Lifeboat Foundation

Neurologic immune-related adverse events (nirAEs) following immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy for cancer are frequent and varied; a recent study identified risk factors for death after nirAEs.

Recent cohort studies have demonstrated that neurologic immune-related adverse events (nirAEs) following immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy for cancer are frequent, varied, and associated with higher overall survival (NEJM JW Neurol Sep 29 2023 and Neurology 2023; 101:e2472). Researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients referred to a tertiary center during a 5-year period to characterize the clinical features of nirAEs and identify predictors of ICI response and survival.

The researchers identified 64 patients with confirmed nirAEs, 81% involving the central nervous system (CNS). The vast majority of CNS nirAE patients had encephalopathy, of which 73% were neither seropositive for well-characterized neural autoantibodies, nor had a distinctive encephalitis syndrome, nor had evidence of CNS inflammatory changes. The most common peripheral nervous system (PNS) syndrome was myasthenia and myositis (with or without myocarditis) overlap syndrome. Only 17% of PNS nirAE patients were seropositive. Steroids were given to 91% of nirAE patients after a median of 90 days of symptoms, and 48% received additional immunotherapy. At 1-month follow-up, 72% of nirAE patients showed improvement, 9% had worsened, and 17% had died. Among the 53 patients who survived the first month, median follow-up was 6 months; during follow-up, 30% died, most commonly of cancer progression or cancer-related complications. Death was associated with lung cancer (hazard ratio, 2.

Continue reading “Risk Factors for Death After Neurologic Immune-Related Adverse Events” »

Talk by Ken Dickerson, CRISPR Group Leader, CRISPR QC, at the BACE Technology Showcase event in August 2022.

Chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) is a rare, potentially fatal condition caused when bloodclots in the lungs block blood vessels to the heart. Yale PCCSM’s Phillip Joseph, MD, and Yale Cardiac Surgery’s Prashanth Vallabhajosyula, MD, share how Yale’s highly specialized #

Clinicians diagnose and treat CTEPH.

Live Science spoke with Šikšnys about what it’s been like to see CRISPR enter clinical use and how he thinks the system might be applied and improved upon in the future.

Editor’s Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Related: Gene therapy: What is it and how does it work?

CHICAGO, Feb 19 (Reuters) — A study that analyzed the genetic code of a quarter of a million U.S. volunteers found more than 275 million entirely new variants that may help explain why some groups are more prone to disease than others, researchers reported on Monday.

The whole genome sequencing data from a wide range of Americans aims to address the historical lack of diversity in existing genomic datasets by focusing on previously under-represented groups. The U.S. National Institutes of Health-funded “All of Us” study turned up 1 billion genetic variants in total.

“Sequencing diverse populations can lead to new drug targets that are relevant to everyone,” said Dr. Josh Denny, a study author and its chief executive. “It can also help uncover disparities that lead to specific treatments for people that are experiencing higher burdens of disease or different disease.”

This is all good but I really like the telomeres results.

Liz Parrish presents the stunning progress of gene therapies and how to collaborate to cure aging in this clip.

Continue reading “Living Longer, Living Better: Gene Therapy’s Stunning Progress For Longevity” »

A new study led by Stanford Medicine scientists demonstrates a simple way of studying organ aging by analyzing distinct proteins, or sets of them, in blood, enabling the prediction of individuals’ risk for diseases.

To synthesize potential drugs or natural products, you need natural substances in specific mirror-image variants and with a high degree of purity. For the first time, chemists at the University of Bonn have succeeded in producing all eight possible variants of polypropionate building blocks from a single starting material in a relatively straightforward process. Their work has now been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Polypropionates are natural products that can help save lives. They are needed to make reserve antibiotics, compounds that are only ever used to treat infections caused by drug-resistant bacteria. In nature, chiral compounds exist in two different variants that share the same molecular formula but are mirror images of each other, like a right and a left hand. Chemists call this “chirality,” which literally means “handedness.”

“What’s interesting is that the mirror-image forms can have very different properties,” explains Professor Andreas Gansäuer from the Kekulé Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Bonn. “One well known example is undoubtedly carvone. The dextro-, or ‘right-handed,’ form of this molecule smells of caraway, while its levo-, or ‘left-handed,’ form is what gives peppermint its distinctive odor.”

AstraZeneca Plc shares rose after trial data showed Tagrisso slowed disease progression in patients with advanced lung cancer in another win for the pharmaceutical giant’s blockbuster drug.