Author: healthadmin

Helen Branswell covers issues broadly related to infectious diseases, including outbreaks, preparedness, research, and vaccine development. Follow her on Mastodon and Blue Sky. You can contact Helen on Signal at hbranswell.01.With no end in sight to the leadership impasse at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Trump administration confirmed Wednesday that it will not name a new director by a procedural deadline. In order to keep someone in the acting CDC director position, the administration had until Wednesday to bring forward a nominee for the position, but a series of interim people have been named to the position…

Global refugee crises often evoke varying levels of public sympathy, with some displaced groups receiving a warmer welcome than others. A recent psychological study found that while a general sense of empathy strongly drives public support for all refugees, the race of the displaced person can sway the opinions of white Americans who have low levels of empathy. This research Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics. People fleeing conflict or persecution rely on host countries to provide safe harbor. Refugees differ from voluntary economic migrants in that they are forced from their homes to escape violence. Because their work is…

Following a new U.S. green light for some ovarian cancer patients, Corcept Therapeutics has redeemed its lead asset, Lilacolilant, after it stumbled at the end of the line in another indication late last year. The FDA has granted full clearance to Corcept’s class-first selective glucocorticoid receptor antagonist (SGRA) for the treatment of adults with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer. Patients had to have tried one to three previous systemic treatments, at least one of which had to include bevacizumab (Avastin). According to a March 25 press release, the FDA’s approval covers the regimen of Lilacorilant, sold as Lifiorli, alongside the chemotherapy drug…

Ionis Pharmaceuticals is slashing the price of its expected blockbuster drug, Tringolza (olesarsen), in preparation for expanding the drug’s reach with a planned label expansion. The drug was originally approved for the treatment of familial chylomicronemia syndrome (FCS) in 2024 and launched at an annual list price of $595,000, the company said. Now, Ionis is gearing up to launch services for severe hypertriglyceridemia (sHTG), announcing Wednesday that it is rolling out an updated wholesale purchasing cost (WAC) of $40,000 per year. The new price point “reflects the substantial value that Olersen can deliver to patients, providers and health systems while…

A new bill in California continues the state’s efforts to crack down on ultra-processed foods, proposing that manufacturers put a sticker on the front of their products to indicate that they are not ultra-processed. Rep. Jesse Gabriel said at a news conference Wednesday that he hopes the seal, which is voluntarily applied for by manufacturers, will help people make healthier choices at the grocery store and encourage companies to reformulate to meet eligibility requirements. “You don’t need a PhD in chemistry to understand what parents are feeding their children,” said Gabriel, who introduced the bill, AB 2224. Democratic politicians are…

The FDA has approved Denali Therapeutics’ enzyme replacement therapy for inherited lysosomal storage diseases, breaking a series of recent rejections of rare disease drugs by the agency. By approving Denali’s tibidenosp. alfa, now known as Avraya, the FDA has given the green light to the first treatment that can address the harmful cognitive symptoms of Hunter syndrome. “Abraya is the first product approved to address the neurological complications of Hunter syndrome,” Tracy Beth Hogue, MD, acting director of the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), said in a March 25 release. “This accelerated approval was based on a…

A diet high in wheat fiber protects mice from intestinal inflammation, according to a study published by researchers at Georgia State University’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBMS). This finding helps explain why the incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is increasing and suggests that eating whole wheat foods may reduce the risk of developing inflammatory bowel disease. The study is reported in two research papers published in the journal. Scientific advances and mucosal immunology – They investigated the impact of wheat fiber, which is present in whole wheat and wholemeal bread but is largely absent from “white bread” and other…

A large-scale clinical trial led by USF researchers aimed at slowing the onset of dementia continues to receive significant support from the federal government to address the public health crisis. The Preventing Alzheimer’s Disease through Cognitive Training (PACT) study received an additional $2.8 million from the National Institutes of Health to continue researching whether computer-based brain training exercises can reduce the risk of cognitive impairment and dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease. PACT research currently has more than $50 million in federal funding. PACT, which began at the University of South Florida in 2020, has expanded to 10 locations in the…

Chronic inflammation can increase cancer risk, and new research reveals important details about how it happens in the gut and points to better ways to identify and reduce risk. Scientists at the Broad Institute and Harvard University have shown in mice that after colitis or chronic enteritis, seemingly healed intestinal tissue retains memories of early inflammation through molecular “scars” that may make it easier for cancer to later take hold. These memories are encoded as changes in the epigenome that are passed from cell to cell through generations of cell division and can have long-term effects on gene activity and…

Anyone who has survived a bad stomach illness knows that feeling. Loss of appetite begins and lingers even after the initial illness. The same is true for millions of people around the world who are chronically infected with parasites. But scientists have long been puzzled as to exactly why. Now, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have traced the molecular pathways that connect the gut immune system to the brain during parasitic infections to explain how the immune system triggers anorexia. The question we wanted to answer was not only how the immune system fights parasites, but…