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Typical treatment for sleep apnea is a mask that sufferers wear while sleeping that is large and uncomfortable. As a result, one study found that between 46 and 83 percent of patients do not wear it consistently, The New York Times reports. A new, less uncomfortable treatment, called Inspire® Upper Airway Stimulation (UAS) therapy, could soon replace the masks. The method is currently being tested and has been found to reduce sleep apnea episodes by 70 percent. It has also been found to significantly reduce daytime sleepiness, a press release obtained by EurekAlert explains. The Stimulation Therapy for Apnea Reduction (STAR) trial was conducted at 22 centers in the US and Europe.
Sleep apnea is much more than something that just impacts a person’s sleep; it can be a very serious condition. It affects more than 8 million men and 4 million women in the U.S. Over half of those with sleep apnea are overweight, a significant statistic as the population of the U.S. gets heavier. Sleep apnea occurs when there are repeated collapses of the upper airways during sleep. When this occurs, patients stop breathing, often for a minute or longer. The condition can lead to increased risk for stroke, heart attack, high blood pressure and death.
A common strategy for treating tumors is combining two or more drugs, which has the effect of decreasing toxicity and increasing the synergistic effects between the drugs. However, the efficacy of this kind of cocktail treatment suffers when the drugs require access to different parts of the cell, a bit like fighting a battle by depositing all your archers on the same spot as your infantrymen. By making use of nanoparticle-based carriers, researchers at North Carolina State University are able to transport multiple drugs into cancerous cells optimally and precisely, in maneuvers that any field commander would be proud of.
Their research has focused on multiple scenarios of drugs, including those targeted for gene therapy or chemotherapy, but all rely on the same nanoscale drug delivery mechanism or “nanodepot." In it, an outer gel shell surrounds a liposomal core, each layer bearing a different drug. The shell and core are collectively known as “Gelipo."
The human heart is a delicate organ and can be damaged easily. When that happens, doctors have to repair it quickly. Traditionally, if the heart needs repairing, doctors use invasive stitches and staples, although new advances in genetic engineering may help. However, a team of research scientists at Harvard have created a medical superglue that is strong enough to hold heart tissue together.
The use of stitches and staples to repair heart damage comes with major problems. Not only is it difficult to create a watertight seal with both, but they also can damage delicate heart tissue. They don’t work well in wet environments and are often affected by the pressure of the heart as it beats (it might be delicate, but it’s also powerful). Sometimes, depending on the material used, the stitches and staples don’t react well when exposed to blood, which is obviously a huge problem. That said, this new medical superglue solves these issues: after being exposed to UV light, it creates a watertight seal in seconds and can withstand the environment in and around the heart.
A cancer cure may have been found metastasizing cells, with researchers at Cornell University in New York claiming their cancer treatment was 100 percent effective in mice.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the cancer research establishment was criticized by James Watson, discoverer of the DNA structure, and he believes taking antioxidants can actually increase the risk of cancer, not reduce it as popularly believed.
While surgery and chemotherapy are effective at treating solid tumor lumps, around 90 percent of those who die during cancer treatment do so because of metastasizing cells, which means tiny pieces of the cancer have broken off and spread to other portions of the body through the blood circulation system, creating even more tumors. So the trick to any cancer cure would be figuring out a way to prevent the spread of cancerous cells.
Normally, when cells develop defects they will often trigger apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Apoptosis can be described as the “orchestrated collapse of a cell characterized by membrane blebbing, cell shrinkage, condensation of chromatin, and fragmentation of DNA followed by rapid engulfment of the corpse by neighboring cells.” In general, cancerous cells are normal body cells that have had portions of their tiny machinery break down and they’re now experiencing out of control replication and growth.
Cancer Cure Found For Metastasizing Cells? TRAIL Treatment 100 Percent Effective In Mice
A cancer cure may have been found metastasizing cells, with researchers at Cornell University in New York claiming their cancer treatment was 100 percent effective in mice.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the cancer research establishment was criticized by James Watson, discoverer of the DNA structure, and he believes taking antioxidants can actually increase the risk of cancer, not reduce it as popularly believed.
While surgery and chemotherapy are effective at treating solid tumor lumps, around 90 percent of those who die during cancer treatment do so because of metastasizing cells, which means tiny pieces of the cancer have broken off and spread to other portions of the body through the blood circulation system, creating even more tumors. So the trick to any cancer cure would be figuring out a way to prevent the spread of cancerous cells.
Normally, when cells develop defects they will often trigger apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Apoptosis can be described as the orchestrated collapse of a cell characterized by membrane blebbing, cell shrinkage, condensation of chromatin, and fragmentation of DNA followed by rapid engulfment of the corpse by neighboring cells. In general, cancerous cells are normal body cells that have had portions of their tiny machinery break down and theyre now experiencing out of control replication and growth.
Cancer Cure Found For Metastasizing Cells? TRAIL Treatment 100 Percent Effective In Mice
Fuck all you people that want to defund cures for curing this nasty disease from hell.
Cancer Cure Found For Metastasizing Cells? TRAIL Treatment 100 Percent Effective In Mice
A cancer cure may have been found metastasizing cells, with researchers at Cornell University in New York claiming their cancer treatment was 100 percent effective in mice.
As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the cancer research establishment was criticized by James Watson, discoverer of the DNA structure, and he believes taking antioxidants can actually increase the risk of cancer, not reduce it as popularly believed.
While surgery and chemotherapy are effective at treating solid tumor lumps, around 90 percent of those who die during cancer treatment do so because of metastasizing cells, which means tiny pieces of the cancer have broken off and spread to other portions of the body through the blood circulation system, creating even more tumors. So the trick to any cancer cure would be figuring out a way to prevent the spread of cancerous cells.
Normally, when cells develop defects they will often trigger apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Apoptosis can be described as the orchestrated collapse of a cell characterized by membrane blebbing, cell shrinkage, condensation of chromatin, and fragmentation of DNA followed by rapid engulfment of the corpse by neighboring cells. In general, cancerous cells are normal body cells that have had portions of their tiny machinery break down and theyre now experiencing out of control replication and growth.
Cancer Cure Found For Metastasizing Cells? TRAIL Treatment 100 Percent Effective In Mice
Fuck all you people that want to defund cures for curing this nasty disease from hell.
A treatment for one of the deadliest cancers has been uncovered by British researchers, who say it could wipe out the disease in less than a week.
The new drug, which targets pancreatic cancer but could be just as effective at treating other kinds of tumours, is to be tested on humans by the Cambridge university team later this year.
If the trials are successful, the therapy, which destroys a protective coating around the diseased cells, could be available to patients within a decade.
Research leader Dr Douglas Fearon said: ‘By enabling the body to use its own defences to attack cancer, this approach has the potential to greatly improve treatment of solid tumours.
‘That is not just restricted to pancreatic cancer but would be effective in many forms, including ovarian and lung cancer, because they react similarly.’
Pancreatic cancer, which killed Apple founder Steve Jobs and actor Patrick Swayze, is the fifth most lethal cancer in Britain, killing 7,900 people a year.
Only four per cent of sufferers survive beyond five years after diagnosis.
It is rarely detected early and is often too advanced to be treated, but the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute researchers believe their new drug, known as AMD3100 or Plerixafor, could work even with late diagnoses.
It breaks down a thick wall of chemokine protein which forms a protective barrier around pancreatic cancer cells and prevents the body’s T cells from breaking through to attack the tumour.
Plerixafor is used with other drugs which boost the helpful T cells’ activity.
In tests on mice, virtually all tumours were wiped out within six days – the first time this has been achieved in pancreatic cancer research.
Lukemia treatment given shot in the arm by artificial bone marrow developmentEuropean researchers have announced a breakthrough in the development of artificial bone marrow which expands the ability of scientists to reproduce stem cells in the lab and could lead to increased availability of treatment for leukemia sufferers.
One of the main treatments for the blood cancer is the injection of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). These HSCs can either be harvested from a compatible donor or cultivated from the patient’s own bone marrow in the lab.
The greatest challenges in producing HSCs in the lab has been their limited longevity outside of the bone marrow environment. This problem may soon be circumvented with the creation of an artificial bone marrow by the Young Investigators Group for Stem Cell– Material Interactions.
Headed by Dr. Cornelia Lee-Thedieck the group consists of scientists from the KIT Institute of Functional Interfaces (IFG), the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems, Stuttgart, and Tübingen University.
Oxford trial that improved vision in choroideremia raises hopes gene therapy may be applied to common causes of blindness
Two men with progressive blindness have regained some of their vision after taking part in the first clinical trial of a gene therapy for the condition.
The men were among six patients to have experimental treatment for a rare, inherited, disorder called choroideremia, which steadily destroys eyesight and leaves people blind in middle age.
SAN FRANCISCO — The cost of sequencing a human genome has been brought below $1,000, San Diego DNA sequencing giant Illumina said Tuesday, opening the door to bringing the full benefit of 21st-century genomic medicine to the public.
The lower cost is made possible by the new HiSeq X Ten Sequencing System, announced by Illumina chief executive Jay Flatley at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco.
Bringing the price below $1,000 is like “breaking the sound barrier,” Flatley said. That cost level long has been considered the price below which mass adoption of genome sequencing becomes feasible.
“There was a collective gasp that went across the room,” said Joe Panetta, chief executive of Biocom, the San Diego-based life science trade group.
Brian Otis gingerly holds what looks like a typical contact lens on his index finger. Look closer. Sandwiched in this lens are two twinkling glitter-specks loaded with tens of thousands of miniaturized transistors. It's ringed with a hair-thin antenna. Together these remarkable miniature electronics can monitor glucose levels in tears of diabetics and then wirelessly transmit them to a handheld device.
"It doesn't look like much, but it was a crazy amount of work to get everything so very small," he said before the project was unveiled Thursday.
During years of soldering hair-thin wires to miniaturize electronics, Otis burned his fingertips so often that he can no longer feel the tiny chips he made from scratch in Google's Silicon Valley headquarters, a small price to pay for what he says is the smallest wireless glucose sensor ever made.
Prostate cancer vaccines receive a boost in fundingThe development of two new vaccines that are hoped to offer an alternative to castration therapy for men with recurring prostate cancer, is due for an $8 million boost in funding.
The pharmaceutical company Madison Vaccines Incorporated (MVI) recently announced the success of a finance round led by Venture Investors, LLC, that has secured the funds to expand a Phase II trial of the MVI-816 vaccine that was otherwise in danger of being “too small to be convincing," explains MVI’s scientific co-founder, Douglas McNeel.
In addition, the funding will enable safety studies of another of the company’s DNA vaccines (MVI-118) to go ahead.
What level of savings are we looking at in terms ofProstate cancer vaccines receive a boost in funding
Published on January 16, 2014 at 11:44 AM · No Comments
By Sally Robertson B.Sc.
Prostate cancer vaccines receive a boost in fundingThe development of two new vaccines that are hoped to offer an alternative to castration therapy for men with recurring prostate cancer, is due for an $8 million boost in funding.
The pharmaceutical company Madison Vaccines Incorporated (MVI) recently announced the success of a finance round led by Venture Investors, LLC, that has secured the funds to expand a Phase II trial of the MVI-816 vaccine that was otherwise in danger of being too small to be convincing," explains MVIs scientific co-founder, Douglas McNeel.
In addition, the funding will enable safety studies of another of the companys DNA vaccines (MVI-118) to go ahead.
After a heart attack has occurred, inflammatory cells known as monocytes rush to the damaged tissue. This causes the heart to swell, reducing its ability to pump blood, and further damaging the tissue – a potentially lethal situation. Now, however, scientists have discovered that injectable microparticles can help stop that from happening.
Developed in a collaboration between Illinois' Northwestern University and the University of Sydney in Australia, the 500-nanometer-wide particles are made from a biocompatible, biodegradable polymer called poly (lactic-co-glycolic) acid. The substance is already approved by the FDA, for use in absorbable sutures. It's also being looked at for use in the treatment of diabetes and breast cancer.
When injected into the bloodstream within 24 hours of a heart attack, the negatively-charged microparticles attract the positively-charged monocytes, as they're on their way to the heart. When one of the monocytes bonds to a particle, a signal within the cell is triggered, telling it that it's dying. This causes it to change course and head for the spleen, the organ that disposes of dead cells.
As a result, inflammation of the heart is minimized. In animal models, this caused a 50 percent reduction in the size of heart lesions.
Lab tests have indicated that the microparticles could be also used to treat a number of other inflammatory diseases, such as West Nile virus, colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, and peritonitis.
Scientists have developed a special DNA clamp to act as a diagnostic nano machine. It's capable of detecting genetic mutations responsible for causing cancers, hemophilia, sickle cell anemia and other diseases, more efficiently than existing techniques. Not only can the clamp be used to develop more advanced screening tests, but it could also help create more efficient DNA-based nano machines for targeted drug delivery.
To catch diseases at their earliest stages, researchers have begun looking into creating quick screening tests for specific genetic mutations that pose the greatest risk of developing into life-threatening illnesses. When the nucleotide sequence that makes up a DNA strand is altered, it is understood to be a mutation; specific types of cancers are understood to be caused by certain mutations. Even if one single nucelotide base has been inserted, deleted or changed, it can change the entire DNA sequence – scientists call this a single point mutation.
To detect this type of mutation and others, researchers typically use molecular beacons or probes, which are DNA sequences that become fluorescent on detecting mutations in DNA strands. The team of international researchers that developed the DNA clamp state that their diagnostic nano machine allows them to more accurately differentiate between mutant and non-mutant DNA.
Written by Nina Lincoff | Published on January 17, 2014
A new test for Celiac disease doesn't require a month or more of eating gluten or painful intestinal biopsies.
Whole blood tests are often used to diagnose infectious diseases, but up until now, they haven’t been used to identify autoimmune disorders like Celiac disease (CD).
Currently, the “gold-standard” for diagnosing gluten allergies is finding characteristic damage to the small intestine, says Jason Tye-Din, M.D., head of Celiac Research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute at the University of Melbourne in Australia.
Unfortunately, that process can be very invasive and require weeks of consuming gluten, which is after all the root of the problem. Also, it's an option only after intestinal damage occurs.
As concerns about bacterial resistance to antibiotics grow, researchers are racing to find new kinds of drugs to replace ones that are no longer effective. One promising new class of molecules called acyldepsipeptides -- ADEPs -- kills bacteria in a way that no marketed antibacterial drug does -- by altering the pathway through which cells rid themselves of harmful proteins. Now, researchers from Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have shown that giving the ADEPs more backbone can dramatically increase their biological potency. By modifying the structure of the ADEPs in ways that make them more rigid, the team prepared new ADEP analogs that are up to 1,200 times more potent than the naturally occurring molecule.
A paper describing the research was released on-line by the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Smokers who kick the habit may reduce their risk of developing the blurred vision problem known as cataracts, new research shows.
This common medical condition -- in which the lens of the eye becomes progressively cloudy -- is a leading cause of impaired vision. But researchers in Sweden found that middle-aged men who smoked at least 15 cigarettes per day could lower their risk for cataracts over the course of two decades if they quit smoking.
Nanoribbons let beating hearts power their own pacemakers | Cutting Edge - CNET NewsResearchers show that materials called piezoelectrics, packaged onto flexible strips attached to animal hearts, can supply power for medical devices where batteries pose problems.
Pacemakers supply electrical pulses so hearts can keep a steady beat -- and maybe now it's time for hearts to return the favor.
As electronics spread to smaller and smaller devices, a new technology called energy harvesting can in some cases solve the problem of supplying electrical power. Researchers at the University of Illinois-Champaign have shown they can harvest energy from the movement of internal organs to power pacemakers and other medical devices that today depend on hard-to-change batteries.
The researchers attached small flexible strips they call piezoelectric nanoribbons to organs like the hearts of cows, sheep, and pigs.
The research offers a new option for power pacemakers -- surgically embedded devices that issue electric pulses to keep hearts ticking rhythmically -- as well as heart rate monitors and other medical devices embedded in the human bodies.
Figuring out how much medication a patient should be taking can be a tricky business. Although things like age and weight are used as guidelines, factors such as the individual person's metabolism can have a marked effect on how effective the drugs are. With that in mind, scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara have developed an implantable device that provides continuous real-time readings on how much medication is currently in a person's bloodstream.
Developed by researchers Tom Soh, Kevin Plaxco and Scott Ferguson, the microfluidic instrument is known as MEDIC (Microfluidic Electrochemical Detector for In vivo Concentrations).
It incorporates a central canal-like chamber, that's lined with gold electrodes. Extending out from those electrodes are DNA strands called aptamers. These can be tuned to recognize specific drug molecules.
When whole blood flows through the chamber, the aptamers detect the presence of the relatively small drug molecules amongst the larger and more numerous blood cells, and respond by wrapping around them. Upon doing so, each strand delivers electrons down into its electrode. This produces a small electrical current, which can be picked up and read by a computer.
