Robots in your blood

Robot drug delivery is getting closer and closer — not the “giant machine chasing you with a syringe” kind, but the “nanobots in your blood” kind.

A cool step in that direction comes from a Stanford engineer whose latest “millirobot” is controlled by a magnetic field (not new, actually); it’s based on origami, so it can fold and unfold and do all sorts of tricks to not only make its way through the body, but collect and deposit cargo, i.e., drugs (this is new).

Check it out, including the cool videos of a prototype in action.

Saving you a click: depression and proline

The connection between the gut biome and depression might be explained by proline, a non-essential amino acid that is produced by some gut bacteria. Low levels (say Spanish researchers) are linked to depression. Annnnd, that’s it. The details have yet to be figured out.

The article takes 1,400 words to say basically the same thing (although, to be fair, it details and details and details how this was determined).

Inhaler overuse

There’s apparently a lot of inhaler overuse in asthma patients — that is, patients are relying on their SABA inhalers rather than taking their corticosteroids to prevent a problem in the first place.

Part of the problem, say the British researchers who sussed this out, is that physicians are over-prescribing the inhalers.

“Working with patients to improve regular use of preventative inhalers should be central to reducing asthma-related hospital admissions.

The solution (or part of it) is getting those prescribers and the pharmacists who fill prescriptions to watch for ‘high-risk’ patients and work with them to focus on the ounce of prevention.

ICYMI: You get a vaccine! You get a vaccine! Everybody gets a vaccine!

The FDA has authorized Covid vaccines for the littlest kids. (Bonus, I found a news story that calls it a “game-changer.”)

Drug modeling, 21st century-style

We live in a world where computers and computer models are good enough to be used to predict how drugs will work. In this case, biomedical engineers at an Ohio State University have used computer modeling to predict which drugs are most likely to treat a heart attack.

They made a mathematical model to figure…

… how certain immune cells like myocytes, neutrophils and macrophages — cells imperative to fighting infection and combating necrosis (toxic injury to the heart) — react to four different immunomodulatory drugs over a period of one month.

The computer told them that “certain combinations of these drug inhibitors were more efficient at reducing inflammation than others.” That doesn’t mean do this, not that quite yet, but the fact that they can model these kinds of interactions means future drug discovery could be sped up. A lot.

Got protection? (2)

Wide-scale Covid testing for infection is over, and the new interest seems to be in testing for antibodies. The other day we reported on a rapid test for immunity, and now we’ve got another: using a home glucose meter to test for antibodies.

The idea is to add a protein to the test — one that would react with Covid antibodies in a patient’s blood to produce glucose. A glucose meter would read this and — bam! — tell you if you’re immune. The trick was creating that protein, which Johns Hopkins and MIT researchers say they have. No clue how long before it might be available, though.

The Long Read: Long Covid Causes edition

It’s still not clear what causes Covid-like symptoms to persist months or potentially years after infection for millions of people. Microscopic blood clots? The virus persisting but hidden? “An immune system gone haywire”?

Science magazine has a detailed look in “Clues to Long Covid.”

All agree that solo operators are unlikely. Lingering virus, for example, could attack the circulatory system, triggering blood clots or chronic inflammation.

And a long-Covid quickie

There’s good news about being in the middle of an Omicron wave: A British study found that you’re half as likely to get long Covid from Omicron as from Delta.