Gargling with bleach? Americans misusing disinfectants to prevent coronavirus, survey finds

“More than a third of Americans misused cleaners and disinfectants to try to prevent infection by the coronavirus, according to a survey” conducted by the CDC. The survey cited Americans using bleach to wash food, using disinfectants on bare skin, and intentionally inhaling or ingesting such products as common examples of such misuse. NBC News (6/5, Edwards) reported, “Such acts are not only harmful, they also do nothing to prevent infections and should never be done.” Other sources covering the CDC Survey include: Fox News (6/5, McFall), The Hill (6/5, Kelley), and STAT (6/5, Joseph). https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-disinfectants/gargling-with-bleach-americans-misusing-disinfectants-to-prevent-coronavirus-survey-finds-idUSKBN23C2P2

Diet and Gut Microbes Influence Chemotherapy Outcomes

“The first time we observed that changing the microbe or adding a single amino acid to the diet could transform an innocuous dose of the drug into a highly toxic one, we couldn’t believe our eyes,” said Eyleen O’Rourke, PhD, of UVA’s College of Arts & Sciences, the School of Medicine’s Department of Cell Biology and the Robert M. Berne Cardiovascular Research Center. “Understanding, with molecular resolution, what was going on took sieving through hundreds of microbe and host genes. The answer was an astonishingly complex network of interactions between diet, microbe, drug and host.” https://www.technologynetworks.com/drug-discovery/news/diet-and-gut-microbes-influence-chemotherapy-outcomes-335781?utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TN_Breaking%20Science%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=89124043&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_JlBlz4r5ze4543JQWtVmZsYUBcWBs6UcUFoXPHmeW-tHnetOOHfa-xxygtWDzA0Z9Hgqrk7JxNrsjyYaBhVio2PNWcA&utm_content=89124043&utm_source=hs_email

The Genetic Basis of COVID-19 Susceptibility

Professor Alessandra Renieri, Director of the Medical Genetics Unit at the University Hospital of Siena, Italy, will describe her team’s GEN-COVID project to collect genomic samples from Covid patients across the whole of Italy in order to try to identify the genetic bases of the high level of clinical variability they showed. Using whole exome sequencing (WES) to study the first data from 130 Covid patients from Siena and other Tuscan institutions, they were able to uncover a number of common susceptibility genes that were linked to a favourable or unfavourable outcome of infection. “We believe that variations in these genes may determine disease progression,” says Prof Renieri. “To our knowledge, this is the first report on the results of WES in Covid-19.” https://www.technologynetworks.com/genomics/news/the-genetic-basis-of-covid-19-susceptibility-335789?utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TN_Breaking%20Science%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=89124043&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_mkloohUkITKu4VaSqGzmpqmy8R_rwqasq6_NzicB-WzlSw9LrFKNy89gpu0kBeFN_0ewZt9Zaed3GqJMoqsBM69qudA&utm_content=89124043&utm_source=hs_email

Medical Journals Retract Two Major Studies Questioning Efficacy Of Different Drugs On COVID-19

reports two studies that questioned the efficacy of different drugs for treating COVID-19 were retracted Thursday by major medical journals. The Lancet pulled a study saying hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine caused heart problems, while the New England Journal of Medicine retracted one on the use of cardiovascular and blood-pressure drugs. The New York Times (6/4, Rabin, Gabler) reports the studies were retracted “because the authors could not verify the data on which the results depended.” Both studies “were led by a professor at Harvard, and both depended on a huge international database of patient medical records that few experts had ever heard of.” The data “came from a company called Surgisphere, which claims to have granular patient-level information shared by 1,200 hospitals and health facilities on six continents.” Among other media outlets providing coverage are: The Washington Post (6/4, McGinley) and the AP (6/4, Marchione). https://www.wsj.com/articles/authors-retract-study-that-found-risks-of-using-antimalaria-drug-against-covid-19-11591299329

Hairy, Lab-grown Human Skin Cell Model Could Advance Hair Loss Research

Organoids are small, lab-grown cell groupings designed to model real-world organs – in this case, skin. A paper published in Nature describes the hairy creation as the first hair-bearing human skin organoid made with pluripotent stem cells, or the master cells present during early stages of embryonic development that later turn into specific cell types. The hirsute organoid’s development was led by Karl Koehler, Ph.D., formerly of Indiana University School of Medicine and now at Boston Children’s Hospital. An Oregon Health & Science University graduate student, Benjamin Woodruff, contributed by helping make the organoids as a post-baccalaureate research technician in the Stanford University lab of Stefan Heller, Ph.D. “This makes it possible to produce human hair for science without having to take it from a human,” explained Woodruff, who now is completing his first year of cell and developmental biology graduate studies at OHSU. “For the first time, we could have, more or less, an unlimited source of human hair follicles for research.” https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/news/hairy-lab-grown-human-skin-cell-model-could-advance-hair-loss-research-335709?utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TN_Breaking%20Science%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=89041517&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8LknBasIjc1tIegO9YeI2Xd04RUWIFaLurG7Kug3nE1tL9pLZYykj59gWC4x1lJwyty-KPS7BEN9YnYm8A9nm2YHRDdQ&utm_content=89041517&utm_source=hs_email

Obesity May Greatly Increase Odds Of Children Developing Severe COVID-19, Study Suggests

“If a child is infected with the new coronavirus,” having obesity “appears to greatly raise the odds for developing a severe form of COVID-19, a new study finds.” According to the research, “eleven (22%) of the 50 kids” had obesity, “and six of the nine children who required a ventilator” had obesity. The findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics. https://consumer.healthday.com/infectious-disease-information-21/coronavirus-1008/similar-to-adults-obesity-raises-kids-odds-for-severe-covid-19-758267.html

Trial Investigates Unique Formulation of Ibuprofen as Treatment for COVID-19 Respiratory Complication

Unfortunately the mechanism was not discussed. https://www.technologynetworks.com/drug-discovery/news/trial-investigates-unique-formulation-of-ibuprofen-as-treatment-for-covid-19-respiratory-335642?utm_campaign=NEWSLETTER_TN_Breaking%20Science%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=88976795&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8TA18ESqylMP1x0FSkBa5QI0JLE6huPkdPGTCb23qyDNf3C42EGYwSjeBFN6_gMtCDhJlJORlK5ykPjG0Psb8UPe4Rdw&utm_content=88976795&utm_source=hs_email