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Friday, August 2, 2019

New stem cell combination may help repair damage caused by heart attack

A combination of heart cells derived from human stem cells could be the answer to developing a desperately-needed treatment for heart failure, according to new research part-funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and published in Nature Biotechnology.
Researchers have found that, by transplanting an area of damaged tissue with a combination of both heart muscle cells and supportive cells taken from the outer layer of the heart wall, they may be able to help the organs recover from the damage caused by a heart attack.
Scientists have been trying to use stem cells to repair damaged hearts for a number of years. Efforts have been unsuccessful so far, mainly because the vast majority of transplanted cells die within a few days.
Now, Dr Sanjay Sinha and his team at the University of Cambridge, in collaboration with researchers at the University of Washington, have used supportive epicardial cells developed from human stem cells to help transplanted heart cells live longer.
The researchers used 3D human heart tissue grown in the lab from human stem cells to test the cell combination, finding that the supportive epicardial cells helped heart muscle cells to grow and mature. They also improved the heart muscle cell’s ability to contract and relax.
In rats with damaged hearts, the combination also allowed the transplanted cells to survive and restore lost heart muscle and blood vessel cells.
Researchers now hope to understand how the supportive epicardial cells help to drive heart regeneration. Understanding these key details will bring them one step closer to testing heart regenerative therapies in clinical trials.
Hundreds of thousands of people in the UK are living with debilitating heart failure, often as a result of a heart attack. During a heart attack, part of the heart is deprived of oxygen leading to death of heart muscle. This permanent loss of heart muscle as well as subsequent scarring combines to reduce the heart’s ability to pump blood around the body.
People suffering from heart failure can’t regenerate their damaged hearts and the only cure is a heart transplant. Ultimately, these researchers hope that, by harnessing the regenerative power of stem cells, they will one day be able to heal human hearts using a patient’s own cells.
In addition to the BHF, this research was funded by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).
Dr Sanjay Sinha, BHF-funded researcher and leader of the study at the University of Cambridge, said:
There are hundreds of thousands of people in the UK living with heart failure – many are in a race against time for a life-saving heart transplant. But with only around 200 heart transplants performed each year in the UK, it’s absolutely essential that we start finding alternative treatments.”
Dr Johannes Bargehr, first author of the study at the University of Cambridge said:
Our research shows the huge potential of stem cells for one day becoming the first therapy for heart failure. Although we still have some way to go, we believe we’re one giant step closer, and that’s incredibly exciting.”
Professor Sir Nilesh Samani, Medical Director at the British Heart Foundation which part-funded the research said:
Despite advances in medical treatments, survival rates for heart failure remain poor and life expectancy is worse than for many cancers. Breakthroughs are desperately needed to ease the devastation caused by this dreadful condition.
When it comes to mending broken hearts, stem cells haven’t yet really lived up to their early promise. We hope that this latest research represents the turning of the tide in the use of these remarkable cells.”
The BHF has invested millions of pounds in research to harness the power of stem cells in treating heart and circulatory diseases. The charity has funded three Centres of Regenerative Medicine across the UK, housing some of the world’s leading experts.
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A wearable device so thin and soft you won’t even notice it

Wearable human-machine interfaces — devices that can collect and store important health information about the wearer, among other uses — have benefited from advances in electronics, materials and mechanical designs. But current models still can be bulky and uncomfortable, and they can’t always handle multiple functions at one time.
Researchers reported Friday, Aug. 2, the discovery of a multifunctional ultra-thin wearable electronic device that is imperceptible to the wearer.
The device allows the wearer to move naturally and is less noticeable than wearing a Band-Aid, said Cunjiang Yu, Bill D. Cook Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston and lead author for the paper, published as the cover story in Science Advances.
“Everything is very thin, just a few microns thick,” said Yu, who also is a principal investigator at the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH. “You will not be able to feel it.”
It has the potential to work as a prosthetic skin for a robotic hand or other robotic devices, with a robust human-machine interface that allows it to automatically collect information and relay it back to the wearer.
That has applications for health care — “What if when you shook hands with a robotic hand, it was able to instantly deduce physical condition?” Yu asked — as well as for situations such as chemical spills, which are risky for humans but require human decision-making based on physical inspection.
While current devices are gaining in popularity, the researchers said they can be bulky to wear, offer slow response times and suffer a drop in performance over time. More flexible versions are unable to provide multiple functions at once — sensing, switching, stimulation and data storage, for example — and are generally expensive and complicated to manufacture.
The device described in the paper, a metal oxide semiconductor on a polymer base, offers manufacturing advantages and can be processed at temperatures lower than 300 C.
“We report an ultrathin, mechanically imperceptible, and stretchable (human-machine interface) HMI device, which is worn on human skin to capture multiple physical data and also on a robot to offer intelligent feedback, forming a closed-loop HMI,” the researchers wrote. “The multifunctional soft stretchy HMI device is based on a one-step formed, sol-gel-on-polymer-processed indium zinc oxide semiconductor nanomembrane electronics.”
Story Source:
Materials provided by University of Houston. Original written by Jeannie Kever. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.
Journal Reference:
  1. Kyoseung Sim, Zhoulyu Rao, Zhanan Zou, Faheem Ershad, Jianming Lei, Anish Thukral, Jie Chen, Qing-An Huang, Jianliang Xiao and Cunjiang Yu. Metal oxide semiconductor nanomembrane–based soft unnoticeable multifunctional electronics for wearable human-machine interfaces. Science Advances, 2019 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aav9653
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CVS reports earnings Wednesday: Here’s what to expect

CVS has had to weather some rocky stock moves since closing on its merger with health insurer Aetna Inc., but things could be looking up soon.
Shares of the drugstore chain CVS, +0.61%  have fallen 15% so far this year amid narrowing pharmacy margins; investor concern over the future of health policy; increased scrutiny into the pharmacy-benefit manager model (CVS owns its own PBM, CVS Caremark); and investor skepticism over the company’s $70-million Aetna acquisition.
Some of those concerns seem to be easing. After attending the company’s Investor Day in June, Raymond James analysts wrote in a note that the company was now “well-positioned to increase market share and offer new, innovative products to drive growth.”
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Steven Halper wrote in a June note: “We maintain our view that, although 2019 may be a transitional year, CVS is nicely positioned to transform health-care delivery.”
Part of CVS’s plan to transform the health-care industry involves a bigger push into health services. The company is rolling out specialized “HealthHUB” stores, which offer expanded health-related services like kiosks where customers can track their blood pressure, weight and BMI; wellness rooms for hosting health classes; and dietitians who can offer nutritional advice. The company has said it plans to have 1,500 health-hub stores by the end of 2021, many of which will be aimed at patients dealing with chronic diseases.
The drugstore giant is scheduled to report second-quarter earnings Wednesday. Analysts polled by FactSet are expecting per-share earnings of $1.69, the same as a year ago. Sales should grow to $62.629 billion from $46.708 billion in the year-earlier quarter, driven by an expected $17.201 billion boost from Aetna’s health-care benefits business. CVS’s pharmacy services business is expected to bring in $34.135 billion, up from $33.247 billion a year ago, while sales of the retail segment are expected to grow to $21.19 billion from $20.672 billion.
Things seem to be looking up, but the company still has a significant hurdle to clear. The Justice Department approved the CVS-Aetna merger, which closed in November, after the drugstore chain agreed to divest Aetna’s Medicare Part D business to WellCare Health Plans Inc. WCG, -0.39% However, that may not have been enough — U.S. District Judge Richard Leon is currently reviewing whether or not the Justice Department adequately protected competition when it approved the deal.
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Ambulatory sector represents 95% of July’s healthcare hiring

It’s not unusual for ambulatory services to beat other healthcare sectors when it comes to monthly hiring, but in July, it made up almost all of the industry’s new hires.
Nearly 29,000 people got new jobs in the ambulatory healthcare sector last month, which was 95% of the healthcare industry’s 30,400 new hires. Healthcare industry hiring as a whole fell 13% from June.
The overall economy added 164,000 jobs in July, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 3.7%, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics announced in itslatest jobs report, released Friday.
Ambulatory sector hiring grew 56% over the prior month.
July was a stellar month for the home health industry, which added 10,700 jobs, up 34% from June. Offices of other healthcare practitioners made 7,300 new hires last month, and dentists’ offices added 3,800 jobs. Physicians’ offices added 3,000 jobs, down 55% from June. Outpatient care centers added 2,400 jobs, down 37% from the prior month.
Hospital hiring suffered in July, having shed 2,100 jobs. That’s a noteworthy swing from June, when hospitals made 11,200 new hires.
Nursing and residential care facilities added 3,600 jobs in July, down 31% from the prior month.
Hiring in professional and technical services topped healthcare last month, having added 30,800 jobs. Healthcare added more jobs than the social assistance sector, which made 20,000 new hires, and financial activities, which added 18,000 jobs.
Healthcare employment has increased by 405,000 jobs over the year, with ambulatory healthcare services accounting for about two-thirds of that gain, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
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Zymeworks EPS misses by $0.01, beats on revenue

Zymeworks (NYSE:ZYME): Q2 Non-GAAP EPS of -$0.61 misses by $0.01; GAAP EPS of -$0.89 misses by $0.27.
Revenue of $7.88M (-64.2% Y/Y) beats by $2.78M.
Press Release
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J&J says jury rejects baby powder/cancer claim

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) says a jury has ruled in its favor in a case regarding its baby powder.
Plaintiffs claimed the talc-based powder contained asbestos and caused cancer; the company says a Kentucky jury has rejected those claims.
The decision came in about 30 minutes of deliberation after a two-week trial, J&J says, resulting in its sixth win in the past year on the issue.
The company still faces more than 14,000 lawsuits claiming the powder causes mesothelioma and ovarian cancer; it’s looking to dismiss some 11,000 ovarian cancer cases.
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Express Scripts Boosts Cigna As Employers Stick With Larger Insurer

Cigna said clients are sticking with the health insurer and its newly acquired pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts heading into 2020 and beyond.
The addition of the PBM to Cigna’s portfolio of benefit offerings is key to the strategy of Cigna chief executive officer David Cordani to “treat the whole person.” Health insurers are melding PBM operations into a combined package of pharmacy and medical benefits to sell employers and government clients.
All major health insurers now operate PBMs. UnitedHealth Group, owns the OptumRx PBM; Anthem is rolling out its new IngenioRx PBM; CVS Health, which owns the Caremark PBM, bought health insurance giant Aetna last year; and Humana has for years owned and operated its own PBM.
“As Cigna accelerates our focus on whole person health, our strong second quarter results reflect the value we deliver to customers and clients, and our consistent execution in a dynamic environment,” Cordani said Thursday.
Cigna increased its profit and revenue outlook for the rest of the year in part because of business growth that includes a high rate of retention of 97% to 98% for Express Scripts PBM customers, executives said Thursday.
Retention is a critical measure for health insurers and PBMs, particularly as employers and the government grapple with the high cost of prescription drugs. The business is also competitive given the industry is consolidating into larger and more powerful players.
Cigna said the addition of Express Scripts pushed revenues in its health services business, which includes pharmacy services and related benefits management to $23.5 billion in the second quarter compared to $1.1 billion in the year-ago period.
Cigna’s total revenue surpassed $38 billion in the quarter while net income jumped to $1.4 billion, or $3.70 per share.
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