Gold

🚀 What if the next breakthrough medicine is already on the shelf? 💊 Faster, cheaper treatments through drug repurposing—join #iDR25, 7-8 May 2025 in Amsterdam! 🔗 remedi4all.org/2025-internati… #ERAMETProject #DrugRepurposing

The human genome is littered with pleiotropic variants with conflicting effects on disease traits, for e.g., increase the risk of one disease but protect against another, or is detrimental early in life but beneficial later. A fascinating new preprint systematically studied this using GWAS summary statistics and show ~11% of the LD blocks in human genome exhibit pleiotropic conflict. Bian et al. medRxiv medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

The ^ episode has already proven incredibly popular. Following hot on the heels of a wonderful chat with @ChrisStringer65 on the origins of homo sapiens. 🎧 podfollow.com/the-ancients/e…

Aging is an energetic process But how and where do cellular and whole-body energy demands and availability interact? The Brain-body Energy Conservation (BEC) model of aging argues that the brain brokers the energy budget, driving aging manifestations nature.com/articles/s4358…

Can memantine and/or trazadone slow ALS progression? Nope. A brand new large randomized study out by Pal and colleagues @TheLancetNeuro. Can we test multiple drugs at once by sharing a placebo or control arm? Yep. Key Points: - The authors point that ALS and motor neuron disease are progressive and to date incurable neurodegenerative diseases. - Riluzole is used globally as a treatment. - Edaravone, masitinib, AMX0035 (sodium phenylbutyrate+tauroursodeoxycholic acid), and tofersen recently tested. - They point out only tofersen approved in Europe. - Their trial was the Motor Neuron Disease Systematic Multi-Arm Adaptive Randomised Trial (MND SMART). - Double-blind, placebo-controlled and adaptive. - Like the HEALEY platform trials in the US, the MND SMART uses 'simultaneous definitive evaluation of multiple treatment groups against a single control group; and the design allows to adapt and possibly test multiple approaches.' - The trial was negative. My take: It is really cool to see more compounds tested faster by using shared control groups and an adaptive design. This trial was negative meaning both drugs had no effect on disease progression. I think we have to ask 'why' when we select compounds to trial, especially since animal data does not always recapitulate human data. Memantine targets excitotoxicity and calcium-mediated death of neurons. It is widely used for memory and thinking in diseases like Alzheimer's, however with very small effect. Trazodone may impact the stress on cells and and may also possibly impact misfolded proteins. Most people in the USA use trazodone for sleep, mood and other symptoms. As we test more drugs it will be terrific if we can come up with better techniques to predict which ones may have a meaningful impact on human diseases like ALS. thelancet.com/journals/laneu… #ALS #Motorneurondisease #LouGehrig #parkinson #Alzheimers @bsw5020

Science #Immunology's October issue is out! This month's cover highlights how #NFkB signaling helps recruit the noncoding RNA Xist to maintain #XChromosomeInactivation in activated T cells. Read this research and more: scim.ag/8p0

Proud to be part of the coalition for mental health investment find out how you can get involved mentalhealthinvestment.org

🎙️ In case you missed it, listen to Prof. Alan Thompson from @UCL wrap up #ECTRIMS2024 and dive into all things ECTRIMS with host Brett Drummond from @MStranslate on the #ECTRIMSPodcast Spotify ➡️ spoti.fi/4gAbvcO

Meta-analysis of 17 phase 3 MS DMT trials shows higher comorbidity burden is associated with increased risk of relapse and disability progression. ja.ma/3XNhfJa #ECTRIMS2024

Kowalec (US) effect of genetic predisposition for depression on disease activity in #MS. Higher risk of relapse and EDSS progression in persons with higher predisposition for depression! Importance of comorbidity on MS disease course! #ECTRIMS2024

Chataway (UK): MS-stat2 study on simvastatin 80mg vs placebo in SPMS. Large phase 3 trial, unfortunately no significant effect on confirmed progression 🤷🏻‍♂️ #ECTRIMS2024

#ECTRIMS2024: Society fellow Dr. Amber Salter (Dallas, TX) - Data from 16,794 MS trial participants shows that comorbid (coexisting) conditions make clinical outcomes worse. Read more: ntlms.org/3TvXxiA Get tips for managing comorbidities: ntlms.org/4e5ZMBt

« Mega-trials (MG) need to be performed more often, given the relative low number of MG found, their low significant rates, and the fact that smaller trials published prior to MG reported more beneficial results than MG and subsequent smaller trials. » jamanetwork.com/journals/jaman…

The symptoms of depression might come and go, but new evidence suggests that the pattern of brain wiring behind it remains the same for life go.nature.com/3yXXLIh

@mattyglesias @_alexa_blue In good faith, then, I would like to use this opportunity to help you (and any others!) learn to distinguish between “the placebo effect” and “regression to the mean” for your future reference.

New paper out @Nature - why are males more vulnerable to severe infections (ex acute #COVID), while females suffer more from autoimmunity (SLE, MS etc and also #LongCovid)? sex chromosomes or hormones? Here we studied adaptation of human immune systems to gender-affirming testosterone treatment in trans-men assigned female sex at birth: nature.com/articles/s4158…

A new #ScienceReview compares and contrasts the processes involved in traditional randomized clinical trials and newer decentralized clinical trials. 📄: scim.ag/8aj

Didn’t think I could top my last NYT quote, but I think I might have done it with this one 😂 nytimes.com/2024/08/23/opi…

"For schizophrenia, the chance of getting a diagnosis is ~40% if a genetic clone (an identical twin) is also affected" My short overview of the history, current state, and future of psychiatric genetics 🧬🧠 English: drive.google.com/file/d/1sMd2ep… Dutch: tijdschriftvoorpsychiatrie.nl/nl/artikelen/a…

Let’s play a little game. Let’s say that you’re the CSO at a cancer pharma company, and you have to choose a target to go after. Here’s a gene – high expression is associated with poor prognosis in brain cancer. Looks like a good candidate for an inhibitor right?