Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease remains one of the world’s leading drivers of heart attacks and ischemic strokes, largely because fatty, inflamed plaques can build up inside arteries and eventually rupture. In a new comprehensive review published ahead-of-print in Current Drug Therapy, physician-researcher Francisco Epelde synthesizes evidence showing that modern pharmacologic care is increasingly moving beyond “slowing progression” toward an ambitious but measurable goal: reducing plaque size and transforming plaque composition into a more stable, less rupture-prone form.

Climate change is widely understood as an environmental and economic threat, but new research from the University of Sydney shows it is also a growing social crisis, weakening the relationships people rely on to survive.

Combining two widely prescribed drug classes could provide the first effective treatment for early-stage Peyronie’s disease, according to a new clinical trial.

(Boston)—Superspreading became a familiar concept to many during the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior studies examining infectious disease epidemics, including those on COVID-19, have found that some individuals are much more likely to transmit infections to other people. Superspreading, when one person with an infection passes it to an unusually large number of other people, is a key feature of tuberculosis (TB) epidemiology. Most individuals with TB, the disease caused by infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, cause very few secondary infections, and often cause no secondary infections at all. However, many studies, including groundbreaking studies in the 1950s and 1960s examining TB transmission observed that some individuals with TB are more highly infectious and cause many more secondary infections among their contacts. As a result, the overall impact on future transmission of diagnosing someone with TB and treating them with antibiotics (typically making them non-infectious within 1-2 weeks) can vary widely from person to person.

In a new perspective piece in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, researchers from Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian and the University of Colorado Anschutz School of Medicine examine both historical and contemporary evidence in M. tuberculosis superspreading. They argue it represents not only a critical challenge for global TB control, but also a potential opportunity for innovative prevention strategies. The authors introduce the idea of "superspreading niches", specific parts of community contact networks where highly infectious individuals intersect with highly susceptible contacts, as a key framework for understanding TB superspreading and designing new TB control interventions.

Meta-analysis of 37 studies totalling more than half a million pregnancies with antidepressant use found no significant link between common antidepressant use during pregnancy and autism/ADHD in children after adjusting for the mother’s mental health and other factors.

Before accounting for confounding factors, the study found a small association between antidepressant use during pregnancy and autism or ADHD in children. However, this link was also seen with antidepressant use in mothers before conception and in fathers during pregnancy, suggesting the association reflects parental mental health and genetics rather than the medication itself.

Authors say doctors and patients should weigh the benefit and risks of antidepressant use for moderate to severe depression in pregnancy with the potential harms of a depression relapse. They highlight that supporting good mental health for both mothers and fathers is beneficial for a child’s neurodevelopment.