep statistics geeks happy for months, e.g., if there hadn’t been vaccines, would mask-wearing patterns have been different? Would there have been more lockdowns? Did Bill Gates’s microchips encourage riskier behavior*?

Still, “We may disagree on the number as scientists, but we all agree that Covid vaccines saved lots of lives.”

* E.g., upgrading to Windows 11 before the kinks are worked out

Faster, better, easier stroke treatment

A clot-busting drug used against heart attacks also works to treat strokes.

Canadian researchers found that not only did tenecteplase work quite nicely in a clinical trial, unlike the current treatment (alteplase), tenecteplase “can be administered as a single immediate dose” — no infusion pump or hour-long wait needed.

That, say the Canucks, makes it — wait for it — a “game-changer.”

Diabetes target switcheroo

In diabetes, the immune system attacks the beta cells that produce insulin. (You knew this.) So it makes sense to try to fix the immune system.

But what if in this case we should blame the victim? What if — as University of Chicago researchers figure — it makes more sense to target the beta cells? What if they’re doing something to trigger the immune system?

“The immune system doesn’t just decide one day that it’s going to attack your beta cells. Our thinking was that the beta cell itself has somehow fundamentally altered itself to invite that immunity.”

You bet they did it. The key in mice is a gene called Alox15 that makes an enzyme that causes an immune response. Knock out Alox15 and the immune response is reduced — and the mice didn’t develop diabetes. “[T]he immune onslaught was completely suppressed, even though we didn’t touch the immune system.”

So… wow?

The spy in your pocket

In the fine print of many of the apps women use to track their periods (for example, to plan a pregnancy) is a little clause — it says that the app makers “reserve the right to share data with law enforcement at their discretion.”

So, should women in states where abortion is illegal worry? Yep.

This time let’s try to be ahead of the curve

“Biden administration to widen access to monkeypox vaccine” — to vulnerable people, and to areas where the pox is spreading.

Water cooler facts: There are two version of the vaccine:

1. The “old school” version, developed for smallpox. It’s not just a shot, it’s a special two-pronged needle that needs to be dipped and applied and … whatever. The point is, not everyone knows how to give it. We have a lot of this available.
2. The new, modern, monkeypox-specific version, called Jynneos and manufactured by those shifty Danes. We don’t have much of this, but more is being made and shipped.

The Long Read: Price Gouging edition

How do drug companies keep raising and raising the price of drugs, far faster than inflation and claiming (falsely) that those prices are necessary for innovation (while maintaining a crazy 77% profit margin)? By “Breaking The Rule Of Drug Pricing In America.”

“I think it’s a moral requirement to make money when you can … to sell the product for the highest price.”