Health
Spinal cord stimulation restores movement for people with 'muscle wasting' disorder
People with spinal muscle atrophy (SMA), an inherited neuromuscular disease, usually experience muscle weakness that impacts movement.
New research suggests that electrical spinal cord stimulation could improve muscle function for these patients, even restoring the capability to walk.
In studies at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, sessions of spinal cord stimulation were shown to restore motor neuron activity and improve muscle strength in the legs for patients with SMA.
The findings were published in Nature Medicine on Feb. 5.
SPINAL CORD TREATMENT RESTORES FUNCTION FOR PARALYZED PATIENTS IN STUDY: ‘NEW HOPE’
“The patients all had a rare disease that destroys neurons in the spinal cord (much like polio) due to a genetic disorder from birth,” Dr. Peter Konrad, chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at WVU Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute in West Virginia, told Fox News Digital. (Konrad was not involved in the study.)
Research participant Doug McCullough uses an adaptive exercise bike during a testing session at the University of Pittsburgh. (Nate Langer, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences)
“The disease weakens the legs and ability to walk … causing a form of slow paralysis. Stimulation of the input to the remaining neurons was thought to improve strength and stamina in patients treated this way.”
Study co-author Marco Capogrosso, assistant professor of neurological surgery at Pitt School of Medicine, said that two things need to happen to counteract neurodegeneration: neuron death must be stopped and the function of surviving neurons must be restored.
“There has been no major breakthrough in curing this disease, and so treatment is still focused on helping improve their quality of life.”
“In this study, we proposed an approach to treat the root cause of neural dysfunction, complementing existing neuroprotective treatments with a new approach that reverses nerve cell dysfunction,” Capogrosso said in a press release.
Three people with SMA participated in the study. For one month, they received spinal cord stimulation five times a week for four hours each. At the end of the trial period, they all experienced “improved motoneuron function, reduced fatigue and improved strength and walking in all participants,” the release stated.
Research participant Doug McCullough uses a bodyweight support system to walk during a testing session at the University of Pittsburgh. (Nate Langer, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences)
“The three patients saw an average of 40% improvement in step length, up to 180% improvement in strength, and 26-minute improvement in walking time,” said Konrad, based on his review of the study.
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“That’s a big deal for patients with this condition, who depend on assistive devices to move about with little stamina.”
One of the participants, Doug McCullough, was experiencing advanced symptoms and had difficulty walking.
NEW BRAIN THERAPY ALLOWS PARALYZED PATIENTS TO WALK AGAIN: ‘I FEEL MY LEGS’
“Because my hip flexors are so weak, I basically have this waddling gait where my hips sway back and forth and I swing my legs out to the side because I can’t pick them straight up,” he said in the release. “You could clearly see from the video that my walk was improved and that I was walking faster. I had a little more natural gait. It still wasn’t completely normal, but it was better than what it was before the study.”
Researchers Genis Prat Ortega (left) and Serena Donadio (right) with the research participant Doug McCullough (center) during a testing session at the University of Pittsburgh. (Nate Langer, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences)
Although SMA is a progressive disease that worsens over time, the patients in the study had noticeable improvements, according to study co-author Elvira Pirondini, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Pitt School of Medicine.
“Over the four weeks of treatment, our study participants improved in several clinical outcomes, with improvements in activities of daily living,” she said in the release.
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“For instance, toward the end of the study, one patient reported being able to walk from their home to the lab without becoming tired.”
The study is a “proof of concept” that gives hope to people with this type of genetic disability, according to Konrad.
“Toward the end of the study, one patient reported being able to walk from their home to the lab without becoming tired.”
“There has been no major breakthrough in curing this disease, and so treatment is still focused on helping improve their quality of life,” he told Fox News Digital.
“It also shows that devices such as spinal cord stimulation and other types of neuromodulation are a safe and effective method to treat paralysis when there is little to offer in the form of medications or gene therapy.”
Graduate student Scott Ensel (left) assists research participant Doug McCullough during a testing session at the University of Pittsburgh. (Nate Langer, UPMC and University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences)
Looking ahead, the team plans to continue research with other SMA patients in a new clinical trial to test the treatment’s safety and efficacy.
In the future, they hope to apply this therapy to other neurodegenerative diseases, such as ALS or Huntington’s disease.
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A new injectable therapy is showing positive results in reducing melanoma throughout a five-year period.
The personalized mRNA cancer therapy, called intismeran autogene, combined with the cancer immunotherapy drug KEYTRUDA (pembrolizumab), is a collaboration between Merck and Moderna.
The results from the phase 2b KEYNOTE-942 study were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago on May 27.
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After about a five-year follow-up, the combo drug was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone.
The researchers analyzed data from 157 patients with high-risk stage 3 and 4 melanoma whose cancer had been removed via surgery. The participants were split into two groups — one received the combo therapy and the other only received pembrolizumab, according to a press release.
The therapy was found to reduce the risk of melanoma recurrence or death by 49% compared to pembrolizumab alone after a five-year follow-up. (iStock)
The findings revealed that the combination group saw benefits that were “sustained and durable over time.”
Intismeran autogene is designed using mutations identified in a patient’s own tumor, with the intention of teaching the immune system what the cancer looks like so that it can recognize and attack it.
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According to the researchers, intismeran is “well-tolerated” with a “manageable” safety profile.
The most commonly cited side effects of the personalized mRNA vaccine plus KEYTRUDA were fatigue, injection-site pain, chills, fever and headache. The researchers reported no new long-term safety concerns and no severe vaccine-related adverse events.
The combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study — the final confirmation stage.
Patients with late-stage melanoma have a “significant risk” of cancer recurrence, according to an expert. (iStock)
In a Merck press release from January, Kyle Holen, MD, Moderna’s senior vice president and head of development, oncology and therapeutics, noted that this data highlights the “potential of a prolonged benefit … in patients with resected high-risk melanoma.”
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“We continue to invest in our platform in oncology because of encouraging outcomes like these, which illustrate mRNA’s potential in cancer care,” he said.
Dr. Marjorie Green, senior vice president and head of oncology, global clinical development at Merck Research Laboratories, also commented that for many patients with stage 3 or 4 melanoma, there is a “significant risk of recurrence following surgery.”
Researchers confirmed that the combination therapy is currently being evaluated in a phase 3 study. (iStock)
“As such, demonstrating the longer-term potential of intismeran autogene and KEYTRUDA to reduce the risk of recurrence for certain patients with melanoma is a meaningful milestone,” she said.
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The company cited encouraging five-year follow-up data and pointed to upcoming late-stage INTerpath trial results with Moderna in several hard-to-treat cancers.
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An accidental lab discovery has opened the door to entirely new ways of preventing the flu.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells, SWNS reported.
By targeting the specific molecules the viruses rely on, scientists found that they could block them from entering new cells and halt their replication altogether.
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Researchers say these “fundamental insights” into seasonal influenza highlight a clear path toward developing better preventive medications.
“The hope is that fundamental, curiosity-based research like this helps to pave the way for novel strategies to treat and prevent influenza infections,” principal investigator Dr. Emily Bruce, from the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine, said in the SWNS report.
While investigating how influenza replicates, researchers discovered that different flu strains use completely different strategies to infiltrate human cells. (iStock)
While several flu strains cause illness, H1N1 and H3N2 influenza A viruses are the most common. However, current flu tests cannot differentiate between them, and clinical treatments are identical for both.
Although vaccines and antivirals are available, Bruce noted a “dire” need for better medications to stop the virus from spreading cell to xxcell.
“You don’t get sick when a virus is in one cell,” he noted. “You get sick because a virus replicates itself and goes into many more cells.”
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The study, which was published in The Journal of Virology, originally aimed to map how viral RNA segments are transported within cells to create new viral particles.
The team used H1N1 and H3N2 viruses isolated from the nasal passages of positive patients in 2022.
Clinical treatments remain identical for both primary strains of the flu virus. (iStock)
During the investigation, the team unexpectedly stumbled upon a cellular pathway that blocked the virus from entering lung cells, SWNS reported.
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The data revealed that when a specific human protein called Rab11B was depleted, H3N2 viruses failed to enter human lung cells. H1N1 viruses were completely unaffected.
Using reverse genetics, the team mapped this defect and uncovered a brand-new, H3N2-specific role for Rab11B during viral entry.
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This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way.
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“Viruses are like pirates from different countries hijacking someone’s ship,” Bruce said. “Different viruses, like different types of pirates, use different methods to get onboard.”
This discovery challenged the scientific assumption that all flu viruses enter cells the same way. (iStock)
“We had previously thought that all flu viruses used the same way to get into a cell, but we discovered that this is not true,” she went on. “H1N1 and H3N2 need different proteins to get in, and if you get rid of the right protein, a specific virus can’t get in.”
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While these findings identify a critical cellular pathway for viral entry, the study was conducted using isolated cells, the researchers acknowledged.
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Further research is needed to determine whether blocking the protein is safe and effective within a live, complex human respiratory system.
Bruce and the team hope to conduct further research to determine whether this Rab11B-dependency is a fundamental property of H3N2, or if it’s a trait unique to currently circulating flu strains.
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Eating processed meat like ham, sausage and bacon may be linked to a higher risk of certain types of cancer, according to new research.
While health organizations have already confirmed that processed meat can contribute to colon cancer, this study looked closer at cancers in the upper digestive tract, where the link has historically been less clear.
To understand these connections, researchers from the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC), one of the world’s largest long-term nutrition and cancer cohorts, tracked the health and diets of 450,112 people across Europe for an average of 14 years.
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The study group included 131,426 men and 318,686 women, according to the study’s press release.
During the follow-up period, 876 people developed stomach cancer and 215 people developed esophageal adenocarcinoma, which is cancer of the tube connecting the mouth to the stomach.
For female participants, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk of developing the disease. (iStock)
Researchers tracked where the stomach cancers grew, separating them into the upper part of the stomach near the throat and the lower part of the stomach.
The researchers also sorted the tumors into two categories based on how the cancer cells appeared under a microscope: intestinal, which forms more organized structures, and diffuse, in which the cells are more scattered throughout the tissue.
BACTERIA IN YOUR MOUTH MAY TRAVEL TO THE GUT AND TRIGGER STOMACH CANCER, RESEARCH FINDS
After adjusting for other lifestyle factors, the researchers found that for every extra 30 grams of processed meat a person ate per day, their overall risk of stomach cancer went up by 9%. Eating that same extra 30 grams a day was also linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma.
A standard single slice of regular deli-sliced ham or lunch meat averages around 28 grams, according to USDA data and nutritional tracking databases.
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken and turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach. (iStock)
An extra 20 grams of white meat, such as chicken or turkey, was linked to a 12% higher risk of cancer in the main body of the stomach, the researchers noted.
The study also revealed differences between men and women. For male participants, only processed meat showed a clear, statistically significant link to a higher risk of stomach cancer. For female participants, however, eating both processed meat and white meat was linked to an increased risk.
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These findings align with global health benchmarks, particularly those established by the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer.
The agency has long classified processed meat as a known human carcinogen, primarily due to its strong, well-documented links to colorectal cancer.
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However, health organizations have also consistently pointed to a potential, yet less definitive, relationship between these meats and cancers of the stomach.
Eating 30 grams of processed meat a day, or the equivalent to one slice of ham, was linked to a 13% higher risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma. (iStock)
Further scientific investigation is needed to confirm the findings and to account for other underlying risk factors, such as certain stomach infections, which could interact with dietary habits.
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A key limitation of the study is its reliance on self-reported diets, which can sometimes lead to inaccuracies in how participants recall their meat consumption over time, the researchers noted.
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The findings were published in the International Journal of Cancer.
Fox News Digital reached out to the researchers requesting comment.
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