Heaviest element yet detected in an exoplanet atmosphere

Peer-Reviewed Publication

ESO

 

IMAGE: THIS ARTIST’S IMPRESSION SHOWS AN ULTRA-HOT EXOPLANET, A PLANET BEYOND OUR SOLAR SYSTEM, AS IT IS ABOUT TO TRANSIT IN FRONT OF ITS HOST STAR. WHEN THE LIGHT FROM THE STAR PASSES THROUGH THE PLANET’S ATMOSPHERE, IT IS FILTERED BY THE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS AND MOLECULES IN THE GASEOUS LAYER. WITH SENSITIVE INSTRUMENTS, THE SIGNATURES OF THOSE ELEMENTS AND MOLECULES CAN BE OBSERVED FROM EARTH. USING THE ESPRESSO INSTRUMENT OF ESO’S VERY LARGE TELESCOPE, ASTRONOMERS HAVE FOUND THE HEAVIEST ELEMENT YET IN AN EXOPLANET'S ATMOSPHERE, BARIUM, IN THE TWO ULTRA-HOT JUPITERS WASP-76 B AND WASP-121 B. view more 

CREDIT: ESO/M. KORNMESSER

Using the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), astronomers have discovered the heaviest element ever found in an exoplanet atmosphere — barium. They were surprised to discover barium at high altitudes in the atmospheres of the ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b — two exoplanets, planets which orbit stars outside our Solar System. This unexpected discovery raises questions about what these exotic atmospheres may be like.

“The puzzling and counterintuitive part is: why is there such a heavy element in the upper layers of the atmosphere of these planets?” says Tomás Azevedo Silva, a PhD student at the University of Porto and the Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço (IA) in Portugal who led the study published today in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b are no ordinary exoplanets. Both are known as ultra-hot Jupiters as they are comparable in size to Jupiter whilst having extremely high surface temperatures soaring above 1000°C. This is due to their close proximity to their host stars, which also means an orbit around each star takes only one to two days. This gives these planets rather exotic features; in WASP-76 b, for example, astronomers suspect it rains iron.

But even so, the scientists were surprised to find barium, which is 2.5 times heavier than iron, in the upper atmospheres of WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b. “Given the high gravity of the planets, we would expect heavy elements like barium to quickly fall into the lower layers of the atmosphere,” explains co-author Olivier Demangeon, a researcher also from the University of Porto and IA.

“This was in a way an ‘accidental’ discovery,” says Azevedo Silva. “We were not expecting or looking for barium in particular and had to cross-check that this was actually coming from the planet since it had never been seen in any exoplanet before.”

The fact that barium was detected in the atmospheres of both of these ultra-hot Jupiters suggests that this category of planets might be even stranger than previously thought. Although we do occasionally see barium in our own skies, as the brilliant green colour in fireworks, the question for scientists is what natural process could cause this heavy element to be at such high altitudes in these exoplanets. ​​“At the moment, we are not sure what the mechanisms are,” explains Demangeon.

In the study of exoplanet atmospheres ultra-hot Jupiters are extremely useful. As Demangeon explains: “Being gaseous and hot, their atmospheres are very extended and are thus easier to observe and study than those of smaller or cooler planets”.

Determining the composition of an exoplanet’s atmosphere requires very specialised equipment. The team used the ESPRESSO instrument on ESO’s VLT in Chile to analyse starlight that had been filtered through the atmospheres of WASP-76 b and WASP-121 b. This made it possible to clearly detect several elements in them, including barium.

These new results show that we have only scratched the surface of the mysteries of exoplanets. With future instruments such as the high-resolution ArmazoNes high Dispersion Echelle Spectrograph (ANDES), which will operate on ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), astronomers will be able to study the atmospheres of exoplanets large and small, including those of rocky planets similar to Earth, in much greater depth and to gather more clues as to the nature of these strange worlds.

More information

This research was presented in the paper “Detection of Barium in the atmospheres of ultra-hot gas giants WASP-76b & WASP-121b” to appear in Astronomy & Astrophysics (doi: 10.1051/0004-6361/202244489).

The team is composed of T. Azevedo Silva (Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Universidade do Porto, Portugal [IA/UPorto, CAUP] and Departamento de Física e Astronomia Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto, Portugal [FCUP]), O. D. S. Demangeon (IA/UPorto, CAUP and FCUP), N. C. Santos (IA/UPorto, CAUP and FCUP), R. Allart (Department of Physics, and Institute for Research on Exoplanets, Université de Montréal, Canada and Observatoire astronomique de l’Université de Genève, Switzerland [UNIGE]), F. Borsa (INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera, Italy) , E. Cristo (IA/UPorto, CAUP and FCUP) , E. Esparza-Borges (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain [IAC] and Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain [IAC-ULL]) , J. V. Seidel (European Southern Observatory, Chile [ESO Chile]) , E. Palle (IAC) , S. G. Sousa (IA/UPorto), H. M. Tabernero (Centro de Astrobiología, CSIC-INTA, Spain [CSIC-INTA]), M. R. Zapatero Osorio (CSIC-INTA), S. Cristiani (INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste, Italy [INAF Trieste]), F. Pepe (UNIGE) , R. Rebolo (IAC and IAC-ULL) , V. Adibekyan (IA/UPorto and FCUP), Y. Alibert (Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern,, Switzerland), S. C. C. Barros (IA/UPorto and FCUP), V. Bourrier (UNIGE) , P. Di Marcantonio (INAF Trieste), V. D’Odorico (INAF Trieste, Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy and Institute for Fundamental Physics of the Universe, Trieste, Italy [IFPU]), D. Ehrenreich (UNIGE and Centre Vie dans l’Univers, Faculté des sciences de l’Université de Genève, Switzerland), P. Figueira (UNIGE and IA/UPorto), J. I. González Hernández (IAC and Universidad de La Laguna, Departamento de Astrofísica, Spain), C. J. A. P. Martins (UA/UPorto and Centro de Astrofísica da Universidade do Porto, Portugal), A. Mehner (ESO Chile) , G. Micela (INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Italy), P. Molaro (INAF Trieste and IFPU), D. Mounzer (UNIGE), N. J. Nunes (Instituto de Astrofísica e Ciências do Espaço, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa and Departamento de Física, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal), A. Sozzetti (INAF - Osservatorio Astrofisico di Torino, Italy), A. Suárez Mascareño (IAC and IAC-ULL), and S. Udry (UNIGE).

The European Southern Observatory (ESO) enables scientists worldwide to discover the secrets of the Universe for the benefit of all. We design, build and operate world-class observatories on the ground — which astronomers use to tackle exciting questions and spread the fascination of astronomy — and promote international collaboration in astronomy. Established as an intergovernmental organisation in 1962, today ESO is supported by 16 Member States (Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom), along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO’s headquarters and its visitor centre and planetarium, the ESO Supernova, are located close to Munich in Germany, while the Chilean Atacama Desert, a marvellous place with unique conditions to observe the sky, hosts our telescopes. ESO operates three observing sites: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its Very Large Telescope Interferometer, as well as survey telescopes such as VISTA. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. Together with international partners, ESO operates APEX and ALMA on Chajnantor, two facilities that observe the skies in the millimetre and submillimetre range. At Cerro Armazones, near Paranal, we are building “the world’s biggest eye on the sky” — ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope. From our offices in Santiago, Chile we support our operations in the country and engage with Chilean partners and society.

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Contacts

Tomás Azevedo Silva
Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciências do Espaço, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto
Porto, Portugal
Email: Tomas.Silva@astro.up.pt

Olivier Demangeon
Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciências do Espaço, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto
Porto, Portugal
Tel: +351 226 089 855
Email: olivier.demangeon@astro.up.pt

Nuno Santos
Instituto de Astrofisica e Ciências do Espaço, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade do Porto
Porto, Portugal
Email: Nuno.Santos@astro.up.pt

María Rosa Zapatero Osorio
Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA)
Madrid, Spain
Email: mosorio@cab.inta-csic.es

Hugo Tabernero
Centro de Astrobiología (CSIC-INTA)
Madrid, Spain
Email: htabernero@cab.inta-csic.es

Jonay González Henández
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Tenerife, Spain
Email: jonay@iac.es

Alejandro Suárez Mascareño
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias
Tenerife, Spain
Email: alejandro.suarez.mascareno@iac.es

Paolo Molaro
INAF Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste
Trieste, Italy
Email: paolo.molaro@inaf.it

Baptiste Lavie
University of Geneva
Geneva, Switzerland
Email: Baptiste.Lavie@unige.ch

Juan Carlos Muñoz Mateos
ESO Media Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6176
Email: press@eso.org

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JOURNAL

Astronomy and Astrophysics

DOI

10.1051/0004-6361/202244489 

Anti-anaerobic antibiotics associated with increased risk of mortality in critically ill patients

Study by U-M researchers shows early treatment with specific antibiotics depletes the body of gut anaerobes that protect against pneumonia, organ failure, and mortality.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MICHIGAN MEDICINE - UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

ANN ARBOR, MI – A common clinical practice may be inadvertently harming patients, according to new research published October 13 in the European Respiratory Journal. The team of Michigan Medicine researchers behind the study suggest that administration of antibiotics with activity against anaerobic bacteria has a profound effect on the gut microbiome and, ultimately, an adverse impact on critically ill patients.  

“We talk about the gut microbiome as a metabolic and immune ‘organ,’ and when we give patients anti-anerobic antibiotics, I worry we are causing a hidden form of organ failure,” said senior author Robert Dickson, M.D., Associate Professor in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and Deputy Director at the Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation at the University of Michigan. “Our research suggests that depleting the gut of these ‘good bugs’ may be contributing to worse clinical outcomes.”

In the paper, researchers found that, in critically ill patients, the practice of early administration of anti-anaerobic antibiotics is commonplace – about two-thirds of the 3,032 patients observed in the study’s cohort received such treatment.

“For sick patients in the Emergency Department and Intensive Care Unit, there has been a lot of focus on ‘time-to-antibiotics’ as a quality improvement measure,” said Dickson. “Our results demonstrate that antibiotics really can’t be considered a single entity, as they have widely different impacts on the microbiome and on our patients. Patients who received anti-anaerobic antibiotics did far worse than patients who didn’t. We think that which antibiotic is given probably matters more than how quickly they are administered.”

With support from the Weil Institute, along with funding from the National Institutes of Health, the researchers conducted a retrospective single-center cohort study of 3,032 critically ill patients, comparing those who did and did not receive early anti-anaerobic antibiotics. By comparing ICU outcomes in all patients, and changes in gut microbiota in 116 of the patients, they found that those who received anti-anaerobic antibiotics early in their hospital course had worse outcomes, whether measured in overall survival, infection-free survival, or pneumonia-free survival.

The authors also found dramatic consequences of these antibiotics on the gut microbiome – during hospitalization, patients who received anti-anaerobic antibiotics had decreased initial gut bacterial density, followed by increased expansion and domination of the microbiome Enterobacteriaceae (a genus of common bacteria, many of which are pathogenic and cause opportunistic infections in immunocompromised hosts). These findings confirm that anti-anaerobic antibiotics have a dramatic effect on gut bacterial communities.

While the primary findings were from an observational study in humans, the team confirmed the results using animal modeling. In two different mouse models (pneumonia and oxygen-induced lung injury), animals who were treated with anti-anaerobic antibiotics did worse. Anti-anaerobic antibiotics increased the susceptibility of mice to pneumonia due to Enterobacteriaceae and increased their mortality from oxygen toxicity.

Co-author Rishi Chanderraj, M.D., a Clinical Lecturer in Infectious Diseases at U-M, was the lead researcher on the initial project and will be carrying the work forward in future studies.

“In observational studies, there is always a risk that a mortality difference is due to confounding; maybe the patients who received anti-anaerobic antibiotics were just sicker,” he said. “But the fact that we were able to recapitulate these findings in two different animal models gives us confidence that these findings are real.”

“No one wants to withhold antibiotics from patients with life-threatening infections,” said Chanderraj. “But our study confirms that the risk of overtreating with antibiotics isn’t just theoretical. I’m concerned that we’re harming our patients.”

Paper cited: “In critically ill patients, anti-anaerobic antibiotics increase risk of adverse clinical outcomes,” European Respiratory Journal. DOI: 10.1183/13993003.00910-2022

Project team: Rishi Chanderraj1,2, Jennifer M. Baker3,4, Stephen G. Kay3, Christopher A. Brown3,5, Kevin J. Hinkle3, Daniel J. Fergle3, Roderick A. McDonald3, Nicole R. Falkowski3, Joseph D. Metcalf3, Keith S. Kaye6, Robert J. Woods1,2,7, Hallie C. Prescott3,8,9, Michael W. Sjoding3,7,8,10, Robert P. Dickson3,4,10

Affiliations:

1. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan

Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

2. Medicine Service, Infectious Diseases Section, Veterans Affairs (VA) Ann Arbor Healthcare

System, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.

3. Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine,

University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

4. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann

Arbor, MI, USA.

5. Institute for Research on Innovation and Science, Institute for Social Research, University of

Michigan

6. Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Rutgers-New Jersey Medical

School

7. Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann

Arbor, MI, USA.

8. Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

9. VA Center for Clinical Management Research, Ann Arbor, Michigan.

10. Weil Institute for Critical Care Research & Innovation; Ann Arbor, Michigan

About the Weil Institute, formerly MCIRCC

The team at the Max Harry Weil Institute for Critical Care Research and Innovation (formerly the Michigan Center for Integrative Research in Critical Care) is dedicated to pushing the leading edge of research to develop new technologies and novel therapies for the most critically ill and injured patients. Through a unique formula of innovation, integration and entrepreneurship that was first imagined by Weil, their multi-disciplinary teams of health providers, basic scientists, engineers, data scientists, commercialization coaches, donors and industry partners are taking a boundless approach to re-imagining every aspect of critical care medicine. For more information, visit weilinstitute.med.umich.edu

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JOURNAL

European Respiratory Journal

DOI

10.1183/13993003.00910-2022 

Study questions the medical privacy of forensic samples

SF State researchers say databases used by law enforcement could contain private information about individuals, including crime victims

Peer-Reviewed Publication

SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY

Watch any episode of “CSI,” and a character will use forensic DNA profiling to identify a criminal. A new study from San Francisco State University suggests that these forensic profiles may indirectly reveal medical information — perhaps even those of crime victims — contrary to what the legal field has believed for nearly 30 years. The findings could have ethical and legal implications.

“The central assumption when choosing those [forensic] markers was that there wouldn’t be any information about the individuals whatsoever aside from identification. Our paper challenges that assumption,” said first author Mayra Bañuelos (B.S., ’19), who started working on the project as a San Francisco State undergraduate and is now a Ph.D. student at Brown University.

Law enforcement uses the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a system organizing criminal justice DNA databases that uses specific genetic markers to identify individuals. Crime labs from national, state and local levels contribute to these databases and provide profiles from samples collected from crime scene evidence, convicted offenders, felony arrestees, missing persons and more. Law officials can use the database to try to match samples found in an investigation to profiles already stored in the database.

CODIS profiles consist of an individual’s genetic variants as a set of short tandem repeats (STRs), sequences of DNA that repeat at various frequencies among individuals. Since the ’90s, 20 STRs have been chosen for forensic CODIS profiling specifically because it was believed they did not relay medical information. If these profiles contained any trait information, then there could be issues about medical privacy.

“But that assumption hasn’t had much investigation in a long time, and we know a lot more about the genome now than we did back then,” explained SF State Associate Professor of Biology Rori Rohlfs, who led this project.

The assumption that only criminals are sampled is also not completely accurate. “It actually also includes victims of crime and people that may have been at crime scenes. You have these huge databases including a lot of people that are not necessarily criminals,” Bañuelos said. “I believe also that accessibility to these databases varies a lot according to a jurisdiction.”

The researchers explained that other papers have found associations between other (non-CODIS) STRs and disease or gene expression. With that in mind, the SF State team wanted to understand the relationship between the CODIS STR markers and gene expression.

Rohfls’ lab used publicly available data (1000 Genome Project) and genetic models to investigate the relationship between CODIS markers and gene expression. Of the 20 CODIS markers, they found six associations between CODIS markers and gene expression of nearby genes in white blood cell lines from more than 400 unrelated individuals in the database.

“In some genes, gene expression change has been associated with medical conditions,” Bañuelos explained, citing prior research. “[In this study,] we indirectly know there is an association between these CODIS genotypes and some change in genes that can lead to illness.”

The authors note three associations to genes (CSF1R, LARS2, KDSR) that were particularly interesting. Prior literature shows that mutations and changes in gene expression of CSF1R can be tied to psychiatric conditions (depression and schizophrenia). Mutations and gene expression changes in the other genes have been connected to Perrault syndrome, MELAS syndrome, severe skin and platelet conditions and more, the scientists note in the PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) paper. If CODIS markers can be connected to the expression of genes linked to disease and health, then it means that the data in the CODIS database could compromise an individual’s medical privacy.

“Our paper in some ways is like the tip of the iceberg,” Rohlfs said, admitting that she was surprised to find associations in a relatively small sample size. The project itself simply started as an undergraduate exploration project. Eight of the 11 authors were, like Bañuelos, undergraduates at SF State when the project began.

“It raises the question: If we did a more expansive [genetic] study, would we find even more information that would be revealed by CODIS profiles?” Rohlfs asked.

Bañuelos and Rohlfs are curious to know what they’d find if they looked at a larger dataset of more diverse populations — their current dataset is predominantly European. Their analysis was also limited to white blood cells. What relationships would they find if they looked in other tissues?

These are important lines of inquiry because the current dataset doesn’t represent the general population. Furthermore, Latino and African American communities are overrepresented in these CODIS databases, Bañuelos explained.

Additional studies are needed to better flush out the relationship between CODIS and medical information. However, the researchers point out that if CODIS profiles contain medical information, there could be major implications.

“If [these CODIS profiles] contain medical information, then their treatment would need to be consistent with the way we protect medical information in the United States. We would have to have policies that regulate the seizure, storage and sharing of these profiles,” Rohlfs added.

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JOURNAL

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI

10.1073/pnas.2121024119 

ARTICLE TITLE

Associations between forensic loci and expression levels of neighboring genes may compromise medical privacy

Variation in Research Experiences and Publications During Medical School by Sex and Race and Ethnicity

Mytien Nguyen, MS¹; Sarwat I. Chaudhry, MD²; Emmanuella Asabor, MPhil¹; et alMayur M. Desai, PhD, MPH³; Elle Lett, PhD, MA^4,5; Jose E. Cavazos, MD, PhD⁶; Hyacinth R. C. Mason, PhD⁷; Dowin Boatright, MD, MBA, MHS⁸

Author Affiliations Article Information

JAMA Netw Open. 2022;5(10):e2238520. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.38520

Original Investigation 

Medical Education

October 25, 2022

Key Points

Question  Are student sex and racial and ethnic identity associated with publication rate during medical school?

Findings  This cohort study of 31 474 medical school graduates found a significant disparity in publication rates across sex and race and ethnicity, with women and Black and Hispanic students reporting lower publication rates compared with men and White students. Sex and racial and ethnic disparities in research persisted at both National Institutes of Health top 40 and non–top 40 research-intensive schools.

Meaning  These findings suggest that inequities in the physician-scientist workforce began early in training, as exposure to research and research productivity are critical for a successful career as a physician-scientist.

Abstract

Importance  Diverse research teams are critical to solving complex health problems and producing high-quality medical research.

Objective  To examine the associations of student sex and racial and ethnic identity with publication rates during medical school.

Design, Setting, and Participants  This cohort study assessed individual-level data of US MD graduates from medical school who matriculated in academic years 2014 to 2015 and 2015 to 2016. Data were obtained from the Association of American Medical Colleges and analyzed from October 2021 to January 2022.

Main Outcomes and Measures  Outcomes of interest included students’ self-reported participation in unique research experiences, number of publications, and computed publications per research experience. Poisson regressions were constructed to determine the association of sex and racial and ethnic identity with research outcomes using adjusted rate ratios (aRRs).

Results  Among 31 474 graduates, 15 159 (48.2%) identified as women and 4344 (13.8%) identified as underrepresented in medicine by race and ethnicity (URIM; including American Indian, Alaska Native, Black, Hawaiian Native, Hispanic/Latinx, and Pacific Islander individuals). Students who attended National Institutes of Health (NIH) top 40 research-ranked schools reported higher number of research experiences and publication counts, resulting in a higher publication rate compared with students from non–top 40 schools (median [IQR] 1.60 [1.00-3.00] vs 1.25 [0.50-2.33]; P < .001). Women reported a higher number of research experiences than men but a significantly lower number of publications (top 40 schools: aRR, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.87-0.90; non–top 40 schools: aRR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.92-0.95). This resulted in a significantly lower publication rate among women (top 40 schools: aRR, 0.85; 95% CI, 0.83-0.86; non–top 40 schools: aRR, 0.91; 95% CI, 0.90-0.92). Compared with White students, Asian students had higher publication rates at both NIH top 40 schools (aRR, 1.10; 95% CI, 1.08-1.12) and non–top 40 schools (aRR, 1.07; 95% CI, 1.05-1.08), while lower publication rates were reported among Black students (top 40 schools: aRR, 0.83; 95% CI, 0.80-0.86; non–top 40 schools: aRR, 0.88; 95% CI, 0.85-0.95) and Hispanic students attending non–top 40 schools (aRR, 0.93; 95% CI, 0.90-0.95).

Conclusions and Relevance  These findings illustrate that inequities in the physician-scientist workforce began early in training and highlight key areas for intervention, such as funding support and mentorship training during undergraduate medical education, that may promote the future success of a diverse physician-scientist workforce.

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Current FDA oversight of vaping industry likely to have minimal impact

It’s failing to target key players and products most popular with young people

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMJ

Current Food and Drug Administration (FDA) oversight of the vaping industry in the US is likely to have minimal impact, suggests an analysis of the regulator’s warning letters for marketing violations, published online in the journal Tobacco Control.

The regulator is failing to target the key players or the products most popular with young people, the analysis suggests, with over 90% of warnings sent to small online retailers rather than leading tobacco companies, and a focus on refillable devices.

While the prevalence of vaping among US adults remains low, at just under 4% in 2020, it is four times higher among young people.

In 2016 the FDA announced plans to regulate the vaping industry, including a requirement for the manufacturers of e-cigarettes to obtain pre-market approval (PMTA) to ensure that their products protect public health.

In 2017, the regulator began sending warning letters to manufacturers, retailers, and distributors for potential violations, such as advertising to young people, selling to minors, packaging or labelling that contravened regulations, and failure to apply for a PMTA.

But little is known about who received these letters, the types of product they concerned, or details of the violations and their consequences.

To try and find out, the authors from non-profit tobacco control organisation, Truth Initiative, assessed the content and recipients of publicly available FDA warning letters issued in 2020 and 2021. In total, the FDA issued 303 warnings:126 in 2020 and 177 up to 9 September 2021.

The analysis revealed that in 2021, over 98% of all the targeted companies fulfilled all three roles (manufacturer, distributor and retailer). 

But nearly all the letters (97%) were sent to small online retailers, none of which was a large company with measurable market share, as evidenced by sales data. 

Companies were cited for between one and three infractions. Most involved failure to obtain a PMTA. In 2020 and 2021, respectively, 56% and 99%+ of the infractions concerned a PMTA violation.

And more than 90% of the products cited–880 different ones in total–were flavoured refillable e-cigarette liquids, rather than the disposable vaping devices (‘pod mods’) which the evidence indicates are most popular with young people.

Penalties ranged in severity from product detention to product seizure and fines. But loss of tobacco distributor licence and criminal charges appeared less frequently in both years than these other consequences.

At the time of the review, most (72%) of the websites cited for 2020 infractions were still operating, as were 29% of websites cited for 2021 infractions.

And as the authors note, it was impossible to find out how the targeted companies responded, and whether the FDA followed through with the consequences cited in the warning letters, because that information isn’t publicly available.

“While current research estimates that online sales comprise around one-third of the marketplace, data tell us that most young people get their products from friends (32.3%), buy them from another person (21.5%), or purchase from a vape shop (22.2%),” note the authors.

“Prioritising the products most accessed by youth which are made available from a variety of sources will be important to curb youth use,” they add.

And they emphasise:“Strong, impactful and transparent consequences need to be in place to prevent the sale of products that violate regulations necessary in protecting the health of adult users of e-cigarettes and preventing youth use alike.”

“The FDA should use its enforcement powers to target the manufacturing, distribution, and sellers of the tobacco products that have the greatest impact on youth and products that provide no public health benefit,” they conclude. 

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JOURNAL

Tobacco Control

DOI

10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2022-057359 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Analysis of e-cigarette warning letters issued by the Food and Drug Administration in 2020 and 2021

New research shows e-cigarettes cause cardiac arrhythmias

Some cardiac effects of e-cigarette ingredients are similar to or worse than conventional cigarettes

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE

 

IMAGE: ALEX CARLL, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE UOFL DEPARTMENT OF PHYSIOLOGY, FRONT, WITH MATTHEW NYSTORIAK, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF MEDICINE. view more 

CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE PHOTO

A new study from University of Louisville researchers in the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute has found that exposure to e-cigarette aerosols can cause heart arrhythmias in animal models — both in the form of premature and skipped heart beats. The study findings, published Oct. 25 in Nature Communications, suggest exposure to specific chemicals within e-cigarette liquids (e-liquids) promote arrhythmias and cardiac electrical dysfunction.

“Our findings demonstrate that short-term exposure to e-cigarettes can destabilize heart rhythm through specific chemicals within e-liquids,” said Alex Carll, assistant professor in the UofL Department of Physiology who led the study. “These findings suggest that e-cigarette use involving certain flavors or solvent vehicles may disrupt the heart’s electrical conduction and provoke arrhythmias. These effects could increase the risk for atrial or ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac arrest.”

The researchers tested the cardiac impacts of inhaled e-cigarette aerosols solely from the main two ingredients in e-liquids (nicotine-free propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin) or from flavored retail e-liquids containing nicotine. They found that for all e-cigarette aerosols, the animals’ heart rate slowed during puff exposures and sped up afterwards as heart rate variability declined, indicating fight-or-flight stress responses. In addition, e-cigarette puffs from a menthol-flavored e-liquid or from propylene glycol alone caused ventricular arrhythmias and other conduction irregularities in the heart.

Conducted in collaboration with Daniel Conklin and Aruni Bhatnagar, professors in the UofL Division of Environmental Medicine, this work adds to a growing body of research on the potential toxicity and health impacts of e-cigarettes reported by the American Heart Association Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center, for which UofL serves as the flagship institute.

"The findings of this study are important because they provide fresh evidence that the use of e-cigarettes could interfere with normal heart rhythms -- something we did not know before," Bhatnagar said. "This is highly concerning given the rapid growth of e-cigarette use, particularly among young people."

As e-cigarette use has grown nationwide, the potential advantages and harms of vaping have been debated. Since vaping does not involve combustion, it exposes users and bystanders to little if any carbon monoxide, tar or cancer-causing nitrosamines compared with conventional cigarettes. However, e-cigarettes can deliver aldehydes, particles and nicotine at levels comparable to combustible cigarettes. Vaping might help smokers quit combustible cigarettes, but the appeal and addictiveness of e-cigarettes may encourage youth to vape amidst unknown long-term risks or take up smoking. More than 25% of high schoolers and 10% of middle schoolers in the U.S. reported using e-cigarettes before the pandemic.

Additional research by Carll and Matthew Nystoriak, an associate professor of medicine at UofL, to determine the effects of vape flavorings on the heart recently received $3.6 million in research funding from the National Institutes of Health.

“Our team’s findings that specific ingredients in e-cigarette liquids promote arrhythmias indicates there is an urgent need for more research into the cardiac effects of these components in both animals and humans,” Carll said.

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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-33203-1

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Heart, Lung, And Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) under Award Number R01HL147353 (A.P.C.), R01HL163818 (A.P.C. and M.A.N.), U54HL120163 (A.B.), and R01HL122676 (D.J.C.), the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the NIH under Award Number P30GM127607 (A.B.), the Jewish Heritage Fund for Excellence (M.A.N. and A.P.C.), a Fellowship from the American Heart Association (AHA) Tobacco Regulation and Addiction Center (AHA FX-ATRAC-UL1-05; A.P.C.), and the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - Brasil (CAPES) Scholarship - Process no {88881.131525/2016-01} (C.A. and R.S.). Research reported in this publication was supported by NHLBI and FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the NIH, the FDA, or the AHA.

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JOURNAL

Nature Communications

DOI

10.1038/s41467-022-33203-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Animals

ARTICLE TITLE

E-cigarettes and Their Lone Constituents Induce Cardiac Arrhythmia and Conduction Defects in Mice

New data on how intermittent fasting affects female hormones

New evidence comes from study of pre- and post-menopausal obese women on the “warrior diet”

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO

Intermittent fasting has been shown to be an effective way to lose weight, but critics have worried that the practice may have a negative impact on women’s reproductive hormones. Now, a team of University of Illinois Chicago researchers has published a study in Obesity that brings new evidence to the table. 

The researchers, led by Krista Varady, UIC professor of nutrition, followed a group of pre- and post-menopausal obese women for a period of eight weeks on the “warrior diet” method of intermittent fasting.

The warrior diet prescribes a time-restricted feeding window of four hours per day, during which dieters can eat without counting calories before resuming a water fast until the next day. 

They measured the differences in hormone levels, obtained by analyzing blood sample data, in groups of dieters who stuck to four- and six-hour feeding windows against a control group that followed no diet restrictions. 

Varady and her team found that levels of sex-binding globulin hormone, a protein that carries reproductive hormones throughout the body, was unchanged in the dieters after eight weeks. The same held true for both testosterone and androstenedione, a steroid hormone that the body uses to produce both testosterone and estrogen.

However, dehydroepiandrosterone or DHEA, a hormone that fertility clinics prescribe to improve ovarian function and egg quality, was significantly lower in both pre-menopausal and post-menopausal women at the end of the trial, dropping by about 14%.  

While the drop in DHEA levels was the most significant finding of the study, in both pre- and post-menopausal women, DHEA levels remained within the normal range by the end of the eight-week period.

“This suggests that in pre-menopausal women, the minor drop in DHEA levels has to be weighed against the proven fertility benefits of lower body mass,” Varady said. “The drop in DHEA levels in post-menopausal women could be concerning because menopause already causes a dramatic drop in estrogen, and DHEA is a primary component of estrogen. However, a survey of the participants reported no negative side effects associated with low estrogen post-menopause, such as sexual dysfunction or skin changes.“

As an added benefit, since high DHEA has been linked to breast cancer risk, Varady said a moderate drop in levels might be helpful in reducing that risk for both pre- and post-menopausal women. 

The study measured levels of estradiol, estrone and progesterone — all hormones vital to pregnancy — as well, but only in post-menopausal women, due to the changing levels of these hormones throughout pre-menopausal women’s menstrual cycles. Among post-menopausal women, there was no change in these hormones at the end of eight weeks. 

Women in both the four-hour and six-hour dieting groups experienced weight loss of 3% to 4% of their baseline weight throughout the course of the study, compared with the control group, which had almost no weight loss. The dieters also saw a drop in insulin resistance and in biomarkers of oxidative stress. 

Perimenopausal women, who are typically in their 40s, were excluded from the study. 

Still, Varady said, “I think this is a great first step. We’ve observed thousands of pre- and post-menopausal women through different alternate-day fasting and time-restricted eating strategies. All it’s doing is making people eat less. By shortening that eating window, you’re just naturally cutting calories. Much of the negative information on intermittent fasting reported has come from studies on mice or rats. We need more studies to look at the effects of intermittent fasting on humans.”

The study, “Effect of time-restricted eating on sex hormone levels in premenopausal and postmenopausal females” was supported by a grant (R01DK119783) from the National Institutes of Health.

Co-authors of the study are Faiza Kalam, Rand Akasheh, Sofia Cienfuegos, Aparna Ankireddy, Kelsey Gabel, Mark Ezpeleta, Shuhao Lin, Chandra Tamatam, Sekhar Reddy, Bonnie Spring and Seema Khan.

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JOURNAL

Obesity

DOI

10.1002/oby.23562 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Effect of time-restricted eating on sex hormone levels in premenopausal and postmenopausal females

ARTICLE PUBLICATI

VLA finds cosmic rays driving galaxy's winds

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NATIONAL RADIO ASTRONOMY OBSERVATORY

 

IMAGE: ARTIST'S ILLUSTRATION OF COSMIC RAY DRIVEN WINDS (BLUE AND GREEN) SUPERIMPOSED ON A VISIBLE-LIGHT IMAGE OF THE TRIANGULUM GALAXY M33 (RED AND WHITE) OBSERVED WITH VLT SURVEY TELESCOPE AT ESO’S PARANAL OBSERVATORY IN CHILE. view more 

CREDIT: INSTITUTE FOR RESEARCH IN FUNDAMENTAL SCIENCES- IPM & EUROPEAN SOUTHERN OBSERVATORY (ESO).

Astronomers using the National Science Foundation's Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) have discovered an important new clue about how galaxies put the brakes on vigorous episodes of star formation. Their new study of the neighboring galaxy M33 indicates that fast-moving cosmic ray electrons can drive winds that blow away the gas needed to form new stars.

Such winds are responsible for slowing the rate of star formation as galaxies evolve over time. However, shock waves from supernova explosions and energetic, black hole-powered jets of material coming from galactic cores have been considered the primary drivers of those winds. Cosmic rays were thought to be minor contributors, particularly in galaxies like M33 that have regions of prolific star formation.

"We have seen galactic winds driven by cosmic rays in our own Milky Way and the Andromeda galaxy, which have much weaker rates of star formation, but not before in a galaxy such as M33," said Fatemah Tabatabaei, of the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences in Iran. 

Tabatabaei and an international team of scientists made detailed, multi-wavelength VLA observations of M33, a spiral galaxy nearly 3 million light-years away and part of the Local Group of galaxies that includes the Milky Way. They also used data from previous observations with the VLA, the Effelsberg radio telescope in Germany, and millimeter-wave, visible-light, and infrared telescopes.

Stars much more massive than our Sun speed through their life cycles, ultimately exploding as supernovae. The explosive shock waves can accelerate particles to nearly the speed of light, creating cosmic rays. Enough of these cosmic rays can build pressure that drives winds carrying away the gas needed to continue forming stars.

"The VLA observations indicated that cosmic rays in M33 are escaping the regions where they are born, making them able to drive more extensive winds," said William Cotton, of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.

Based on their observations, the astronomers concluded that the numerous supernova explosions and supernova remnants in M33's giant complexes of prolific star formation made such cosmic ray-driven winds more likely.

"This means that cosmic rays probably are a more general cause of galactic winds, particularly at earlier times in the universe's history, when star formation was happening at a much higher rate," Tabatabaei said. She added, "This mechanism thus becomes a more important factor in understanding the evolution of galaxies over time."

Tabatabaei, Cotton and their colleagues are reporting their findings in the 25 October issue of the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation, operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc.

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JOURNAL

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Cloud-scale Radio Surveys of Star Formation and Feedback in Triangulum: VLA Observations