Short Wave - Helping A Man Walk Again With Science

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

This week's science news roundup reunites All Things Considered host Ailsa Chang with Short Wave hosts Emily Kwong and Regina G. Barber to dig into the latest headlines in biomedical research, also known as cool things for the human body. We talk new RSV vaccines, vaccination by sticker and a new device helping a man with paralysis walk again. Have questions about science in the news? Email us at [e-mail] pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Hey, Short Wavers, Regina Barber here with Emily Kwong. And Elsa, of course, is on your radio weekday afternoons hosting All Things Considered. And today, she's helping us wrap up the week with our Science News Roundup. And we appreciate it a lot because we've picked out three biomedical stories for you. First, the latest in RSV vaccines. Then a new way to deliver the measles vaccine. And finally, an intervention to make a man walk again.

The theme is, cool things being done to the human body. Excellent summary. Buckle up, Elsa. You're listening to Shortwave from NPR. Okay, Elsa, as usual, you're here to learn about three science stories in the news lately. One about a new RSV vaccine. One about a new way to deliver the measles vaccine. And finally, some new tech to make a man walk again.

That sounds like a biblical story. Yeah. Let's start with RSV. Okay. Tell us. Okay, so RSV, you know, for most people it feels like the common cold, Elsa, but it can make infants and older people really sick. Complications from RSV like pneumonia and bronchialitis is the number one cause for hospitalizations in infants. And for adults 65 and older, the CDC, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimate that RSV leads to tens of thousands of hospitalizations every year. And between 6,000 and 10,000 deaths.

And those numbers are probably low. Helen Chu is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Washington, and she says the burden of RSV is often invisible. There are certainly very frail populations out there who would really benefit from this vaccine. And even if they don't die after their hospitalization, they end up quite debilitated for long periods of time. Wow, I had no idea that RSV could be that serious for certain populations. Tell me more about this new vaccine. Yeah, so RSV researchers have been working for decades on a vaccine,

and now there are two on the horizon for older adults. The first made by GSK got FDA approval last month, and the second made by Pfizer was approved this week. In clinical trials, both appear to significantly reduce RSV-associated lower respiratory tract disease and older adults. And this comes on the heels of an RSV vaccine for infants that could get recommended for FDA approval too that could happen this summer. Right.

And why have these RSV vaccines taken so long to develop if this has been around for a while, this virus? This is such a good question. You know, it just took time to get the science right for the vaccine to be safe and effective. The big breakthrough came from a group of NIH scientists who map the hidden structure of surface proteins. That's what allows the virus to infect humans. cells. Over a decade ago, this team found a way to hack the virus, preventing those surface proteins from transforming in a way that makes them a lock and key fit for our cells. Here's lead researcher Barney Graham, who's now based at Moorehouse School of Medicine. It's like

the transformer toys. If what you want is a car and what you have as a robot, you have to block the car. Okay, I love this transformer analogy. So let me make sure I get it. They need to catch this virus protein before it morphs into its most destructive phase and infects you? It is like a superhero stakes situation. Yeah. Yeah, something like that. Barney, by the way, he stands to earn capped royalties on the sale of the RSV vaccines using this design. Okay, so now that the FDA has approved these vaccines, when will they actually become available? This is the key question. So for the vaccine to be pushed to the marketplace, the CDC's advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIP has to recommend it for older adults. They are meeting on

June 21st through 23rd to make that decision. So there's a regulatory hurdle, but there's also an uptake hurdle. People might not know about the vaccine or not want to get it or not know where to get it. Vaccination just takes buy-in from family doctors and internists. And some healthcare providers may not think that RSV is a big deal for adults and not advise their patients to get vaccinated. And if the CDC's advisory committee doesn't recommend the RSV vaccine in a few weeks, insurance won't cover it. So people will have to pay out of pocket. Okay. Now for our second story, we're going to stay on the topic of vaccines. I want to get to this sticker vaccine. This is for the measles? Yeah. So this is a clinical trial for a new vaccine to protect against

measles and rebella. Both are characterized by fevers and red rashes. Measles in particular can be really serious. In 2021, it killed more than 100,000 people worldwide, mostly kids under five. Yeah. So health correspondent Fran Crits wrote about this vaccine for Goats and Soda, NPR's Global Health and Development Blog. And she said that the thing that has researchers excited isn't the vaccine itself. The vaccine has been around for decades. What researchers are excited about is the new way the vaccine is delivered, which has been in works for more than two decades. And let me guess it's getting delivered. by a sticker. Truly, a sticker.

Yeah. You just slap it on. Yeah, it's just a small, like, white adhesive patch about the size of a quarter. Wow. And within a few minutes of the patch being gently pressed onto the patient's wrist, the vaccine dose is delivered. So it doesn't hurt? It is practically pain-free. One of the researchers actually compared it to the feeling of Velcro on your skin.

Cool. And it's hopefully a huge step towards wider vaccine accessibility since it's not a needle. And it's a better option for air. where there's few health facilities and clean water. Yeah, this uptake question, which we heard about in the earlier story, it's a real issue with vaccines. The patch also doesn't need to be refrigerated, which many vaccines usually do. So there's more accessibility there too. And what about the effectiveness here?

Like this patch that feels like Velcro, it's a sticker, it's not a shot. Is it as effective as a shot? Yeah, it is. It produced the same sort of immune response. Now, this was a small trial, just a couple hundred babies, toddlers. and some adults. So this still needs to be tested on a much larger scale and then get authorization from countries regulatory agencies.

So it could be another five to seven years before we see it being used, but it's a promising first step. Yeah, it's a big deal. Fascinating. Okay. So last step, Regina, you have a story about an intervention that could help people with paralysis walk again. Am I clear on this?

I mean, it sounds like it's made for a movie. Yes. I love movies. Yes, yes. Over a decade ago, Gertion, Oscom was paralyzed from a cycling accident. And that injury interrupted the communication between his brain and spinal cord. And recently, researchers have reconnected them so he can walk again. Wow. Okay. So how does this technology work? Yeah. So first they need to figure out what his brain

signals look like when he's thinking about walking. And they interpret that with something called a brain computer interface. And that's not new technology. That's been around for a while to like move cursors on a screen to control small robots by just thinking. And in this case, a brain implant decodes Gertion's thoughts. Then those thoughts are sent wirelessly to a wearable processor that looks like a backpack. And it detects his intentions to move and translates these brain signals into electric pulses. These pulses are sent to another implant that stimulates his spinal cord, allowing him to actually make those movements. And all this happens in like just split seconds? Yes. Wow. Okay. So you've

You've mentioned parts of this have been done before. So what is actually new here? Yeah. So what's new here is how they combine these two known technologies of reading the brain's thoughts and using them to stimulate the spinal cord. That's according to Marco Capagroso, a spinal cord injury researcher at the University of Pittsburgh. He's not associated with the study, but he is very impressed on how real this walking looks. The patient could even go up and down ramps, navigate obstacles, go upstairs. And in the past, patients have only been able to kind of have these choppy steps, and it was hard for them to move on anything that wasn't flat ground. This is incredible. But wait, this so far has just been tested on this one individual, right?

So how might this technology be rolled out more widely? So same answer as the sticker vaccine. Marco says probably about five to seven years. More research has to be done to see who else this can help, like level of injury. make sure it's safe, and it's pretty expensive right now. So cool. Thanks again to Elsa Chang for stopping by. And as always, if you see a science headline you'd like us to explain in the roundup, tell us about it.

Email us at shortwave at npr.org. This episode was produced by Burley McCoy and Kai McNamey. It was edited by our managing producer Rebecca Ramirez and Christopher Inteliotta. Britt Hansen checked the facts. Maggie Luthor was the audio engineer. Our senior director of programming is Beth Donovan, and our senior vice president of programming is Anya Gretton. I'm Emily Kwong. And I'm Regina Barber.

Thanks for listening to Shorewave, the science podcast from NPR.