Month: November 2013

New breakthroughs could help make multiple sclerosis history

Researchers are gaining a new level of understanding of multiple sclerosis (MS), which could lead to new treatments and approaches to controlling the chronic disease.

The new findings show that scientists are one step closer to understanding how antibodies in the blood stream break past the brain’s protective barrier to attack the optic nerves, spinal cord, and brain, causing the symptoms of neuromyelitis optica, a rare disease similar to MS.

Understanding how the antibodies bypass the protective blood-brain barrier could provide new approaches to treating the disease (Yukio Takeshita, MD, PhD, abstract 404.09).

A protein involved in blood clotting mightserve as an early detection method for MS before symptoms occur. Early detection of the disease could lead to more effective early treatments ( Katerina Akassoglou, PhD, abstract 404.11).

Low levels of a cholesterol protein correlate with the severity of a patient’s MS in both human patients and mouse models.

The finding suggests the protein, known to protect against inflammation, may protect against developing MS, and possibly even aid in the regeneration of damaged neurons. This research opens the door to cholesterol drugs as a possible new avenue for MS treatment (Lidia Gardner, PhD, abstract 404.01).

A type of immune system cell has been found to directly target and damage nerve cell axons, a hallmark of MS. This may reveal a target for new therapies (Brian Sauer, PhD, presentation 404.06).

While no treatments to rebuild cells damaged by MS currently exist, scientists have found that when exosomes – tiny, naturally occurring “nanovesicles” – are produced by dendritic cells and applied to the brain, they can deliver a mixture of proteins and RNAs that promote regeneration of protective myelin sheaths and guard against MS symptoms ( Richard Kraig , MD, PhD, presentation 812.02)

Source: Zee News

 

Vegetable Protein May Help Kidney Disease Patients Live Longer

Increased consumption of vegetable protein was linked with prolonged survival among kidney disease patients in a new a study. The findings will be presented at ASN Kidney Week 2013 November 5-10 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, GA.

Due to poor kidney function, toxins that are normally excreted in the urine can build up in the blood of individuals with chronic kidney disease (CKD). Research shows that compared with animal protein, vegetable protein intake in patients is linked with lower production of such toxins. It is unclear whether consuming more vegetable protein prolongs CKD patients’ lives, however.

To investigate, a team led by Xiaorui Chen (University of Utah) studied 1,104 CKD patients in the1988-1994 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey III and asked them about their animal and vegetable protein intake.

After controlling for various factors such as age, smoking, and BMI, the researchers found that for each 10 gram increase in vegetable protein intake per day, participants had a 14% lower risk of dying by the end of 2006. “Interventional trials are needed to establish whether increasing vegetable protein will decrease mortality in the CKD population,” they wrote.

Source: Nephrology news

A Bio-Patch Regrows Bone inside the Body

Researchers from the University of Iowa have developed a remarkable new procedure for regenerating missing or damaged bone. It’s called a “bio patch” — and it works by sending bone-producing instructions directly into cells using microscopic particles embedded with DNA.

In experiments, the gene-encoding patch has already regrown bone fully enough to cover skull wounds in test animals. It has also stimulated new growth in human bone marrow stromal cells. Eventually, the patch could be used to repair birth defects involving missing bone around the head or face. It could also help dentists rebuild bone in areas which provides a concrete-like foundation for implants.

To create the bio patch, a research team led by Satheesh Elangovan delivered bone-producing instructions to existing bone cells inside a living body, which allowed those cell to produce the required proteins for more bone production. This was accomplished by using a piece of DNA that encodes for a platelet-derived growth factor called PDGF-B. Previous research relied on repeated applications from the outside, but they proved costly, intensive, and more difficult to replicate with any kind of consistency.

“We delivered the DNA to the cells, so that the cells produce the protein and that’s how the protein is generated to enhance bone regeneration,” explained Aliasger Salem in a statement. “If you deliver just the protein, you have keep delivering it with continuous injections to maintain the dose. With our method, you get local, sustained expression over a prolonged period of time without having to give continued doses of protein.” Salem is a professor in the College of Pharmacy and a co-corresponding author on the paper.

While performing the procedure, the researchers made a collagen scaffold in the actual shape and size of the bone defect. The patch, was loaded with synthetically created plasmids and outfitted with the genetic instructions for building bone did the rest, achieving complete regeneration that matched the shape of what should have been there. This was followed by inserting the scaffold onto the missing area. Four weeks is usually all that it took — growing 44-times more bone and soft tissue in the affected areas compared to just the scaffold alone.

“The delivery mechanism is the scaffold loaded with the plasmid,” Salem says. “When cells migrate into the scaffold, they meet with the plasmid, they take up the plasmid, and they get the encoding to start producing PDGF-B, which enhances bone regeneration.”

The researchers also note that the delivery system is nonviral, meaning that the plasmid is not likely to cause an undesired immune response, and that it’s easier to mass produce, which lowers the cost.

Source: Discovery news

 

China Reports Two New Cases Of H7N9 Bird Flu

Earlier this week, Chinese health officials notified the World Health Organization (WHO) of two new infections of H7N9 – a strain of the virus responsible for causing the bird flu. The Asian nation’s Xinhua news agency reported on one of the cases Tuesday – that of a three-year-old boy living in south China’s Guangdong Province. The boy tested positive for the virus by the provincial disease prevention and control center and is in stable condition at the People’s Hospital of Dongguan City, according to the news agency.

Hong Kong’s Centre for Health Protection (CHP) said the boy’s seven close contacts had tested negative for the virus, but three of them had flu-like symptoms.

According to the WHO, the second patient is a 64-year-old woman from Zhejiang Province in eastern China, who is a farmer and had regular contact with live poultry. She fell ill on October 30 and was admitted to a local hospital the next day. She is currently in a critical condition, the international health organization said.

Officials from Zhejiang province, which sits about 800 miles northeast of Guangdong, reported two infections in October, a 35-year-old man and in a 67-year-old farmer, who also worked with live poultry. The Chinese province has reported the most H7N9 cases, with 49 infections and 11 deaths so far.

When Chinese officials identified the bird flu strain back in March, the number of cases jumped before falling off into May. Only two cases were reported over the summer. Experts have warned that flu viruses are erratic and there is a chance that the number of cases could start rising as the Northern Hemisphere moves into winter, a pattern followed by other avian influenza viruses.

The four Chinese infections reported this autumn are fueling worries of another wave of H7N9 infections, but some public health experts say it’s too early to tell. Richard Webby, director of the WHO collaborating center for influenza studies at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, told CIDRAP News that it’s too early to tell if the recent infections are due to cooling temperatures, “or if we are seeing an increase at all.”Webby also pointed out, “chicken production is also likely getting ramped up soon for Chinese New Year.”

Marion Koopmans, a virologist at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands, said the timing of the cases hints at seasonal factors, but there are too few of them to call it a trend just yet. She added that market surveys could be used to determine any trends.

“Whether or not we expect seasonality is related to the question where these viruses come from,” Koopmans told CIDRAP, a health news service of the University of Minnesota. She also noted seasonality reports seem to focus on virality of the flu virus in wild birds. “If H7N9 is circulating in backyard farms, the picture may be quite different,” Koopmans said.

The WHO has said that since H7N9 causes only a mild infection in the birds, it could still be in the avian population of China. It has called for China and bordering countries to continue monitoring public health markers for the virus.

Source; Red Orbit

 

Methadone reducing drug use in India

Anti-addictive drug Methadone has been found to be effective in reducing drug use in India, says a study released on Thursday.

Methadone is a drug that can be taken orally or injected. It helps people dependent on morphine, heroin and other substances to reduce and stop their drug usage.

“Currently, five centres across India are offering methadone maintenance treatment. When the methadone treatment was used as a pilot project, it was found to be more effective with results of reduced drug use, injecting episodes and criminal behaviour amongst drug users,” said Christina Albertin, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)representative for South Asia.

“The treatment using Methadone will also be a vital option for HIV prevention. So there is a need to scale up the process in India,” Albertin added.

The pilot study was conducted by the UNODC in collaboration with the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences

Source: IANS Live

How torture affects pain perception

Israeli soldiers captured during the 1973 Yom Kippur War were subjected to brutal torture in Egypt and Syria. Held alone in tiny, filthy spaces for weeks or months, sometimes handcuffed and blindfolded, they suffered severe beatings, burns, electric shocks, starvation, and worse. And rather than receiving treatment, additional torture was inflicted on existing wounds.

Forty years later, research by Prof. Ruth Defrin of the Department of Physical Therapy in the Sackler Faculty of Medicine at Tel Aviv University shows that the ex-prisoners of war (POWs), continue to suffer from dysfunctional pain perception and regulation, likely as a result of their torture. The study—conducted in collaboration with Prof. Zahava Solomon and Prof. Karni Ginzburg of TAU’s Bob Shapell School of Social Work and Prof. Mario Mikulincer of the School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya—was published in the European Journal of Pain.

“The human body’s pain system can either inhibit or excite pain. It’s two sides of the same coin,” says Prof. Defrin. “Usually, when it does more of one, it does less of the other. But in Israeli ex-POWs, torture appears to have caused dysfunction in both directions. Our findings emphasize that tissue damage can have long-term systemic effects and needs to be treated immediately.”

A painful legacy

The study focused on 104 combat veterans of the Yom Kippur War. Sixty of the men were taken prisoner during the war, and 44 of them were not. In the study, all were put through a battery of psychophysical pain tests—applying a heating device to one arm, submerging the other arm in a hot water bath, and pressing a nylon fiber into a middle finger. They also filled out psychological questionnaires.

The ex-POWs exhibited diminished pain inhibition (the degree to which the body eases one pain in response to another) and heightened pain excitation (the degree to which repeated exposure to the same sensation heightens the resulting pain). Based on these novel findings, the researchers conclude that the torture survivors’ bodies now regulate pain in a dysfunctional way.

It is not entirely clear whether the dysfunction is the result of years of chronic pain or of the original torture itself. But the ex-POWs exhibited worse pain regulation than the non-POW chronic pain sufferers in the study. And a statistical analysis of the test data also suggested that being tortured had a direct effect on their ability to regulate pain.

Head games

The researchers say non-physical torture may have also contributed to the ex-POWs’ chronic pain. Among other forms of oppression and humiliation, the ex-POWs were not allowed to use the toilet, cursed at and threatened, told demoralizing misinformation about their loved ones, and exposed to mock executions. In the later stages of captivity, most of the POWs were transferred to a group cell, where social isolation was replaced by intense friction, crowding, and loss of privacy.

“We think psychological torture also affects the physiological pain system,” says Prof. Defrin. “We still have to fully analyze the data, but preliminary analysis suggests there is a connection.”

Source: Medical Xpress

Neurosurgeon bases surgery simulator on daughter’s head

Neurosurgery is deemed one of the most complicated surgical techniques, and any tools that help train new neurosurgical apprentices are largely welcomed in the medical world. Now, a neurosurgeon has created a surgery simulator designed to teach basic surgery skills, and it is modeled on his daughter’s head.

The simulator, created by Richard Ashpole of the Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham, UK, is called the Realistic Operative Workstation for Educating Neurosurgical Apprentices, otherwise known as Rowena.

Rowena is coincidentally his 14-year-old daughter’s name, who Ashpole says was more than happy to help with his new creation – sitting still for 90 minutes while a mould was taken of her head.

Ashpole says he wanted the Rowena model to be as close to a real skull as possible, so it seemed logical to base the model on the head of a real person.

Rowena is made up of internal skull anatomy on a molded plastic base. The model consists of a fixed replaceable upper cranium with scalp, bone and Dural (a type of aluminum) layers. A realistic plastic brain is inside the skull.

How can Rowena be used?

Ashpole explains that a three-point headrest (skull clamp) can be used with Rowena in order to teach neurosurgeons anatomical positioning and landmarks. Raney scalp clips can also be used with the model, alongside burr hole and ICP (intracranial pressure monitoring) devices.

The model is able to withstand a variety of high-speed drills, as well as a hudson brace and a gigli saw and guide.

The dural layers – also complete with vascular markings – can be opened in different ways to expose the underlying brain. The model also allows bone flaps to be replaced and fixed with sutures (stitches) or a variety of screws and plates.

For a closure procedure, the dural layers can be sutured and the bone flaps can be replaced and fixed using any marketed fixation system. The scalp can also be stapled.

Source: Bartle Doo Articles

Childhood music lessons boost adulthood cognitive skills

The study unveils that playing a musical instrument during childhood leaves benefits in brain that lasts long even into adult life, according to the findings published in the Journal of Neuroscience.

 The research scientists monitored the brains of 44 people in their 50s, 60s and 70s at the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University in Illinois, US.

The participants had to listen to a synthesized speech syllable, “da”, while researchers measured electrical activity in the spot of the brain that is responsible for processing sound information known as the auditory brainstem.

The observation unraveled that though none of the volunteers had music practice for nearly 40 years, their brain responses were totally different.

Those who had music training between four and 14 years early in life showed a faster response to the speech sound than those ones who never had music lessons.

Experts suggest “musical training particularly with an emphasis on rhythmic skills can exercise the auditory-system.”

“As people grow older, they often experience changes in the brain that compromise hearing. For instance, the brains of older adults show a slower response to fast-changing sounds, which is important for interpreting speech,” researchers clarified.

“Being a millisecond faster may not seem like much, but the brain is very sensitive to timing and a millisecond compounded over millions of neurons can make a real difference in the lives of older adults,” said Michael Kilgard from the University of Texas, who was not involved with the research.

An earlier study conducted by scientists from Concordia University and the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital at McGill University also revealed the positive effects of music practice on the brain.

The study demonstrated that “musical training before age 7 is linked with more white matter in the corpus callosum part of the brain, as well as better performance on visual sensorimotor synchronization tasks compared with people who started music training after age 7.”

Source: Press TV

 

10 medical breakthroughs that sound like science fiction

The news that comes out of research universities and hospitals often sounds too hopeful: Here’s a gene that maybe, could potentially end obesity. This newly discovered protein pathway might sort-of, some day cure cancer. Do any of the thousands of studies published each year really result in a meaningful change in someone’s life?

Here’s your answer: For the eighth consecutive year, the Cleveland Clinic has selected 10 technologies and discoveries that are already making an impact. “We look for innovations that are somewhat disruptive, so a new medication isn’t just a little better, it’s substantially better,” says Dr. Michael Roizen, who headed the panel of 30 medical professionals that selected this year’s finalists. Check out the technology of the future that’s already on our doorstep.

The Bionic Eye

The “Argus II” takes a video signal from a camera built into sunglasses and wirelessly transmits that image to implants in the retinas of people who have lost their vision. Though it’s been available in Europe since 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) only approved the eye earlier this year. “This really is like Star Trek technology,” Roizen says.

The system isn’t perfect. It lets a blind person regain basic functions like walking on a sidewalk without stepping off a curb, and distinguishing black from white socks, but only lets you read one giant-sized word at a time on a Kindle. Plus, as the retina itself heals over the implant, the quality of vision decreases. The Argus II is currently only approved for people who have lost their sight from retinal pigmentosis—which affects 1 in 4,000 Americans. But the technology could soon help the more than 1.75 million people who suffer from macular degeneration. (The eyes are the window to the…mind?

The Cancer Gene Fingerprint

Not all cancers are equally lethal—cancer in your prostate means a longer survival rate than a malignancy in your brain, for example. But even prostate cancer comes in multiple flavors ranging from manageable to very bad. By analyzing the mutated genome of a tumor, doctors can now pinpoint whether a cancer is sensitive to a certain chemotherapy, or one that doesn’t respond at all to current treatments. Knowing the subtype might mean jumping directly to a clinical trial that could save your life.

The Seizure Stopper

For the 840,000 epileptics suffering from sudden, uncontrollable seizures, the NeuroPace is like “a defibrillator for your brain,” Roizen says. The system includes sensors implanted in the brain that can spot the first tremors of an oncoming seizure. Then it sends electrical pulses that counteract the brain’s own haywire signals, stopping the seizure in its tracks. Even more impressive: The NeuroPace can be fine-tuned by doctors based on its performance. In the first year it was available, seizure episodes were reduced by an average of 40 percent—but 2 years later, they dropped by 53 percent.

The Hepatitis Cure

Until recently, treatment for hepatitis C fell into the good-but-not-great category, with only around 70 percent of patients being cured. And that was after as much as 48 weeks of a strict anti-viral drug regimen, including injections of interferon—which causes a number of debilitating side effects. But the new drug Sofosbuvir is a much more potent killer of hep C, with success in as many as 95 percent of patients. Even more, the medication only has to be administered for 12 weeks, sans interferon injections.

The Anesthesiologist’s iPad

Surgeons may get more glory, but anesthesiologists probably play the most vital role in keeping you alive during surgery. They’re the last face you see before you’re put into a medicated sleep so deep you don’t even notice that your body is being peeled open. Between keeping track of your heart rate, breathing, and brain functions, an anesthesiologist also needs to be familiar with the ins and outs of the procedure so they can adjust sedatives and painkillers—without causing complications. 

The new “perioperative information management systems” include software on touchscreen-enabled computers that can warn doctors if things are going south, keep track of the surgeon’s workflows, and document every step of the procedure. All are essential when surgeries last up to 16 hours and docs need to pass the reins to a fresh pair of eyes.

The Fecal Transplant

The idea of taking someone else’s poop and giving it a new home in your own colon may sound repulsive, but the treatment has proven remarkably effective in curing infections of C. difficile—a nasty bacteria that kills 15,000 people each year. Take heart: The digested food waste in feces isn’t itself the cure. You’re simply gaining some of the helpful bacteria living in the donor’s gut—like a farmer choosing the hardiest crops to seed next year’s fields.

“The bacteria produce proteins that are involved in a lot more diseases than we realized,” says Roizen. Still grossed out? Researchers in Canada have developed a method to deliver just the bacteria—no feces—via an oral pill, skipping the need for a poo enema.

The Heart-Saving Hormone

Around one in four people who are hospitalized for heart failure don’t last much longer than a year. But a new drug called Serelaxin has upped the odds of survival by as much as 37 percent, according to a University of California, San Francisco study. It’s a synthetic version of the hormone relaxin, which is produced by pregnant women to help with the increased stress carrying a fetus places on the heart. “It not only opens up your blood vessels to supply your organs oxygen, but it has anti-inflammatory properties,” Roizen says. Serelaxin’s life-saving potential is profound enough that in June, the FDA dubbed it a “breakthrough therapy,” putting it on a faster track for approval in hospitals.

The Robot Doctor

If you’re undergoing a colonoscopy, you’ll want something to take the edge off (for obvious reasons). But even a light sedative to help you snooze while doctors spelunk your butt requires the presence of an anesthesiologist—which translates to $1 billion in additional medical expenses, according to a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Enter the Sedasys: a computer with an attachment on the IV that meters out the correct amount of sedative and monitors vitals. It even includes an earpiece to wake patients up if necessary. That allows docs to administer “light to moderate” sedation on their own, with a single anesthesiologist supervising multiple patients. “If Michael Jackson’s doctor had this and knew how to use it, then Michael Jackson would still be alive today,” says Roizen.

The Better Heart-Attack Risk Test

Today you get a cholesterol test to assess your risk of heart attack, but soon you’ll be more worried about your trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) levels. Why? People with the highest levels of TMAO in their blood have 2.5 times the risk of a heart attack compared to those with the lowest levels, according to a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine. TMAO is a compound produced by intestine bacteria—yep, the same ones involved in fecal transplants—after you eat choline, which is found in eggs, red meat, and dairy.

Once in your bloodstream, TMAO accelerates the process of cholesterol forming into plaques in your arteries. “We’re learning why red meat is hazardous, and what could be done to avoid that hazard,” Roizen says. Beyond simply avoiding red meat, preventive steps could include probiotics or medications that pinch off TMAO-producing pathways.

The Precision-Guided Cancer Treatment

The difficult goal in any cancer treatment is to kill the tumor while leaving healthy cells alone. Recently, a better understanding of what makes cancer cells tick has allowed scientists to develop a class of drugs that pinpoint a weakness in cancer’s uncontrolled growth. For example, in lymphomas and leukemias, scientists have determined that the growth is controlled by a protein called Bruton’s tyrosine kinase (BTK). After years of experimentation, doctors developed a new drug called Ibrutinib that blocks BTK

Source: inagist

 

10-year-old boy cured of serious peanut allergy

On occasion, a medical transplant will confer more than the intended primary benefit from donor to recipient. That’s what happened when a 10-year-old boy lost his peanut allergy after receiving bone marrow to treat his acute lymphocytic leukemia.

“It has been reported that bone marrow and liver transplants can transfer peanut allergy from donor to recipient,” allergist Yong Luo, told reporters. “But our research found a rare case in which a transplant seems to have cured the recipient of their allergy.”

Luo presented his findings on Friday in Baltimore to the American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology’s annual meeting, sharing the boy’s history as a case study. The research team noted the boy had been diagnosed at 15 months of age with a peanut allergy after vomiting and erupting in whole-body hives after eating peanuts.

 

 

 

 

Later, the boy received a diagnosis for leukemia and, at age 10, underwent the transplant from a donor with no known allergies. Intrigued, allergists confirmed the loss of the peanut allergy by conducting an “oral food challenge,” which should not be undertaken at home doctors warn. Under close watch, the boy ingested a small amount of peanut and showed no reaction.

Medical researcher Steven Weiss, a co-author of the study, told attendees at the meeting that food allergy is associated with the body’s abnormal production of high specific IgE levels. This case adds to previous reports indicating that “genetic modification during the early stages of immune cell development in bone marrow may play a large role in causing allergy.”

One of the most common food allergies in the United States, peanut allergy affects some 400,000 Americans. Among schoolchildren, peanut allergy is the leading type of food allergy. But unlike other types of allergies, such as reactions to milk or soy, peanut allergy lasts a lifetime. Should any parent insist their child has “outgrown” his or her peanut allergy, experts advise a visit to a board-certified allergist for proper testing for allergens.

Any child with a peanut allergy should carry a prescribed epinephrine pen, at all times. “Food allergies are serious and can cause a severe, life-threatening reaction known as anaphylaxis,” Weiss said. “It’s important to be under the regular care of an allergist who can perform proper tests and administer treatment.”

Although minor reactions to peanut allergens are common, the more severe anaphylaxis causes a rush of symptoms including an itchy rash, throat swelling, and lowered blood pressure, which could progress to fatal shock.

There is no known cure for peanut allergy.

Source: Medical Daily