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By Nancy Lapid, Health Science Editor

Hello Health Rounds readers! We have news of two high-tech innovations that, while not ready for prime time, are potentially paradigm-changing: an ultra-thin, flexible heart monitor that conforms to the chest as if on a tattoo sticker, and a new approach to treating MRSA infections that doesn’t employ antibiotics. In addition, we share data that suggest childhood adversity increases the risk for type 2 diabetes.

In breaking news, see these stories from our Reuters journalists: Liberated villages offer glimpse of precarious Ukrainian health system; U.S. FDA approves first oral fecal pill for controlling serious gastrointestinal infection; and U.S. challenges Tennessee ban on healthcare for transgender youth.

We also have coverage of earnings reports released today by industry giants Merck, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, AbbVie, Quest Diagnostics, Sanofi, Bristol Myers, Baxter International, Indivior, Glenmark Life Sciences, and West Pharmaceutical.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus bacteria), shown here in a petri dish, is a “superbug” that causes deadly infections. Researchers are testing a new drug that attacks the bacteria from multiple angles and simultaneously boosts the effectiveness of bacteria-fighting immune cells. REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

People who need heart monitoring but do not require hospitalization should someday be able to wear a monitor resembling a tattoo sticker on their chest instead of being attached by wires to devices that must be carried around day and night, a new study suggests.

As reported in Advanced Electronic Materials, researchers have developed an ultrathin, lightweight wireless device that is placed on the chest on a clear, flexible patch and allows for long-term, comfortable heart monitoring at home. The “e-tattoo” weighs only 2.5 grams (0.09 oz) and runs on a battery the size of a penny.

Its sensors collect some of the same data obtained by monitoring the heart’s electrical activity with electrocardiography and some of the same information provided by a stethoscope when doctors listen to heart valves opening and closing.

Synchronizing the data makes it possible to measure how long the left ventricle of the heart spends filling up with blood and then ejecting that blood into the aorta toward the body, processes that can be major indicators of heart failure and other problems, said study leader Nanshu Lu of the University of Texas at Austin.

In five human volunteers, information from the device was comparable to data from gold standard tools for assessing heart failure, such as invasive catheters or echocardiography, the researchers said.

The device needs to be tested in larger studies and in patients with cardiovascular problems other than heart failure. Eventually, Lu said, as they develop more advanced algorithms for analyzing the data, they will be able to use it to diagnose a wide variety of heart conditions and to monitor patients who are discharged from the hospital after surgery.

An experimental drug tested in mice protects against antibiotic-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections by coming at the bacteria from multiple angles, researchers say.

“Staph aureus bacteria rely on many strategies to cause infections,” explained Victor Torres of New York University. The drug his team created in collaboration with Johnson & Johnson, SM1B74, “can inhibit a wide array” of the mechanisms these organisms use to invade the body and escape from the immune system, he said.

The researchers first created a monoclonal antibody, derived from a human patient’s antibody, that recognizes five different proteins on the surface of methicillin-resistant Staph aureus (MRSA) bacteria, making it unlikely the bacteria will evolve to become unrecognizable by the drug.

They engineered their antibody to be resistant to three of the mechanisms Staph aureus typically uses to disable antibodies, Torres said.

Next, they searched through thousands of therapeutic proteins known as centyrins until they found two that inactivate two important toxins Staph aureus produces to help it kill immune-system cells, and they fused these to their monoclonal antibody.

In mice with Staph aureus infections, the researchers compared their combination molecule to treatment with the original unmodified human antibody.

Compared with the “parental” antibody, SM1B74 protected the animals’ immune cells from attacks by the bacteria, boosted the immune cells’ effectiveness, and reduced the severity of the infections, the researchers reported on Monday in Cell Host & Microbe. It also prevented infections when given in advance, they said.

“The difference was like nothing we’ve ever seen,” Torres said.

When given together with vancomycin, the last remaining antibiotic with potency against MRSA, the combination was more effective in the mice than either drug alone, according to the report.

After more research in animals to improve the drug and confirm its safety, the researchers “hope that it helps save lives,” Torres said.

Adolescents and young adults who experienced poverty, illness, or death in the family as children or who grew up in dysfunctional homes had higher risks for developing type 2 diabetes than those who did not, according to a large study from Denmark.

Researchers at the University of Copenhagen reviewed data on 1.3 million adults who did not have type 2 diabetes by age 16. Roughly half had faced at least some adversity in childhood.

During an average follow-up of 11 years, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes rose along with the number of childhood adversities, the researchers reported in Diabetologia.

Among the 3% of individuals who faced adversity in multiple respects, such as loss of a parent, poverty, and dysfunctional family dynamics, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes was more than doubled in men and nearly 60% higher in women compared to the risk in the lowest-adversity group.

The study doesn’t prove adversity causes diabetes, but there are several possible explanations for the link, the researchers suggested.

Childhood adversity could trigger stress responses and disturb normal patterns of immune responses, hormone secretion, and the nervous system, and influence mental health and health behaviors such as sleep, diet, smoking, and physical activity that may eventually impact type 2 diabetes risk.

It’s possible, the researchers say, “that a share of the type 2 diabetes cases in young adulthood could likely be prevented by intervening on the fundamental causes generating childhood adversity.”

This newsletter was edited by Bill Berkrot. Additional reporting by Shawana Alleyne-Morris.

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