Culture

Three members of the BiRTE research group at the UPV/EHU's Faculty of Economics and Business have published an analysis of the evolution in electricity prices during a 16-year period (2002 to 2017); the article appears in Energy Economics, a journal positioned in the first decile in the field of Economics. The study set out to see how various factors linked to renewable energy affect the price of electricity. As a starting point, "the incorporating of this energy is known to exert a dual effect: firstly, it lowers the price, in other words, the energy that is transacted is cheaper, because renewable energy has a unit cost of production very close to zero. Secondly, however, it increases price volatility, fluctuations that occur in the price, because as it is an intermittent energy, availability and therefore generation cannot always be guaranteed", explained Aitor Ciarreta-Antuñano, lead researcher in the BiRTE research group and co-author of this publication.

However, the authors wanted to go one step further in the analysis of volatility and incorporate into the analysis the influence exerted by the regulatory framework, the policies that govern the setting up of renewable energy plants and the grants used to provide them with incentives. "The regulatory framework is crucial in the electricity market and, what is more, is greatly influenced by European directives. We wanted to see whether the periods in which there was uncertainty in this aspect have influenced the volatility of the price of electricity," said Ciarreta. To do this "we built a statistical model with the data on the electricity prices of the Spanish market that included the data on a 16-year period", to be able to see on the basis of which indicators volatility varied.

Increased volatility associated with regulatory uncertainty

The statistical analysis of the data revealed "a grouping or cluster of volatility in the specific period in which there was uncertainty in the regulatory framework in Spain". In the period analysed, from 2002 to 2017, the researcher highlights the differentiation of "phases in which there is a very stable regulatory framework, such as that which occurred between 2007 and 2012, when direct grants were awarded to generate renewable electrical power. However, in 2012, there was a change in the regulations which did not settle down until 2014 and these two years of regulatory uncertainty coincide with the period that saw the highest level of volatility in electricity prices, which has nothing to do with the fact that renewable energies lead to a certain volatility owing to their intermittent nature. Economic players are disrupted most by the uncertainty associated with regulatory policies", stressed the PhD-holder in Economics.

The period of regulatory uncertainty described was caused by various factors, as Ciarreta described. "From 2010 onwards the economic crisis also reached the electricity market and this crisis was accentuated by the high deficit growth occurring during the previous period, in which the degree of funding of renewables was regulated so that it ended up accounting for nearly 3% of GDP. The European Union was also putting pressure on Spain to control that deficit."

Faced with this situation, the government tried to put together a new system designed to promote renewable energies because Spain also had to meet the aims on reducing CO2 emissions. It took the country two years to establish the new system and when it was implemented uncertainty returned to the markets. "The rate of return offered by the new regulatory system was lower, and one may more or less agree with what had been established, but we can see that this did not affect the volatility of the price of electricity, uncertainty affects it much more. Investors derive more security from knowing what they have to comply with," said the researcher. And at the end of the day, citizens, too, are affected, because most of us are paying rates that depend on the daily market price", he added.

The researcher believes that the results obtained in this analysis should serve "as a wake-up call for regulators, so that they do not adopt measures to change regulations hastily, and that regulation should be kept as stable as possible. And if they make any changes, they should allow the players to react in such a way that uncertainty is not incorporated in electricity markets".

Starting university is an exciting phase for everyone. However, children from academic households exhibit significantly more stress during this period than those from non-academic families. A Swiss-German research team has found this out by analysing the hair of female first-year students. Study authors Professor Alex Bertrams from the University of Bern and Dr. Nina Minkley from Ruhr-Universität Bochum (RUB) have concluded that students may be stressed by the fear of jeopardising the social status of their families if they fail their degrees. They published their report in Frontiers of Psychiatry on 5 June 2020.

Stress hormone accumulates in the hair

In stressful situations, the body releases an increased amount of the hormone cortisol, which also reaches growing hair and is stored there if the levels remain high over a lengthy period of time. By analysing the hair, researchers can identify the phases when a person had more stress.

In order to find out whether the stress levels of young people from different family backgrounds differ when they're starting university, the research team recruited a total of 71 test persons. "The only inclusion criteria were that they started their first semester and that they had sufficiently long hair," explains Nina Minkley from the Behavioural Biology and Didactics of Biology research group at RUB. "In the end, this meant that we recruited almost only women, and we decided not to include the few eligible men to avoid falsifying the results."

Strands of hair and questionnaires

The participants supplied the research team with three thin strands of hair each, which were cut off near the scalp. Since a hair grows about one centimetre per month, the researchers examined the latest one and a half centimetres that had grown in the six weeks since the beginning of the semester. In addition, the participants filled out questionnaires in which they provided information about their parents' educational background. They were also asked about the stress they subjectively perceived.

It emerged that first-year students from academic households where at least one parent had a university degree exhibit higher stress levels than those from non-academic households, even though they didn't differ in other respects. The subjectively perceived stress levels, for example, were the same.

Stress due to impending loss of status

The research team interprets this result as an indication of female students from academic households being under greater pressure, because failing their study would result in a loss of status for them and their families. This is in line with findings in sociological studies, which have shown that children of academics tend to go to university even if their academic performance isn't expected to be successful, based on their school grades. "Children of non-academics, on the other hand, can only win and are therefore probably less stressed," concludes Minkley.

Increasing abdominal girth and shrinking muscles are two common side effects of aging. Researchers at the University of Bonn have discovered a receptor in mice that regulates both effects. Experiments with human cell cultures suggest that the corresponding signaling pathways might also exist in humans. The study, which also involved researchers from Spain, Finland, Belgium, Denmark and the USA, has now been published in the renowned journal Cell Metabolism.

On their surface, cells carry numerous different "antennas", called receptors, which can receive specific signal molecules. These then trigger a specific reaction in the cell. One of these antennas is the A2B receptor. The surfaces of some cells are virtually teeming with it, for example in the so-called brown adipose tissue. Brown adipose tissue, unlike its white-colored counterpart, is not used to store fat. Instead, it burns fat and thereby generates heat.

"In our publication we took a closer look at the A2B receptors in brown adipose tissue," explains Prof. Dr. Alexander Pfeifer from the Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology at the University Hospital Bonn. "In the course of this we discovered an interesting association: The more A2B a mouse produces, the more heat it generates." Which means the A2B antennas somehow seem to increase the activity of the brown fat cells. But a second observation was even more exciting: Despite their increased fat burning, the animals weigh hardly less than mice with fewer receptors. "They are slimmer, but at the same time have more muscles," explains Pfeifer.

Muscles like a young mouse

In fact, the researchers were able to show that the muscle cells of mice also carry the A2B receptor. When this is stimulated by a small molecule agonist, muscle growth in the rodents is increased. "The receptor regulates both fat burning and muscle development," emphasizes Pfeifer's colleague Dr. Thorsten Gnad, the lead author of the study.

As they age, mice increasingly lose muscle mass - similar to humans. And just like us, they also tend to gain a lot of fat around the hips over the years. However, if they receive the agonist that activates the A2B receptor, these aging effects are inhibited: Their oxygen consumption (an indicator of energy dissiption) increases by almost half; moreover, after four weeks of treatment they have as much muscle mass as a young animal. "A2B activation can therefore reverse both aging effects to a certain extent," explains Gnad.

In order to see whether the results were also meaningful for humans, the researchers examined human cell cultures and tissue samples. They found that in people with a large number of A2B receptors, the brown adipose tissue works at a higher rate. At the same time, their muscle cells consume more energy, which may indicate that they are also more active and may be more likely to be regenerated.

"Obesity is a growing problem worldwide," emphasizes Prof. Pfeifer. "Every extra pound not only increases the risk of developing diabetes, but also the risk of high blood pressure, vascular damage and therefore heart attacks and strokes. These problems are further exacerbated by muscles that shrink over the years, as they further reduce the body's energy requirements both at rest and in motion." In addition, poor muscle strength has an immense impact on the everyday life of older people, as they are increasingly restricted in their mobility.

The pharmacologists explain that the prospect of having a receptor on hand that might be able to slow down both of these age-related phenomena is therefore highly exciting. However, further research would first have to show to what extent the human mechanisms actually resemble those in mice. Additionally, there is currently no activator of A2B approved for use in humans. This means that little is known about any side effects of such a treatment. "We found no signs of adverse reactions in mice," says Pfeifer. "However, the meaningfulness of the results is, of course, also limited on this matter."

Gnad emphasizes that the success of the study is also the result of good cooperation with numerous international partners: "Nowadays, it is almost impossible to work on complex issues comprehensively without such cooperation."

In a research letter published in The Journal of General Internal Medicine on COVID-19, Ishani Ganguli, MD, MPH, a physician researcher in the Division of General Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women's Hospital and colleagues Rohan Khazanchi (University of Nebraska Medical Center student) and Evan Beiter (Harvard Medical School student) analyzed COVID-19 case and death rates at the county level looking at what factors contributed to risk. Using data compiled by The New York Times from health agency reports, the authors found that COVID-19 has disproportionately affected socially vulnerable communities, especially minority and non-English speaking ones. The team based its evaluation on the CDC's validated Social Vulnerability Index.

The findings emphasize the need for standardized collection of sociodemographic characteristics and targeted interventions, the authors conclude. Key points are outlined below:

Risk was driven by minority status and English language proficiency in both rural and urban counties.

Compared with those in the least vulnerable counties, people in the most vulnerable counties had 1.63-fold greater risk of COVID-19 diagnosis and 1.73-fold greater risk of death.

When considering only race, ethnicity and English language proficiency variables, people in the most vulnerable counties had 4.94-fold and 4.74-fold greater risks of COVID-19 diagnosis and death, respectively.

In urban areas, poverty, unemployment, crowded housing, and vehicle access were also associated with increased COVID-19 diagnosis and death.

Dublin, 25 June 2020: A major international study has uncovered three molecules that have the potential to be developed into new drugs to treat epilepsy. The findings are an important step towards discovering new drugs for people with epilepsy whose seizures cannot be controlled with current treatments.

The study was led by researchers at FutureNeuro, the SFI Research Centre for Chronic and Rare Neurological Diseases and RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. It is the result of seven years of research, involving contributions from 35 scientists, based in eight different European countries, across the fields of neuroscience, genetics, computer science and synthetic chemistry. The research is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) USA.

In one of the largest sequencing projects of its kind, researchers identified and measured levels of over a billion strands of microRNAs, small molecules that control gene activity in the brain, to investigate if they were changed in epilepsy. They discovered a small set of microRNAs which were always elevated in epilepsy and designed drug-like molecules, synthesized by chemists from the group, to target these. Three of the synthetic molecules were found to stop seizures in preclinical tests.

Computer simulations demonstrated how the potential treatments influenced molecule networks inside brain cells by changing the inflammatory response, part of the brain's immune system which is thought to contribute to seizures.

"Our approach to drug discovery has led us to new types of molecules that can be targeted to prevent seizures with hopefully fewer side effects." said Dr Cristina Reschke, FutureNeuro Research Fellow and Honorary Lecturer at RCSI, and Co-Lead Author. "Currently, most drugs used to treat epilepsy work by blocking the signals brain cells use to communicate. This results in many of the side effects experienced by people with epilepsy."

Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic brain diseases, affecting over 40,000 people in Ireland and 65 million people worldwide. People with epilepsy are prone to repeated seizures, but for the majority of people, these can be well controlled. There are more than 20 medicines available to prevent seizures in people with epilepsy, but progress has slowed in recent years and new treatments offer little benefit over those that have been around for decades.

"By characterising and targeting an entire new class of molecules in epilepsy, we hope to develop novel and innovative treatment strategies for temporal lobe epilepsy." said Dr Gareth Morris, Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Fellow at FutureNeuro and Co-Lead Author of the paper. "This is an important step closer to fulfilling the urgent and unmet clinical needs for the one third of people whose seizures are resistant to currently available drugs."

Senior author on the study, Professor David Henshall, Director of FutureNeuro and Professor of Molecular Physiology and Neuroscience at RCSI said: "The project is a great example of team science, where groups with different areas of expertise combine to create innovative solutions that keep people with epilepsy as the central focus. The discoveries here may be just the tip of the iceberg for new strategies in the treatment of epilepsy. I'm optimistic this can be translated to the clinic."

Through a balanced diet, we consume larger quantities of phytoalexins every day - in a natural and healthy way. Phytoalexins (gr. phytos = plant, alekein = "repel") are phytochemicals that plants produce as an immune response to certain stimuli in order to maintain their own health. Numerous scientific studies have already shown that these bioactive natural products also have a health-promoting effect on humans. However, in order to investigate the mechanisms of action in detail, it is important to obtain the individual phytoalexins simply, which has so far been done with little efficiency and using toxic substances.

Dr. Philipp Ciesielski and Prof. Peter Metz from the Chair of Organic Chemistry I at TU Dresden have now presented a novel and extremely efficient synthesis for phytoalexins in the renowned journal Nature Communications. In particular, the low-level synthesis of the phytoalexins Glyceollin I and Glyceollin II, which are produced as part of the immune response in soybean plants, is a decisive innovation. These two natural compounds are characterized by a broad spectrum of bioactivities, including antitumour activity and health-promoting, anti-oxidant and anti-cholesterolemic effects against Western diseases.

The previous syntheses of Glyceollin I and II use large amounts of the very toxic and expensive oxidizing agent osmium tetroxide as well as large amounts of a comparatively expensive excipient as ligand in the key step. The newly presented synthesis route, on the other hand, manages without osmium tetroxide and at the same time proves to be much more efficient.

"Our synthesis pathway to various phytoalexins now allows easier access to these substances. This is an important basis for further investigations into the biological activity of these natural compounds and may well form the basis for their further development as therapeutics. The path we have described to the basic structure of phytoalexins can also be used by other research groups in the synthesis of related natural and active compounds," describes Prof. Peter Metz the importance of his publication.

Dogs play an important role in human life all over the world - whether as a family member or as a working animal. But where the dog comes from and how old various groups of dogs are is still a bit of a mystery.

Now, light has been shed on the origin of the sledge dog. In a new study published in SCIENCE, researchers from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, show that the sledge dog is both older and has adapted to the Arctic much earlier than thought. The research was conducted in collaboration with the University of Greenland and the Institute of Evolutionary Biology, Barcelona.

'We have extracted DNA from a 9,500-year-old dog from the Siberian island of Zhokhov, which the dog is named after. Based on that DNA we have sequenced the oldest complete dog genome to date, and the results show an extremely early diversification of dogs into types of sledge dogs', says one of the two first authors of the study, PhD student Mikkel Sinding, the Globe Institute.

Until now, it has been the common belief that the 9,500-year-old Siberian dog, Zhokhov, was a kind of ancient dog - one of the earliest domesticated dogs and a version of the common origin of all dogs. But according to the new study, modern sledge dogs such as the Siberian Husky, the Alaskan Malamute and the Greenland sledge dog share the major part of their genome with Zhokhov.

'This means that modern sledge dogs and Zhokhov had the same common origin in Siberia more than 9,500 years ago. Until now, we have thought that sledge dogs were only 2-3,000 years old', says the other first author, Associate Professor Shyam Gopalakrishnan, Globe Institute.

The Original Sledge Dog

To learn more about the origins of the sledge dog, researchers have further sequenced genomes of a 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf and ten modern Greenlandic sledge dogs. They have compared these genomes to genomes of dogs and wolves from around the world.

'We can see that the modern sledge dogs have most of their genomes in common with Zhokhov. So, they are more closely related to this ancient dog than to other dogs and wolves. But not just that - we can see traces of crossbreeding with wolves such as the 33,000-year-old Siberian wolf - but not with modern wolves. It further emphasises that the origin of the modern sledge dog goes back much further than we had thought', says Mikkel Sinding.

The modern sledge dogs have more genetic overlap with other modern dog breeds than Zhokhov has, but the studies do not show us where or when this occurred. Nevertheless, among modern sledge dogs, the Greenland sledge dogs stands out and has the least overlap with other dogs, meaning that the Greenland sledge dog is probably the most original sledge dog in the world.

Common Features with Inuit and Polar Bears

In addition to advancing the common understanding of the origin of sledge dogs, the new study also teaches the researchers more about the differences between sledge dogs and other dogs. Sledge dogs do not have the same genetic adaptations to a sugar and starch rich diet that other dogs have. On the other hand, they have adaptations to high-fat diets, with mechanisms that are similar to those described for polar bears and Arctic people.

'This emphasises that sledge dogs and Arctic people have worked and adapted together for more than 9,500 years. We can also see that they have adaptations that are probably linked to improved oxygen uptake, which makes sense in relation to sledding and give the sledding tradition ancient roots', says Shyam Gopalakrishnan.

According to a new study, high school girls' lacrosse players who may, but are not required to, wear flexible headgear are at a higher risk of getting a concussion from a stick or ball impact than boys' lacrosse players, who are required to wear a hard shell helmet with a full face mask.

Faculty at the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, and the University of Colorado Denver published the study in Injury Epidemiology. The study looked at if girls' lacrosse players are at a greater risk for concussions than boys' lacrosse players due to differences in helmet regulations.

"As youth sports begin to restart across the country, the results of our study provide a reminder to parents about the risk of concussion for girls in lacrosse compared to their male counterparts," said Dawn Comstock, PhD, professor of epidemiology at the Colorado School of Public Health, and lead author of the paper.

Boys' lacrosse is a full contact sport that allows body and stick checking, which mandates hard shell helmets with full face masks. Girls' lacrosse, which prohibits body checking and whose sphere rule is supposed to prevent stick checking to the head, allows optional flexible headgear with or without integrated eye protection.

"The disproportionate guidelines around protective equipment for different genders are outdated. Our study's results indicate it shouldn't be a debate whether the required boys' lacrosse hard shell helmets should also be mandated in girls' lacrosse," said Sarah K. Fields, JD, PhD, professor of communication at the University of Colorado Denver and study co-author.

In this study, researchers used lacrosse concussion data from the National High School Sports-Related Injury Surveillance Study to determine if girls' lacrosse players were at increased risk of concussion from stick or ball contact due to differences in helmet regulations by calculating the attributable risk and attributable risk percent (AR%) for concussion resulting from ball or stick impacts.

The researchers looked at gender comparison by injury mechanism. The key findings include:

In girls' lacrosse, stick or ball contact was the most common mechanism of concussion, accounting for 72.7 percent of all concussions, while athlete-athlete contact accounted for 19.8 percent.

In boys' lacrosse, stick or ball contact accounted for 23.5 percent of all concussions while athlete to athlete contact accounted for 66.4 percent.

The rate of concussions from stick or ball contact was significantly higher in girls than boys, with girls being 2.6 times as likely to sustain a concussion from stick or ball contact.

An estimated 45 percent of all girls' lacrosse concussions could have been prevented if girls' wore the helmet mandated in boys' lacrosse.

The study found no evidence to indicate the hard shell helmet with full face mask currently mandated in boys' lacrosse would not provide similar protection from stick and ball strikes in girls' lacrosse.

Comstock added, "Bottom line, girls playing lacrosse are sustaining concussions that could have been prevented if gender bias did not prohibit them from wearing the very helmet required for boys playing lacrosse."

June 25, 2020 - Children born with cleft lip and cleft palate (CLP) commonly undergo multiple surgical procedures between infancy and adolescence. By the time they are teens, patients with CLP with more total surgeries do not have increased psychosocial problems.

However, an increased number of surgeries between 8 and 10 years of age may predict increased anxiety and depression in adolescence, reports a study in the July issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, the official medical journal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS).

ASPS member surgeon Justine C. Lee, MD, PhD, of UCLA is senior author of the new study. She comments, "In conjunction with our previous work that identified the 8-to-10 age range as a critical at-risk time period for poor psychosocial functioning, we now find that teenagers who had more surgeries during that age range report worse long-term psychosocial functioning."

The researchers identified a group of 55 teens who had undergone surgery for CLP. Like many children with CLP, they underwent multiple reconstructive surgeries to address their appearance, feeding, hearing, speech, and other functions.

The patients with CLP, along with a comparison group of 14 adolescents without CLP, completed standard assessments of anger, anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Relationships between these psychosocial outcomes and the number of surgeries was assessed. From age 0 to 14, the patients with CLP had an average of six procedures per patient.

Overall, there was no significant difference in psychosocial outcomes for teens with and without CLP. For all three psychosocial outcomes assessed - anger, anxiety, and depression - there was no significant association with total number of surgeries.

The study also looked at the impact of the number of surgeries by age group. More than half of all surgeries were done from birth to age 7 - most commonly procedures to close the cleft lip and/or palate. In older age groups, the most common surgeries were bone grafts to augment the bone under the gums (alveolar bone grafts), which must be done before the permanent teeth start to come in.

On this analysis, a greater number of surgeries between age 8 and 10 years was linked to higher scores for both anxiety and depressive symptoms. Higher scores for anger were also associated with increased anxiety and depression. In all other age groups, number of surgeries was unrelated to psychosocial outcomes.

Children with CLP undergo multiple procedures, surgical and otherwise, from infancy into adolescence. Addressing mental health is an important goal of modern, multidisciplinary CLP care. But in contrast to functional outcomes like feeding and speech, few studies have monitored the long-term psychosocial outcomes of treatment for CLP.

The total number of procedures does not appear to affect psychosocial outcomes in patients with CLP by the time they are teens, the results suggest. The researchers write, "While these conclusions may be considered positively in that patients with CLP have not been negatively impacted by more surgery, the negative aspect is that they have not demonstrated any benefit by having more surgery either."

The findings add to a previous study by Dr. Lee's group, also published in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery®, which found that the 8- to 10-year age range is an "at-risk period for psychosocial distress in children with craniofacial anomalies," including CLP. Dr. Lee and colleagues conclude, "The significant association between multiple surgeries and psychosocial functioning suggests a need to develop strategies for modifying timing or consolidating procedures during that age range."

Reston, VA--For neuroendocrine cancer patients with liver metastases, a new radiopharmaceutical, 68Ga-DOTA-JR11, has shown excellent imaging performance in tumor detection, staging and restaging, providing important information to guide treatment. In a head-to-head comparison of two somatostatin receptor (SSTR) imaging agents, 68Ga-DOTA-JR11 PET/CT performed better than 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT in detecting liver metastases, with a better tumor-to-background ratio, according to research published in the June issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

SSTRs--the key target for imaging and peptide receptor radionuclide therapy in patients with neuroendocrine tumors--typically are imaged using 68Ga-labeled peptides, which are agonists that bind to SSTRs to elicit a response. However, newly developed peptide antagonists, which recognize and then block SSTRs, have shown more favorable pharmacokinetics, better image contrast, higher tumor uptake, and better residence time in recent studies.

"With antagonists, we now have an alternative to agonists," stated Wenjia Zhu, MD, nuclear medicine physician, at Peking Union Medical College Hospital in Bejing, China. "However, there is still not much evidence about the performance of PET/CT imaging with SSTR antagonists. Hence, we designed this prospective study to compare 68Ga-DOTATATE and 68Ga-DOTA-JR11 PET/CT in patients with metastatic, well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors."

The study included 31 patients and took place on two consecutive days. Each patient received an intravenous injection of 68Ga-DOTATATE on the first day and 68Ga-DOTA-JR11 on the second day. Whole-body time-of-flight PET/CT scans were performed 40-60 minutes after each injection on the same scanner. Upon completion, physiologic normal-organ uptake, lesion numbers, and lesion uptake were compared between 68Ga-DOTATATE and 68Ga-DOTA-JR11 PET/CT images.

The physiologic normal-organ uptake of the spleen, renal cortex, adrenal glands, pituitary glands, stomach wall, normal liver parenchyma, small intestine, pancreas, and bone marrow was significantly lower on 68Ga-DOTA-JR11 PET/CT than on 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT. 68Ga-DOTA-JR11 was found to detect significantly more liver lesions than 68Ga-DOTATATE; however 68Ga-DOTATATE detected more bone lesions than 68Ga-DOTA-JR11. While the radiopharmaceuticals showed similar lesion uptake for primary tumors and lymph node metastases on both patient-based and lesion-based comparisons, the target-to-background ratio of liver lesions was significantly higher on 68Ga-DOTA-JR11.

"What we've learned from this study is that peptides matter," noted Zhu. "For patients with different metastatic patterns, different peptides (DOTA-JR11 versus DOTATATE) should be used. In liver-dominant disease, 68Ga-DOTA-JR11 may be a better choice in tumor staging and restaging compared to 68Ga-DOTATATE. It may also change the treatment strategy, especially when partial resection or local therapy for liver metastasis is considered. In bone-dominant disease, we should probably stick to agonists, as 68Ga-DOTA-JR11 may underestimate tumor burden. We expect more extensive theranostic application of antagonists in the near future."

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. -- Researchers have developed a method to spur the production of new antibiotic or antiparasitic compounds hiding in the genomes of actinobacteria, which are the source of drugs such as actinomycin and streptomycin and are known to harbor other untapped chemical riches. The scientists report their findings in the journal eLife.

The researchers wanted to overcome a decades-old problem that confronts those hoping to study and make use of the countless antibiotic, antifungal and antiparasitic compounds that bacteria can produce, said Satish Nair, a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign professor of biochemistry who led the research.

"In laboratory conditions, bacteria don't make the number of molecules they have the capability of making," he said. "And that's because many are regulated by small-molecule hormones that aren't produced unless the bacteria are under threat."

Nair and his colleagues wanted to determine how such hormones influence the production of antibiotics in actinobacteria. By exposing their bacteria to the right hormone or combination of hormones, the researchers hope to spur the microbes to produce new compounds that are medically useful.

The team focused on avenolide, a hormone that is more chemically stable than one used in earlier studies of bacterial hormones. Avenolide regulates the production of an antiparasitic compound known as avermectin in a soil microbe. A chemically modified version of this compound, ivermectin, is used as a treatment for river blindness, a disease transmitted by flies that blinded millions of people, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, before the drug was developed.

For the new study, chemistry graduate student Iti Kapoor developed a more streamlined process for synthesizing avenolide in the lab than was previously available. This allowed the team to study the hormone's interactions with its receptor both inside and outside bacterial cells.

"Using a method called X-ray crystallography, Iti and biochemistry graduate student Philip Olivares were able to determine how the hormone binds to its receptor and how the receptor binds to the DNA in the absence of hormones," Nair said. "Typically, these receptors sit on the genome and they basically act as brakes."

The researchers discovered that when the hormone binds to it, the receptor loses its ability to cling to DNA. This turns off the brakes, allowing the organism to churn out defensive compounds like antibiotics.

Knowing which regions of the receptor are involved in binding to the hormone and to the DNA enabled the team to scan the genomes of dozens of actinobacteria to find sequences that had the right traits to bind to their receptor or to similar receptors. This process, called genome mining, allowed the team to identify 90 actinobacteria that appear to be regulated by avenolide or other hormones in the same class.

"Our long-term project is to take those 90 bacteria, grow them up in the laboratory, add chemically synthesized hormones to them and see what new molecules are being produced," Nair said. "The beauty of our approach is that we can now get the bacteria to produce large quantities of molecules that normally we would not be able to make in the lab."

Some of these new compounds are likely to have medical relevance, he said.

PHILADELPHIA - Black patients with esophageal cancer are at a higher risk of death compared to white patients. Although many reasons have been suggested for this, few have given physician actionable information. A new study from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center (SKCC) - Jefferson Health points to a different reason - Black patients were less likely to receive surgery for treatable diseases, which could have contributed to their higher rates of death.

The results were published in the Journal of Gastrointestinal Surgery.

"National guidelines suggest that early-stage esophageal cancer should be treated with surgery because data shows that it offers patients the best chances of survival, rather than chemotherapy alone," says senior author Nathaniel Evans, MD, Director of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Thomas Jefferson University, and Chief of Cancer Services, Center City Division at the SKCC. "Our data show that Black patients are not having surgery for early-stage disease, which may contribute to higher rates of death. With this data, we can now begin to educate patients and providers to change practice."

A total of 60,041 patients were included in the analysis that drew from the National Cancer Database, of whom 4,402 were Black and 55,639 were white across over 1,334 hospitals around the country. In order to ensure an unbiased comparison, Black and white patients were matched by demographics, comorbidities, and tumor characteristics in a 1:1 fashion. The final dataset included 5,858 patients.

The analysis led by first author Samantha L. Savitch, a senior medical student and researcher working in the Department of Surgery and others showed that rates of surgery were significantly lower, 25-40% less for Black patients with esophageal cancer in stages I to III. In addition, the researchers noted that the chances of getting surgery decreased as the age of Black patients increased, and also decreased if the patients were receiving radiation therapy. Black patients were more likely to get surgery if they were treated at a hospital that was more than 5 miles from their homes.

The findings also suggested that patients who were diagnosed with a type of esophageal cancer called squamous cell carcinoma, which is more common in Black patients, were less likely to receive surgery. All this despite clear evidence that surgical resection is the best chance for survival in patients with esophageal cancer.

"Although the data doesn't give us a reason for the observations we're seeing, it does show us areas where we can take action," says Dr. Evans. "Even when we control for socioeconomic status, insurance status, location, and comorbid conditions, the disparity still persists, it is quite profound. This highlights the need to educate Black patients and their healthcare providers on the importance of surgery in the treatment esophageal cancer."

"One way we are addressing this is by developing a Multidisciplinary GI Cancer group," says Dr. Evans. "We review esophageal cancer patients and ensure their treatment plans are tailored to the individual patent and follow established guidelines."

"This important study is part of a much larger effort at the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center to understand and mitigate cancer disparities," says Karen Knudsen, PhD, EVP of Oncology Services and Enterprise Director of SKCC. "This goal is central to our mission to improve the lives cancer patients and their families, regardless of geography, gender, or demographic. We are thankful to Dr. Evans and the entire research team for raising awareness about this critical national issue."

A study of 153 patients treated in UK hospitals during the acute phase of the COVID-19 pandemic describes a range of neurological and psychiatric complications that may be linked to the disease and is published today in The Lancet Psychiatry journal.

All of the patients included in the study were selected for inclusion by expert doctors and therefore likely represent the most severe cases. It is not possible to draw conclusions about the total proportion of COVID-19 patients likely to be affected based on this study and in light of these findings further research is now needed, the authors say.

Researchers say their report offers the first detailed snapshot of the breadth of neurological complications in COVID-19 patients and should help to direct future research to establish the mechanisms of such complications so that potential treatments can be developed.

Dr Benedict Michael, lead-author of the study, from The University of Liverpool said: "There have been growing reports of an association between COVID-19 infection and possible neurological or psychiatric complications, but until now these have typically been limited to studies of ten patients or fewer. Ours is the first nation-wide study of neurological complications associated with COVID-19, but it is important to note that it is focused on cases that are severe enough to require hospitalisation." [1]

To investigate the breadth of COVID-19 complications that affect the brain, researchers set up a secure, UK-wide online network for specialist doctors to report details of specific cases. These portals were hosted by professional bodies representing specialists in neurology, stroke, psychiatry and intensive care. Data was collected between 2 April and 26 April 2020, during the exponential phase of the pandemic.

Professor Sarah Pett co-author of the study, from University College London, UK, said: "This data represents an important snapshot of the brain-related complications of COVID-19 in hospitalised patients. It is critically important that we continue to collect this information to really understand this virus fully. We also need to understand brain-complications in people in the community who have COVID-19 but were not sick enough to be hospitalised. Our study provides the foundations for larger, hospital and community-based studies. These studies will help inform on the frequency of these brain complications, who's most at risk of getting them, and ultimately how best to treat." [1]

Some 153 cases were reported during the study period, of which full clinical details were available for 125 patients. The study included patients with confirmed COVID-19 infection by PCR test (114 people), probable infection as diagnosed from chest X-rays or CT scans (6 people), and possible infection, where patients had symptoms consistent with disease but diagnostic tests were either negative or not done (5 people).

The most common brain complication observed was stroke, which was reported in 77 of 125 patients. Of these, 57 patients had a stroke caused by a blood clot in the brain, known as an ischaemic stroke, nine patients had a stroke caused by a brain haemorrhage, and one patient had a stroke caused by inflammation in the blood vessels of the brain. Age data was available for 74 of the patients who experienced a stroke and the majority were over 60 years of age (82%, 61/77).

39 patients showed signs of confusion or changes in behaviour reflecting an altered mental state. Of these, nine patients had unspecified brain dysfunction, known as encephalopathy, and seven patients had inflammation of the brain, medically termed encephalitis. Long-term follow-up studies to assess duration and severity of these complications are needed.

The remaining 23 patients with an altered mental state were diagnosed with psychiatric conditions, of which the vast majority were determined as new diagnoses by the notifying psychiatrist (92%, 21/23). Although most psychiatric diagnoses were determined as new by the notifying psychiatrist or neuropsychiatrist, the researchers say they cannot exclude the possibility that these were undiagnosed before the patient developed COVID-19.

The 23 patients with psychiatric diagnoses included ten patients with a new-onset psychosis and six patients with a dementia-like syndrome. Seven patients had signs of a mood disorder, including depression and anxiety (7/23).

Age information was available for 37 of the 39 patients with an altered mental state and of those, around half were aged under 60 years of age (49%, 18/37).

The researchers say the high proportion of younger patients diagnosed with psychiatric conditions after showing signs of an altered mental state could be because these patients may be more likely to be referred to a psychiatrist or other specialist doctor, whereas confusion or behaviour changes in older patients may be more likely to be attributed to delirium and not investigated further. Detailed long-term studies are needed in order to confirm if there is any link between COVID-19 infection and the onset of psychiatric or neuropsychiatric complications in younger patients. Such studies should include comparison of the immune response in affected patients and those not affected, as well as investigation of genetic factors that might underpin the development of disease, the researchers say.

Dr Benedict Michael, one of the lead authors of the study, from the University of Liverpool, said: "Our study is an important early step towards defining neurological complications in COVID-19 patients, which will help with health policy planning as well as informing the immediate next steps in COVID-19 neuroscience research. We now need detailed studies to understand the possible biological mechanisms underlying these complications so that we can explore potential treatments." [1]

By giving women access to information they otherwise wouldn't have, mobile phones are transforming lives. Putting smart phones in women's hands could be a powerful tool to support sustainable development goals in the developing world, according to researchers from McGill University, University of Oxford and Bocconi University.

The study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences covers 209 countries between 1993 and 2017, and shows that access to mobile phones is associated with multiple indicators linked to global social development, such as good health, gender equality, and poverty reduction. The link between mobile phone access and female empowerment is stronger in less- and least-developed countries.

Survey of women in Sub-Saharan Africa

In an effort to better understand how mobile phones empower women, the authors also conducted an individual level analysis on 100,000 women from Angola, Burundi, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe between 2015 and 2017. Though these sub-Saharan countries show slow fertility decline and infant and maternal mortality rates remain high, the adoption of mobile phones is fast spreading.

Results indicate that, other things being equal, women who own a mobile phone have a 1% higher probability of being involved in decision-making processes about contraception, 2% higher likelihood of using modern contraceptive methods, and a 3% higher likelihood of knowing where to get tested for HIV with respect to women who do not own a phone. These effects are sizeable, as they are comparable to, if not bigger than, the effects of living in an urban area compared to living in a rural area. Similar effects are estimated on higher overall decision-making power within the household.

According to the researchers, improved knowledge and enhanced decision-making power are the likely pathways through which the macro-level results emerge. The analysis of individual data also confirms that the effects are stronger in poorer and more isolated areas.

Digital divides in the developing world

Still, despite the proliferation of mobile networks, the researchers acknowledge that digital divides by gender and socioeconomic strata persist in the developing world. Women are less likely to own mobile phones on their own, use them less often when they have access, and have poorer information and communications technology skills compared to men, creating second-level (skill-related) digital divides on top of first-level (access-related) ones.

"Our results suggest that deploying mobile-phone technology might serve to complement the role of other development processes such as educational expansion and economic growth rather than a replacement for it," says Luca Maria Pesando, a professor in the Department of Sociology and Centre on Population Dynamics at McGill University.

INDIANAPOLIS, CINCINNATI, and KAMPALA, Uganda - A team of international researchers has learned that dose escalation of hydroxyurea treatment for children in Uganda with sickle cell anemia is more effective and has similar side effects than a lower fixed dose of the same drug.

The study, known as NOHARM MTD (Novel use Of Hydroxyurea in an African Region with Malaria - Maximum Tolerated Dose), focused on children in Uganda, but the results could impact use of hydroxyurea worldwide, including the United States and Europe. The findings were published in the June 25 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

This clinical research milestone removes a major barrier to broadly expand the use of hydroxyurea in low-resource regions like sub-Saharan Africa, according to the physicians who led the study at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, and the Indiana University School of Medicine.

For this study, 187 children with sickle cell anemia living in Uganda received hydroxyurea. About half received a fixed-dose of 20 mg per kilogram of body weight per day. The other half received an escalating dose, which started at 25 mg per kilogram of body weight per day and increased up to 35 mg per kilogram of body weight per day, if tolerated. Doctors evaluated the children every 2-3 months for laboratory and clinical benefits, as well as potential side effects.

While the study team was planning to keep the children on these separate treatment arms for two years, an independent data review panel changed the course about 18 months into the study, due to clear benefits of the higher dose.

"Our study's data safety and monitoring board noted a highly significant difference between the treatment groups, with the children on escalated dosing having superior clinical results, but the same number of side effects, so at their recommendation we halted the trial and moved all of the children to that escalated dosing strategy," said Robert Opoka, who oversaw the study at Makerere University and Mulago Hospital in Uganda.

Sickle cell anemia is a life-threatening blood disorder that distorts red blood cells into a sickle or crescent shape and leads to anemia, recurrent pain, organ damage, and early death. It is also a serious global health issue: in the United States, about 100,000 individuals are affected, but worldwide more than 300,000 children are born with the disease each year, with more than 80% born in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet most therapeutic developments for sickle cell have not been available to children in Africa, including hydroxyurea, which is FDA-approved and effectively reduces the acute and chronic disease manifestations.

Earlier studies in sub-Saharan Africa showed hydroxyurea to be safe, feasible to use, and effective for treating sickle cell anemia, according to Dr. Russell Ware, a hematologist at Cincinnati Children's who led those studies and is senior investigator on the current NEJM paper. Ware said the drug boosts fetal hemoglobin, which reduces sickling of the red blood cells and improves anemia, lowers pain and other sickle-related events, and reduces clinical interventions such as transfusions and hospitalizations.

According to lead study co-investigator Dr. Chandy John, a physician scientist at the Ryan White Center for Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Global Health at the IU School of Medicine, the optimal dosing and monitoring plan for hydroxyurea was unknown when the study started. Particularly for low-resource countries like Uganda, determining the hydroxyurea optimal dosing and monitoring plan was crucial.

John said the new study confirms that the dose escalation regimen is better than fixed dose, but expanding hydroxyurea treatment will require affordable drug costs, education of healthcare providers, and an increased drug supply. In addition, newborn screening for sickle cell anemia is needed to help identify those who will benefit from treatment as early as possible.

"There will be some additional costs associated with screening and increasing access to the drug, but they will be more than offset by benefits to patients," John explained. "Our data make it clear that children on a higher daily dose had substantially better clinical outcomes, with fewer adverse events."

"The study shows clearly that the optimized dosing strategy for hydroxyurea, though it requires more effort than a fixed-dose treatment regimen, results in far better outcomes for children with sickle cell anemia," Ware concluded. "We think this study can substantially benefit children with sickle cell anemia in Africa and throughout the world, by choosing the optimal hydroxyurea dose to decrease the disease complications."

"In Africa and other low-resource settings, children with sickle cell anemia have been a neglected population" said Opoka. "We are glad that our work together as African and US researchers has resulted in findings that will improve the health of all children with sickle cell anemia."