Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau

According to a study published in the journal JAMA Health Forum, the use of the benzodiazepine lorazepam by the character Victoria Ratliff in the series The White Lotus was associated in the United States with an increase in Google searches for this medication, including queries about how to obtain it online. The series generated 1.6 million more searches than usual over a 12-week period. Although the study reflects searches for information and not actual consumption, the abuse of anti-anxiety drugs is a fact: illegal sales of benzodiazepines have increased in the United States, and Spain leads the rankings in terms of consumption.

Severe combined immunodeficiency due to ADA enzyme deficiency is a rare disease that, without treatment, usually causes death within the first two years of life. These "bubble children" are currently treated with a bone marrow transplant or with injections that aim to restore, to the extent possible, the function of this enzyme. Now, an international team presents the results of a gene therapy administered to 62 children with the disease between 2012 and 2019. The therapy was effective in 95% of cases and did not cause serious complications, according to the authors, whose work is published in the journal NEJM. 

Prenatal exposure to triptans—alone or in combination with other migraine medications—does not increase the risk of developmental disorders in children up to age 14, according to research published in Neurology. The study is based on data from more than 26,000 pregnancies in a national registry in Norway and includes autism spectrum disorders, language disorders, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, among other diagnoses.

EMA’s human medicines committee has recommended not authorising the marketing of Kisunla (donanemab), a drug intended for the treatment of early-stage Alzheimer's disease. The committee considered that the benefits of this drug were not great enough to outweigh the risk of potentially fatal events. In recent years, several patients have died due to microbleeds in the brain.

A CNIC research team has identified a population of skin neutrophils that reinforce the physical protection of the tissue against infection. These immune cells are known for their microbicidal role, and the study published in Nature reveals that they also produce an extracellular matrix that reinforces the physical barrier of the skin.

Less than four months after the European Medicines Agency recommended in July not to grant marketing authorisation for Leqembi™ (lecanemab) for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has reassessed the available evidence to conclude that the benefits outweigh the risks.

Rituximab and ocrelizumab are two antibodies with a similar mechanism of action that are used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis. Although the former had not shown benefits in primary progressive multiple sclerosis — which affects between 10% and 15% of patients — the latter is approved for this form of the disease. Now, a study conducted in France with more than 1,000 patients has found no benefits with either treatment, as they did not slow the progression of disability in these individuals. The results are published in the journal Neurology.

An international team of researchers has conducted a meta-analysis of 137 clinical trials involving nearly 90,000 people to assess the migraine efficacy of 17 available drugs. Their conclusions are that four drugs in the triptan group are more effective and cheaper than newer drugs such as gepants or lasmiditan, and that the efficacy of the latter is comparable to that of paracetamol and most anti-inflammatory drugs. The results are published in The BMJ.

Vision loss and having high cholesterol - the so-called ‘bad’ cholesterol - are risk factors for developing dementia, according to a meta-analysis published in The Lancet. Eliminating these risk factors could reduce dementia cases by 2% and 7% respectively, the study says. Both factors are in addition to 12 others previously mentioned in a 2020 report such as less education, physical inactivity, hearing loss, excessive alcohol consumption, obesity or poor social contact, among others. According to the research, almost half of all dementia cases could be prevented or delayed if these risk factors were controlled.

A family of more than 1,000 members with origins in Colombia has a mutation called "paisa" that leads to the development of Alzheimer's disease. In 2019, an added mutation in the apoE gene called "Christchurch" was described as conferring strong protection to an individual carrying two copies of it. Now, a study has found that 27 family members carry a single copy and that it is also associated with some degree of protection. According to the authors, who publish their findings in the journal NEJM, the discovery could be used to develop new treatments for the disease.