PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Patients with unexplainable chronic itch have unique blood biomarkers that could eventually lead to new targeted treatments

Research finds low levels of certain amino acids in blood of patients with chronic itch

2024-08-14
(Press-News.org) Millions of patients worldwide suffer from a chronic itching condition with no identifiable cause – a condition known as chronic pruritus of unknown origin (CPUO) – that has no targeted therapies approved to treat it. Many of these patients suffer for years with little relief, but a new University of Maryland School of Medicine study may provide hope for future treatments. Patients were found to have lower than normal levels of metabolite biomarkers in the blood plasma that could point to a cause of their excruciating symptoms.

Findings were recently published in the journal Scientific Reports.

“Our study found a distinct deficit in certain metabolite biomarkers, including several important amino acids and other metabolites involved in immune system regulation in patients with CPUO compared to a healthy control group,” said study principal investigator Shawn Kwatra, MD, the Joseph W. Burnett Endowed Professor and Chair of Dermatology at UMSOM and Chief of Service Dermatology at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). “This is an exciting finding because it provides novel insights into the cause of this condition and identifies potential future therapeutic targets to consider.”

Chronic pruritus of unknown origin is most prevalent among older adults and causes severe itching lasting longer than six weeks. Current therapies used to help manage symptoms are off-label and have poor efficacy, with many patients having a significantly impaired quality of life.

In the latest study, Dr. Kwatra and his colleagues compared blood plasma samples from patients with CPUO and matched healthy control patients. They found lower levels of nine amino acids in the CPUO patients compared to the control group and that the lower levels correlated with itch severity.

Previous animal studies have correlated low levels of these amino acids with itch symptoms in mice.  These amino acids serve as building blocks for neurotransmitters, or brain chemicals, that play a role in the body’s itch response and other allergic skin reactions. Providing mice with medications like antidepressants to boost neurotransmitters like serotonin was found to reduce itch symptoms.

“Many of these biomarkers that we found in depleted amounts in the blood of CPUO patients, like tryptophan and glycine, could contribute to the underlying pathogenesis of this condition, but we certainly need larger studies to investigate this further,” said Dr. Kwatra.

Study co-authors also included faculty from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Duke University Medical Center.

In June, Dr. Kwatra published a study in JAMA Dermatology showing that a drug targeting inflammation (abrocitinib), which is approved to treat eczema, provided significant improvement in itching symptoms in those with CPUO as well as another itching disorder called prurigo nodularis.  He also led a study, published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine, demonstrating the efficacy of the monoclonal antibody, nemolizumab, in treating prurigo nodularis. The drug was approved on August 13 by the US Food and Drug Administration and is one of the first FDA-approved treatments for this skin condition, which disproportionately affects African-American patients.

Dr. Kwatra is a consultant/advisor to several pharmaceutical companies, including the manufacturers of abrocitinib and nemolizumab.

Since beginning his position at UMSOM earlier this year, Dr. Kwatra has created the Maryland Itch Center at the University of Maryland Medical Center.

About the University of Maryland School of Medicine

Now in its third century, the University of Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the first public medical school in the United States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing, top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 46 academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs, and a faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied health professionals, including members of the National Academy of Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished two-time winner of the Albert E. Lasker Award in Medical Research. With an operating budget of more than $1.2 billion, the School of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical System to provide research-intensive, academic and clinically based care for nearly 2 million patients each year. The School of Medicine has nearly $600 million in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding. As one of the seven professional schools that make up the University of Maryland, Baltimore campus, the School of Medicine has a total population of nearly 9,000 faculty and staff, including 2,500 students, trainees, residents, and fellows. The combined School of Medicine and Medical System ("University of Maryland Medicine") has an annual budget of over $6 billion and an economic impact of nearly $20 billion on the state and local community. The School of Medicine, which ranks as the 8th highest among public medical schools in research productivity (according to the Association of American Medical Colleges profile) is an innovator in translational medicine, with 606 active patents and 52 start-up companies. In the latest U.S. News & World Report ranking of the Best Medical Schools, published in 2021, the UM School of Medicine is ranked #9 among the 92 public medical schools in the U.S., and in the top 15 percent (#27) of all 192 public and private U.S. medical schools. The School of Medicine works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit medschool.umaryland.edu.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Unveiling the brain's reward circuitry

Unveiling the brains reward circuitry
2024-08-14
PHILADELPHIA (August 14, 2024) – A research team – co-led by Penn Nursing – has made a significant breakthrough in understanding the complex neural circuitry underlying reward and addiction by identifying 34 distinct subtypes of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain region involved in pleasure and motivation. The findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports by Nature, offer insights into the diversity of these neurons and their potential roles in substance ...

Do people with high blood pressure have a higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease?

2024-08-14
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – People 60 and older with untreated high blood pressure may have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease compared to both people who have been or are being treated for high blood pressure as well as people without the chronic condition. The new research, a meta-analysis, is published in the August 14, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. These results do not prove that untreated high blood pressure causes Alzheimer’s disease, they only show ...

Good news for people with MS—COVID-19 vaccine not tied to relapse

2024-08-14
EMBARGOED FOR RELEASE UNTIL 4 P.M. ET, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2024 MINNEAPOLIS – People with multiple sclerosis (MS) have an increased risk of severe coronavirus infection, but there has been concern regarding potential relapse after vaccination. A new study finds that people with MS may not have a higher risk of relapse after COVID-19 vaccination. The study is published in the August 14, 2024, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. “People with MS have an increased risk of severe ...

The Lundquist Institute WIC Program receives USDA 2024 WIC Breastfeeding Gold Award of Excellence

The Lundquist Institute WIC Program receives USDA 2024 WIC Breastfeeding Gold Award of Excellence
2024-08-14
The Lundquist Institute for Biomedical Innovation at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center (TLI) is pleased to announce that its WIC Program has received the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) 2024 WIC Breastfeeding Gold Award of Excellence. The FNS notes that the “intent is to provide models and motivate other local agencies to strengthen their breastfeeding promotion and support activities and ultimately increase breastfeeding initiation and duration rates among WIC participants.” The FNS award letter recognizes the TLI WIC Program “for its exemplary efforts in WIC breastfeeding promotion and ...

First participant enrolled in NIH-Funded Access for All in ALS Consortium

2024-08-14
The Access for All in ALS Consortium (ALL ALS) announced the successful enrollment of the first participant. Established in the autumn of 2023 with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), ALL ALS is a multi-institutional effort, and aims to disrupt the ALS clinical research landscape using open science methods to build broadly accessible resources to advance ALS research. The consortium brings together research scientists from across the country, combining their efforts to collect clinical and biomarker data from people with ALS symptoms, asymptomatic individuals at risk of developing inherited forms of ALS, and control participants. The ALL ALS ...

Department of Energy Office of Science accepting applications, offering workshops for Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) awards

2024-08-14
Washington, D.C. - Current U.S. Ph.D. students in qualified graduate programs at accredited U.S. academic institutions who are conducting their graduate thesis research in targeted areas of importance to the DOE Office of Science are invited to apply for the Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program.    Helpful application assistance workshops will be held on Thursday, September 12, 2024, 2:00 PM – 3:30 PM EDT and Thursday, October 10, 2024, 2:00 PM – 4:30 PM EDT.     Applications are due at 5:00 pm Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) on November 6, 2024.     The September 12, ...

Brian Peters part of multi-disciplinary team awarded $3.9 million to study mixed fungal-bacterial infections

Brian Peters part of multi-disciplinary team awarded $3.9 million to study mixed fungal-bacterial infections
2024-08-14
Brian Peters, PhD, First Tennessee Endowed Chair of Excellence in Clinical Pharmacy and professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Translational Science at the UT Health Science Center, was recently awarded $3.9 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases for a project aimed at unravelling intricate mysteries surrounding complex fungal-bacterial infections. James Cassat, MD, PhD, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and Paul Fidel, PhD, LSU Health New Orleans, are also principal investigators. Infections caused by both fungi ...

New study unveils the power of physical forces in enhancing T cell immune response

2024-08-14
Study Title: Parsing digital or analog TCR performance through piconewton forces Publication: Science Advances Dana-Farber Cancer Institute authors: Aoi Akitsu, Kristine N. Brazin, Robert J. Mallis, Jonathan S. Duke-Cohan, Matthew A. Booker, Vincenzo Cinella, Jonathan Lee, Michael Y. Tolstorukov and Ellis L. Reinherz, MD Summary: Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute investigate new features of T cell performance, delineating a class of digital cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTL) that are optimal in providing protection against virally infected or otherwise altered body cells, and by extension, most useful for immunotherapy. These digital ...

Researchers unveil mysteries of ancient Earth

Researchers unveil mysteries of ancient Earth
2024-08-14
A team of researchers has made strides in understanding the formation of massif-type anorthosites, enigmatic rocks that only formed during the middle part of Earth’s history. These plagioclase-rich igneous rock formations, which can cover areas as large as 42,000 square kilometers and host titanium ore deposits, have puzzled scientists for decades due to conflicting theories about their origins. A new study published in Science Advances on Aug. 14 highlights the intricate connections between Earth’s evolving ...

UNC-Chapel Hill launches the Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation

2024-08-14
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is launching the Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation, a new interdisciplinary research and innovation hub that will leverage the expertise of faculty and students from various disciplines across campus to address complex challenges in risk management and insurance. “The institute will address the financial risks arising from a growing number of threats to our state and beyond, ranging from extreme weather to cybersecurity,” explains Vice Chancellor for Research Penny Gordon-Larsen. “UNC-Chapel Hill is a world leader in translating extreme environmental events into financial risk and now seeks to expand ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Wearable devices could revolutionize pregnancy monitoring and detect abnormalities

Efficient cation recognition strategies for cationic compounds

US COVID-19 school closures were not cost-effective, but other non-pharmaceutical interventions were, new study finds

Human activities linked to declines of big seeds

North-south autism assessment divide leaves children waiting three years longer 

Want to publish in Nature? Webinar with Prof. Willie Peijnenburg shares insider tips

Cataract surgery on both eyes can be carried out safely and effectively in one go

Personalized brain stimulation shows benefit for depression

AI uncovers hidden rules of some of nature’s toughest protein bonds

Innovative approach helps new mothers get hepatitis C treatment

Identifying the Interactions That Drive Cell Migration in Brain Cancer

ORNL receives 2025 SAMPE Organizational Excellence Award

University of Oklahoma researchers aim to reduce indigenous cancer disparities

Study reveals new evidence, cost savings for common treatments for opioid use disorder in mothers and infants

Research alert: Frequent cannabis users show no driving impairment after two-day break

Turbulence with a twist

Volcanic emissions of reactive sulfur gases may have shaped early mars climate, making it more hospitable to life

C-Path concludes 2025 Global Impact Conference with progress across rare diseases, neurology and pediatrics

Research exposes far-reaching toll of financial hardship on patients with cancer

The percentage of women who went without a Pap smear for cervical cancer screening increased following the COVID-19 pandemic, from 19% in 2019 to 26% in 2022

AI tools fall short in predicting suicide, study finds

Island ant communities show signs of ‘insect apocalypse’

Revealed: The long legacy of human-driven ant decline in Fiji

Analyzing impact of heat from western wildfires on air pollution in the eastern US

Inadequate regulatory protections for consumer genetic data privacy in US

Pinning down protons in water — a basic science success story

Scientists reveal how the brain uses objects to find direction

Humans sense a collaborating robot as part of their “extended” body

Nano-switch achieves first directed, gated flow of chargeless quantum information carriers

Scientist, advocate and entrepreneur Lucy Shapiro to receive Lasker-Koshland special achievement award

[Press-News.org] Patients with unexplainable chronic itch have unique blood biomarkers that could eventually lead to new targeted treatments
Research finds low levels of certain amino acids in blood of patients with chronic itch