linkstream2 microblog

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“Current treatments for diseases related to ageing “just exchange one disease for another”, says physician Nir Barzilai of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. That is because people treated for one age-related disease often go on to die from another relatively soon thereafter. “What we want to show is that if we delay ageing, that’s the best way to delay disease.”

Barzilai and other researchers plan to test that notion in a clinical trial called Targeting Aging with Metformin, or TAME. They will give the drug metformin to thousands of people who already have one or two of three conditions — cancer, heart disease or cognitive impairment — or are at risk of them. People with type 2 diabetes cannot be enrolled because metformin is already used to treat that disease.
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http://www.nature.com/news/anti-ageing-pill-pushed-as-bona-fide-drug-1.17769

Make Pharma Great Again w. AI, by @mostafabenh
https://Medium.com/@mostafab/make-pharma-great-again-with-artificial-intelligence-some-challenges-50e91ea9988d Optimism-inducing Moore’s law in tech vs. #Eroom’s law for drugs

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Drug discovery is getting increasingly tough and expensive. Despite technological progress, the cost of developing a new drug doubles every nine years. That’s Eroom’s law of Pharma, which mirrors Moore’s law for computer performance.

….

Drugs are getting more expensive

In the tech industry, the situation is different. Optimism prevails. Tech is fueled by Moore’s law, the fact that computer performance is doubling every 18 months.

Moore’s law

This exponential progress keeps prices low. For example, Google gives away the use of its new TPU chip for free, for some scientific projects. Tech companies are more generous due to their feeling of abundance. How can Tech help Pharma, especially at a time of expansion for Artificial Intelligence?
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‘Make Pharma Great Again with Artificial Intelligence: some Challenges’

https://medium.com/@mostafab/make-pharma-great-again-with-artificial-intelligence-some-challenges-50e91ea9988d

Clues from the resilient
http://www.ScienceMag.org/content/344/6187/970.full Potential 2nd site mutations that neutralize #Mendelian-disease mutations

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“For 127 catastrophic Mendelian diseases (those caused by a single gene such as cystic fibrosis and ataxia-telangiectasia), there are presently 164 genes harboring 685 known recurrent variants that are highly penetrant and causal for deleterious traits, most typically manifesting in individuals before the age of 18 (). …For common diseases, the observed small effect sizes of individual gene variants limit diagnostic potential, and given that most variants identified have an unclear function, how to target the corresponding gene for therapeutic intervention is typically unclear. For rarer Mendelian disorders, although genetics directly implicate a specific gene in a disease, a majority of such cases relate to loss-of-function mutations. Designing small molecules to fix the corresponding broken protein has proven difficult….
The prominent role of second-site mutations and environmental factors that enable resistance to (or buffer against) disease traits has been well established in a multitude of model organisms from yeast to mice (–). Screening for second-site mutations in “resilient” individuals that prevent disease-causing alleles from manifesting their effects could identify targets to which drugs would be designed to disrupt their function, as opposed to targeting the disease-causing gene directly. Genetic studies examining seemingly healthy people have revealed, for example, rare mutations in chemokine (C-C motif) receptor type 5 (the co-receptor for human immunodeficiency virus) that block HIV infection (), and secondary mutations in fetal globin genes that modify the severity of sickle cell disease by buffering primary mutations in β-globin genes ()
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Studies published in 2013 indicate that high levels of TMAO in the blood are associated with an increased risk of major adverse cardiovascular events.[9] The concentration of TMAO in the blood increases after consuming foods containing carnitine[10] or
lecithin[9] if the bacteria that convert those substances to TMAO are present in the gut.[11] High concentrations of carnitine are found in red meat, some energy drinks, and some dietary supplements;
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trimethylamine_N-oxide

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A peculiar cross reaction with a specific food exists with Lipitor and other “statin” drugs used to lower cholesterol. Grapefruit juice blocks special enzymes in the wall of the small intestine that actually destroy many medications, including Lipitor, and prevents their absorption into the body.
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http://www.rxlist.com/script/main/mobileart-rx.asp?articlekey=87598

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Men who are 50 years old or younger should consume 38 grams of fiber per day, according to MayoClinic.com. Men who are 51 years old or older need 30 grams of fiber per day.
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http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/many-grams-fiber-should-daily-3644.html

FormBox: A Desktop…Former…Makes Beautiful Things, by @TeamMayku
https://www.KickStarter.com/projects/1094489804/formbox-a-desktop-vacuum-former-that-makes-beautif 3D printouts w/ chocolate & cement + ABS, PVC…

ice too

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“Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene ABS (the stuff Lego is made from) Polystyrene PS (Commonly found in: Product packaging)
Polycarbonate PC (Commonly found in: Drinks bottles)
Polypropylene PP (Commonly found in: Buckets, spades, chairs, everything!) Polyethylene (Commonly found in: sheet and foamed sheet)
PE (Commonly found in: Insulating cases, bottles)
Polyvinyl Chloride PVC (Commonly found in: straws, plastic pipes) Acrylic PMMA (Commonly found in: Light up signs)
PETg (Commonly found in: Food safe molds)
HIPS (Commonly found in: Disposable cups)”
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Facebook, Free Expression & the Power of a Leak, by @MargotKaminski
‏https://www.NYTimes.com/2017/06/27/opinion/facebook-first-amendment-leaks-free-speech.html Internal company choices vs. the law

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“But there are also crucial distinctions. Where First Amendment law protects speech about public figures more than speech about private individuals, Facebook does the opposite. If a user calls for violence, however generic, against a head of state, Facebook deems that a credible threat against a “vulnerable person.” It’s fine to say, “I hope someone kills you.” It is not fine to say, “Somebody shoot Trump.” While the government cannot arrest you for saying it, Facebook will remove the post.

These differences are to be expected. Courts protect speech about public officials because the Constitution gives them the job of protecting fundamental individual rights in the name of social values like autonomy or democratic self-governance. Facebook probably constrains speech about public officials because as a large corporate actor with meaningful assets, it and other sites can be pressured into cooperation with governments.”
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Design for data sharing
http://www.Nature.com/nbt/journal/v34/n4/full/nbt.3516.html Issues in distributing mPower mobile dataset – no DAC, allowing donors to change preferences

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“This March, Sage Bionetworks (Seattle) began sharing curated data collected from >9,000 participants of mPower, a smartphone-enabled health research study for Parkinson’s disease. The mPower study is notable as one of the first observational assessments of human health to rapidly achieve scale as a result of its design and execution purely through a smartphone interface. To support this unique study design, we developed a novel electronic informed consent process that includes participant-determined data-sharing preferences. It is through these preferences that the new data—including self-reported outcomes and quantitative sensor data—are shared broadly for secondary analysis. Our hope is that by sharing these data immediately, prior even to our own complete analysis, we will shorten the time to harnessing any utility that this study’s data may hold to improve the condition of patients who suffer from this disease.

Turbulent times for data sharing

Our release of mPower comes at a turbulent time in data sharing. The power of data for secondary research is top of mind for many these days. Vice President Joe Biden, in heading President Barack Obama’s ambitious cancer ‘moonshot’, describes data sharing as second only to funding to the success of the effort. However, this powerful support for data sharing stands in opposition to the opinions of many within the research establishment. To wit, the august New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM)’s recent editorial suggesting that those who wish to reuse clinical trial data without the direct participation and approval of the original study team are “research parasites”. In the wake of colliding perspectives on data sharing, we must not lose sight of the scientific and societal ends served by such efforts.” “}}

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“For people, a drug that’s safe for use during pregnancy may help. A probiotic, many of which have anti-inflammatory properties, may also be of benefit. Not coincidentally, asthma researchers are arriving at similar conclusions; prevention of the lung disease will begin with the pregnant woman. Dr. Parker has more radical ideas: pre-emptive restoration of “domesticated” parasites in everybody — worms developed solely for the purpose of correcting the wayward, postmodern immune system.

Practically speaking, this seems beyond improbable. And yet, a trial is under way at the Montefiore Medical Center and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine testing a medicalized parasite called Trichuris suis in autistic adults.

First used medically to treat inflammatory bowel disease, the whipworm, which is native to pigs, has anecdotally shown benefit in autistic children.

And really, if you spend enough time wading through the science, Dr. Parker’s idea — an ecosystem restoration project, essentially — not only fails to seem outrageous, but also seems inevitable.”
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