Cold comfort: salt

Here’s a simple solution to the common cold: saline nasal drops. Yeah, that easy. It turns out that, at least in kids, Scottish researchers found that “hypertonic saline nasal drops can reduce the length of the common cold in children by two days,” and also reduce the chances of transmitting it to family members.

Recipe: They used sea salt^* and (presumably) distilled water given three drops per nostril at least four times a day.

Science: “Salt is made up of sodium and chloride. Chloride is used by the cells lining the nose and windpipes to produce hypochlorous acid within cells, which they use to defend against virus infection.”

^* Sodium chloride, as opposed to regular salt (which is also sodium chloride), or Himalayan salt (which is also sodium chloride).

Next-gen GLP-1s

Now that we know what GLP-1 agonists can do, it’s time to move past the first-generation drugs, innit?

Slow-release semaglutide?

Instead of weekly injections, a French biotech company has developed a hydrogel version of semaglutide that can be given once a month with a subcutaneous injection. So far it worked in six lab rats, and the Frenchies are going to move to pig tests next.

Another pill contender

California-based Terns Pharmaceuticals says its oral weight-loss drug reduced patients’ weight by an average of almost 5% in early trials. The company joins Pfizer and Roche in the race to bring oral GLP-1 drugs to market. It expects to go to phase-2 trials next year.

Easy to predict

Last month: Bloomberg reported there’s benzene in Walgreen’s generic version of Mucinex.

This month: The lawsuits begin.

Walgreens customers Miriam Birdsong and Cheryl Mikel, both South Carolina residents, say they would not have purchased the products or would have paid less for them had they known they contained benzene, and are seeking damages and restitution.

A universal Covid antibody

Scientists led by the University of Texas say they’ve isolated an antibody from a patient that protects against every variant of SARS-CoV-2. Called SC27^*, like other antibodies it binds to the virus’s spike protein to keep it from attaching. What’s different about SC27 is that it binds to the spike protein of every Covid variant (that we know of).

The Longhorns “obtained the exact molecular sequence of the antibody, opening the possibility of manufacturing it on a larger scale for future treatments,” and — not wanting a financial opportunity to go to waste — have already filed a patent application for the antibody … which they took from a patient.

^* As opposed to SCP-027

Not-so-universal vaccines

American exceptionalism: Thanks to Congress gutting the federal Bridge Access Program, which provided Covid vaccines to low-income people, something like 25 million Americans can’t get Covid shots.

They don’t have private insurance and fall through the Medicaid cracks because they make just a little too much (especially in states that didn’t expand the program) and they obviously can’t afford the $200 out-of-pocket for the vaccine..

So they aren’t getting vaccinated, and that raises their risk of infection (and serious infection), and of course risks transmitting the virus to others — because these are the people who can’t afford to take time off work if they’re sick.

If you thought falling was bad…

Spare a moment to think of the people who experience “exploding head syndrome.” That’s where you’re jerked awake by the feeling of a bomb going off in your head. Fun.