Latest advances in medical research thread

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Stimwave Freedom, World’s Smallest Neurostimulator, FDA Cleared for Back, Leg Pain (VIDEO)
by Editors on Dec 4, 2014

Severe chronic pain can in some cases be treated using neurostimulators that disrupt nerve signals moving up to the brain. Most such devices can benefit from being much smaller and not having to rely on an internal battery can also be a major advantage. That is why FDA’s clearance of Stimwave Technologies‘ wireless Freedom spinal cord stimulation system is so exciting.

The implant itself is tiny compared to the pacemaker-sized neurostimulators we’re used to, and it doesn’t even have wires leading from the implant to the stimulation site. It’s actually 95% smaller than the smallest implantable battery on the market. Instead, it’s an all-in-one device that can be accurately injected near the spinal nerves via a conventional needle. Additionally, the Freedom implant doesn’t rule out future MRI scans and can be safely worn even when inside a 3T magnetic field (as long as certain precautions are taken).

 

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Robotic-leg prosthetic allows amputees to walk normally
Robotic-leg prosthetic allows amputees to walk normally KurzweilAI
Simplified gait model eliminates need for complex designs and team of physical-rehabilitation specialists
December 5, 2014

Amputee with robot-inspired artificial leg can walk at near-normal speed on a treadmill (credit: UT Dallas)

Wearers of a new robotic leg can walk on a moving treadmill almost as fast as an able-bodied person, said inventor Robert Gregg, PhD, a University of Texas at Dallas professor, who applied robot control theory to enable powered prosthetics to dynamically respond to the wearer’s environment and help amputees walk.

“We borrowed from robot control theory to create a simple, effective new way to analyze the human gait cycle,” said Dr. Robert Gregg, a faculty member in theErik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science and lead author of the paper. “Our approach resulted in a method for controlling powered prostheses for amputees to help them move in a more stable, natural way than current prostheses.”

Humanoid robots can walk, run, jump and climb stairs autonomously, but modern prosthetics limit similar actions in humans. While prosthetics have been made lighter and more flexible, they fail to mimic the power generated from human muscles in able-bodied individuals.

 

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Breast cancer vaccine shows promise in early trial

8203 Breast cancer vaccine shows promise in early trial - CBS News

An experimental vaccine designed to stop breast cancer in its tracks appeared to be safe in a preliminary trial.

Fourteen women with breast cancer that had spread were injected with a vaccine that targets a specific protein, known as mammaglobin-A, that is found in high amounts in breast tumors.

Although the study was small, the findings suggest that the vaccine may also boost a patient's immune response and help slow disease progression.

"I don't want to oversell this," cautioned study co-author Dr. William Gillanders, vice chairman for research in the department of surgery at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. "This is a small clinical trial. But we can say confidently that the vaccine was safe," he said.

"We can also say with confidence that we were able to generate an immune response in almost all the patients who were vaccinated," he added. "And there is preliminary evidence that the vaccine may have an impact on breast cancer progression. But that needs to be studied further to be confirmed."

Gillanders and his colleagues reported their findings in the Dec. 1 issue of Clinical Cancer Research.

The study authors noted that overexpression of mammaglobin-A is found in up to 80 percent of breast cancer patients.

The vaccine prompts a specific kind of white blood cell in the immune system to track this protein down and eliminate it.

The women in the study were classified as having "advanced" disease. This meant they had prior exposure to chemotherapy, a process known to undermine a patient's immune function.

That said, none of the patients had undergone chemotherapy in the month leading up to vaccination.

The team found that side effects from the vaccine after one year were minimal, and included rashes, tenderness and mild flu-like symptoms.

What's more, by the one-year mark roughly 50 percent of the patients showed no sign of disease progression, the investigators found.

By comparison, only 20 percent of a similar group of 12 patients showed no signs of disease progression one year out, according to the study authors.

Even though the researchers stressed the need for a larger, longer study, they theorized that if the vaccine were given to newly diagnosed breast cancer patients who had not yet been exposed to chemotherapy, the vaccine might prove even more effective at halting disease.

"This trial wasn't really designed to look at this question, which makes it difficult to interpret the results so far," Gillanders noted. "But there's been a lot of interest in the development of a prevention vaccine for breast cancer and other cancers. And this work confirms the promise of such a strategy."

Dr. Courtney Vito, a breast surgeon and assistant clinical professor of surgical oncology with the City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., suggested the vaccine approach "makes a lot of sense and is very promising."

 

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We may be able to reverse signs of early Alzheimer's disease
By Stephanie Smith, CNN
updated 6:23 AM EST, Mon December 8, 2014
We may be able to reverse early Alzheimer s disease - CNN.com

...Yet a very small study out of UCLA is offering a glimmer of hope for those with what is often a hopeless diagnosis. Nine out of the 10 patients involved in the study, who were in various stages of dementia, say their symptoms were reversed after they participated in a rigorous program. The program included things like optimizing Vitamin D levels in the blood, using DHA supplements to bridge broken connections in the brain, optimizing gut health, and strategic fasting to normalize insulin levels.

A few months after starting the extreme program, patients in the study, aged 55 to 75, noticed their cognition had either improved or returned to normal. Only one patient, a 60 year-old female who was in the late-stages of dementia when she began the program, continued to decline...

 

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Dr. Ido Bachelet recently brought good news to London. Clinical trials may soon begin on the nanorobots he has developed to fight cancer.

Dr. Ido Bachelet, of the Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences and Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials, recently brought good news to London. Clinical trials may soon begin on the nanorobots he has developed to fight cancer.

The nanorobots, which can be injected into patients, are able to identify and kill cancer cells without affecting healthy cells. So far, the robots can recognize a dozen types of cancer, including leukemias and solid tumors, the London Jewish Chronicle reported.

 

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FDA Approves Cervical Cancer Vaccine That Covers More HPV Strainsl

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 10, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved a new vaccine with expanded protection against the human papillomavirus (HPV), by far the leading cause of cervical and certain other cancers.

The agency said that Gardasil 9 can shield users against nine strains of the virus, compared to the four strains covered by Gardasil, the Merck & Co. vaccine approved in 2006. Merck also makes Gardasil 9.

"Gardasil 9 has the potential to prevent approximately 90 percent of cervical, vulvar, vaginal and anal cancers," the FDA said in an agency news release.

"Vaccination is a critical public health measure for lowering the risk of most cervical, genital and anal cancers caused by HPV," Dr. Karen Midthun, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in the release. "The approval of Gardasil 9 provides broader protection against HPV-related cancers."

 

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Artificial Skin That Senses, and Stretches, Like the Real Thing

Some high-tech prosthetic limbs can be controlled by their owners, using nerves, muscles, or even the brain. However, there’s no way for the wearer to tell if an object is scalding hot, or about to slip out of the appendage’s grasp.

Materials that detect heat, pressure, and moisture could help change this by adding sensory capabilities to prosthetics. A group of Korean and U.S. researchers have now developed a polymer designed to mimic the elastic and high-resolution sensory capabilities of real skin.

The polymer is infused with dense networks of sensors made of ultrathin gold and silicon. The normally brittle silicon is configured in serpentine shapes that can elongate to allow for stretchability. Details of the work are published today in the journalNature Communications.

 

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"Fat-burning pill" inches closer to reality
By Dario Borghino
December 10, 2014
2 Pictures

Researchers at Harvard University say they have identified two chemical compounds that could replace "bad" fat cells in the human body with healthy fat-burning cells, in what may be the first step toward the development of an effective medical treatment – which could even take the form of a pill – to help control weight gain.

 

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Researchers discover new class of stem cells
37 minutes ago by Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times

Researchers have identified a new class of lab-engineered stem cells-cells capable of transforming into nearly all forms of tissue-and have dubbed them F-class cells because they cluster together in "fuzzy-looking" colonies.

The discovery, which was described in a series of five papers published Wednesday in the journals Nature and Nature Communications, sheds new light on the process of cell reprogramming and may point the way to more efficient methods of creating stem cells, researchers say.

Because of their extraordinary shape-shifting abilities, so-called pluripotent cells have enormous value to medical researchers. They allow scientists to study the effects of drugs and disease on human cells when experiments on actual people would be impossible, and they have given rise to the field of regenerative medicine, which seeks to restore lost or damaged organs and tissues.

The F-class cells were created using genetically engineered mouse cells, and may not occur naturally outside the lab, according to senior author Andras Nagy, a stem cell researcher at Toronto's Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital.

Read more at: Researchers discover new class of stem cells

 

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New Technology Helps Color Blind Watch Television
by Editors on Dec 9, 2014

Colorblindness is not the worst thing that could happen to someone, but it can be pretty frustrating nevertheless. Objects can often blend with each other, making it difficult to perceive them, and dressing to impress can be a chore that requires the assistance of others. Watching television can be particularly challenging as today’s programming is constantly trying to get the most out of the capabilities of modern screens. The ability to show millions of colors using densely packed pixels can wash out a lot of the definition that colorblind people would otherwise see using older TVs. Spectral Edge, a spin-out company of the University of East Anglia, is now making its image enhancement technology available for televisions to allow colorblind folks to see their favorite shows better.

 

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Microneedles Allow Samping Interstitial Fluid, Deliver Drugs Painlessly (VIDEO)
by Editors on Dec 9, 2014

Researchers at Queens University Belfast have been working for the last few years on a new microneedle patch that may help us say goodbye to the fear of needles, needle stick injuries, and having to convince children that it’s all for their own good.

The microneedles are manufactured from a biocompatible polymer and when pressed against the skin are able to absorb interstitial fluid and swell up in response. This allows a drug chamber on the opposite end of the needles to empty its contents through the needles and deliver the medication in a controlled manner into the skin. Once the patch is removed, the swollen microneedles never go back to their sharp shape and cannot be administered to another person. Not having a pre-loaded drug within the patch allows for easy sampling of interstitial fluid that holds a lot of clues to the person’s current state of health.

 

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Clothes that can monitor and transmit biomedical info
Clothes that can monitor and transmit biomedical info
Researchers at Université Laval in Canada have developed "smart textiles" able to monitor and transmit wearers' biomedical information via wireless or cellular networks.

This technological breakthrough, described in the scientific journal Sensors, paves the way for a host of new developments for people suffering from chronic diseases, elderly people living alone, and even firemen and police officers. A team under the supervision of Professor Younès Messaddeq created the smart fabric by successfully superimposing multiple layers of copper, polymers, glass and silver.

"The fibre acts as both sensor and antenna," explains Professor Messaddeq, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Photonic Innovations. "It is durable but malleable, and can be woven with wool or cotton. And signal quality is comparable to commercial antennas." The surface of the fibre can also be adjusted to monitor a range of information such as glucose levels, heart rhythm, brain activity, movements and spatial coordinates.

The design is based on hollow-core polymer-clad silica fibres, featuring a thick polyimide polymer overcoat. This enables it to withstand high tensile and bending stresses, mechanical abrasion, extreme heat conditions (up to 350°C), humidity, water, detergent or acidic environments. A patent application has already been filed, though certain elements still need to be fine-tuned before the innovation is ready for commercialisation.

"Of course, the technology will have to be connected to a wireless network – and there is the issue of power supply to be solved," notes Messaddeq. "We have tested a number of solutions, and the results are promising."

 

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Potential cure for hepatitis B enters phase 1/2a clinical trial

A new treatment developed by Walter and Eliza Hall Institute researchers to promote the cure of chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is now recruiting patients for a phase I/2a clinical trial.

Dr Marc Pellegrini, Dr Greg Ebert and colleagues developed the new treatment in collaboration with TetraLogic Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company based in Malvern, Pennsylvania, US. The clinical trial will be held at sites across Australia and New Zealand, including Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland.

NANOBOTS DEFEAT NEARLY EVERY DISEASE

Surgeries. We do not like them but sometimes we can not avoid them. Before a surgery you feel a bit afraid and worried. But who would not be. Surgeries today are very complicated and they are often very risky. Imagine in near future you arrive to the hospital and instead of being prepared by an anesthesist for the surgery a surgeon pulls out a syringe. Inside the syringe there are millions of tiny robots that will be injected into your bloodstream and cure you. These tiny machines will autonomously locate the place they need to be in. They will excise out the injured issue and remove dead cells. Then they will stimulate and guide the growth of new cells across the issue gaps. Furthermore they will release drugs that relieve pain. And all the while you are reading the newspaper or watching television in the hospital. As soon as the robots completed their job they simply disintegrate and disappear from the bloodstream, the next day. Such robots have been in vision by people like Eric Drexler and Ray Kurzweil already 30 years ago. Today, they exist!

 

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http://medicalxpress...ents-aging.html

In a study published today by Nature, researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center used a microscopic worm (C. elegans) to identify a new path that could lead to drugs to slow aging and the chronic diseases that often accompany it—and might even lead to better cosmetics.

The Joslin team looked at how treatments known to boost longevity in the one-millimeter long C. elegans (including calorie restriction and treatment with the drug rapamycin) affected the expression of genes that produce collagen and other proteins that make up the extra-cellular matrix (ECM), the framework of scaffolding that supports tissues, organs and bones.

 

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Biopsy-Free Cervical Cancer Detection Tool In The Works
by Editors on Dec 15, 2014

Researchers from Central South University in China have now shown that cervical cancer may be spotted using a photoacoustic technique that analyzes the screened tissue in-depth and doesn’t involve a nowadays standard biopsy.

Photoacoustics involves beaming light at an object and detecting sound waves that form within the object due to the light’s excitation. The team used samples of healthy and cancerous cervical tissue from real patients and embedded them within phantoms to simulate sampling through real tissue. Special software was used to analyze the data gathered from the photoacoustic transducers. The investigators were able not only to detect the cancerous lesions, but to also identify what stage they were in.

Durabook P24 Review: A Solid All-In-One Clinical Computer
by Editors on Dec 15, 2014

Clinical computers are still traditional PCs connected to separate monitors. All-in-one computers, like the Durabook P24 from GammaTech Computer Corporation reviewed here, combine a fully capable computer within the back of a large high resolution display and allow for easy transportation between rooms, take up less space, need fewer cords, and make life a little easier for clinicians that use them and tech support folks that maintain them. We spent a couple weeks using the Durabook P24, an all-in-one computer developed for clinical applications, and would like to share our findings about this interesting new product.

DESIGN: The P24 certainly looks slick, having nothing but a curved white bezel surrounding its 24-inch high-definition touchscreen. Besides an embedded webcam near the top and a small proximity sensor near the bottom, the front is visually sterile and doesn’t have any buttons, lights, jacks, or anything else to distract the user. Conveniently, the same design principle prevents any splashes or spills from damaging ports and dirty hands from accidentally touching the power button.

 

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Zinc blood test could lead to early diagnosis of breast cancer
By Karen Sprey
December 15, 2014

Early diagnosis of breast cancer could one day be possible via a simple blood test that detects changes in zinc in the body. Scientists have taken techniques normally used for studying climate change and planetary formation and shown that changes in the isotopic composition of zinc, which is detectable in breast tissue, may help identify a "biomarker" (a measurable indicator) of early breast cancer.

 

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Thumbs-up for mind-controlled robotic arm (w/ Video)

One of four new hand movements from the 10-D control of the robotic arm. Credit: Journal of Neural Engineering/IOP Publishing
Thumbs-up for mind-controlled robotic arm w Video

A paralysed woman who controlled a robotic arm using just her thoughts has taken another step towards restoring her natural movements by controlling the arm with a range of complex hand movements.

Thanks to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh, Jan Scheuermann, who has longstanding quadriplegia and has been taking part in the study for over two years, has gone from giving "high fives" to the "thumbs-up" after increasing the manoeuvrability of the robotic arm from seven dimensions (7D) to 10 dimensions (10D).

The extra dimensions come from four hand movements—finger abduction, a scoop, thumb extension and a pinch—and have enabled Jan to pick up, grasp and move a range of objects much more precisely than with the previous 7D control.

It is hoped that these latest results, which have been published today, 17 December, in IOP Publishing's Journal of Neural Engineering, can build on previous demonstrations and eventually allow robotic arms to restore natural arm and hand movements in people with upper limb paralysis.

 

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Scientists reduce blood sugar levels in mice by remote control
By Nick Lavars
December 16, 2014

Sufferers of type 1 diabetes regularly need to inject themselves with insulin in order to regulate levels of sugar in their blood, a process that is invasive and requires particular care. But a new study conducted at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute suggests that more comfortable treatment methods may not be all that far away, with scientists remotely manipulating insulin production in mice using electromagnetic waves.

 

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Cure for Alzheimer's closer
by JAMES CHAPMAN, Daily Mail

A treatment to reverse Alzheimer's Disease could be available in five years, it has been revealed.

Experiments on mice have indicated that a new vaccine not only halts the advance of the disease, but repairs damage already done.

It could also be given to patients whose families have a history of Alzheimer's, to prevent them developing the disease.

The research by British, American and Canadian scientists, was being hailed last night as the most significant breakthrough yet. Harry Cayton, chief executive of the Alzheimer's Society, said: 'This really does make us optimistic.'

A growing number of elderly and even middle-aged people are being struck down by the degenerative brain disease, which has some 500,000 sufferers in Britain alone. It causes untold misery to families who are left to care for loved ones who may no longer recognise them.

The vaccine attacks the build-up of a protein called beta-amyloid, which forms a damaging waxy plaque on brain cells. The latest research, reported today in the scienctific journal Nature, suggests the drug not only removes the proteins but can restore mental functions.

Clinical trials of the vaccine, which is

called Betabloc and made by Dublin-based Elan Pharmaceuticals, are already under way in the UK.

Preliminary results appear to show it is safe and has no side-effects. About 80 patients with mild to moderate forms of Alzheimer's are taking part in a second set of safety trials, which are close to completion.

The breakthrough came as researchers worked with mice genetically engineered to develop a disease similar to Alzheimer's.

Read more: Cure for Alzheimer s closer Daily Mail Online
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

 

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Scientists developing drug that could prevent sun-related aging of skin
By Ben Coxworth
December 18, 2014

Excessive exposure to sunlight is the leading cause of skin deterioration, causing it to age prematurely. We need some exposure, however, in order to synthesize vitamin D – plus who wants to stay in the shade all the time? Using a good sunscreen definitely helps, although scientists from the University of British Columbia are taking things a step farther – they're developing a drug that could ultimately prevent the sunlight-related aging of skin.