Category: 8. Health

The U.S. is about to break a record for the number of reported measles cases in a year since the infection was considered eliminated in 2000.

According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 1,267 confirmed measles cases so far this year.

The last annual high was 1,274 during an outbreak in 2019. Prior to 2000, the record high number of cases occurred in 1990.

The CDC said 12% of the measles cases to date have required hospitalization. Three cases have resulted in deaths, including two young children in Texas — the epicenter of the ongoing outbreak — and an adult in New Mexico.

Nearly 40 states have reported at least one measles case so far this year, but Texas still has the highest outbreak numbers with over 700 cases.

RELATED STORY | As summer travel increases, measles cases continue to rise

The Wyoming Department of Health reported its first case of measles in the state in 15 years.

Overwhelming — 92% — of the cases involved individuals who had not been vaccinated against the infection.

Health experts said the best way to avoid getting the highly contagious infection is to get the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine. The first shot is recommended for children between 12 and 15 months old, and the second between 4 and 6 years old.

RELATED STORY | Travel and outbreaks: Should you vaccinate your child earlier for measles?

Adults can get another MMR shot if there are concerns about immunity waning off, according to the CDC.

Measles is spread through the air when an infected person coughs or sneezes. The CDC said you can get measles just by being in a room that an infected person was in up to two hours beforehand.

It’s more than just the rash associated with the infection. Measles impacts the respiratory system, and cause a high fever, runny nose, cough and red, watery eyes.

The CDC said most kids will recover from measles, but infection can lead to dangerous complications such as pneumonia, blindness, brain swelling and even death.

BALOCHISTAN: Surrounded by an intense heatwave and extended power outages, Osta Muhammad’s spoiled medicines are reported to have been sold in medical stores in the district, raising serious public health challenges, ARY News reported.

According to local health authorities, thermosensitive drugs are being stored at extreme heat, reaching up to 50°C, far above the preferred scale for pharmaceutical safety.

The heatwave impact on pharmaceuticals has been a burning question across Balochistan, with Osta Muhammad’s spoiled medicines specifically highlighted.

As per the confirmation of the District Health Officer (DHO), patients have suffered serious health problems after consuming expired medicines. “These spoiled medicines are being sold openly, and patients are at risk of life-threatening reactions,” the DHO stated.

Medical experts highlight that storage of medicines at a raised temperature can convert them into poison or even toxins. “The chemical composition of many drugs breaks down when exposed to excessive heat, especially those requiring refrigeration,” a senior pharmacist stated in Karachi.

Meanwhile, store owners defend Osta Muhammad’s spoiled medicines by stating that they cannot afford generators to maintain proper storage conditions during load shedding.

This situation reflects comparable events occurring throughout Pakistan. In recent months, authorities in Sargodha and Nawabshah have shut down several medical stores for distributing unregistered or expired medicines.

The problem is further intensified by insufficient enforcement measures and a lack of public awareness, particularly in rural communities.

Read More: DRAP’s rapid alert fuels Punjab’s drug crackdown

In a resolute action to protect public health, the Punjab Drug Control Directorate has launched a key crackdown on counterfeit medicines in Punjab, indicating that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) to issue a national emergency warning.

According to media reports and official sources, the operation exposed counterfeit drugs in Punjab, which were being sold under the names of well-established pharmaceutical brands.

Included medicines were being sold for the treatment of fever, throat infections, fungal conditions, and gynaecological illnesses.

A new study says that older adults who nap too much during the day may have a higher risk of death. This study was presented at SLEEP 2025, a big sleep science event in Seattle, Washington. The research looked at daytime naps, especially longer and irregular naps in the early afternoon, and found these were linked to a higher death risk over 8 years, as per the report by Fox News Digital.

Chenlu Gao, the study’s lead author and a postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital, said they wanted to understand more than just if people nap — but also how long, when, and how often. The study had 86,565 participants with an average age of 63. All had regular daytime jobs, as per reports.

Naps between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. were most risky

These people wore devices that tracked their movement during sleep. It didn’t check brain activity though. Scientists defined daytime napping as sleep between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. Over the next 8 years, 5,189 people (6%) from the study died, as stated in the report by Fox News Digital.
People who napped between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m. or took longer naps had higher chances of dying during those 8 years. The study also adjusted for other death risk factors like age, weight, smoking, alcohol, and night sleep time. Dr. Chelsie Rohrscheib, a sleep expert from Wesper, New York, who wasn’t part of the study, said naps are okay unless they’re used to make up for bad night sleep, according to the report by Fox News Digital.

Long naps might mean you’re not sleeping well at night

She also said adults need 7 to 9 hours of good sleep at night to stay healthy and avoid diseases like heart problems and diabetes. One issue with the study: it might have confused “quiet rest” with actual sleep, because the tracker only checks movement, not brain activity, as mentioned in the reports.

Also, defining naps as between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m. may have accidentally included some people’s real sleep, not just naps. Too much daytime sleeping could be a sign of other health problems like chronic illness, body inflammation, or issues with the body’s internal clock, as mentioned by Fox News Digital. ALSO READ : Michael Madsen, iconic ‘Reservoir Dogs’ and ‘Kill Bill’ actor, dies at 67

Dr. Rohrscheib said if someone needs a nap every day, they probably have bad night sleep or an underlying health issue. Chenlu Gao said more studies are needed to find out whether naps directly cause health issues, or if they’re just a sign of something else.
But Gao also said watching people’s napping patterns could help spot health problems early and let doctors step in faster. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says healthy naps should be under 20 to 30 minutes, and taken early in the afternoon, according to the reports.

Short “power naps” can help you feel more awake and full of energy. But if you nap for more than 30 minutes, you might feel tired or dizzy after waking up.

In short, sleeping too much during the day after age 60 can be risky. The time, length, and how often you nap may show signs about your health, according to Fox News Digital

FAQs

Q1. Is it dangerous for older adults to nap a lot during the day?
Yes, a new study says too much daytime napping after age 60 may raise the risk of death.

Q2. How long should a healthy nap be?
Experts say naps should be 20–30 minutes and taken early in the afternoon.

A new study sheds light on why many patients with advanced skin cancer fail to benefit from immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapies and suggests a potential fix using a drug already approved for blood cancers.

Published in Nature Immunology, the research identifies a biological mechanism that helps explain resistance to ICB drugs such as anti-PD-1 antibodies, a mainstay in treating melanoma and other solid tumors. Although these therapies can produce durable responses, more than 60% of patients see no benefit, while experiencing high toxicity side effects and the financial cost without any improvement.

Scientists at Newcastle University in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom, found that resistance may stem from the unintended effects of ICB therapy on a type of immune cell called regulatory T cells, or Tregs. These cells normally help keep immune responses in check. But when PD-1 is blocked on Tregs, it causes them to become more suppressive, allowing tumors to continue growing despite treatment.

To study this, the researchers engineered a mouse model where PD-1 was removed only from Treg cells. In these animals, tumor growth accelerated. A deeper look revealed that this PD-1 disruption drove up levels of CD30, a surface protein associated with immune suppression. When researchers blocked CD30 in addition to PD-1, the tumors became more vulnerable to immune attack.

That finding points to a possible treatment strategy: combining PD-1 inhibitors with CD30-targeting drugs. One such drug, Adcetris (brentuximab vedotin), is already approved for lymphoma and could be repurposed. In support of that idea, an ongoing Phase II trial is testing this combination in patients with metastatic melanoma who didn’t respond to standard checkpoint inhibitors. Preliminary data show a median survival of 24%.

“By simply adding anti-CD30 for these patients, we can improve their response to cancer and avoid costly delays,” said Shoba Amarnath, Ph.D., reader in immune regulation at Newcastle University, who led the research, in a news release. “Although our work was limited to skin cancer, we believe this new combination treatment will also benefit patients with lung, bowel, pancreatic and other solid cancers who are currently not responding to treatment with ICB monotherapy.”

Checkpoint inhibitors have transformed care for patients with advanced skin cancer. A study published last year by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute found that about half of patients with metastatic melanoma who received a combination of immunotherapies were alive and cancer-free 10 years after treatment—compared to a median survival of just six and a half months before these drugs were available.

The Newcastle study also adds to the understanding of how Tregs behave in the tumor microenvironment. The research team found that Tregs in ICB-treated tumors begin to resemble stem cells and cluster near tumor cells, forming immunosuppressive hubs that protect the cancer from immune attack. This behavior may help explain why simply boosting T cell activity with checkpoint inhibitors doesn’t work for many patients.

The researchers also wrote that CD30 levels rose in human Tregs after exposure to PD-1 blockade, but not in untreated tumor environments. This suggests that CD30 activation is potentially a side effect of the therapy itself, one that could be anticipated and countered with combination treatment.

“We are very excited to find all these new aspects in ICB resistance biology,” Amarnath said. “We believe targeting immune molecules and tumor growth proteins will significantly enhance the efficacy of ICB in solid cancers.”

Before Q2, HCPLive spoke with Steve Levine, MD, from Compass Pathways, for a Q1 recap and a look ahead at what was to come in psychiatry. Now that the quarter has wrapped, we’re revisiting those expectations.

Back in April, Levine highlighted 2 key studies to watch: Compass Pathways’ topline results for COMP360 psilocybin and Beckley Psychtech’s intranasal 5-MeO-DMT (BPL-003), both for TRD. Compass delivered on June 23, publishing phase 3 data from COMP005. A single 25 mg dose of COMP360 led to a significant reduction in depression severity at 6 weeks.

Beckley followed with their phase 2b data on July 1. BPL-003 met its primary and secondary endpoints, showing rapid, robust antidepressant effects after a single dose.1 Patients on 8 mg and 12 mg had meaningful symptom reduction by week 8, and most were ready for discharge within 90 minutes, fitting well within the 2-hour in-clinic model.

Along with the promising COMP360 data, this recap spotlights the unsuccessful phase 3 ARISE trial for xanomeline-trospium (Cobenfy) as an adjunctive schizophrenia treatment, an interview with John Kane, MD, on promising LB-102 data, and new podcast episodes of Medical Ethics Unpacked and the Gus Alva Perspective.

FDA Updates

FDA Officially Eliminates Clozapine REMS

On June 13, 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officially eliminated the clozapine REMS program to improve access to this effective treatment for schizophrenia. Although monitoring for severe neutropenia remains recommended, prescribers now have sole responsibility for determining clozapine’s use. In response, the Schizophrenia & Psychosis Action Alliance and American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists are launching A New Era in Clozapine Management this fall to support safe, stigma-free prescribing.

What’s Moving in the Pipeline

Compass Pathways’ COMP360 Psilocybin Shows Benefit in Phase 3 TRD Trial

Compass Pathways announced positive topline results from its pivotal phase 3 COMP005 trial on June 23. A single 25 mg dose of COMP360 led to significant reductions in depression severity at 6 weeks among patients with TRD, meeting the primary endpoint. No major safety concerns were reported. The company plans to share 26-week follow-up data once its companion trial (COMP006) progresses.

Cobenfy Falls Short in Phase 3 ARISE Trial as Adjunctive Schizophrenia Therapy

In the phase 3 ARISE trial, xanomeline and trospium chloride (Cobenfy) did not achieve a statistically significant benefit as an adjunctive schizophrenia treatment. The 6-week study showed only a modest 2-point PANSS score difference versus placebo. However, subgroup analysis suggested Cobenfy may be more effective when paired with non-risperidone antipsychotics. Despite the missed endpoint, the safety profile remained favorable, and further research is encouraged.

Interview With John Kane, MD, on LB-102

LB-102 Significantly Improves Disease Severity in Acute Schizophrenia, with John Kane, MD

LB-102, a novel oral benzamide antipsychotic, demonstrated significant improvement in disease severity in the phase 2 NOVA trial. Doses of 50–100 mg led to meaningful CGI-S score reductions and positive effects on PANSS scores, with minimal weight gain and extrapyramidal symptoms. Lead investigator John Kane, MD, noted its potential to address unmet needs, particularly for negative symptoms and maintenance therapy.

Gus Alva Perspective

Launched May 16, 2025, The Gus Alva Perspective is a clinician-focused podcast hosted by psychiatrist Gus Alva, MD, medical director of ATP Research. With new episodes twice monthly, the show offers expert commentary on treatment advances and exclusive coverage leading up to the Southern California Psychiatry Meeting.

Featured Episodes:

The Gus Alva Perspective: SoCal Psych Preview—Schizophrenia Updates, with Jonathan Meyer, MD

The Gus Alva Perspective: SoCal Psych Preview—Tardive Dyskinesia, with Jonathan Meyer, MD

The Gus Alva Perspective: SoCal Psych Preview—Metabolic Revolution in Mood Disorders, with Roger McIntyre, MD

Medical Ethics Unpacked

Medical Ethics Unpacked: Shifting Vaccine Regulation and Policy, with Jason Schwartz, PhD

Jason Schwartz, PhD, of Yale, joins hosts Dominic Sisti, PhD, and Steve Levine, MD, to discuss the ethics of vaccine regulation. They examine how COVID-19 reshaped vaccine trust, amplified political divisions, and exposed vulnerabilities in public health infrastructure. The conversation addresses tensions between individual rights and collective health, misinformation’s impact, and the controversial replacement of ACIP members by HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Medical Ethics Unpacked: Unique Ethical Challenges of Psychedelic Therapies

Amy McGuire, JD, PhD, from Baylor College of Medicine, joins Sisti and Levine to explore the unique ethical issues in psychedelic therapy, particularly informed consent, cultural integration, and altered states of consciousness. The FDA’s recent rejection of MDMA-assisted therapy for PTSD has heightened debate over how to responsibly introduce these treatments into Western clinical practice.

References

atai Life Sciences and Beckley Psytech Announce Positive Topline Results from the Phase 2b Study of BPL-003 in Patients with Treatment-Resistant Depression. Beckley Psychtech. July 1, 2025. https://www.beckleypsytech.com/posts/atai-life-sciences-and-beckley-psytech-announce-positive-topline-results-from-the-phase-2b-study-of-bpl-003-in-patients-with-treatment-resistant-depression. Accessed July 1, 2025.

Researchers at the Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS) have created a new nanomaterial that can simultaneously detect and treat cancer using multiple approaches. In laboratory tests with mice, the gold-iron particles enabled real-time tumor imaging while delivering targeted treatment through heat, chemical reactions and immune system activation. Published in the Chemical Engineering Journal, the study indicates these multifunctional particles have the potential to locate tumors, treat them at the optimal moment and help trigger immune responses against cancer cells.

The core of the KRISS research lies in the nanodisk’s gold-iron-gold sandwich structure, where each layer serves a distinct purpose. The outer gold layers enable heat-based cancer cell destruction when activated by laser light. Meanwhile, the iron core provides magnetic guidance and triggers chemical reactions that damage tumor cells through oxidation and ferroptosis. This structural design allows the particles to deliver three complementary therapies simultaneously. The combination promises to offer a significant advance over current nanomaterials that typically offer a single treatment modality.

“Unlike conventional nanomaterials, which are composed of a single element and perform only one function, the material developed in this study utilizes the combined properties of gold and iron to perform multiple functions,” said Dr. Lee Eun Sook, in a press release.

Photo-acoustic imaging in the mouse study demonstrated that “PA imaging using AuFeAuNDs as a robust contrast agent offers precise localization of tumor tissue and guidance for PTT.” The researchers noted in the paper that “the magnetic-targeted AuFeAuNDs not only eliminate tumor cells but also initiate ICD by releasing DAMPs in tumor-bearing mice, leading to the augmentation of cytotoxic T cells.”

In turn, this imaging capability promises to enable clinicians to monitor nanoparticle accumulation in real-time and determine optimal treatment timing, assuming the research proceeds to human trials. The study showed that the particles triggered “immunogenic cell death (ICD) by releasing damage-associated molecular patterns (DAMPs), thus stimulating an anti-tumor immune response.”

The KRISS breakthrough builds on extensive global research into multifunctional cancer nanoparticles. Georgia Tech and Emory researchers recently developed Janus cellular backpacks that insert into cell membranes while carrying therapeutic payloads. Other teams have explored gold-copper sulfide hybrids that combine NIR-II imaging with chemical therapy, while multiple groups are investigating metal-organic framework platforms for combined heat and chemical treatments. Despite these varied strategies, most rely on core-shell or surface-modified designs rather than the precise trilayer architecture achieved by KRISS through nanoimprint lithography. The KRISS approach may thus offer an advantage when it comes to stability and controlled therapeutic delivery.

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Filed Under: Drug Discovery, Oncology

 

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Scientists at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and their colleagues at the University of California, San Diego, have found that fine-particulate air pollution, which includes pollution from vehicles and industry, was strongly associated with increased genomic changes in lung cancer tumors among people who have never smoked.

By assembling the largest-ever whole-genome analysis of lung cancer in individuals who have never smoked, researchers were able to link air pollution exposure to increased cancer-driving and cancer-promoting genetic mutations. This could potentially lead to more prevention strategies for never-smokers.

Researchers analyzed lung tumors from 871 never-smoker patients across 28 geographic locations worldwide as part of the Sherlock-Lung study They found associations between air pollution exposure and changes in the TP53 gene, and other genetic mutational signatures previously associated with tobacco smoking. They also observed a relationship between air pollution and shorter telomeres, which are sections of DNA found at the end of chromosomes. Telomeres shorten naturally with age and shorter telomeres are related to cells inability to continue to replicate. However, scientists found fine particulate air pollution was linked to premature shortening of telomeres.

Prior genomic studies of lung cancer have focused on tobacco smokers, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of how lung cancer develops in people who have never used tobacco. By beginning to uncover the mechanisms through which tissues acquire cancer-causing or cancer-promoting mutations following environmental exposures, this study helps scientists better understand the primary drivers of lung cancer in this population—which represents up to 25% of all lung cancer cases globally.

Interestingly, the researchers found that while exposure to secondhand smoke was associated with slightly higher mutation burdens and shorter telomeres, compared to tumors in patients who were not exposed, it did not lead to an increase in cancer-driving mutations or mutational signatures. This suggests that secondhand smoke may have a lower overall ability to cause genetic mutations, known as mutagenicity, compared to air pollution.

This work was led by researchers at NIH’s National Cancer Institute and the University of California, San Diego, and published in Nature on July 2, 2025.

This news release was published by the National Institutes of Health on July 2, 2025.

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A research team from Bochum and Hannover shows that the hepatitis E virus also attacks organs other than the liver.

The hepatitis E virus (HEV) causes severe liver inflammation. A research team from Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and TWINCORE, the Centre for Experimental and Clinical Infection Research in Hannover, has now been able to prove for the first time that it can also infect kidney cells and replicate there. Antiviral drugs such as ribavirin are less effective there than in the liver. The results of the study have now been published in the journal Liver International on June 27, 2025.

Entire life cycle possible in the kidney

Hepatitis E viruses mainly infect liver cells and cause the most damage in the liver. “However, it was already known that they can go down the wrong path and infect other cells, such as nerve cells,” says last author Dr. André Gömer from the Department of Molecular and Medical Virology at Ruhr University Bochum.

The team from Bochum and Hannover has now succeeded in proving in cell culture that the viruses also infect kidney cells and can multiply with their help. “The entire replication cycle of the virus takes place in kidney cells in the same way as in liver cells,” says Gömer.

The infected kidney cells responded less well to treatment with the antiviral drug ribavirin than the liver cells. “This is probably due to the significantly different metabolic profiles of the two organs,” says Gömer. In the kidney, the virus is therefore relatively insensitive to drug treatment.

“It could be that in chronic infections, the kidney acts as a reservoir from which the viruses spread again after a supposedly successful treatment,” says Nele Meyer, a PhD student in the Translational Virology research group at TWINCORE. She and the physician Avista Wahid are the first authors of the study. Such a reservoir could also enable the viruses to adapt better to treatment.

Evolution in the organ

The team also conducted a comparative genetic analysis of hepatitis viruses from chronically infected patients using their blood plasma, stool and urine. While viruses are mainly excreted from the liver in the stool, those from the kidneys are found in the urine. ‘The viruses found in the different samples differ significantly from each other,” reports Dr Patrick Behrendt, head of the Translational Virology group at TWINCORE and also last author of the article. “This indicates that the populations have been developing independently of each other for some time and have undergone a kind of evolution in the respective organ.”

The hepatitis E virus

The hepatitis E virus (HEV) is the main cause of acute viral hepatitis. After the first documented epidemic outbreak in 1955 to 1956, more than 50 years passed before researchers began to focus intensively on the topic. Acute infections normally heal themselves in patients with an intact immune system. In patients with a reduced or suppressed immune system, such as organ transplant recipients or HIV-infected patients, HEV can become chronic. HEV is also particularly dangerous for pregnant women.

Funding

The work was supported by the German Center for Infection Research, the Volkswagen Foundation, the German Research Foundation (398066876/GRK 2485/2 and 448974291) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (VirBio project, funding code: 01KI2106).

In the early 2000s the U.S. Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), a large randomized clinical trial, showed that intensive lifestyle modification was better than a medication called metformin at preventing at-risk patients from developing Type 2 diabetes.

In a newly completed follow-up study, a team of researchers including Vallabh “Raj” Shah, professor emeritus in The University of New Mexico Departments of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology at the School of Medicine, found that the health benefits from the lifestyle intervention persisted more than 20 years later.

In a paper published in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology, they reported that the greatest results from both interventions were seen in the first few years of the study, and they were durable, Shah said. “The data suggests that those people who didn’t get diabetes also didn’t get diabetes after 22 years,” he said.

The DPP was launched in 1996 to compare the benefits of metformin – then newly approved by the FDA to treat Type 2 diabetes – and a lifestyle modification regimen that included exercise and a healthy diet. The study enrolled 3,234 patients with prediabetes at 30 institutions in 22 states.

The intensive lifestyle intervention reduced the development of diabetes by 24%, and metformin reduced diabetes development by 17%, according to the new study. The DPP had previously found that after the first three years of study, the lifestyle intervention of moderate weight loss and increased physical activity reduced the onset of Type 2 diabetes by 58% compared with a placebo medicine, while metformin reduced development of diabetes by 31%.

Compared with the original placebo group, the median time without diabetes was extended by three-and-a-half years in the lifestyle group and two-and-a-half years in the metformin group.

Within three years, they had to stop the study because lifestyle was better than metformin. That means lifestyle, which everybody is banking on, is more effective – that is the news.”

Vallabh “Raj” Shah, professor emeritus in The University of New Mexico

But because a wealth of health and biological data had already been collected for patients participating in the project, the DPP was repurposed into the DPP Outcomes Study (DPPOS), enabling researchers to follow their health outcomes in multiple domains over a period of decades, he said.

Shah has contributed to kidney disease research for more than three decades, conducting multiple studies at Zuni Pueblo and other American Indian communities in western New Mexico. He has also overseen the participation of the American Indian cohort enrolled in the DPPOS. Meanwhile, David Schade, MD, chief of the Division of Endocrinology in the UNM School of Medicine, recruited New Mexico participants in the study.

More recently, he said, DPPOS researchers have taken advantage of their large, well-documented cohort to repurpose the study to focus on diseases associated with aging, such as cancer and dementia, Shah said.