More Americans believe marijuana smoke is safer than cigarette smoke, but they're wrong

 As cannabis use has become legal in many U.S. states for medical or recreational use, Americans' views on the drug may have gotten rosier.

In fact, a new report finds that over 44% of adults now believe smoking weed each day is safer than inhaling tobacco smoke. That perception is counter to the science, however, and could have a serious impact on public health.

The findings were published online Aug. 11 in JAMA Network Open.

"The research that has been coming out is actually suggestive that there's a lot of overlap in terms of the toxins and carcinogens that are in [both] cannabis and tobacco smoke," noted study author Dr. Beth Cohen, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. "What we've learned in the past few years seems more concerning, not less concerning."

For this study involving more than 5,000 adults, researchers focused on public perceptions of smoking the two substances, using data from 2017 to 2021.

Many of those surveyed felt daily cannabis smoking was safer than smoking tobacco every day. While about 37% thought it was safer in 2017, that grew to 44% by 2021.

The researchers saw a similar pattern for secondhand smoke, with 35% considering secondhand cannabis smoke as safer than tobacco smoke in 2017, compared to 40% in 2021.

The reality is that smoke of any kind isn't good for your lungs, the study authors stressed.

"I feel like one of the misconceptions is that, well, cigarettes are bad for you because there's all these chemicals in them, and that's absolutely true. That's part of why they're bad for you. But really a huge piece of the harm from cigarettes is simply that they are a material that is being combusted and you're inhaling that smoke," Cohen explained.

The particulate matter that smoke creates can get deep into the lungs, Cohen said.

While the study didn't ask people why they had these perceptions, the researchers have some theories.

One is that tobacco smoke has been studied for much longer than cannabis smoke has, and there has been a large public health effort to educate people about the dangers of tobacco. There just isn't the same amount of data about cannabis, in part because it's still illegal federally, making research a challenge.

Cannabis is currently legal for medical use in 38 states and recreationally in 23 states, along with two territories and Washington, D.C., according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Meanwhile, as tobacco has been increasingly restricted, with states or local governments limiting where a person can smoke, cannabis has been increasingly legalized.

That there may be some health benefits in using cannabis in certain forms makes the issue more gray than with tobacco, she added.

"I think that because of all those reasons, it didn't surprise me that more people favored cannabis over tobacco. I think it did surprise me that that perception was increasing over time, that compared to tobacco, increasingly people were selecting cannabis smoke as safer. And again, we're talking about just smoke," Cohen said.

The study also found that people who were young, 18 to 29, were more likely to move toward the view that cannabis was safer compared to those surveyed who were aged 60 or older. Being unmarried was also more aligned with a view that cannabis was safer. Those who were retired were less likely to move toward a view of cannabis being safer than those who were working.

Dr. Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer for the American Lung Association, said he thinks there's a reason perception varies by age.

"I think in my mind the main reason is that it is becoming much more freely used by younger people who feel that it's a part of what their generation can do. But, also, I think the fact that it's being legalized more is another reason," Rizzo said. "And I think people have to realize, just because it's legal doesn't mean it's safe. It's not being made legal for safety reasons. It's being made that way because of people's preferences and judgments."

Rizzo also noted the dangers of inhaling anything that causes inflammation in the airways.

"We don't have the long-term studies to show the effects of COPD [chronic obstructive pulmonary disease] or cancer, but our concerns are that it's very similar in the way that it took years for us to figure out that tobacco led to, with definite science, led to things like cancer and development of COPD," Rizzo added.

The findings point to the need for more education about the impact of smoking cannabis.

"Public health agencies like the American Lung Association need to double down on education and awareness efforts about what the potential problems are with cannabis smoking," Rizzo said.

This might mean aiming messaging at young people and their parents.

It will also be important to make it easier to study cannabis smoking, Cohen said.

Despite some limitations on the ability to research cannabis use, Cohen referenced a variety of studies in animals that showed damage from both cannabis and tobacco smoke.

One study in rats from 2016 found similar adverse cardiovascular effects from both marijuana and tobacco. Another report, published in November 2022, found these animals had increased vulnerability to heart arrhythmia from both types of exposure.

"But I do think with what we have currently, we certainly have enough to be concerned and to say that this is definitely not harmless and there is a risk," Cohen said. "And I think that's what we need to convey to people. Adults can make choices about their health and health behaviors. We just want them to make informed choices."

More information: Julia Chambers et al, Perceptions of Safety of Daily Cannabis vs Tobacco Smoking and Secondhand Smoke Exposure, 2017-2021, JAMA Network Open (2023). DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.28691

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-americans-marijuana-safer-cigarette-theyre.html

Medical writing: Caution warranted if using ChatGPT

 When it comes to health care, it's best to ask a professional. This oft-repeated adage also applies to scientists who might be tempted to use the ChatGPT artificial intelligence model for medical writing.

Researchers from CHU Sainte-Justine and the Montreal Children's Hospital recently posed 20 medical questions to ChatGPT. The chatbot provided answers of limited quality, including factual errors and fabricated references, show the results of the study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Digital Health.

"These results are alarming, given that trust is a pillar of scientific communication. ChatGPT users should pay particular attention to the references provided before integrating them into medical manuscripts," says Dr. Jocelyn Gravel, lead author of the study and emergency physician at CHU Sainte-Justine.

Striking findings

The researchers drew their questions from existing studies and asked ChatGPT to support its answers with references. They then asked the authors of the articles from which the questions were taken to rate the software's answers on a scale from 0 to 100%.

Out of 20 authors, 17 agreed to review the answers of ChatGPT. They judged them to be of questionable quality (median score of 60%). They also found major (five) and minor (seven) factual errors. For example, the software suggested administering an anti-inflammatory drug by injection, when it should be swallowed. ChatGPT also overestimated the global burden of mortality associated with Shigella infections by a factor of ten.

Of the references provided, 69% were fabricated, yet looked real. Most of the false citations (95%) used the names of authors who had already published articles on a related subject, or came from recognized organizations such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Food and Drug Administration. The references all bore a title related to the subject of the question and used the names of known journals or websites.

Even some of the real references contained errors (eight out of 18).

ChatGPT explains

When asked about the accuracy of the references provided, ChatGPT gave varying answers. In one case, it claimed, "References are available in Pubmed," and provided a web link. This link referred to other publications unrelated to the question. At another point, the software replied, "I strive to provide the most accurate and up-to-date information available to me, but errors or inaccuracies can occur."

"The importance of proper referencing in science is undeniable. The quality and breadth of the references provided in authentic studies demonstrate that the researchers have performed a complete literature review and are knowledgeable about the topic. This process enables the integration of findings in the context of previous work, a fundamental aspect of medical research advancement. Failing to provide references is one thing but creating fake references would be considered fraudulent for researchers," says Dr. Esli Osmanlliu, emergency physician at the Montreal Children's Hospital and scientist with the Child Health and Human Development Program at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre.

"Researchers using ChatGPT may be misled by false information because clear, seemingly coherent and stylistically appealing references can conceal poor content quality," adds Dr. Osmanlliu.

This is the first study to assess the quality and accuracy of references provided by ChatGPT, the researchers point out.

More information: Jocelyn Gravel et al, Learning to Fake It: Limited Responses and Fabricated References Provided by ChatGPT for Medical Questions, Mayo Clinic Proceedings: Digital Health (2023). DOI: 10.1016/j.mcpdig.2023.05.004

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-medical-caution-warranted-chatgpt.html

Genes linked to high production of key antibody IDd

 A collaboration led by UCLA and the Seattle Children's Research Institute has yielded new knowledge about the genes responsible for the production and release of immunoglobulin G, the most common type of antibody in the human body.

The finding has the potential to advance manufacturing of antibody-based therapies for diseases such as cancer and arthritis, as well as the development of medical treatments that rely on the production of antibodies.

Antibodies are a group of proteins that are crucial to the immune system. Immunoglobulin G, or IgG, stores memories of past infections and tags dangerous microbes to be eliminated by immune cells. Mothers' IgG is also vital for their newborns' immune defense.

Scientists have known for decades that a population of white blood cells, called plasma B cells, make IgG. Plasma B cells are highly efficient, producing more than 10,000 IgG molecules every second. But the molecular mechanisms that enable plasma cells to secrete antibodies into the bloodstream are still not fully understood.

In order to learn more about those mechanisms, the researchers performed an analysis that had never been done before: They captured thousands of single plasma B cells as well as their individual secretions, and then connected the amount of proteins each individual cell released to an atlas mapping tens of thousands of genes expressed by that same cell.

To collect the cells and their secretions, the researchers used microscopic, bowl-shaped hydrogel containers called nanovials, which were developed in prior UCLA research.

Their analysis found that genes involved with producing energy and eliminating abnormal proteins were even more important for high IgG secretion than the genes containing instructions for making the antibody itself. They also discovered that the presence of CD59, a gene that had not previously been linked to IgG secretion, is a better predictor of high-producing plasma cells than other genetic markers already associated with this cell type.

"These processes in cells are like an assembly line for making proteins, and there are lots of places where you could see bottlenecks," said Dino Di Carlo, the Armond and Elena Hairapetian Professor of Engineering and Medicine at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and a co-corresponding author of the study. "Things have to be moving smoothly in sync across the cell. If a cell is making a lot of proteins, it's using a lot of energy and needs a way to correct the proteins that get messed up."

The study was published in the journal Nature Communications. Di Carlo, who is also a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA and the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, said the findings could not only advance fundamental understandings of biology but also could have applications in biomedicine.

For instance, knowing which genes are associated with higher secretion of an antibody could be used by pharmaceutical makers to engineer cells that secrete large volumes of the antibody. That knowledge could also be applied to an emerging strategy that introduces engineered cells directly to patients' bodies, such as the potential cell therapies under development by University of Washington immunologist Richard James, a co-corresponding author of the paper.

The new way in which nanovials and a standard laboratory setup were used in the study also opens up new possibilities for understanding how the instructions contained in DNA are translated into the behaviors of cells.

Each nanovial contains molecules tailored to bind with proteins on the surface of the cells that the researchers are investigating, which enables the nanovial to capture a single cell at a time. Once that cell is immobilized and protected within the nanovial "bowl," its secretions also accumulate and are attached to specific antibodies engineered to capture them.

In the study, the investigators trapped tens of thousands of plasma cells, along with the IgG they released, in nanovials with a diameter about one-third the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanovials were then run through an instrument to analyze each cell's messenger RNA, or mRNA.

Every cell in an individual's body carries the same blueprint written in DNA. So scientists detect which genes are active by looking at the mRNA, which translates those instructions so that each cell can build proteins that are specific to its functions.

"There are multiple layers of information in each cell," Di Carlo said. "We're able to link the final layer—the amount of proteins actually secreted that have a clear function throughout the body—back to the more fundamental layer of genetic code. There's currently no other technique that is available to do that. Now that we have this approach, the most interesting thing, to me, is which question to ask next."

In future studies, the researchers hope to identify all of the genes that affect plasma cells' production and secretion of IgG.

More information: Rene Yu-Hong Cheng et al, SEC-seq: association of molecular signatures with antibody secretion in thousands of single human plasma cells, Nature Communications (2023). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39367-8

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-scientists-genes-linked-high-production.html

Coronary artery disease discovery offers answers about nation's no. 1 killer

 University of Virginia Health researchers probing the causes of coronary artery disease have identified critical biological processes that can go wrong inside the linings of blood vessels and contribute to the dangerous plaque buildup responsible for the disease.

The discovery provides new targets for scientists looking for better ways to treat and prevent the disease. The researchers published their findings in the scientific journal Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine.

Coronary artery disease is the nation's No. 1 killer and responsible for 25% of deaths in the United States. More than 600,000 Americans die from the disease every year and more than 17 million die from it worldwide.

"Smooth muscle cells that make up the bulk of our blood vessels play important roles in coronary artery disease. They undergo pathological transformations as the disease develops inside our arteries," said researcher Mete Civelek, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine's Center for Public Health Genomics and the Department of Biomedical Engineering.

"Our results point to a previously underappreciated role for metabolic pathways during this pathological transformation," he said.

Civelek and his team wanted to unravel a longstanding mystery about the behavior of smooth muscle cells during plaque formation. These cells, which line blood vessels, protect the body during plaque formation by building stabilizing caps over the plaque that prevent the lesions from breaking loose and causing strokes.

But sometimes smooth muscle cells begin to accelerate the plaque development and spur the progression of the disease, scientists believe.

Civelek's new discovery helps explain why. Noah Perry, a doctoral student on Civelek's team, analyzed smooth muscle cells collected from 151 heart transplant donors and used a sophisticated approach to identify genes responsible for the smooth muscle cells' behavior.

After initially identifying 86 groups of genes, the researchers focused in on 18 groups that could explain the mysterious behavior. Their analysis suggested that the smooth muscle cells' shift to the dark side of health might stem from problems with how the cells use nitrogen and glycogen. Glycogen is how the body stores the sugar glucose.

The researchers identified a particular sugar, mannose, that may be contributing to the problems, potentially even triggering them. But determining that, the scientists say, will require more research.

"The metabolic shift in the cells as they transition to a disease state can point to points of intervention and therapy," said Perry, of UVA's Department of Biomedical Engineering, the lead author of the study.

By better understanding what triggers the smooth muscle cells to become harmful, Civelek says, doctors may be able to develop ways to prevent that from happening. That could open the door to new ways to treat and prevent coronary artery disease.

"Coronary artery disease is still the leading cause of death worldwide," Civelek said. "Although cholesterol-lowering therapies and blood pressure control have been very effective tools to prevent deaths from heart attacks, we still need more targets to reduce the suffering of patients and their families from this devastating disease."

The research team consisted of Perry, Diana Albarracin, Redouane Aherrahrou and Civelek.

More information: R. Noah Perry et al, Network Preservation Analysis Reveals Dysregulated Metabolic Pathways in Human Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Phenotypic Switching, Circulation: Genomic and Precision Medicine (2023). DOI: 10.1161/CIRCGEN.122.003781

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-08-coronary-artery-disease-discovery-nation.html

Tell-All Book Reveals Pentagon Knew Kabul Airport Attack Was Coming Days In Advance

 A new military tell-all book has shed more light on Biden's disastrous Afghan evacuation, and the events which led to a suicide bomber killing 13 American troops at Kabul airport in 2021.

It's been two years since the disaster at the airport gate which also killed some 170 Afghan civilians who were trying to flee the Taliban's rapid takeover of the capital. Authors Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson, the latter a former Army officer who served in Afghanistan, reveal in the book that the foundation for a tragic ending was already laid given that the US relied on the Taliban for security during the chaotic exit.

"Our findings — tucked away in the Pentagon’s own documents and in the own words of military officers personally involved in the Afghanistan evacuation — provide more damning evidence about the dangerous stupidity of relying upon terrorists like the Taliban to provide security at Kabul airport," co-author Dunleavy has said.

The book is entitled 'Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden's Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End,' and comes out this week. It documents at least two opportunities that US forces had to disrupt the attack. 

For example, the book reveals that intelligence surfaced of an impending ISIS-K attack on American troops manning entry points a full nine days before the tragic events of Aug.26 at Karzai airport's Abbey Gate. And up to within two days before the attack, "intelligence channels were humming with warnings"—but the Marines were kept in place to do the impossible task of crowd control while trying to allow airport access to fleeing US citizens, as thousands of desperate Afghans pushed against the gates.

The authors have accessed intelligence files which show that some US officials understood that a violent attack or bombing was almost inevitable: 

'I shared intelligence about the pending attack, so everyone was aware, and knew it was happening,' said the officer. 'The intelligence community didn't know the gate, but assessed it would be Abbey Gate due to the number of people there.' 

The gate was initially due to close around then but the British government and others lobbied to keep it open as they sought to rescue their last remaining citizens.

The threat of an attack was so high, report Dunleavy and Hassan, that Marines there were ordered on to one knee all night to reduce their exposure to an explosion. A day later medical units were told to be on alert for a mass casualty event.

The book describes that there was a major missed opportunity to take out an ISIS-K terror cell, but US operational decision-makers were too beholden to Taliban security officials, unbelievably...

Another officer described how there were was daily coordination with the Taliban on security, and nightly intelligence meetings between U.S. units to share latest information.

'Units at H.K.I.A (Hamid Karzai International Airport) used Chat Surfer to disseminate information on threats,' he said. 

'Intelligence officers knew that ISIS-K. was staging in a hotel 2-3 kilometers west of H.K.I.A., and D2 asked the Taliban to conduct an assault on the hotel, but they never did.'

US forces had to rely on the Taliban to provide external perimeter security outside Kabul airport, via BBC

"As a result of the threat reporting, we conducted a targeting effort focused on ISIS K threats leading into Kabul," the officer was further quoted as saying. "The strike unit was 'authorized to look at ISIS-K targets' but had to submit detailed proposals for permission to engage.'"

That permission never came, as top commanders were reportedly worried about the "negative response" from the Taliban at a delicate moment the Pentagon needed its security cooperation to get American personnel out. Multiple other nations, especially the UK, were also scrambling.

Co-author James Hasson concludes, "Leaders in D.C. made one unforced error after another throughout the withdrawal, and each mistake compounded the risk to the men and women on the ground."

"Ultimately, it led to U.S. commanders tailoring decisions to the desires of Taliban leaders who had them surrounded, and to the loss of thirteen brave Americans," he added.

https://www.zerohedge.com/military/new-tell-all-book-reveals-pentagon-knew-kabul-airport-attack-was-coming-days-advance

OpGen invokes going-concern clause

 As previously reported, and in light of the Company’s business performance and current cash position, the Company does not expect that its current cash will be sufficient to fund operations beyond September 2023. Since the end of the second quarter, the Company has pursued options to improve its cash position or mitigate a liquidity shortfall. Nevertheless, the Company has concluded that there is substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern. The Company continues to consider all alternatives, including restructuring or refinancing its debt, seeking additional debt or equity capital, reducing or delaying the Company’s business activities, selling assets, and other strategic transactions or other measures, including obtaining relief under U.S. as well as applicable foreign bankruptcy laws. There is no guarantee that the Company will be able to identify and execute on any of these alternatives or that any of them will be successful.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/opgen-reports-second-quarter-2023-201500459.html

Cruz: It's Time For Biden Impeachment Inquiries

 by Steve Watson via Summit News,

GOP Senator Ted Cruz called Sunday for impeachment inquiries against Joe Biden to begin, noting that the special council appointment of U.S. attorney David Weiss is a “cover up”.

“I think it’s disgraceful,” Cruz told Fox News, adding “David Weiss was the U.S. attorney handpicked to lead this investigation who spent the last five years covering it up.”

“David Weiss, who was personally selected by the two Democrat senators from Delaware, Tom Carper and Chris Coons, for five years, the investigation has gone nowhere, other than to protect Hunter Biden and Joe Biden,” Cruz further asserted.

“Not only that, David Weiss is the one that is subject to two whistle-blower complaints from senior career IRS officials who came forward,” the Senator continued.

Cruz continued, “They said they’d never seen an investigation like this in their entire time in law enforcement. They said that the Department of Justice lawyers working for David Weiss protected the Biden family, that they gave heads-up to Hunter Biden before search warrants were executed, presumably so that he could hide incriminating evidence, that they refused to allow them to ask any questions at all about the Big Guy, about Joe Biden, that they were focused on, you cannot inquire into President Joe Biden’s personal corruption.”

“David Weiss either was an active participant in covering up this criminality and protecting Joe Biden in engaging in obstruction of justice. That’s option one. Or, option two, he wasn’t the driver. He was just complicit. He was so weak that he couldn’t stop the partisans in main Justice from turning it into a political effort to protect Joe Biden,” Cruz explained.

“Either case, he is a wildly inappropriate person to be a special counsel,” he concluded.

Turning to Hunter Biden’s involvement in alleged corruption, Cruz noted that “Hunter has no marketable skills. No one on planet Earth would pay him $20 million to do anything.”

“What Hunter was selling was daddy. This was Joe Biden’s business, shaking down — mind you, not shaking down our friends, not shaking down France or England or Italy, but shaking down corrupt oligarchs in communist China, to the tune of over $20 million,” Cruz urged.

“Hunter was the salesman, but the product was Joe Biden’s personal favors. And that is, if true, corruption at the very highest level of government,” the Senator further emphasized.

Watch:

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/cruz-its-time-biden-impeachment-inquiries