The Burden of COVID-19 on Caregivers of Children with Suspected Genetic Conditions: A Therapeutic Odyssey

Aims: Children with disabilities and rare or undiagnosed conditions and their families have faced numerous hardships of living during the COVID-19 pandemic. For those with undiagnosed conditions, the diagnostic odyssey can be long, expensive, and marked by uncertainty. We, therefore, sought to understand whether and how COVID-19 impacted the trajectory of children’s care. Methods: We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with 25 caregivers who, prior to the pandemic, were on a diagnostic odyssey for their children. Results: Most caregivers did not report any interruptions to their child’s diagnostic odyssey. The greatest impact was access to therapy services, including the suspension or loss of their child’s in-person therapeutic care and difficulties with virtual therapies. This therapy gap caused caregivers to fear that their children were not making progress. Conclusion: Although much has been written about the challenges of diagnostic odysseys for children and their families, this study illustrates the importance of expanding the focus of these studies to include therapeutic odysseys. Because therapeutic odysseys continue regardless of whether diagnoses are made, future research should investigate how to support caregivers through children’s therapies within and outside of the COVID-19 context

Question prompt lists and caregiver question asking in pediatric specialty appointments: A randomized controlled trial

Objective: Question prompt lists (QPLs) have been effective at increasing patient involvement and question asking in medical appointments, which is critical for shared decision making. We investigated whether pre-visit preparation (PVP), including a QPL, would increase question asking among caregivers of pediatric patients with undiagnosed, suspected genetic conditions. Methods: Caregivers were randomized to receive the PVP before their appointment (n = 59) or not (control, n = 53). Appointments were audio-recorded. Transcripts were analyzed to determine questions asked. Results: Caregivers in the PVP group asked more questions (MeanPVP = 4.36, SDPVP = 4.66 vs. Meancontrol = 2.83, SDcontrol = 3.03, p = 0.045), including QPL questions (MeanPVP = 1.05, SDPVP = 1.39 vs. Meancontrol = 0.36, SDcontrol = 0.81, p = 0.002). Caregivers whose child had insurance other than Medicaid in the PVP group asked more total and QPL questions than their counterparts in the control group (ps = 0.005 and 0.002); there was no intervention effect among caregivers of children with Medicaid or no insurance (ps = 0.775 and 0.166). Conclusion: The PVP increased question asking but worked less effectively among traditionally underserved groups. Additional interventions, including provider-focused efforts, may be needed to promote engagement of underserved patients. Practice implications: Patient/family-focused interventions may not be beneficial for all populations. Providers should be aware of potential implicit and explicit biases and encourage question asking to promote patient/family engagement

"Induced expression of expanded CGG RNA causes mitochondrial dysfunction in vivo."

Fragile X-associated tremor/ataxia syndrome (FXTAS) is a late-onset neurodegenerative disorder affecting carriers of premutation forms of the FMR1 gene, resulting in a progressive development of tremor, ataxia and neuropsychological problems. The disease is caused by an expanded CGG repeat in the FMR1 gene, leading to an RNA gain-of-function toxicity mechanism. In order to study the pathogenesis of FXTAS, new inducible transgenic mouse models have been developed that expresses either 11CGGs or 90CGGs at the RNA level under control of a Tet-On promoter. When bred to an hnRNP-rtTA driver line, doxycycline (dox) induced expression of the transgene could be found in almost all tissues. Dox exposure resulted in loss of weight and death within 5 d for the 90CGG RNA expressing mice. Immunohistochemical examination of tissues of these mice revealed steatosis and apoptosis in the liver. Decreased expression of GPX1 and increased expression of cytochrome C is found. These effects were not seen in mice expressing a normal sized 11CGG repeat. In conclusion, we were able to show in vivo that expression of an expanded CGG-repeat rather than overexpression of a normal CGG-repeat causes pathology. In addition, we have shown that expanded CGG RNA expression can cause mitochondrial dysfunction by regulating expression levels of several markers. Although FTXAS patients do not display liver abnormalities, our findings contribute to understanding of the molecular mechanisms underlying toxicity of CGG repeat RNA expression in an animal model. In addition, the dox inducible mouse lines offer new opportunities to study therapeutic interventions for FXTAS

Development of an advanced high efficiency coal combustor for boiler retrofit

During the quarter from October 1986 to January 1987 the following technical progress was made: (1) Initiated a literature study focusing on optimized burner aerodynamics and design methodologies for high efficiency swirl generation devices, (2) Completed design of Swirler Test Facility (STF) to be used for comparative swirler evaluations, and (3) Initiated facility preparation at MIT for thermal atomization studies and high shear viscosity measurements

Randomized Open-Label Phase II Trial of Apitolisib (GDC-0980), a Novel Inhibitor of the PI3K/Mammalian Target of Rapamycin Pathway, Versus Everolimus in Patients With Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma

Purpose This study is the first to compare dual inhibition of PI3K/mTOR by apitolisib (GDC-0980) against single inhibition of mTORC1 by everolimus in metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Patients and Methods Clear cell mRCC patients who progressed on or after VEGF-targeted therapy were randomized to apitolisib (40 mg QD) or everolimus (10 mg QD). Endpoint included progression-free survival (PFS), safety, overall survival (OS), and objective response rate (ORR). Biomarker assessments were conducted. Results Eighty-five patients were randomized. After 62 events, stratified analysis revealed median PFS was significantly shorter for apitolisib than everolimus (3.7 vs. 6.1 mo: HR 2.04 [95%CI: 1.18-3.54; p<0.01]); apitolisib was not favored in any stratification subgroup. Median OS was not significantly different but trended in favor of everolimus (11.9 vs. 14.6 mo: HR 1.73 [95%CI: 0.87-3.43; p=0.12]). ORR was 7.1% for apitolisib and 11.6% for everolimus. Patients on apitolisib with greater incidences of grade 3-4 adverse events were more likely to discontinue treatment (31% vs. 12% for everolimus). No drug related deaths were observed. Apitolisib in comparison to everolimus was associated with substantially more high-grade hyperglycemia (40% vs. 7%) and rash (24% vs. 5%). Apitolisib pharmacokinetics suggested a relationship between exposure, and rash and hyperglycemia. Retrospective biomarker analyses revealed a relationship between VHL mutation status and outcome with everolimus but not with apitolisib. High HIF1α protein expression was associated with better outcome in both arms. Conclusion This study demonstrated that dual PI3K/mTOR inhibition by apitolisib was less effective than everolimus in mRCC, likely because full blockade of Pi3K/mTOR signaling resulted in multiple on-target adverse events. VHL mutation and HIF1α expression may be predictive of mTOR inhibitor benefit, although prospective validation is required

Outcomes of Metastatic Chromophobe Renal Cell Carcinoma (chrRCC) in the targeted therapy era: Results from the International Metastatic Renal Cell Cancer Database Consortium (IMDC)

Background: Treatment outcomes are poorly characterized in patients with metastatic chromophobe renal cell cancer (chrRCC), a subtype of renal cell carcinoma. Objective: This retrospective series aims to determine metastatic chrRCC treatment outcomes in the targeted therapy era. Methods: A retrospective data analysis was performed using the IMDC dataset of 4970 patients to determine metastatic chrRCC treatment outcomes in the targeted therapy era. Results: 109/4970 (2.2%) patients had metastatic chrRCC out of all patients with mRCC treated with targeted therapy. These patients were compared with 4861/4970 (97.8%) clear cell mRCC (ccRCC) patients. Patients with metastatic chrRCC had a similar OS compared to patients with ccRCC (23.8 months (95% CI 16.7 - 28.1) vs 22.4 months (95% CI 21.4 - 23.4), respectively (p = 0.0908). Patients with IMDC favorable (18%), intermediate (59%) and poor risk (23%) had median overall survivals of 31.4, 27.3, and 4.8 months, respectively (p = 0.028). Conclusions: To the authors&apos; knowledge, this is the largest series of metastatic chrRCC patients and these results set new benchmarks for survival in clinical trial design and patient counseling. The IMDC criteria risk categories seem to stratify patients into appropriate favourable, intermediate, and poor risk groups, although larger patient numbers are required. It appears that outcomes between metastatic chrRCC and ccRCC are similar when treated with conventional targeted therapies. Patients with metastatic chrRCC can be treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors and enrolled in clinical trials to further measure outcomes in this rare patient population. © 2017 - IOS Press and the authors. All rights reserve