The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the immunotherapy-boosting drug N-803, which is marketed under the brand name Anktiva, to be used in combination with the immunotherapy Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) for the treatment of patients with BCG-unresponsive non–muscle-invasive bladder cancer. The decision was based on results of the QUILT 3.032 clinical trial, which was led by Dr. Karim Chamie, associate professor urology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and a researcher at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Findings from the phase 2/3 trial were presented at the 2022 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting and published in NEJM Evidence. Chamie, who was the principal investigator for the trial, reported that this combination treatment resulted in longer overall survival and was more effective and safer than other treatments available for BCG-unresponsive non–muscle-invasive bladder… 

Researchers at UC San Diego have deployed state-of-the art imaging techniques to discover the metabolism driving Alzheimer’s disease; results suggest new treatment strategies. Using their own state-of-the art imaging technologies, scientists at the University of California San Diego have now revealed how the metabolism of lipids, a class of molecule that includes fats, oils and many hormones, is changed in Alzheimer’s disease. They also revealed a new strategy to target this metabolic system with new and existing drugs. The findings are published in Cell Metabolism. The researchers discovered that in brains with tauopathy, neurons accumulate excess lipids as a result of stress or damage. This influx forces neurons to offload the excess to immune cells in the brain, called microglia. These microglia then mount an inflammatory response that causes further stress to neurons, triggering a repeating and worsening cycle. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1550413124001189?via%3Dihub

A rapidly spreading virus threatens the health of the cacao tree and the dried seeds from which chocolate is made, jeopardizing the global supply of the world’s most popular treat. About 50% of the world’s chocolate originates from cacao trees in the West Africa countries of Ivory Coast and Ghana. The damaging virus is attacking cacao trees in Ghana, resulting in harvest losses of between 15 and 50%. Spread by small insects called mealybugs that eat the leaves, buds and flowers of trees, the cacao swollen shoot virus disease (CSSVD) is among the most damaging threats to the root ingredient of chocolate. “This virus is a real threat to the global supply of chocolate,” said Benito Chen-Charpentier, professor of mathematics at The University of Texas at Arlington and an author of “Cacao sustainability: The case of cacao swollen-shoot virus co-infection”…