Get your every day dose of well being and medication each weekday with STAT’s free e-newsletter Morning Rounds. Enroll right here.
Greetings from Brooklyn, the place the wildfire smoke is so thick you possibly can chew it. Keep protected, everybody.
A brand new concept for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy divides consultants
Take a hike, viral vectors. A small California startup has burst onto the uncommon illness scene within the final yr, claiming it might be able to deal with Duchenne muscular dystrophy utilizing a novel technique: ultrasound.
Deploying ultrasound to information genes into sure tissues is an previous concept — researchers have explored utilizing it to ship chemotherapy into tumors — however it’s typically seen as not highly effective sufficient to do this sort of work. Sonothera claims to have cracked the problem.
The startup claims its ultrasound know-how can ship extraordinary quantities of full-sized dystrophin to the muscle groups of monkeys. The monkey’s calves had elevated 290%, practically 4 instances the quantity of human dystrophin as seen in wholesome people.
Are these findings about monkeys’ calves reliable? Is that this a key step towards a remedy for this deadly muscle-wasting illness? As all the time, it relies upon. STAT’s Jason Mast has the readout, together with reactions from skeptical researchers.
Hormones for me, not for thee
Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth introduced Wednesday that U.S. service members will bear testosterone deficiency screenings with their annual bodily exams as soon as they flip 30.
The coverage is the most recent instance of the Trump administration embracing testosterone substitute remedy for males and uplifting the hormone extra broadly as a mark of masculinity and well being. Testosterone substitute remedy has boomed in recent times as well being influencers and on-line clinics have touted its advantages as a miracle drug nicely past what present proof suggests. STAT’s Annalisa Merelli talked with medical consultants to get reactions about this government-sanctioned testosterone substitute remedy.
Notably, Hegseth made no point out of transgender folks, a lot of whom take the identical hormone treatment. The Trump administration banned trans folks from the navy final summer time and has pulled just about each bureaucratic lever in its arsenal to limit trans folks’s entry to hormones, which might usually be lifesaving. Testosterone is testosterone is testosterone, so it’s price asking: Why is a prescription for a similar treatment disqualifying amongst some, whereas important to the “most psychological and psychological readiness” of everybody else?
Mind implant restores contact, motion to man with quadriplegia
In 2020, Keith Thomas had a gnarly diving accident in a pool in Montauk, N.Y. It left him unable to really feel or transfer beneath his neck. On Tuesday, I spent an hour with him on Zoom as he excitedly talked with palms whereas discussing his Malshipoo, Bow.
What modified?
Thomas participated in an experimental research that attempted to revive motion and sensation in an individual’s hand and arm utilizing a brain-computer interface and a spinal wire stimulator. It labored and two years after the research completed, Thomas has retained a lot of the beneficial properties seen within the lab, as a Nature Drugs report revealed Thursday particulars.
May Thomas’ beneficial properties be a blueprint for the roughly 300,000 folks with spinal wire accidents in america? Learn extra from my story.
The state of the skies
Each time I see photos of a metropolis choked by wildfire smoke, or I stroll exterior my house in Brooklyn solely to be met with smothering warmth and an airborne campfire, I’ve the identical miserable thought: “This would be the coldest summer time for the remainder of my life.”
Wildfire smoke has blanketed the Midwest and the Japanese U.S. up to now few days. A number of STATians despatched me images of hazy skies from their respective bureaus. The picture above is from STAT’s Emory Parker, who lives in Minneapolis, the place the air high quality reached extraordinarily hazardous ranges on Thursday. In case you’re not acquainted with how poor air high quality can wreck your well being, this glorious Isabella Cueto story stays true three years later.
Don’t go exterior if you happen to don’t should. In case you do, put on a masks.
Q&A: The right way to counsel LGBTQ youth as 988 revives hotline
The 988 Suicide & Disaster Lifeline is in a bind.
Specialised LGBTQ+ youth companies will return by the top of the yr, however officers are having to confront a brand new actuality by which companies adjust to the Trump administration’s government order denying the existence of transgender and nonbinary identities in an try and make the gender binary official U.S. coverage. Advocates and consultants fear that if specialty companies are altered to exclude transgender youth indirectly, it is going to be worse than nothing in any respect.
To get a way of how hotline operators might navigate these distinctive challenges, STAT’s Theresa Gaffney spoke with Alex Boyd, director of disaster intervention on the Trevor Challenge. Learn extra.
Senate GOP blocks measure to finish pilot of AI prior authorization in Medicare
A Medicare pilot that makes use of synthetic intelligence to approve or deny care will proceed after a Senate vote failed alongside celebration traces on Thursday.
The Democratic-led measure would have stopped the Trump administration from using prior authorization in authentic Medicare, the place the follow isn’t allowed. The mannequin, generally known as WISeR, is opposed by the American Medical Affiliation and plenty of seniors teams, together with the AARP.
By regulation, prior authorization is barely allowed in authentic Medicare for some outpatient companies, sure medical gear meant for residence use, and non-emergency ambulance service. However that would change if Republicans get their approach. Learn extra from STAT’s John Wilkerson.