Giving back during the COVID-19 pandemic

Many advocates for Huntington’s and other rare diseases work passionately and selflessly for their causes.

Now, as the coronavirus pandemic rages, more and more people around the globe want to give back. 

We are all witnessing the testimonies of the doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers who offer front-line care for the patients hit with COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus.

As a Huntington’s gene carrier who lost his mother to the malady, I, too, want to help – in part because the crisis has postponed or forced online so many aspects of the HD cause (more on this in an upcoming article).

HD activists can and should do their part to help alleviate this crisis!

Preparing for a surge of patients

Worried about the flood of reports about shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), I reached out to Yale University class of 1982 colleague and freshman roommate Peter S. Kieffer, M.D., an emergency room pediatrician, to see if I could help, perhaps by organizing an online campaign to support him and his institution. Dr. Kieffer works at HSHS St. John’s Hospital in Springfield, IL. An assistant professor at the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, he also advocates for the chronically mentally ill through Independence Center. 

In 2014, after decades out of touch, Dr. Kieffer wrote in an e-mail that he had discovered this blog and my family’s struggle against HD.

“My heart goes out to you and your family as I have been long aware of the challenges of Huntington's disease, its genetic transmission, and the implications of early testing but have never known anyone personally with the diagnosis,” Dr. Kieffer wrote.

Since then, he and his family have donated generously to the Serbin Family Team in the annual Hope Walk of the San Diego Chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA). Several years ago, they visited us during their vacation in the area.

In his response to my March 28 e-mail, Dr. Kieffer explained that “physicians in rural Illinois have had more time to prepare for COVID-19 than our colleagues in big cities.”

“Numbers were small, now cases are becoming more frequent, and we are preparing for a surge in the next few weeks which could very easily surpass the ICU bed and ventilator capacity of our two hospitals,” he wrote. “However, Governor [J. B.] Pritzker's early shutdown may help blunt that curve. Although COVID-19 typically sickens children with less severity, they could still pass it to a white-haired pediatrician like myself! Fortunately, we still have enough PPE for what we need.”

So far, Dr. Kieffer has treated a young child who was a “Patient Under Investigation,” although tests have not yet confirmed COVID-19 in any of his patients, he wrote in an e-mail today.

Dr. Kieffer agreed to contact me should his institution need aid. I know that I personally cannot send PPE or medical equipment, but raising awareness about the local predicament and raising funds could be a way to assist.

Peter S. Kieffer, M.D. (photo by Southern Illinois University School of Medicine)

Donating critically needed blood

There are other ways I - and you - can help now.

After seeing an American Red Cross blood drive appeal on TV a couple weeks ago, I scheduled a donation for March 30. 

Last week, I suspended my minimal meat diet to raise the iron levels in my blood, as recommended by a Red Cross employee, who set me up for a “power red” donation (double the number of red blood cells).

That employee also told me of a critical shortage of blood, as reported by the Red Cross and in the media (click here to read more).

At the donation center, an employee took my temperature at the door, to make sure I had no fever and, therefore, possible COVID-19 symptoms. Donors were spaced about eight feet apart, to avoid contamination, and the nurses and other workers wore not only the typical gloves, but also masks.

Unfortunately, in a pre-donation pin-prick blood test, I fell just shy of the necessary iron level for a power red.

However, I was able to make a simple “whole blood” donation.

Gene Veritas, aka Kenneth P. Serbin, at an American Red Cross blood donation center in San Diego (photo by Gene Veritas)

Running risks for the common good

On the way home I thought: in any public place, we all run the potential risk of contracting the coronavirus, even at a facility like the Red Cross. 

I washed my hands very thoroughly, twice at the facility, then again at home. None of the donors, nor I, wore a mask. However, I may on future trips to public places, given the increasing number of reports about their effectiveness in blocking droplets that might contain the virus.

Like so many other HD gene carriers, I’ve spent many moments monitoring myself for symptoms. Now, I’ve started doing that for the virus.

However, physicians like Dr. Kieffer, first responders, grocery store workers, and so many others risk their health daily for the common good.

We all need to embrace the spirit of Dr. Kieffer’s words to me, echoing one of the signs at the Red Cross: “Thanks so much for your life-giving donation!”

Above, Gene Veritas' blood pack, and below, Gene Veritas in a donor chair at the American Red Cross (photos by Gene Veritas)

In times of crisis, Huntington’s and other chronic disease communities provide examples of fortitude

For individuals and families facing Huntington’s and other chronic diseases, daily living often seems like nonstop crisis. These communities, including selfless caregivers, have demonstrated great fortitude.

The current coronavirus pandemic adds another giant, unknown layer to the kind of challenges and suffering many in these communities are already accustomed to.

The country’s reaction to the pandemic and the shutdown of daily routines starkly reminded me of the national climate in the months following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C. Resulting in 3,000 deaths, 9/11 led to a temporary grounding of all domestic flights, the fear of subsequent attacks (including nuclear), and panic regarding other, unrelated terrorist threats such as the deliberate spread of highly dangerous anthrax bacteria. The economy also suffered serious long-term effects.

Members of the San Diego Chapter of the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA), in the bewildering days after 9/11, held a previously planned fundraiser and got ready to hold its first Celebration of Hope Gala.

With so many other, urgent demands on potential donors, we feared people might not remember our needs.

Later that fall, in an editorial in Conquest, our chapter newsletter, I wrote the following:

On September 20, less than two weeks after the crisis, members of the public and local organizations participated in the Third Annual Indy Go-Kart Challenge to raise funds for the cure of HD. Then, on October 11, the one-month anniversary of the attack, several hundred San Diegans took part in the Celebration of Hope Dinner to assist the Center of Excellence for Family Services and Research at the University of California, San Diego. We raised tens of thousands of dollars at these events. Elsewhere in the country other HDSA events went on as planned.

In this manner HDSA and its supporters have sent a resounding message that generosity and compassion are far stronger than the hateful politics of terror. We will move ahead, no matter what the odds are against us. This is the American spirit.

Unprecedented impact on daily life

So far, the coronavirus pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on the United States, with schools, universities, and many other institutions closing or switching to remote, online operations. As of March 15, at least 65 people had died in the U.S., with worst-case scenarios projecting 200,000 to 1.7 million deaths.

The pandemic has changed my workplace unlike any earlier tragedy. After 9/11, no classes were cancelled by my employer, the University of San Diego (USD). In 2003, the devastating Cedar Fire in San Diego County left 15 dead, destroyed 2,820 buildings, and charred more than 280,000 acres. In response, USD shut down for just two weeks and finished the semester normally, with everybody back on campus.

Now, because of the virus, USD has cancelled classes this week and will finish the semester (eight more weeks, plus final exams) online. The University of Pennsylvania, where my HD-free daughter Bianca studies, will do the same. My wife and I are worried that Bianca will not be able to make it home in time before potential travel restrictions.

Each hour, we learn of more victims of the virus and further curtailment of life as we know it.

Impact on the HD community

The global crisis has also impacted the mission of HDSA and individual HD families.

On March 13, HDSA CEO Louise Vetter sent an e-mail to “friends of HDSA” announcing that the organization “holds the well-being of our families, volunteers and staff as our top priority” and will therefore postpone “ALL local HDSA events (educational & fundraising) nationwide” until April 30. That complies with public health recommendations to curtail public gatherings to slow the spread of the coronavirus.

According to Vetter, HDSA still plans to hold its 35th Annual Convention in New Orleans, June 4-6, but will continue to follow the guidance from the Centers for Disease Control, World Health Organization, and state and local health agencies.

HDSA’s national headquarters in New York City is closed. However, the entire staff is working remotely and has the resources “to continue the uninterrupted support of our mission during this time,” Vetter assured.

The Huntington’s Disease Youth Organization postponed its May 2020 international congress in Glasgow, Scotland, to March 2021.

I have accepted an invitation to deliver the keynote address at the 37th National Conference of the Huntington Society of Canada in November, but have been told to hold off on reserving flights until the pandemic’s long-term effects become clear.

Visiting the afflicted

For one HD community member and blogger, Mandi, 33, the pandemic meant that on March 12 she could not visit her 58-year-old HD-stricken father, Danny, at the Missouri nursing home where he resides.

“They are locking all doors for the safety of people there,” wrote Mandi, a dedicated caregiver and herself at risk, but untested, for HD. “Was my first reaction sad I couldn’t see my dad? Sure, but I immediately checked myself. I realized my own selfish want to see my dad was tiny in comparison to keeping the people in the nursing home safe because who knew if I was a carrier since you can have it for over a week and not show symptoms.”

Mandi pointed out how the nursing home’s restriction is “terrifying for those of us with possibilities of losing family.” She wants “to do everything in my power to protect him as I always have.”

However, she concluded: “Until we really know what we are dealing with let’s just take the precautions seriously.”

Danny (left) and Mandi (family photo)

Especially resilient

With the coronavirus pandemic, the world can learn from the example of the HD community and our generous supporters.

We in the HD community, and other neurological disease groups, face relentless adversity. HD grinds down the brain, leaving the affected like my late mother unable to walk, talk, or care for themselves. Caregivers like Mandi and my late father are true “HD warriors.” 

However, because of this, we have developed a very realistic view of life.

“We are all in a race to death, but people at risk for life-shortening diseases know that their time to the finish line is painfully fast and troubled,” I wrote in 2009 in an article titled “HD: hurtling towards death.”

At the same time, we also have a special appreciation for the “preciousness of life.”

Confronting HD makes us especially resilient. I am hopeful that the HD community will successfully meet the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic and, as in facing past challenges, become even stronger.

CHDI head scientist Pacifici: ‘hang on in the learning roller coaster ride of Huntington’s disease clinical trials’

With historic clinical trials now aiming for the first effective treatments for Huntington’s disease, affected individuals and their families need to clearly understand the news about these efforts and their implications.

That critical recommendation was offered by Robert Pacifici, Ph.D., the chief scientific officer of the nonprofit HD-treatment-seeking CHDI Foundation, Inc., during an interview on the last day of the organization’s 15th Annual HD Therapeutics Conference, held February 24-27 in Palm Springs, CA.

“Getting to this stage – which we’ve all so been hoping for – is still a bit of a roller coaster ride,” Dr. Pacifici told me. “You have to be able stay in our seats and weather the ups and downs. I think we’re well-poised for some great news, as some of these trials hopefully report out. Even a whisper of efficacy would be just amazing.”

However, there will also be “disappointments, where, despite our best attempts, some of the things that showed so much promise didn’t end up meeting their endpoints,” he cautioned. “But it’s going to be a learning roller coaster. So hang in there. Don’t lose hope.”

The HD-affected (and their caregivers) should keep informed about the trials by consulting their physicians, attending meetings of patient organizations such as the Huntington’s Disease Society of America (HDSA), and keeping abreast of developments in such sources as HDBuzz.net and this blog, Dr. Pacifici advised.

Become knowledgeable, he urged, “so that you are not disproportionately spooked or elated when these bits of information come out.”

Featured conference speaker Christopher Austin, M.D., the director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences/National Institutes of Health, presents part of the Drug Discovery, Development and Deployment Map the research and pharmaceutical community must navigate in today's complex and challenging scientific world (photo by Gene Veritas, aka Kenneth P. Serbin).

‘Genuinely interested’ in treating HD

Dr. Pacifici began the interview noting the excitement generated by the conference and within the HD field, with a record 380 participants, overflow seating, and more than 100 people turned away. However, CHDI’s goal ultimate goal is not to host well-attended conferences, but to stop HD, he emphasized.

“There are that many people who are genuinely interested in presenting the results and learning about the incredible developments that are unfolding in Huntington’s disease drug discovery and development,” he said of the response to the conference.

Dr. Pacifici also noted the very high quality of the presentations, in comparison with the early years of the event. 

“We’re batting 1,000 this time – every single talk very relevant,” he observed.

Considered science fiction a decade ago, the new technologies applied in HD research are transforming the field and allowing for a more thorough analysis of cells in the quest to understand the disease, he added.

Dr. Pacifici cited the example of whole-genome sequencing on individual brain cells, which permits the reading of the DNA sequence of “every single gene in there, and doing that thousands of times.” 

You can watch my interview with Dr. Pacifici in the video below. For my video album of the conference, please click here (and check back in the coming days as I add videos).

Hang on in the 'learning roller coaster ride' of Huntington's disease clinical trials from Gene Veritas on Vimeo.

New understanding of the protein

Dr. Pacifici also discussed new research into the huntingtin protein presented at the conference. Such research suggests that the protein might have a key role in maintaining the integrity of the huntingtin gene and also in the way the gene expands over time (known as somatic expansion), which researchers now see as a key driver of the disease (click here to read more).

With this potential new finding, a single drug might be developed to counteract the mutant protein by both reducing its quantity and preventing it from causing somatic expansion, he speculated.

He pointed in particular to the presentation by Jeffrey Carroll, Ph.D.

A possible key biomarker

Dr. Pacifici also commented on the discussion around phosphodiesterase-10 (PDE-10). A PDE inhibitor was seen as a potential “Viagra for the brain” but ultimately showed no improvement in a clinical trial run by the drug giant Pfizer.

However, PDE-10 might still play a role for the HD community as a biomarker (sign of disease and/or effect of a treatment), Dr. Pacifici said.

“It is pretty uniquely expressed in the neurons that we know are affected by Huntington’s disease, the medium spiny neurons,” he explained. 

If PDE-10 decreases in HD because the gene is shut down or cells die or some combination of both, and “if you had a molecule that bound to PDE10 and sent out a signal, then you could know how much PDE10 was in that brain, and if it was declining, that would mean that the disease was progressing.” Similarly, with an effective therapy, “you would see PDE10 levels going up,” Dr. Pacifici added.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is unlikely to approve a drug based solely on evidence from a biomarker, because it needs to see actual clinical benefits in patients, Dr. Pacifici said. However, the biomarker could give a drug maker the “confidence” that the “intervention is doing its job biologically and now it’s worth waiting for the clinically meaning outcome.”

(The presentation by Steven A. McCarroll, Ph.D., of the Harvard Medical School, included discussion of the role of PDE-10.)

Above, Dr. Steven McCarroll answers a question from the audience after his presentation on single-cell analysis of HD biology. Below, McCarroll lab researchers Nora Reed (left) and Christopher Mullally with the lab's poster on single-cell analysis, which took second prize in the poster competition (photos by Gene Veritas).

The terrifying truth about drug development

Dr. Pacifici reflected on the in-depth talk by the conference’s featured speaker, Christopher Austin, M.D., the director of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) of the National Institutes of Health. NCATS, founded in 2011, aims to speed the development of treatments and cures.

I asked Dr. Pacifici to comment on the phrase that struck me from Dr. Austin’s presentation: “The hard work that nobody else wants to do.”

Scientific research is “unsexy” and “difficult to understand,” but Dr. Austin challenged the field to forge ahead, I observed.

“He painted a pretty bleak picture of how we’re sadly finding diminishing returns on our investment,” Dr. Pacifici said regarding drug investigation in general. “In other words, he kind of flipped around Moore’s law. Instead of things getting better and faster, the more money we spend, the fewer treatments we see coming out, especially for the harder neurological diseases.”

Dr. Austin presented to the audience what he called a “truly terrifying fact”: “The number of new drugs approved per billion dollars spent, inflation-adjusted, has gone down by half every nine years, since 1950.”

You can learn why this is so – and its very serious implications for HD – by watching Dr. Austin’s presentation by clicking here.

The HD field hopes to be the exception and the model

Dr. Pacifici pointed to the difficult and complex challenges involved in drug discovery, as illustrated by Dr. Austin.

Everybody wants to be the “star” that “made the compound that turned out to be the cure,” Dr. Pacifici said. But imagine: the compound is there, but no patients are available to do the clinical trial. Or patients participate, but researchers lacked the “outcome measures to see whether people were actually getting better.” Or, antibodies and assays needed to measure the samples derived from patients weren’t there.

Those things are the not-so “sexy” but need to get done, he said.

The HD field will need to overcome the inertia of diminishing returns, Dr. Austin emphasized. Deeply familiar with HD science, he believes that HD as a monogenetic disease has the potential to do so and could serve as the model for treating other, more common neurological disorders.

Dr. Pacifici agreed. He praised the HD research and biotech community not only for its commitment to make sure that key elements of the drug-hunting process are “proactively put in place,” but the “selflessness with which they are shared, so that those don’t represent competitive advantages for one company or another. I think everybody has come to the realization that this is a really hard problem. It’s no use competing with each other. We’re going to have to help each other.”

At the start of his talk on huntingtin-lowering strategies, Ignacio Muñoz-Sanjuán, Ph.D., a CHDI scientist and the co-founder of Factor-H, reminded the audience of the goal of the HD cause: to help individuals like Anyervi (in cap) and Brenda, two youths from South America with juvenile HD (photo by Gene Veritas).