Public Health Weekly News – September 19th 2025

LucidQuest

2 months ago

Public Health Update: Lifestyle and Alzheimer’s, Stem Cells Post-Stroke, CRISPRa in Epilepsy, AI Risk Tools and More

From flu vaccination timing and nicotinamide’s skin-cancer benefits to metabolic surgery’s edge over GLP-1s—this week’s signals are robust. We span prevention, cardiology, neuroscience, oncology, and more, with AI breakthroughs and therapeutic advances across areas, underscoring shifting standards of care and expanding innovation frontiers.

In Today’s Newsletter

💉 Flu shot timing: aim for October [1] [14 Sep 2025]

https://www.prevention.com/health/a66013230/best-time-for-flu-shot/

Context: Expert guidance (CDC-aligned) on seasonal influenza vaccination windows.

Key point: Most adults should vaccinate by late Oct; vaccinating too early may wane before spring. Two-dose starters (kids <8) may begin now.

Implication: May expand screening, initiation, and follow-up at scale.

☀️ Nicotinamide linked to fewer skin cancers in high-risk adults [2] [17 Sep 2025]

https://www.npr.org/2025/09/17/nx-s1-5544145/vitamin-b3-can-help-protect-against-skin-cancer-heres-who-may-benefit

Context: JAMA Dermatology study (~34,000 veterans) + editorial; secondary prevention setting.

Key point: 500 mg nicotinamide BID ≥1 month was associated with ~54% risk reduction after first cancer and ~14% overall for non-melanoma skin cancers.

Implication: Could inform practice and payer discussions; interpretation depends on study design and confounding control.

❤️ Younger MI causes differ by sex (Mayo Clinic) [3] [15 Sep 2025]

https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/heart-attack-cause-younger-adults/

Context: Community cohort (<65 yrs; 2003–2018) categorized MI etiologies (n≈3,000).

Key point: Atherothrombosis 68% overall; women more often had SSDM/SCAD/other non-obstructive causes; misdiagnosis of SCAD was common.

Implication: May influence prescriber choice and payer reviews pending full data.

🧠 Lifestyle interventions and Alzheimer’s risk [4] [16 Sep 2025]

https://neurosciencenews.com/lifestyle-alzheimers-cognition-29690/

Context: Commentary (FAU) referencing POINTER/FINGER RCTs of multidomain lifestyle programs.

Key point: Structured exercise/diet/cognitive & social engagement improved cognition in at-risk older adults; up to 45% of dementia risk may be modifiable.

Implication: Could inform practice and payer discussions; interpretation depends on study design and confounding control.

🧪 Post-stroke neural stem cell transplants in mice [5] [16 Sep 2025]

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-stem-cell-transplant-brain-growth.html

Context: Nature Communications; human blood–derived neural stem cells transplanted 1 week after ischemic stroke in mice.

Key point: Treated mice showed reduced inflammation, restored GABAergic neurons, improved gait/ladder tasks by 5 weeks vs sham.

Implication: Signals pipeline investment and modality expansion.

🤖 Delphi-2M predicts >1,000 diseases over decades [6] [17 Sep 2025]

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2025/sep/17/new-ai-tool-can-predict-a-persons-risk-of-more-than-1000-diseases-say-experts

Context: Nature; model trained on UK Biobank (n=400k) + Danish registry (n=1.9M).

Key point: Generative AI estimates personalized disease rates/time horizons across conditions, sampling synthetic health trajectories up to 20 years.

Implication: Signals pipeline investment and modality expansion.

⚖️ Metabolic surgery bests GLP-1s on outcomes & costs [7] [18 Sep 2025]

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/metabolic-surgery-bests-glp-1s-costs-and-weight-loss-2025a1000opm

Context: Nature Medicine (Cleveland Clinic; n=1,657 surgery vs 2,275 GLP-1 RA; median 5.9 yrs); JAMA Surgery cost/weight analysis (~30k).

Key point: Surgery had lower 10-yr mortality (9.0% vs 12.4%), MACEs (HR 0.65), nephropathy (HR 0.53), retinopathy (HR 0.46) and lower 2-yr costs with ~28% vs ~10% weight loss.

Implication: May influence prescriber choice and payer reviews pending full data.

🧬 CRISPRa rescues SCN2A haploinsufficiency in mice [8] [17 Sep 2025]

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-09-crispr-approach-severe-childhood-brain.html

Context: Nature; UCSF team used CRISPR activation to upregulate the intact SCN2A allele.

Key point: Restored neuronal signaling and reduced seizures in juvenile mice via brain or systemic delivery; licensed to Regel Therapeutics.

Implication: Signals pipeline investment and modality expansion.

🫁 Duke traces small cell lung cancer to basal cells [9] [17 Sep 2025]

https://www.wral.com/lifestyle/health/duke-study-origin-lung-cancer-innovative-treatments-sept-2025/

Context: Genetically engineered mice, organoids, and large human SCLC datasets; lineage barcoding.

Key point: Basal stem-like cells can give rise to classic neuroendocrine and tuft-like SCLC; tuft-like linked to worse outcomes and resistance.

Implication: Signals pipeline investment and modality expansion.

👁️🦷 “Tooth-in-eye” surgery restores vision after 20 years [10] [15 Sep 2025]

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/09/15/health/tooth-in-eye-surgery

Context: Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis (OOKP) by UBC team for severe ocular surface disease (SJS).

Key point: Autologous tooth-bone–lens implant led to ~20/30 vision; rare two-stage, 12-hr+ procedure for cases where corneal grafts fail.

Implication: May expand screening, initiation, and follow-up at scale.

Why it matters

Sex-specific MI etiologies highlight under-recognized pathways (e.g., SCAD/SSDM) and potential misdiagnosis risk [3].
Multidomain lifestyle programs achieve measurable cognitive gains, offering low-risk complements to drugs [4].
Platform advances (CRISPRa, stem cell grafts) show nervous-system repair potential beyond acute treatment windows [5,8].
Integrated risk tools (Delphi-2M) could shift preventive care toward multi-disease stratification [6].
For obesity/T2D, durable outcomes and costs keep metabolic surgery central despite GLP-1 progress [7].

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✅ Contact LucidQuest at info@lqventures.com for strategic guidance on Public Health and clinical research.

FAQ

Who should consider nicotinamide for skin-cancer prevention?

Adults with prior non-melanoma skin cancer; benefit was strongest when started after the first cancer (500 mg BID) in an observational VA cohort and supported by prior RCTs. Primary prevention remains uncertain [2].

Does metabolic surgery still beat modern GLP-1s?

In the cited cohorts, surgery showed lower mortality/MACEs and greater weight loss with lower 2-yr costs; note limited exposure to late-era agents (semaglutide/tirzepatide) in the datasets [7].

What is Delphi-2M, and how is it different from single-disease risk scores?

A generative model forecasting rates/timing for >1,000 diseases over 10–20 years from longitudinal records, trained across UK and Danish datasets—multi-condition vs single-endpoint tools like QRisk [6].

How did CRISPRa help in SCN2A haploinsufficiency?

By upregulating the intact allele without editing DNA, restoring neuronal signaling and reducing seizures in juvenile mice; human safety/efficacy not yet established [8].

What’s new about younger heart attacks in women?

Non-obstructive causes (SSDM, SCAD) are more common in women, and SCAD is frequently misdiagnosed, affecting initial management and outcomes [3].

When should most people get a flu shot this season?

By late October to balance onset and durability through spring; earlier schedules apply to first-time, two-dose pediatric series [1].

Entities / Keywords

Delphi-2M; EMBL-EBI; UK Biobank; Danish National Patient Registry | Nicotinamide; vitamin B3; non-melanoma skin cancer | SCAD; SSDM; MINOCA; atherothrombosis; Mayo Clinic | POINTER; FINGER; FAU | Neural stem cells; ischemic stroke; GABAergic neurons | Metabolic surgery; Roux-en-Y; sleeve gastrectomy; GLP-1 receptor agonists; semaglutide; tirzepatide | CRISPRa; SCN2A; UCSF; Regel Therapeutics | Small cell lung cancer; basal cells; tuft-like SCLC; Duke | Osteo-odonto-keratoprosthesis; Stevens-Johnson syndrome; UBC.

References