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News & Notes
By LISA RUSSELL
AI advancing ALS treatment
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),
also called Lou Gehrig’s Disease, is a
frightening diagnosis. The fatal motor
neuron disease, characterized by gradual
degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal
cord and brain, remains incurable.
This May, as the U.S. marks ALS Awareness
Month, development of a potential new
weapon in the fight against this devastating
disease is underway … one that exists
thanks to artificial intelligence technology.
A drug candidate currently known as
FB1006 is being advanced as a potential
new treatment for ALS. The Chinese
company leading the drug’s development,
4B Technologies, has already successfully
completed patient enrollment in an initial
clinical trial set to begin in August.
AI technology was utilized in multiple
stages of the drug’s discovery and development,
including target identification,
patient enrollment and efficacy assessment.
The use of AI enabled the 4B Technologies
team to significantly shorten the patient
screening process and complete enrollment
in less than one year, as well as maximize
the use of the clinical data. Analysis of the
trial’s results is expected in February of
2025.
Missed opportunities
to save lives
Automated external defibrillators (AEDs)
can be life-savers when someone has an outof-hospital
cardiac arrest … an emergency
which happens more than 1,000 times every
day in the U.S. on average, and is fatal in
about 90% of cases. When used together
with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, however,
an AED – which analyzes the heart’s
rhythm and delivers electric shock if necessary
– greatly increases the odds of survival.
While AEDs are often located nearby
when cardiac arrests happen, they are very
seldom used, say University of Missouri –
Kansas City researchers. And this may be
because people don’t know where the nearest
one is located.
Their recent study analyzed data from
about 1,800 cardiac arrests that occurred
either in homes or public places around
Kansas City from 2019-2022. Despite the
fact that many of these out-of-hospital cardiac
arrests occurred within a four-minute
walk of a public AED, the devices were
used in only 13 of the cases, or less than 1%.
“Public AED availability is critical for
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AED devices are often available close by
when someone has an out-of-hospital
cardiac arrest, but they’re almost never
used – an outcome that can and should
be changed, say University of Missouri –
Kansas City researchers. (Adobe Stock photo)
people to be able to use them in the appropriate
time and fashion. However, people
need to know it’s there to be able to use it.
It’s not sufficient just to have them in the
right places,” said Mirza S. Khan, M.D., a
physician and medical informatician at the
university and the study’s lead author.
The analysis found that a large majority
(about 85%) of cardiac arrests occurred at
home. While someone in the home administered
CPR in 42% of these cases, an AED
was never used. Researchers calculated
that nearly one-quarter of at-home cardiac
arrests occurred within a four-minute walk
of a public AED.
Among the remaining 15% of cardiac
arrests that occurred in public places, a
bystander administered CPR in about 40%
of cases as well, using an AED in only
7%. Nearly half of these cardiac arrests
occurred within a four-minute walk of
an AED. Even in the “optimal” scenario
where someone administered CPR and an
AED was accessible nearby, the devices
were used only about a quarter of the time.
According to Khan, the study’s findings
should speed efforts to improve signage
around AEDs, provide apps or mapping
tools to help people locate them, and
increase education and awareness about
these life-saving devices.
Hit by a boomerang
As Americans over age 55 cruise toward
retirement, millions are running into an
unexpected financial roadblock: their adult
children moving back into the family home.
According to a 2023 Harris Poll, about 45%
of young adults between the ages of 18 and
29 now live with their parents, the highest
percentage recorded since the 1940s.
Known as the “boomerang” generation,
these young adults find themselves facing
extraordinarily high housing and living
costs, a crushing amount of student debt,