Scientists push to rename monkeypox viruses

Scientists from Africa and elsewhere are urging the scientific community and world health leaders to drop the stigmatizing language used to differentiate monkeypox viruses — and to rename the virus itself. More than two dozen scientists assert that referring to the virus as African is not only “discriminatory and stigmatizing,” but also inaccurate. If this sounds familiar, that’s because similar sentiment was behind a call to name SARS-CoV-2 variants not by places but by numbers and the letters of the Greek alphabet.

Monkeypox infections have historically been restricted to West and Central Africa, where the virus is endemic in some animals. But since mid-May, more than 1,500 cases have been detected in more than 40 countries where monkeypox viruses are not typically found, pushing the scientists to call for a change in how the viruses are described. STAT’s Helen Branswell explains what might come next.

Upbeat updates on gene therapy and genome-editing for rare diseases

Let’s catch up on some news in gene therapy and genome-editing treatments. On Friday, an FDA advisory panel gave its second unanimous recommendation for approval in two days to a gene therapy from Bluebird Bio, endorsing a one-time treatment for beta-thalassemia, a rare blood disorder that requires frequent blood transfusions. On Thursday, the panel voted in favor of Bluebird’s one-time treatment for cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy.

On Saturday, updated results presented at a meeting from two clinical trials testing an experimental genome-editing treatment showed prolonged benefit for patients born with sickle cell disease or beta-thalassemia. The therapy developed jointly by Vertex Pharmaceuticals and CRISPR Therapeutics uses CRISPR technology to genetically fix diseased cells caused by mutations in the gene responsible for producing oxygen-carrying hemoglobin. The goal of the therapy is to increase production of fetal hemoglobin, which normally shuts down soon after birth.

Opinion: Science needs data from patients to solve long Covid. Just ask them

(COURTESY ZEENIA FRAMROZE)

In six months, Zeenia Framroze (pictured above) went from training for the Big Sur 21-miler to barely being able to climb a flight of stairs. The cause is long Covid, although that diagnosis was a long time coming. Framroze, whose company Sharecare works on decentralizing clinical research, is not alone in her myriad symptoms, which include debilitating facial pain and relentless tinnitus. Even a sympathetic ENT specialist was surprised by fungal and bacterial sinus infections she had, opportunistic illnesses whose link to Covid is a mystery scientists are trying to figure out.

Those infections, and the metrics she collects using her smartwatch, pulse oximeter, and other devices, make up valuable data, she writes in a STAT First Opinion. “Real-world data is not a sure thing for finding treatments for long Covid, but it can certainly act as a compass so researchers and clinicians know where to look.”

Closer look: How biotech got into San Diego's DNA

(CRYSTAL MILNER/STAT)

It’s astonishing when you think about how fast San Diego has soared to its perch in the top three biotech hubs in the country, behind Boston and the Bay Area. As the BIO conference gets underway there this week, STAT’s Jonathan Wosen writes about how biotech has boomed in his hometown, tracing its rise to Ivor Royston, a brash young UCSD assistant professor, and his company, Hybritech, founded in 1978. Its many offspring startups that have seeded a scene that is growing so rapidly people worry about being priced out of a real estate market where you can change your job without changing your parking spot.

“Who would have ever thought that many entrepreneurs would be under one roof at one time?” Howard Birndof, who was Royston’s lab technician 40 years ago, said about Hybritech. He's since become a founder, CEO, and board member elsewhere. Read more.

Healthy human brains get hot — and that's good

By definition, a newsletter is a curated string of TILs. This one truly caught me by surprise. In healthy people, brain temperatures often exceed the familiar 98.6 F or 36.5 C by a few degrees and also fluctuate by region of the brain, age, sex, menstrual cycle, and time of day. A new form of MRI makes noninvasive readings possible in healthy people, allowing scientists to measure brain temperature, previously monitored directly in intensive care patients. The new technique may prove important as a diagnostic tool, they report in Brain. For example: In patients who had traumatic brain injuries, variation in their daily brain temperature — not the temperature itself — was strongly linked to survival.

Going further, the researchers suggest, because the brain’s capacity to cool down appears to weaken with age, future work might explore whether temperature is connected to developing age-related brain disorders, including dementia.

For teens, 20 minutes of vigorous exercise works

If you’re an adolescent, it’s not just how long, but how hard you go if you want to turn physical activity into cardiorespiratory fitness. A study out today in Pediatrics acknowledges the wide health benefits of exercise and fitness — lower rates of obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, and poor mental health — but it also recognizes how few teenagers actually get the WHO-recommended one hour per day of moderate activity. They tested cardiorespiratory fitness in 13- and 14-year-olds after vigorous runs that got them sweating and panting. They found that cardiorespiratory benefits plateaued at 20 minutes of vigorous exercise but did not show up after moderate exercise. The authors say that suggests that shorter but more intense activity may be a better, more realistic goal for the 81% of teenagers who don’t do the 60-minute version.

The latest "Color Code" episode explores the barriers to achieving more diverse clinical trials and what needs to be done to topple them. Listen here.

Correction: An item in Friday's newsletter previewing an FDA advisory panel meeting that day misstated the disease targeted by Bluebird Bio's gene therapy. It is beta-thalassemia.

What to read around the web today

Three-dose Pfizer Covid vaccine works safely in young children, review says, Wall Street Journal
Poland shows the risks for women when abortion is banned, New York Times
How science helps fuel a culture of misinformation, Nieman Lab
Simmering disputes persist as Covid patent waiver talks come down to the wire, STAT
The billionaire funding a battle against hospital monopolies, Wall Street Journal
Florida hospital system sues religious sharing ministry over unpaid medical claims, STAT