Vidcast: https://youtu.be/V395dwF4DTs

Short Shorts are quickie reports about cutting edge medical and healthcare discoveries. They’re worth knowing about this 2nd week of April, 2022.

CAR-T chimeric antigen receptors have proven effective immunotherapy for blood system cancers such as leukemias. They haven’t worked as well on solid tumors. Now a Dutch research group working with BioNTech, the developers of the Pfizer CoVid vaccine has found that CAR-T cells kill solid cancers better when they are sensitized to the protein CLDN6 that is found on the surfaces of testicular, ovarian, and endometrial cancer cells. That sensitization can be now accomplished using mRNA. A phase 1 trial of 14 patients with advanced cancers showed a 86% response rate. Very promising.

https://aacr.ent.box.com/s/c5vdgvlj128qojzmuqgwuj2uz8mipqsy

There is a sweet spot for bedtime if you want to have the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease. A UK study of over 88 thousand Brits shows that those hitting the bedsheets between 10 and 11 pm have a 25% lower risk of heart disease compared with those turning in between midnight or later and a 12% lower risk compared with those retiring for the night between 11pm and midnight. These numbers are most statistically significant for women. You’ll have to record your favorite late night talk shows.

University of Pittsburgh developmental biologists have identified a drug cocktail that promises to save the 30% of infants with hypoplastic left heart syndrome who typically die before their first birthdays. One of the drugs in the cocktail is tauroursodeoxycholic acid or TUDCA, used to treat liver disease, and the other is sildenafil, better known as Viagra and used to treat erectile dysfunction. These two drugs together help normalize the defective metabolic processes that otherwise lead to progressive heart failure and death in these babies. The Viagra turns up mitochondrial function in heart muscle cells while the TUDCA prevents the enhanced metabolic activity from overheating these cells. This therapeutic approach could save many infants who cannot get a heart transplant.

The licorice extract glycyrrhizin is a compound that has been used by healers dating back to ancient times for its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects. Biomedical scientists at the University of Illinois are now testing it as a therapeutic agent for the prevention and treatment of cancer. The compound also has antiviral effects, and others have tested it as an anti-CoVid drug. Don’t go wolfing down sticks and sticks of licorice though as glycyrrhizin can raise your blood pressure to dangerously high levels.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043661822000834?via%3Dihub#!

There you have the latest reveals for the 2nd week of April, 2022. When additional information about thes