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Easy-to-use tool predicts complications in patients undergoing hysterectomy for benign disease Mirage News-- Oral presentation at AAO 2022 suggests IGF-1 and its related pathways are extensively upregulated throughout all stages of TED --
DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Horizon Therapeutics plc (Nasdaq: HZNP) today announced the presentation of new data defining molecular patterns in TED and further implicating the role of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in patients with low CAS. These data were presented during the American Academy of Ophthalmology Annual Meeting (AAO 2022), Sept. 30 – Oct. 3 in Chicago.
TED is a progressive and potentially vision-threatening rare autoimmune disease, which has been historically characterized as biphasic: acute, which is traditionally believed to be patients with high CAS and earlier in their TED journey; and chronic, traditionally believed to be patients with low CAS and later in the course of their disease.1 This analysis reveals that in patients with both high and low CAS, there is clear activation of IGF-1 and related pathways, as well as the extracellular matrix (ECM) organization, a structural network that supports cellular processes.2
“By demonstrating that disease activity remains in patients with low CAS, this analysis may help explain why many patients who have lived with Thyroid Eye Disease for several years are still struggling with challenging symptoms that can be debilitating,” said Shoaib Ugradar, M.D., The Jules Stein Eye Institute at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). “It is important for physicians to be aware of the continued activation of IGF-1 throughout the course of the disease and its potential impact on treatment decisions.”
The study analyzed genome ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing and pathway analysis in orbital tissue from patients with a CAS of ≥ 3 and patients with a CAS ≤ 2, as well as five control subjects. Though high CAS patients are often distinguished by activation of immune system pathways, which remain largely unaffected in low CAS patients, IGF-1 and its related pathways were found to be upregulated in both stages of disease. Additional analysis suggests that IGF-1 activity plays a central role in linking immune and ECM pathways in people with TED.2
The upregulation of IGF-1 found in low CAS patients with extended disease duration is further supported by a growing body of evidence that outlines the impact of TED on people who have lived with it for several years.3 One assessment published in the journal Ophthalmology and Therapy in 2021 found that disease burden continues well into the chronic phase, affecting daily lives with appearance and persistent visual changes, increasing risk for anxiety and depression.4
“This study, which represents one of the first molecular analyses of the continuum of Thyroid Eye Disease, confirms this challenging disease may not simply subside after a few years of obvious symptoms,” said Jeffrey W. Sherman, M.D., FACP, executive vice president, chief medical officer, Horizon. “We are committed to pioneering research like this to better understand drivers of the evolution of this disease in order to better support patients living with Thyroid Eye Disease across the course of their lifetimes.”
About Thyroid Eye Disease (TED)
TED is a serious, progressive and potentially vision-threatening rare autoimmune disease.1 TED often occurs in people living with Graves’ disease, but is a distinct disease that is caused by autoantibodies activating an IGF-1R-mediated signaling complex on cells within the retro-orbital space.5,6 This leads to a cascade of negative effects, which may cause long-term, irreversible damage, including blindness. Early signs and symptoms of TED may include dry eyes and grittiness; redness, swelling and excessive tearing; eyelid retraction; proptosis; pressure and/or pain behind the eyes; and diplopia.7,8
About Horizon
Horizon is a global biotechnology company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of medicines that address critical needs for people impacted by rare, autoimmune and severe inflammatory diseases. Our pipeline is purposeful: We apply scientific expertise and courage to bring clinically meaningful therapies to patients. We believe science and compassion must work together to transform lives. For more information on how we go to incredible lengths to impact lives, visit www.horizontherapeutics.com and follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook.
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My research includes the moral and legal aspects and policy implications of childhood vaccination. COVID-19’s effects on children has an impact on that research. And these effects appear to be changing, making the need for widespread COVID-19 vaccine uptake among children more urgent.
Early in the pandemic, evidence suggested children generally avoided severe COVID-19 infections. That rosier picture is now fading. Emerging research signals that children’s susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has increased in “frequency and severity” over the course of the pandemic.
One newly released study of British Columbia’s Lower Mainland chronicles the dramatic rise in infections among those under 19. This surge in childhood infection with the Omicron variant is consistent with estimates in other parts of Canada and beyond.
Increased frequency of infections among children will necessarily yield a greater number of cases with severe outcomes, including hospitalizations and deaths. Children with co-morbidities are especially vulnerable to severe COVID-19 outcomes.
Like adults, children can also suffer from long COVID that can damage their lungs, their brains and create a host of other health problems.
Read more: Do kids get long COVID? And how often? A paediatrician looks at the data
A multi-pronged approach to restrict transmission, including masking, is advised over any one single preventive measure. This is likely even more important with new variants on the horizon.
Yet vaccination remains one of the best means to protect against severe outcomes when breakthrough infection occurs. Additionally, vaccination may decrease the likelihood of long COVID. The Ontario government recommends vaccination for those under 18.
That’s why it’s alarming that vaccine uptake among minors of the primary series of two doses, particularly for those under 12, remains low.
Compared to the provincial average of 90 per cent for those 12 and above, only 41 per cent of Ontario children aged five to 11 have completed their primary series. Uptake among those under five is almost non-existent, with just six per cent receiving their first doses in the two months since Health Canada approved a COVID-19 vaccine for this cohort. Numbers across the country are roughly similar.
Notably, Ontario declined to add COVID-19 to the list of “designated diseases” in its Immunization of School Pupils Act last fall, despite support for this move by some school boards and both the opposition Liberals and NDP.
It’s time to revisit that decision.
Adding COVID-19 to the act will not make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory for school entry. Whether childhood vaccines should be mandatory is a separate debate. But it may, nonetheless, help address the COVID-19 vaccine uptake among the province’s school-aged children.
Ontario, New Brunswick and British Columbia are the only Canadian jurisdictions that have vaccination requirements for school entry. But minors aren’t required in any of those provinces to be vaccinated to attend day care, elementary or high school.
British Columbia’s regulation explicitly makes the duty a reporting one only. Ontario requirements are somewhat different, as the parental duty is to “cause the pupil to complete the prescribed program of immunization.” Yet the duty does not apply where the parent “has filed a statement of conscience or religious belief.”
This means a parent can refuse to have their child vaccinated against any or all of the designated diseases by signing and having notarized a government-issued form affirming a “sincere belief.”
In practical terms, this makes the duty a reporting one in Ontario as well. The situation in New Brunswick is virtually the same.
Where Ontario and New Brunswick differ, however, is that Ontario requires that parents seeking a sincere-belief exemption also attend an “education session.” For some, access to this education session is the real benefit of listing COVID-19 among the designated diseases.
Vaccine hesitancy is attributed as the cause for low vaccine uptake when it comes to COVID-19. But it’s complicated.
While a small percentage of parents reject all vaccines, many more are selective about vaccines and are generally more cautious about newer ones than older ones. In fact, generally positive parental attitudes about routine childhood vaccines are a poor indicator of their attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccines, both in Canada and elsewhere.
When it came into effect in Ontario in 2017, the requirement to undergo an education session for those seeking a sincere-belief exemption made little difference in attitude because vaccine uptake against the designated diseases, while less than optimal, was still generally high.
And education sessions can be like sermons to that dogged minority whose minds are made up on the topic. Mandatory education can also be counterproductive and cause people to become more entrenched in their opinions.
Read more: Five reasons why young people should get a COVID booster vaccine
However, there is a very large gap between low childhood vaccination rates for COVID-19 and the high rates for routine childhood vaccines.
This suggests that most parents who have so far refused COVID-19 shots are not hard-core anti-vaxxers. This may provide an opening to sway more parents to have their children vaccinated.
Research about parental attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination is fast-moving, and understandably there are large gaps. But the general conclusion is that vaccination campaigns targeted to specific demographics can increase uptake.
It’s unclear whether adding COVID-19 to the list of “designated diseases” in Ontario or elsewhere in Canada would have the desired effect. And certainly the design and content of education sessions matter.
But it defies logic to have a regulatory scheme already in place committed to increasing “the protection of the health of children” and decide that a pandemic is not a good time to use it.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Laura Adams, DVM, MPH, and Liliana Sánchez-González, MD, MPH, presented 'What Clinicians Need to Know about Dengue in the United States' during the Clinician Outreach and Communication Activity Call on September 29, 2022.
The CDC insights are essential since dengue is endemic in six U.S. territories and freely associated states, such as Puerto Rico.
In 2022, the CDC confirmed 311 dengue cases in the U.S. States and 145 cases by Territories.
Furthermore, five locally-acquired dengue cases have recently been confirmed in south Florida.
Additionally, the CDC encourages healthcare providers to recognize the three dengue phases (febrile, critical, convalescent) and the severity levels of symptomatic dengue (dengue, dengue with warning signs, severe dengue) based on a patient's clinical and laboratory findings.
Dengue is caused by one of four related viruses.
For this reason, a person can be infected with a dengue virus as many as four times during their lifetime.
Each year, up to 400 million people get infected with dengue worldwide, and 40,000 die from severe dengue, says the CDC.
Dengue viruses are spread to people through the bite of an infected Aedes mosquito.
The CDC confirmed three doses of the U.S. FDA-approved Dengvaxia™ vaccine are indicated for the prevention of dengue in people 9–16 years old with laboratory confirmation of previous dengue virus infection and living in dengue-endemic areas.
And Takeda's QDENGA® vaccine was recently approved in Indonesia.
QDENGA is the only dengue vaccine approved for use in individuals regardless of previous dengue exposure and without needing pre-vaccination testing.
Additional dengue vaccine news is posted at Vax-Before-Travel.
Christine Caron wants more research into post-sepsis syndrome and more help for those who suffer from it. She also wants more information made available to people so they can recognize when sepsis has taken hold.
Nine years after losing three of her limbs to a life-threatening bout of sepsis, Ottawa’s Christine Caron is devoted to helping others cope with the often painful aftermath of the same condition.
Caron leads two support groups for people suffering from post-sepsis syndrome and another for those struggling to deal with their amputations.
Sepsis can be a life changing medical event and many survivors deal with post-traumatic stress, chronic pain, fatigue and reduced organ function.
“There are many people suffering with brain fog and pain from vascular damage after surviving sepsis,” said Caron, 58, a mother of four and a new grandmother.
“It’s strange to say, but I’m one of the lucky ones: I don’t have the same joint and vascular pain that a lot of these people have.”
Sepsis is a life-threatening condition resulting from the body’s runaway response to a serious infection. It can be triggered by a bacterial, fungal or viral infection, including COVID-19, and, if not identified and treated promptly, can led to septic shock, organ failure and death.
Caron’s life-and-death struggle with sepsis began in May 2013 after one of her four dogs, Buster, a three-year-old Shih Tzu, accidentally bit her left hand during a game of tug-of-war.
The bacteria commonly found in dog and cat saliva, Capnocytophaga, can infect people. In rare cases, it can lead to serious illness, including sepsis.
“It wasn’t a deep bite, just a break of the skin,” Caron remembered. “There was no redness around it, no pain.”
She washed and disinfected the wound, but some of her other dogs also licked her hand.
It was a Saturday. She was a single-parent of four children who worked full-time while also looking after four dogs. “I was used to going 100 miles an hour all the time,” she said. “My feet hit the ground in the morning and I just started going.”
Two days after the bite, she noticed she hadn’t gone to the bathroom all day and thought it strange. She would later recognize it as a sign that her kidneys were shutting down.
On Tuesday, during her daily half-hour run, she didn’t make it more than a block. She went to work, but felt so ill that she returned home and slept. Later that evening, she asked a friend to take her to an after-hours clinic in Orléans, but they arrived to find the clinic closed, so Caron decided to go to hospital in the morning.
She spent most of the night in the bathroom with nausea. She thought she had a terrible flu or pneumonia.
“I should have called an ambulance, but my brain wasn’t working properly,” she said.
Caron made it to the Montfort Hospital the next morning and passed out in the waiting room.
She woke from a coma more than one month later only to be told she needed to have three limbs amputated because the blood-clotting associated with sepsis had stemmed the blood flow to her extremities and destroyed much of their tissue.
It was only then, she said, that she learned for the first time about sepsis.
She went through rehabilitation to learn to walk and live with prosthetic limbs, but it was another five years before she fully recovered from post-sepsis brain fog and speech problems.
“That’s one of the other reasons I started these support groups: because you go from having all of this support to being left on your own,” she said. “There’s no support for survivors.”
Caron wants more research into post-sepsis syndrome and more help for those who suffer from it. She also wants more information made available to people so they can recognize when sepsis has taken hold.
“If you recognize those signs and bring them to the attention of a doctor in the emergency room, you can walk out of the ER, rather than be wheeled out,” said Caron, who told her story this past week to mark sepsis awareness month.
One reason sepsis kills so many people — more than 9,000 each year in Canada — is that it’s often hard to recognize as a medical emergency.
Most sepsis cases start at home, and a campaign has been launched by the Sepsis Alliance, a U.S.-based charity, to help people recognize its symptoms. Warning signs include chills or fever, a high heart rate and shortness of breath. People with sepsis can also have extreme pain or discomfort, clammy or sweaty skin and can exhibit signs of confusion or disorientation.
The Sepsis Alliance recommends: “Watch for a combination of these symptoms. If you suspect sepsis, call 911 or go to a hospital with an advocate and ask, ‘Could it be sepsis?’”
Many factors can contribute to weight gain and belly fat, but uric acid is one of the most surprising. Uric acid is a waste product produced when your body breaks down purines found in certain foods. Too much uric acid in your system can trigger several problems leading to weight gain, including fatigue, stress, and digestive issues.
Obese individuals tend to have higher uric acid levels than those who are at a healthy weight. Excess fat tissue produces more purines, leading to more uric acid. The uric acid then interferes with the body’s ability to burn fat, making it more difficult to lose weight.
If you’re struggling to lose weight, it might be because of uric acid. In this case, you can choose one of the best solutions, Ikaria Lean Belly Juice.
Ikaria Lean Belly Juice is a powerful metabolic formula that sets itself apart from other weight loss products. This unique juice blend is infused with critical nutrients, botanicals, and herbal extracts that help the body stabilize its processes and turn incoming food into energy instead of storing it as fat reserves.
By supporting normal metabolic function and providing the body with essential nutrients, Ikaria Lean Belly Juice helps to detoxify and rejuvenate the body from the inside out.
This potent juice provides a range of health benefits for overall wellness, but it can also help boost metabolism and promote weight loss. Its unique combination of ingredients reduces cravings and hunger, making it easier to stick to a healthy diet even when the temptation to overeat is strong.
Whether you are looking for an extra boost in your weight loss journey or want to improve your overall health, the Ikaria Lean Belly Juice is an excellent choice. With so many proven benefits and such great results, there’s no doubt that this potent formula is truly one-of-a-kind!
The ingredients in Ikaria Lean Belly Juice work together to encourage your body to burn fat instead of storing it. Many of the ingredients in this drink have been shown to have anti-inflammatory properties, which can reduce inflammation throughout the body and may be beneficial for relieving chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Some of these same ingredients have also been shown to boost metabolism and help the body burn fat more efficiently.
In addition, Ikaria Lean Belly Juice contains a high concentration of antioxidants, which can help protect your cells from damage and may even help reverse some of the effects of aging.
Because Ikaria Lean Belly Juice helps encourage your body to burn stored fat for energy, rather than keeping it as excess weight, it can be an effective tool for weight loss. This type of drink can also help you feel fuller longer after drinking it, so you’re less likely to snack on unhealthy foods or overeat at mealtime.
In addition to promoting weight loss, there are many other benefits associated with drinking Ikaria Lean Belly Juice. Some of these include:
Improved digestive health: The ingredients in Ikaria Lean Belly Juice can help promote healthy digestion and elimination, reducing the risk of constipation, bloating, and gas.
Protection against chronic disease: Antioxidants found in this beverage can help protect your body from damage caused by free radicals and other harmful compounds. This can also help prevent chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and certain forms of cancer.
Lower cholesterol levels: Substances known as sterols that occur naturally in many fruits and vegetables have been shown to lower LDL cholesterol levels, which can help reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke.
Drinking Ikaria Lean Belly Juice is a healthy way to get more antioxidants and other essential nutrients into your diet while helping you lose weight. If you’re looking for a natural way to start losing weight, consider incorporating this supplement into your routine.
Recent studies have found that Fucoxanthin – a compound found in brown seaweed – can help revive a protein in your body that burns fat stores and raises energy levels. Not only that, but Fucoxanthin can also prevent dietary fats from being absorbed into the body, making it a powerful tool in the fight against obesity.
Silymarin, also known as milk thistle, is a powerful herb that has been used for centuries to support liver health. The active ingredient in milk thistle is silymarin, a group of flavonoids with potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
Silymarin has been shown to protect the liver from damage caused by toxins, alcohol, and other drugs. It helps regenerate liver cells, promotes the healing of damaged liver tissue and helps to lower cholesterol levels, and improves overall liver function.
Dandelion is often associated with weight loss and fat reduction. This is because dandelion acts as a powerful antioxidant, helping to eliminate the fat in your body, including around your pancreas and liver. In addition, dandelion helps eliminate uric acid in your stomach, which can expedite weight loss. When combined with other ingredients in Lean Belly Juice, dandelion provides a potent mix that can help you achieve your weight loss goals.
Resveratrol has provided several health benefits, including supporting healthy circulation and joint function.
Food & Science journal reports that resveratrol can help lower fat stores and promote healthy blood fats. Scientific research has also shown that resveratrol may provide support for joints.
Therefore, incorporating resveratrol into your diet may help improve your overall health and well-being. To get the most benefit from resveratrol, consider taking a critical nutrient supplement.
So, there you have it. The Lean Belly Juice by Ikaria is a powerful weight-loss tool that can help you finally shed those extra pounds. With its unique blend of ingredients, Lean Belly Juice can help to block uric acid levels in your body and jumpstart your weight loss journey.
Disease detectives are on the lookout for the next variant of COVID-19 and since the virus is still in such high circulation worldwide the virus is constantly mutating. This means it could be evolving to better evade vaccines and attack our immune systems. Although Omicron was milder than the variants came before it, scientists have warned the next variant – which will probably be called Pi – could be far more deadly.
“A lot of the lineages we are finding make Omicron look pedestrian.”
As SARS-CoV-2 can be shed in faecal matter for weeks after the respiratory symptoms clear, wastewater is an obvious place to look for new variants.
Tracking circulating pathogens has long been an important way of finding early signals of the presence of a disease in a community – it was critical in the eradication of polio in India, for example. Researchers are also using these techniques to track the spread of monkeypox.
An initiative to look for SARS-CoV-2 in Bangalore, India, has provided early warnings of COVID-19 infection spikes, with the researchers able to identify which variants of SARS-CoV-2 are circulating, and in roughly what proportions.
For much of this year, virologist Dr Dave O’Connor and colleagues at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been tracking a heavily mutated version of SARS-CoV-2 that they narrowed down to one particular area of Wisconsin.
Scientists are starting to believe that chronic COVID-19 infections lingering for months in people who may have compromised immune systems are a hotbed of new variants, as the virus has a long time to mutate.
The variant Dr O’Connor’s team is tracking first appeared in sewage collected in January 2022, and though it shares numerous mutations with Omicron, it came from an entirely different part of the SARS-CoV-2 family tree. The team have tracked the lineage to a company of 30 employees and are now trying to determine their next move.
Dr Marc Johnson, a virologist at the University of Missouri in Columbia, is working with O’Connor to trace wastewater lineages in Wisconsin. With their colleagues, they are hunting so-called ‘cryptic lineages’, which are viral lineages in wastewater that didn’t match anything in global databases of millions of sequences.
These cryptic lineages were significant in that they often had several mutations in the spike protein that SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter our cells – and which our immune system targets. Dr O’Connor told Nature that such lineages could help forecast macro trends in SARS-CoV-2 evolution, which could in turn help the development of variant-proof vaccines and treatments.
For these virologists, a lot is riding on early detection of the next major COVID-19 variant. “A lot of the lineages we are finding make Omicron look pedestrian,” said Dr Johnson.
February 1, 2024 — Three interdisciplinary teams from the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences have received $100,000 grants from The Winnipeg...
