Op-ed: This Tampa ER doctor just got his COVID-19 vaccine and, when able, you should, too – Creative Loafing Tampa

December 18, 2020 medical

C/O Jason Wilson, MD

By Jason Wilson, MD

Less than a year ago, I had no idea that a novel coronavirus had emerged.

Today, Ive taken care of hundreds of patients with that virus, redesigned an emergency department to safely care for patients with and without COVID-19, helped roll out 3D printed swabs to make up for a short supply of test kits, studied numerous potential viral therapeutics, found ways to virtually care for COVID-19 patients using wearable monitoring devices and telemedicine, and worked daily to show that data from our local community demonstrates that masks save lives and that we should stay out of crowded, indoor bars, restaurants and nightclubs when case numbers are high.

I can even hold my own speaking in R0 (pronounced R-naught) and exponential growth curves. Most stunningly thoughless than a year after the SARS-CoV-2 virus was genetically sequencedI have received my first dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. If given the chance, I think you should, too. Heres why.

Jason W. Wilson, MD is a clinical emergency medicine physician and critical medical anthropologist at Tampa General Hospital and the University of South Florida. Follow @tampaERdoc on Twitter.

Essential workers and vulnerable populations dont have the same option

The risk for who gets infected and who does not is partly structural and partly cultural (driven unnecessarily by heated political rhetoric and disinformation). Some people can stay at home, often struggling through web meetings, or with kids that have opted out of brick-and-mortar" for the year. Some of you have kidslike my 11-year-old currently playing Xboxon a mandatory two week quarantine after being exposed to another positive student.

Healthcare workers never could opt for safer at home, but have better access to PPE than other workers also deemed essential for service (some of whom are simultaneously deemed less essential for protection). Essential workers cannot choose to stay home. We need food and groceries, and incomes must be earned. Those essential workers are both at higher risk for contracting COVID-19, but also for transmitting the virus because of survival decisions that mean showing up to work even after exposure. Those same essential workers may also return to life in densely packed houses.A second relief packageespecially one that gives workers the tools (read: money) to stay home and not have to go out to earn a living to pay for food and rentwould help small business owners, workers and the unemployed make decisions that protect us all.

Vaccinations shouldnt be political

Equating mask requirements to an assault of freedoms, political rhetoric and disinformation are all weapons that could doom a large-scale rapid vaccine distribution campaign even before it ramps up. Couple that with more factorshistorical racism, trust of science, the vulnerability of undocumented residents, plus those weary of healthcare and Big Pharmaand you risk falling short on the herd immunity vaccines are supposed to help us reach so we get back our lives and stop this suffering.

In other words, while vaccine distribution may be political, we must ensure that vaccination remains medicine, allowing public health experts to speak loudest, tamping down on information that takes away from the clear message.

Almost everyone should get a COVID-19 vaccination

Almost everyone should get the vaccineunless you have had a significant allergic reaction to vaccines in the past. Eventually, there may be different vaccines best suited to different individuals, but right now mRNA-based vaccines are what is available and what I received. Some should get the vaccine before others (healthcare workers, long term care facility residents, EMS workers, teachers, and then older, more vulnerable people,further stratified by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines).

While there are still questions about how effective a vaccine will be for people who have weaker immune systems or take certain medications (chemotherapy, drugs like Humira, transplant meds, daily steroids), this does not mean that the vaccine is unsafe in people with weaker immune systems. It just means that the protection may not be as much given the lessened ability of immunosuppressed bodies to produce an immune response.

What about pregnant women and the COVID-19 vaccine?

We dont have a lot of data on pregnant and women who are breastfeeding since kids, pregnant,and lactating women are routinely excluded from clinical trials. However, the CDC and theAmerican College of Gynecology (ACOG)have both stated that the vaccine can be administered to pregnant and breastfeeding women and should be offered. If anything, an mRNA vaccine that leads to antibody production in a mom may convey benefit to an infant by passing antibodies through the placenta and breast milk.

What does an mRNA vaccine do?

There is a saying you learn in biology class: DNA makes RNA, and RNA makes protein. Hang with me for a second and lets do some quick Cell Bio 101.

A human cell has a nucleus inside of itlike the little rubber ball inside a baseball. That nucleus is where DNA lives. That DNAthe genetic sequence or genomeis constantly churning out a sorta mirror image middle step particle called RNA. That RNA is called mRNA (messenger RNA) because it acts as sort of a message with instructions telling the cell what to do next. The mRNA leaves the nucleus and hangs out in the celllike in the inside of the baseball, but not in the deep rubber part, just under the white leather surface.

What does mRNA do exactly? The millions of various mRNA sequences act as different instruction booklets for your cells to build all kinds of different proteinsproteins that move things around, attach to other things, make antibodies, pretty much all bodily functions.

Turns out, the surface of the coronavirus has an important protein on it called the spike protein. That spike protein is responsible for all this damage because it works by attaching the virus to human cells, allowing the virus to enter the cell, camp out and steal your cells tools to make copies of coronavirus. Spike proteins have become the major target of most of our therapies as well. The monoclonal antibody infusions people receive right now are synthetic versions of antibodies that attack spike protein.

The mRNA vaccine has the instructions to make its own spike protein to help your body mount an immune response should the coronavirus spike protein enter your system . Thats itthere are no viral particles in the vaccine, period.

What happened in the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccinestudy?

Phase three clinical trials are the big studies that directly test a new drug against a placebo or an existing treatment. On Dec. 10, the phase three study for the Pfizer vaccine was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The major takeaway is that over 21,000 people received the vaccine and about the same number received placebo. The trial didnt examine whether a person gets COVID-19 or not, but whether a person gets sick from COVID-19 (this is why we still need to wear masks for now, even if were vaccinated). Instead, participants were followed after receiving the vaccine and were tested for coronavirus if they had COVID-19 symptoms. The mRNA technology alone was a moon-level landing breakthrough, but the results themselves matched the rigorous scientific awe! In the placebo groupthe group of people who did not get the vaccine169 people got sick with COVID-19. Among those who received the vaccine, only nine people developed COVID-19 symptoms and a positive test. In laymans terms, this means the vaccine was 95% effective in the phase three trial.

But it gets better.

Of those in the trial who had severe COVID-19requiring hospitalization, ICU level care and oxygen support, aka the really sick peoplenine were in the placebo group and only one was in the vaccine arm. Clearly, this vaccine prevents people from getting sick from COVID-19. Data released for the Moderna vaccine looks similar. And since the mRNA vaccines do such a good job of preventing symptomatic COVID-19, even those whove already had COVID-19 should be vaccinated.

C/O Jason Wilson, MD

You dont need to get tested before getting the vaccine

And, yes, getting the vaccine is definitely better than getting COVID-19 in order to obtain immunity. Having COVID-19 can not only make you very sickit also makes you very infectious.

Myth busting

How about the dangers of a new technology? Certainly, there are side effects? A few internet myths say the mRNA becomes part of your genome, or that the mRNA causes infertility (some healthcare workers who are often women of child-bearing age often fall prey to the latter).

Let me say this for the people in the back: The mRNA in this vaccine wont become part of your genome.

Remember, the mRNA is outside the cell nucleus (the inner rubber part of the baseball where the sausage making of DNA takes place). But what about all of these cells floating around with spike protein? How long will you be making this spike protein? Well, it turns out that eventually your very own cells that are making spike protein are also signing their own death warrants because that very spike protein will lead your body to come hunting for those cells as well when seeking out COVID-19 virus to destroy. In short, you wont be churning out weird spike protein cells or keeping spike protein instructions around forever (this is why we still dont know if the built in memory immunity your body gains will be enough to forgo future vaccine doses).

Let me also say this for the people in the back: The Covid Vaccine does NOT cause infertility!

I try not to engage too much in dispelling BS (because you just end up with more mounds of BS), but the nonsense that this vaccine can cause infertility must be shut down now before the rabbit hole continues to grow wider. This is an especially harmful form of disinformation because there are so many women of reproductive age on the frontlines who need this vaccine. The logic of the nonsense goes like this: A former Pfizer employee (who last worked there in 2011, but not on vaccines) notes that spike protein has some similar mRNA sequences with a broader group of proteins that support cell adherence (the process by which cells form contacts with each other). One of those similar proteins is found in humans and promotes placental growth.

Keep following me.

The logic behind the nonsense then says that since the mRNA sequences have similarities, the mRNA vaccine will cause infertility. Idaho is a state and New York is a state, so, they are basically the same, right? Wrong.

That nonsensical line of thinking falls apart pretty quickly and most easily by looking at reality. There have been millions of cases of COVID-19, but no corresponding infertility epidemic in the real world. Digging into the weeds a little more, the noted similarities are not in the area of the protein where our antibodies will attack.Myth busted!

What about side effects and the general safety of the mRNA vaccine?

As I sit here writing after my first dose, I am already developing some protectionand a little arm sorenessagainst COVID-19, and that protection will soar after I receive the second dose in 21 days (its 50% effective after dose one and 95% effective after the second dose administered 21 days later).

Seriously, am I going to grow a third eye?

What are the adverse effects, the bad things that happen? Two heads, extra arms, purple toes? The vaccine has not been around for long, and we should certainly monitor any development of downstream inflammatory mediated effects, no matter how unlikely.

OK, so tell me about side effects again.

Lets turn to the data we haveand some personal experience.

Side effects are mostly benign and seem more likely to occur after the second dose when the body is more primed to mount an inflammatory response. In fact, healthcare professionals may stagger second doses among our workforce in anticipation of some fatigue and, less commonly, low grade fevers after the injection.

On the day after I received my first dose, it felt like I got punched in the arm. In a completely unscientific poll conducted by a colleague of the other docs who received the vaccine with me, three of us had arm soreness, two docs felt completely fine and one, who had COVID-19 previously, developed some pain, skin sensitivity and a headache at the 24 hour mark48 hours later, all symptoms have resolved.

Thats it.

I had no redness, no fever, no nausea, nothing else. Like me, most people (84%, data says) will report some pain at the injection site while only about one in 20 will have any redness or swelling. One in six people may have a low-grade fever after the second dose while half feel a little tired. Symptoms like diarrhea and vomiting occurred about the same amount in the vaccine and placebo arm (about one in 50 people).

What about the more serious side effects?

A handful of medical problemsheart attacks, strokes, hospitalizationsthat occurred in the study are expected when you follow a lot of people that are older than 55 around for a few months. Its important to note that there were not any differences between the vaccine and placebo groups.

There have been a few (three as of this writing) severe allergic reactions (probably from polyethylene glycol). In at least two of those people from the U.K., each had a previous severe allergic reaction. One woman in Alaska who had an immediate reaction after receiving the vaccine had no prior allergic reactions, but remarked that very day she was still glad she got the vaccine and recommended it to others! With the whole world watching and documenting, most side effects are going to come to light and for a new vaccine moving to the arms of thousands and thousands of people, this small number of allergic reactions helps reaffirm the safety data. Per the FDA guidelines, after receiving the vaccine, all patients are monitored for 15 minutes (TGH hands out timers and lets people wait in a socially distanced space) and those with known prior allergic reactions are monitored even longer.

Does the COVID-19 vaccine cause Bellspalsy?

Bells palsy is a neurological condition that, oddly, paralyzes half of the face but usually resolves. Not surprisingly, internet myth makers have picked up on four cases of Bells palsy that occurred in the vaccine group of the Pfizer study, claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine causes Bells palsybut there is no evidence for this. There were 21,000 people in the phase three Pfizer study who got the vaccine. Bells Palsy occurs normallyon its own in about 25 out of 100,000 peoplemeaning we expected there to be five cases of Bells palsy in the vaccine group. Certainly we can ensure that this math stays true, but, for now, thats another myth debunked.

Minority enrollment, trust and transparency

Minority enrollment was an important part of the vaccine study10% of participants were African-American and 26% were Hispanic/Latino. In addition, the first person to receive the Pfizer vaccine after the FDAs emergency use authorization was a Black nurse in New York City, Sandra Lindsay. With the atrocities of Tuskegee and the horrible record of gynecological experimentation on enslaved Black bodies still in the rearview mirror, this representation of people of color is important. But will that be enough to gain trust in the vaccine?

Florida Shotsa free, statewide, centralized online immunization information systemwill help monitor who has been vaccinated. Monitoring vaccination information and linking names and personal information creates worries that undocumented people may be scared away because theyre willing to take the risks of COVID-19 and transmission to family over the fear of deportation.

There are no easy answers to the long history of exploitation against those with less power than governments and corporate conglomerates. Recognizing these issues and attempting transparency is a start. Disinformation and histories of structural violence are complicated.

Again, you should definitely get vaccinated if you have the chance

In sum, the message around COVID-19 vaccination can remain simple, persistent and consistent. The best available data demonstrates that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer (and Moderna) are safe and effective. Almost everyone should plan to take some version of the COVID-19 vaccine when the time comes for you to choose. If you are not in the first wave groupthose getting vaccinated before Jan. 1go get your flu shot right now and help prevent a twindemic. We dont need a flu surge on top of this ongoing COVID-19 surge.

Plan for two doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine (21 days apart) or the Moderna vaccine (28 days apart) and get the same brand of vaccine at dose one and dose two. Keep wearing your mask, keep maintaining social distance and avoid crowded indoor spaces. Help your healthcare workers help you and help this society get past a horrible pandemic.There will likely be no cost to anyone receiving the vaccine for the foreseeable future.

We will struggle with the disinformation if we do not start battling back with the set of facts that arise from reality. Disinformation drives fear and fear leads to the symbolic transformation and heated rhetoric we have witnessed among masks. Vaccines cannot become the new mask!

Support local journalism in these crazy days. Our small but mighty team is working tirelessly to bring you up to the minute news on how Coronavirus is affecting Tampa and surrounding areas. Please consider making a one time or monthly donation to help support our staff. Every little bit helps.

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Op-ed: This Tampa ER doctor just got his COVID-19 vaccine and, when able, you should, too - Creative Loafing Tampa

Genetics

Canadian company Inagene Diagnostics launches the other test you need to take to protect your health in case of COVID – GlobeNewswire

December 18, 2020 medical

TORONTO, Dec. 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- As we head into the winter months, Canadians are doing everything they can protect themselves from the risk of getting sick. It turns out that if you DO find yourself in hospital, you may face a different set of risks the risk of receiving the wrong medication based on your genetics. Now, a new test can help.

Genetic variations that affect how individuals respond to medications are not uncommon, according to Dr. Kathy Siminovitch Chief Scientific Advisor to Inagene Diagnostics; More than 98% of us unknowingly carries gene variants that will cause us to have an unexpected reaction to one or more commonly used drugs, either a lack of, or reduced clinical effect, or worse - unexpected, potentially serious side effects. Finding the best treatments and doses for every individual is a challenging process that can be greatly facilitated by incorporating genetic information so as to achieve the best possible outcome.

Now a new innovation called pharmacogenetic testing promises to significantly reduce the time and risk involved in finding the right drug and dose through medication trial and error. Inagene has introduced a simple cheek swab test that helps doctors predict how individuals will respond to commonly used drugs before they are administered. The test is ordered online and done at home, with results ready to share with prescribers within 7 days.

A recent study confirmed that 90% of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 end up receiving at least one medication that is affected by pharmacogenetics, and almost a quarter receive four or more. Because very ill patients cannot afford treatment failure or adverse effects, quickly finding the most effective and safe treatments and doses is critical. The authors concluded that having pharmacogenetic test results to guide treatment would have provided the opportunity to improve clinical care for nearly all individuals hospitalized with COVID19 by helping to guide clinicians to the most optimal drugs and doses, while avoiding the rest.

Inagene Diagnostics Inc. is a CLIA accredited Canadian pharmacogenetic testing company located in Toronto. Inagenes Personalized Insights tests focus on providing comprehensive and reliable genetic tests to guide drug section and treatment. Learn more at inagene.com.

References:

For all inquiries contact:

Nancy White

CEO Inagene Diagnostics Inc.

customerservice@inagene.com

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Canadian company Inagene Diagnostics launches the other test you need to take to protect your health in case of COVID - GlobeNewswire

Biochemistry

Garcia to head Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics – Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

December 17, 2020 medical

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Renowned biochemist known for contributions to field of epigenetics

Benjamin Garcia, PhD, has been named head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. His appointment is scheduled to begin July 1.

Benjamin A. Garcia, PhD, a noted leader in the field of biochemistry, especially for his work advancing mass spectrometry techniques, has been named head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Garcia, whose appointment tentatively is set to begin July 1, also will become the Raymond H. Wittcoff Distinguished Professor.

The schools Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics has an illustrious history as home to some of the nations most distinguished scientists, including scientific innovator Roy Vagelos, who headed the department then called the Department of Biological Chemistry from 1966-75 and went on to lead the development of cholesterol-lowering statin drugs at Merck; and Nobel laureates Carl Cori and Gerty Cori, known for their work showing how muscles manufacture and store energy. Understanding this process shed light on treatments for diabetes.

Garcia comes to Washington University from the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine, where he is the John McCrea Dickson, MD, Presidential Professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, and director of quantitative proteomics.

Dr. Garcia was selected from an impressive pool of candidates and was unanimously endorsed as the most exceptional person to launch the next era of advancing knowledge and discovery in this vitally important department, said David H. Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs, the George and Carol Bauer Dean of the School of Medicine, and the Spencer T. and Ann W. Olin Distinguished Professor. We found ourselves energized by his vision for the department to continue to be at the forefront of the field and to leverage the breadth of collaborative opportunities within our biomedical research community. His personal research program, in proteomic analysis of epigenetic regulation, supports our long-term strategic institutional goal to transition our leadership in genomics into multi-omic systems medicine, which will serve as an engine producing the most imaginative approaches to personalized health care.

Garcias research has focused on developing new and advanced methods for using mass spectrometry and to analyze proteins called histones that help regulate DNA. Such analyses can shed light on basic biology and disease processes. His methods have revolutionized analysis of the proteins and genetics of cells from animal models and human samples. The research has led to important observations about the regulation of cell differentiation, growth of tissues, and the development of cancer. He has developed an extensive research network that has been supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) throughout his career. He is active in partnerships with industry, previously establishing a technology alliance partnership with Thermo-Fisher to develop advanced mass spectrometry instruments and methods.

After earning a bachelors degree from the University of California, Davis, Garcia pursued a doctorate in chemistry at the University of Virginia, where he had a specific interest in developing expertise in mass spectrometry, a technique used to analyze the sequence and composition of compounds and molecules, such as DNA. He continued his training with a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. In 2008, he joined the faculty of Princeton University in the Department of Molecular Biology and was later recruited to the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 2012.

Garcia also is known for his dedication to teaching, mentorship and increasing diversity in scientific research circles. He serves as vice chair for the biochemistry and molecular biophysics graduate program at Penn, a role that includes leadership in recruitment, outreach and promotion of diversity within the department. He also serves as chair of the University Council for Diversity and Equity at Penn and has developed strategies for attracting and supporting minority students into successful careers in science.

Garcia has been recognized for his research contributions with several honors including the NIH Innovator Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, the American Chemical Society Arthur F. Findeis Award, the Protein Societys Protein Science Young Investigator Award, the Human Proteome Organization Discovery in Proteomic Sciences Award and the prestigious American Society for Mass Spectrometry Biemann Medal, among numerous others.

He serves on the editorial boards of Molecular Omics, and the Journal of Proteome Research, and Molecular &Cellular Proteomics, and was formerly associate editor of BMC Genomics. He also served as chair of the Enabling Bioanalytical and Imaging Technology study section of the NIH and has served in other important national scientific leadership positions, including with the National Science Foundation Biological Science Advisory Committee, governing council for the World Human Proteome Organization, and board of directors for the U.S. Human Proteome Organization.

After leading the department for the past seven years, John A. Cooper, PhD, a professor of biochemistry & molecular biophysics, will step down from his position to focus on his laboratory research program.

We thank John Cooper for his exceptional, gracious and selfless leadership over the last seven years and through the remaining months of the coming academic year, Perlmutter said.

Washington University School of Medicines 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

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Biochemistry

Cardiovascular Testing Applications of Biochemistry – News-Medical.net

December 17, 2020 medical

Tests that look at changes in biochemistry have an important application in medicine, including point-of-care cardiac testing and monitoring heart failure. Biochemical tests can also be used to determine if an individual is at risk of certain diseases, including cardiovascular disease.

Image Credit: Rattiya Thongdumhyu / Shutterstock.com

Acute myocardial infarction, where the blood supply to cardiac myocytes is compromised leading to cardiac myocyte death, is an important disease that results in morbidity and mortality across the world. Despite this, it is a condition that is often misdiagnosed, leading to either unnecessary death or inappropriate hospitalization. Therefore, it is important to establish a quick, reliable test that can accurately diagnose patients.

Currently, the diagnosis of myocardial infarction is typically achieved through the presence of symptoms such as chest pains and the use of ECG and cardiac troponin assay, which look for damage to the heart muscle. While cardiac troponin assay is a good biochemical test, it is thought that there is a delay in the increase of circulating cardiac troponins of around 3-4 hours.

This means that to ensure accurate diagnoses, this test needs to be repeated multiple times over 6-12 hours, which impacts how quickly treatment can be started. High-sensitivity cardiac troponin testing has become available, but an unexpected result of this was the discovery of other cardiac conditions.

Researchers have, therefore, been investigating other molecules that could potentially be used as a diagnostic test for acute myocardial infarction. One potential candidate for such a biochemical test is a heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP). H-FABP is a small protein that is found in cardiac myocytes, and its small size and solubility mean that it is released faster from the cardiac myocytes compared to cardiac troponins.

Xu and co. carried out a meta-analysis investigating whether H-FABP is a good biomarker that can be used in a biochemical test for early diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction. Here, the authors looked at the results from 22 studies, which included a cumulative total of 6602 patients. The authors concluded that H-FABP testing is moderately accurate at diagnosing acute myocardial infarction between 3-6 hours after the onset of symptoms. However, when used in conjunction with high-sensitivity cardiac troponin testing, the sensitivity of the diagnostic testing was improved.

Heart failure is when the heart stops functioning effectively, leading to symptoms such as shortness of breath and fatigue. A biochemical test looking at the levels of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has been used to diagnose and monitor patients with heart failure.

BNP is a peptide hormone, whose functions include vasodilation and smooth muscle relaxation. While BNP testing cannot replace a full assessment, it is a useful addition to diagnostic testing, in particular, to rule out heart failure in patients with symptoms such as breathlessness.

Oxytocin is a hormone that has various functions mainly related to fertility, such as the development of gonads and promoting romantic and parental behaviors, but studies have also noted that oxytocin also affects cardiometabolic function and is involved in stress-related disorders. Due to this, there is interest in developing a biochemical test to measure levels of oxytocin.

Various testing methods have been applied, but the most common are immunoassays; this group of biochemical tests includes enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA). These tests have been performed on various starting materials, including serum, plasma, and saliva. However, currently, these are not fully validated and there are no standards available for these tests to become routine clinical biochemistry testing.

Apolipoproteins are an important part of lipoprotein metabolism, and they also act as templates for lipoprotein synthesis as well as aiding the maintenance of lipoprotein structure. Lipoproteins are involved in transporting triglycerides to different organs, maintaining extracellular cholesterol levels, and reverse cholesterol transport.

Abnormal lipoprotein metabolism has been linked to atherogenesis, obesity, insulin resistance, and diabetes. As such, studies have investigated whether testing for lipoproteins and apolipoproteins can be used to determine dyslipidemia and cardiovascular risk.

Two apolipoproteins, apolipoprotein A (apoA) and apolipoprotein B (apoB) are associated with cardiovascular risk; apoA is inversely linked, while apoB is positively linked to cardiovascular risk. Therefore, a biochemical test that looks at the levels or ratios of these apolipoproteins has the potential to be used to determine cardiovascular risk.

Various studies investigated this potential and found that testing for apoB or apoA levels, or their ratio, could be a better marker for cardiovascular risk than other markers such as total cholesterol. This includes one study on 175,553 individuals who were followed for 65 months which showed an increase in relative risk of fatal myocardial infarction with an increase in apoB concentration.

Another study involving around 27,000 participants showed that an increase in the ratio of apoA and apoB was linked to myocardial infarction.

Yang, Z. and Zhou, D. M. (2006) Cardiac markers and their point-of-care testing for diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction Clinical Biochemistry https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2006.05.011

Xu, L-Q. et al. (2018) Early Diagnostic Performance of Heart-Type Fatty Acid Binding Protein in Suspected Acute Myocardial Infarction: Evidence From a Meta-Analysis of Contemporary Studies Heart, Lung and Circulation https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlc.2017.03.165

bhf.org.uk Heart Failure

Cowie, M. R. et al. (2003) Clinical applications of B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) testing European Heart Journal https://doi.org/10.1016/S0195-668X(03)00476-7

Gruson, D. (2018) Oxytocin testing and reproductive health: Status and clinical applications Clinical Biochemistry https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clinbiochem.2018.10.016

Dominiczak, M. H. and Caslake, M. J. (2011) Apolipoproteins: metabolic role and clinical biochemistry applications Annals of Clinical Biochemistry: International Journal of Laboratory Medicine https://doi.org/10.1258/acb.2011.011111

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Cardiovascular Testing Applications of Biochemistry - News-Medical.net

Biochemistry

Automated Biochemistry Analyzers Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast To 2026 Abbott, Danaher, Hitachi, Roche, Siemens -…

December 17, 2020 medical

The Global Automated Biochemistry Analyzers Market Status and Trend Analysis 2017-2026 (COVID-19 Version) 2020-2026 report is one of the most comprehensive and important data about business strategies, qualitative and quantitative analysis of Global Market. Automated Biochemistry Analyzers Market research report offers extensive research and analysis of key aspects of the global Automated Biochemistry Analyzers market. The report provides deeper understanding of the competitive landscape and its future scenarios, crucial dynamics, and leading segments of the global Automated Biochemistry Analyzers market. The report also provides accurate PESTLE, SWOT and other types of analysis on the global Automated Biochemistry Analyzers market. The market study has examined the competitive trend apart from offering valuable insights to clients as well as industries. This report concentrate on the global Automated Biochemistry Analyzers status, future forecast, development opportunity, key market and key players.

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Automated Biochemistry Analyzers Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast To 2026 Abbott, Danaher, Hitachi, Roche, Siemens -...

Biochemistry

Global Biochemistry Analyzing Systems Market 2020 Technological Strategies, Business Advancements and Top-Vendor Landscape by 2025 – BAVIATION…

December 17, 2020 medical

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Global Biochemistry Analyzing Systems Market 2020 Technological Strategies, Business Advancements and Top-Vendor Landscape by 2025 - BAVIATION...

Biochemistry

Digital Therapeutics Startup S-Alpha Therapeutics Raises $2.7M in Seed Funding – BioSpace

December 17, 2020 medical

Dec. 16, 2020 17:00 UTC

SEOUL--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- On November 20th, S-Alpha Therapeutics (S-Alpha Seung Eun Choi, CEO), a digital therapeutics startup, completed a $2.7 Million USD (3 Billion KRW) seed round of funding from Hana Ventures, STIC Ventures, AJU IB Investment, SJ Investment Partners, and TONY Investment. This seed round follows an initial strategic investment from LegoChem Biosciences in February 2020.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201216005185/en/

S-Alpha Therapeutics completed a $2.7 Million USD (3 Billion KRW) seed round of funding from Hana Ventures, STIC Ventures, AJU IB Investment, SJ Investment Partners, and TONY Investment. (Photo: Business Wire)

Hana Ventures led the seed round funding with the expectation of high growth in the digital therapeutics market. The company intends to use funds to execute clinical trials in the US to study their development stage digital therapeutic application intended to treat eye disease.

Dr. Myung Joon Kim, Chief Medical Officer at S-Alpha, leading the team to secure proprietary technologies for the discovery and development of the pipeline and internalization of the technology, commented, The fact that S-Alpha consists of specialists from various areas including domestic and international clinical experts, biochemistry experts, and software application development experts, collaborating to develop digital therapeutics was highly valued by the investors. S-Alpha will continue its effort to develop cutting-edge digital therapeutics in several disease areas.

About S-Alpha Therapeutics, Inc.

S-Alpha Therapeutics Inc., established in July 2019, is a digital therapeutics company with platform technologies that enable digital devices to treat different diseases. S-Alpha has a pipeline of products in the areas of ophthalmology, neuropsychiatry, cancer, and immunology.

S-Alphas lead product, SAT-001, is currently in the process of regulatory submission to start clinical studies in Korea as a therapeutic device for treating eye disease following MFDSs guidance in June 2020. S-Alpha also completed a successful meeting in July 2020 with the USFDA on developing SAT-001 and is preparing to launch clinical studies in the United States. S-Alpha has an extensive product pipeline and collaborates actively with academic and industry partners to develop their R&D programs.

S-Alpha actively engages with the global digital therapeutics community and presented at the Digital Therapeutics East Conference (DTx East 2020) in September 2020 as the first Korean company to be invited to the conference.

S-Alpha is also a member of DTA (DTx Alliance), a non-profit trade association of industry leaders and stakeholders engaged in the evidence-driven advancement of digital therapeutics.

http://www.salphadtx.com

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201216005185/en/

The rest is here:
Digital Therapeutics Startup S-Alpha Therapeutics Raises $2.7M in Seed Funding - BioSpace

Human Behavior

Five Accelerating Digital Trends That Will Impact Risk Management in 2021 – Security Boulevard

December 17, 2020 medical

Digital risks escalated in 2020 under the onset of the novel coronavirus and shaped the cybersecurity policy landscape. Over the coming year, we can surmise five accelerating digital trends that will continue to exert their impact on security and human behavior. These include the proliferation of 5G and Internet-of-Things technologies, the continued use of disinformation tactics on social media (particularly around the coronavirus and issues of racial justice), the dangerous use of technologies by illiberal regimes, the rise of the MITRE ATT&CK framework as a tool for threat management, and the catalyzing impact of new U.S. leadership on policymaking and Americas national identity formation. Each will emerge as focal points in shaping the cybersecurity story over the coming year.

5G and IoT will increase the speed of attacks and enable more actors to conduct a wider range of operations against targets globally. According to McKinsey & Company, the number of internet-connected devices is projected to increase to 43 billion by 2023. This rise in users coupled with an increase in Internet of Things (IoT)-connected devices will create a larger attack surface, increasing opportunities for operations and attacks by nation-state and criminal actors alike. With more devices coming online and 5G gaining broader adoption, society will likely become more susceptible to attacks as it will speed up the pace of technical capabilities. Defensive capabilities may also be able to increase in speed, but I think we will see the balance tip in favor of the attacker in the short term.

Our democratic discourse will remain vulnerable to domestic and foreign disinformation campaigns, forcing technology companies, media, and the government to develop and deploy innovative practices to quell disinformation. Disinformation initiatives are a cost-effective way for foreign governments to attempt to meddle with our democratic process, and technology companies need to work with the media and the government to combat disinformation campaigns during periods of tension and political transition.

In 2020, U.S. Cyber Command took significant steps with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) to prepare for foreign attacks on American democratic discourse, yet the majority of disinformation ultimately came from domestic actors. During the 2020 election, Twitter took a step in the right direction as it implemented a new policy based on flagging and providing greater context for content on the platform that it believed to be significantly altered or false. Twitter repeatedly flagged or blocked tweets, including from a conspiracy theorist who will soon enter the U.S. Congress. Over the coming year, social media companies will continue to innovate their approach to disinformation, U.S. Cyber Command will continue to invest in counter-offense capabilities to defend forward and stop hostile foreign actors from conducting operations against American interests, and the U.S. government will continue to elevate the role of CISA as the leading agency for election security. American society will be made stronger as technology companies, media, citizens, and the government practice tactics to prevent the spread of disinformation from domestic and foreign actors.

Autocratic regimes will ramp up the use of surveillance technologies for more effective control over their populations, forcing them into sharper confrontation with the United States as it likely asserts increasing levels of support for democratic movements globally. The use of surveillance and facial recognition technology has become so commonplace in countries ruled by autocratic governments that there is even a phrase to describe the techniques: high-tech illiberalism. In China, citizens are required to take part in facial identification practices to apply for new internet or mobile services. China now has a database that includes nearly all of the countrys 1.4 billion citizens, which it uses to closely track their movements (including how frequently they travel abroad), grant them access to their housing complexes, find suspected criminals, and even shame those wearing pajamas outdoors.

In illiberal societies, those in power will seek to ramp up surveillance capabilities using big data, machine learning, and AI to censor information and keep power in autocrats hands. During the pro-democracy protests against the Chinese government in Hong Kong, for example, we saw this practice on display when protesters who feared being identified and arrested by police using AI-powered surveillance technologies attacked smart lamps and wore masks to hide their faces, ultimately driving the Chinese government to ban masks altogether. Tensions over the use and abuse of surveillance technologies that leverage facial recognition and other sensitive biometric data will rise as governments continue their illiberal practices.

MITRE ATT&CK will continue to increase in prominence as the backbone framework for cybersecurity planning and threat-informed defense. MITRE ATT&CK is a globally vetted framework of known adversary tactics, techniques and common knowledge (A. T. T. C. K.), a kind of periodic table that lists and organizes malicious actor behavior in an accessible, user-friendly format. But ATT&CK is not just a framework to understand adversary behavior: it is a tool for improving security effectiveness, and that trend is catching on and leading to a transformation in the cybersecurity community. Governments all over the world have begun to use the ATT&CK framework as a tool to communicate with the public about threats and how to mitigate them. The Department of Defense, CISA, the Australian Prime Ministers Office and many other governments have adopted ATT&CK in recent years, and we should expect ATT&CK to achieve greater prominence and utility in the coming years.

Why is ATT&CK catching on? For years in cybersecurity, defenders lacked a common vision of the threat landscape. In the private sector, cyberthreat intelligence was often based on after-the-fact forensic data, leaving defenders uncertain about the adversarys future approach. Detailed knowledge of adversary tactics was often limited to classified government environments. Lacking a common lexicon for discussing adversary behaviors across the community, defenders fumbled in the dark to achieve security effectiveness. With the birth of the MITRE ATT&CK framework in 2015, this era of strategic ambiguity came to an end. ATT&CK gives the cybersecurity community a single, easy-to-access repository of adversary behavior to set a baseline against which they can prepare their cyberdefenses. It forms the basis of a threat-informed defense strategy, a transformational approach to security.

National leaders will play an increasingly prominent role in educating the public about the risks of digitization. One lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic is that decisive leadership has never mattered more for managing complex challenges. New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is one example of a leader who demonstrated how calm, deliberate actions in the face of crisis can have huge benefits for a population under stress. Her decision to rapidly implement a strict lockdown and extensive testing program resulted in one of the lowest COVID-19 case and death counts to date and allowed for a quick pivot to economic recovery.

What does this mean for cybersecurity? In the United States today the country is experiencing an acute level of strain from the onset of the novel coronavirus, systemic racism and disunity, and political instability. It is a moment ripe for cyberspace-enabled operations against American interests a problem that can best be offset outside of technological innovation through measured, rational leadership. Since the Russian intervention in the U.S. presidential election in 2016, outside of sub-cabinet officials the United States has not had a national leader play a prominent, consistent role in educating the public about the risks of digitization (to include cybersecurity and disinformation) for citizens and organizations. To help American society practice good cybersecurity and withstand disinformation, guidance from national leaders will play an increasing role over the coming year. The last time a U.S. president spoke to the public about the impact of rapid technological change on American society was in President Barack Obamas farewell address. An increased focus by national leaders on cybersecurity and digital risk should help American society better address the diverse issues facing the nation, from improving cybersecurity effectiveness to countering disinformation.

This article first appeared in Homeland Security Today on December 14, 2020 at this link.

The post Five Accelerating Digital Trends That Will Impact Risk Management in 2021 appeared first on AttackIQ.

Fishing alters fish behaviour and features in exploited ecosystems – Newswise

December 17, 2020 medical

Newswise Not all specimens of the same species are the same: there is a marked variability within the same population and sometimes these morphological differences are translated into a different behaviour.

A study by the UB shows that fishing alters resource distribution and therefore, the behaviour of two typologies of the same fish species, Labrus bergylta. These results, published in the journalMarine Ecology Progress Series, show that fishing hardens the understanding of how the features of species have evolved in exploited ecosystems, since it has an impact on how these act and feed from animals. Also, results ratify the importance of marine reservoirs to understand the original behaviour of these ecosystems before human intervention.

The article is signed by Llus Cardona, lex Aguilar and Fabiana Saporiti researchers from the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of the University of Barcelona. Experts from the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and the University of Essex (United Kingdom) also took part in the study.

The existence of different forms of the same species, called morphotypes, is frequent in vertebrate animals and depends to a large extent on the abundance of available preys during the first years of life, as well as on the competition with other congeners. To find out if two morphotypes of the same species differ in the use of resources and if this diversity is affected by fishing, the UB team launched a study on Labrus bergylta, a fish in the order of Perciformes and the family of the wrasses, very common on the northern coasts of the Iberian Peninsula and on the Atlantic coasts of Europe.

The researchers compared the middle patterns of use and the feeding of two morphotypes of this fish, one plain and the other with spots, in two different habitats: in the Ces Islands (Vigo), a protected marine area where recreational fishing is not allowed, and in contiguous areas open to fishing. With this aim, they first studied visually the number of specimens of each morphotype in the two areas and then used stable isotope analysis techniques of carbon and nitrogen to find out the differences in the type of feeding.

Fishing exploitation hardens the understanding of original trophic niches

The results show that the two morphotypes differ consistently in their use of the habitat both inside and outside the marine reserve, but only in the marine reserve do they also differ in their diet. According to the researchers, this is because of fishing: by reducing the size of the population, it reduces intraspecific competition. "The distribution of resources between these two varieties depends on the density, so the current behavior in areas open to fishing is not informative about their original trophic niches. This shows that many of the features that we see in exploited wild species may have more to do with that exploitation and not with adaptations to the natural environment, since it has been transformed by humans", says Llus Cardona.

These conclusions show the importance of protected areas to understand the behavior of marine species. "Comparing the biology of the species inside and outside the marine reserves and other protected areas allows us to understand the changes in the biology of the exploited species, which otherwise would not be clear", highlights Llus Cardona.

Given the situation, the authors point out the importance of analyzing how these changes are transferred to the rest of the trophic web and see if the same happens with other species in other regions. "This is particularly relevant for the North Atlantic Ocean, where a century of intense human exploitation has decimated the populations of most long-lived marine species", concludes the researcher.

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Fishing alters fish behaviour and features in exploited ecosystems - Newswise

Human Behavior

Theo canine columns collected in Paws to Remember book – MassLive.com

December 17, 2020 medical

When copy editor Robert Chipkin and his golden retriever, Theo, were asked to leave the grounds outside a Longmeadow coffee shop back in 2012, little did he know it would mark a new chapter in their relationship.

The ouster, prompted by a local ordinance banning dogs from restaurant premises, got Chipkin thinking of how it might appear from Theos point of view, and so was born Dog Tales, the random musings of the only regularly appearing canine columnist in the country.

For the next six years Theo had his say on topics ranging from cats (cant really trust them especially those wearing hats); skunks (they smell like skunks; get over it) to babies (never work a room with one; theyll always upstage you.)

A collection of these columns, Paws to Remember, the Wit & Wisdom of Theo the Golden Retriever, has been published by The Republican. It is available through The Republican, Amazon, Daves Pet Food City, Giftology, Mimis Consignment and email via chipcar@comcast.net

Chipkin said he never expected the column to last so long as Theo didnt travel much, had few political opinions, a dim memory (and thus never held a grudge), and his notion of time didnt extend much beyond dinner. Yet his count me in nature, doggish enthusiasm for everyday objects and simple observations of the silliness of much human behavior gave him plenty of fodder over the years.

For example, Theo wondered, when did doggy bags no longer go to dogs? There was a time when doggy bags were rightly the reward for being left home while humans enjoyed a fancy meal out. And then somehow to mix a metaphor, the doggy bag flew the coop, passing their rightful recipient right by and landing in the refrigerator to appear in ensuing meals for humans, with barely a scrap for dogs.

Its a dog life all right.

But Theo didnt mind, or so it appeared to Chipkin, and suddenly the two of them were communicating on a regular basis on all sorts of subjects from poop (it happens); to squirrels (why dont they like me?).

Once you start thinking like a dog, youre surprised at how easy it is, said Chipkin.

Chipkin and Theo retired at the same time from column writing, thinking they would have plenty of time to work on their memoirs.

It turns out they didnt.

Shortly after the column ended, Theo developed lymphatic cancer, a scourge of golden retrievers, and after one last trip to the beach died in 2019, just short of his 10th birthday.

Only somewhat comforted by a vets comments that our pets are only on loan to us, the Chipkins soon found the gloom of an empty house overwhelming, and less than a year later, Reilly, another golden retriever joined the family.

Like many second dogs, he knew enough not to try to replace Theo, but only attempt to lift the dark cloud that had enveloped the house. Of course, Reilly was not above putting his own paw print on the place in hopes of earning that highest of dog praise good dog.

And that he has, which likely would have made Theo proud.

Paws To Remember is now available is at the discounted price of $20 plus shipping and taxes through the Republican, Amazon, at Daves Pet Food City, in Agawam; Giftology, in Longmeadow; Mimis Consignment, in East Longmeadow, and from the author at chipcar@comcast.net