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Singh et al. perform a breath-metabolomics study on patients with epilepsy taking antiseizure medications. They find that systemic valproic acid concentrations, along with risk estimates for drug responses and side effects, can be predicted by measuring metabolites in the breath, which might help to guide therapeutic dosing and manage side effects.
Berg et al. establish a panel of patient-derived endometrial cancer organoids and xenograft models. They show that their models recapitulate the genetic profile of the donor tumor and can be used for drug testing and development of a prognostic gene signature.
Mascheroni et al. develop a method for individual clinical predictions by combining mathematical modelling and machine learning in a Bayesian framework (BaM3). By using both synthetic and real clinical datasets, they show the potential of the method to predict tumour growth in the context of clinical data sparsity and limited knowledge of disease mechanisms.
KRAS is one of the most commonly mutated oncogenes in lung cancer but has long been considered undruggable. With the recent FDA approval of sotorasib, supported by positive phase II trial data now published in The New England Journal of Medicine, this is no longer the case.
Dengue virus is transmitted by Aedes aegypti mosquitoes and causes the disease known as dengue. In a trial published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Utarini and colleagues report that release of wolbachia-infected A. aegypti populations in a dengue endemic area reduces the number of symptomatic cases and of hospitalisations.
De Salazar et al. quantify the impact of BNT162b2 mRNA vaccination on COVID-19 transmission and deaths in residents of long-term care facilities in Catalonia, Spain using statistical modelling. They find that high vaccination coverage results in a substantial reduction in transmission amongst residents, preventing around 3 in 4 documented infections and COVID-19-related deaths.
Gamble and Jaroensri et al. develop deep learning systems to predict breast cancer biomarker status using H&E images. Their models enable slide-level and patch-level predictions for ER, PR and HER2, with interpretability analyses highlighting specific histological features associated with these markers.
Wagner et al. carry out a longitudinal seroepidemiological study of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in a cohort of adults from a large company in Vienna, Austria. In individuals positive for S1-reactive antibodies at baseline, RBD-specific antibodies are most likely to persist for six months and correlate most closely with SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing ability.
Alwan discusses the lessons learnt over the past year regarding Long COVID, prolonged illness resulting from SARS-CoV-2 infection, and their implications for public health policy and disease management, drawing insight form her own lived experience, research, and advocacy work with Long COVID.
Lazarus et al. outline the barriers slowing down the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in Spain. They issue a call to action for all stakeholders to improve access to vaccines, with a particular emphasis on reaching marginalised populations.
Mu et al. utilize a deep learning natural language processing model as part of an active learning approach to extract diagnostically relevant semantic information from bone marrow pathology synopses. Their findings demonstrate the potential for artificial intelligence in assisting clinicians in assessing, cataloging and triaging medical text datasets such as pathology synopses.
Kundu discusses how artificial intelligence will transform medical practice and doctors’ training. The author explores the changing role of the clinician in the doctor-patient relationship, drawing parallels with the role of the pilot in light of increased automation in aviation.
Amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) deposition in the brain is an early feature of Alzheimers’ disease. In a phase II clinical trial recently published in The New England Journal of Medicine, Mintun and colleagues report on the safety and efficacy of an antibody targeting Aβ peptide in amyloid plaques for the treatment of participants with early symptomatic Alzheimer’s disease.
Communications Medicine is publishing its first articles today. We are an inclusive and open access medical journal that aims to facilitate and disseminate discovery that will promote health for all and improve the lives of those experiencing or living with disease.
In patients with high cholesterol and at risk of cardiovascular disease, inhibitors of PCSK9 are useful in lowering lipid levels but must be dosed regularly. A recent study in Nature by Munsunuru and colleagues explores the possibility of permanently disrupting PCSK9 expression via in vivo CRISPR gene editing in non-human primates, with long-lasting reductions in LDL cholesterol.
Kurtzhals et al. mark the centenary of the discovery of insulin by looking back at how this model protein has changed science and medicine. They discuss how lessons learned from insulin over the last one hundred years are shaping the present and future of protein-based therapies for chronic disease.
Jun et al. evaluate sex-stratified clinical outcomes in two cohorts of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in New York. While male sex risk is a risk factor for poor outcome in both cohorts – one from earlier and one from later on in the pandemic – some of the sex-specific risk factors observed initially are not observed later on.
MacLeod et al. evaluate the mechanical safety of 3D-printed personalised high tibial osteotomy (HTO) plates in an in silico clinical trial. Using this novel methodology, they find no increased risk of mechanical failure for personalised devices compared to conventional plates, supporting further studies to assess clinical outcomes in patients treated with personalised HTO.
Knabl et al. perform a seroepidemiological study in the Austrian ski resort Ischgl, where a super-spreader event lead to a SARS-CoV-2 outbreak. Through mathematical modelling, they find that the subsequent decline in viral transmission was most likely a combined effect of high seropositivity and the implementation of non-pharmaceutical interventions.
