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University of Washington doctors and bioengineers who developed the material, called PolySTAT, report that it works by augmenting natural blood clotting after internal or external injuries.
“Most of the patients who die from bleeding die quickly,” said Dr. Nathan White, an assistant professor of emergency medicine who coauthored a study on the new macromolecule featured last week in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “This is something you could potentially put in a syringe inside a backpack and give right away to reduce blood loss and keep people alive long enough to make it to medical care.”
Swiss company Nanolive has created 3D Cell Explorer, a new technology that creates vibrantly detailed 3D holograms of living cells on the nanometric scale. Created through combining 3D imagery with digital staining, the new microscope offers researchers and hospitals a novel tool to non-invasively peer inside living cells almost in real time, opening up new areas of biological research.
Alzheimer's disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that most often begins in people over 65 years of age. Usually it starts slowly and continues to worsen over time until the sufferer succumbs to an increasing loss of memory, bodily functions and, eventually, death. Research has shown that there is an association with Alzheimer's and the accumulation of plaques that affect the neuronal connections in the brain. Now researchers at the University of Queensland have discovered a new way to remove these toxic plaques using a non-invasive form of ultrasound therapy.
As common a condition as it is, not only does asthma have no cure, but its direct causes remain unknown. New research now suggests that targeting a particular set of molecules could hamper the survival rate of some asthma-inducing cells, possibly paving the way for the development of a cure for the respiratory disease.
Recent research suggests it may be possible to reverse mitochondrial decay with dietary supplements that increase cellular levels of a molecule called NAD (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide). But caution is due: While there’s promising test-tube data and animal research regarding NAD boosters, no human clinical results on them have been published.
(Medical Xpress)—A bionic heart is under development in Houston, Texas, which has been steadily generating interest over the past several years. According to Dylan Baddour in the Houston Chronicle on Thursday, researchers said this could be the first feasible commercial replacement for the human heart (short lifespan of past attempted bionic hearts have limited their usefulness, said Baddour—the constant grind of moving parts will wear down a manufactured heart). The invention's roots are attributed to Daniel Timms, who is the founder of BiVACOR. Timms, a biomedical engineer from Australia, instigated the project in 2001 while studying at the Queensland University of Technology.
People taking an experimental drug called Repatha (evolocumab) for high cholesterol were half as likely to die or suffer a heart attack or stroke as those taking conventional statins, researchers said Sunday.
The findings were based on 4,465 patients who were studied for one year after completing an earlier phase of the drug's safety and efficacy testing.
Obese patients with atrial fibrillation who lost at least 10 percent of their body weight were six times more likely to achieve long-term freedom from this common heart rhythm disorder compared to those who did not lose weight, according to a study presented at the American College of Cardiology's 64th Annual Scientific Session. The study is the first to track the long-term effects of weight loss and the degree of weight fluctuation on atrial fibrillation burden. Patients who lost more weight and maintained a more stable weight over four years showed marked reductions in atrial fibrillation burden and severity, the study's primary endpoints.
Some of the top researchers on aging in the country are trying to get an unusual clinical trial up and running.
They want to test a pill that could prevent or delay some of the most debilitating diseases of old age, including Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular disease. The focus of the project isn’t to prolong life, although that could occur, but to make the last years or decades of people’s lives more fulfilling by postponing the onset of many chronic diseases until closer to death.
The project aims to tap into the growing body of research targeting aging, which has revealed a half dozen or more drugs that appear to delay the aging process in laboratory experiments on animals and observational studies of people. Some of the drugs also have been found to reduce the incidence of chronic diseases associated with old age.
A team at Stanford's School of Medicine has reportedly uncovered a potent new treatment method for combating one of leukemia's most aggressive forms -- and they did it pretty much by accident. While survival rates for B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a particularly nasty form of white blood cell cancer, have risen to about 85 percent over the past decade thanks to the advent of stem cell therapies, the prognosis for this disease in the presence of a Philadelphia chromosome mutation remains quite poor. But thanks to a chance observation by Dr. Scott McClellan, the Stanford team believes it's figured out way to neutralize the disease using its own cancerous cells against it.
Scientists at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia have developed a new drug-like molecule with the ability to inhibit a key signal that triggers inflammation in the body. The scientists say the molecule has already shown promise for putting the brakes on the progression of multiple sclerosis (MS).
A new blood test can help doctors tease out whether an infection is caused by a bacteria or a virus within two hours, research in Plos One suggests.
It could stop patients being given antibiotics when they are not needed, scientists say.
It is still at a laboratory stage but the team is working on a portable device too.
Independent experts say the work addresses a serious problem. Further studies are being carried out.
HealthDay)—An experimental drug may quickly quash symptoms of the digestive disorder Crohn's disease—at least for the short term, an early clinical trial finds.
A study of a potential Alzheimer’s disease treatment developed by the biotech company, Biogen Idec showed that the treatment was indeed effective in slowing cognitive decline in some patients.
According to Fox News, this comes from a report that started in December, when the company announced that the drug they were developing (aducanumab) reduced a type of plaque in the brain believed to play a key role in the disease. This plaque also has been shown to slow clinical impairment in patients with a mild form of the disease. As such, getting rid of this plaque could serve as a way to lessen the effects of Alzheimer’s.
Data gathered from a study of 166 people who received the largest dose of the drug, showed significant improvement over patients receiving placebo. This prompted the company to accelerate the development of the drug and move directly to a much larger late-stage study. What’s more, the drug also met all the safety goals. Typically, early-stage studies focus mainly on safety, while the late-stage focus more closely on efficacy. This later study is generally the final phase before a company submits a drug to regulators for approval, but these good early results have sped up the process.
As if the human population needed an excuse to drink more booze: Scientists have demonstrated that it is possible to genetically engineer yeast in such a way that it could improve the content of the health-boosting substances of wine and beer. And the icing on the cake? It could potentially reduce the amount of toxic byproducts that can contribute to that dreaded hangover. Praise science!
While blood tests are used to rule out other forms of arthritis, the diagnosis of osteoarthritis (OA) generally relies on physical symptoms, with X-rays or MRI scans used for conformation if required. But researchers at the University of Warwick in the UK have identified a biomarker for OA that could lead to a blood test that could diagnose it, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), years before physical symptoms present themselves.
Researchers from the University of Copenhagen are the first in the world to develop a secure way of measuring the important protein apo-M. This could prove relevant for research into diseases such as diabetes, arteriosclerosis and sclerosis.
Promising vaccine strategy for type 1 diabetes extended to humansA molecule that prevents Type 1 diabetes in mice has provoked an immune response in human cells, according to researchers at National Jewish Health and the University of Colorado. The findings, published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that a mutated insulin fragment could be used to prevent Type 1 diabetes in humans.
Air pollution is linked to a higher risk of stroke, particularly in developing countries, finds a study published in The BMJ today. In a second article, new research also shows that air pollution is associated with anxiety.
Stroke is a leading cause of death and kills around 5 million people each year worldwide. Common risk factors include obesity, smoking and high blood pressure. But the effect of the environment, such as, air pollution is uncertain because evidence is lacking.
In a systematic review and meta analysis, a team of researchers from Edinburgh University looked at the association between short term air pollution exposure and stroke related hospital admissions and deaths. In total, they analysed 103 observational studies that covered 28 countries across the world.
