Upstate Medical University is seeking volunteers for a clinical trial involving a new flu vaccine similar to the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, which could be more effective in combatting seasonal flu. Upstate is working with Pfizer to study a new mRNA-based flu vaccine, which is the same technology that was used in the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Upstate is seeking trial participants between the ages of 65 and 85, who are healthy and have no prior history of heart disease and have not yet received a flu shot yet this year. Learn more.

 

Taking a page from the COVID playbook, Pfizer and BioNTech are adapting the technology from their highly successful COVID vaccine to prevent seasonal flu. Both the University of Rochester Medical Center and Rochester General Hospital are taking part in the phase 1 clinical trial to test Pfizer and BioNTech’s mRNA flu vaccine. The World Health Organization estimates that three to five million people worldwide come down with severe cases of seasonal flu each year, and unfortunately between 290,000 and 650,000 of them do not survive the infection. Though flu shots have been around for nearly a century, they are typically only 40 to 60 percent effective and have not had a technology upgrade in quite some time. Learn more.

 

NYU Langone Health, as the Clinical Science Core (CSC) for the National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER initiative, has, since the announcement of the beginning of its operations on June 10, convened more than 100 researchers from 35 institutions as well as patients to finalize the main study protocols for the adult, pediatric, and autopsy patient groups (cohorts). These protocols will now shape the research in the massive effort to better understand the long-term impact of COVID-19 on patients and the U.S. population, and to develop new approaches to diagnosis and treatment. Learn more.

 

Convalescent plasma did not reduce the risk of intubation or death for hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a large, international clinical trial conducted by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators in collaboration with lead investigators at McMaster University. The study, published Sept. 9 in Nature Medicine, also revealed that patients who received convalescent plasma experienced significantly more adverse events, including needing more oxygen and worsening respiratory failure, than those who received standard care, although the rate of fatal incidents was not significantly different between groups. Learn more.

 

Health care workers with high resilience or strong emotional support were protected against the effects of stress related to the COVID-19 pandemic compared to those who had low emotional support or resilience, according to a study published September 13 in the Journal of Medical Internet Research. Mount Sinai researchers also found that the number of individuals with COVID-19 in the community was a significant factor associated with stress in health care workers over time. Learn more.

 

Women who receive the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy pass high levels of antibodies to their babies, a new study finds. The effectiveness of the Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, the researchers say, lies in their ability to trigger the production of the right antibodies, blood proteins capable of protecting individuals from infection. Whether this protection could pass from mothers to their infants before birth had remained a question. Learn more.

 

Individuals diagnosed with intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (iCCA), a type of liver cancer, face a five-year survival rate of less than 10 percent. But a Wilmot Cancer Institute team that also investigates pancreatic cancer, which has similarly poor survival statistics, discovered factors that both aggressive cancers have in common. Scientists believe the new data provide a roadmap for targeting the tumors with immune therapies. In a recent publication in the journal Gut, the team showed that iCCA tumors are comprised of a dense network of cells that are non-cancerous and yet help to create an environment that’s ripe for cancer’s growth and spread. Learn more.

 

Specialty heart care is once again expanding at Stony Brook Medicine with the addition of the Center for Advanced Lipid (Cholesterol) Management at the Stony Brook University Heart Institute, the first of its kind in Suffolk County. Lipids are fatty substances in the blood that can lead to blockages in heart arteries. The new center will use testing tailored to each patient to get a complete understanding of inflammatory markers, lipid profile, apolipoprotein B levels and more. Learn more.

 

L-Dopa induced dyskinesia (LID) is a debilitating side effect of dopamine replacement therapy for Parkinson’s Disease. The mechanistic underpinnings of LID remain obscure. This study reports that diminished sonic hedgehog (Shh) signaling in the basal ganglia caused by the degeneration of midbrain dopamine neurons facilitates the formation and expression of LID. Learn more.

 

Physically removing a blood clot in the brain is a safe and effective treatment for pregnant women having a stroke, a new study by several New York Medical College (NYMC) faculty, residents and students suggests. Stroke during pregnancy is rare, but the risk increases during pregnancy and for up to 12 weeks after giving birth, or postpartum. “Unfortunately, pregnant and postpartum patients are systemically excluded from many clinical trials,” said Fawaz Al-Mufti, M.D., assistant professor of neurology, neurosurgery and of radiology and senior author of the new study, published in the American Heart Association journal Stroke. Learn more.

 

Depression is the most common mental illness as well as the number one cause of disability among people between the ages of 15 and 44. And for millions of sufferers, antidepressants have literally saved lives that could otherwise have been lost to suicide. But selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs—the most common class of drugs prescribed for depression—can take six weeks to begin alleviating symptoms, and that’s without the period of trial and error often required to find the right medicine and dosage for a particular patient. Additionally, for as many as three in 10 people with depression, SSRIs have no effect at all. Learn more.

Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences at University at Buffalo: Long-lasting Pain Relief Without Opioids: UB Researchers Develop a Novel, Local Treatment for Chronic Pain

 

An investigation into the origins of the sensation of pain has led to the development of a novel and durable treatment for inflammatory pain that could be a promising alternative to opioids. The preclinical research was conducted by neuroscientists and pharmacologists, all in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, and it was published Oct. 4 in Nature Communications. Learn more.

 

A new community-based approach to helping children manage their asthma symptoms will launch in up to 40 public, charter, and parochial schools across the Bronx, and enroll 416 students aged 4-12 years old. The five-year study, titled Evaluation of the Asthma Management Program to Promote Activity for Students in Schools (Asthma-PASS), is supported by a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM). The research will be led by Marina Reznik, M.D., M.S., Vice Chair for clinical and community-based research, CHAM and Einstein, and professor of pediatrics at Einstein. Learn more.

 

A research team led by David Thanassi, PhD, of Stony Brook University, has used molecular biology and cryoelectron microscopy to successfully unravel the structure of bacterial appendages called P pili. These pili are deployed by uropathogenic strains of Escherichia coli bacteria that cause kidney infections. The structure of P pili had been elusive to scientists for many years. The finding, published in Nature Communications, is a key step in order to target P pili in the infection process. Learn more.

 

Whether intermittent fasting is called the 5:2 diet or the 16/8 method, celebrities swear that these eating regimens are a great way to lose weight. Fasting is now trendy, but real science backs up claims that fasting two days a week or restricting eating to an eight-hour window each day leads to weight loss. And scientists have found intermittent fasting has even more health benefits that are not related to weight: Studies in mice and other animals show that intermittent fasting also increases longevity. Learn more.

 

A type of acupressure focused on pressure points in the ear could be a promising treatment for functional abdominal pain disorder (FAPD), a challenging group of disorders that cause chronic abdominal pain in 13.5% of children and adolescents. That’s the finding from a pilot study published last month in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition. Learn more.

 

Stephanie Jones, MD, FASA, chair of the Albany Med Department of Anesthesiology, is the co-editor of the soon-to-be-released Stoelting’s Anesthesia and Co-Existing Disease, 8th Edition (Elsevier). The publication is used by anesthesia providers at all levels as a guide to successfully managing or avoiding complications that develop due to pre-existing conditions. Learn more.

 

A five-year, $61.7 million grant to the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons will help medical researchers speed the application of scientific discoveries, so that new treatments can be delivered to patients faster. The grant, awarded by the National Institutes of Health, is one of the largest ever to the medical school. It will support the work of the Irving Institute for Clinical and Translational Research, led by Muredach Reilly, MBBCh, MSCE, professor of medicine and associate dean for clinical and translational research. Learn more.

 

The Mount Sinai Health System today announced a $5 million charitable contribution by The Bob & Renee Parsons Foundation to build and support training and education for therapists using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy and other psychedelic medicine approaches. The multiyear grant will support the Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research in the Department of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. A secondary partner to the gift is the Bronx Research Foundation, affiliated with the James J. Peters VA Medical Center. Learn more.

 

Albert Einstein College of Medicine has received a five-year, $5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to support the Rose F. Kennedy Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Research Center (RFK IDDRC), which has been at the forefront of research on normal and abnormal brain development for more than 50 years. Learn more.

 

Nicholas Ferreri, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology at New York Medical College, has been awarded a $1,640,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health/National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to study the mechanisms that regulate the body’s response to salt intake as it relates to hypertension and other conditions. The new study will determine the mechanisms that regulate an intratubular TNF system that is activated in renal epithelial cells in response to increases in dietary salt intake and attenuates salt-dependent increases in blood pressure. Learn more.

 

Albany Medical College has granted its Division of Otolaryngology departmental status. According to Vincent P. Verdile, M.D. ’84, The Lynne and Mark Groban, M.D., ’67 Distinguished Dean of Albany Medical College and Senior Executive Vice President for System Care Delivery at Albany Med, the transition is in response to the continued growth and strong expertise of the otolaryngology program. Learn more.