Hepatitis cases (sort of) solved

Two separate but equally important teams of researchers in the UK have independently discovered what seems to be the cause of the mysterious hepatitis cases affecting young children around the world.

In short, the kids were infected with a common virus called adeno-associated virus 2 or AAV2. Normally it’s benign — unless it has a helper. And that’s the twist: They were infected with a helper, herpesvirus HHV6.

Normally kids would have immunity to both, but thanks to pandemic precautions, they hadn’t. Bad timing meant they were infected with them concurrently.

They believe that the infection resulting from both AAV2 and the herpesvirus HHV6 offers the best explanation for what caused the unexplained hepatitis.

Our nightmare could be coming to an end

In what could be the biggest health breakthrough of the past 50 years, University of California Riverside researchers have discovered the cause of baldness: A single protein called TGF-beta “is key to controlling when hair follicle cells divide, and when they die.”

Control over this protein and the process could be a cure. (And could also be used with stem cells to promote wound healing.)

Double Duty: Metformin edition

Metformin, it seems, can also help treat bipolar disorder. That’s not too surprising, considering that more than half of people with bipolar disorder also have insulin resistance, and metformin increases the body’s sensitivity to insulin.

In the case of this study out of Canada’s Dalhousie University, bipolar patients taking metformin improved after just 6 weeks and “remained significantly improved or in remission,” for at least 26 weeks.

An eyebrow-raising drug company saga

So biotech company Cas­sa­va Sci­ences has an Alzheimer’s drug candidate (simufilam). It got FDA approval to begin testing based on published research it conducted.

But a couple of doctors outside the company looked at that research and found … issues. They decided the company had manipulated its data, and thus were lying to various federal agencies, and the drug would never work.

They did what any red-blooded Americans would: They figured out how to make money. They shorted Cassava’s stock, then told the Wall Street Journal what they did, which piqued the Security and Exchange Commission’s interest.

Then they lawyered up and filed a petition with the FDA saying simufilam’s clinical trials should be stopped. (The FDA denied it, saying they didn’t have standing to file such a petition.) But word of the petition got out, and Cas­sa­va’s stock crashed.

And now the Justice Department is looking into the whole mess, while Cassava denies wrongdoing and the researchers who started it all say they cashed in (which Cassava, oddly, tried to paint as a “conflict on interest”).

Prophylactic news

A quick course of antivirals helps the coronavirus go down

Even if you aren’t sick, it’s a good idea to take a course of antivirals (Paxlovid or molnupiravir) if you test positive for Covid-19. Mild symptoms can turn worse, and a review out of Canada found that taking the antivirals reduced noticeably the risk of hospitalization.

A morning- (or hour-) after pill

Taking a single dose doxycycline after unprotected sex — a post-prophylactic, if you will — can help prevent common STDs (chlamydia, syphilis, and gonorrhea) that have picked up steam in recent years. The issue, suggests the Emory-led research team, is whether that risks “trigger[ing] antibiotic resistance in the three bacteria that cause these diseases.”

Score one for the old school

What’s the best way to determine someone’s risk of heart disease? It’s 2022, so using a genetic profile is certainly the most accurate way, right? Wrong.

It turns out (say Duke data scientists) that “genetic tests do little to accurately identify cardiovascular risks compared to a simple risk equation that uses basic health measures.”

So forget the new-fangled hocus-pocus, and stick with keeping an eye on blood pressure, cholesterol, and glucose.

“While genetic tests use new technology, they can be high-priced. People should instead visit their doctor and have their actual, clinical factors measured, because this will do a much better job of determining their state of health.

Omicron variant notes

It’s all BA.5 now

The subvariant now controls more than 80% of the U.S. Covid market. So if you read about something that ‘works against Omicron,’ check to see if it mentions BA.5.

For Novavax, the number of the counting shall be three

South African researchers have confirmed that three doses of the new Novavax vaccine provides protection against even the hot new Omicron subvariants.

Covid origin found

Not that it really matters at this point, but it seems the question of Covid-19’s origin has been answered. As much fun as it was to believe it escaped a Chinese lab (intentionally or not), an international team led out of the University of Arizona …

…has confirmed that live animals sold at the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market in Wuhan, China, were the likely source of the Covid-19 pandemic.

That’s based on examinations and samples from the market as well as tracing genomic sequences of the virus from the first patients infected. The result “virtually eliminate[s] alternative scenarios that have been suggested as origins of the pandemic.”