Category: 8. Health

Background/Significance

The human microbiome, consisting of approximately three trillion bacteria and other microorganisms, is critical in regulating physiological processes, including immune responses and chemotherapy efficacy. Given the potential influence of microbiome composition on therapeutic outcomes, this pilot study investigated microbiome variations in breast tissue, skin, and stool samples and their associations with pathological complete response (pCR) in breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

Materials and Methods

Eleven breast cancer patients receiving neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included in this single-institution study. Treatment regimens were docetaxel, carboplatin, trastuzumab, and pertuzumab (n = 5); pembrolizumab-based immunotherapy (n = 5); and doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide, and paclitaxel (n = 1). Following therapy, breast tissue, skin, and stool samples were collected for microbiome analysis. Breast tissue 16S rRNA sequencing data were cross-referenced with skin microbiome data to exclude potential contaminants, removing taxa with >0.01% average skin abundance and ≥10% positivity. Whole-genome shotgun analysis excluded 295 taxonomic members, and microbial profiles were re-normalized to calculate the mean relative abundance.

Results

Six patients (55%) achieved pCR following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Breast tissue microbiome analysis revealed no significant differences between patients with and without pCR. However, stool microbiome composition differed between these groups. Patients without pCR exhibited elevated levels of Eubacterium (0.85 vs 0.39; P <.01), Bilophila wadsworthia (0.19 vs 0.05; P = .01), Alistipes shahii (1.65 vs 0.37; P = .01), and Dorea (0.42 vs 0.21; P = .02) compared with those with pCR. Conversely, patients achieving pCR had higher levels of Clostridiales (0.84 vs 1.83; P = .02), suggesting a potential correlation between the presence of specific bacterial taxa and therapeutic response.

Conclusion

This study highlights significant associations between stool microbiome composition and pCR in breast cancer patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Clostridiales, in particular, may enhance chemotherapy effectiveness through immune modulation and production of lithocholic acid, an antitumor metabolite. While limited by sample size, these findings suggest the need for larger studies to explore how gut microbiota influence treatment outcomes, potentially offering new strategies to optimize therapy.

Scientists demonstrate how a weak handgrip can accurately correlate with numerous diseases and poor performance of daily chores among older adults

SHARJAH, EMIRATE OF SHARJAH, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, July 7, 2025 /EINPresswire.com/ — Researchers have provided robust scientific evidence that ailments like depression, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer’s disease, osteoarthritis, and difficulties performing daily activities are associated with a frail handgrip, particularly among older adults.

The team, led by scientists from the University of Sharjah, says their study is the first large-scale investigation to present the prognostic efficacy of probable sarcopenia, the progressive loss of muscle strength among individuals over 50.

The scientists present their findings, which they claim accurately predict the correlation between several diseases and a frail grip, in the journal Aging Clinical and Experimental Research. (https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-025-03007-6)

The data for the study is collected from the Survey of Health, Aging, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), a large-scale European research project that studies individuals aged 50 and above. 17,960 community-dwelling geriatric adults aged 50 and over took part in the study and were monitored between 2025 and 2022.

The analysis of the data, they write, “exhibited significant prognostic accuracy for low HGS (Handgrip Strength) among men and women aged 60–79, irrespective of the quality of life, degree of depression, difficulties performing daily activities, and the presence of comorbidities, including depression, high blood pressure, diabetes mellitus, Alzheimer’s disease, and osteoarthritis.”

Doctors use handgrip strength tests to measure the strength or weakness of a person’s ability to squeeze or grip with their hands. It is a valuable tool to examine a person’s health conditions, particularly those of older adults. Medical professionals carry out these tests to predict potential health problems.

The authors acknowledge that previous studies present the predictive accuracy of the link between a poor handgrip and the development of several diseases, as well as conditions of daily life for older adults. However, they maintain that the findings in the plethora of available literature are drawn from “small subsets of hospitalized patients and were not replicated in community-dwelling older adults.”

The authors’ analysis is more comprehensive, covering a large community-dwelling population in residential settings, making it relevant to a variety of age-related lifestyle factors and comorbidities.

The authors’ investigation is not confined to health problems and diseases that can be associated with a weak handgrip. They also investigate their quality of life, several comorbidities, and difficulties performing daily chores.

They write, “We observed significant correlations between the CT ratio and handgrip strength in both men and women, regardless of BMI. This supports the general applicability of our findings across different segments of the population. The correlations were more robust in men than women of all age groups.”

BMI, or Body Mass Index, is a tool by which medical professionals measure body fat using height and weight as guidelines to determine whether an individual’s weight poses any health risks.

The authors add, “We report significant efficacy of CT ratio for probable sarcopenia in 17,960 community-dwelling older adults from 12 European countries. Specifically, the increasing CT ratio was associated with a higher risk and earlier onset of low HGS in the study population.”

The scientists demonstrate with “significant prognostic accuracy” that advancing age, male gender, higher than normal BMI, the presence of depression, and Alzheimer’s disease increase the risk of weakening an individual’s handgrip strength.

The researchers report statistically significant predictive accuracy between a low handgrip and the performance of everyday tasks and chores such as climbing stairs, getting dressed, and rising from a chair.

Men, more than women, according to the authors, develop a steeper decline in handgrip strength when reaching the age of 60 and above, coupled with a higher relevant risk threshold for mortality.

The authors’ study makes a valuable contribution to the literature, with several major strengths, namely their large representative sample drawn from 12 European countries.

Their longitudinal design, they wire, “significantly bolsters our confidence in the predictive efficacy of the CT ratio for low HGS. The standardized SHARE questionnaire, administered consistently across multiple European settings, ensured data harmonization and enhanced the study’s reliability.”

Their findings, the authors maintain, have clinical and policy implications that can help medical professionals to timely and accurately identify geriatric adults at risk of developing low handgrip strength.

They note, “Our findings have clinical and policy implications, potentially aiding healthcare providers and policymakers in identifying older adults with muscle weakness.”

LEON BARKHO
University Of Sharjah
+971 50 165 4376
email us here

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BYLINE: Kristi Birch

Newswise — Proper nutrition is important for people diagnosed with cancer, both to help them feel better and to assist them in maintaining their strength during treatment and its side effects. But cancer and its treatment can affect both a person’s ability and desire to eat, making it hard to get enough calories and nutrients. This is especially true for people who have been diagnosed with some type of head and neck cancer, malignancies that arise predominantly in the mouth, throat and voice box.

“The tumor itself can lead to symptoms and side effects like difficulty swallowing and difficulty chewing,” said Anna Arthur, Ph.D., MPH, associate professor of dietetics and nutrition at the University of Kansas School of Health Professions and a member of The University of Kansas Cancer Center. “On top of that, surgical resections of the tumor, radiation and chemotherapies can lead to severe symptoms and side effects — including taste changes, dry mouth, nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances and painful ulceration of the membranes in the mouth and throat, all of which severely compromise the ability of these patients to get the nutrition they need.”

Last month, Arthur, along with a multidisciplinary team of researchers and clinicians at KU Medical Center and the Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Florida, published an article in Lancet Oncology issuing a call for nutrition-related head and neck cancer research and presenting a roadmap that identifies gaps and strategies to improve care.

Research on nutrition therapy for head and neck cancers, which account for 4% of all cancers in the United States, lags behind that of other types of cancer. (Research overall for head and neck cancer receives the second lowest amount of funding from the National Institutes of Health.) Yet the prevalence of malnutrition in people with head and neck cancer is among the highest of all the cancer types, ranging from roughly one-quarter to three-quarters of these patients, depending on the type and severity of the malignancy and the treatment. Insufficient nutrition has been associated with increased mortality and decreased tolerance to cancer therapy in head and neck cancer patients.

“Even though we know that these patients experience really severe nutritional deficits before, during and even long-term after their treatment, we don’t have a huge evidence base to define exactly what types of nutrition interventions are needed, and how those interventions should be timed, to prevent and manage the nutritional issues that they face,” said Arthur. “And we know from working with these patients clinically that they really need nutrition counseling because of where the tumor is located and the symptoms and side effects that they experience due to the treatment.”

Dietitians can help these patients deal with the side effects of the disease and its treatment by, for example, advising them on modifying their food choices if they have trouble swallowing, providing recipes for liquid diets and even helping them select foods high in protein and calories so they don’t have to eat as much.

But access to registered dietitians is drastically inadequate for these patients, Arthur noted. She cited a report from the Oncology Nutrition Dietetic Practice Group of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that showed the ratio of dietitian to cancer patient in U.S. cancer centers is far below what is needed to provide care: one for every 2,308 patients. Medical nutrition therapy services are typically not covered by insurance, so many patients do not get the care they need from a registered dietitian.

“We think the combination of more research with better policies and better insurance coverage would ultimately lead to not only better nutritional outcomes, but better survival and better quality of life,” Arthur said.

In addition to calling for more research funding opportunities, the article proposes eight action items to increase research and improve head and neck cancer outcomes. These include:  

• Improving access to medical nutrition therapy provided by registered dietitians
• Establishing medical nutrition therapy reimbursement policies  
• Addressing nutrition care needs for long-term survivors
• Establishing a consensus on criteria for feeding tubes and when they should be placed
• Providing nutrition literacy to people who have been diagnosed with head and neck cancer
• Increasing access to psychological screenings and services
• Addressing gaps in speech-language pathology care, which can help patients with difficulties swallowing and speaking
• Promoting active participation in exercise programming

(Vax-Before-Travel News)

Over the past decade, numerious herpes zoster cases were prevented with two doses of a U.S. FDA-approved vaccine that contains an adjuvant. According to new research, there may be an additional, measurable benefit from vaccination.

A Brief Communication published by NPJ Vaccines on June 25, 2025, reported a lower risk of dementia associated with AS01-adjuvanted vaccination against shingles.

In propensity-score matched cohort studies involving 436,788 individuals, both the AS01-adjuvanted shingles and respiratory syncytial virus vaccines, administered individually or in combination, were associated with a reduced risk of dementia at 18 months.

AS01 may protect against dementia through specific immunological pathways.

In particular, stimulation of toll-like receptor 4 with monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL; one of the components of the AS01 system) has been shown to improve Alzheimer’s disease pathology in mice.

In addition, the two main ingredients of AS01, MPL and QS-21 (a purified plant extract derived from Quillaja saponaria), act synergistically to activate macrophages and dendritic cells, triggering an age-independent cytokine cascade that culminates in the production of interferon gamma (IFN-γ).

IFN-γ might attenuate amyloid plaque deposition (as seen in mice) and is negatively correlated with cognitive decline in cognitively unimpaired older adults.

These neuroprotective mechanisms may reach their full potential at or below the dose of AS01 administered within a single vaccine, so that administering both the AS01 shingles and RSV vaccines does not provide any additional benefits.

This saturation effect could also explain why the level of protection against dementia appears similar between the AS01 shingles vaccine (which is given in two doses) and the AS01 RSV vaccine (administered as a single dose).

No difference was observed between the two AS01-adjuvanted vaccines, suggesting that the AS01 adjuvant itself plays a direct role in reducing the risk of dementia.

A previous study found similar cross-protection benefits.

 In July 2024, a University of Oxford-led study concluded that receiving the recombinant Shingrix® vaccine was associated with a 17% increase in diagnosis-free time, translating into 164 additional days lived without a diagnosis of dementia in those subsequently affected.

As of July 7, 2025, shingles vaccination services are offered at most pharmacies in the United States.

A Merseyside children’s hospital has warned parents and carers about an increase in measles cases which has left several children “seriously unwell”.

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital has reported the virus is on the rise in young people in the region and blamed the spike on a fall in uptake of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.

Medical director Alfie Bass and chief nurse Nathan Askew said the symptoms can be severe and “are leading to increasing numbers of children being admitted to our hospital”.

They said in a letter posted on social media that the “vaccine has been available for many years and is proven to be safe” and urged parents to get their children vaccinated.

Vaccine uptake in the UK has fallen over the last decade, leading to outbreaks of measles and whooping cough.

A recent report found parent obstacles such as difficulty booking appointments and a lack of reminders on what jabs are needed and when had prevented some from vaccinating their children.

The letter, which was co-signed by the public health directors of three Merseyside councils, said: “In rare cases, catching the disease can be fatal.

“Measles is particularly dangerous for some of our most vulnerable children and young people, including those under one year of age and those already battling other serious illnesses like cancer.”

The letter urged parents and carers to get their children vaccinated, which is typically done when the child is aged 12 months, and then again at around three years and four months.

The hospital said two doses of the MMR vaccine was enough for “lifelong protection against measles, mumps and rubella”.

Symptoms of measles usually start with a runny nose, sneezing, coughing and a high temperature, before the measles rash typically develops a few days later.