ASCLS eNewsBytes

• Naked mole rats may hold key to treating cancer and dementia June 21, 2021
  The hairless, buck-toothed, and cold-blooded naked mole rat is an unusual animal. It grows to between 3 and 13 inches in length and lives in a complex underground tunnel system beneath the deserts and grasslands of east Africa.
• Vancomycin, fidaxomicin show promise treating stem cell patients with C difficile June 21, 2021
  Adult patients with Clostrioides difficile (C difficile) infection who had received hematopoietic stem cell transplant also benefitted from frontline medications fidaxomicin or oral vancomycin. However, the new findings — presented at the Making A Difference in Infectious Disease (MAD-ID) 2021 Annual Meeting — would infer one provides significantly lower risk of treatment failure over the […]
• Stem cell scientists make big progress in building mini-kidneys June 21, 2021
  Researchers have created what could be a key building block for assembling a synthetic kidney. They describe how they generate rudimentary kidney structures, known as organoids, that resemble the collecting duct system that helps maintain the body's fluid and pH balance by concentrating and transporting urine.
• Anti-infective therapy for infections caused by drug-resistant gram-negative pathogens now in Phase I study June 21, 2021
  Biopharmaceutical company Qpex Biopharma announced the initiation of a Phase 1 study of QPX9003, a next generation intravenous-administered synthetic polymyxin for infections caused by drug-resistant gram-negative pathogens. “Infections due to multidrug-resistant Acinetobacter sp. and Pseudomonas aeruginosa have resulted in an increased reliance on polymyxin antibiotics originally discovered over 60 years ago,” stated Jason Pogue, PharmD, […]
• Infection of immature red blood cells may help explain low oxygen levels in COVID-19 patients June 21, 2021
  A new study published in the journal Stem Cell Reports by University of Alberta researchers is shedding light on why many COVID-19 patients, even those not in the hospital, are suffering from hypoxia—a potentially dangerous condition in which there is decreased oxygenation in the body’s tissues. The study also shows why the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone […]