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The five patients all of whom had an aggressive form of SLE underwent a single infusion of the experimental treatment. All five patients were able to stop their standard treatments for as long as 17 months following the therapy, the study found. The patients also stopped experiencing severe symptoms such as lung inflammation, fibrosis of the heart valves, arthritis, and fatigue. The patients have not relapsed. All of the patients were treated with genetically engineered T cells known as chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy, a treatment regularly used to kill cancer cells. Researchers harvested the patients’ immune cells and engineered them to destroy dysfunctional cells when infused back into the body.

RSV is the leading cause of lower respiratory tract infections in infants. Worldwide, acute lower respiratory infections associated with RSV account for about 1.4 million hospitalizations & 27,300 in-hospital deaths among infants under the age of 6 months annually, according to the WHO. Nirsevimab is a long-acting antibody given as a single intramuscular injection at a dose of 50 mg for infants with a body weight of less than 5 kg, and 100 mg for infants weighing at least 5 kg. If approved, nirsevimab will be the only preventative option for the broad newborn and infant population against RSV.

A novel zoonotic RNA Langya virus (LayV) is a henipavirus first detected in the China provinces of Shandong and Henan. The name of the virus refers to Mt. Langya.

Symptoms: fever, fatigue, cough

Langya henipavirus affects humans, dogs, goats, and its presumed original host are shrews.

Lab findings in patients: thrombocytopenia, leukopenia, impaired liver and kidney function test.

Treatment: No specific drug or vaccination only supportive care.

Monkeypox is a zoonotic orthopoxvirus.

Usual onset: 5–21 days post-exposure.

Duration: 2 to 4 weeks.

Route: Human-to-human transmission, exposure to infected body fluids or contaminated objects by small droplets through the airborne route.

Symptoms: Fever, headache, muscle pains, shivering, mostly nonitchy blistering rash on face, hands, soles and swollen lymph nodes.

Complications: Secondary infections, eye infection, visual loss, scarring, encephalitis, sepsis, bronchopneumonia.

Types: Central African (Congo Basin), West African

Diagnosis: Testing for viral DNA PCR

Differential diagnosis: Chickenpox, smallpox

Prevention: Smallpox vaccine, hand washing, covering rash, PPE

Treatment: Supportive, antivirals, vaccinia immune globulin

Medication: Tecovirimat

Vitamin D supplementation did not appear to influence the incidence of cancer or major cardiovascular disease (CVD) events in older adults who largely already had adequate vitamin D levels, according to a new randomized controlled study. In the cohort of nearly 2500 healthy individuals, the researchers found no differences in cancer or CVD incidence over 5 years between the groups randomly assigned to vitamin D supplementation and to placebo.

Source: The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

Researchers have reported that a woman living with HIV in Argentina is now the second person whose immune system rid itself of the virus. She was diagnosed with HIV-1 in 2013. Researchers found that she might potentially be an “elite controller” of the virus, showing no signs of active HIV infection in the 8 years since her diagnosis.

The Esperanza patient is just the second person reported to have possibly staved off the virus naturally- ultimately erasing any signs of active HIV without the assistance of medical therapies like stem cell transplants. The first was a woman from California, Loreen Willenberg, who is now 67 years old. She was diagnosed with HIV in 1992, and her immune system apparently performed the same function of naturally eliminating HIV.

Source: Healthline

Subcutaneous vedolizumab appears to be an effective and safe maintenance therapy for some patients with moderate to severe active Crohn’s disease, according to results of a phase-3 trial. Vedolizumab, the first gut-selective biologic for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, now offers IV and SC routes of administration for maintenance therapy.

Source: Journal of Crohn’s and Colitis

The addition of dapagliflozin to standard therapy reduced the relative risk for the primary composite endpoint of any serious ventricular arrhythmia, resuscitated cardiac arrest, or sudden death by 21%. Dapagliflozin and other SGLT2 inhibitors have favorable effects on adverse cardiac remodeling, which contributes to sudden death and ventricular arrhythmia. They’ve also been shown to reduce cardiac chamber size, left ventricular hypertrophy, and N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels over time, consistent with a reduction in in myocardial wall stress.

Source: Medscape

The US FDA has approved an expanded peripheral artery disease (PAD) indication for the direct oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban to include patients who have undergone recent lower-extremity revascularization due to symptomatic PAD. The approved regimen in this patient population is rivaroxaban 2.5 mg twice daily with aspirin 100 mg once daily. Rivaroxaban with aspirin is the first and only treatment indicated for both coronary artery disease (CAD) and PAD.

Source: Medscape

A new monoclonal antibody discovered and developed at the National Institutes of Health safely prevented malaria for up to 9 months in people who were exposed to the malaria parasite. The small clinical trial is the first to show an antibody capable of preventing malaria in people. A total of 25 participants received at least one dose of an antibody named CIS43LS, and four of them received a second dose. Among adults who had never had malaria infection or vaccination, CIS43LS prevented malaria.

Source: NEJM