SCOTTISH HOSPITAL NEWS
WORLD’S LARGEST INFLAMMATORY DISEASE BIOBANK TO ENABLE MORE PRECISE TREATMENT
A consortium led by the University of Glasgow has been awarded a £1.7 million grant to create the world’s largest Immune-Mediated Inflammatory Disease (IMID) Biobank.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) funded project will be delivered by the IMIDBio-UK consortium, which brings together researchers from the University of Glasgow, Newcastle University, the University of Cambridge, Queen Mary University of London and the University of Manchester.
Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases are common medical
TARGETED ANTIBIOTIC USE MAY HELP CURE CHRONIC MYELOID LEUKAEMIA
The antibiotic tigecycline, when used in combination with current treatment, may hold the key to eradicating chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) cells, according to new research.
The University of Glasgow- led study demonstrates the effectiveness of combining tigecycline with the drug imatinib – a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) and standard first-line treatment of patients with CML.
At present, CML patients are treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, otherwise known as TKIs, including the drug imatinib. TKIs are effective at killing the majority of the leukaemic cells, but they do not kill the CML stem cells from which the disease arises.
As a result, TKIs alone rarely cure the disease but hold its advancement at bay. Therefore, most patients need to remain on TKIs for the rest of their lives to control the disease, although with the risk of development of drug resistance. Additionally, the drugs are expensive and can cause serious side effects in some patients.
Using cells isolated from CML patients, researchers showed that treatment with tigecycline, an antibiotic used to treat bacterial infection, is effective in killing CML stem cells when used in combination with imatinib. The study also shows that the novel drug combination significantly delays relapse in pre-clinical animal models of human CML.
The University of Glasgow-led teams now believe that these two drugs together offer an exciting new approach to eradicate leukaemic stem cells in CML patients and potentially enhance cure rates.
‘We were very excited to find that when we treated CML cells with both the antibiotic tigecycline and the TKI drug imatinib, CML stem cells were selectively killed,’ said Dr Vignir Helgason, joint lead author of the study who is based at the University of Glasgow, Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre. ‘We believe that our findings provide a strong basis for testing this novel therapeutic strategy in clinical trials in order to eliminate CML stem cells and provide cure for CML patients.’
conditions that cause substantial pain, distress, loss of function and early death. They include rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriasis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Sjogren’s syndrome and autoimmune liver diseases such as primary biliary cholangitis.
GLASGOW TO LEAD PRECISION MEDICINE IN SCOTLAND AUDIT The University of Glasgow
has been chosen by the UK Government to lead a Science and Innovation Audit on Precision Medicine Innovation in Scotland.
Precision medicine is an approach which enables doctors and researchers to identify and develop treatments that are ‘precise’, that is effective for specific groups of patients. It is widely expected that precision medicine will have a disruptive effect on future healthcare, with significant benefit to patients but also economic benefit for the NHS.
The Precision Medicine in Scotland consortia will undertake a Science and Innovation Audit (SIA) to map Scotland’s research, innovation and infrastructure strengths in precision medicine to help identify the opportunities for inward investment and regional growth.
The aim of the consortia is to position Scotland as one of the
The University of Glasgow- led consortia includes over 20 consortium partners across the triple helix of industry, academia and the NHS.
‘To undertake world-class life sciences innovation, links between research and innovation organisations and businesses need to be forged and strengthened,’ said Dr David Sibbald, Chair of the Stratified Medicine Scotland Innovation Centre, ‘and we need to have a robust evidence base to underpin future investment decisions. The audit will provide a vital resource for the Innovation Centre and all the consortium partners in Scotland who are actively engaged in delivering high- quality collaborative innovation in precision medicine.’
CHANGES IN DIET MAY IMPROVE LIFE
EXPECTANCY IN PARKINSON’S PATIENTS New research from the University of Aberdeen shows that weight loss in people with Parkinson’s disease leads to decreased life expectancy, increased risk of dementia and more dependency on care.
The team, led by Dr Angus Macleod propose that closer monitoring for weight loss in Parkinson’s patients and interventions in those who lose weight, such as a high calorie diet, may improve life expectancy, reduce dementia and reduce dependence on carers.
The study, published in Neurology, followed 275 people with Parkinson’s disease and parkinsonian disorders for up to ten years, monitored patients’ weight and investigated associations between weight loss and outcomes of the disease. The main findings showed that weight loss is common in Parkinson’s disease and in the parkinsonian disorders and can occur in the early stages of the disease. Further analysis showed that this early weight loss is associated with higher risk of becoming dependent
(ie, needing help with activities of daily living), of developing dementia, and of dying.
Although other studies have identified weight loss as a common problem in Parkinson’s disease, this is the first to identify the link between weight loss and death, dementia and dependence on carers.
‘Weight loss is a common problem in Parkinson’s,’ said Dr Angus MacLeod, who led the study, ‘but it wasn’t clear before we did this how common it was, mainly because of biases in previous studies, or what the consequences were of weight loss. Our hypothesis was that people who are losing weight were going to have adverse outcomes.
‘Our finding that those who lose weight have poorer outcomes is important because reversing weight loss may therefore improve outcomes. Therefore, it is vital that further research investigate whether high calorie diets will improve outcomes in people with Parkinson’s who lose weight.’
best places in the world to develop and deliver precision medicine and build international collaborations at scale.
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