Not as resistant as you think

Old antibiotics might be the answer to superbugs. UC Santa Barbara scientists decided to ignore what standard tests show and actually simulate the conditions in the body. Result: About 15% of the time, the standard test was wrong, and an old antibiotic would work against a resistant bacteria.

“People are not Petri plates — that is why antibiotics fail. Testing under conditions that mimic the body improves the accuracy by which lab tests predict drug potency.”

Now it’s time to reevaluate already-approved drugs for conditions like sepsis — no time-consuming human trials needed.

A carrot for antibiotics

A metaphorical carrot, that is. The problem with new antibiotics is that pharma companies don’t want to make them. They simply aren’t profitable, and it takes a lot of work to bring one to market. That’s why there are lots of stories about breakthroughs, but not a lot of new drugs.

So for the third time, a bill with bipartisan support is coming to the table (also metaphorical). The Pioneering Antimicrobial Subscriptions to End Upsurging Resistance (PASTEUR) Act would essentially guarantee pharma companies a market while also guaranteeing citizens the meds if they need them.

Under the model, companies that develop innovative new antibiotics for drug-resistant infections would receive contracts from the federal government valued between $750 million and $3 billion to make the antibiotics available at no charge for patients covered by federal health insurance programs.

Bonus: One of the bill’s co-sponsors is Georgia’s Drew Ferguson.

New Covid variant causes pink eye

It’s nicknamed Arcturus and it causes (among other issues) pink eye and fever, especially among children.

As of the week of April 22, the CDC reports Arcturus makes up 9.6% of all U.S. cases, the second most prevalent subvariant behind XBB.1.5., which makes up 73.6% of cases.

It seems to be a little more virulent than earlier Omicron XBB strains, but no more deadly. As long as you’re vaccinated it shouldn’t be an issue. That said, the CDC recommends that kids who develop itchy, red eyes get a Covid test, just in case it’s not an allergy.

Smoking rates keep dropping

Cigarette use in the US was down to about 11% in 2022 (down from 12.5% the year before), continuing a decline that’s been going on since the ’60s when it was about 42%.

Don’t you worry, though — people are still getting addicted to nicotine. E-cigarette use is continuing to rise, with about 6% of adults and 14% of high school students admitting to vaping.

Diabetes surgery?

It’s possible a simple outpatient not-quite-surgery could allow type 2 diabetics to stop taking insulin. An early-stage study by Dutch researchers zapped the duodenum in the patients (it takes about an hour) and then had them only take a maintenance dose of semaglutide after that.

The study was small, but 12 of the 14 patients who got the treatment kept their blood sugar under control for at least a year sans insulin.

Twist: They’re not exactly sure why it works. Hypothesis: “[C]hronic exposure to a high-sugar, high caloric diet results in a yet unknown change to this portion of the small intestine, making the body resistant to its own insulin.” The procedure reverses this so the body is no longer insulin-resistant.

Next up: A larger, double-blind randomized controlled trial.

Coming soon to a TikTok video near you

Could inhaling ethanol prevent respiratory diseases like you-know-what? Maybe, say Japanese scientists, who tested a low-concentration dose of ethanol vapor. On mice. Against the flu.

Using a humidifier to produce ethanol vapor in a small container, they found that when mice infected with influenza A inhale the vapor for ten minutes, the virus is inactivated.

The trick was to find a concentration that was high enough to affect the lung’s protective fluid layer without being too high that it killed the lung cells. That’s easy to get wrong, and “may lead to serious side-effects or explosion risks.”

Short Takes

+13

Pfizer’s pneumococcal Prevnar 13 vaccine has been upgraded Prevnar 20, and was just approved by the FDA. It’ll soon be available to children from 6 weeks to 17 years old.

Maybe skip the fries

A study of more than 140,000 people found that “regular consumption of fried foods carries a 12% and 7% higher risk of anxiety and depression, respectively.”

The likely culprit: acrylamide, a contaminant in fried foods that can “trigger neuroinflammation and lipid metabolism disturbance.”