“Rodney Gorham recently passed a milestone that few people have reached. He’s had a brain-computer interface implanted for five years.

Made by startup Synchron, the experimental implant allows him to control a computer and other digital devices around his home using just his thoughts. It’s been a lifeline for 65-year-old Gorham, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, and can no longer walk, talk, or move his hands.

Synchron is among several companies, including Elon Musk’s Neuralink, aiming to commercialize brain-computer interfaces to help individuals with paralysis. Over the past five years, Synchron’s software and hardware have gone through many iterations, with Gorham helping to shape the evolution of the technology. Out of the 10 volunteers to get Synchron’s implant, Gorham has been living with it the longest. He received it in December 2020 as part of a trial in Australia. (The longest-ever user of an implanted brain-computer interface is Nathan Copeland, who’s had one for more than 10 years. He has four research-grade arrays in his brain made by Blackrock Neurotech.)”

From Wired.

“Twenty years after they were first created in Japan, extraordinarily versatile stem cells made from the body’s own cells may finally realize their promise for regenerating diseased tissue. Last month, an advisory panel to Japan’s health ministry recommended limited marketing approval for therapies using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells for heart failure and Parkinson’s disease. In a controversial arrangement, their makers will be able to sell the products for 7 years while continuing studies to determine just how well the therapies work. IPS cells are moving closer to medical use in other countries as well, with dozens of potential therapies in clinical trials…

One of the new therapies, intended for heart disease patients, was developed by Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application (CiRA) in collaboration with a University of Osaka group led by cardiovascular surgeon Yoshiki Sawa. Heart muscle cells derived from iPS cells are formed into small patches. Applied to a diseased heart’s surface, the muscle patches boost contraction while also releasing cytokines that promote blood vessel formation.

Eight heart disease patients have received RiHEART patches made by Cuorips, a startup spun off from the university. The company has reported in press briefings and two peer-reviewed papers—in Frontiers in Cardiovascular Medicine in 2022 and 2023—that there were no serious safety issues and patients’ heart function improved.

The Parkinson’s therapy, developed by a group led by neurosurgeon Jun Takahashi, CiRA’s current director, coaxes iPS cells to form replacements for the dopamine-producing neurons that die off in Parkinson’s. In a small pilot trial, surgeons drilled holes into the skulls of six Parkinson’s patients and injected the replacement cells. There were no safety issues, and four of the patients showed improvement 24 months after transplantation, Takahashi and colleagues reported in Nature last year. Sumitomo Pharma and RACTHERA are commercializing the treatment, dubbed Amchepry.”

From Science.

“The doctor kept hearing the same story from his patients. After taking GLP-1 weight-loss drugs and finally shedding those excess pounds, some had gone a bit rogue. They began spacing out the shots instead of injecting themselves every week.

And it seemed to be working, said Dr. Mitch Biermann, an obesity and internal medicine specialist at Scripps Clinic in San Diego.

‘By the time the third person told me they were taking it every second or third week and still maintaining their weight, I started recommending it to other patients,’ he said.

Dr. Biermann also conceived a study to test the strategy. Now the results of that research are in: After 36 weeks of follow-up, most of the patients who spaced out their GLP-1 injections kept the weight off and also maintained health benefits like reduced blood pressure and better blood sugar control.

Only four patients gained weight after making the switch, and they quickly reverted back to weekly injections, the report said.

The study was small, only 34 patients in a relatively homogeneous group — mostly white and privately insured. And it was done by analyzing their existing medical charts.

Still, the research, published in February in the journal Obesity, provides a potentially appealing new option for patients who are loath to commit to lifelong weekly injections of a costly medication that may not be covered by insurance and that some fear could have unknown side effects.”

From New York Times.

“Weight loss drugs could help people avoid getting addicted to alcohol, tobacco and drugs such as cannabis and cocaine, a study has found.

They could also reduce the risk of people already addicted to illicit substances having an overdose, ending up in hospital or dying, according to research published in the British Medical Journal.

Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists used to treat type 2 diabetes and obesity, such as Mounjaro and Ozempic, are thought to work by influencing the brain’s reward pathways in order to cut cravings. They help people feel fuller by mimicking the natural substance released after eating.

The US study analysed 606,434 US veterans with type 2 diabetes, who were monitored for up to three years. It found that GLP-1s reduced the risk of alcohol-related disorders in those with no history of substance use by 18% and of using cannabis (14%), cocaine (20%), nicotine (20%) and opioids (25%), compared with those on other sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 drugs also used to treat diabetes.

Weight loss drugs also reduce the risk of people already using substances from overdosing (39%), needing emergency help in A&E (31%) or dying (50%).”

From The Guardian.