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----(Reuters) - Plain old bad luck plays a major role in determining who gets cancer and who does not, according to researchers who found that two-thirds of cancer incidence of various types can be blamed on random mutations and not heredity or risky habits like smoking.
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - All those fevers, headaches and achy muscles mean one thing: The flu is getting to more people and making them sicker than usual this winter.
Scientists from Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine have discovered a potential treatment that may steer cancer cells toward their own destruction. The study focused on a particular gene that was found to influence levels of a tumor-fighting protein called 53BP1, the heightened presence of which makes cancer cells more vulnerable to existing forms of treatment.
If you follow sports at all, then you've probably heard about athletes rupturing their ACL, or anterior cruciate ligament. It connects the femur to the tibia, and once it breaks, it's incapable of healing. Treatment most often involves reconstructing the ACL using grafts from the patellar tendon, which connects the patella (aka the kneecap) to the tibia – although this can present problems of its own. Now, scientists at Northwestern University in Illinois are creating a man-made replacement ACL, which could make treatment much more effective.
New research demonstrates that obesity does not always go hand in hand with metabolic changes in the body that can lead to diabetes, heart disease and stroke.
In a study at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, researchers found that a subset of obese people do not have common metabolic abnormalities associated with obesity, such as insulin resistance, abnormal blood lipids (high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol), high blood pressure and excess liver fat.
In addition, obese people who didn't have these metabolic problems when the study began did not develop them even after they gained more weight.
The findings are published Jan. 2 in The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Open any introductory biology textbook and one of the first things you’ll learn is that our DNA spells out the instructions for making proteins, tiny machines that do much of the work in our body’s cells. Results from a study published on Jan. 2 in Science defy textbook science, showing for the first time that the building blocks of a protein, called amino acids, can be assembled without blueprints – DNA and an intermediate template called messenger RNA (mRNA). A team of researchers has observed a case in which another protein specifies which amino acids are added.
There’s no doubt that cancer is one of the world’s most vicious diseases. For decades, scientists have been trying to find a cure for cancer, a terminal illness that kills 8 million people worldwide every year. With 14 million new cancer cases diagnosed around the globe every year, according to the World Health Organization, the need for prevention is vital. Now, an Israeli biotechnology company is developing a vaccine for cancer, which is not designed to treat the disease – but to prevent it from returning.
Vaxil BioTherapeutics, based in Nes Ziona, Israel, has spent over half a decade developing ImMucin, a prophylactic cancer vaccine, which can trigger a response in about 90 percent of all types of cancer, according to the company.
Immunotherapy: A hybrid cross between a vaccine and a drug
“Vaxil is developing a drug to keep the cancer from coming back,” Julian Levy, Vaxil’s CFO, tells NoCamels.com. “We are trying to harness the natural power of the immune system to fight against cancer by seeking out cancer cells and destroying them.”
Levy explains that ImMucin is not a replacement for traditional cancer treatments such as chemotherapy or radiation. Rather, the company is targeting a different stage in the patient’s battle against cancer, specifically the early stages of the detection, as well as during remission. That’s why, unfortunately, the drug won’t be helpful to many cancer patients – specifically those who are in advanced stages of the disease – because it requires a relatively healthy body to be fully effective.
Even though ImMucin is a vaccine, it is given to people who are already sick, unlike traditional vaccines. So, while ImMucin’s scientific mechanism is one of a vaccine, from the point of view of the patient, it acts exactly like a drug that has physiological effects when introduced to the body.
According to a new study published in Science Translational Medicine, researchers have tested a potential anti-aging drug called everolimus (AKA RAD001) — an analog (version) of the drug rapamycin (sirolimus)*.
In previous research, rapamycin extended the life span of mice by 9 to 14%, even when treatment was initiated late in life, and it improved a variety of aging-related conditions in old mice, including tendon stiffening, cardiac dysfunction, cognitive decline, and decreased mobility.
Progress in Rotator Cuff Repair Extends to the LabAs Gregory Gilot, MD, further refines his scaffold-based augmentation technique in Florida (see related post), his colleagues at Cleveland Clinic’s main campus have been developing novel fiber-reinforced extracellular matrix (ECM) scaffolds for musculoskeletal soft tissue repair.
A Cleveland Clinic team led by Kathleen Derwin, PhD, saw its patent-pending design for a reinforced allograft fascia lata patch receive 510(k) clearance from the FDA in November 2012. The patch was approved for use in reinforcing soft tissues repaired by sutures or suture anchors during tendon repair surgery, including reinforcement of rotator cuff, patellar, Achilles, biceps and other tendons.
When we eat a meal, our body detects that we've consumed calories and responds by burning fat in order to make room for them. The catch for the weight-conscious is that if we don't burn off those newly-arrived calories, they just end up being stored as more fat. For people with metabolic disorders or other conditions, exercise just isn't enough to keep that from happening. Soon, however, a newly-developed drug could help. It triggers the body's "burning fat to make space for calories" response, even when the patient hasn't eaten anything.
The first new antibiotic to be discovered in nearly 30 years has been hailed as a ‘paradigm shift’ in the fight against the growing resistance to drugs.
Teixobactin has been found to treat many common bacterial infections such as tuberculosis, septicaemia and C. diff, and could be available within five years.
But more importantly it could pave the way for a new generation of antibiotics because of the way it was discovered.
Scientists have always believed that the soil was teeming with new and potent antibiotics because bacteria have developed novel ways to fight off other microbes.
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NuVascular Technologies (Ashland, MA) has partnered with Worcester Polytechnic Institute and BioSurfaces, Inc. (Ashland, MA) to introduce the BioGenerator stem cell device for clinical applications. The device holds stem cells produced at Worcester from adult bone marrow cells. It can either be attached to the heart wall or injected into cardiac tissue via a catheter.
The electrospun vesicle allows stem cells within to release proteins and growth factors directly into the heart to motivate production of new myocytes. The stem cells themselves stay put and can be removed at any time by explanting the BioGenerator. The hope is that the system will serve as a functional treatment option for hearts damaged by infarcts, eclipsing many current therapies that only marginally and temporarily address the problem.
Great balls of cells! Scientists are developing mock human organs that can fit in the palm of your hand.
These organs-on-a-chip are designed to test drugs and help understand the basics of how organs function when they are healthy and when they are diseased.
The decades-long drought in antibiotic discovery could be over after a breakthrough by US scientists.
Their novel method for growing bacteria has yielded 25 new antibiotics, with one deemed "very promising".
The last new class of antibiotics to make it to clinic was discovered nearly three decades ago.
The study, in the journal Nature, has been described as a "game-changer" and experts believe the antibiotic haul is just the "tip of the iceberg".
The heyday of antibiotic discovery was in the 1950s and 1960s, but nothing found since 1987 has made it into doctor's hands.
Since then microbes have become incredibly resistant. Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis ignores nearly everything medicine can throw at it.
Back to soil
The researchers, at the Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, turned to the source of nearly all antibiotics - soil.
This is teeming with microbes, but only 1% can be grown in the laboratory.
The team created a "subterranean hotel" for bacteria. One bacterium was placed in each "room" and the whole device was buried in soil.
It allowed the unique chemistry of soil to permeate the room, but kept the bacteria in place for study.
The scientists involved believe they can grow nearly half of all soil bacteria.
Chemicals produced by the microbes, dug up from one researchers back yard, were then tested for antimicrobial properties.
The lead scientist, Prof Kim Lewis, said: "So far 25 new antibiotics have been discovered using this method and teixobactin is the latest and most promising one.
"[The study shows] uncultured bacteria do harbour novel chemistry that we have not seen before. That is a promising source of new antimicrobials and will hopefully help revive the field of antibiotic discovery."
Bacteria
Tests on teixobactin showed it was toxic to bacteria, but not mammalian tissues, and could clear a deadly dose of MRSA in tests on mice.
Human tests are now needed.
The researchers also believe that bacteria are unlikely to develop resistance to teixobactin.
It targets fats which are essential for building the bacterial cell wall, and the scientists argue it would be difficult to evolve resistance.
"Here is an antibiotic that essentially evolved to be free of resistance," said Prof Lewis. "We haven't seen that before.
"It has several independent different tricks that minimise resistance development."
Scientists from Oregon State University (OSU) have developed a new method that could make for better precision in the killing of cancer cells. The technique puts to use a unique compound with the ability to illuminate cancerous cells when exposed to near-infrared light, potentially acting as markers for surgeons taking on the intricate task of tumor removal.
Three years ago, scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) reported success in getting rats with severed spinal cords to walk again. They did so by suspending the animals in a harness, then using implants to electrically stimulate neurons in their lower spinal cord. Although this ultimately resulted in the rats being able to run on their previously-paralyzed hind legs, the technology still wasn't practical for long-term use in humans. Thanks to new research conducted at EPFL, however, that may no longer be the case.
dBMEDx, a company with offices in Denver, Colorado and Bellevue, Washington, won FDA clearance to introduce its BBS Revolution automated bladder volume measurement device. It’s intended to help clinicians assess whether a patient really needs that catheter that is so often the source of urinary tract infections.
The ultrasound device requires only a squeeze of gel and a short sweep across the abdomen while pressing down the trigger on the handle. The system automatically calculates bladder volume and displays the reading on the screen. The whole process takes minutes to complete, doesn’t require much training, and can be done by staff not trained in using ultrasound equipment. While the system is easy to use, the underlying technology is fairly complicated, producing a true 3D volume dataset using multiple b-mode slices that allows the measurement of the bladder.
In Palo Alto in the heart of Silicon Valley, hedge fund manager Joon Yun is doing a back-of-the-envelope calculation. According to US social security data, he says, the probability of a 25-year-old dying before their 26th birthday is 0.1%. If we could keep that risk constant throughout life instead of it rising due to age-related disease, the average person would – statistically speaking – live 1,000 years. Yun finds the prospect tantalising and even believable. Late last year he launched a $1m prize challenging scientists to “hack the code of life” and push human lifespan past its apparent maximum of about 120 years (the longest known/confirmed lifespan was 122 years).
Research carried out at the University of California and the University of Barcelona has uncovered an enzyme inhibitor found to prevent and reverse the effects of diabetes in obese mice. In addition to discovering a potential form of treatment for the disease, scientists say the study has shone new light on healthy properties of fatty acids.
Cataract is one of the most common eye diseases, becoming more prevalent as people age. Over half of adults in the United States develop cataracts before age 80 and more than six million have undergone surgery to prevent vision loss caused by the clouding of the eye lens.
Now, a team of scientists have established that a breakdown in communication between two biochemical pathways in the eye is involved in causing cataracts. The new information could help researchers develop pharmaceutical and dietary approaches to delaying the onset of cataracts. Scientists from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University led the study in mice and their results are published in the January 12-16 Online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
In a laboratory first, Duke researchers have grown human skeletal muscle that contracts and responds just like native tissue to external stimuli such as electrical pulses, biochemical signals and pharmaceuticals.
The lab-grown tissue should soon allow researchers to test new drugs and study diseases in functioning human muscle outside of the human body.
The study was led by Nenad Bursac, associate professor of biomedical engineering at Duke University, and Lauran Madden, a postdoctoral researcher in Bursac's laboratory. It appears January 13 in the open-access journal eLife
