MDNN: HIV Viral Therapy, Caffeine for Parkinson's Diagnosis, Asthma from Bottle Feeding, and Online ADHD Information

Hi, I’m Jenna Payesko, and this is MD Magazine News Network - it’s clinical news for connected physicians.

The Maraba virus, a viral therapy used to target cancer cells may be able to destroy latent HIV-infected cells. Researchers have found that the virus better known as MG1 has the capability to eliminate infected cells in patients with HIV, without harming non-infected cells. The viral therapy has been previously used to attack vulnerable cancer cells with defective interferon signaling. If MG1 continues to show success against latent HIV in further clinical trials, researchers indicated it may serve as a final step in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

Caffeine may be both an indicator and prophylaxis for Parkinson’s disease. A recent Japan-based study reported that patients with Parkinson’s had significantly lower levels of caffeine in their blood compared to people without Parkinson’s who were given an equal amount of coffee. The differences in caffeine and caffeine metabolite were almost perfectly distinguishable between the 2 patient groups, confirming the test could serve as an early diagnosis test for Parkinson’s. An accompanying essay to the study suggested that there’s enough evidence to explore caffeine as a preventive measure against Parkinson’s disease.

A study has found a distinct difference in asthma risk between children that were breast-fed, and those who were bottle-fed expressed breast milk as infants. According to Canadian researchers, formula feeding is associated with twice the odds of a child developing asthma than breastfeeding. Though previous studies had ventured into the link between infant feeding and asthma, this analysis of more than 2,500 infants from the Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development study was the first to find differences of asthma risk in infant feeding methods.

More parents of children with ADHD are turning to the internet for information about the condition than their own health care providers. In a survey of families from 2 private pediatric practices, 70% of parents reported they sought information on ADHD medication, treatment, and implications from online sources. Another 56% of parents reported seeking information from health care providers. 43% obtained information from their child’s school, and 13% from their pharmacy. Researchers emphasized the physician and patient communication line is integral to addressing conditions such as ADHD.

For these stories and more, visit us at mdmag.com. I’m Jenna Payesko for MDNN, thank for you watching.