Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Self-Replicating Robots Created From Frog Bits
CIDRAP: Study: 1 In 100 Hospitalized COVID-19 Patients Suffers Brain Complications
During a meeting tomorrow at the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), scientists will present data from the largest multi-institutional international study to date on brain complications of COVID-19 and share that 1 in 100 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 will likely develop complications of the central nervous system like stroke, hemorrhage, and other potentially fatal complications. The findings come from a study of nearly 40,000 hospitalized COVID-19–positive patients seen at seven hospitals in the United States and four university hospitals in Western Europe, according to an RSNA news release today. The patients were admitted from September 2019 through June 2020. Their average age was 66 years old. (11/29)
CIDRAP: Initial COVID-19 More Likely To Lead To Poor Outcomes Than Reinfection
SARS-CoV-2 reinfections in Qatar were 90% less likely than primary infections to lead to hospitalization or death, finds a research letter last week in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). A team led by Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar researchers compared primary COVID-19 cases from March through June 2020 with reinfections from January through April 2021, a wave fueled by the Alpha (B117) and Beta (B1351) variants but before the emergence of Delta (B1617.2). After the first pandemic wave, 40% of the population had measurable antibodies against the coronavirus. (11/29)
CIDRAP: COVID-19 Vaccines May Have Saved 500,000 Lives In Europe
A pair of new studies in Eurosurveillance shed new light on infections, severe cases, and deaths averted by COVID-19 vaccination, one suggesting that the shots saved about 470,000 people 60 and older in Europe and one estimating that 445,000 infections, 79,000 hospitalizations, 9,800 intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, and 22,000 fewer deaths were prevented in Italy alone. A study led by World Health Organization (WHO) researchers estimated the number of people 60 and older saved by COVID-19 vaccination in the 33 countries of the WHO European Region from vaccine rollout in December 2020 to November 2021. By Nov 8, 80% of Europeans 60 and older were completely vaccinated, and 84% had received at least one dose. (Van Beusekom, 11/29)
In non-covid research —
The Hill: Scientists Say Xenobots, World's First Living Robots, Can Reproduce
Scientists who created xenobots, the world's first living robots, say the life forms are "the first-ever, self-replicating living robots." The tiny organisms were originally unveiled in 2020. The robots were assembled from heart and skin stem cells belonging to the African clawed frog. They can move independently for about a week before running out of energy, are self-healing and break down naturally. The scientists from the University of Vermont, Tufts University and Harvard University's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering published research on Monday saying they discovered a new type of biological reproduction different from any other known plant or animal species, according to a press release published by the Wyss Institute. (Beals, 11/29)
The New York Times: Stamping Bar Codes On Cells To Solve Medical Mysteries
No one really knew why some patients with a white blood cell cancer called chronic lymphocytic leukemia, or C.L.L., relapsed after treatment and got a second cancer. Were some cancer cells just resistant? An unexpected answer to this mystery has been found using a new technique that researchers call bar coding: The treatment does not always target the right cells. Scientists discovered that the cancer does not always originate in the mature bone marrow cells where it is found and where textbooks say it originates. Instead, for some patients, the mother lode of the cancer can be primitive bone marrow cells, the stem cells, that give rise to all of the body’s white and red blood cells. Those cells, not affected by the chemotherapy treatment, can spawn new cancer cells, causing a relapse. (Kolata, 11/29)
Stat: Scientists See 'Rock Star' Potential In Deploying Viruses Against Cancer
Stacy Erholtz had run out of options. At the age of 49, she had already been fighting multiple myeloma, a blood cancer, for almost a decade. In that time, she tried — and exhausted — every treatment available to her: traditional chemotherapy, novel drugs, and stem cell transplants. By the time she entered a study that would test an experimental measles virus, genetically engineered to target cancer, Erholtz was studded with tumors on her clavicle, sternum, vertebrae, and skull. For an hour, she watched a stunning amount of an otherwise-dangerous virus — enough to vaccinate 10 million people against the measles — drain into her beleaguered body. “I literally felt like my head was going to explode,” Erholtz told STAT, “within seconds.” (Renault, 11/30)
