Welcome to Benchmarks, your (almost) weekly dose of research news and notes from the Mass General research community.

With more than 9,500 people working across 30 centers, departments and institutes here at the hospital, there’s more research news that we can get to each week. Here are some highlights:

• RESEARCH IN THE NEWS
• Targeting Immune Cells May Help Treat Atrial Fibrillation
• Building Resiliency in Young Adults Could Help Address a Mental Health Crisis
• Plant-Derived Treatment for Smoking Cessation is Effective and Well-Tolerated in Large Scale Clinical Trial
• Science in 60 Seconds or Less: The Impact of Limiting Opioids During Surgery
• TWEETS OF THE WEEK
• THIS WEEK IN MASS GENERAL HISTORY
• Mass General Helps Victims of Fuel Tank Explosion in the Freight Yards Near Boston
• Chevy Chase Notifies Live Aid Concertgoer that a Donor Kidney is Waiting for Him at Mass General

RESEARCH IN THE NEWS

Targeting Immune Cells May Help Treat Atrial Fibrillation

Current treatments for atrial fibrillation (AFib), a common heart condition characterized by fast and irregular beats that can lead to stroke and heart failure, have multiple side effects and are ineffective for preventing AFib recurrence.

New research led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and published in Science reveals that certain immune cells play a major role in the development of AFib. Targeting these cells may therefore represent a promising strategy to treat and prevent AFib.

For the work, senior author Matthias Nahrendorf, MD, PhD, an investigator in MGH’s Center for Systems Biology and the Richard Moerschner Endowed MGH Research Institute Chair in Men’s Health, and colleagues analyzed single cells from atrial heart tissue collected from patients with and without AFib.

The analyses indicated that immune cells called macrophages are the most dynamic cell population in the atria during AFib, and these cells expand more than any other cell type in diseased tissue. Learn more.

Building Resiliency in Young Adults Could Help Address a Mental Health Crisis

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, nearly one in ten youth in the U.S., aged six to 17 years, have experienced a major depressive episode in the past year. Suicide is the second leading cause of death among individuals aged 10-34. 

This week, we interviewed Daphne Holt, MD, PhD, director of the Resilience and Prevention Program and the Emotion and Social Neuroscience Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, an MGH Research Scholar 2018 to 2023, and an associate professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Holt and her team are working on ways to identify the early signs of psychiatric disorders in youth and provide them with tools to build resilience and manage their mental health. Learn more.

Plant-Derived Treatment for Smoking Cessation is Effective and Well-Tolerated in Large Scale Clinical Trial

The first large-scale U.S. clinical trial of cytisinicline, led by a Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigator, found the smoking cessation medication to be effective and well tolerated in adults who wished to break their nicotine dependence.

In the Phase 3 study published in JAMA, researchers reported that cytisinicline could offer adults who smoke a potential new treatment option.

Cytisinicline (historically known as cytisine) is a naturally occurring plant-based alkaloid that binds selectively to nicotinic receptors in the brain that regulate nicotine dependence, alleviating the urge to smoke and reducing the severity of nicotine withdrawal symptoms.

“Cigarette smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death worldwide, yet no new smoking cessation medication has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for nearly two decades,” says Nancy Rigotti, MD, director of MGH’s Tobacco Research and Treatment Center, and lead author of the study.

“There is an urgent need for new medications to treat tobacco smoking because existing products don’t help all smokers to quit and can have unacceptable side effects. If approved by regulators, cytisinicline could be a valuable new option to treat tobacco dependence.” Read more.

Science in 60 Seconds or Less: The Impact of Limiting Opioids During Surgery

TWEETS OF THE WEEK

THIS WEEK IN MASS GENERAL HISTORY

Mass General Helps Victims of Fuel Tank Explosion in the Freight Yards Near Boston

July 13, 1900 (The Washington Times)—Massachusetts General Hospital and Somerville Hospital were both mobilized to treat patients injured by the explosion of an oil tank on a freight car in the Mystic Junction freight yards in East Somerville.

The fire started in a hay car, but firefighters and railroad workers were unable to contain it before it spread to one of three tank cars full of petroleum. While first responders were working to uncouple the petroleum tankers and move them out of harm’s way, one of the tank cars exploded, killing two people and injuring scores of onlookers.

A conservative estimate places the number of burned and injured at 72, the paper reported. Read more.

Chevy Chase Notifies Live Aid Concertgoer that a Donor Kidney is Waiting for Him at Mass General

July 14, 1985 (San Bernadino Sun)—Comedian Chevy Chase paged a 25-year-old Massachusetts man among 90.000 concert-goers at the Live Aid concert in Philadelphia to tell him a kidney was awaiting him back home.

Stephen P. Fallon, who had been waiting a month for a kidney to replace his own failing organ, was in the huge crowd at John F. Kennedy Stadium when the transplant unit at Massachusetts General Hospital called his parents in Waltham with word that a donor had been found.

After several feverish phone calls to police in Philadelphia, Fallon’s father eventually got the number of a telephone in a van at the stadium, said hospital spokesman Martin Bander.

A concert worker passed on the urgent message to Chase, who was announcing acts. He paged Fallon from the stage at about 11:30 a.m.

About the Mass General Research Institute
Research at Massachusetts General Hospital is interwoven through more than 30 different departments, centers and institutes. Our research includes fundamental, lab-based science; clinical trials to test new drugs, devices and diagnostic tools; and community and population-based research to improve health outcomes across populations and eliminate disparities in care.
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