In a compelling Genomic Press interview published today, rising scientific star Dr. Michael Wheeler unveils revolutionary findings about how psychedelics reshape communication between the brain and immune system, potentially transforming treatments for psychiatric disorders and inflammatory diseases alike. His groundbreaking research, recently validated in Nature (April 23, 2025; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08880-9), demonstrates that psychedelics like psilocybin don't just affect neurons: they fundamentally reshape immune responses tied to fear and stress. "We found that astrocytes in the amygdala use a specific receptor called EGFR to limit stress-induced fear," explains Dr. Wheeler. This finding represents a paradigm shift in understanding psychedelics' therapeutic potential. Rather than simply acting on neural pathways, these compounds appear to recalibrate entire neuroimmune circuits. Could this dual action explain why psychedelics show promise across diverse conditions from depression to addiction? And might they eventually prove useful for treating inflammatory disorders that have no apparent psychiatric component? "I felt that the actions of the people we defended were so inextricably linked with their environmental circumstances, inclusive of physical or emotional abuse beyond their control, that I was desperate to understand the inner workings of their minds," Dr. Wheeler reflects. This early experience shaped his scientific mission to unravel how environmental factors-including stress and trauma-reshape our internal neurobiology. By bringing together insights from neuroscience and immunology, Dr. Wheeler identified previously hidden communication channels between the brain and immune system that may help explain why traditional psychiatric treatments often yield inconsistent results. Dr. Wheeler's laboratory employs cutting-edge technologies including genomic screening, single-cell analysis, and behavioral studies to create what he describes as a "wiring diagram" of brain-immune communication. Remarkably, psychedelics can interrupt this process at multiple points, reducing both immune cell accumulation and fear behaviors. This research raises intriguing questions about traditional approaches to psychiatric disorders. If mental health conditions have significant immune components, might we need to rethink treatment strategies that focus exclusively on neurotransmitters? Could new therapeutic agents that target both neural and immune pathways prove more effective than current options? Looking ahead, Dr. Wheeler envisions a revolution in thinking about neuropsychiatric disorders. "Often, we think of mental health disorders based on their behavioral symptoms. Dr. Wheeler emphasizes that his success stems from collaborative team science rather than solitary genius. As a laboratory leader, he values bringing together people with diverse scientific backgrounds to create synergistic insights that no individual could achieve alone. "My favorite part is bringing people into the lab and onto our team with completely different scientific (and personal) backgrounds to have everyone work together," says Dr. Wheeler. "This facilitates cross-pollination between ideas that could only happen on the organizational level." This approach reflects Dr. Wheeler's conviction, formed during his undergraduate years at Johns Hopkins, that "you cannot do great science alone, everyone needs a great team." It's a philosophy that has guided his academic journey and research approach. Dr. Michael Wheeler's Genomic Press interview is part of a larger series called Innovators & Ideas that highlights the people behind today's most influential scientific breakthroughs. By combining a focus on professional achievements with personal insights, this interview style invites a richer narrative that both engages and educates readers. This format provides an ideal starting point for profiles that delve into the scientist's impact on the field, while also touching on broader human themes. More information on the research leaders and rising stars featured in our Innovators & Ideas -- Genomic Press Interview series can be found in our publications website: https://genomicpress.kglmeridian.com/. Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. 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Retail pharmacies excluded from Medicare Part D networks maintained by drug benefits middlemen were much more likely to close over the past decade, according to new research from USC published in Health Affairs. Independent pharmacies and those located in low-income, Black or Latino communities were more likely to be excluded from "preferred" pharmacy networks, putting them at higher risk of closure, researchers also found. The study is the first to examine how substantial growth of preferred pharmacy networks in Medicare's prescription drug benefit may have contributed to the struggles of retail pharmacies, which the researchers in an earlier study found have closed in unprecedented numbers. Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which control drug benefits on behalf of employers and insurers, steer beneficiaries away from non-preferred pharmacies by imposing higher out-of-pocket costs at those locations. The use of preferred pharmacy networks tripled to 44% among Medicare Advantage drug plans over the past decade and grew from 70% to 98% among stand-alone Medicare drug plans, researchers found. This shift coincided with a wave of mergers involving the nation's largest PBMs and retail pharmacy chains, which may have incentivized PBMs to nudge patients to pharmacies they are affiliated with - and away from competitors. The Federal Trade Commission in an interim report last year alleged that PBMs "routinely create narrow and preferred pharmacy networks" to favor their own pharmacies and exclude rivals, and Arkansas recently passed a first-in-the-nation law banning PBMs from owning or operating pharmacies. "Our study demonstrates that pharmacy networks in Medicare Part D - which are designed by PBMs - are contributing to the growing problem of pharmacy closures, particularly in communities that already lack convenient access to pharmacies," said study senior author Dima Mazen Qato, a senior scholar at the USC Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics and the Hygeia Centennial Chair at the USC Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. "Our findings demonstrate that there is a need for federal PBM reform to expand preferred pharmacy networks," said the study's first author, Jenny Guadamuz, an assistant professor of health policy and management at the University of California Berkeley School of Public Health. "New legislation might prove elusive, but there may be room for regulator actions." The researchers point to actions the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services could take, including considering provisions that ensure Part D plans meet preferred pharmacy access standards and mandating preferred status. Regulators and policymakers could also mandate increases in pharmacy reimbursement, especially for critical access pharmacies at risk for closure and if they are serving "pharmacy deserts." In this interview, industry expert Dr. Lohit Khera discusses the evolving role of microRNA in research, diagnostics, and precision medicine, highlighting the latest innovations in RNA extraction and analysis Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Young people with a diagnosable mental health condition report differences in their experiences of social media compared to those without a condition, including greater dissatisfaction with online friend counts and more time spent on social media sites. This is according to a new study led by the University of Cambridge, which suggests that adolescents with "internalizing" conditions such as anxiety and depression report feeling particularly affected by social media. Young people with these conditions are more likely to report comparing themselves to others on social media, feeling a lack of self-control over time spent on the platforms, as well as changes in mood due to the likes and comments received. Researchers found that adolescents with any mental health condition report spending more time on social media than those without a mental health condition, amounting to an average of roughly 50 minutes extra on a typical day. The study, led by Cambridge's Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (MRC CBU), analysed data from a survey of 3,340 adolescents in the UK aged between 11 and 19 years old, conducted by NHS Digital in 2017. These were produced by professional clinical raters interviewing young people, along with their parents and teachers in some cases. "The link between social media use and youth mental health is hotly debated, but hardly any studies look at young people already struggling with clinical-level mental health symptoms," said Luisa Fassi, a researcher at Cambridge's MRC CBU and lead author of the study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. "Our study doesn't establish a causal link, but it does show that young people with mental health conditions use social media differently than young people without a condition. "This could be because mental health conditions shape the way adolescents interact with online platforms, or perhaps social media use contributes to their symptoms. At this stage, we can't say which comes first – only that these differences exist," Fassi said. Only findings with comparable levels of association to how sleep and exercise differ between people with and without mental health conditions were deemed significant. While mental health was measured with clinical-level assessments, social media use came from questionnaires completed by study participants, who were not asked about specific platforms. "Friendships are crucial during adolescence as they shape identity development," said Fassi. For young people struggling with mental health conditions, this may increase existing feelings of rejection or inadequacy." Researchers looked at differences in social media use between young people with internalising conditions, such as anxiety, depression and PTSD, and externalising conditions, such as ADHD or conduct disorders. The majority of differences in social media use were reported by young people with internalising conditions. They also reported lower levels of self-control over time spent on social media and a reduced willingness to be honest about their emotional state when online. "Some of the differences in how young people with anxiety and depression use social media reflect what we already know about their offline experiences. Social comparison is a well-documented part of everyday life for these young people, and our study shows that this pattern extends to their online world as well," Fassi said. By contrast, other than time spent on social media, researchers found few differences between young people with externalising conditions and those without a condition. "Our findings provide important insights for clinical practice, and could help to inform future guidelines for early intervention," said Cambridge's Dr Amy Orben, senior author of the study. Added Fassi: "So many factors can be behind why someone develops a mental health condition, and it's very hard to get at whether social media use is one of them." "A huge question like this needs lots of research that combines experimental designs with objective social media data on what young people are actually seeing and doing online." "We need to understand how different types of social media content and activities affect young people with a range of mental health conditions such as those living with eating disorders, ADHD, or depression. Without including these understudied groups, we risk missing the full picture." Fassi, L., et al. (2025) Social media use in adolescents with and without mental health conditions. Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Light conversion technology developed by University of Queensland researchers will be used for wearable X-ray devices that make respiratory scans more comfortable for young children. Dr. Hou said the project was inspired by the thought of his own young children being distressed by a noisy MRI machine and potentially having to be sedated or restrained in order to obtain an accurate scan. Staying still during a lengthy scan under a big machine isn't easy for adults, let alone young, overwhelmed children who are already unwell and distressed in an unfamiliar and daunting clinical environment. Unfortunately this often means sedation or general anaesthesia is required to keep children still so the scan is accurate, which introduces additional risks and complexities.'' Dr. Jingwei Hou, Associate Professor from UQ's School of Chemical Engineering Dr. Hou said scanning was a crucial process in the treatment of conditions such as respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), bronchopulmonary dysplasia (BPD), and chronic lung disease, which are among the most critical health issues faced by premature babies, infants and children under 5 - particularly First Nations children. But he said current X-ray technology merely captures a flat projection of a 3D object, meaning numerous scans from different angles are required to render computed tomography (CT) results, potentially leading to high radiation exposure. To solve the issue, Dr Hou will adapt his patented quantum dot hybrid glass technology into thin film strips that that conform to the contour and movement of a child's body and can be worn like a favourite blanket or jumper. "By assembling these materials into thin, flexible X-ray detectors I can create a wearable X-ray detector that is both comfortable while still providing high-resolution imaging of lung structure." An ARC Future Fellow, Dr Hou said the project has potential to be adapted for a range of medical imaging applications, including other paediatric conditions and adult diseases where rapid, high-resolution imaging was critical. However the most pressing issue in his mind is to ease the discomfort and stress faced by young children during an already difficult time. "As a father, it is not nice to think of my children going through an uncomfortable scanning process that could involve sedating or restraining them," Dr. Hou said. Dr. Hou's Investigator grant covers salaries and costs for 5 years of research and testing, after which it is hoped the system will be ready for clinical trials. Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Storm clouds hung low above a community center in Jackson, where pastor Andre Devine invited people inside for lunch. Devine would have to scale back food distribution for people in need. And his colleagues at the nonprofit health care group My Brother's Keeper were worried they'd have to shutter the group's mobile clinic — an RV offering HIV tests, parked beside the community center that morning. Several employees had already been furloughed and the cuts kept coming, said June Gipson, CEO of My Brother's Keeper. "People can't work without being paid," she said. The directors of other community-based groups in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Tennessee told KFF Health News they too had reduced their spending on HIV testing and outreach because of delayed or slashed federal funds — or they were making plans to do so, anticipating cuts to come. Scaling back these efforts could prove tragic, Gipson said. Without an extra boost of support to get tested or stay on treatment, many people living with HIV will grow sicker and stand a greater chance of infecting others. This time, he has deployed the powers of his office to gut funding, abandoning those communities at highest risk of HIV. Trump's earlier efforts targeted seven Southern states, including Mississippi, where funds went to community groups and health departments that tailor interventions to historically underserved communities that face discrimination and have less access to quality education, health care, stable income, and generational wealth. Now, Trump is undermining HIV efforts by barring funds from programs built around diversity, equity, and inclusion. A Day One executive order said they represent "immense public waste and shameful discrimination." Since then, his administration has cut millions of dollars in federal grants to health departments, universities, and nonprofit organizations that do HIV work. And in April, it eliminated half of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 10 HIV branch offices, according to an email to grant recipients, reviewed by KFF Health News, from the director of the CDC's Division of HIV Prevention. The layoffs included staff who had overseen the rollout of HIV grants to health departments and community-based groups, like My Brother's Keeper. The CDC provides more than 90% of all federal funding for HIV prevention — about $1 billion annually. The Trump administration's May 2 budget proposal for fiscal 2026 takes aim at DEI initiatives, including in its explanation for cutting $3.59 billion from the CDC. Eliminating federal funds for HIV prevention would lead to more than 143,000 additional people in the U.S. becoming infected with HIV within five years, and about 127,000 additional people who die of AIDS-related causes, according to estimates from the Foundation for AIDS Research, a nonprofit known as amfAR. "I don't understand how someone, with the stroke of a pen, could just haphazardly write off the health of millions." Ellis came into his role in the mobile clinic haphazardly, when he worked as a construction worker. For example, Ellis described a young man who visited the mobile clinic recently who had been kicked out of his home and was sleeping on couches or on the street. When a rapid test revealed HIV, the young man fell silent. "I tried to be as strong as possible to let him know his life is not over, that this wasn't a death sentence." Otherwise, Ellis said, he might not have had the means or fortitude to seek treatment on his own and adhere to daily HIV pills. HIV experts use the phrase "treatment as prevention" because most new infections derive from people who aren't adhering to treatment well enough to be considered virally suppressed — which keeps the disease from spreading. That's worse than in eastern and southern Africa, where 78% of people with HIV aren't spreading the virus because they're on steady treatment. My Brother's Keeper is one of many groups improving such numbers by helping people get tested and stay on medication. But the funding cuts in Washington have curtailed their work. "Programs based primarily on artificial and non-scientific categories, including amorphous equity objectives, are antithetical to the scientific inquiry," the NIH said in a letter reviewed by KFF Health News. My Brother's Keeper then lost a CDC award to reduce health disparities — a grant channeled through the Mississippi state health department — that began with the group's work during the covid pandemic but had broadened to screening and care for HIV, heart disease, and diabetes. These are some of the maladies that account for why low-income Black people in the Deep South die sooner, on average, than those who are white. According to a recent study, the former's life expectancy was just 68 years in 2021, on par with the average in impoverished nations like Rwanda and Myanmar. The group then lost CDC funding that covered the cost of laboratory work to detect HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, and syphilis in patients' blood samples. Mississippi has the highest rate of sexually transmitted diseases among states, in part because people spread infections when they aren't tested and treated. Two other CDC grants on HIV prevention, together worth $841,000, were unusually delayed. Public health specialists close to the CDC, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they fear retaliation, said they were aware of delays in HIV prevention funding, despite court orders to unfreeze payments for federal grants in January and February. "I know of many organizations reliant on subcontracted federal funds who have not been paid for the work they've done, or whose funding has been terminated," said Dafina Ward, executive director of the Southern AIDS Coalition. To reach the underserved, these groups offer food, housing assistance, bus passes, disease screening, and a sense of community. And it showed promise: From 2017 to 2022, new HIV infections decreased by 21% in the cities and the Southern states it targeted. Disparities in infections were still massive, with the rate of HIV diagnoses about eight times as high for Black people as white people, and the South remained hardest hit. Ward was hopeful at the start of this year, however, as testing became more widespread and HIV prevention drugs — called preexposure prophylaxis, or PrEP — slowly gained popularity. But her outlook has shifted and she fears that grassroots organizations might not weather the funding turmoil. "We're seeing an about-face of what it means to truly work towards ending HIV in this country," she said. Southeast of Jackson, in Hattiesburg, Sean Fortenberry tears up as he walks into a small room used until recently for HIV testing. But the coalition froze its HIV testing clinic and paused mobile testing at homeless shelters, colleges, and churches late last year. Kendra Johnson, communicable diseases director at Mississippi's health department, said that delays in HIV prevention funds were initially on the department's end because it was short on administrative staff. "We were working with our federal partners to ensure that our new objectives were in line with new HIV prevention activities," Johnson said. "And we ran into additional delays due to paused communications at the federal level." "If most of these federal dollars are cut, we would have to close," Garner said. Research shows that people in stable housing adhere much better to HIV treatment and are far less likely to die than unhoused people with HIV. Funding cuts have shaken every state, but the South is acutely vulnerable when it comes to HIV, said Gregorio Millett, director of public policy at amfAR. Further, Southern states aren't poised to make up the difference. Alabama, Louisiana, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Missouri put zero state funds into HIV prevention last year, according to NASTAD, an association of public health officials who administer HIV and hepatitis programs. And we still need the federal government for health care," she said. The department's director of communications, Andrew Nixon, replied in an email: "Critical HIV/AIDS programs will continue under the Administration for a Healthy America (AHA) as a part of Secretary [Robert F.] Kennedy's vision to streamline HHS to better serve the American people." Nixon did not reply to a follow-up question on whether the Trump administration considers HIV prevention critical. On April 4, Gipson received a fraction of her delayed HIV prevention funds from the CDC. But Gipson said she was afraid to hire back staff amid the turmoil. Like the directors of many other community organizations, Gipson is going after grants from foundations and companies. Pharmaceutical firms such as Gilead and GSK that produce HIV drugs are among the largest contributors of non-governmental funds for HIV testing, prevention, and care, but private funding for HIV has never come close to the roughly $40 billion that the federal government allocated to HIV annually. "What you see in Mississippi is the beginning of that, and what's so concerning is the infrastructure we've built will collapse quickly but take decades to rebuild." "There's not a lot of fat, and we're cutting it to the bone right now," Edney said. Mississippi needed this boost, Edney said, because the state ranks among the lowest in health metrics including premature death, access to clinical care, and teen births. But Edney noted hopeful trends: The state had recently moved from 50th to 49th worst in health rankings, and its rate of new HIV cases was dropping. "The science tells us what we need to do to identify and care for patients, and we're improving," he said. "But trends can change very quickly on us, so we can't take our foot off the gas pedal." If that happens, researchers say, the comeback of HIV will go unnoticed at first, as people at the margins of society are infected silently before they're hospitalized. As untreated infections spread, the rise will eventually grow large enough to make a dent in national statistics, a resurgence that will cost lives and take years, if not decades, to reverse. He rattled off consequences he feared: People relying on food assistance would be forced to decide between buying groceries, paying bills, or seeing a doctor, driving them further into poverty, into emergency rooms, into crime. Deja Abdul-Haqq, a program director at My Brother's Keeper, nodded along as he spoke. This article was reprinted from khn.org, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF - the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

When the news broke on Jan. 31 that a New York physician had been indicted for shipping abortion medications to a woman in Louisiana, it stoked fear across the network of doctors and medical clinics who engage in similar work. It's frustrating,” said Angel Foster, co-founder of the Massachusetts Medication Abortion Access Project, a clinic near Boston that mails mifepristone and misoprostol pills to patients in states with abortion bans. Ever since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, abortion providers like her had been expecting prosecution or another kind of legal challenge from states with abortion bans, she said. “It was unclear when those tests would come, and would it be against an individual provider or a practice or organization?” she said. The indictment also sparked worry among abortion providers like Kohar Der Simonian, medical director for Maine Family Planning. The clinic doesn't mail pills into states with bans, but it does treat patients who travel from those states to Maine for abortion care. “It just hit home that this is real, like this could happen to anybody, at any time now, which is scary,” Der Simonian said. Der Simonian and Foster both know the indicted doctor, Margaret Carpenter. “I feel very sad for her that she has to go through all of this.” On Jan. 31, Carpenter became the first U.S. doctor criminally charged for providing abortion pills across state lines — a medical practice that grew after the U.S. Supreme Court's Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization decision on June 24, 2022, which overturned Roe. Since Dobbs, 12 states have enacted near-total abortion bans, and an additional 10 have outlawed the procedure after a certain point in pregnancy, but before a fetus is viable. Carpenter was indicted alongside a Louisiana mother who allegedly received the mailed package and gave the pills prescribed by Carpenter to her minor daughter. On Feb. 11, Louisiana's Republican governor, Jeff Landry, signed an extradition warrant for Carpenter. He later posted a video arguing she “must face extradition to Louisiana, where she can stand trial and justice will be served.” New York's Democratic governor, Kathy Hochul, countered by releasing her own video, confirming she was refusing to extradite Carpenter. “Louisiana has changed their laws, but that has no bearing on the laws here in the state of New York,” Hochul said. Eight states — New York, Maine, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — have passed laws since 2022 to protect doctors who mail abortion pills out of state, and thereby block or “shield” them from extradition in such cases. But this is the first criminal test of these relatively new “shield laws.” The telemedicine practice of consulting with remote patients and prescribing them medication abortion via the mail has grown in recent years — and is now playing a critical role in keeping abortion somewhat accessible in states with strict abortion laws, according to research from the Society of Family Planning, a group that supports abortion access. Doctors who prescribe abortion pills across state lines describe facing a new reality in which the criminal risk is no longer hypothetical. But the doctors could end up in the crosshairs of a legal clash over the interstate practice of medicine when two states disagree on whether people have a right to end a pregnancy. Maine Family Planning, a network of clinics across 19 locations, offers abortions, birth control, gender-affirming care, and other services. Reflecting on Carpenter's indictment, Der Simonian said it underscored the stakes for herself — and her clinic — of providing any abortion care to out-of-state patients. Shield laws were written to protect against the possibility that a state with an abortion ban charges and tries to extradite a doctor who performed a legal, in-person procedure on someone who had traveled there from another state, according to a review of shield laws by the Center on Reproductive Health, Law, and Policy at the UCLA School of Law. “It is a fearful time to do this line of work in the United States right now,” Der Simonian said. “There will be a next case.” And even though Maine's shield law protects abortion providers, she said, “you just don't know what's going to happen.” Data shows that in states with total or six-week abortion bans, an average of 7,700 people a month were prescribed and took mifepristone and misoprostol to end their pregnancies by out-of-state doctors practicing in states with shield laws. During 2024, the MAP says, it was mailing abortion medications to about 500 patients a month. The MAP currently has four staff doctors and is hiring one more. But it has not changed our practice,” Foster said. The MAP's organizational structure was designed to spread potential liability, Foster said. In 22 states and Washington, D.C., Democratic leaders helped establish shield laws or similarly protective executive orders, according to the UCLA School of Law review of shield laws. Most of the shield laws also apply to civil lawsuits against doctors. A Texas judge ruled against Carpenter on Feb. 13, imposing penalties of more than $100,000. Physicians doing this type of work accept there are parts of the U.S. where they should no longer go, said Julie F. Kay, a human rights lawyer who helps doctors set up telemedicine practices. “There's really a commitment not to visit those banned and restricted states,” said Kay, who worked with Carpenter to help start the Abortion Coalition for Telemedicine. “We didn't have anybody going to the Super Bowl or Mardi Gras or anything like that,” Kay said of the doctors who practice abortion telemedicine across state lines. She said she has talked to other interested doctors who decided against doing it “because they have an elderly parent in Florida, or a college student somewhere, or family in the South.” Any visits, even for a relative's illness or death, would be too risky. “I don't use the word ‘hero' lightly or toss it around, but it's a pretty heroic level of providing care,” Kay said. New York's rebuff of Louisiana's extradition request shows the state's shield law is working as designed, according to David Cohen and Rachel Rebouché, law professors with expertise in abortion laws. “It is not any different than if she had sent fentanyl here. It's really not,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told Fox 8 News in New Orleans. “She sent drugs that are illegal to send into our state.” Louisiana's next step would be challenging New York in federal courts, according to legal experts across the political spectrum. A major problem with the new shield laws is that they challenge the basic fabric of U.S. law, which relies on reciprocity between states, including in criminal cases, said Thomas Jipping, a senior legal fellow with the Heritage Foundation, which supports a national abortion ban. The U.S. Constitution requires extradition only for those who commit crimes in one state and then flee to another state, said Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University's Thomas R. Kline School of Law. “The shield laws certainly do undermine the notion of interstate cooperation, and comity, and respect for the policy choices of each state,” Cohen said, “but that has long been a part of American law and history.” When states make different policy choices, sometimes they're willing to give up those policy choices to cooperate with another state, and sometimes they're not, he said. The conflicting legal theories will be put to the test if this case goes to federal court, other legal scholars said. “It probably puts New York and Louisiana in real conflict, potentially a conflict that the Supreme Court is going to have to decide,” said Rebouché, dean of the Temple University Beasley School of Law. Rebouché, Cohen, and law professor Greer Donley worked together to draft a proposal for how state shield laws might work. Connecticut passed the first law — though it did not include protections specifically for telemedicine. It was signed by the state's governor in May 2022, over a month before the Supreme Court overturned Roe, in anticipation of potential future clashes between states over abortion rights. On Feb. 3, Hochul signed a law that allows physicians to name their clinic as the prescriber — instead of using their own names — on abortion medications they mail out of state. Der Simonian is pushing for a similar law in Maine. So why wouldn't it be me?” Glass said. “I just think access to this care is such a lifesaving thing for so many people that I just couldn't turn my back on it.” This article was reprinted from khn.org, a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF - the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

INCHEON, South Korea — Defining early knee osteoarthritis (OA) as people who do not have symptoms but do have radiographic or MRI changes could offer greater opportunity for interventions to prevent symptomatic or structural decline, a speaker argued at the World Congress on Osteoarthritis (OARSI) 2025 Annual Meeting. “However, there's not a consensus on what this construct should mean.” That lack of consensus could be impeding the development of disease-modifying OA drugs, if it meant that interventions were being tested in individuals who actually had late disease, not early disease. “If we change our focus to an earlier part of the natural history of the disease, then we might be more successful,” she said. In people with KL grade disease of 0 or 1, numerous studies have found pathological evidence of disease on x-ray or MRI, Lo said. Those with more evidence of disease on MRI were more likely to have persistent symptoms of knee OA and cartilage damage. Lo said this indicated that even people without radiographic evidence of disease could have changes on MRI. Another MRI study by Alison H. Chang and colleagues from 2024 took individuals at increased risk of developing symptomatic radiographic knee OA — by virtue of injury, symptoms, family history, or overweight or obesity — and looked at whether MRI evidence at baseline predicted their progression to symptomatic radiographic disease. “The context here is to look for people who have a particular pathology on MRI, ideally looking for people without symptoms and limitations, and generally we're looking for people with early disease who don't meet the definition of radiographic osteoarthritis,” Lo said. This study found that some combinations of MRI changes were associated with progression but not everyone with those combinations did progress. Here, Lo cited a study she was involved in, which looked at the predictive value of crepitus in individuals without symptomatic knee OA at baseline. Lo also touched on the idea of pre-OA, and whether it might be possible to find people in whom interventions could prevent symptoms or structural progression. One possible group are those who have experienced anterior cruciate ligament injury, as there was growing evidence they were at elevated risk for knee OA. Lo told the audience that these definitions of early OA weren't the only ones out there, but did give an opportunity to potentially enrich clinical trials and observational studies with individuals who were most likely to have outcomes of interest. “The only way that we can really clarify which definition, or maybe definitions, are the most useful is for us to really systematically evaluate many of them,” she said. Speaking to Medscape Medical News, Lo said part of the problem is that we don't know what counts as the beginning of OA. Commenting on the presentation, Physiotherapist Brooke Patterson, PhD, of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, said there was great interest in defining early OA and pre-OA, particularly for younger individuals with sports-related knee injuries that might increase their risk for OA. “For these young people that are getting the burden of the disease in their 30s and 40s and then having knee replacements,” it's important for us to talk about it, she said to Medscape Medical News. Lo and Patterson had no relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

An updated systematic review finds that consuming cannabis while pregnant appears to increase the odds of preterm birth, low birth weight and infant death. The lead author is a physician-scientist who provides prenatal care for high-risk pregnancies at OHSU. Patients are coming to me in their prenatal visits saying, 'I quit smoking and drinking, but is it safe to still use cannabis?' In fact, cannabis remains one of the most common substances used in pregnancy that's still illegal under federal law, and, unlike declines in prenatal use of alcohol or nicotine, cannabis use is continuing to increase. Lo said many of her patients are reluctant to give up cannabis during pregnancy because it helps to reduce common prenatal symptoms such as nausea, insomnia and pain. Researchers updated the systematic review and meta-analysis, drawing on a total of 51 observational studies involving 21.1 million people to examine the potential adverse effects of cannabis use in pregnancy. The researchers found eight new studies since their previous update, raising the certainty of evidence from "very-low-to-low" to "moderate" for increased odds of low birth weight, preterm birth and babies being small for their gestational age. The updated review also indicated increased odds of newborn mortality, though still with low certainty. Researchers noted that the new systematic review includes a larger proportion of human observational studies examining people who only use cannabis, but don't also use nicotine. And even though the evidence is low to moderate for adverse outcomes, Lo noted that the findings are consistent with definitive evidence in nonhuman primate models exposed to THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis. The related research in animal models included standard prenatal ultrasound and MRI imaging that revealed a detrimental effect on the placenta, in terms of blood flow and availability of oxygen in addition to decreased volume of amniotic fluid. "These findings tell me as an obstetrician that the placenta is not functioning as it normally would in pregnancy," Lo said. Even though cannabis remains a Schedule 1 substance under the federal Controlled Substances Act, Oregon is one of several states that have legalized it under state law for medicinal and recreational use. Lo said she recommends a harm-reduction approach to patients. For those who cannot abstain, she advises them to reduce the amount and frequency of use to help reduce the risk of prenatal and infant complications. "Even using less can mitigate the risk," she said. "Abstinence is ideal, but it's not realistic for many patients." In addition to Lo, co-authors include Snehapriya Yaddala, PharmD., Beth Shaw, M.S., Shannon Robalino, M.S., of OHSU; Chelsea Ayers, M.P.H., Rachel Ward, B.A., of the Veterans Affairs Portland Health Care System; and Devan Kansagara, M.D., of OHSU and the Portland VA. Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

A major population study reveals that diets high in ultra-processed foods are tied to poorer mental health, and uncovers biological markers that help explain the link. Study: Associations of Ultra-Processed Food Intake and Its Circulating Metabolomic Signature with Mental Disorders in Middle-Aged and Older Adults. In a recent study published in the journal Nutrients, researchers assessed the associations of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and related metabolic signatures with mental disorders. Mental disorders, including conditions like anxiety, substance use disorder (SUD), and depression, are major contributors to global disease and disability burden. Despite therapeutic advances, mental disorder prevalence has remained stagnant in the past decades, highlighting the need for complementary preventive strategies aimed at modifiable risk factors. Dietary habits play a crucial role in the development and progression of mental disorders. In particular, diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids, vegetables, and fruits are associated with a reduced risk of mental disorders, whereas Western and pro-inflammatory diets rich in saturated fats and refined carbohydrates elevate the risk. UPFs are mass-produced foods that undergo multiple steps of processing and contain limited whole-food content. UPF intake has steadily increased, driven by the globalization and urbanization of food systems. Despite substantial evidence implicating UPFs in mental health disturbances, the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. The poor nutritional profile of UPFs, characterized by minimal dietary fiber, higher calories, and excessive sugars, sodium, and saturated fats, has been linked to a heightened risk of various chronic conditions. In the present study, researchers examined associations of UPF intake and related metabolic signatures with mental disorders. Data from the United Kingdom Biobank (UKB), a large prospective cohort of over 500,000 participants, were used. The UKB collected extensive information on sociodemographics, biological factors, and lifestyle. Participants were excluded if they lacked metabolomic measurements and dietary data or had prior mental disorder diagnoses. High-throughput nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was performed on plasma samples to quantify circulating metabolic profiles. These specific symptoms were unhappiness, meaningless feeling, unhappiness with health, feelings of anxiety, foreboding, excessive worry, irritability, restlessness, trouble relaxing, appetite changes, anhedonia, uncontrolled worry, feelings of depression, fatigue, trouble concentrating, feelings of inadequacy, psychomotor changes, sleeping problems, and suicidal ideation. Potential confounders were age, sex, body mass index (BMI), index of multiple deprivation (IMD), prevalent diseases, healthy lifestyle factors, and waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Metabolic features linked to UPF intake were identified using an elastic net regression model. Cox proportional hazards regression models examined the associations of UPF intake and related metabolic signatures with mental disorders. The basic model was adjusted for age, sex, BMI, and IMD. The multivariable model was additionally adjusted for lifestyle factors, prevalent diseases, and WHR. The mutually adjusted model included both UPF intake and its related metabolic signature to analyze the independence of their associations with mental health outcomes. Further, logistic regression models were used to examine associations with specific psychological symptoms. (A) Study flowchart detailing participant selection, exclusion criteria, and final cohort. (C) Cox proportional hazards regression models were employed to evaluate associations of UPF intake and its metabolic signature with the incident risks of overall mental disorder, depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and substance use disorder, with hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) estimated. Logistic regression models were employed to evaluate associations of UPF intake and its metabolic signature with the risks of specific psychological symptoms, with odds ratios (ORs) and 95% CIs estimated. Subgroup analyses were conducted stratified by age and sex. (D) Mediation analyses were applied to investigate the mediating effect of UPF-related metabolic signature. The study included 30,059 participants aged 56.5 years, on average. Overall, 7,594 individuals developed mental disorders over a median follow-up of 12.6 years. Subjects with higher UPF intake were likely to be younger and have higher body BMI, WHR, higher levels of deprivation (lower socioeconomic status based on IMD scores), and unhealthy lifestyles. Elastic net regression identified 91 metabolites associated with UPF consumption, which spanned various biochemical categories including fatty acids, lipoproteins (like HDL cholesterol ratios), glucose-related metabolites, and amino acids (like valine). Participants with high UPF intake had higher risks of overall mental disorders, anxiety disorder, depressive disorder, and SUD than those with low UPF intake. Subgroup analyses suggested these associations could be stronger in certain groups; for instance, the link between the metabolic signature and SUD was more evident in females, and associations for UPF intake with SUD, and the metabolic signature with depression and anxiety, were stronger in those under 60 years old. A mediation analysis showed that the UPF-linked metabolic signature partially mediated the associations between UPF consumption and mental disorder risks. Conversely, the UPF-linked metabolic signature showed no significant associations with mental health symptoms in the overall population, although subgroup analyses revealed associations between the signature and symptoms like unhappiness with health and depressive feelings, specifically in individuals under 60 years old. Associations of ultra-processed food intake and its metabolic signature with symptoms of mental health and stratified by age. Logistic regression models were employed to evaluate associations of ultra-processed food (UPF) intake and its metabolic signature with the risks of specific psychological symptoms. The results were presented with odds ratios (ORs) per 10% increment for UPF intake and ORs per SD increment for metabolic signature. Colors depict significance levels after false discovery rate correction (significant-blue and not significant-gray). In sum, UPF intake was significantly associated with higher risks of overall mental disorders, anxiety disorder, SUD, and depressive disorder. The UPF-related metabolic signature was also independently associated with increased risks of these mental disorders; it also partially mediated the association between UPF consumption and psychiatric outcomes. Thus, the findings suggest that improving diet quality and reducing UPF consumption may help maintain mental well-being. Tarun is a writer based in Hyderabad, India. He has a Master's degree in Biotechnology from the University of Hyderabad and is enthusiastic about scientific research. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: Ultra-processed foods increase risk of anxiety and depression, study shows. "Ultra-processed foods increase risk of anxiety and depression, study shows". "Ultra-processed foods increase risk of anxiety and depression, study shows". Ultra-processed foods increase risk of anxiety and depression, study shows. Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. 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Modified antibiotics beat a stubborn lung pathogen and dodge metabolic landmines, offering new hope for patients with HIV, cystic fibrosis, and TB co-infections. Study: Next-generation rifamycins for the treatment of mycobacterial infections. The rise of drug-resistant bacteria is a major health crisis. Moreover, the development of antibiotic resistance in pulmonary pathogens such as Mycobacterium abscessus, against which treatment options are already limited, poses a serious problem for cystic fibrosis patients and immunocompromised individuals. A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences explored new versions of rifamycins, antibiotics traditionally used to treat tuberculosis, to combat severe lung infections caused by M. abscessus. The researchers also explored modifications to the drug that could boost its strength and reduce harmful interactions with other medications. Rifamycins are essential antibiotics, widely used to treat tuberculosis. These drugs effectively target and eliminate various mycobacterial populations. However, their effectiveness is limited against lung infections caused by M. abscessus, a non-tuberculous Mycobacterium, as the bacterium has intrinsic resistance to many antibiotics. Mycobacterium abscessus develops resistance through mechanisms that include drug inactivation. Rifamycins also carry the risk of negative interactions with other drugs by affecting liver enzymes. This is particularly problematic for patients with conditions like cystic fibrosis or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), who require multiple medications. These concerns highlight the urgent need for new rifamycins that are more potent against M. abscessus and have fewer drug interactions. They began by synthesizing various analogs of the rifamycin antibiotic rifabutin and screening them for their ability to inhibit the growth of both wild-type M. abscessus and a mutant strain lacking the enzyme adenosine diphosphate (ADP)-ribosyltransferase (Arr), which confers resistance to rifamycins. This initial screen aimed to select compounds that could overcome the bacterium's intrinsic resistance mechanism. Compounds demonstrating favorable potency progressed to the next stage, where their plasma protein binding was assessed in human and mouse plasma. This helped predict how well the drugs would reach their target within infected tissues. Compounds with promising pharmacokinetic properties, comparable to or better than rifabutin, were chosen for further evaluation. The selected compounds underwent additional biological profiling to thoroughly assess their effectiveness against M. abscessus. This included evaluating their bactericidal activity against different forms of the bacteria, such as extracellular (outside cells), intracellular (inside cells), replicating, and nonreplicating. The activity against nonreplicating bacteria is particularly important because these bacteria can survive in a dormant state and are often resistant to antibiotics. This enzyme is involved in metabolizing many drugs, and its induction can lead to reduced effectiveness or increased toxicity of other medications. The study found that several new rifamycin analogs, particularly the lead candidates UMN-120 and UMN-121, which belong to a C25-substituted carbamate series, exhibited significantly improved potency against M. abscessus compared to the current drug, rifabutin. This enhanced activity was attributed to the strategic modification of these analogs to overcome the bacterium's intrinsic resistance mechanisms, specifically ADP-ribosylation. The new compounds demonstrated potent bactericidal activity against both replicating and nonreplicating M. abscessus, including intracellular bacteria residing within macrophages. This was particularly noteworthy since nonreplicating, drug-tolerant bacteria often contribute to the persistence of infection. Rifamycins, including rifabutin, can induce the CYP3A4 enzyme, which plays a critical role in metabolizing various drugs. Crucially, these compounds retained high potency against Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the cause of TB, meaning they could potentially treat TB without the drug interaction liability common to existing rifamycins, offering a significant advantage for patients co-infected with HIV. Furthermore, in mouse models of M. abscessus lung infection, the lead compounds UMN-120 and UMN-121 demonstrated remarkable efficacy. When administered as single agents, they were shown to be at least as effective in reducing bacterial load in the lungs as a standard-of-care combination therapy involving four different drugs. Results indicated that the new rifamycins were generally less metabolically labile than rifabutin and demonstrated favorable cytotoxicity profiles in cell culture assays. The compounds' pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics were primarily evaluated in murine models of acute lung infection. Additionally, the study did not assess activity against M. abscessus in biofilm-like structures or chronic infection models, which are relevant to persistent human disease and represent areas for future investigation. In summary, the research successfully identified new rifamycin analogs, specifically the preclinical development candidates UMN-120 and UMN-121, with enhanced activity against M. abscessus and reduced potential for drug-drug interactions. These findings offer a promising avenue for developing improved treatments for M. abscessus lung infections and potentially safer, more effective regimens for Tuberculosis, supporting their advancement towards clinical evaluation and bringing hope to patients with comorbidities such as HIV and cystic fibrosis. Chinta Sidharthan is a writer based in Bangalore, India. Chinta holds a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the Indian Institute of Science and is passionate about science education, writing, animals, wildlife, and conservation. For her doctoral research, she explored the origins and diversification of blindsnakes in India, as a part of which she did extensive fieldwork in the jungles of southern India. She has received the Canadian Governor General's bronze medal and Bangalore University gold medal for academic excellence and published her research in high-impact journals. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: New rifamycin drugs fight antibiotic-resistant lung infections more effectively. "New rifamycin drugs fight antibiotic-resistant lung infections more effectively". "New rifamycin drugs fight antibiotic-resistant lung infections more effectively". New rifamycin drugs fight antibiotic-resistant lung infections more effectively. Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.

Scientists harnessed AI to create mutation-resistant antibodies that outperformed conventional drug design, offering a powerful new tool against fast-evolving viruses like SARS-CoV-2. Study: AI designed, mutation resistant broad neutralizing antibodies against multiple SARS-CoV-2 strains. In a recent study in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers tested and leveraged several cutting-edge technologies, including machine learning, protein structural modeling, natural language processing, and protein sequence language modeling, to computationally design antibodies capable of neutralizing more than 1,300 SARS-CoV-2 strains (including mutants). The design encompassed 64 key mutations in the spike protein's receptor binding domain (RBD), focusing on this critical region for viral entry. Notably, the present approach was shown to be much more time and cost-effective than traditional structure-based approaches. It may revolutionize future drug design and development, particularly for fast-evolving pathogens that require frequent modifications to account for their rapid mutation rates. However, while the study showed adaptability by reacting to the emergence of Omicron with a second round of antibody design, its predictive capability for completely new and unknown future variants is still speculative and was not directly demonstrated. Thankfully, government-enforced social distancing measures, in combination with widespread anti-COVID-19 immunization interventions, substantially curbed disease spread. Unfortunately, SARS-CoV-2 is a rapidly evolving family of viruses, and novel strains resistant to previously approved antibody therapeutics have now emerged. A classic example of this is the resistance demonstrated by strains B.1.427 and B.1.429 to bamlanivimab and etesevimab due to their L452R substitutions. While ongoing research races to keep up with the origins of novel, increasingly resistant SARS-CoV-2 strains, traditional antibody discovery approaches are labor-intensive, inefficient, and expensive. The present study aims to assess the viability of AI-based approaches to modeling antibody-antigen binding and screening for antibodies with broad-spectrum neutralizing capabilities. It demonstrates the application of AI models in rapidly discovering therapeutics to counter future pandemics and highlights their potential across medical fields. “Our study describes using a deep learning model to computationally design effective and broad-spectrum mutations against various strains of the virus' spike protein, and subsequent wet-lab experimentation confirms the findings.” The study developed several in-house ‘antibody affinity maturation AI models'. These models were based on both GNN and language-based network architectures. The GNN architecture specifically enabled modeling of the relationships between amino acid residues as a graph, capturing both local and global sequence features relevant to antibody-antigen binding. Accuracy and scalability were assessed using a ‘leave-5-out' (L5O) approach. Machine learning models were then used to discover antibodies with broad-spectrum binding to several of the 1,300 supplied SARS-CoV-2 strains. Since the S1 protein is essential for antigen-antibody binding, antibodies that were resistant to mutations in viral S1 proteins (low-to-no reduced binding efficacy) were identified. After the emergence of Omicron, the researchers performed a second round of computational antibody design to further improve antibody affinity specifically against Omicron, demonstrating the reactive adaptability of their approach to newly arising variants. SARS-CoV-2 cross-binding sequence selection and virus mutation data curation. Step 3: Measurement of antibody's binding ability using an ELISA-based assay; and measurement of antibody's neutralizing capacity using neutralization and cytopathic effect (CPE) reduction assays. Notably, both graph- and language-based models equaled or outperformed the current commercial (non-machine learning) structure-based approach – Discovery Studio. “Unlike Discovery Studio, which employs a physical model derived from primary, secondary, and tertiary protein structure to compute binding affinity, our model learns the mapping between antibody sequence and binding affinity from a large amount of experimental data.” The benefits of neural network results extended further, with the graph-based model (Pearson = 0.6) observed to outperform most conventional in silico approaches (Discovery Studio Pearson = 0.45). Encouragingly, most of these antibodies were observed to bind and often reach an oversaturated state at higher concentrations to B.1, Delta, and Omicron SARS-CoV-2 strains. Coronavirus cytopathic assays revealed 10 antibodies capable of neutralizing Vero E6 host cells infected with Delta strains and one antibody capable of neutralizing cells infected with Omicron strains. However, the study also found that strong binding in ELISA assays did not always correspond to neutralizing ability in cell-based assays, indicating that binding affinity alone does not guarantee neutralization. This discrepancy may be due to differences in the spike protein's structure when plate-bound (ELISA) versus on live virus, as well as the specific epitope location and antibody conformation. It is important to note that, while these results are promising, the study was limited to in vitro (laboratory) experiments. No in vivo (animal or human) efficacy studies were performed, and further research, such as epitope mapping and conformation dynamics studies, will be necessary for more precise antibody design and validation. Additionally, while the study focused on achieving broad neutralization, the authors acknowledge that there may be a trade-off between broad cross-reactivity and therapeutic specificity, which could limit utility in some clinical contexts. The present study highlights the benefits of leveraging AI-based structure-free deep neural networks for discovering and screening therapeutic antibodies. These computational models significantly outperformed traditional non-machine learning structure-based platforms in cost, efficiency, and accuracy. AI models have the added benefit of iteratively improving initially discovered antibodies to compensate for mutations in rapidly evolving pathogens. “Because our approach combines flexibility and high-throughput at a low computational cost, it can be beneficial in other applications of the technology as well.” Hugo Francisco de Souza is a scientific writer based in Bangalore, Karnataka, India. His academic passions lie in biogeography, evolutionary biology, and herpetology. He is currently pursuing his Ph.D. from the Centre for Ecological Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, where he studies the origins, dispersal, and speciation of wetland-associated snakes. Hugo has received, amongst others, the DST-INSPIRE fellowship for his doctoral research and the Gold Medal from Pondicherry University for academic excellence during his Masters. His research has been published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals, including PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and Systematic Biology. When not working or writing, Hugo can be found consuming copious amounts of anime and manga, composing and making music with his bass guitar, shredding trails on his MTB, playing video games (he prefers the term ‘gaming'), or tinkering with all things tech. Please use one of the following formats to cite this article in your essay, paper or report: Scientists use AI to build mutation-proof antibodies for SARS-CoV-2. "Scientists use AI to build mutation-proof antibodies for SARS-CoV-2". "Scientists use AI to build mutation-proof antibodies for SARS-CoV-2". Scientists use AI to build mutation-proof antibodies for SARS-CoV-2. Learn how experts are advancing benzodiazepine analysis and detection using insights from the lab. News-Medical.Net provides this medical information service in accordance with these terms and conditions. Please note that medical information found on this website is designed to support, not to replace the relationship between patient and physician/doctor and the medical advice they may provide. Hi, I'm Azthena, you can trust me to find commercial scientific answers from News-Medical.net. Registered members can chat with Azthena, request quotations, download pdf's, brochures and subscribe to our related newsletter content. A few things you need to know before we start. While we only use edited and approved content for Azthena answers, it may on occasions provide incorrect responses. Please confirm any data provided with the related suppliers or authors. Your questions, but not your email details will be shared with OpenAI and retained for 30 days in accordance with their privacy principles. Please do not ask questions that use sensitive or confidential information.