JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)

AIDS in Africa: 2024 Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2823790 In this Viewpoint, 2024 Lasker-Bloomberg Public Service Award winners Quarraisha Abdool Karim and Salim S. Abdool Karim discuss their journey in AIDS research in South Africa and the local and global health impact of this research.

GLP-1 for Treating Obesity: 2024 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2823791 In this Viewpoint, 2024 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award winner Lotte Bjerre Knudsen describes her discovery of glucagon-like peptide-1 for the treatment of patients with obesity.

Discovery of cGAS as a DNA-Sensing Enzyme That Triggers Inflammation: 2024 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2823792 In this Viewpoint, 2024 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award winner Zhijian J. Chen describes his discovery of cyclic guanosine monophosphate–adenosine monophosphate synthase (cGAS), a DNA-sensing enzyme that triggers inflammation.

Chemistry Matters—From a Putative Peptide to Effective Treatments for Diabetes and Obesity: 2024 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2823793 In this Viewpoint, 2024 Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award winner Svetlana Mojsov describes her discovery of GLP-1 (7-37), the biologically active incretin that led to development of effective GLP-1 analogues for treating diabetes and obesity.

Lasker’s Winners Discuss 35 Years of HIV Research in Africa https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2823794 This Medical News article is an interview with Quarraisha Abdool Karim, PhD, and Salim S. Abdool Karim, MBChB, PhD, who received the award for their decades of work on AIDS in Africa.

Tailoring Risk Prediction Models to Local Populations https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2823894 This cohort study evaluates the use of a machine learning model to adapt guideline recommendations to local populations.

Exploring the Link Between Genetic Predictors of Cardiovascular Disease and Psoriasis https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2823895 This mendelian randomization study investigates the association between genetic risk for cardiovascular disease and immune-mediated diseases.

Importance of Prolonged QRS Duration in Detecting Complete Conduction Block—Reply https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2823896 In Reply We thank Rahimi and Chauhan for their interest in our work and for raising an interesting question that was not directly addressed in our recent study. Specifically, prior work from our group showed that increased QRS duration (QRSd) tends to be longer in patients with complete conduction block (CCB) than in patients with intact Purkinje activation (IPA). They ask how QRSd performs as a discriminator vs notch time, as well as what may be an optimal cutpoint for a QRSd criterion based on intracardiac mapping data.

Importance of Prolonged QRS Duration in Detecting Complete Conduction Block https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2823897 To the Editor We read with interest the study by Treger et al showing that a simple electrocardiogram metric, notch time in lead I longer than 75 milliseconds, significantly improved specificity in detecting complete conduction block (CCB) compared with Strauss criteria (74% vs 33%) among 75 patients fulfilling most American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology/Heart Rhythm Society criteria for left bundle branch block (LBBB). Accurate classification of CCB vs intact Purkinje activation (IPA) is critical in selecting patients for conduction system pacing (ie, his bundle or LBBB pacing) because it is unlikely to work if CCB is not present.

Psoriasis and Atherosclerotic CV Disease—Risk Factor or Risk Marker? https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamacardiology/fullarticle/2823898 Psoriasis, an immune-mediated inflammatory disease, primarily involves the skin and joints and is common, impacting almost 8 million adults in the US. Psoriasis can occur at any age, but incidence initially spikes in young adulthood and gradually increases in the following decades. Psoriasis has emerged as one of the best-studied immune-mediated inflammatory diseases with respect to major cardiovascular (CV) events. A meta-analysis of 75 studies encompassing 500 000 patients with psoriasis observed CV disease as approximately 50% higher when compared to those without psoriasis. Psoriasis is also associated with numerous cardiometabolic comorbidities. However, large-scale epidemiological studies and carefully controlled CV imaging studies suggest psoriasis is associated with CV disease independent of traditional CV risk factors and in a dose-response manner.