Research in Medicine

Honey bees can be trained to detect cancer

Dezeen_Susana_Soares_Bees_Design_2

Portuguese designer Susana Soares has developed a device for detecting cancer and other serious diseases using trained bees

The bees are placed in a glass chamber into which the patient exhales; the bees fly into a smaller secondary chamber if they detect cancer.

“Trained bees only rush into the smaller chamber if they can detect the odour on the patient’s breath that they have been trained to target,” explained Soares, who presented her Bee’s project at Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven last month.

Scientists have found that honey bees – Apis mellifera – have an extraordinary sense of smell that is more acute than that of a sniffer dog and can detect airborne molecules in the parts-per-trillion range.

Bees can be trained to detect specific chemical odours, including the biomarkers associated with diseases such as tuberculosis, lung, skin and pancreatic cancer.

Bees have also been trained to detect explosives and a company called Insectinl is training “sniffer bees” to work in counter-terrorist operations.

“The bees can be trained within 10 minutes,” explains Soares. “Training simply consists of exposing the bees to a specific odour and then feeding them with a solution of water and sugar, therefore they associate that odour with a food reward.”

Once trained, the bees will remember the odour for their entire lives, provided they are always rewarded with sugar. Bees live for six weeks on average.

“There’s plenty of interest in the project especially from charities and further applications as a cost effective early detection of illness, specifically in developing countries,” Soares said.

Bee’s explores how we might co-habit with natural biological systems and use their potential to increase our perceptive abilities.Dezeen_Susana_Soares_Bees_Design_3

The objects facilitate bees’ odour detection abilities in human breath. Bees can be trained within 10 minutes using Pavlov’s reflex to target a wide range of natural and man-made chemicals and odours, including the biomarkers associated with certain diseases.

The aim of the project is to develop upon current technological research by using design to translate the outcome into systems and objects that people can understand and use, engendering significant adjustments in their lives and mind set.

How it works

The glass objects have two enclosures: a smaller chamber that serves as the diagnosis space and a bigger chamber where previously trained bees are kept for the short period of time necessary for them to detect general health. People exhale into the smaller chamber and the bees rush into it if they detect on the breath the odour that they where trained to target.

What can bees detect?

Scientific research demonstrated that bees can diagnose accurately at an early stage a vast variety of diseases, such as: tuberculosis, lung and skin cancer, and diabetes.

Precise object

The outer curved tube helps bees avoid from flying accidentally into the interior diagnosis chamber, making for a more precise result. The tubes connected to the small chamber create condensation, so that exhalation is visible.

Detecting chemicals in the axilla

Apocrine glands are known to contain pheromones that retain information about a person’s health that bee’s antennae can identify.

The bee clinic

These diagnostic tools would be part of system that uses bees as a biosensor.

The systems implies:
– A bee centre: a structure that facilitates the technologic potential of bees. Within the centre is a bee farm, a training centre, a research lab and a health care centre.

– Training centre: courses can be taken on bee training where bees are collected and trained by bee trainers. These are specialists that learn bee training techniques to be used in a large scope of applications, including diagnosing diseases.

– BEE clinic: bees are used at the clinic for screening tests. These insects are very accurate in early medical diagnosis through detection on a person’s breath. Bees are a sustainable and valuable resource. After performing the  diagnose in the clinic they are released, returning to their beehive.

Bee training

Bees can be easily trained using Pavlov’s reflex to target a wide range of natural and man-made chemicals odours including the biomarkers associated with certain diseases. The training consists in baffling the bees with a specific odour and feeding them with a solution of water and sugar, therefore they associate that odour with a food reward

Source: de zeen magazine

 

New technique to treat parasitic cystic tumour of kidney

Dr Santosh Kumar, assistant professor, department of urology, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh, has developed an innovative surgical technique to treat parasitic cystic tumour of kidney, a rare disease that can lead to destruction of kidney.

In this Santosh PGI Technique, Dr Kumar operated a 22-year-old woman by single 2 cm incision through umbilicus, the natural scar given by god, using conventional port and instrument.

The innovative surgical technique is described in a paper published in the Asian Journal of Endoscopic Surgery, a journal of the Japan Society of Endoscopic Surgeons.

According to Dr Kumar, the new minimal invasive technique helped the patient recover fast and without scar. Her kidney was saved. “We believe it is the first case of this kind in this large hydatid parasitic tumour in which this technique was used,” he said.

Parasitic cystic tumour is common in canine, dogs, sheep etc. Humans get infected by eggs and embryo in contaminated vegetable and meat. The patient may not have any symptoms, can present with palpable tumour in abdomen, allergic reaction and obstruction of kidney, according to a statement by PGIMER.

Rupture of parasitic cystic tumour like mass can lead to shock and death. Removal of kidney by open surgery used to be traditional treatment, the statement said.

Treating a giant parasitic tumour kidney was earlier reported by Dr Kumar in the Journal of Endourology, an American Endourological Society journal. In this article he described how he performed treatment of various genitourinary hydatid cystic mass by laparoscopy by three small incisions.

Talking about his latest innovation, Dr Kumar said, “In our case the patient was newly married, who had been deserted by her husband because of unfortunate social condition and risk of morbidity of disease and surgery. Single hole surgery with this new technique through natural scar i.e. umbilicus guided by nephroscope, which is very common armamentarium of urologist, was an excellent advantageous condition for her.”

“It is interesting to say that after successful surgery the husband united with her wife happily,” he added.

Source: India Medical Times

Egg Timer Test proves unreliable guide to fertility

A popular fertility test designed to tell a woman how long she has left to fall pregnant is providing inaccurate and misleading results, creating a wave of panic among women in their 30s and 40s, Australia’s leading fertility expert, Dr Anne Clarke, said.

Dr Clarke, medical director of Fertility First in Sydney, said a recent British study, plus anecdotal evidence, had found the simple blood test, known as the Egg Timer Test, was unreliable and becoming discredited worldwide. ”I have big concerns about its accuracy,” she said. ”I’m seeing a lot of women turning up at my clinic in an incredibly distressed state and highly depressed because they’ve been told the test showed they had no chance of having a baby. It’s wrong and misleading.”

Among them was a 40-year-old Sydney woman who was told by her GP in April last year that the test, which measures the level of anti-mullerian hormone (AMH) in the blood, showed her ovarian reserve was dangerously low. Further analysis revealed she was very fertile and well within the normal range, Dr Clarke said.

The Egg Timer Test – which costs about $70 – was pioneered by Adelaide clinic Repromed in 2004, to measure the number of eggs a woman had and predict how many child-bearing years she had left. With thousands of women rushing to take the test, other companies entered the market, but Dr Kelton Tremellen, of Repromed, said they were not always reliable. ”[If it’s not done properly] one person’s blood test can be analyzed and get two vastly different results,” he said. Results could be compromised, for example, if a woman had been on the pill. Dr Clarke added that inaccurate readings also occurred when the blood was stored incorrectly or the hormone not analyzed immediately.

 

Asked if women should have the test, she said: ”I’m not sure of the value of the test. If I want to look at ovarian reserves, I do an antral follicle count with an ultrasound.”

The first reported study on the effectiveness of the Egg Timer Test was damning. The Manchester study, published last year, found significant variations in the results – up to 60 per cent.

Head researcher Dr Oybek Rustamov said the study, which looked at the results of 5000 women between 2008 and 2011, found ”commercial AMH or Egg Timer Tests provide erroneous results”.

Dr Clarke said research was increasingly discrediting and devaluing the test as a means of gauging a woman’s biological clock.

Cheriece Harper, 31, from Penrith, had the Egg Timer Test in 2011 and was left depressed when her doctor told her she had little chance of conceiving. Ms Harper consulted Dr Clarke, became pregnant via a sperm donor and gave birth to Bridie in October last year.

”I’m glad I had the test because it pushed me to make a decision and not delay motherhood, but if women get it done, they need to know it’s measuring egg quantity, not quality.”

Source: Sydney Morning Herald

New treatment discovered for deadly flesh-eating disease

In January 2012, Lori Madsen, then 51, was walking through a parking lot, when she fell and skinned her arm. Initially, she didn’t think much about the rugburn-like abrasion on her arm – but later that night, Madsen’s arm began to swell.

Two days later, the pain was so bad she couldn’t get out of bed.

“My husband had to take me to the ER and my blood pressure wasn’t reading and everything was shutting down,” Madsen told FoxNews.com. “I was in septic shock.”

Madsen was admitted to the intensive-care unit, where the infection in her arm raged on – causing fevers, blistering and swelling. A week later, Madsen was taken into surgery for the first time.

“They opened my arm up for the first time and excised some of the dead tissue in there,” Madsen said. “I got better for a couple days. My fever went down, but then I took another turn for the worse.”

At this point, Madsen feared she would lose her arm – or even worse – her life. Finally, she was introduced to Dr. John Crew, a vascular surgeon and wound specialist at Seton Medical Center in Daily City, Calif., where she was receiving treatment. Crew told Madsen he might know what was causing her health problems: A deadly disease known as necrotizing fasciitis.

The flesh-eating disease

Necrotizing fasciitis, commonly known as the flesh-eating disease, results from a bacterial infection and rapidly destroys the body’s soft tissue. The condition garnered national attention in 2012, when 24-year-old Aimee Copeland underwent a quadruple amputation after contracting necrotizing fasciitis in the aftermath of a zip lining accident.

Typically, necrotizing fasciitis is treated with antibiotics and surgical excision of the infected areas of the body. Though rare, the disease can carry a fatality rate of up to 70 percent – and those that survive are often left with devastating handicaps due to loss of limbs.

“They excise (the dead tissue), and (sometimes) you excise the hands and the legs and that’s a lousy way to end up,” Crew said.

Desperate to save Madsen’s limbs and life, Crew, director of the hospital’s Advanced Wound Care Center, devised a plan in which he would excise the dead tissue from Madsen’s arm and then regularly irrigate the area with an FDA-approved wound cleanser called NeutroPhase. Crew is a paid consultant for NovaBay Pharmaceuticals, the company that manufactures NeutroPhase, and he had been using the product to sterilize wounds for many years. NeutroPhase contains hypochlorous acid, a common chemical disinfectant.

“Hypochlorous acid is produced by the body’s white blood cells when it fights infection,” Dr. Harvey Himel, medical director of the wound program at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, told FoxNews.com. “(It) is one of the common chemicals found to purify water in swimming pools and is used as a disinfectant in food preparation.”  Himel was familiar with the study, but not involved in Madsen’s treatment.

Luckily, Madsen’s initial surgical treatment –coupled with the NeutroPhase irrigation – appeared successful.

However, six days later, Crew noticed another infected spot in a different area on Madsen’s arm. This time, Crew decided to simply insert a catheter and irrigate the area with NeutroPhase – without performing surgery to excise any more of the tissue in her arm.

Remarkably, this area of Madsen’s arm healed just as quickly as the area that underwent the standard surgical excision. Additionally, using NeutroPhase bypassed the severe scarring that now covered much of the rest of her limb.

Madsen noticed a difference in her condition almost immediately after being treated by Crew.

“Before they started NeutroPhase, the pain was unbearable. You can’t describe the way the pain is, and the fever I had was just unbelievable,” Madsen said. “But then, after they started the NeutroPhase and started killing all of the toxins in my arm, the fever subsided and went away. The pain wasn’t as bad…It wasn’t the kind of pain that you feel when it’s infected, and your arm is dying.”

‘People don’t have to lose their limbs or their lives’

Madsen eventually made a full recovery, and while she sustained some nerve damage in her arm, she has regained full function in the limb and now lives a normal life.

After Madsen’s recovery, Crew set out to discover what it was about NeutroPhase that had halted the infection.

“We had to go back to the lab after Lori was healed,” Crew said. “They isolated five or six of the toxins involved in this kind of necrotizing fasciitis, and individually, they treated cells in the lab… and it killed them.”

Crew and his fellow researchers discovered that NeutroPhase seemed to effectively neutralize the toxins produced by the infection, halting the body’s inflammatory-reaction and allowing the patient to begin to heal normally.

Crew recently published his findings in the peer-reviewed journal,Wounds, and he hopes to convince other doctors to begin using NeutroPhase to treat necrotizing fasciitis. Since Madsen’s case, Crew said he has successfully treated several other patients with necrotizing fasciitis using NeutroPhase – even avoiding surgery, in some cases.

“I had one 95-year-old, (and) when I just put in a catheter and irrigated it with NeutroPhase, she healed from that standpoint,” Crew said. “We didn’t need a big massive operation to drain or excise necrotic tissue. We’re looking to tell people this is the way to treat this problem. We won’t make big massive incisions, but small incisions to get the irrigation going as quick as we can.”

Himel warned that while this case appeared to be successful, more research is still needed.

“Since this is a single case report, it is hard to say if this treatment was instrumental in the patient’s recovery,” Himel said. “In order to scientifically prove the value of this additional treatment, they would need to conduct more extensive research.”

For Madsen, her hope is that this treatment will eventually help prevent others in her situation from going through the same agony she did.

“I don’t want to see anyone go through what I went through. I want the word out there that this stuff works on this necrotizing fasciitis,” Madsen said. “People don’t have to lose their limbs or their lives.”

Source: inagist

Rosemary and spearmint extract stave off Alzheimer’s disease

A new study has revealed that enhanced extracts made from special antioxidants in spearmint and rosemary reduces deficits caused by mild cognitive impairment, which can be a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease.

Susan Farr, Ph.D., research professor geriatrics at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, said that although the study suggested that eating spearmint and rosemary is good for you, their experiments were in an animal model and she doesn’t know how much- or if any amount- of these herbs people would have to consume for learning and memory to improve.

Farr tested a novel antioxidant-based ingredient made from spearmint extract and two different doses of a similar antioxidant made from rosemary extract on mice that have age-related cognitive decline.

She found that the higher dose rosemary extract compound was the most powerful in improving memory and learning in three tested behaviors. The lower dose rosemary extracts improved memory in two of the behavioral tests, as did the compound made from spearmint extract.

Further, there were signs of reduced oxidative stress, which is considered a hallmark of age-related decline, in the part of the brain that controls learning and memory.

“Our research suggests these extracts made from herbs might have beneficial effects on altering the course of age-associated cognitive decline,” Farr said. “It’s worth additional study.”

The study was presented at Neuroscience 2013.

Source: Zee News

 

 

Is pickled turnip a miracle flu remedy? Hardly

“Suguki” – better known as pickled turnip – as a flu remedy, when it is no such thing. Think of this as an urban myth gone viral.

Let’s start with the facts and then move into the dark realm of stark speculation. The source of this story comes from a mouse study conducted by a company that pickles turnips. Their name is Kagome, Ltd., and they are based in Japan. They are, by their own account, pioneers in the Japanese tomato business and offer an impressive array of tomato products – including ketchup and juice. They also pickle turnips, a traditional Japanese food called Suguki. From what I can glean, they are very big in agriculture, and are multi-national. They seem to be very sophisticated.

According to statements issued by spokespeople at Kagome, Suguki contains friendly bacteria called Lactobacillus brevis KB290. This bacterium, they say, may help to stop the flu virus. After all, it helped to stop the virus in some mice.

According to studies found in the U.S. National Library of  Medicine, Lactobacillus brevis KB290 is a beneficial probiotic that shows benefit in improving gut health and enhancing immune function. That’s good, and it is consistent with what a great many other friendly bacteria do in the human body. This strain also may prove beneficial in certain cases of raw fish poisoning caused by a very unfriendly bacterium known as Vibrio parahaemolyticus, but so far the only work on this has been performed with cells in a lab. So wait and see on that one, and don’t let up on hygienic kitchen procedures.

In one published human clinical study, Lactobacillus brevis KB290 consumption led to some improvement in cases of irritable bowel syndrome. In the study, participants who were given capsules of the bacteria fared better than those who had been given a placebo. If other studies continue to show benefit, these bacteria may be one of several useful remedies against this pernicious intestinal problem. That’s definitely a plus.

Now we come to the big flu news that has swept the media. A Kagome-conducted mouse study, published in the November 6 issue of Letters in Applied Microbiology, has caused this frenzy, thanks mostly to a well executed PR campaign.  In the study, 60 mice were divided into three groups. One group was exposed to the H1N1 flu, one group was not exposed to the flu, and one group was given the flu virus and also given the bacteria Lactobacillus brevis KB290. The conclusion. Mice given the bacteria were less likely to catch the flu.

One problem I have with this is that it’s a mouse study and not an especially stunning study at that. Mice are not humans, and the flu virus mutates constantly. So what do we know about the flu protective properties of these bacteria in pickled turnip? Not much.

Even worse, several published stories have suggested thatLactobacillus brevis KB290 may protect us humans (without any science at all to support this) against numerous viral infections, including potentially fatal bird flu. Really? One claim repeated in several stories is that the scientists who conducted the study “think that there could be protection….against the deadly H7N9 flu,” recently found in China. This all sounds very promising, but there is no evidence at all to support this lavish idea. In fact, this is potentially deadly speculation.

Undeterred by the lack of any evidence that Lactobacillus brevisKB290 has anti-flu properties in people, articles have gushed with headlines that jubilantly trumpet “how to prevent flu” and “a new super food to fight the flu,” and on and on, all of them proclaiming Suguki as the second coming. Even worse, when perusing various articles, it’s apparent that most has simply grabbed information from the Kagome Limited website and has culled language from other published stories without doing any real digging into the topic.

As an advocate for safe, effective natural remedies, I’m always happy to spread the word about a good cure from nature. But flu is serious and often fatal, and thousands of people die each year from the flu virus. It’s just plain irresponsible to blare that Suguki, also known as pickled turnip, is a flu buster when there is no evidence to support the claim.

I’ve personally eaten plenty of pickled turnip at sushi restaurants, and I like it very much. But until there is solid, human clinical evidence, published in a peer-reviewed medical journal, showing that Lactobacillus brevis KB290 actually fights flu in humans, don’t give it a second thought. As a food and for enhancing digestion, pickled turnip may be just the thing. But as flu cure? Forget it.

Source: Heal con

Car mechanic invents new device to aid in childbirth

Health experts say the Odon Device has the potential to save lives around the world.

Argentinean Jorge Odon is a car mechanic by trade, and a tinkerer by nature. Recently, Odon watched a video about an easy method for removing a cork stuck in a wine bottle. And in the middle of the night it dawned on him that the same “trick” could be used during childbirth to help a baby that is stuck in the birth canal.

Obstructed labor — when the baby’s head gets stuck in the birth canal — is a major complication of childbirth. Doctors may use forceps or suction cups to try to pull the baby out. These procedures can lead to a number of complications on their own, and still are not guaranteed to succeed. In wealthier countries, the mother and baby may be whisked off to the operating room for an emergency C-section. In poor countries, or communities without access to advanced health care, this type of surgery is not an option.

Odon’s children were fortunately born without complications, but his aunt suffered nerve damage during childbirth, so Odon was familiar with the potential complications. In an interview with the New York Times, Odon explained that after seeing the wine bottle trick, it dawned on him that this could be used during childbirth.

With the help of his wife, he constructed a prototype using his daughter’s baby doll, a glass jar and a fabric bag.

In time, and with several revisions of his design, Odon’s idea — the Odon Device — won the endorsement of the World Health Organization (WHO), big-time donors, and a medical technology company that wants to develop it for production.

Here’s how it works:

Using the Odon Device, a lubricated plastic sleeve is slipped around the baby’s head and inflated until it forms a grip. Doctors then pull on the bag until the baby emerges. According to Dr. Margaret Chan, director general of WHO, the Odon Device has the potential to save babies in poor countries, and reduce the number of emergency cesareans in rich ones.

“The Odon Device, developed by WHO and now undergoing clinical trials, offers a low-cost simplified way to deliver babies, and protect mothers, when labour is prolonged. It promises to transfer life-saving capacity to rural health posts, which almost never have the facilities and staff to perform a C-section. If approved, the Odon Device will be the first simple new tool for assisted delivery since forceps and vacuum extractors were introduced centuries ago,” Chan said in a speech to the 65th World Health Assembly.

Source: mnn.com

Philanthropist’s gift a big bang for stem cell research

A philanthropist who made his money as a credit card provider is giving $100 million to human stem-cell research.

The money will go to the University of California at San Diego during the next five years as researchers reach certain milestones, said T. Denny Sanford, who founded First Premier Bank here and offers low-limit Master cards and Visas to customers with poor credit through Premier Bankcard. United National Corp., where Sanford is now chief executive, owns both companies.

“This, in my opinion, is the medicine of the future,” he said. “The potential of stem cells is just unbelievable.”

The money will support the hiring of 20 or more scientists and efforts to recruit patients for drug trials along with new construction at the San Diego complex.

The donation pushes Sanford past the $1 billion mark for total gifts to health care and research, he said.

Sanford, 77, has homes in South Dakota, Arizona and California. On Oct. 19, he suffered a pulmonary embolism — a blood clot in the lungs — while on a hunting trip with friends near Gregory, S.D., about 140 miles west of here.

He said he was saved because of a middle-of-the-night medical flight to Sanford University of South Dakota Medical Center here, helicopter and plane flights made possible in part because of donations he has made to what is now Sanford Health system.

“I was within minutes or hours of death,” he said. His physician here, Dr. Eric Larson, said Sanford is doing fantastic, playing golf regularly and exercising on an elliptical machine, less than a month after getting clot-busting medications to treat the condition.

Most of Sanford’s donations, about $700 million, have gone to the Sanford Health. He has pledged to give all his money away. He said he still has close to $1 billion.

The $100 million he is committing to UC San Diego is the lead resource in a project that officials say will cost a total of $275 million.

What now is called the Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine includes scientists from five institutions — UC San Diego, Sanford-Burnham, Scripps, the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and the LaJolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology.

“Overall, the effort is to bring stem cell research into human clinical trials,” said Debra Kain, director of health sciences research communications at UC San Diego.

In Sioux Falls, Sanford made a $400 million donation to the nonprofit medical center in 2007 and established four priorities, one of which was curing a major disease that officials later pegged as Type 1 diabetes. Another of his donations here, $100 million in 2011, is for research and treatment for breast cancer. His mother, Edith, died of the disease when he was 4 years old.

This gift is different because he has no personal or family connection to the neurological diseases he hopes that stem cell research can address.

Research so far has been instructive on the use of mice and monkeys, so it’s time now to extend the effort to humans, he said.

“We are excited about some major potential cures, particularly with neurological diseases like Lou Gehrig’s disease, or spinal cord injuries,” Sanford said. Lou Gehrig’s disease, also called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movement. It has no cure.

Sanford is excited that the work could lead several directions.

“It could be spinal cord injuries, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, eventually heart and cancer and diabetes,” he said.

Source: USA Today

 

New imaging method ‘predicts’ heart attack risk

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states that around 715,000 Americans suffer a heart attack every year. Now, scientists have created a new imaging technique that could identify which patients are at high risk. This is according to a study published in the The Lancet.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh in the UK say the test – carried out using positron emission tomography (PET) and computed tomography (CT) – is able to “light up” dangerous fatty plaques in the arteries that are in danger of rupturing. This is a process that can cause heart attacks.

To reach their findings, the researchers analyzed 80 patients. Of these, 40 patients recently had a heart attack, while the other 40 patients had angina – restricted blood supply to the heart posing a higher risk of heart attack.

‘First step’ towards heart attack prevention

Using the PET-CT scanner, the researchers found that 90% of patients who had a heart attack showed a “lit up” yellow area in one of their blood vessels. This area corresponded exactly to the location of the plaque that caused the patients’ heart attacks, the researchers say.

The scanner also showed lit up plaques in around 40% of the patients with angina. Furthermore, the researchers found “high-risk” features in these patients that suggested a heart attack may be imminent, meaning they were in need of aggressive drug treatment or surgery.

Dr. Marc Dweck, of the University of Edinburgh and lead study author, says their findings are a step toward heart attack prevention:

“We have developed what we hope is a way to ‘light up’ plaques on the brink of rupturing and causing a heart attack.

If we could know how close a person is to having a heart attack, we could step in with medication or surgery before the damage is done. This is a first step towards that goal.”

Potential for identifying ‘ticking time bomb’ patients

The researchers say the next stage of this research is to confirm the findings and to determine whether the PET-CT imaging technique can improve the management and treatment of patients with coronary artery disease.

Prof. Peter Weissburg, medical director at the British Heart Foundation in the UK, which part-funded the study, notes that the technique looks promising:

“Being able to identify dangerous fatty plaques likely to cause a heart attack is something that conventional heart tests can’t do. This research suggests that PET-CT scanning may provide an answer – identifying ‘ticking time bomb’ patients at risk of a heart attack.”

“We now need to confirm these findings, and then understand how best to use new tests like this in the clinic to benefit heart patients,” he adds.

Source: Medical News Today

 

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