Younger women, lower diabetes threshold

The HbA1c threshold for type 2 diabetes should be lower for pre-menopausal women. That’s the conclusion of British researchers who looked at health data from almost a million women. The reason is simple: “natural blood loss through menstruation can affect blood sugar levels in women.”

This mechanism behind this could be shorter erythrocyte (red blood cell) survival which results in shorter exposure of hemoglobin to glucose compared with individuals who do not menstruate.

This might also explain why women are typically diagnosed with type 2 diabetes later than men (5 years later!), delaying their treatment and leading to higher mortality.

Combo vaxes are coming

Flu/Covid combo from Moderna

Moderna reports that its combination flu/Covid-19 vaccine worked just great in a phase 1 trial. “Moderna said the combination generated antibodies similar to or greater than currently marketed flu vaccines, and was similar to its previous standalone Covid booster shot against the coronavirus.”

If all goes well, the company thinks the vaccine could be available in fall 2025.

MMR … C?

Meanwhile at an Ohio State University, scientists unveiled a vaccine that protects against measles, mumps, and Covid and is delivered via nasal spray.

They believe it will provide lifelong protection against measles and mumps, and at least four months of protection against Covid (and possibly more).

They did it by adding Covid’s spike protein to the measles and mumps vaccines, which is either a really smart idea or the setup for a new HBO show.

A drug for chemo fatigue

If you have mice being treated for cancer, fighting the fatigue that comes with that treatment is tricky; you don’t want to interfere with the treatment itself. Now Yale researchers think they’ve got a drug that’ll work: dichloroacetate, aka dichloroacetic acid or DCA.

The data suggests that DCA treatment may have several positive effects, including reducing oxidative stress in muscle tissue of tumor-bearing mice. The researchers said DCA could be a practice-changing approach in the future, when used as an adjuvant therapy to treat cancer-related fatigue.

The good news is that dichloroacetate is already FDA approved, so clinical trials (on humans) should be easy.

Third Covid vax approved

The FDA has given emergency use authorization to Novavax’s updated Covid-19 vaccine — that’s the non-mRNA shot. Because the CDC has already approved all new Covid vaccines, this means it won’t need to wait for separate CDC approval. It should be rolling out toot sweet.

Releasing your drug all over the place

Knowing that some cells can be stimulated by sound, Swiss bioengineers had an idea — an idea So. Crazy. It. Just. Might. Work. They found a way to create a version of good ol’ E. coli that, when affected by the right level of sound, releases insulin.

(The science: “… vibrations triggered an influx of Ca2+ ions into the cells, which led to insulin release.)

But the fun part is that the E. coli doesn’t need just any sound — it needs some classic rock, specifically “Low-bass pop songs like ‘Billie Jean,’ ‘Hotel California,’ and ‘We Will Rock You’.” And no, you can’t just do a Muzak version; it’s got to be the real deal. (“We Will Rock You” got the best response, in case you’re curious.)

This is all in the lab and very preclinical, but they’re already asking the important question: “whether attending concerts or other music events would inadvertently trigger insulin release even if blood glucose levels are normal.”

Now they want to quit

If you help people with quitting smoking, there’s a new market opening up. In a shock to no one, lots of teenagers who have become addicted to nicotine through vaping want to quit. Per a University of Nebraska study…

[N]early 70% of teens who have been vaping regularly, meaning at least a few times per month, had tried to quit in the past year. Of those, over 60% did not use any resources or support to help with this.

And even fewer (just 4%) asked a healthcare pro for help. There are plenty of programs to help adults quit smoking, but these kids don’t have those options.