Latest advances in medical research thread

Complex Body Parts Could Soon Be Lab-Grown

Within a generation, there may be no limit to the kinds of organs and body parts that can be created from scratch.
http://news.discovery.com/human/stem-cell-complex-body-parts-121017.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1
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Scientists are getting better and better at creating human organs in the lab -- soon it may be possible to grow complex organs such as kidneys and hearts.


Various groups of scientists have recently created thyroid cells in the lab, grown a new ear in the skin a woman's own arm, and won a Nobel Prize for figuring out how to reprogram cells so that they can turn into a variety of cell types.

In the future, there may be no limit to the kinds of organs and body parts that can be created from scratch.

One hope is to make donor organs obsolete, or at least far less necessary, eliminating long waiting lists for transplants. By using a patient's own cells, the new wave of regenerative medicine also circumvents ethical arguments and reduces the chance that recipients will reject their new parts.
 
Drug From Chinese ‘Thunder God Vine’ Slays Tumors in Mice

Drug From Chinese

By Drew Armstrong - 2012-10-17T18:00:00Z
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A drug made from a plant known as “thunder god vine,” or lei gong teng, that has been used in traditional Chinese medicine, wiped out pancreatic tumors in mice, researchers said, and may soon be tested in humans.

Mice treated with the compound showed no signs of tumors after 40 days or after discontinuing the treatment, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota’s Masonic Cancer Center. The research, funded by the university and the National Institutes of Health. was published today in the journal Science Translational Medicine.


“This drug is just unbelievably potent in killing tumor cells,” said Ashok Saluja, vice chairman of research at the center and the study’s leader, said in a telephone interview. “You could see that every day you looked at those mice, the tumor was decreasing and decreasing, and then just gone.”

The plant, also known as Tripterygium wilfordii, contains triptolide, which earlier studies have shown can cause cancer cells to die. In traditional Chinese medicine, the plant is used as a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. While the researchers hope to start human trials in six months, Saluja said it’s still a long leap from mice to people.
 
Rejuvenation of senescent cells-the road to postponing human aging and age-related disease
Rejuvenation of senescent cells-the road to postponing human aging and age-related disease

Making old cells younger either by making old cells into young stem cells or by effecting the TOR pathway for cells inside of old patients.


Cellular senescence is the state of permanent inhibition of cell proliferation. Replicative senescence occurs due to the end replication problem and shortening telomeres with each cell division leading to DNA damage response (DDR). The number of short telomeres increases with age and age-related pathologies. Stress induced senescence, although not accompanied by attrition of telomeres, is also attributed to DDR induced by irreparable DNA lesions in telomeric DNA. Senescent cells characterized by the presence of γH2AX, the common marker of double DNA strand breaks, and other senescence markers including activity of SA-β-gal, accumulate in tissues of aged animals and humans as well as at sites of pathology. It is believed that cellular senescence evolved as a cancer barrier since non-proliferating senescent cells cannot be transformed to neoplastic cells. On the other hand senescent cells favor cancer development, just like other age-related pathologies, by creating a low grade inflammatory state due to senescence associated secretory phenotype (SASP). Reversal/inhibition of cellular senescence could prolong healthy life span, thus many attempts have been undertaken to influence cellular senescence. The two main approaches are genetic and pharmacological/nutritional modification of cell fate. The first one concerns cell reprogramming by induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), which in vitro is effective even in cells undergoing senescence, or derived from very old or progeroid patients. The second approach concerns modification of senescence signaling pathways just like TOR-induced by pharmacological or with natural agents. However, knowing that aging is unavoidable we cannot expect its elimination, but prolonging healthy life span is a goal worth serious consideration.
 
Pioneering lab-grown 'kidney' does its job in animals
22:00 18 October 2012 by Andy Coghlan

A kidney-like organ grown from scratch in the lab has been shown to work in animals – an achievement that could be the prelude to growing spare kidneys for someone from their own stem cells.

Donated kidneys are in huge demand worldwide. In the UK alone, there are 7200 people on the waiting list – a state of affairs that the new study takes a small step towards ending.

Christodoulos Xinaris of the Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research in Bergamo, Italy, and his colleagues extracted cells from the kidneys of mouse embryos as they grew in the mother. The cells formed clumps that could be grown for a week in the lab to become "organoids" containing the fine plumbing of nephrons – the basic functional unit of the kidney. A human kidney can contain over 1 million nephrons.

Pioneering lab-grown 'kidney' does its job in animals - life - 18 October 2012 - New Scientist
 
Da Vinci robot heart surgery at New Cross Hospital
By Michele Paduano

Surgeons have carried out the first ever robotic open-heart operations in Britain at the New Cross Hospital in Wolverhampton.

The Da Vinci robot is remotely controlled by surgeons who are given a high definition view of the heart through a sophisticated camera.

Natalie Jones, of Stourbridge, 22, was the first patient to have the procedure to have a hole in her heart repaired.

Doctors claim the operation is safer for patients than conventional surgery.

Normal heart surgery involves cutting open the breast plate, but the robotic arms are inserted by making cuts between the patient's ribs.

A surgeon is given a 3D, high-definition view of the heart and can move the arms using a control panel.

Natalie Jones said she liked the idea of being the first
Each time they move their hand 3mm, the robot arm moves just 1mm.

Heart surgeon Stephen Billing said: "There is less pain and patients are able to return home to their normal activities far sooner."

Mrs Jones had a 3.5cm (1.3in) hole in her heart repaired during surgery which lasted nine hours.

BBC News - Da Vinci robot heart surgery at New Cross Hospital
 
Assembly of nano-machines mimics human muscle
October 23, 2012
For the first time, an assembly of thousands of nano-machines capable of producing a coordinated contraction movement extending up to around ten micrometers, like the movements of muscular fibers, has been synthesized by a CNRS team from the Institut Charles Sadron. This innovative work, headed by Nicolas Giuseppone, professor at the Université de Strasbourg, and involving researchers from the Laboratoire de Matière et Systèmes Complexes (CNRS/Université Paris Diderot), provides an experimental validation of a biomimetic approach that has been conceptualized for some years in the field of nanosciences.
Read more at: Assembly of nano-machines mimics human muscle

http://www-ics.u-strasbg.fr/spip.php?article646

I give you another white man!!!
 
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Granny says, "Dat's right...
:cool:
Longevity Traced to Grandmothers
October 24, 2012 - In modern society, grandmothers are often called upon to babysit. But a few million years ago, when primate grandmothers first started doing that, they apparently had a major impact on human evolution. Scientists believe it’s a big reason why we live much longer than other primates. It’s called the “grandmother hypothesis.”
University of Utah Anthropology Professor Kristen Hawkes says humans are distinct among primates when it comes to longevity. “One of the things that’s really different about us humans, compared to our closest living relatives, the other great apes, is that we have these really long lifespans. We reach adulthood later and then we have much longer adult lives. And an especially important thing about that is that women usually live through the childbearing years and are healthy and productive well beyond,” she said.

Other primates are not as lucky. “In other great apes, females, if they make it to adulthood, they usually die in their childbearing years and they get to be old, frail and gray and less able to do all the things that we associate with getting old. Well, of course, it happens to all of us, but it happens slower and later to us compared to the other great apes,” she said.

Hawkes said climate change may have set things in motion by affecting food supplies. Savannahs started replacing forests in Africa. “One of the things it did was restrict the availability of the kinds of things that little kids, little apes, can feed themselves on. So that meant that ancestral moms had two choices. They could either follow the retreating forests, or if they stayed in those environments, then they just would have to feed their kids themselves. The kids couldn’t do it,” she said.

So, if mothers decided to feed their offspring themselves they would not be able to give birth as often. They’d just be too busy finding food. Here’s where granny primate steps in to help. She said, “It would also mean that older females, whose fertility was coming to an end, could now make a big difference in their fitness by helping their daughters feed those grandchildren. And that would mean that moms could wean earlier.” The act of early babysitting had long-range effects.

More Longevity Traced to Grandmothers
 
New Gene Therapy Method Tested in Human Cells ... and It Works, Researchers Report
New gene therapy method tested in human cells ... and it works, researchers report

ScienceDaily (Oct. 24, 2012) — Oregon Health & Science University's development of a new gene therapy method to prevent certain inherited diseases has reached a significant milestone. Researchers at the university's Oregon National Primate Research Center and the OHSU Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology have successfully demonstrated their procedure in human cells. It's believed that this research, along with other efforts, will pave the way for future clinical trials in human subjects.


The research results are online Oct. 24, in the journal Nature. Dr. Mitalipov also will present the results of his research at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine Conference in San Diego Oct. 24

The OHSU gene therapy method was initially devised through research in nonhuman primates led by Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., associate scientist in the Division of Reproductive & Developmental Sciences at ONPRC, Oregon Stem Cell Center and OHSU School of Medicine departments of Obstetrics and Gynecology and Molecular and Medical Genetics.

The procedure was specifically developed to prevent diseases related to gene defects in the cell mitochondria. Mitalipov's previous work was published in the August 2009 edition of Nature. In the current study, Mitalipov, in collaboration with Paula Amato, M.D., associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the OHSU Center for Women's Health, demonstrated efficacy of this therapy in human gametes and embryos.
 
Genetic switch shuts down lung cancer tumors in mice
October 25, 2012
Yale researchers manipulated a tiny genetic switch and halted growth of aggressive lung cancer tumors in mice and even prevented tumors from forming.

The activation of a single microRNA managed to neutralize the effects of two of the most notorious genes in cancer's arsenal, suggesting it may have a role treating several forms of cancer, the researchers report in the Nov. 1 issue of the journal Cancer Research. "This is pretty much the best pre-clinical data that show microRNAs can be effective in lung cancer treatment," said Frank Slack, professor of molecular, cellular & developmental biology, researcher for the Yale Cancer Center, and senior author of the paper. "These cancer genes are identical to ones found in many forms of human cancers and we are hopeful the microRNA will be of therapeutic benefit in human cancer."

Read more at: Genetic switch shuts down lung cancer tumors in mice
 
Golden solution to inexpensive test for HIV
18:00 28 October 2012 by Debora MacKenzie

Gold usually means extravagance, but now it could be the key to making vital medical tests cheaper.

People in poor countries often do not get timely treatment for cancer or infections, because diagnostic tests that can spot diseases early are too expensive. Now, a team at Imperial College London have figured out that gold could be the solution.

One common type of diagnostic test is the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). It uses a tiny dish coated with antibodies that bind to a target molecule from a germ or tumour cell present in blood serum. A second lot of antibodies are then added that attach themselves to the bound targets. These antibodies carry an enzyme that can be made to change colour by adding a chemical. The colour change is measured by machine to determine the presence and concentration of the germ or tumour cells. Unfortunately, the machines are expensive.

Molly Stevens and her colleagues have done away with the need for machines by devising a "plasmonic ELISA" – a test which gives results readable with the naked eye. What's more, it is more sensitive than the best tests for HIV currently available.
Golden solution to inexpensive test for HIV - health - 28 October 2012 - New Scientist
 
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New micropumps for hand-held medical labs produce pressures 500 times higher than car tire


In an advance toward analyzing blood and urine instantly at a patient's bedside instead of waiting for results from a central laboratory, scientists are reporting development of a new micropump capable of producing pressures almost 500 times higher than the pressure in a car tire. Described in ACS' journal Analytical Chemistry, the pumps are for futuristic "labs-on-a-chip," which reduce entire laboratories to the size of a postage stamp.

Shaorong Liu and colleagues explain that powerful pumps are critical for high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), a mainstay laboratory testing technology used in medical diagnosis, drug screening and numerous other purposes. HPLC can analyze 80 percent of all known chemical compounds. Scientists are trying to miniaturize HPLC for handheld devices, which would eliminate the need to send samples to central labs and wait for the results. One stumbling block, however, is the lack of suitable small, powerful pumps to push samples through HPLC devices.

They describe invention of a device six times more powerful than the best existing pump of this kind. Linked together in series, their electroosmotic pumps can produce more than 17,000 pounds per square inch of pressure. The pumps use electroosmotic flow, in which an electrical current makes charged particles flow through a narrow channel. The new pumps could produce even higher pressures, the scientists report.

Read more at: New micropumps for hand-held medical labs produce pressures 500 times higher than car tire
 
http://www.scienceda...21101121532.htm


Quote


ScienceDaily (Nov. 1, 2012) — A gene that is associated with regeneration of injured nerve cells has been identified by scientists at Penn State University and Duke University. The team, led by Melissa Rolls, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State, has found that a mutation in a single gene can entirely shut down the process by which axons -- the parts of the nerve cell that are responsible for sending signals to other cells -- regrow themselves after being cut or damaged. "We are hopeful that this discovery will open the door to new research related to spinal-cord and other neurological disorders in humans," Rolls said.
 
Gene therapy: Glybera approved by European Commission
By James Gallagher

BBC News - Gene therapy: Glybera approved by European Commission

A treatment which corrects errors in a person's genetic code has been approved for commercial use in Europe for the first time.

The European Commission has given Glybera marketing authorisation, meaning it can be sold throughout the EU.

It is a gene therapy for a rare disease which leaves people unable to properly digest fats.

The manufacturers say it will be available next year.

Gene therapy has a simple premise. If there is a problem with part of a patient's genetic code then change the code.

However, the field has been plagued with problems. Patients have developed leukaemia and in one trial in the US a teenager died.

In Europe and the US, the therapies are used only in research labs.

Fat problems

Glybera is used to treat lipoprotein lipase deficiency. One in a million people have damaged copies of a gene which is essential for breaking down fats.

It means fat builds up in the blood leading to abdominal pain and life-threatening inflammation of the pancreas (pancreatitis).
 
New device could allow your heartbeat to power pacemaker
November 4, 2012
An experimental device converted energy from a beating heart to provide enough electricity to power a pacemaker, in a study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2012.

The findings suggest that patients could power their pacemakers—eliminating the need for replacements when batteries are spent. In a preliminary study, researchers tested an energy-harvesting device that uses piezoelectricity—electrical charge generated from motion. The approach is a promising technological solution for pacemakers, because they require only small amounts of power to operate, said M. Amin Karami, Ph.D., lead author of the study and research fellow in the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Piezoelectricity might also power other implantable cardiac devices like defibrillators, which also have minimal energy needs, he said. Today's pacemakers must be replaced every five to seven years when their batteries run out, which is costly and inconvenient, Karami said.
Read more at: New device could allow your heartbeat to power pacemaker
 
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Cystic kidney growth curbed

Several million people worldwide suffer from the genetic disorder polycystic kidney disease. Previously, only the symptoms of the disease could be treated. Teaming up with colleagues, researchers from the University of Zurich have now succeeded in curbing the growth of these cysts in humans.

Autosomal-dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is one of the most common genetic disorders, affecting one in every 1,000 people and responsible for up to ten percent of patients on dialysis worldwide. The disease is characterized by the development of cysts that lead to progressive kidney failure and necessitate dialysis or a kidney transplant in most patients aged around fifty. Moreover, the persistent cyst growth causes high blood pressure and painful complications. Although we have known about the disease for over a century and its genetic basis for almost 20 years, there was no effective treatment until now.

Kidneys stopped growing

“Our study highlights a potential treatment that reduces kidney growth and the associated symptoms and slows the decline in kidney function,” explains Professor Olivier Devuyst from the Institute of Physiology at the University of Zurich – one of the chief researchers in the phase-three clinical trial just published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Over 1,400 patients were given tolvaptan over a three-year period at 129 centers worldwide. The drug is a selective V2 vasopressin receptor antagonist that lessens the effect of the antidiuretic (urine-concentrating) vasopressin hormone and increases urination.

UZH Mediadesk - Cystic kidney growth curbed
 
One test may 'find many cancers'


Targeting just one chemical inside cancerous cells could one day lead to a single test for a broad range of cancers, researchers say.

The same system could then be used to deliver precision radiotherapy.

Scientists told the National Cancer Research Institute conference they had been able to find breast cancer in mice weeks before a lump had been detected.

The same target chemical was also present in cancers of the lung, skin, kidney and bladder, they said.

The team, at the Gray Institute for Radiation Oncology and Biology at Oxford University, were looking for a protein, called gamma-H2AX, which is produced in response to damaged DNA. This tends to be one of the first steps on the road to a cell becoming cancerous.

Forming tumours

The scientists used an antibody that is the perfect partner to gamma-H2AX and able to seek it out in the body.

This was turned into a cancer test by attaching small amounts of radioactive material to the antibody. If the radiation gathered in one place it would be a sign of a potential tumour.

The researchers trialled the test on genetically modified mice, which are highly susceptible to forming tumours.

Prof Katherine Vallis said lumps could be felt when the mice were about 120 days old, but "we detected changes prior to that at 90 to 100 days - before a tumour is clinically apparent".

She told the BBC that gamma-H2AX was a "fairly general phenomenon" and it "would be the dream" to develop a single test for a wide range of cancers.

However this is still at a very early stage

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20179560
 
Human Disease Modeled in an Organ-On-A-Chip; 'Lung-On-A-Chip' Sets Stage for Next Wave of Research to Replace Animal Testing

ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2012) — Researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University have mimicked pulmonary edema in a microchip lined by living human cells, as reported November 7 in the journal Science Translation Medicine. They used this "lung-on-a-chip" to study drug toxicity and identify potential new therapies to prevent this life-threatening condition.
Human disease modeled in an organ-on-a-chip; 'Lung-on-a-chip' sets stage for next wave of research to replace animal testing

New portable device enables RNA detection from ultra-small sample in only 20 minutes

A new power-free microfluidic chip developed by researchers at the RIKEN Advanced Science Institute (ASI) enables detection of microRNA from extremely small sample volume in only 20 minutes. By drastically reducing the time and quantity of sample required for detection, the chip lays the groundwork for early-stage point-of-care diagnosis of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding RNA molecules that regulate gene expression in a wide range of biological processes including development, cell proliferation, differentiation and cell death (apoptosis). Concentration of certain miRNA in body fluids increases with the progression of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer's, generating hope that these short RNA may hold the key to faster, more accurate diagnosis. Currently available techniques for sensitive miRNA detection, however, require days to reach a diagnosis and involve equipment operated only by trained personnel, making them impractical for use in many situations.

The research team set out to overcome these obstacles by developing a device that enables fast, easy-to-use point-of-care (POC) diagnosis from only a very small sample. In earlier research, the team developed a device in the form of a microchip which uses polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a silicone compound known for its air absorption properties, to pull reagents into a capture probe for analysis. This pumping technique simplified design by eliminating the need for external power sources, but the device required a quantity of sample too large for practical applications.

http://phys.org/news/2012-11-portable-device-enables-rna-ultra-small.html
 
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