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Partner’s genome may affect your health + SA coronavirus mutation threat to vaccines?

#1
C C Offline
Your Partner’s Genome May Affect Your Health
https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opini...alth-68318

INTRO: People’s health and lifestyle are influenced by the genes of their partners, according to a study published last month (December 14) in Nature Human Behavior. Using data from more than 80,000 couples in the UK Biobank, researchers identified multiple correlations between individuals’ traits and their partners’ genomes, and concluded that around one-quarter of those associations were partly causal, with one person’s DNA having indirect effects on the other person’s health or behavior.

“I was really excited to see this paper,” says Emily McLean, an evolutionary biologist at Oxford College of Emory University in Georgia who was not involved in the work. “Intuitively, it seems like, of course our behaviors are influenced by the individuals around us, and likely by the genes that those individuals are carrying. So it was really great to see some empirical support for that intuitive idea.”

Unlike direct genetic effects, which reflect the influence of your own genes on your phenotype, indirect genetic effects are a form of environmental influence, driven by the genetic traits of people around you. In a simple hypothetical example, a person who is genetically predisposed to smoking might raise their partner’s risk of lung cancer via exposure to cigarette smoke or by encouraging them to smoke more... (MORE)


South African coronavirus mutation might be a threat to vaccines
https://bgr.com/2021/01/04/coronavirus-m...-vaccines/

SUMMRY POINTS: British health officials are more worried about the South African coronavirus mutation than the UK mutation. British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said of the South African strain that it is a ”very significant problem,” and that’s why the UK blocked travel to the country. Researchers still need to determine whether current vaccines will work on both strains, but some worry that the South African strain might not be affected by the vaccines.

[...] pert said that if the vaccines don’t work against one of the new strains, the drug could be adapted. The process would not take a year. BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said a few weeks ago that the company would need six weeks to modify the vaccine for a new strain. similar thing happens with the flu vaccines that have to be updated every year to account for the various mutations some of the flu viruses might have acquired... (MORE - details)


Study finds hydroxychloroquine may have boosted survival, but other researchers have doubts
https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/02/health/hy...index.html

EXCERPTS: A surprising new study found the controversial antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine helped patients better survive in the hospital. But the findings, like the federal government's use of the drug itself, were disputed. A team at Henry Ford Health System in southeast Michigan said Thursday their study of 2,541 hospitalized patients found that those given hydroxychloroquine were much less likely to die.

[...] It's a surprising finding because several other studies have found no benefit from hydroxychloroquine, a drug originally developed to treat and prevent malaria. President Donald Trump touted the drug heavily, but later studies found not only did patients not do better if they got the drug, they were more likely to suffer cardiac side effects. The US Food and Drug Administration withdrew its emergency use authorization for the drug earlier this month and trials around the world, including trials sponsored by the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health, were halted.

[...] "Our results do differ from some other studies," Zervos told a news conference. "What we think was important in ours ... is that patients were treated early. For hydroxychloroquine to have a benefit, it needs to begin before the patients begin to suffer some of the severe immune reactions that patients can have with Covid," he added.

[...] "It's important to note that in the right settings, this potentially could be a lifesaver for patients," Dr. Steven Kalkanis, CEO of the Henry Ford Medical Group, said at the news conference. Kalkanis said that their findings do not necessarily contradict those of earlier studies. "We also want to make the point that just because our results differ from some others that may have been published, it doesn't make those studies wrong or definitely a conflict. What it simply means is that by looking at the nuanced data of which patients actually benefited and when, we might be able to further unlock the code of how this disease works," he said.

[...] Researchers not involved with the study were critical. They noted that the Henry Ford team did not randomly treat patients but selected them for various treatments based on certain criteria... (MORE - details)
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#2
C C Offline
Here’s why the South African coronavirus mutation is even worse than UK strain
https://bgr.com/2021/01/06/coronavirus-m...-gottlieb/

SUMMARY POINTS: Dr. Scott Gottlieb said in an interview that the South African coronavirus mutation might evade the action of antibody drugs, citing a recent study. A few weeks ago, the 501.V2 mutation was observed in South Africa, becoming the dominant strain in some regions. British officials said earlier this week they’re more worried about the South African strain than the UK coronavirus mutation, as the former might evade vaccines... (MORE - details)


U.S. Is Blind to Contagious New Virus Variant, Scientists Warn
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/healt...cking.html

EXCERPTS: It’s not too late to curb the contagious variant’s spread in the U.S., experts say — but only with a national program for genetic sequencing.
Drive through testing at Echo Park Stadium in Denver, Colo., last month. Though about 1.4 million people test positive for the virus each week, only 3,500 of those samples are sequenced to detect the new variant.

With no robust system to identify genetic variations of the coronavirus, experts warn that the United States is woefully ill-equipped to track a dangerous new mutant, leaving health officials blind as they try to combat the grave threat.

The variant, which is now surging in Britain and burdening its hospitals with new cases, is rare for now in the United States. But it has the potential to explode in the next few weeks, putting new pressures on American hospitals, some of which are already near the breaking point.

The United States has no large-scale, nationwide system for checking coronavirus genomes for new mutations, including the ones carried by the new variant. About 1.4 million people test positive for the virus each week, but researchers are only doing genome sequencing — a method that can definitively spot the new variant — on fewer than 3,000 of those weekly samples. And that work is done by a patchwork of academic, state and commercial laboratories.

Scientists say that a national surveillance program would be able to determine just how widespread the new variant is and help contain emerging hot spots, extending the crucial window of time in which vulnerable people across the country could get vaccinated. That would cost several hundred million dollars or more. While that may seem like a steep price tag, it’s a tiny fraction of the $16 trillion in economic losses that the United States is estimated to have sustained because of Covid-19.

“We need some sort of leadership,” said Dr. Charles Chiu, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, whose team spotted some of the first California cases of the new variant. “This has to be a system that is implemented on a national level. Without that kind of dedicated support, it’s simply not going to get done.”

[...] Experts point to Britain as a model for what the U.S. could do. British researchers sequence the genome — that is, the complete genetic material in a coronavirus — from up to 10 percent of new positive samples. ... But the U.S. falls far short of that goal now... (MORE - details)
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