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New Montana laws enshrine health care alternatives, for better or worse

When Paul Rana’s primary care physician left the VA clinic in Kalispell to open her own practice, he followed her. But instead of picking up a new health insurance policy, Rana and his partner agreed to pay a monthly fee that came with the promise of better access.

10 Jun 2021

Change to Gilead assistance program threatens prep access, HIV advocates say

Dr. John Carlo is concerned that patients at Prism Health North Texas who rely on the health care safety net will soon be struggling even more to stay on PrEP, a medication that prevents HIV transmission.

10 Jun 2021

Can a subscription model fix primary care in the US?

In April, San Francisco-based primary care company One Medical revealed an eye-popping compensation package for its chief executive and chairman, Amir Dan Rubin. His $199 million payday, particularly noteworthy at a company that has yet to turn a profit, made Rubin the second-highest-paid CEO in the United States last year — but only on paper.

10 Jun 2021

Local anesthetic procaine inhibits SARS-CoV-2 in vitro

Research has shown that procaine and procaine-hydrochloride can reduce replication of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza A viruses in infected cells and reduce the production of cytokines by the viruses, making them potentially useful for treating COVID-19.

10 Jun 2021

Eldelumab and Fenofibrate show potential for COVID-19

In a new study posted to the medRxiv* preprint server, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Barrow Neurological Institute report the results of their analysis of several RNA-Seq studies and used computational approaches to discover potential drugs against COVID-19.

10 Jun 2021

High sensation-seeking personality trait confers susceptibility to drug addiction

People who have a high sensation-seeking personality trait may be more likely to develop an addiction to cocaine, according to a Rutgers study.

9 Jun 2021

New X-ray scanner could revolutionize cancer surgery, pathology, drug inspection

Engineers at Duke University have demonstrated a prototype X-ray scanning machine that reveals not just the shape of an object but its molecular composition. With unprecedented resolution and accuracy, the technology could revolutionize a wide range of fields such as cancer surgery, pathology, drug inspection and geology.

9 Jun 2021

Nose-to-brain: Nasal delivery of biopharmaceuticals to the brain

Placing medications as close as possible to the site of the disease: This sounds completely believable in theory, but is unfortunately not so simple in practice. While this works well for many drugs via the bloodstream or the digestive tract, it does not apply to the brain.

9 Jun 2021

Study: COVID-19 vaccines safe for IBD patients

Patients with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) do not appear to have increased risk of side effects from the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, according to a recent Cedars-Sinai study published online and upcoming in print in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

9 Jun 2021

Research clarifies neuron-specific DNA methylation changes and characteristics in bipolar disorder

A research collaboration based in Kumamoto University, Japan has revealed the DNA methylation status of gene transcriptional regulatory regions in the frontal lobes of patients with bipolar disorder (BD).

9 Jun 2021

SARS-CoV-2 enzyme inhibitors among drugs screened for repurposing

A new bioRxiv* preprint describes the identification of some promising pharmaceutical compounds that could be developed as antiviral drugs against COVID-19.

9 Jun 2021

FDA releases draft guidance on measuring patient-reported outcomes in cancer clinical trials

The following quote is attributed to Richard Pazdur, M.D., director of the FDA's Oncology Center of Excellence and acting director of the Office of Oncologic Diseases in the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

9 Jun 2021

Clinical trial investigates effectiveness of delivering HIV, substance use care through mobile clinics

A clinical trial is underway in five U.S. cities to determine whether delivering integrated health services through mobile clinics can improve HIV and substance use outcomes among people with opioid use disorder who inject drugs.

9 Jun 2021

Structural analogs of triterpenoids show strong inhibitory activity against coronaviruses

In a recent study published in the journal Pathogens, researchers carried out a molecular docking study for 17 structural analogs prepared from natural maslinic and oleanolic acids and screened them against SARS-CoV-2 main protease. They also experimentally validated the data by determining the half-maximal cytotoxic and inhibitory concentrations of each of the 17 compounds. The researchers investigated whether the compound with antiviral activity affected viral adsorption, replication, or viricidal effect using a plaque infectivity reduction assay.

9 Jun 2021

Women now drink as much as men — and are prone to sickness sooner

Victoria Cooper thought her drinking habits in college were just like everyone else's. Shots at parties. Beers while bowling. Sure, she got more refills than some and missed classes while nursing hangovers, but she couldn't have a problem, she thought.

9 Jun 2021

New poll suggests older adults must watch their alcohol intake during pandemic

As many older adults get back to normal life across the United States thanks to high rates of vaccination and lower COVID-19 activity, a new poll suggests many should watch their alcohol intake.

9 Jun 2021

A closer look at how COVID-19 damages human lungs

A recent study conducted at the United States Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory provides the first atomic-level detailed model of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) envelope protein when bound to human proteins within the lungs. The study was recently published in Nature Communications.

9 Jun 2021