Weekly Developments in Medicine No: 3

Glioblastoma: A long-standing blood pressure drug called hydralazine may have a surprising new use: slowing the growth of glioblastoma, a very aggressive brain cancer. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania discovered that hydralazine blocks an enzyme called ADO (2-aminoethanethiol dioxygenase), which acts as an oxygen sensor in cells. In tumor cells, blocking ADO forces them into “senescence” — a non-dividing, dormant state — rather than killing them outright. Because hydralazine is already well-studied, cheap, and widely available (it’s been used for decades), it could be repurposed as a more accessible treatment for glioblastoma — though these findings are still preclinical, and more research is needed.

Weight Loss: Researchers are looking into natural compounds — particularly berberine, cinnamon, and green tea — as potential, drug-free ways to stimulate the gut hormone GLP-1, which is what weight-loss injectable drugs like Ozempic target. While none of these ingredients can exactly mimic the powerful effects of GLP-1 medicines, preliminary studies suggest they may modestly boost metabolism or alter hunger signals. Though experts caution that the effects are relatively mild and are best viewed as complementary to healthy lifestyle changes like a balanced diet and regular exercise — not a replacement for prescription medications.

Heart Attacks: A recent Cochrane review of 12 randomized trials involving nearly 23,000 people found that low-dose colchicine, a common, inexpensive gout drug lowers the risk of heart attack and stroke in patients with cardiovascular disease. Specifically, treatment with colchicine corresponded to about 9 fewer heart attacks and 8 fewer strokes per 1,000 people, with no increase in serious adverse events, though mild gastrointestinal symptoms (like nausea) were more common. 

Polycystic Kindey Disease: Researchers at University of California, Santa Barbara have developed a novel engineered antibody capable of penetrating the fluid-filled cysts characteristic of Polycystic Kidney Disease (PKD) and targeting the cMET receptor to curb cyst growth, triggering selective death of cyst-lining epithelial cells while sparing healthy kidney tissue. Although still preclinical, this breakthrough suggests a promising new strategy to halt or possibly reverse PKD progression in the future. 

Supercomputer: Researchers using Japan’s supercomputer Fugaku have built an ultra‑high‑fidelity digital model of a mouse cortex that includes nearly ten million neurons, 26 billion synapses, and 86 brain regions, recreating structure and activity at the sub‑cellular level. This virtual brain behaves like a living system, allowing scientists to explore how neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s disease or Epilepsy unfold in the brain, track signal propagation through neural circuits, and test interventions in‑silico. 

Lung Cancer: Researchers at the ChristianaCare Gene Editing Institute have used CRISPR‑Cas9 gene‑editing to disable the NRF2 gene in chemotherapy‑resistant lung cancer cells, restoring their sensitivity to standard drugs and slowing tumor growth in animal models. Notably, editing just 20‑40% of tumour cells was sufficient to enhance treatment response, and the editing was done via lipid‑nanoparticle delivery (non‑viral) with minimal off‑target effects. The findings suggest a promising strategy not only for lung squamous‑cell carcinoma (20‑30% of lung cancers) but potentially for other solid tumours where NRF2 drives chemotherapy resistance.

Alzheimer’s: Researchers at Tokyo Metropolitan University discovered that in the development of Alzheimer’s disease the protein Tau first forms soft and reversible nanoclusters rather than immediately converting into the large, harmful fibrils traditionally targeted. By dissolving these early clusters—achieved by increasing salt concentration in the presence of heparin—the team found that fibril formation was nearly entirely prevented. This suggests a new therapeutic strategy that intervenes at this early, reversible stage of tau clustering rather than attempting to break down irreversible fibrils after they’ve formed.

Cardiac Arrhythmia: Researchers at Northwestern University and its affiliated medical center have developed a novel genetic‑risk scoring system that combines monogenic variant detection, polygenic risk scores and whole‑genome sequencing to predict who is at high risk of dangerous cardiac arrhythmias long before symptoms emerge. They found this integrated approach offers significantly improved accuracy over existing methods, and argue it could transform early detection and preventive strategies — though they note that uptake of genetic testing remains very low, and that physicians often lack the necessary training to interpret the results.