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Published26 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, PA MediaBy Alex BinleyBBC NewsRestaurants should be forced to publish allergy information on menus, the body responsible for food safety has said.The Food Standards Agency (FSA) is backing calls for ‘Owen’s Law’, launched by the family of a teenager who died after an allergic reaction.Owen Carey suffered an anaphylactic shock after eating chicken containing buttermilk, despite telling restaurant staff he was allergic to dairy.Food allergies, intolerances or coeliac disease affect two million in the UK. At a meeting on Wednesday, the FSA agreed that written allergy information should be compulsory in restaurants and coffee shops. It said members of its board would write to the government about this.The FSA also said that conversations between staff and customers should also be expected.Mr Carey, from Crowborough, East Sussex, died after unwittingly eating food he was allergic to, during a meal out on his 18th birthday in April 2017.Since his death, the teenager’s family have been campaigning to get the law changed.Reacting to the outcome of the FSA Board meeting, Mr Carey’s father, Paul Carey, said he “had a tear in his eye” and was “having a little celebratory whisky” due to the “good results”. “It’s been a struggle, we’ve been going at this for quite a few years – it has sometimes felt like it was never going to get anywhere, so yes, I was a little bit overwhelmed and had a little tear in my eye today when they said they were going to recommend to the minister that it becomes law.”We’re hoping that people with allergies can go out and eat in comfort now if you have this law, because they can see what’s in their food.”FSA chairwoman Professor Susan Jebb said “it was clear that the board feel that we should set an expectation that food businesses like coffee shops and restaurants provide allergen information in writing as well as having a conversation.”To maximise the likelihood of this happening, written information should be a legal requirement, rather than just guidance.”The FSA is responsible for food safety and hygiene across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Prof Jebb said she will write to the relevant ministers in these three nations, as well as her counterpart in Scotland, and that she hoped to see the changes taken “forward on a four-country basis”. “I would also like to thank the Carey family for all their work in highlighting the importance of this issue,” she added. In the meantime, the FSA also said it would work to develop guidance for food businesses on how to provide written allergen information.Image source, Family handoutIn 2021, Natasha’s Law came into force, requiring foods pre-packaged on site, such as sandwiches, to carry a full list of ingredients. It came after 15-year-old Natasha Ednan-Laperouse died from having an allergic reaction to a baguette bought from Pret-a-Manger.More on this storyTeen ‘had fatal reaction’ to Byron chicken burgerPublished12 September 2019No damages payout after Byron burger deathPublished6 May 2021Bereaved parents welcome Natasha’s allergy lawPublished1 October 2021

Published34 minutes agoShareclose panelShare pageCopy linkAbout sharingImage source, Getty ImagesBy Aurelia FosterHealth reporterA decades-long decline in smoking in England has nearly ground to a halt since the pandemic, a study suggests. The rate of decline slowed from 5.2% in the years before the pandemic to just 0.3% between April 2020 and August 2022, according to the research.The lead researcher said it was likely more young people were taking up smoking and “bold” action was needed.The government said it was taking “bold action” to make England smoke-free, including raising the legal age.Based on surveys with 101,960 adults representative of the population, researchers estimated 16.2% smoked in June 2017, falling to 15.1% by the start of the pandemic, in March 2020, but just 15% in August 2022, since when the the slower rate of decline has remained consistent.Office for National Statistics data also shows a year-on-year decline in smoking between 2000 and 2020.Anti-smoking effortsThe study suggests a 120% rise in the proportion of people giving up, during the pandemic, and a 40% rise in the number of attempts to quit.But these were offset by a rise in the number of people taking up the habit, including an increase among 18- to 24-year-olds. In 2019, the government set a target for England to be “smoke-free” by 2030. But the researchers, from University College London (UCL), say this will be missed and are urging the government to “reignite” anti-smoking efforts. Social isolationLead author Dr Sarah Jackson, of UCL’s Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, told BBC News the results suggested a “step change” in young people smoking, at the start of the pandemic.”It definitely does seem like progress in reducing the number of young adults taking up smoking has slowed down,” she said. Researchers noted higher levels of stress and social isolation among younger adults during the pandemic.But Dr Jackson said others factors could also be to blame and warned against complacency.’Uniquely lethal'”It’s really concerning there has almost been the assumption that we have solved the problem of smoking among young people,” she said.Young adults may start smoking because they believed e-cigarettes were equally bad for them, Dr Jackson said.”There has a been lot of talk about vaping and there has been a real disconnect about the risks of vaping and risks of smoking among young people,” she said.”The risks of vaping are substantially lower than the risks of smoking. “Smoking is uniquely lethal, yet most of the concern is about young people vaping.”The researchers supported a government proposal to raise the smoking age, which would mean a child turning 14 this year could never legally buy cigarettes. Pledge to end smoking in England by 2030Smoking age should rise, Rishi Sunak says How dangerous is vaping?The research, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in the journal BMC Medicine, also suggests, between April 2020 and August 2022:Smoking decreased among 45- to 65-year-olds The stall in the decline of smoking was most pronounced among advantaged social groups Former smokers relapsing back into the habit may also account for some of the slowing of the declineThe switch to homeworking during the pandemic may have contributed to loneliness and poor mental health, making people less inclined to quit smoking, the researchers said.But manual workers may have had more financial disruption, leading to smoking becoming less affordable.The charity Action on Smoking and Health said smoking rates would decline in response to government action, as they had historically. “The ambitious programme recently announced by the government can put us on track,” chief executive Deborah Arnott said, “but no time must be lost in turning words into action.”The Department of Health and Social Care said it had doubled funding for stop-smoking services, helping 360,000 people quit, and was planning to provide a million free vapes to smokers. Wales has a 2030 smoke-free target, while Scotland’s is 2034.More on this storySmoking age should rise until it is banned – SunakPublished4 OctoberHow dangerous is vaping – and why the concern over young vapers?Published12 SeptemberCigarettes could carry anti-smoking message insertPublished14 AugustScotland ‘could miss smoking target by 16 years’Published25 February 2020Pledge to end smoking in England by 2030Published23 July 2019Related Internet LinksUCLDepartment of Health and Social CareThe BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

A fascinating link between regular exercise and better brain health has been revealed, according to an international study that included a team of clinical researchers from Pacific Neuroscience Institute’s Brain Health Center, located at Providence Saint John’s Health Center.
The research, detailed in the paper “Exercise-Related Physical Activity Relates to Brain Volumes in 10,125 Individuals,” was published this week in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and shows being physically active is related to increased size of brain areas important for memory and learning.
The study looked at MRI brain scans from 10,125 people done at Prenuvo imaging centers, a key collaborator in the research. It found those who regularly engaged in physical activities such as walking, running or sports had larger brain volumes in key areas. This includes the gray matter, which helps with processing information, and the white matter, which connects different brain regions, as well as the hippocampus, important for memory.
Cyrus A. Raji, M.D., the lead researcher, explains the findings in simple terms: “Our research supports earlier studies that show being physically active is good for your brain. Exercise not only lowers the risk of dementia but also helps in maintaining brain size, which is crucial as we age.”
David Merrill, M.D., study co-author and director of the PBHC noted, “We found that even moderate levels of physical activity, such as taking fewer than 4,000 steps a day, can have a positive effect on brain health. This is much less than the often-suggested 10,000 steps, making it a more achievable goal for many people.”
Study co-authorSomayeh Meysami, M.D., assistant professor of neurosciences at Saint John’s Cancer Institute and the Pacific Brain Health Center noted, “Our research links regular physical activity to larger brain volumes, suggesting neuroprotective benefits. This large sample study furthers our understanding of lifestyle factors in brain health and dementia prevention.”
A Lancet Study in 2020 found about a dozen modifiable risk factors increase risk for Alzheimer’s disease, including physical activity. This work builds upon previous work by this group, linking caloric burn from leisure activities to improved brain structure.
“This study demonstrates the influence of exercise on brain health imaging and when added to other studies on the role of diet, stress reduction and social connection offer the proven benefits of drug-free modifiable factors in substantially reducing Alzheimer’s disease,” said George Perry, Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.
“With comprehensive imaging scans, our study underscores the interconnected synergy between the body and the brain. It echoes the knowledge of past generations, showcasing that increased physical activity is a predictor of a healthier aging brain,” said Dr. Attariwala, senior author of this paper.
This research highlights an easy way to keep our brains healthy: stay active! Whether it’s a daily walk or a favorite sport, regular physical activity can have lasting benefits for our brain health.

It’s a hidden cause of diarrhea and the development of the disease is poorly understood. Multiple factors work against the diagnosis of microscopic colitis, an inflammatory digestive disease, because the symptom distress compared to patients with other causes of chronic diarrhea remains unknown. Now, a new study published in journal Gastro Hep Advances, shows patients may be unsure of a diagnosis based on their colonoscopy results, patients may not be prescribed the proper medications, and many patients may remain symptomatic one year after colonoscopy.
The study, led by corresponding author Walker Redd, MD, a clinical outcomes and epidemiology fellow in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the UNC School of Medicine, involved a cohort of patients from April 1, 2015 to December 22, 2020 enrolled at UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill, NC. Patients participating in a follow-up survey included 74 with biopsy-confirmed microscopic colitis and 162 patients experiencing other causes of chronic diarrhea (diarrhea controls) after colonoscopy at a one-year follow-up.
“We thought it was important to better understand the burden of symptoms among those patients with microscopic colitis within the context of all patients undergoing colonoscopy to evaluate diarrhea,” Redd said.
Survey results in regard to a microscopic colitis diagnosis showed 10% were unaware of the diagnosis. Among the controls, 7% reported a diagnosis of microscopic colitis despite no clinical documentation. Researchers also found that 15% of controls either thought they had microscopic colitis or were unsure of their diagnosis. While most of the cases received either a letter or phone call with the pathology results, the authors emphasized the importance of considering whether patients with a new diagnosis of microscopic colitis may benefit from a follow-up visit in the gastroenterology clinic for education and treatment. These results highlight how clear communication is needed to address next steps after a diagnosis of the chronic disease.
“We were surprised that certain patients were unaware of their diagnosis and that some of the patients who remained symptomatic were not being treated with prescription medications because we would hope that patients understand their colonoscopy results and receive treatment for any ongoing symptoms,” said Redd. “Identifying and addressing gaps in the communication of diagnostic results is an important area for future research.”
What is typically experienced with microscopic colitis and other causes of chronic diarrhea are similar symptoms such as: watery diarrhea, pain in the abdomen, urgent need to have a bowel movement, fecal incontinence and weight loss. The first line therapy recommended for microscopic colitis is budesonide. However, findings show 46% of cases received that kind of treatment. Also, just 26% of diarrhea controls with significant enough symptoms to warrant diagnostic colonoscopy were offered prescription treatment — showing how these patients were likely undertreated. In addition, many cases continued to experience ongoing loose stools, urgency, and fecal incontinence at one year, providing further evidence that patients should be offered follow-up appointments to assess how they are responding to treatment.
The final finding examines the magnitude of symptoms at one year follow-up. In the study, 15% of microscopic colitis cases reported nocturnal stools, 28% abdominal pain, 40% fecal urgency, 32% weight loss, and 21% fecal incontinence. The Microscopic Colitis Disease Activity Index (MCDAI), a tool used to assess disease severity and quality of life, showed significant improvement in microscopic colitis cases compared to controls at a one-year follow up, only 37% of controls had a an improved MCDAI score. Based on these results, cases showed improvement in symptoms whether or not they were treated with budesonide. As far as controls, symptomatic follow up was either similar or more severe than cases.
“Hopefully, these findings will help increase awareness of the importance of communicating diagnostic colonoscopy findings as well as assessing and treating persistent symptoms following an initial diagnostic evaluation,” said Redd.
There is substantial symptom overlap between microscopic colitis and other causes of chronic diarrhea, Redd said, so much so that it makes it harder for providers to reliably distinguish the disease from other common conditions, like irritable bowel syndrome. Researchers concluded that colonoscopy should be considered for certain patients with diarrhea who do not respond to initial treatment or who are at higher risk for microscopic colitis. Furthermore, follow-up appointments, education, and communication can be used to empower patients as far as understanding the implications of a new microscopic colitis diagnosis and how to manage the disease.
This study was funded in part by the National Institutes of Health.

Breastfeeding, even partially alongside formula feeding, changes the chemical makeup — or metabolome — of an infant’s gut in ways that positively influence brain development and may boost test scores years later, suggests new CU Boulder research.
“For those who struggle with exclusively breastfeeding, this study suggests your baby can still get significant benefits if you breastfeed as much as you can,” said senior author Tanya Alderete, an assistant professor of integrative physiology at CU Boulder.
The study, published Dec. 13 in the journal npj Metabolic Health and Disease, also identifies specific metabolites that manufacturers may want to consider adding to infant formula to optimize healthy brain development and concerning compounds they should try to leave out.
“Our research suggests that even at low levels, some contaminants found in formula may have negative neurodevelopmental effects downstream,” said first author Bridget Chalifour, a postdoctoral researcher in Alderete’s lab.
A health report card for the gut
For the study, the research team examined what is known as the “fecal metabolome” — the diverse collection of metabolites found in the gut and shed in poop. Metabolites are small molecules that are churned out by gut bacteria as a byproduct of metabolizing food and make their way into the bloodstream, impacting the brain and other organs.
Breastmilk, formula and solid food also contain metabolites.

While scientists have long studied our resident bacteria, or microbiome, to better understand human health, the emerging field of “metabolomics” goes a step further.
“Looking at the gut microbiome tells us which bacteria are there, while looking at the fecal metabolome can help tell us what they are doing,” said Chalifour. “It’s like a health report card for the gut.”
The team collected fecal samples from 112 infants at 1- and 6-months-old and worked with Donghai Liang, assistant professor of environmental health at Emory University in Atlanta, and other colleagues to chemically analyze which metabolites were present. They grouped infants based on how much they were breastfed vs. formula fed. At age 2, the children took cognitive, motor and language tests.
The study found that the samples from infants in different feeding groups contained significantly different levels of metabolites.
For instance, at 1 month old, 17 metabolites were more abundant the more a baby was breastfed, and 40 were more abundant the more a baby was formula fed.
When looking more closely at specific metabolites, the researchers identified 14 that were also associated with differences in test scores at age 2.

With only one notable exception, caffeine, the more metabolites associated with breast milk a baby had in their stool, the better they did on cognitive tests as toddlers (more on caffeine later.)
The more metabolites associated with formula feeding they had, the worst they did.
“The consistency of these results is striking and supports the benefits of breastfeeding as much as possible in early life,” said Alderete.
Some metabolites associated with formula concerning
One particularly beneficial metabolite was cholesterol: At both 1 and 6 months old, the more a baby was breastfed the more cholesterol they had in their stool. And the more cholesterol babies had in their stool, the better they did on cognitive tests. This makes sense, as the fatty acid is critical for forming healthy circuits between brain cells. As the authors note, 80% to 90% of the brain’s volume grows in the first two years of life.
In contrast, the more a baby was formula fed, the higher their levels of a metabolite called cadaverine, a known contaminant formed via fermentation.
In the study, the more a child was formula fed, the higher their levels of cadaverine and the lower their test scores at age 2. While the compound is considered a toxin at higher levels, the Food and Drug Administration permits low levels in infant formula.
“It may be that formula manufacturers should be more vigilant in getting levels of this compound down to zero,” said Chalifour.
Interestingly, babies who were breastfed had higher levels of caffeine in their stool — perhaps because moms may have been breastfeeding over a cup of coffee.
Not surprisingly, higher levels of caffeine, a stimulant, were associated with poorer cognitive scores. Prenatal caffeine exposure has previously been associated with lower neurodevelopmental scores, and experts recommend no more than 12 ounces, or a cup and a half, of coffee per day for pregnant women.
Not all or nothing
The World Health Organization recommends that infants be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life, but in the United States, only 63% of infants are exclusively breastfed immediately following birth. By six months, only a quarter of U.S. babies are exclusively breastfed.
Alderete acknowledges that for some parents, breastfeeding isn’t possible. She hopes her research can ultimately help manufacturers improve formula to make it as close to breastmilk as it can be. And she stresses that just because a child was not breastfed does not mean they’ll have neurodevelopmental deficits. Early feeding patterns are just one of many factors that contribute to how a brain develops.
Her takeaway to new parents having trouble breastfeeding exclusively: Don’t give up. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
“Just increasing the proportion of breastmilk relative to formula may have a positive impact on your developing child,” she said.

Vikings in Sweden suffered from painful dental issues and occasionally tried to treat them, according to a study published December 13, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Carolina Bertilsson of the University of Gothenburg, Sweden and colleagues.
In 2005, excavations in Varnhem, Sweden uncovered the remains of a Christian church, nearby which was a cemetery containing thousands of Viking graves dating to the 10th-12th century AD. In this study, Bertilsson and colleagues performed clinical and radiographical examination of the dentition of individuals from this site. In total, the team analyzed over 2300 teeth from 171 individuals.
Over 60% of the examined adults had signs of dental caries (tooth decay), most often on the root surface, while none of the juvenile individuals had caries. Other pathologies were also observed, including tooth infection and indications of teeth having been lost before death. Several individuals had caries severe enough to have caused tooth pain, and the authors noted a few cases of tooth abrasion that were likely intentional modifications intended to lessen tooth pain. Some teeth also exhibited abrasions consistent with tooth picking, likely to remove bits of food.
The prevalence of dental caries in this population is similar to what has been noted in other European populations of a similar age, although the authors caution that nearly a quarter of these Varnhem individuals’ teeth appear to have been lost before or after death, and this likely skews these results. For example, the prevalence of caries in this population was observed to decrease with adults’ age, an unexpected result which likely reflects increased tooth loss in older individuals such that the most decayed teeth were not present. Overall, these data provide insights into the lives of Vikings who suffered from and occasionally attempted to treat dental issues, as well as providing details into the pathology of untreated dental issues.
The authors add: “In a Swedish Viking population, around half of the individuals suffered from dental caries. The Vikings performed both tooth filing, tooth picking, and other dental treatment, including attempts to treat dental infections.”

Practicing yoga nidra — a kind of mindfulness training — might improve sleep, cognition, learning, and memory, even in novices, according to a pilot study publishing in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on December 13 by Karuna Datta of the Armed Forces Medical College in India, and colleagues. After a two-week intervention with a cohort of novice practitioners, the researchers found that the percentage of delta-waves in deep sleep increased and that all tested cognitive abilities improved.
Unlike more active forms of yoga, which focus on physical postures, breathing, and muscle control, yoga nidra guides people into a state of conscious relaxation while they are lying down. While it has reported to improve sleep and cognitive ability, those reports were based more on subjective measures than on objective data. The new study used objective polysomnographic measures of sleep and a battery of cognitive tests. Measurements were taken before and after two weeks of yoga nidra practice, which was carried out during the daytime using a 20 minute audio recording.
Among other things, polysomnography measures brain activity to determine how long each sleep stage lasts and how frequently each stage occurs. After two weeks of yoga nidra, the researchers observed that participants exhibited a significantly increased sleep efficiency and percentage of delta-waves in deep sleep. They also saw faster responses in all cognitive tests with no loss in accuracy and faster and more accurate responses in tasks including tests of working memory, abstraction, fear and anger recognition, and spatial learning and memory tasks. The findings support previous studies which link delta-wave sleep to improved sleep quality as well as better attention and memory.
The authors believe their study provides objective evidence that yoga nidra is an effective means of improving sleep quality and cognitive performance. Yoga nidra is a low-cost and highly accessible activity from which many people might therefore benefit.
The authors add: “Yoga nidra practice improves sleep and makes brain processing faster. Accuracy also increased, especially with learning and memory related tasks.”

Diet quality among adolescents in the United States is among the worst across all age groups, putting young people at risk for heart attack, stroke, and diabetes, among other cardiometabolic diseases later in life. The research brief shared in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, published by Elsevier, used the Healthy Eating Index-2015 and medical testing to assess a group of youth aged 10-16 years.
This study examined data from the Translational Investigation of Growth and Everyday Routine in Kids cohort. This study measured physical activity, sleep, and overall dietary guidelines for youth living in metropolitan areas of Louisiana, which are typically medically underserved and characterized by high poverty levels, food insecurity, obesity, and related diseases. Study participants provided a baseline data set with follow-up measures two years later.
Corresponding author Amanda E. Staiano, PhD, Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, explained, “Examining the data related to diet quality may help identify targets for future interventions in families, homes, and communities. Effective and timely interventions focusing on adherence to dietary guidelines are necessary for improving diet quality and reducing health risks.”
Of the 342 eligible and enrolled adolescents, the final study sample included 192 participants with complete baseline and follow-up data. At baseline and follow-up, the adolescents were asked to wear an accelerometer for at least seven days and complete two 24-hour dietary recalls for their food and beverage intake during research visits that included body composition, blood pressure, and clinical chemistry measurements and anthropometrics.
Considering overall eating patterns, the findings showed that adolescents with poor adherence to the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans and associated cardiometabolic risk factors continued these same patterns over the two years of the study, suggesting that the adverse effects of a poor-quality diet had already established the health risks these teenagers will face throughout life.
Dr. Staiano concluded, “This study found specific dietary quality patterns associated with adolescent cardiometabolic risk factors. Promotion of nutrition knowledge is necessary, but knowledge is not consistently linked with food consumption behavior. Identifying barriers to consuming a healthful diet and investigating effective strategies to overcome these barriers may curtail future health risks.”

Infusions of potentially therapeutic cells derived from the heart are safe for people with pulmonary arterial hypertension, a form of high blood pressure that occurs in the blood vessels of the lungs and typically affects middle-aged women, according to a study led by Cedars-Sinai investigators.
The Phase I clinical trial results are published in the peer-reviewed journal eBioMedicine, a Lancet journal.
“Although several drugs are approved for pulmonary arterial hypertension, mortality remains high,” said Eduardo Marbán, MD, PhD, executive director of the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai, the Mark S. Siegel Family Foundation Distinguished Professor and senior author of the study. “We tried a fundamentally different approach — cell therapy delivered into the pulmonary artery — and found encouraging results, in patients already on combination conventional therapy.”
Pulmonary arterial hypertension is a rare disease, affecting fewer than 100 people per million. There currently is no cure and the average median life expectancy on treatment for most patients is roughly 6.2 years after diagnosis.
Currently approved medications for the condition aim to open up blood vessels in the lungs, allowing for better blood flow; however, studies on lungs in patients on treatment still show severe occlusive vessel changes. Further, these medications don’t address many of the complex underlying mechanisms that cause the high pulmonary pressures. Even on medication, people with pulmonary arterial hypertension can develop severe dysfunction in the right ventricle of the heart, the part that pumps blood to the lungs and whose function correlates best with survival.
Cedars-Sinai investigators are experimenting with using cardiosphere-derived cells (CDCs) to address some of the biological processes involved in pulmonary arterial hypertension. CDCs were first developed and characterized by Marbán. They have been used in multiple clinical trials for a variety of diseases, most recently, Duchenne muscular dystrophy. These are cells derived from human heart tissue that Marbán and colleagues have discovered reduce inflammation in the body and exert beneficial effects on the immune system.
Called the ALPHA study, this clinical trial was conducted in two phases. In the first, six people with pulmonary arterial hypertension received an infusion of CDCs into their lungs. Three patients received an infusion of 50 million CDCs and the other three received an infusion of 100 million CDCs.

In the second phase, 10 people with pulmonary arterial hypertension were randomized to receive an infusion of 100 million CDCs and 10 people were randomized to receive infusions containing a placebo. Investigators performed right heart catheterization and cardiac MR imaging on each study participant before the infusions and four months after the infusions.
All the participants were on combination pulmonary arterial hypertension-specific medications throughout the course of the study.
The investigators tracked the health of participants for 12 months after the infusions. No adverse effects related to the infusions occurred during this time. Although this study was only designed to assess the safety of the CDC infusions, the investigators observed encouraging changes that might indicate the 16 people who had received the CDC infusions had improved cardiopulmonary health. People who received the infusions, for example, showed improved functioning in the heart’s right ventricle and, at two months post-infusion, were able to walk a greater distance during a six-minute test than people who received placebo.
“The most important takeaway is that this approach is safe and feasible to do in people with pulmonary arterial hypertension,” said Michael I. Lewis, MD, director of Respiratory Care Services at Cedars-Sinai, and first and corresponding author of the study. “These are encouraging exploratory findings that motivate moving on to more advanced studies.”
The investigators plan additional trials to study the effects of repeated infusions of CDCs given to people with pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Cedars-Sinai investigators Mamoo Nakamura, MD; Dael Geft, MD; Yuri Matusov, MD; James Mirocha; Antoine Hage, MD; Victor Tapson, MD; Oleg A. Karpov, PhD; and Jennifer Van Eyk, PhD, also worked on the study.
Funding: The study was funded by the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM), one of the world’s largest institutions dedicated to three key areas of regenerative medicine — research, education and patient access.

Wistar researchers successfully tested a simple intervention that could unlock greater anti-tumor power in therapies that use T cells — an approach known as “cell-based therapy,” which uses specially designed T cells to fight cancer. Led by Dr. Hildegund C.J. Ertl — a professor in The Wistar Institute’s Vaccine & Immunotherapy Center — the team has proven an exciting concept: that the common cholesterol drug fenofibrate can boost T cells’ ability to destroy human tumors, as described in their new paper, “Treatment with the PPARα agonist fenofibrate improves the efficacy of CD8+ T cell therapy for melanoma,” published in Molecular Therapy Oncolytics.
CD8+ T cells work very well in fighting liquid tumors, but for solid tumors like melanoma, the cell-based therapy approach can stall due to the physical structure of the cancer. The T cells infiltrate the tumor, but the cancer adapts and saps the T cells’ energy by hijacking the form of metabolism that the T cells use: glycolysis, which turns sugar into energy. Without energy, the T cells first lose functions and then die, and the cancer continues to grow.
But Dr. Ertl’s team has been able to circumvent this problem by forcing T cells to use a different energy source than glucose. They used fenofibrate because, as a cholesterol-lowering compound, the drug is a PPARα agonist. When PPARα is upregulated, cellular metabolism is switched from glycolysis to fatty acid oxidation, or FAO. This mechanism works to improve cholesterol levels in human patients, but for Dr. Ertl’s purposes, the fenofibrate-induced switch to FAO provided T cells with a form of energy that cancer couldn’t exploit — which is how Dr. Ertl proved that fenofibrate has been able to boost the killing power of T cells deployed against cancerous cell lines.
In this paper, the authors wanted to see whether this kind of cancer-killing improvement would have similar effects when deployed against not just cancer cell lines but solid human tumor fragments — a more challenging proposition. The group treated T cells with fenofibrate, and the hypothesis held: Dr. Ertl’s team watched the T cells treated with fenofibrate survive longer and kill more cancer in preclinical models with human solid tumor masses than the T cells that didn’t receive the treatment.
“Treating T cells with fenofibrate before using them as a cancer treatment flips a switch of sorts in their metabolism,” said Dr. Hildegund Ertl. “Once that switch is flipped, T cells can destroy the cancer much more effectively. And we’ve confirmed that this holds for larger human tumor masses.”
As a result of these findings, Dr. Ertl and her team think this intervention shows great promise for future anti-tumor therapies. “Melanoma is the most dangerous form of skin cancer. Anything we can do to chip away at the cancer and destroy more of it — even a simple pre-treatment step like this one — can make a world of difference.”