on the move | Saint Louis University was awarded $500,000 to create a new Saint Louis University Mobile Health Clinic. The mobile unit will provide convenient access to basic exams, immunizations, health screenings and other routine care in areas that lack health care facilities, transportation to clinics or access to telehealth technology. It also will partner with the School of Medicine, Trudy Busch Valentine School of Nursing and Doisy College of Health Sciences to train and engage health care providers. The funds were secured as part of U.S. Rep. Cori Bush’s Community Projects Funding for 2022, and the university was one of four local health care institutions the congresswoman recognized.
alzheimer’s and race
A new study from Washington University School of Medicine has found that blood tests used to identify the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease perform differently for Black patients. Finding ways to recognize biomarkers for early detection of the disease has been a major area of research. However, since much of the work is based on data collected from groups of mostly white participants, there are concerns about whether tests based on such biomarkers are equally valid in diverse populations. Working with 76 pairs of Black and non-Hispanic white participants, the new study analyzed the accuracy of blood tests for different biomarkers, including neurofilament light protein, two forms of protein tau, and amyloid beta 42 and amyloid beta 40. Only the test for amyloid beta 42 and amyloid beta 40 accurately classified people by Alzheimer’s status, and it also was the only one not to perform differently based on participants’ self-identified race.
cancer treatment
Urology of St. Louis is developing a Cancer Institute to offer specialized treatment for bladder, testicular, prostate and kidney cancers. The center will be led by Drs. Gregory Auffenberg and Seth Strope, who have 30 years of combined clinical cancer care, and will provide cutting-edge cancer treatment options and state-of-the-art lab test diagnostics and access to Urology of St. Louis’ team of highly-trained urologists and medical professionals. “Our expertise comes from staying up to date on the newest surgical techniques and treatment options, and dealing with a variety of cancer variations over time,” Strope says. “We take pride in not only the expertise of our team, but also that we’ll be able to give patients integrated and specialized care closer to their home.” The Cancer Institute will have clinics in Chesterfield and Fairview Heights, Illinois.
hope for kidney disease
Researchers at Saint Louis University have entered phase four of the clinical trial of JATENZO, an oral soft gel capsule under investigation in the treatment of chronic kidney disease in hypogonadal men. The disease results in the gradual loss of kidney function over time, leading to serious health problems and even death. More than two million men suffering from chronic kidney disease also have hypogonadism, a condition where the testes do not produce enough testosterone. JATENZO increases testosterone levels as well as treating anemia, another complication associated with chronic kidney disease. The new phase of the trial will look at adult men with stage 3b or stage 4 chronic kidney disease and hypogonadism to see if taking JATENZO twice daily over 26 weeks results in improvement.