A novel mRNA vaccine candidate for highly malignant brain cancer has exhibited encouraging results in a limited-scale clinical trial, albeit with a unique approach. In addition to conducting vaccine trials on a small number of human cancer patients, the researchers are also utilizing data from 10 pet dogs.

It is customary for drugs and treatments intended for human use to undergo animal trials initially. Frequently, this phase of the process occurs subsequent to laboratory experiments conducted on cells but prior to any involvement of human volunteers in the administration of the drug. Despite ongoing endeavors to diminish animal testing and substitute it with alternative methods, it remains a fundamental component of pharmaceutical research.

Typically, however, our intention is not to medically treat animals for a disease they acquired in a natural manner. Scientists create models in species with organ systems that closely resemble those of humans, utilizing drugs, surgery, or genetic modification to imitate human diseases.

In the context of this mRNA vaccine, that stage was accomplished in mice. However, there was an additional, atypical measure. Dogs are the exclusive nonhuman species that are susceptible to the occurrence of spontaneous brain tumors. This makes them a valuable resource for testing treatments in a more authentic environment.

Ten pet dog owners granted consent for their canines to participate. Glioma, a type of cancer, is universally lethal, making this trial their sole available treatment option. In contrast to the typical average survival time of 30–60 days following a diagnosis, the dogs experienced a median survival of 139 days after receiving the vaccine, allowing for a significant increase in opportunities for treats and belly rubs.

Following successful outcomes in both the mice and the dogs, the researchers proceeded to administer the vaccine to four human patients diagnosed with glioblastoma. This is the most malignant type of brain cancer, characterized by a low rate of survival.

At present, it is premature to have a comprehensive understanding of the clinical impacts of the vaccine. However, it is established that all patients experienced either a prolonged period without illness or a longer-than-anticipated survival rate. The results are so encouraging that a larger Phase I trial is now scheduled to encompass both pediatric and adult populations.

What is the mechanism of action of the vaccine?

As observed in previous advancements in this field, one significant benefit of mRNA-based vaccines for cancer is their ability to be customized for individual patients. The glioblastoma vaccine incorporates this feature alongside a pioneering delivery system.

“Rather than injecting individual particles, we are injecting clusters of particles that are coiling around each other, similar to onions in a bag,” explained Dr. Elias Sayour, senior author from the University of Florida, in a statement. “The rationale behind this approach in the context of cancer is that these clusters stimulate the immune system to a greater extent than individual particles.”

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have gained a greater understanding of mRNA vaccines; however, the mechanisms behind their functioning differ slightly. The RNA is obtained from the tumor cells of each patient and then enclosed in a lipid nanoparticle “costume.”. Upon reintroduction into the bloodstream, the immune system perceives this substance as a virus, thereby preparing itself to react to any remaining cancerous cells.

The process of personalization customizes the vaccine to suit the individual patient, thereby optimizing its effectiveness. Additionally, the delivery system enhances the immune system’s ability to respond quickly.

“Within a span of less than 48 hours, we may witness a transformation of these tumors from an ‘immune cold’ state, characterized by a scarcity of immune cells and a suppressed immune response, to an ‘immune hot’ state, marked by a highly active immune response,” Sayour noted.

“The study’s discovery that producing an mRNA cancer vaccine in this manner elicits comparable and robust reactions in mice, pet dogs with naturally occurring cancer, and human patients with brain cancer is a highly significant finding. This is because it is often uncertain how well the results of preclinical studies in animals will translate into similar responses in patients,” stated Dr. Duane Mitchell, a co-author of the study.

Sayour stated that the vaccine has the potential to be integrated with other immunotherapies as part of a combined treatment. “I am optimistic that this could represent a novel paradigm for patient treatment, a cutting-edge platform technology for modulating the immune system,” he stated.

The research findings have been published in the scientific journal Cell.

UnitedHealth Group, a major health insurance company, has verified that a ransomware attack targeted its health tech subsidiary, Change Healthcare, early this year. This cyber attack led to a significant breach of sensitive healthcare data belonging to American individuals.

UnitedHealth announced on Monday that a group of cybercriminals using ransomware gained access to files holding personal data and protected health information. The company stated that the affected data may encompass a significant section of the American population.

The health insurance corporation did not disclose the exact number of affected persons but stated that the process of examining the data is expected to span over several months. Only after this thorough analysis will the firm commence informing the affected individuals about the theft of their information in the hack.

Modify Healthcare manages insurance and billing for a large number of hospitals, pharmacies, and medical practices in the U.S. healthcare industry. It has extensive access to a vast amount of health data on almost 50% of the American population.

UnitedHealth stated that it has not yet observed any indication of doctors’ charts or complete medical histories being illicitly removed from its systems.

The acknowledgment that cybercriminals illicitly acquired personal health information of American citizens is made one week subsequent to the emergence of a new hacking collective, which commenced releasing fragments of the pilfered data with the intention of coercing the targeted organization into paying an additional ransom.

The group, known as RansomHub, released numerous files on its hidden internet leak platform, including the personal data of patients and internal documents associated with Change Healthcare. RansomHub threatened to auction the pilfered data unless Change Healthcare complied with their demand for a ransom.

UnitedHealth spokesperson Tyler Mason acknowledged that the corporation made payments to the cybercriminals, as stated in a communication. The corporation made a payment as a demonstration of its dedication to safeguarding patient data from being revealed. The company declined to disclose the sum it paid.

RansomHub is the second criminal organization to request a payment from Change Healthcare in exchange for releasing a hostage. According to reports, the prominent health technology company paid a sum of $22 million to a criminal organization known as ALPHV, based in Russia, in March. However, the criminal gang vanished after receiving the payment, leaving the affiliate responsible for the data theft without their share of the ransom.

RansomHub stated in their article, along with the released stolen data, that they possess the data and not ALPHV.

UnitedHealth, in its statement on Monday, recognized the publication of certain files but refrained from asserting ownership of the documents. UnitedHealth clarified that the information sent is not an official breach notification.

According to a story by The Wall Street Journal on Monday, the criminal hacking group associated with ALPHV gained unauthorized access to Change Healthcare’s network by utilizing stolen login information for a system that enables remote network access. The hackers infiltrated Change Healthcare’s network for a duration exceeding one week prior to implementing ransomware, thereby enabling them to pilfer substantial quantities of data from the company’s systems.

The cyberattack on Change Healthcare commenced on February 21, leading to persistent and extensive disruptions in the operations of pharmacies and hospitals throughout the United States. Physicians, pharmacists, and hospitals faced difficulties for several weeks in confirming patient benefits for drug delivery, managing inpatient care, and obtaining prior authorizations required for procedures.

A significant portion of the healthcare system in the United States came to a standstill, causing financial strain for healthcare providers due to increasing backlogs and persistent outages.

Last Monday, UnitedHealth disclosed that the ransomware attack had resulted in losses exceeding $870 million. The company’s sales for the first quarter of the year amounted to $99.8 billion, surpassing the expectations of Wall Street experts.

Andrew Witty, the CEO of UnitedHealth, is scheduled to testify before House members on May 1. Witty received over $21 million in total remuneration for the entire year of 2022.

A physicist specializing in the study of mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus has put forward intriguing evidence supporting a potential new law of physics known as the “second law of infodynamics.”. This discovery raises fascinating questions about the nature of our reality and the possibility of living in a simulated universe. In addition, he suggests that the study seems to suggest that the theory of evolution is incorrect, as it challenges the notion that mutations are completely random.

There is a great deal of complexity to delve into in this situation. It is important to note that making extraordinary claims necessitates providing extraordinary evidence. However, as Dr. Melvin Vopson elucidates in his research, we currently lack such evidence. Actually, we are far from reaching that point. Nevertheless, the concepts and findings presented are captivating and thought-provoking, even if additional research or examination may later disprove them.

In his most recent study, Vopson examined mutations in the SARS-CoV-2 virus from a unique perspective, focusing on information entropy rather than the traditional concept of entropy.

“The physical entropy of a given system is a measure of all its possible physical microstates compatible with the macrostate,” Vopson explained in the paper. “This is a property of the microstates in the system that do not carry any information.” Given the same system and the ability to generate N information states within it (such as by encoding digital bits), creating N information states results in the formation of N extra information microstates that overlap with the existing physical microstates. These extra microstates contain valuable information, and the increase in entropy they bring is known as information entropy.”

According to Vopson, there is a tendency for entropy to increase over time, but interestingly, information entropy tends to decrease. Consider the heat death of the universe, where the entire cosmos eventually reaches a state of thermal equilibrium. At this stage, the maximum value of entropy has been attained, although not in terms of information entropy. During heat death (or just before), the temperature range and potential states in any part of the universe become extremely limited. As a result, the number of possible events decreases and the amount of superimposed information decreases, leading to a decrease in information entropy.

Although it may offer an intriguing perspective on the universe, can it provide us with any novel insights, or is it merely a secondary and insignificant approach to describing entropy? According to Vopson, the concept has the potential to be a fundamental law that could impact a wide range of fields, including genetics and the evolution of the universe.

“Based on my research, it seems that the second law of infodynamics is an essential principle in cosmology.” According to Vopson’s article in The Conversation, this has broad applicability and significant scientific implications. “It is understood that the universe undergoes expansion while maintaining a constant total entropy, without any heat loss or gain.” However, it is important to note that entropy always increases according to the principles of thermodynamics. This indicates the presence of an additional form of entropy, namely information entropy, that serves to counterbalance the increase.

With the expertise of a seasoned scientist, Vopson observed the ever-changing SARS-CoV-2 virus throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic. Regular sequencing of the virus has been conducted to closely monitor its changes, primarily with the aim of developing new vaccines. Examining the RNA instead of DNA, he discovered a gradual decrease in information entropy.

One fascinating example of a rapidly mutating organism is a virus. According to Vopson, the pandemic has provided an exceptional opportunity for research, with the numerous variants of SARS-CoV-2 serving as an unprecedented test sample. The amount of data available is truly remarkable, as stated in a press release.

The COVID data provides strong evidence for the second law of infodynamics, and this research has the potential to unlock countless possibilities. Imagine examining a specific genome and determining the potential benefits of a mutation before it occurs. This technology has the potential to revolutionize various fields, such as genetic therapies, the pharmaceutical industry, evolutionary biology, and pandemic research.

According to Vopson’s perspective, this implies that mutations are not haphazard but rather subject to a governing principle that dictates that information entropy should either remain constant or decrease over time. If this discovery is verified, it would be truly remarkable, as it challenges our current understanding of evolution. Vopson draws attention to a previous experiment conducted in 1972, where a virus unexpectedly experienced a decrease in its genome over 74 generations under optimal conditions. He argues that this observation aligns with his second law of infodynamics.

“Mutations occur randomly and are then subject to natural selection, which determines their impact on an organism,” he explained. What if there’s an underlying process that fuels these mutations? Whenever we encounter something beyond our comprehension, we tend to label it as ‘random’, ‘chaotic’, or ‘paranormal’, when in reality, it is simply our own limitation in explaining it.

By adopting a deterministic perspective, we have the potential to harness the laws of physics to anticipate and forecast genetic mutations, or even their likelihood, prior to their occurrence.

Vopson suggests that the law could potentially provide an explanation for the prevalence of symmetry in the universe.

“A high level of symmetry is associated with a state of low information entropy, which aligns with the requirements of the second law of infodynamics,” stated Vopson in his paper. “Therefore, this fascinating observation seems to provide an explanation for the prevalence of symmetry in the universe; it can be attributed to the influence of the second law of information dynamics.”

The audacious assertions (with their need for additional evidence) don’t end there.

“According to Vopson in The Conversation, the second law of infodynamics is a cosmological necessity and seems to have a universal application. This suggests that the entire universe might be a simulated construct or a massive computer.”

“In order to efficiently run a simulation of our incredibly complex universe, it would be necessary to incorporate data optimization and compression techniques. This would help reduce the computational power and data storage requirements needed for the simulation.” This is precisely what we see happening everywhere, from digital data and biological systems to mathematical symmetries and the vast expanse of the universe.”

Confirmation of the “second law of infodynamics” wouldn’t necessarily imply that we are living in a simulation. It’s important to consider that the theory could still hold true even if that scenario isn’t the case. There are additional quantum mechanical effects that seem to indicate that we are not.

So, what are the next steps for testing this further? According to the principles of infodynamics, it is believed that information possesses mass, enabling it to interact with all other entities. There are indications that this might be true, as suggested by a study conducted in 2012 that found that irreversible erasure of information seems to release heat. According to Vopson’s findings, it suggests that this energy needs to be converted into mass before it can be erased, essentially treating information as a distinct form of matter that is on par with mass and energy.

Experimentally determining whether information possesses mass may not pose a significant challenge. Performing a basic experiment involves measuring the mass of a hard drive both before and after irreversible information erasure. Regrettably, our current capabilities are insufficient to handle the minute mass change anticipated.

However, if this theory holds true, it is highly probable that elementary particles would contain valuable self-information, as suggested by Vopson. For example, consider the fascinating process of informing an electron (perhaps the sole electron in the entire universe) about its unique characteristics, such as its charge and spin. An interesting experiment involves colliding particles and antiparticles at high velocities.

“The experiment entails eradicating the information stored within elementary particles by allowing them and their antiparticles (mirror images of the particles with opposite charge) to annihilate, resulting in a burst of energy known as ‘photons’ or light particles,” explained Vopson. “I have accurately determined the anticipated range of frequencies for the photons that will be produced using principles from information physics.”

Although the concept may not align with conventional thinking, the experiment comes at a relatively affordable price of $180,000 (which is insignificant for advocates of simulation theory like Elon Musk) and can be tested using existing technology. Indeed, it may provide valuable insights into the validity of the concept. Exploring this idea could prove to be intriguing, as we aim to either dismiss it or determine its significance in terms of mass.