UNIVERSITY IN MOTION: UTSA to merge with UT Health San Antonio
The University of Texas System Board of Regents in August authorized the integration of The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and The University of Texas at San Antonio to create one unified institution by 2025. The regents also unanimously voted to name UTSA President Taylor Eighmy as its president once the combined institution is approved by accrediting entities.
“Great cities and great universities make each other better. It is time to marshal the talent, size and scale of UTSA and UT Health San Antonio to multiply their roles as global leaders in education, health care and innovation,” said Board of Regents Chairman Kevin P. Eltife. “By bringing together all of their complementary and unique strengths, we will give Texans access to the best education, discoveries and health care imaginable, while accelerating the university’s trajectory as a top U.S. and global university.”
Key to the plan was the decision to fully leverage the individual contributions of UT Health San Antonio and UTSA. UT Health San Antonio, the largest academic health research institution in South Texas, ranks in the top 3% globally for National Institutes of Health funding. UTSA, a top-tier (Carnegie R1) research institution, educates 35,000 students across seven colleges and interdisciplinary schools.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent data, San Antonio, the nation’s seventh-largest city and the second largest in Texas, added nearly 22,000 new residents between July 2022 and July 2023 — more than any other city in the U.S. As a critical gateway to South Texas, which is home to 5.5 million people and projected to grow to 6.1 million by 2040, San Antonio’s global influence continues to expand.
James C. “Rad” Weaver of San Antonio, vice chairman of the Board of Regents, said the decision was one of the most important transformational steps the two UT institutions will take together for the long-term benefit of the city and state.
“This merger is the catalyst that will supercharge our region as a national leader in learning, innovation, health and economic vigor,” Weaver said.
To ensure a smooth transition, Eighmy and Robert Hromas, MD, FACP, acting president of UT Health San Antonio, will tap the expertise of faculty, researchers and administrators who will serve on transition teams and working groups to ensure accreditation and other approvals, as well as streamlined, timely, strategic processes to operationalize the university.
“The impact of a unified presence is undeniable, and Texas will benefit immensely from this integration, which among many benefits, will enable greater public impact and enhanced global competitiveness,” said UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken. “This initiative is about expanding and growing to align with the needs of the region and state, and to maximize the potential of two UT institutions that exist only miles apart.”
The combined institution would become the third-largest research university in Texas, with annual research expenditures nearing $470 million, encompassing six federally funded research and development centers.
UT System officials said it will be poised to achieve new heights in securing research funding, forging industry and government partnerships, attracting philanthropic investments and pioneering groundbreaking innovations. It will also draw top-tier faculty, staff, students, researchers and health care professionals from around the world.
Among other recent academic developments: the first graduates of a dual degree program in medicine and artificial intelligence, construction of a 95,500-square-foot research lab, the opening of a lab for spinal cord injury rehabilitation research, a new program for Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists and launch of the School of Dentistry’s Center for Global and Community Oral Health.
First graduates of dual degree in medicine and AI
At the university’s May 2024 commencement, fourth-year medical students Aaron Fanous and Eri Osta became the first graduates of the nation’s first dual degree program in medicine and artificial intelligence. The MD/MSAI dual degree program, which officially launched in fall 2023, combines a Doctor of Medicine degree from The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio’s Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine and a Master of Science in Artificial Intelligence from The University of Texas at San Antonio.
AI’s presence is already evident in customized patient treatment plans, robotic surgeries and drug dosage. The aim of the five-year program is to enable physicians to lead in the practical use of artificial intelligence to improve diagnostic and treatment outcomes and to prepare students for next-generation AI and its impacts on the future of health care research, education, industry and administration.
Science One bolsters research profile
Plans to commence construction of a new lab facility this fall will significantly expand the university’s footprint, bolster its already robust research profile and provide new learning opportunities for students within the
Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences and beyond.
The $100 million Science One building is part of a massive expansion of the university’s research and patient care missions. The five-story, 95,500-square-foot building will house laboratory space dedicated to researching the diseases that impact the community most.
“UT Health San Antonio is renowned for world-class research in cancer, dementia, aging and diabetes, and we will put experts from each of these diseases in our Science One building,” said Robert Hromas, MD, FACP, acting president of UT Health San Antonio.
“This new facility will allow our experts to share techniques, fostering new ideas that will lead to innovative breakthroughs that will not only provide economic development for San Antonio and South Texas, but also better health care for patients suffering from these diseases.”
Construction is projected to complete in August 2026.
NeuroRecovery Research Lab opens
This past June, the School of Health Professions celebrated the official opening of its NeuroRecovery Research Lab dedicated to spinal cord injury rehabilitation research. The lab is housed in the school’s rehabilitation services clinical space at the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center.
The lab’s centerpiece, the PowerStep, is a computerized body weight-supporting treadmill system that enables hands-on, activity-based therapy interventions. Data collected during therapy sessions on the system are shared with other researchers of the NeuroRecovery Network, an international group of rehabilitation centers that develop and provide therapies to improve functional recovery and health among people living with paralysis.
Therapies on the PowerStep include step retraining, step adaptability, segmental trunk control drills, coordination activities and anticipatory balance activities. Patients receive a full ensemble of sensory facilitation, which enables motor recovery in an environment in which they feel safe. The treadmill’s harness removes patients’ fear of falling, enabling them to participate in interventions to regain motor control.
Nurse anesthetist program welcomes first students
To help fill critical demands for anesthesia services, the university’s School of Nursing welcomed its inaugural cohort of 18 students this fall into its newly launched Bachelor of Science in Nursing to Doctor of Nursing Practice-Nurse Anesthesia program.
The three-year, full-time, first-of- its-kind program for South Texas will provide students with the skills and knowledge to offer safe and individualized anesthesia care across all age groups. At the conclusion of the program and after passage of the nurse anesthesia certification exam, these Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNA) can work with various medical practitioners providing all types of anesthesia services, including sedation, general and regional anesthesia and pain management.
Currently, there are only four CRNA programs in Texas, with the next-closest programs located in Dallas-Fort Worth and in Houston.
School of Dentistry adds to academic, research impact
Since its launch in 2023, the UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry’s Dental Hygiene program at UT Education and Research Center at Laredo
(UT Center at Laredo) has kept pace with its goal to admit eight more students this past July at the start of its second year of offering the degree program.
The Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene degree program is the first of its kind in Laredo, aimed at addressing significant gaps in oral health care needs within the community while boosting local job opportunities in a high-demand field. The dental hygiene courses at the center are taught live and through distance learning by UT Health San Antonio School of Dentistry faculty, and in-person dental hygiene faculty teach at the new simulation and radiology labs there and at community clinics where students also get practical experience.
In addition to broadening its academic reach, the School of Dentistry continues to expand its research focus with the launch of its Center for Global and Community Oral Health in September 2023. The center brings together various outreach and research programs under one umbrella to study and develop solutions to the most pressing dental challenges facing global populations today.
This fall, the school launched its Center for Regenerative Sciences, a new research initiative to position the university at the forefront of regenerative dentistry and medicine, with a focus on the development of advanced tissue regeneration strategies.
EXPANDING CARE: Building health care transformation
With $1 billion in infrastructure expansions underway, UT Health San Antonio is on a historic growth trajectory, shaping the future of health care for the region and positioning the institution as an essential force for improving human health for generations to come
UT Health San Antonio is in the midst of significant transformation, evolving from a premier provider of outpatient care to an integrated health care delivery system that will soon include inpatient services at the UT Health San Antonio Multispecialty and Research Hospital, opening this December.
The new hospital will enhance the institution’s continuum of care, allowing for better integration and alignment with established outpatient programs, such as Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center. This evolution of care is driven in large part by the rapid growth in health care demands within the surrounding community.
Part of the $1 billion in capital investments in support of UT Health San Antonio patient care expansion over the next several years is construction of a $100 million Center for Brain Health. The new facility, which will connect by an enclosed corridor to the UT Health Medical Arts and Research Center, will advance comprehensive brain health research and provide innovative expert care for patients with a wide variety of neurodegenerative diseases, movement disorders and complex neurologic conditions.
With a projected opening of December 2025, the facility will also provide a home to the institution’s many brain health experts and initiatives that serve the growing need for neurological care in the region. Among them: the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases.
According to Sudha Seshadri, MD, professor of neurology and founding director of the Biggs Institute, the center’s research efforts will benefit from significant recruitment of Hispanics into clinical trials, expanding the nation’s understanding of how brain-related diseases specifically affect what is already the predominant population demographic across South Texas.
The center will also serve as a training venue for medical residents and postgraduate trainees, ensuring the future of sustained neurological care for the community.
The Center for Brain Health will include:
- 75 exam rooms
- 50 faculty offices
- 12-chair non-oncology infusion center
- Outpatient pharmacy
- Dedicated space for research
Among other new patient care developments: an institute on substance use and related disorders, state-of-the-art patient care technology, a specialty care clinic to provide comprehensive dental care for adults and children with complex medical conditions and the opening of a new outpatient and surgery center.
A commitment to substance use treatment
In April 2023, UT Health San Antonio celebrated the grand opening of the 20,000-square-foot Be Well Texas facility, a hub for providing substance use treatment services across the state, where one in 10 people have a substance use disorder but not everyone has the same access to care.
Be Well Texas offers comprehensive treatment and recovery support for substance use and Mental health services, regardless of ability to pay. In addition to its in-person and statewide telehealth clinical operation, the program coordinates a network of providers treating for opioid and other substance use and providing recovery support services. It brings together addiction medicine specialists, behavioral health experts, researchers and staff members with lived experience in addiction recovery to collaborate and expand access to care statewide.
“We started these programs to provide equitable access to compassionate, evidence-based programs for substance use disorder and people who are using substances,” said Jennifer Sharpe Potter, PhD, MPH, executive director of Be Well Texas.
Potter is also UT Health San Antonio’s vice president for research and founding director of its Be Well Institute on Substance Use and Related Disorders, a pioneering initiative established earlier this year as a center of excellence with national scope for research, clinical and public health programs, and education and community engagement to advance the field addressing addiction and related conditions. It is home to Be Well Texas.
The institute marks a significant milestone in UT Health San Antonio’s commitment to addressing the complex challenges posed by substance use. With more than $50 million in National Institutes of Health, state and other federal funding annually, the Be Well Institute works as a highly integrated and collaborative center across the university and represents a comprehensive framework and programming for advancing the understanding and treatment of substance use disorders.
With support from the National Institute on Drug Abuse Clinical Trials Network and other Federal funding, the work of the institute encompasses research, medical interventions and evidence-based treatments, psychological therapies, social and peer support, counseling on lifestyle changes, follow-up care, and provider training and education as well as many community outreach and educational initiatives.
UT Health San Antonio faculty are likewise at the forefront of addressing substance use issues statewide, including establishing treatment networks, workforce development initiatives and distribution of life-saving naloxone to traditional and nontraditional first responders.
Collectively, what is available at UT Health San Antonio is unique in Texas and ready to be expanded nationally, said Potter.
“The launch of the Be Well Institute heralds a new era of collaboration and innovation in the field of substance use research and care,” she said. “Stakeholders from across the academic, health care and public sectors are encouraged to join us in this vital endeavor as we strive to improve the lives of individuals and communities affected by substance use disorders.”
Better care through technology
Preparation for opening the new UT Health San Antonio Multispecialty and Research Hospital this December has included equipping the facility with technologies to enhance patient comfort and make care more efficient.
Among the advanced features found within will be beds that can reposition a patient without the assistance of a nurse and alert staff if a patient is at risk for falling or attempts to leave their bed.
Virtual nursing is another key feature of patient rooms, where each large-screen monitor serves not only as a television, but also has a microphone and camera so the patient can interact with care providers.
Robots will also roam the hospital’s halls, delivering bottled water, specimens to labs or medications from the pharmacy to nursing units.
Technology is even embedded within the Tom C. Frost Skybridge, completed earlier this year, allowing for lab samples to be delivered quickly and securely between the hospital and the Mays Cancer Center, home to UT Health San Antonio MD Anderson Cancer Center. The skybridge likewise provides a seamless and vital pathway for patients, providers and caregivers to move easily between facilities.
Serving dental patients with special needs
In February, UT Health San Antonio’s School of Dentistry opened its Phil and Karen Hunke Special Care Clinic to provide comprehensive dental care for adults and children with intellectual, developmental, cognitive or physical disabilities, and those with complex medical conditions.
The clinic was purposely designed for individuals with mobility challenges. From arrival to departure, patients and their caregivers find wide corridors outfitted with hand railings and wheelchair bumpers. Each treatment
room features adjustable lighting, sound-dampening walls, large screens and sliding barn doors. A multi-sensory room known as the “Zen Den” offers patients a tranquil space to alleviate anxiety and take a break during treatment if needed.
In addition to the specific focus on patient comfort, the clinic provides opportunities for dental and dental hygiene students and residents to gain invaluable experience by rotating through the special care clinic. Under the guidance of experienced faculty members, students can learn firsthand how to tailor dental care to meet the unique needs of each patient.
Specialized continuing education programs are also being developed by the school for practicing dentists. The sessions will provide dentists with advanced techniques, best practices and strategies for addressing the unique needs of those with disabilities and medically complex conditions, enhancing their ability to deliver high-quality oral health care for all patients.
Newest outpatient location opens
In March, UT Health San Antonio opened its UT Health Outpatient and Surgery Center at Kyle Seale Parkway. The five-story, 108,000-squarefoot community medical facility includes primary care and a range of specialty practices. Patients also have access to the latest in diagnostic laboratory testing and convenient imaging services. The location includes an ambulatory surgery center with state-of-the-art operating suites and spacious pre-op and recovery rooms. Learn more at UTHealthCare.org/KSP.
Banking on the brain: Researchers rely on brain donation to find new treatments
The thin man with a fat grin strolled into the conference room with a mischievous confidence. “Is this the brain bank?” he bellowed, almost laughing. “I’d like to make a withdrawal. How much brains can I withdraw?” Transaction-wise, the man, who was attending an informational session on brain donation, will much more likely make a deposit. And that suits Kevin F. Bieniek, PhD, just fine.
Donating a brain is viewed differently than, say, donating a kidney or even body donation. The brain is the seat of the soul, as (philosopher René) Descartes said. Your brain is a special organ. It encompasses the entire sense of person and being.
–Kevin F. Bieniek
With a careful flick of his thumb, Bieniek, assistant professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the Long School of Medicine, pops the blue lid off a plastic container. Inside are over a dozen pink, carefully freeze-packed slices of a human brain. White clouds of cold air escape from the door of the freezer, where other containers are neatly stacked and stored.
“This is what we need,” said Bieniek, the inaugural director of the brain bank at the university’s Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases. It’s his job to acquire a robust repository of brains for scientific research.
When the Biggs Institute was established in 2017, it was intended to be a comprehensive center that offers patient care, treatment and family support as well as advanced research in dementia and other brain disorders. Without brains, research is limited.
Sudha Seshadri, MD, founding director of the Biggs Institute, points to the central role of the brain bank in battling brain disorders.
“We believe a deeper understanding of the many biological pathways leading to dementia is essential to finding new drug targets and effective interventions that work,” she said. “Currently, the best method for understanding the molecular and pathological changes in the brain that cause the symptoms of dementia is examination of the brain at autopsy. We study the brain in detail using molecular methods.”
While large brain banks affiliated with medical centers are located predominantly along the coasts, there is a large swath of the country that is highly underrepresented, said Bieniek.
But in 2021, the National Institute on Aging, part of the National Institutes of Health, named the Biggs Institute a designated Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center — the only one in Texas. The designation helps promote research collaboration, encourages data sharing and open science and offers information and clinical trials for patients and families affected by Alzheimer’s and related dementias.
Texas is the second most populous state in the country, has the second highest number of deaths related to Alzheimer’s disease and is home to a Hispanic population that is among the fastest growing demographic segments in the U.S.
“We’re looking to be a resource for the greater San Antonio and South Texas region, regardless of socioeconomic status, race or ethnicity,” Bieniek said. “But ultimately, where we’re unique, is there’s this very large population that really hasn’t gotten the care from Alzheimer’s disease centers that it needs.”
Seshadri echoed that sentiment.
“We know very little about the unique mixtures of brain pathology in Hispanic persons,” she said. “The brain bank will help us make a precise diagnosis in families with the illness in multiple members and help future generations.”
While the decision to donate one’s brain is intensely personal, Bieniek said the reasons often involve care and concern for tomorrow’s patients.
Brain donors and their families want to contribute to research and help future patients, he said.
“It’s this concept called ‘altruism,’ people who recognize that brain donation is a very selfless gift,” he said. “Even in a time of incredible suffering, incredible tragedy, they want their experience and their family’s experience to help benefit society — people they don’t even know — to move that needle, to be the catalyst to that research discovery that will help heal this disorder.”
The need for closure is another motivation for donors, he said.
After the autopsy, “the neuropathology report goes to the next of kin,” Bieniek said. “We’ll say what we did, what regions of the brain we sampled, what we found and where we found it. Then we’ll give a neuropathological diagnosis or diagnoses if there are multiple things going on. And we try to put it all together — ‘What does this all mean?’”
A donor’s family may want to know how the brain disorder might impact other members of the family, he said. Neurodegenerative diseases have different levels of heritability.
“A family might ask, how are we going to approach this disease, how proactive will we be knowing that a specific diagnosis is imminent,” he said. “There may be family planning implications or lifestyle changes.”
While diseased brains are essential, researchers can’t fully understand brain disorders without comparing them to normal, healthy brains.
In his quest for all kinds of brains, Bieniek plans to reach out to memory care centers, nursing homes, hospitals and clinics. But he acknowledged a certain stigma surrounding brain donation.
“Donating a brain is viewed differently than, say, donating a kidney or even body donation,” Bieniek said. “The brain is the seat of the soul, as [philosopher Rene] Descartes said. Your brain is a special organ. It [encompasses] the entire sense of person and being.”
There also may be cultural or religious barriers and misconceptions regarding brain donation to overcome, Bieniek said. For example, donating will not delay or interfere with a traditional funeral or open casket. Also, “most religions view organ donations as valuable to society and an act of charity and love.”
With 222 donations as of March 2023, Bieniek is confident the brain bank will be pivotal in understanding brain disorders.
“The more cases we get, the more powerful studies we can conduct,” he said. “Everything we sample, everything we collect, we save, we archive and we share with our group, with people across campus, across Texas and the U.S. If they have a good idea, if they’re at a qualified institution and we think they have an interesting proposal, then we can provide them with tissue, and that tissue might be the critical step to discovery.”
I’m giving my brain to science. It’s the smart thing to do.
Eleven years have passed since I was diagnosed with an exceptional neurodegenerative disease, a variety of leukodystrophy that researchers tell me is rare among the rare. In fact, what I live with should have claimed my life long
before any ultimate diagnosis was made.
Today, I live with a yet-to-be-named form of Vanishing White Matter that has significantly limited my physical abilities, claimed my sight — and immensely expanded my intellect and vision.
When the initial identification of the disease was made and my original neurologist told me, “I don’t know how you have lived this long,” I felt a calling to become a research subject. Then, I realized if I were going to make a genuine difference, I needed to find a postmortem home for my brain and spinal cord.
One morning during what had become a two-year search for a place to donate my brain, a friend called and told me about the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio. I contacted them and was grateful to find a welcoming home for my central nervous system.
The reasons for my decision are difficult for some to understand. I am more than my disease. Why did I decide to donate my brain? What do I hope to achieve? Simply this: I want to be the brains behind healing for others.
As far as my wife, Darnice, and I are concerned, it is simply the right thing to do. We felt God was telling us, “Make all of what can be used.” Our adult son advised, “Make it work for you.”
So, in addition to donating key tissue of my central nervous system, I have advocated for rare brain disease research, used my background as a news reporter to lobby state legislators, written and called members of Congress and created support networks among families battling conditions often overlooked in the larger field of health care concerns. As I often tell people, “There is more than cancer and heart disease in the world of medical science.” In all fairness, I truly believe my deep faith in God, along with a wry sense of humor, keeps me going.
A new acquaintance has suggested to me that the difference between donating one’s brain and donating a kidney or a portion of one’s liver, is that in those cases the donor is more likely to see or at least hear about any results for the beneficiary.
When you donate your brain or central nervous system to science, you will never know — at least in this life — how much good will come of it. I suppose the brain donor is really offering hopes, dreams and the potential of promise.
What would I recommend to others in my situation? Have the brains to deliver healing.
Providing novel approaches to trauma
The University of Texas System Board of Regents approved $2.5 million to establish the Trauma Research and Combat Casualty Care Collaborative at UT Health San Antonio in partnership with the Department of Defense and University Health’s Level 1 Trauma Center at University Hospital.
The collaborative leverages longstanding partnerships with University Health and the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council, known as STRAC. It will be the first and only one of its kind in the United States, according to UT System.
Trauma is the leading cause of death and permanent disability in children and adults under 44 years of age. The collaborative, which is being called TRC4, will serve to address the critical need for improved trauma care in the United States — both on the battlefield and in the civilian sector — to dramatically improve the care, health outcomes and survival rate for trauma injuries.
“This trauma care research center will save lives and support our dedicated service members,” said UT System Chancellor James B. Milliken. “TRC4 will also create new commercialization and device development opportunities right here in Texas.”
The UT System Board of Regents’ $2.5 million investment in the new trauma care research center matches an initial in-kind commitment toward the project made by the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research. The UT System’s investment will cover early start-up costs for the collaborative, which includes hiring executive leadership and administrators, developing the TRC4 strategic plan, establishing the peer review process and providing initial research funding.
The establishment of TRC4 is the latest advancement to come from a partnership launched in 2021 between the UT System and the U.S. Army Futures Command/U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research. Subsequently, all UT institutions and Institute of Surgical Research leadership approved a legal framework that enables further expansion of their collaborative efforts. This framework was signed by Chancellor Milliken and the Army Futures Command in April 2022.
New therapy reduces headache disability after brain injury
The first therapy developed for post-traumatic headache significantly reduced related disability in veterans following a traumatic brain injury and decreased co-occurring symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
The treatment, called Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Headache, was appealing to patients, showing low drop-out rates. In addition, it is easy for therapists to learn and deliver. The findings were reported in JAMA Neurology.
“We are excited by this development in the treatment of post-traumatic headache, which along with TBI is poorly understood and for which treatment options are so limited,” said Don McGeary, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. “To find the first major treatment success for post-traumatic headache, which is arguably the most debilitating symptom of TBI, and that the treatment also significantly reduces other PTSD symptoms, is a major breakthrough.”
Both TBI and PTSD are signature wounds of post-9/11 military conflicts, and the two conditions commonly occur together. Post-traumatic headaches, or headaches that develop or worsen following a head or neck injury, become chronic and debilitating in a large percentage of those who experience a TBI, such as a concussion, inhibiting their ability to engage in the activities of daily life. When PTSD occurs with other symptoms, it can worsen the headaches and make them more difficult to treat.
Although effective treatments exist for PTSD, they do not for post-traumatic headache. Migraine medications alleviate the headache pain but do not relieve related disability. They also often have unwanted side effects, and their overuse can worsen headaches.
McGeary and his colleagues developed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Headache by modifying a psychotherapy for migraine headaches. It includes key components such as relaxation, setting goals for activities patients want to resume, and planning for those situations.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Headache requires eight sessions of 30-45 minutes each. This is shorter than Cognitive Processing Theory, a leading psychotherapy for PTSD that typically requires 12 sessions lasting 60-90 minutes each. The new therapy teaches patients how to evaluate and change upsetting and maladaptive thoughts related to their trauma.
Those receiving Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Headache reported significant reductions in disability and in negative impact on function and quality of daily life. They also showed improvement in PTSD symptoms. All of these treatment gains were maintained six months after treatment completion. However, the therapy did not reduce headache intensity or frequency compared to usual care, which can include injections, physical and occupational therapies, pain medications, acupuncture and massage, and long-term medical care.
McGeary said the therapy’s reductions on negative life impact are likely due to its building patients’ confidence that they could control or manage their headaches, a concept known as “self-efficacy.” That sense of control was key to helping patients “get their lives back,” he said.
“If you can improve a person’s belief that they can control their headache, they function better,” McGeary said. “That’s because, when dealing with a long-term, disabling pain condition, people make decisions about whether they’re going to actively engage in any kind of activity, especially if the activity exacerbates the pain condition. They make those decisions based on their perceptions of their ability to handle their pain.”
McGeary believes the planning component of the therapy is key to improving those perceptions.Another benefit of the therapy is that it requires only two hours to train clinicians to provide the care. That would make it relatively easy to increase the number of therapists available to treat veterans with post-traumatic headache and ease caseloads at clinics.
In the race to solve Alzheimer’s disease, scientists find more needles in the haystack
Twenty-one million. That’s the number of genetic variations in the human genome that researchers are sifting to identify patterns predisposing people to Alzheimer’s disease.
Because of international collaboration being advanced by UT Health San Antonio faculty, more genetic variations for Alzheimer’s disease are known today than ever before. The gene variants recognized for late-onset Alzheimer’s grew from one in 2009 to 40 in 2022. Recently, scientists published an expanded list of 75, some of which are considered prime drug targets.
It’s a huge haystack, and Alzheimer’s-related genetic variations, like needles, are minuscule in comparison. Sudha Seshadri, MD, Habil Zare, PhD, and other faculty at the university’s Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases are investigators on a global project to answer the many Alzheimer’s riddles.
Seshadri is a founding principal investigator of the International Genomics of Alzheimer’s Project (IGAP). Biggs Institute faculty contributed data for the newest research from IGAP, published in Nature Genetics, and helped craft the discussion on implications of the findings.
“We are looking for the genetic basis to better understand all the different types of biology that may be responsible for Alzheimer’s disease,” said Seshadri, founding director of the Biggs Institute and professor of neurology in the Joe R. and Teresa Lozano Long School of Medicine. “As we include data from more and more people, we are able to find variants that are fairly rare, that are only seen in about 1% of the population.”
Older Hispanic adults are estimated to be at 1.5 times greater risk of Alzheimer’s and other dementias than non-Hispanic whites.
The South Texas Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center — the only designated center in Texas — is a collaboration of the Biggs Institute and The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley.
Eating fish could make you smarter
Eating cold-water fish and other sources of omega-3 fatty acids may preserve brain health and enhance cognition in middle age, new evidence indicates.
Having at least some omega-3s in red blood cells was associated with better brain structure and cognitive function among healthy study volunteers in their 40s and 50s, according to research published online Oct. 5 in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Faculty of UT Health San Antonio and other investigators of the Framingham Heart Study conducted the analysis.
“Studies have looked at this association in older populations. The new contribution here is that, even at younger ages, if you have a diet that includes some omega-3 fatty acids, you are already protecting your brain for most of the indicators of brain aging that we see at middle age,” said Claudia Satizabal, PhD, assistant professor of population health sciences with the Glenn Biggs Institute for Alzheimer’s and Neurodegenerative Diseases at UT Health San Antonio. Satizabal is the lead author of the study.
Volunteers’ average age was 46. The team looked at the relation of red blood cell omega-3 fatty acid concentrations with MRI and cognitive markers of brain aging. Researchers also studied the effect of omega-3 red blood cell concentrations in volunteers who carried APOE4, a genetic variation linked to higher risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
The study of 2,183 dementia- and stroke-free participants found that:
- A higher omega-3 index was associated with larger hippocampal volumes. The hippocampus, a structure in the brain, plays a major role in learning and memory.
- Consuming more omega-3s was associated with better abstract reasoning, or the ability to understand complex concepts using logical thinking.
- APOE4 carriers with a higher omega-3 index had less small-vessel disease. The APOE4 gene is associated with cardiovascular disease and vascular dementia.
The team divided participants into those who had very little omega-3 red blood cell concentration and those who had at least a little.
“We saw the worst outcomes in the people who had the lowest consumption of omega-3s,” Satizabal said. “So, that is something interesting. Although the more omega-3 the more benefits for the brain, you just need to eat some to see benefits.”
Losing weight could come down to your liver
Losing weight could come down to your liver
In a breakthrough finding, UT Health San Antonio scientists discovered that inhibiting a liver enzyme in obese mice decreased the rodents’ appetites, increased energy expenditure in fat tissues and resulted in weight loss.
The finding, published in Cell Metabolism, provides a potential drug target to treat metabolic issues such as obesity and diabetes.
“We first needed to discover this mechanism and, now that we have, we can develop drugs to improve metabolic syndrome,” said senior author Masahiro Morita, PhD, assistant professor of molecular medicine in the university’s Sam and Ann Barshop Institute for Longevity and Aging Studies.
“We have an enzyme inhibitor that we want to make more specific to increase its effects,” said first author Sakie Katsumura, DDS, PhD, postdoctoral fellow in the Morita laboratory.
They targeted a liver enzyme called CNOT6L deadenylase. It turns off messenger ribonucleic acids, called mRNAs, that ordinarily carry genetic instructions from the nucleus to sites in the cell where two liver proteins are made. One protein sends signals to the brain to control food intake. The other sends signals to adipose tissues to increase energy expenditure.
The liver enzyme impedes these signals, reducing the benefits. So, the researchers created a first-in-class CNOT6L inhibitor, dubbed iD1, to stabilize the messenger ribonucleic acids in obese mice and increase levels of the two proteins in the blood. After 12 weeks, treated rodents ate less food and showed 30% reduced body weight. Energy expenditures in the adipose tissues increased by 15%. Liver fat decreased 30%.
They also showed improved insulin sensitivity and lower blood glucose levels.
In Texas and the U.S., obesity, Type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease and related metabolic disorders are at epidemic proportions.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 37 million Americans have diabetes. Type 2 diabetes represents at least 90% of the cases. In Texas, approximately 2.7 million people have diagnosed diabetes, and an additional 600,000 people in Texas have diabetes but don’t know it. Another 7 million people in Texas have prediabetes.
Obesity prevalence in the U.S. is more than 40% and is climbing, according to the CDC. Obesity-related diseases include heart attack, stroke, Type 2 diabetes and some cancers.
Next, the researchers will refine the mechanism and identify new drugs that may be more specific and more potent, Katsumura said.
Mouse pups’ cries give clues about autism spectrum disorder
One-fifth of babies who inherit a genetic variant located on chromosome 16 will develop autism spectrum disorder by age 3. The variant is called 16p11.2 deletion.
Noboru Hiroi, PhD, professor in the departments of Pharmacology, Cellular and Integrative Physiology, and Cell Systems and Anatomy, is studying mice that have this deletion. The team is harnessing the power of machine learning to understand which vocalizations of the newborn mouse pups are most predictive of social abnormalities one month later when the pups reach puberty.
“It is essential to identify those very early signs that can predict what is to come, because if we can translate what we discover in mouse pups to human infants and apply therapeutic options earlier, their outcome will be better,” Hiroi said.
When mouse pups are separated from their mothers, they emit ultrasonic vocalizations in a certain order. Mouse mothers respond to the cries and take care of their offspring.
The cries are abnormal in mice with the 16p11.2 deletion.
“Pups that carry this genetic variation cannot form the correct sequence,” Hiroi said. “We want to know whether those abnormal sequences or combinations of call types can predict what is to come one month later in their social behaviors.”
Machine learning will enable the team to develop a precise diagnostic algorithm for autism spectrum disorder.
“Once we can do this with the mouse vocalizations, we can apply the same algorithm to the cries of human babies,” Hiroi said.
Infants at risk of the disorder who are identified in this way can be given desensitization therapy so that they don’t overreact to certain cues they don’t like, he said. And behavioral therapies can be applied to help babies learn how to cope in social situations.
The research is described in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.