Potential monkeypox treatment

There aren’t a lot of options for treating mpox — the few antivirals being tested (formally or informally) all have problems. But German virologists think they’ve found a better contender: nitroxoline.

Yep, that’s the old antibiotic that’s already proven safe for us humans. In the lab, at least, it worked against the various strains in circulation without the mpox becoming resistant. “Moreover, nitroxoline inhibited bacterial and viral pathogens that are often co-transmitted with mpox.”

Takeaway: Scribble “mpox — nitroxoline” on a Post-It in case you have a patient whose doc doesn’t read Buzz or BioRxiv.

Vaccination training for techs coming up fast

Hey, pharmacy technicians! You’re allowed to administer certain vaccines — so be sure you’re trained to do it!

And guess what? GPhA’s Immunization Delivery Training for Pharmacy Technicians is coming up — live in person at GPhA’s classroom Sandy Springs on Sunday, January 22 from 9:00 am to noon.

It not only gives you the training you need, it’s also good for six hours of CE (3 hours live, 3 hours self-study). What’s not to love?

Check out the details and register today (space is limited) at GPhA.org/techimmunization!

Guts, bacteria, and diabetes

Sure, why not: The composition of your gut bacteria might raise your risk of type 2 diabetes. In short:

[P]eople with higher levels of a bacterium called Coprococcus tended to have higher insulin sensitivity, while those whose microbiomes had higher levels of the bacterium Flavonifractor tended to have lower insulin sensitivity.

So found researchers at Cedars-Sinai, who probably figured, “Gut bacteria affects everything else, might as well see about diabetes.”

It comes down to the fatty acid butyrate — you need it to process insulin, and Coprococcus produces it a-plenty, so more Coprococcus, better insulin processing. (Flavonifractor also produces butyrate, but apparently not enough.)

Next up: Can diet change the bacterial balance?

No, you can’t find kids’ meds

Just in case you’ve been seeing a shortage of kids’ meds, you’re not alone. It’s a nationwide problem, and it has nothing to do with supply — it’s all about high demand.

“Everybody is sick, and everybody needs medicine at once,” and companies can’t keep up with the high demand.

Brain cancer: destroy and prevent

Do you want a treatment for brain cancer that kills the tumors or one that prevents them?

Scientists at Brigham and Women’s Hospital have a way, they say, to do both — “a new cell therapy approach to eliminate established tumors and induce long-term immunity, training the immune system so that it can prevent cancer from recurring.”

Even cooler, it prevents cancer by transforming cancer cells into cancer killers and vaccines, like strapping bombs onto carrier pigeons.

[The team] engineered living tumor cells […] and repurposed them to release tumor cell killing agent. In addition, the engineered tumor cells were designed to express factors that would make them easy for the immune system to spot, tag and remember, priming the immune system for a long-term anti-tumor response.

New drugs, new records

The other day we shared how drug makers were jacking up the prices of existing drugs for the new year. Today we’ll point out (thank you, Reuters) that pharma companies are setting new records with their prices of new drugs, too.

For 2022, the median price for new drugs was $222,003 for an annual or one-time supply — “The latest numbers imply double digit year-over-year price growth.” Because why not?

Special shout out to CSL, whose Hemgenix, a $3.5 million gene therapy for hemophilia B, is now the most expensive drug in history.

Let the germs deliver the drugs

This is either a great idea or the plot of an upcoming movie: Instead of pills or injections, why not genetically engineer bacteria to produce pharmaceuticals inside the body? Specifically, create Lactobacillus reuteri bacteria that secretes a peptide called ShK-235^* to treat rheumatoid arthritis?

Baylor College of Medicine researchers tried the idea in rats, giving them pills containing the modified L. reuteri … and waiting. Lo and behold, “They found that after feeding rats live LrS235 [bacteria] that release ShK-235, they could detect ShK-235 into the blood circulation.”

And because rats (and humans) already have L. reuteri in their guts, it’s probably completely safe. Genetically engineered, drug-making bacteria. What could go wrong? (As always, further research is needed.)

^* You just know one of the researchers has this as a vanity plate.

The Long Read: Virus Hunting edition

Virus hunters are using a raft of new technologies — nanotech, AI, drones, and more — to find, identify, and catalog viral threats more quickly … before they’re on the news.