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Researchers from the Centenary Institute and the University of Sydney have developed a unique nasal vaccination approach that provides significant lung immunity and protection against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.
The findings were reported in the prominent journal Nature Communications. The novel vaccination technique has been successfully tested in mice and has the potential to be a significant tool for improving protection against COVID-19 infection and limiting viral dissemination.

The new vaccine was delivered by simply breathing in through the nose and was made up of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein and an adjuvant called Pam2Cys (a molecule that helps stimulate a stronger immune response in the body) developed by Professor Richard Payne, NHMRC Investigator in the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Science. It induced significant levels of neutralising antibodies as well as enhanced T-cell responses in the lungs and airways of the mice examined.

Dr Anneliese Ashhurst, lead author of the study and research fellow at the University of Sydney’s Faculty of Medicine and Health and the Centenary Institute, stated that while current COVID-19 vaccines are critical, there are some limitations, including waning immunity after vaccination and infection, as well as the impact of new viral variants evolving.

“Current vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 substantially reduce mortality and severe disease, but protection against infection is less effective. Vaccinated individuals are still catching COVID-19 and can spread the infection, so breakthrough infections are still occurring,” said Dr Ashhurst.
“To stop viral spread and to prevent this virus from mutating we need a new vaccine approach that blocks COVID-19 transmission,” she said.

The novel vaccine was given nasally in the mice trial, making its way through the respiratory system and sticking to the tissues of the nasal cavity, airways, and lungs. High quantities of protective antibodies were found in the airways, as well as enhanced T-cell responses in the lungs, according to testing (T-cells help destroy SARS-CoV-2 infected cells). Notably, none of the vaccinated mice developed COVID-19 infection.

“Our vaccine differs from most current COVID-19 vaccines in that it enables generation of an immune response directly in those areas of the body that are likely to be the first point of contact for the virus – the nose, airway and lungs. This may help explain the vaccine’s effectiveness,” said Dr Ashhurst.

Senior study author, Professor Emeritus Warwick Britton AO, Head of the Centenary Institute’s Tuberculosis Research Program, said that the new vaccine strategy could play a key role in the fight against many diseases.
“Our vaccination findings have shown exciting potential in pre-clinical studies, improving protection against SARS-CoV-2 infection. The approach developed here could help break the COVID-19 infection cycle and will likely influence future coronavirus vaccine related studies,” Professor Britton said.

He added that adapted versions of the new nasal vaccine could also be potentially applied to other viral or bacterial respiratory diseases such as influenza, avian flu, SARS and MERS.

Women who obtain a benign breast disease diagnosis through screening have a nearly doubled chance of acquiring breast cancer, according to studies presented at the 13th European Breast Cancer Conference.
The study compared women who had any benign breast illness, including fibroadenomas and cysts, against those who had not been diagnosed with a breast disease. It included about 7,000,000 Spanish women who had their breasts screened. Researchers believe that this group of women might benefit from more frequent screening to ensure that cancer is detected early, when the odds of survival are greatest. Breast cancer risk remained higher for at least two decades.

The study was presented at the conference by Dr Marta Roman of the Hospital del Mar in Barcelona, Spain, and it was also published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. It included 778,306 women between the ages of 50 and 69 who had at least one breast screening at one of 20 centres in Spain between 1996 and 2015. Every two years, all women in this age range in Spain have mammography for breast cancer screening.

Researchers followed the women up until 2017, when 17,827 of them were diagnosed with benign breast disease and 11,708 with breast cancer.

According to the data, around 25 out of every 1,000 women with benign breast sickness went on to be diagnosed with breast cancer. Breast cancer was diagnosed in about 15 out of every 1,000 women who did not have benign breast disease. Women with benign breast illness were shown to be at greater risk regardless of age, and the risk lasted for at least 20 years. Breast cancer diagnoses were 99 percent more frequent among women who had been observed for less than four years than in those who had been followed for 12 to 20 years.

“This is important,” Dr Roman explained. “It suggests that benign breast disease is a key indicator that a woman has a higher risk of breast cancer, rather than simply being something that could develop into cancer. In fact, we often find a benign disease in one breast and then cancer develops in the other breast.

“We can use this knowledge, alongside what we know about other risk factors, to help optimise the breast screening that we offer to women. For example, if a woman is diagnosed with a benign breast disease, and she has other high-risk factors, such as a family history of breast cancer, she could benefit from more frequent screening.”

Professor David Cameron of the University of Edinburgh Cancer Research Centre, UK, represents the European Breast Cancer Council at EBCC13 and was not involved in the research.

He said: “Screening can help diagnose breast cancer at an earlier stage when the chances of survival are greater. This large study shows that women in a screening programme who are diagnosed with a benign breast disease appear to be at a higher risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer in the long term and they may therefore benefit from enhanced screening.

“Mammograms quite often pick up signs of breast disease that are not cancer, such as cysts and fibroadenomas, and it’s important to remember that the majority of women with these conditions will not go on to develop breast cancer.”

Depression has been related to reduced odds of having children in both men and women, according to a recent study published in the respected American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
This study, which drew on the unique Finnish registration data, studied the correlations between diagnosed depression and the chance of having children, the number of children, and the age at first birth for all men and women born in Finland between 1960 and 1980.

One of the most important findings was that depression was linked to a decreased chance of having children and a lower number of children in both men and women.

“Depression was also associated with a little younger age at first birth,” says lead researcher Kateryna Golovina of the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies. Men who suffer from moderate depression are less likely to have children. Men with depression had a 33% lower chance of having a child than men without depression; women with depression had a 15% lower chance of having a child than women without depression.

An interesting finding was that the intensity of depression was connected to the possibility of having children: for men, even moderate depression was associated with a reduced likelihood of having children, but for women, only severe depression was associated with a decreased likelihood of having children. Socioeconomic factors influence the relationship between depression and the chance of having children.

The researchers also looked at whether there were any educational disparities in the relationship between depression and the chance of having children.
“Depression was associated with a reduced chance of having children and having fewer children among men and women with secondary and higher education. For males with a basic education, no relationships were found, however for women, depression was associated with a greater risk of having children “Kateryna Golovina adds

Early detection and treatment of depression are critical.
The findings have therapeutic significance, implying that depression is one of the variables influencing the chance of having children, emphasising the need of early prevention and treatment of depression.

Timely screening for depression, for example, can be achieved by expanding the availability of mental health experts or by obstetrician-gynecologists and women’s health practitioners. Men should assess the degree of their sadness, because even moderate depression can have greater detrimental health and behavioural impacts than women.

“Overall, our findings provide another reason to provide accessible mental health services to young people and to undertake low-threshold treatments and therapies,” says Faculty of Medicine Professor Marko Elovainio. The research was carried out in partnership with the University of Helsinki and the Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare. The Helsinki Collegium supported Advanced Studies, the University of Helsinki, and the Academy of Finland with financing.

The Centre informed the Supreme Court that there was no legal requirement to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Centre argued in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court that the idea of informed consent is inapplicable to the voluntary use of a medicine such as a vaccination.

“While the Government of India strongly encourages all eligible persons to undertake vaccination in public interest, there is no legal compulsion for the same,” the affidavit read. The statement came in response to a petition filed by two parents whose children reportedly died as a result of the COVID vaccine’s negative effects.

If a person experiences bodily harm or death as a result of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI), the vaccination beneficiary or their family have legal options, including filing a claim for damages/compensation in civil courts for negligence, malfeasance, or misfeasance.

“Such claims may be determined on a case-to-case basis in an appropriate forum,” the Centre said further submitting: “there is no material evidence to suggest how the State can be fastened with strict liability for the tragic death of the respective children of the petitioners which is the requirement in law to sustain a claim for compensation against the State under Article 32 of the Constitution.”

The union government, on the other hand, stated that the facts contained in this affidavit demonstrate how the Government of India has taken significant steps to ensure a safe National COVID-19 Vaccination Program.
The Centre further stated that both the vaccine manufacturer and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare make information on COVID-19 inoculation openly available in the public domain (MoHFW).

AEFIs have been recorded for every vaccination in the globe, just as side effects in medication. A vaccine beneficiary can always get more information about the vaccine and its potential side effects from health workers at the vaccination site or their doctor before making an informed decision on their own, according to the government, who claims that once a vaccine beneficiary has access to all relevant information and voluntarily chooses to enter a vaccination centre and receive vaccination, the issue of lack of informed consent is resolved.

The Centre has opposed the petition seeking compensation from the respondents for the deaths of their respective children, claiming that causation analysis revealed that the death of the first petitioner’s daughter was caused by a vaccine product-related reaction, while there is insufficient evidence to reach a definitive conclusion in the case of the second petitioner’s daughter.

The Centre further said that the National AEFI Committee and Secretariat’s existing structure for monitoring, investigation, and analysis of AEFIs is appropriate, effective, transparent, and directed by worldwide best practises and scientific medical specialists.

“The Petitioners’ request for an independent examination of AEFI cases should not be granted by this Court because it would cast doubt on the existing regulatory and AEFI monitoring mechanisms and undermine the public interest. It should be underlined that the Petitioners have failed to demonstrate how the existing AEFI monitoring and investigation mechanism has proven ineffective in this case “The Centre urged the court to dismiss the plea.

Dhaka, 28 November 2022: Globally one in eight or over one billion people today are migrants with 281 million international migrants and many million individuals who are stateless. Climate change, rising inequality, conflicts, trade, and population growth are accelerating these trends. The health workforce has a vital role in providing for the health rights and needs of refugees and migrants.

With an aim to support countries and territories to build professional competence and capacity to adequately address refugee and migrant health issues, WHO is organizing the third edition of its annual Global School on Refugee and Migrant Health in Dhaka, Bangladesh with a focus on capacity-building.

“Migration and displacement can have deep and long-lasting impacts on physical and mental health and well-being, and cultural and linguistic differences, financial barriers, stigma and discrimination can all hamper access to health services for refugees and migrants,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General . “Health workers have a crucial role in helping to overcome these barriers. The WHO Global School on Refugee and Migrant Health is a valuable resource for building the capacity of health workers to better serve refugees and migrants.”

While not all refugees and migrants are vulnerable, often they are, due to an array of determinants, from xenophobia and discrimination to poor living, housing, and working conditions, and inadequate access to health services that are people-centered and which are sensitive to refugee and migrant health needs.

“Human right to health is a right that extends to all people everywhere, especially refugees and migrants. Because to be truly respected, protected and fulfilled, a right must be fully enjoyed by the most marginalized and vulnerable – those at risk of or who are already being left behind, which often includes people on the move,” said Dr Poonam Khetrapal Singh, Regional Director, WHO South-East Asia addressing the participants.

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), a catch-all name for a variety of liver disorders affecting persons who use little to no alcohol, affects around one-fourth of the global population. NAFLD can cause cirrhosis, liver cancer, and liver failure.

According to a new study from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, first-degree relatives of persons with NAFLD who have severe fibrosis are 15% more likely to get the illness themselves. The findings emphasise the need of early screening of both siblings and offspring of NAFLD patients. They were published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation’s online version.

“Until now, first-degree relatives accompanying their loved ones with liver disease for medical treatment didn’t know they were at a greater risk of developing advanced fibrosis themselves,” said Rohit Loomba, MD, the study’s first author, professor in the Division of Gastroenterology at UC San Diego School of Medicine and director of hepatology at UC San Diego Health.

“Liver disease is a silent killer. Most people don’t know they have a liver problem until it’s advanced and they develop cirrhosis because there are no obvious symptoms.” According to Loomba, the study’s findings could play a key role in early detection.

“Our goal and mission are to identify patients who have more advanced liver problems earlier, and non-invasively, to prevent the progression to cirrhosis,” said Loomba, director of UC San Diego School of Medicine’s NAFLD Research Center.

The complicated metabolic disease NAFLD involves risk factors from both the environment and the genes. Recent study has revealed that severe fibrosis may cluster among the same families and that NAFLD and NAFLD-related liver fibrosis are hereditary.

The study included nearly 400 first-degree relatives from two different cohorts in the United States and Finland. To evaluate liver fibrosis, magnetic resonance elastography and other noninvasive imaging techniques were utilised.
The findings have given scientists the information they need to recommend regular testing for advanced fibrosis among first-degree relatives of cirrhotic or advanced fibrotic patients.

“Siblings and offspring of patients should be evaluated around age 40 or 50,” said Loomba. “Our findings could change the standard of care for this high-risk population.”
Loomba added that educating first-degree relatives about risk factors, including excessive drinking, weight gain and a sedentary lifestyle are also crucial.

“Many genes associated with liver disease change depending on a person’s lifestyle and diet. That suggests that first-degree relatives who are aware of the risk and ready to make lifestyle changes can assist avoid the development of advanced fibrosis “Loomba said. “When patients are aware of their risk, they are more inclined to adjust their behaviour and lifestyle.”
Loomba anticipates that the next step will be to find genetic markers within families that enhance the incidence of NAFLD in order to diagnose and treat individuals early.

Cancers of the appendix, a tiny tissue pouch in the gastrointestinal system, are exceedingly rare, affecting less than one or two persons per million each year. The future is uncertain, with a 5-year survival rate ranging from 67 to 97 percent for low-grade tumours identified early, but significantly lower for advanced instances that may have migrated to other body areas.

The lack of an effective preclinical model to examine its pathophysiology and test novel drugs or therapeutic methods has been a major impediment for cancer researchers attempting to understand and cure appendiceal cancer.

Researchers from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center at UC San Diego Health present the first preclinical model of appendiceal cancer that comprises all parts of the tumour, allowing previously stalled investigations to proceed.

“We’ve learned that appendiceal cancer has a distinctive genomic landscape and is surprisingly full of immune cells,” said senior author Andrew Lowy, MD, chief of the Division of Surgical Oncology at Moores Cancer Center and a professor of surgery at UC San Diego School of Medicine.

“Relying on other models, such as colorectal, doesn’t apply, which makes this an unmet need. Epithelial neoplasms (new, abnormal tissue growth) of the appendix are rare, but without an effective way to study them, the opportunities to develop new treatments have also been rare.”

There are various challenges to developing a preclinical model of appendiceal cancer:
1. Access to clinical specimens is limited due to the rarity of the condition.
2. The majority of neoplasms have mucinous histology, which makes them difficult to diagnose and cultivate under a microscope.
3. Mice lack the human appendix, making them unsuitable for use as a genetically engineered model.
4. Lowy and coworkers created a live appendiceal cancer cell organotypic slice culture.

Organotypic slices are three-dimensional organ cultures. The slices in this example are generated from appendiceal cancer tissue taken from patients after surgery and cultivated ex vivo, or outside of the body. Organotypic slices have previously been used to represent various diseases such as pancreatic, lung, and colon cancer, but not appendiceal cancer.

According to the scientists, the organotypic model successfully recapitulates appendiceal tumours in terms of cell mix and behaviour, making it a promising new research tool in addition to organoids and patient-derived xenografts (transplanted tissue grown in another species, such as a mouse or rat).

“We’ve learned that utilizing tissue slices made from patient tumour resections is a great way to study the pathobiology of this disease, and we are hopeful they will help predict therapy responses in patients,” said Lowy. “Using this new model, we can now test new treatments that might lead to better outcomes for patients with advanced disease.

Bronchitis in childhood has been proven to raise the risk of lung disorders in middle age, according to study from the University of Melbourne’s Allergy and Lung Health Unit. Researchers discovered that children in Australia who experienced bronchitis at least once before the age of seven were more likely to have lung issues later in life. They also discovered that at the age of 53, the children’s lung problems were mainly asthma and pneumonia, rather than chronic bronchitis or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Dr Jennifer Perret, lead author of a report published today in the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research, said the findings originate from one of the world’s oldest surveys, the Tasmanian Longitudinal Health Study, which monitored 8,583 persons born in Tasmania between 1961 and 1968.

“This is the first long-term prospective study to look at the link between childhood bronchitis severity and adult lung health outcomes. We’ve already seen that children with chronic bacterial bronchitis are more likely to develop serious chronic infective lung disease after two to five years, so studies like ours are documenting the potential for symptomatic children to develop lung conditions like asthma and lung function changes up to mid-adulthood “She stated.

By assessing the initial participants when they entered the study, researchers established the association between childhood bronchitis and adult lung problems. Participants were subsequently followed for an average of 46 years, with 42% completing another questionnaire between 2012 and 2016, which included doctor-diagnosed lung problems and a clinical examination.
They discovered that the more frequently a person was diagnosed by a doctor with pneumonia and asthma, the more probable the individual experienced bronchitis as a youngster.

According to Dr. Perret, the numbers in the most severe subgroup were tiny (only 42 people were in this category, and only 14 of them had ongoing asthma in middle age), but the patterns throughout bronchitis severity levels were substantial.

“Compared with the majority who never had from bronchitis, there was an incremental increase in risk for later asthma and pneumonia which strengthened the more often a person had suffered from bronchitis as a child, and especially if they had recurrent episodes which were prolonged for at least one month in duration.

“It is notable that the link with later adult active asthma was seen for participants who did not have co-existent asthma or wheezing in childhood, and a similar finding has been recently seen in a very large meta-analysis of school-aged children who had had a lower respiratory tract infection during early childhood.”

Migraine is one of the most incapacitating conditions, affecting one in every seven persons and posing a significant social and economic cost. Several studies have found that migraine is a condition that affects a broad area of the central nervous system and is defined by a systemic failure in sensory information processing and integration that occurs even between migraine episodes (interictal period). Patients with migraine, for example, have enhanced cerebral reactions to sensory inputs during the interictal interval. At the moment, the biological processes causing these changes are mainly unclear.

A team of neuroscientists led by Mirko Santello at the University of Zurich’s Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, in conjunction with the University of Padua, has found a novel mechanism linked in a rare form of migraine caused by genetic mutation. They claim that this familial hemiplegic migraine type 2 (FHM2) causes astrocytes in the cingulate cortex, a brain area implicated in pain perception, to fail. Astrocytes, or star-shaped brain cells, are critical contributors to neuronal function and have a significant influence on brain circuits and behaviour.

“Despite their abundance, astrocytes have been relatively overlooked by neuroscientists,” says Mirko Santello, last author of the study. Nonetheless, these cells are critical in clearing neurotransmitters. The researchers were able to demonstrate that in familial migraine, astrocytes are unable to eliminate excessive transmitters generated by neurons.

“The impairment in astrocytic glutamate uptake in the cingulate cortex strongly enhances cortical dendritic excitability and thus enhances firing of the neurons,” Santello says. Furthermore, the study found that cingulate brain dysfunction impacts migraine incidence. The researchers demonstrated greater sensitivity to head pain triggers in a mouse model.

“By manipulating astrocytes in the cingulate cortex, we were able to reverse their dysfunction. This prevented an increase in head pain in mice carrying the genetic defect,” says Jennifer Romanos, first author of the study. Migraine is a complex neurological illness that affects a portion of the nerve system.

“Our results provide a clear example of how astrocyte dysfunction produced by a genetic defect affects neuronal activity and sensitivity to head pain triggers,” explains Mirko Santello. The findings contribute to a better understanding of migraine pathogenesis and imply that the cingulate cortex is a major hub in the condition. The discovery of a relationship between astrocyte malfunction in the cingulate cortex and familial migraine may aid in the development of novel migraine treatment techniques.