Many cancers, one simple test

A new study has confirmed a technique — called the Galleri test, from a California-based company called Grail — can “detect multiple types of cancer through a single blood draw“ by finding DNA markers of several kinds of cancer in the blood.

The Pathfinder study offered the blood test to more than 6,600 adults aged 50 and over, and detected dozens of new cases of disease. Many cancers were at an early stage and nearly three-quarters were forms not routinely screened for.

Even better, the test can predict where the cancer is, allowing an oncologist to confirm the results and start treatment. The Brits even dropped the phrase “game-changer,” and a larger study (165,000 people) is underway.

If you think that’s pretty high-tech…

How about diagnosing cancer (or depression, or pneumonia) by the sound of your voice?

A group of US and French medical and artificial-intelligence researchers (at a dozen institutions) is working on a program called “Voice as a Biomarker for Health.”

It aims to develop an extensive database of human voices, both healthy and sick, that can be used to train AI algorithms to detect changes that could be a sign of cancer, neurological and psychiatric disorders like Alzheimer’s or depression, respiratory illnesses such as pneumonia, and voice/speech disorders, including language delay and autism.

Coming soon: “Hello, this is T-Mobile. We noticed from your last conversation that there’s an 82.4 percent chance of having a Latvian Toe Worm infection. You may wish to consult a medical professional.”

Covid can double Alzheimer’s risk

People over 65 who catch Covid are twice as likely to be diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the next year than those who stay healthy.

That sounds alarming (and it’s certainly notable), but keep in mind that it means the risk jumps from 0.35% to 0.68%. Doing the math, if you had 300 healthy seniors in a room*, one of them would develop Alzheimer’s in a year. If you had 300 seniors with Covid, two of them would develop it.

* In the US, a group of senior citizens is called a “grumble.” In the UK it’s a “mutter.”

Beer, pharmacists, and an afternoon to chill

Employee pharmacists! Come join your fellow Academy of Employee Pharmacists members (and students! and friends!) at Atlanta’s amazing Monday Night Brewing — an afternoon of fun, beer, snacks, and just plain R&R!

We didn’t bother with a cool name, so we just call it…

It’s open to AEP pharmacists, students, and friends, and it’s just $10 — which includes two (2, II, ✌) drink tickets. What a deal!

The details

It’s on Saturday, October 22, from 3:00 – 6:00 PM.

It’s at Monday Night Brewing‘s Hop Hut Lounge: 670 Trabert Avenue, Atlanta (map).

AEP events are always a blast, and hardly ever have to be broken up by the police. So …

(You can check out GPhA.org/mondaynight for a few more details — but really, what more do you need to know?)

Doubling the life of DMD patients

A drug being tested to treat kidney disease also provides significant improvement for people with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Johns Hopkins researchers found that calcium is a big part of the problem with the condition, when a normally helpful protein called TRPC6 (an ion channel) allows too much calcium through, eventually killing the cell and weakening the muscles overall.

Because DMD also affects heart muscle, people who have it generally don’t live past their early 30s.

But a drug called BI 749327 (currently in clinical trials) blocks that TRPC6 channel, thus protecting the muscles — and that “substantially improves their skeletal and cardiac muscle function, bone deformities, and survival.” And by “substantially improves,” they mean — at least in mice — it literally doubled their lifespan.

Anti-Covid gum

The Covid-19 virus binds to the ACE receptor, right? So (thought Penn dental researchers) why not make a gum chock full of ACE receptors to trap the virus so you don’t breathe it onto others?

In effect, the gum is designed to trap and neutralize SARS-CoV-2 in the saliva and, ideally, diminish the amount of virus left in the mouth. It is hoped that less virus would mean a lower likelihood of passing the infection on to others.

They’re about to begin tests on people who believe they’re Covid-positive.

(The big problem, though, is that the gum helps keep the infected from spreading the virus. If people refuse to wear a simple mask to protect others, would anyone bother to chew gum?)

Pharmacy in the midterms

Do you know what this year’s elections will mean for pharmacy? Maybe you do, maybe you don’t — but you certainly will if you join NACDS for a virtual webinar event with U.S. elections expert and political analyst Charlie Cook.

On Tuesday, September 20 — National Voter Registration Day — he and NACDS President & CEO Steve Anderson will explain the most important issues in this year’s election, and what they could mean for the future of pharmacy.

The exciting event starts at 1:00 pm ET via Zoom, and of course it’s free.
Click here to register now!

The 9,800 steps

Walking 9,800 steps a day can cut your risk of dementia by 50%, according to a study by those shifty Danes. (Too much? Doing just 3,000 also helps, although that cuts your risk by just 25%.)

Those 9,800 steps also cut your risk of heart disease and cancer, as the Danes’ collaborators in Australia point out. But the pace is important — walk faster. ”[A] faster stepping pace like a power walk showed benefits above and beyond the number of steps achieved.”

(Medical researchers in Wisconsin agree about focusing on the pace: Think 112 steps a minute. “’112′ is conceivably a much more tractable and less intimidating number for most individuals than ’10 000’.”)

A pill for exercise

Just because you can’t be active doesn’t mean you don’t deserve the benefits of exercise, amirite? The folks at Tokyo Medical and Dental University agree.

They identified a compound — an aminoindazole derivative called locamidazole — that’s “capable of stimulating the growth of muscle cells and bone-forming cells.” Exercise in a pill. (The science: Locamidazole “mimics calcium and PGC-1α signaling pathways,” in case you were wondering.)

The upshot is that people who can’t exercise — like those with osteoporosis or sarcopenia — could eventually have a pill to ensure their muscles and bones don’t atrophy, and even reverse “locomotor frailty.”

Captain Obvious would like some privacy

In what is hopefully a surprise to no one at all, people looking to test for colon cancer prefer — based on a survey of 1,000 people — to use an at-home test (e.g., Cologuard) rather than have a colonoscopy.

Non-pharma but eyebrow-raising story out of Georgia Tech

Georgia Tech researchers were working on a way to use microneedle technology (the kind that can deliver drugs through skin) to create tattoos for pets — a simple and painless alternative to implanting a chip in case Fido goes walkabout.

Then they thought, Hey, why not use this for human tattoos? Result: “a painless and bloodless tattoo patch that’s simple enough for people to stick to themselves.”

Coming soon: Instant, pain-free, permanent, over-the-counter, self-administered tattoos.

Coming soon after: Deep, deep regret.