Latest advances in medical research thread

[TW]

I haven't gone back through all of the pages, but one recent item in science news causes me great concern, and that is the potential connection between herbicides, like "Round-up", and neurological diseases like Parkinson's. That product is ubiquitous and I'm sure the run off makes it more-so, in terms of infiltrating drinking water sources. Why do people get crazy about dandelions anyway?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Breakthrough allows fast, reliable pathogen identification

1 hour ago

Life-threatening bacterial infections cause tens of thousands of deaths every year in North America. Increasingly, many infections are resistant to first-line antibiotics. Unfortunately, current methods of culturing bacteria in the lab can take days to report the specific source of the infection, and even longer to pinpoint the right antibiotic that will clear the infection. There remains an urgent, unmet need for technologies that can allow bacterial infections to be rapidly and specifically diagnosed.

Researchers from the University of Toronto have created an electronic chip with record-breaking speed that can analyze samples for panels of infectious bacteria. The new technology can report the identity of the pathogen in a matter of minutes, and looks for many different bacteria and drug resistance markers in parallel, allowing rapid and specific identification of infectious agents. The advance was reported this month in the journal Nature Communications.

Read more at: Breakthrough allows fast, reliable pathogen identification

 

[ScienceRocks]

Tenofovir Reduces HIV Infections in Injection Drug Users

Troy Brown
Jun 12, 2013
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/805739

Preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) with tenofovir disoproxil fumarate nearly halved (48.9%) HIV infection rates in injection drug users, according to a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, phase 3 trial of 2413 participants in Thailand.

Kachit Choopanya, MD, from the Bangkok Tenofovir Study Group in Thailand, and colleagues report their findings in an article published online June 13 in the Lancet.

Of the 2.5 million people worldwide who contracted HIV in 2011, 1 in 10 cases was likely caused by injecting drug use. Some countries in eastern Europe and central Asia report that more than 80% of all HIV infections are caused by drug use, the authors note.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Lifespan-extending drug given late in life reverses age-related heart disease in mice

June 12, 2013
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Lifespan-extending drug given late in life reverses age-related heart disease in mice | KurzweilAI

Elderly mice suffering from age-related heart disease saw a significant improvement in cardiac function after being treated with the FDA-approved drug rapamycin for just three months.

The research, led by a team of scientists at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, shows how rapamycin impacts mammalian tissues, providing functional insights and possible benefits for a drug that has been shown to extend the lifespan of mice as much as 14 percent.

There are implications for human health in the research appearing in Aging Cell. Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., claiming nearly 600,000 lives per year.

Well, if it helps in rats. Who knows?

 

[ScienceRocks]

Easy, effective therapy to restore sight: Engineered virus will improve gene therapy for blinding eye diseases
Easy, effective therapy to restore sight: Engineered virus will improve gene therapy for blinding eye diseases

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have developed an easier and more effective method for inserting genes into eye cells that could greatly expand gene therapy to help restore sight to patients with blinding diseases ranging from inherited defects like retinitis pigmentosa to degenerative illnesses of old age, such as macular degeneration.

Unlike current treatments, the new procedure – which takes a little as 15-minutes – is surgically non-invasive, and it delivers normal genes to difficult-to-reach cells throughout the entire retina.

Gene therapy is likely one of the top 3 greatest medical advances. Will have to wait for another 20-30 years to fully realize this.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New quantum dot technique combines best of optical and electron microscopy

It's not reruns of "The Jetsons", but researchers working at the National Institute of Standards and Technology have developed a new microscopy technique that uses a process similar to how an old tube television produces a picture—cathodoluminescence—to image nanoscale features. Combining the best features of optical and scanning electron microscopy, the fast, versatile, and high-resolution technique allows scientists to view surface and subsurface features potentially as small as 10 nanometers in size.

Read more at: New quantum dot technique combines best of optical and electron microscopy

 

[ScienceRocks]

TEDGlobal: Future vaccines could be delivered via patch
By Jane Wakefield

Technology reporter, TEDGlobal, Edinburgh
BBC News - TEDGlobal: Future vaccines could be delivered via patch

A skin patch that can deliver vaccines cheaply and effectively has been shown off at the TEDGlobal conference in Edinburgh.

Using a patch rather than a needle could transform disease prevention around the world, said its inventor.

Prof Mark Kendall said the new method offered hope of usable vaccines for diseases such as malaria.

Other medical experts welcomed the news, but warned it might be unsuitable for some patients.

Old technology

It was fitting that Prof Kendall delivered his talk in Edinburgh where, 160 years previously, Alexander Wood had lodged the first patent for the needle and syringe.

"The patent looked almost identical to the needles we use today. This is a 160-year-old technology," he said.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Artificial Spleen Offers Hope for Faster Sepsis Diagnosis and Treatment

Researchers are designing a “dialysis-like” machine that could identify and remove pathogens responsible for an often lethal blood infection.
By Mike Orcutt on June 13, 2013

Blood cleanser: This device uses microfluidics and nanotechnology to remove pathogens from blood before returning it to the body.

Taking advantage of recent advances in nanotechnology and microfluidics, researchers have made significant progress toward a device that could be used to rapidly remove pathogens from the blood of patients with sepsis, a potentially life-threatening condition that occurs when an infection is distributed throughout the body via the bloodstream.

Engineers at Harvard University’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, where the technology is under development, are also hoping the device will be able to identify the specific microörganism causing the problem, which could help physicians determine the most effective antibiotic treatment more quickly than they can with conventional diagnostic tests.

Spleen-on-a-Chip | MIT Technology Review

 

[ScienceRocks]

Osteoporosis drug stops growth of breast cancer cells, even in resistant tumors

Osteoporosis drug stops growth of breast cancer cells, even in resistant tumors

A drug approved in Europe to treat osteoporosis has now been shown to stop the growth of breast cancer cells, even in cancers that have become resistant to current targeted therapies, according to a Duke Cancer Institute study.

The findings, presented June 15, 2013, at the annual Endocrine Society meeting in San Francisco, indicate that the drug bazedoxifene packs a powerful one-two punch that not only prevents estrogen from fueling breast cancer cell growth, but also flags the estrogen receptor for destruction.

"We found bazedoxifene binds to the estrogen receptor and interferes with its activity, but the surprising thing we then found was that it also degrades the receptor; it gets rid of it," said senior author Donald McDonnell, PhD, chair of Duke's Department of Pharmacology and Cancer Biology.

Cure for breast cancer?

 

[PaulS1950]

I wonder if it also degrades the body's natural estrogen receptors........

 

[ScienceRocks]

Memory-boosting chemical identified in mice
Pharmacological brake-release of mRNA translation enhances cognitive memory | eLife

A small, drug-like molecule injected into mice has been found to significantly boost their memory.

The same biochemical pathway the molecule acts on might one day be targeted in humans to improve their memory, according to Peter Walter, professor of biochemistry and biophysics at University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

In one test, normal mice were able to relocate a submerged platform about three times faster after receiving injections of the potent chemical than mice who received sham injections. The mice that received the chemical also better remembered cues associated with unpleasant stimuli – the sort of fear conditioning that could help a mouse avoid being preyed upon.

Notably, the findings suggest that, despite what would seem to be the importance of having the best biochemical mechanisms to maximise the power of memory, evolution does not seem to have provided them.

“It appears that the process of evolution has not optimised memory consolidation; otherwise I don’t think we could have improved upon it the way we did in our study with normal, healthy mice,” Walter said.

The memory-boosting chemical was singled out from 100,000 chemicals screened at the Small Molecule Discovery Center at UCSF for their potential to perturb a protective biochemical pathway within cells, that is activated when cells are unable to keep up with the need to fold proteins into their working forms.

 

[ScienceRocks]

New drug reverses loss of brain connections in Alzheimer's disease

The first experimental drug to boost brain synapses lost in Alzheimer's disease has been developed by researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute. The drug, called NitroMemantine, combines two FDA-approved medicines to stop the destructive cascade of changes in the brain that destroys the connections between neurons, leading to memory loss and cognitive decline.

The decade-long study, led by Stuart A. Lipton, M.D., Ph.D., professor and director of the Del E. Webb Center for Neuroscience, Aging, and Stem Cell Research, who is also a practicing clinical neurologist, shows that NitroMemantine can restore synapses, representing the connections between nerve cells (neurons) that have been lost during the progression of Alzheimer's in the brain. The research findings are described in a paper published June 17 by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

The focus on a downstream target to treat Alzheimer's, rather than on amyloid beta plaques and neurofibrillary tangles—approaches which have shown little success—"is very exciting because everyone is now looking for an earlier treatment of the disease," Lipton said. "These findings actually mean that you might be able to intercede not only early but also a bit later." And that means that an Alzheimer's patient may be able to have synaptic connections restored even with plaques and tangles already in his or her brain.

New drug reverses loss of brain connections in Alzheimer's disease

 

[ScienceRocks]

Anti-Aging Drug Breakthrough

Anti-aging drug breakthrough

Drugs that combat aging may be available within five years, following landmark work led by an Australian researcher.

The work, published in the March 8 issue of Science, finally proves that a single anti-aging enzyme in the body can be targeted, with the potential to prevent age-related diseases and extend lifespans.

The paper shows all of the 117 drugs tested work on the single enzyme through a common mechanism. This means that a whole new class of anti-aging drugs is now viable, which could ultimately prevent cancer, Alzheimer's disease and type 2 diabetes.

While any drug would be strictly prescribed for certain conditions, Professor Sinclair suggests that one day, they could be taken orally as a preventative. This would be in much the same way as statin drugs are commonly prescribed to prevent, instead of simply treating, cardiovascular disease.

"Now we are looking at whether there are benefits for those who are already healthy. Things there are also looking promising," says Professor Sinclair, who also heads the Lowy Cancer Research Centre's Laboratory for aging Research at UNSW.

"We're finding that aging isn't the irreversible affliction that we thought it was," he says. "Some of us could live to 150, but we won't get there without more research."

 

[ScienceRocks]

HPV vaccine reduces cancer virus in girls by 56%


Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY 7:42 p.m. EDT June 19, 2013

The CDC reports a striking decline in the prevalance of HPV infection since vaccination began in 2006.

A vaccine against the human papillomavirus has decreased the incidence of the cancer-causing virus among teenage girls by 56%, despite being available since only 2006, a study released Wednesday finds

HPV vaccine reduces cancer virus in girls by 56%

 

[ScienceRocks]

Silver Boosts Antibiotic Success

Adding silver to antibiotics makes them 10 to 1,000 times more effective at fighting infections, research suggests.

This could mean that medicines could become far, far more effective in a very short amount of time.

BBC News - Silver 'boost to antibiotic success'

Another huge advancement of understanding!

 

[ScienceRocks]

Human Organs could be grown in animals within a year.

Human organs 'could be grown in animals within a year' - Telegraph

 

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BigBrain: An ultra-high resolution 3-D roadmap of the human brain
BigBrain: An ultra-high resolution 3-D roadmap of the human brain

International neuroscientists have produced a fully 3D map of a human brain – scanning and digitising thousands of ultrathin slices to determine its structure at extremely high resolution.

The map is being made freely available to researchers worldwide. It has a spatial resolution of just 20 micrometres (µm), far exceeding the typical 1 mm (1000 µm) from MRI studies. For comparison, a red blood cell is 8 µm wide.

In recent years, major efforts have been getting underway to probe and map the brain, in the hope of conquering physical and mental illnesses, while better understanding the nature of consciousness. In January, the European Commission awarded €1 billion (US$1.3 bn) to the Human Brain Project, intended to create the world's largest experimental facility for brain mapping. In February, Barack Obama announced the Brain Activity Map Project – a decade-long effort to map the activity of every neuron in the human brain. In March, the Human Connectome Project released a major dataset, revealing the complexities of the brain's structure and giving a clearer picture of its role in neural disorders. Yet another major initiative is the Blue Brain Project, founded in Switzerland in 2005, which aims to create a synthetic brain by reverse-engineering the mammalian brain down to the molecular level.

 

[itfitzme]

Two researchers at the University of Rochester have discovered the chemical that makes naked mole rats cancer-proof.

Love 'em and lick 'em

Chemical that makes naked mole rats cancer-proof discovered

Naked Mole Rats Have Cancer-Proof 'Goo' - ABC News

naked mole cancer - Google Search

 

[ScienceRocks]

Stroke drug can 'boost quality of life'
By Caroline Parkinson

Health editor, BBC News website

Image of a brain affected by a stroke A stroke can cause permanent loss of function

Patients given a clot-busting drug within six hours of a stroke are more likely to have a good quality of life 18 months afterwards, an international study suggests.

However, the review of more than 3,000 patients found the drug - alteplase - offered no improvement in survival rates.

The drug is increasingly being used in specialist stroke units in the UK.

The Stroke Association said the Lancet Neurology research was "encouraging".

Quality of life

The treatment is given to patients who have had an ischaemic stroke, when the brain's blood supply is interrupted by a clot.

BBC News - Stroke drug can 'boost quality of life'

 

[ScienceRocks]

Medtronic takes 'first step' toward U.S. sale of artificial pancreas

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO | Sat Jun 22, 2013 11:06am EDT

(Reuters) - Type 1 diabetics, who run the risk of dangerously low blood sugar, may be a step closer to getting help from a crude artificial pancreas device that can read blood sugar levels and automatically turn off the flow of insulin after a clinical trial showed the device is safe.

The long-awaited results of the clinical trial may pave the way for U.S. approval of the device, made by Medtronic, which already sells insulin pumps with an automatic shutoff feature in 50 countries outside the United States. The feature is meant to guard against delivering insulin to diabetics their blood sugar is already too low.

Medtronic takes 'first step' toward U.S. sale of artificial pancreas | Reuters