(This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and Thursdays.)<\/p>\n
By Nancy Lapid<\/p>\n
June 10 (Reuters) – We also report on promising early data that could produce a better option for treating C. difficile-caused diarrhea, and the first vaccine for preventing Lassa fever.<\/p>\n
OLD IMMUNOTHERAPY HELPS TYPE 1 DIABETES BLOOD SUGAR CONTROL<\/p>\n
In adults with type 1 \u200cdiabetes since childhood, a decades-old immune system treatment reprogrammed their white blood cells and dramatically improved blood sugar control even without a functioning pancreas, a small trial found.<\/p>\n
Patients with long-standing juvenile-onset type 1 \u200cdiabetes who received six Bacillus Calmette-Gu\u00e9rin (BCG) shots over five years had significant reductions in levels of HbA1c, a measure of blood-glucose levels over time, the researchers reported at the American Diabetes Association meeting in New Orleans.<\/p>\n
BCG treatment, which was developed in 1921 and is widely \u200bused to prevent tuberculosis, also significantly reduced insulin use. Continuous glucose monitoring showed up to a 183.7% improvement over baseline in time spent with blood sugar in the normal range, without increased episodes of low blood sugar.<\/p>\n
“Many patients in the trial were able to normalize their blood sugar levels,\u201d the researchers reported.<\/p>\n
Research into the use of immunotherapy for treating type 1 diabetes has been focused on halting the body\u2019s autoimmune attack on the pancreas, which produces insulin.<\/p>\n
But type 1 diabetes is not just an autoimmune disease, said study leader Dr. Denise Faustman of Massachusetts General Hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhite blood cells in people with type 1 diabetes have a metabolic defect,\u201d she said. \u201cTheir white blood cells consume fat in the blood \u200cfor fuel.” In healthy people, white blood cells consume sugar, she noted.<\/p>\n
If \u2060white blood cells are not utilizing and regulating blood sugars, \u201cyou have abnormal blood sugar levels that are independent of the pancreas,\u201d Faustman said.<\/p>\n
In the mid-stage trial, 34 adults received the BCG shots and 24 volunteers with the disease got placebo shots.<\/p>\n
The BCG immunotherapy activated a cascade of events that ultimately reprogrammed the malfunctioning white blood cells, Faustman said.<\/p>\n
The \u2060improvements were not seen in the control group.<\/p>\n
Unlike injections of insulin, which can cause blood sugar levels to drop precipitously and then rebound, properly functioning white cells keep blood sugar levels closer to normal for longer periods, Faustman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the first time an immunotherapy has worked in people with long-standing type 1 diabetes,\u201d she said, noting that it works independent of the pancreas.<\/p>\n
“And it’s a safe drug that with limited dosing restores blood sugars to a normal range. In the long \u200bterm, \u200bthat will prevent complications.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 100 million newborns receive the BCG vaccine each year, according to the World Health Organization.<\/p>\n
LAB-GROWN BACTERIA \u200bTREATS C. DIFF-CAUSED DIARRHEA<\/p>\n
Factory-produced bacteria may someday replace bacteria cultured from feces for treating \u200csevere recurrent diarrhea caused by Clostridioides difficile, researchers say.<\/p>\n
The diarrhea often begins after patients have been treated with antibiotics that disrupt their gut bacteria, allowing the C. difficile bacteria to thrive.<\/p>\n
Patients with multiple recurrences often receive fecal microbiota transplants, which deliver bacteria cultured from healthy donors\u2019 stool in order to restore a safe balance of intestinal organisms.<\/p>\n
In a pilot study, researchers tested a new treatment made from 15 strains of healthy bacteria originally cultured from donors but then mass-reproduced in a laboratory.<\/p>\n
Eight weeks after treatment, recurrence of C. difficile diarrhea was prevented in seven of nine patients who got the lab-grown bacteria and in eight of nine who received standard fecal microbiota, according to a report of the study published in Nature Medicine.<\/p>\n
There were no treatment-related adverse events.<\/p>\n
Researchers said the lab-grown version could be easier to manufacture and standardize than stool-based treatments because carefully selected bacteria would be produced \u200cunder controlled conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur goal was to move beyond stool-based therapies toward something more precise and reproducible,\u201d said study leader Dr. Ari \u200bGrinspan of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. \u201cBy defining exactly which bacterial strains are included, we can \u200bbetter understand how these therapies work and potentially improve safety, quality control, and scalability.\u201d<\/p>\n
LASSA FEVER VACCINE PROMISING \u200bIN FIRST-IN-HUMAN TRIAL<\/p>\n
An experimental vaccine against Lassa fever and rabies safely induced immune responses against both viruses, researchers reported in Nature Medicine.<\/p>\n
There are no vaccines against Lassa fever on \u200cthe market. The World Health Organization has identified Lassa virus as a public \u200bhealth threat in western Africa. Like Ebola, it can trigger \u200bsevere illness.<\/p>\n
Regions where Lassa fever is common also have a high burden of rabies.<\/p>\n
The randomized U.S. trial tested various doses of the vaccine in 54 healthy volunteers.<\/p>\n
There were no serious adverse events reported, and it induced rapid and robust antibody responses against both Lassa and rabies viruses, the researchers said.<\/p>\n
Vaccine safety and participants\u2019 immune responses will be studied for roughly 13 months post-vaccination. If the vaccine\u2019s effects \u200bare persistent, the researchers will proceed with larger trials.<\/p>\n
The investigational vaccine can be freeze-dried \u200cfor storage, enabling distribution to regions where it can be difficult to maintain cold storage, the researchers said.<\/p>\n
Last year, before results were available, the trial was highlighted by Nature Medicine in \u200bits feature, \u201cEleven clinical trials that will shape medicine in 2026,\u201d which identified studies to watch based on their potential to address major unmet health needs.<\/p>\n
(To receive the full newsletter in \u200byour inbox for free sign up here)<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Nancy Lapid; Additional reporting by Shawana Alleyne-Morris; Editing by Bill Berkrot)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(This is an excerpt of the Health Rounds newsletter, where we present latest medical studies on Tuesdays and…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":857862,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[11],"tags":[11165,350079,5740,350078,138198,33982,210,350080,1867,49197,67,132,68,297753],"class_list":["post-857861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-american-diabetes-association","tag-bcg-treatment","tag-blood-sugar","tag-denise-faustman","tag-diarrhea","tag-gut-bacteria","tag-health","tag-lassa-fever","tag-researchers","tag-type-1-diabetes","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-white-blood-cells"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116726822915982033","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857861"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857861\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}