Another step to the Bionic Man: Artificial Bone Marrow

http://insciences.org/articles.php?article_id=1024

This article shows the reliable creation of artificial human bone marrow. While not for direct transplant or donor purposes,  this bone marrow is said to be used in testing new drugs for chemotherapy,  as well as researching the effect of viruses and other diseases such as H1N1 and their effect on bone marrow, as well as blood production. This will begin to allow a greater effect of testing how chemotherapeutic drugs may or may not suppress our immune system, in order to find better drugs to fight cancer.  I'm excited for artificial bone marrow not only for the aforementioned reasons, but also for the possibilities.

This is just another example of how technology and research is improving medicine in a ridiculous time scale. From artificial bone marrow, we could start making not only bone marrow suitable to transplant (and remove the painful donor and biopsies currently in practice), but start a artificial blood service. Another step towards a 'bionic' man, and so many opportunities to improve cancer treatment,  or even eliminate leukemia or hemophilia are around the corner.

"Brain Pacemaker" to Treat Severe Anorexia

Several neurosurgeons from the University of Toronto have tried using a technique called deep brain stimulation to help patients suffering from severe anorexia. In this procedure tiny electrodes are implanted next to a region of the brain that is thought to be dysfunctional in these patients. The device, which contains similarities with a heart pacemaker, is connected to the electrodes and sends waves of electricity through the electrodes to stimulate that activity in the dysfunctional region while also quieting other regions.

The latest study was performed on 6 women with chronic anorexia of which 3 saw improvements about nine months after beginning treatment and 2 started to reach a normal body weight.  The developers of the treatment say that this device is not a magic cure-all but is meant to work together with the additional counseling of a psychiatrist and dietitian. The treatment is meant to lower anxiety and depression enough in patients so that they are able to take full advantage of their other therapies.  The technique is still experimental and risky (because it is brain surgery) and needs to be tested on a larger scale to determine its full effects on patients with anorexia but one of the researchers was quoted saying, "The primary objective of this study was to establish that this a safe procedure for these patients who have been quite ill before the surgery. That's all we can say right now."

This article is very important right now in America and the rest of the world because the incidence of anorexia is still climbing and "in about 20 to 30 percent of cases, the disease becomes a chronic condition that gets tougher and tougher to treat."  It seems that this disease is often overshadowed by its reverse, obesity, but still deserves the same amount of attention. If this procedure were able to become fully successful, that 20-30% of patients might be able to find relief. 

Click here for link.

Easy Way to Lose Weight

Link here.

Researchers at Harvard University, in collaboration with researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, have found that the microbes in the gut of mice change a lot after they have gastric bypass surgery. These researchers have taken these microbes out of the gastric bypass mice and placed them in the guts of mice who have not had gastric bypass surgery. The mice without bypass surgery lost 20% of the weight that the mice with bypass surgery lost, without even having a surgery.

The mice were not even put on a high fat diet before they were tested. If the mice had been put on a high fat diet before the microbes were put in, there may have been a greater percentage of weight loss. They do not yet know what mechanical changes happened to the microbes to make the high metabolism rate that they cause but they are now researching into it. Knowing this would give doctors a whole new way of dealing with patients who can't have or don't want surgery to help with obesity.

Although it works in mice, it may still be some time before they are able to replicate it in humans. But this will not be a quick fix for losing 10 pounds before beach season. This procedure would be fore those who are dangerously obese.

Before gastric bypass your gut is full of Firmicutes and Bacteroidetes but after the surgery it is full of Proteobacteria and low levels of Firmicutes. The drastic change in bacterial communities in the gut is where the major change in weight stems from. From all of the research they are doing they are finding that weight is more complicated than just eating right and exercising.

I chose this article because I know someone who recently passed away from obesity and this is great news for future obese people.

Protein involved in neuropathic pain may be cure

A team of international scientists have found a key protein in Schwann cells that plays a major role in the regulation of recovery of peripheral nerves after injury. This has implications with one of the least understood phenomenons today: neuropathic pain. This pain is estimated to effect over 100 million Americans in there lifetime.

Published yesterday in the Journal of Neuroscience, researchers discussed the pathophysiology of neuropathic pain. This pain is derived from damaged peripheral neurons that send incorrect signals back to the brain where they are misinterpreted. This pain is described as "pins and needles" or a hot or cold pain. Originally research focused on the peripheral neurons themselves, but the Schwann cells (a type of glial assisting cell) may have the key to curing this pain. Schwann cells promote growth and survival of neural cells by releasing tropic factors as well as releasing myelin to coat the axons of the peripheral cells. When Schwann cells are deficient, the peripheral neurons cannot heal themselves to the best of their ability (though neural healing is limited even with the assistance of other cell types). Researchers located a LRP1 protein which helps regulate the steps that lead to eventual nerve regeneration. They are now looking into a drug that will mimic the LRP1 protein to enhance the ability of the Schwann cells to help the nerves regenerate.

I found this article interesting because of my interest in neurology, and it being a possible career choice. I find all of these new research extremely interesting. Hopefully I will not have to have a personal interest in neuropathic pain due to experience.

Metabolic Effects of Bariatric Surgery in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes

In Cleveland, it has been found that gastric bypass surgery can reverse type 2 diabetes. The bypass surgery has been shown to restore pancreatic function in overweight people with an uncontrolled case of this type of diabetes. After monitoring diabetic patients before and after the bypass, metabolic changes were also found along with this pancreatic restoration. This is because the pancreatic restoration included a renewal of the functioning of the beta cells which help produce insulin. Researches believe that this bypass surgery effect is due to the fact that the surgery greatly reduces belly fat which takes stress of the pancreas kick-starting it back into action. In the research, 41% of the patients saw a drop down and stabilization of normal blood sugar levels and a 5.8-factor increase in overall pancreatic cell function. Further reasearch is needed to examine the hormonal effects but the treatment will now be used on moderately obese type 2 diabetic patients.

This article is particularly interesting because of the huge increase in the prevalence of diabetes that is currently happening. With higher average body weights and the worsening diets of people in developed worlds, diabetes (type 2) is now considered an "epidemic". Diabetes has many side effects including things like kidney failure, cardiovascular disease, and neuropathy which are sometimes fatal making a treament for it greatly needed.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/02/130226081236.htm
http://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/early/2013/02/14/dc12-1596

Brain Control - No Longer a Thing of the Future!

          Neuroscience has a been a huge focus in that past decade, and the understanding of how the human brain works has grown immensely. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) was largely responsible for this gained knowledge from the 1990s. Recent breakthroughs have developed a thing called “optogenetics.” “Optogenetics” is very interesting technology that was based on Laureate Francis Crick’s suggestion “that neuroscientists should seek to learn how to take control of specific cells in the brain.” That is exactly what optgenetics does! First neurons must be re-engineered that they are more sensitive and will react to light. Since these special neuronal proteins don’t exist in normal cells, they must be created through “transfection” where vectors, like viruses, are used to infect the target cells. The vector must then insert the new genetic material so that light-sensitive proteins will be produced. Then fiber-optics tools are placed into a subject’s (animal) brain. These tools control specific neurons by using tiny flashes of light for a trigger. So in total, you have light-sensitive proteins located on specific neurons that can activated and deactivated on cue inside a perfectly live, essentially normal, animal. 

This new technology will not only help gain even more knowledge about how the brain works, but it may also serve as a way to learn more about many neurological disorders! Such as in Parkinson model animals, stimulation has given new insight on the circuitry that is involved in the disease. There is also potential for new therapies in the future. Schizophrenia is another neurological disorder that deals with “information processing issues in the brain.”  Optogenetics is being used to learn more about “gamma oscillations,” which are not normal in schizophrenia, as well, as autistic patients. 

I found this article particularly interesting because I am fascinated with psychological/neurological disorders. I am hopeful to one day become a psychiatrist, so new technologies that help us learn about how the brain works are always important! If optogenetics revolutionizes the way we treat mental disorders, then material taught in medical schools would be changing now. Even if it doesn’t provide a cure specifically, every bit insight gained is helpful to researchers; which in essence, will hopefully make a difference for patients everywhere. I feel that this is like history in the making, and I can’t wait to see where it goes! 

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/01/06/opinion/mlodinow-science-frontier

Antibody that targets and kills leukemia cells

Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have discovered an antibody that targets and kills leukemia cells. Leukemia cells are kept alive by receiving survival signals from adjacent non-tumor cells. These signals are transported through the antigen CD44. The new monoclonal antibody, RG7356, targets and binds to this antigen CD44 and causes CD44 to transmit an apoptosis signal opposed to a survival signal to the tumor cell. The apoptosis signal also does not affect adjacent, non-tumor cells. Unlike other monoclonal antibodies that need effector cells to kill tumor cells, the RG7356 antibody does not need any effector cells to have a direct effect on leukemia cells. The researchers plan to initiate clinical trials in 'the not-too-distant future.'

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130325160234.htm

Blood Monitoring Implant That Can Communicate With Your Smartphone

          A group of Swiss scientists at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne have come up with the world's smallest implantable blood monitoring device.  The device is 14mm and is powered by a battery patch outside of the body which provides wireless inductive charging through the skin.  The device is transplanted in the interstitial tissue and can  monitor blood levels of indicators such as troponin, glucose, lactate, and ATP (so far it can monitor up to five at a time).   The data can then be sent to the user's smart phone via blue tooth.  This monitoring provides valuable data for physiologic monitoring during activity, in possible diseases conditions such as diabetes, or in the case of troponin, could be used to monitor for pre-heart attack conditions.  The device is in early stages but there is no theoretical limit to the number of sensors that could be utilized.  The device, along with powerful analysis software, could revolutionize the way monitoring is done in patients.

          I found this article interesting because it shows a giant leap in patient monitoring.  Having access to real-time data via a device we all already use, the smartphone,  has endless possibilities.  It could allow diabetics to measure their blood glucose without sticking themselves.  It could be used to alert patients that they are about to have a heart attack, possibly saving their life.  It could even be used to monitor proper medications levels such as in patients who take anticoagulants.  I can't wait to see how this technology progresses in the next few years.

LINK HERE

Targeted Alpha Therapy

Targeted Alpha Therapy is becoming a hot topic in the world of nuclear medicine.  This therapy will allow for cancer cells to be "spot treated" by alpha emitting particle attachment to monoclonal antibodies.  Currently researching this new technique is the University of Gothenburg.  They have performed studies to determine alpha particle affects at the cellular level and different radionuclide labeling.  The chosen test subject for the experiment were nine mice, all with microscopic ovarian cancer.   Mice were infused with different volumes of At-MX35F (combination of radionuclide At, from Bismuth via cyclotron, and antibody MX35)  via the peritoneal catheter.  For a period of 48 hours following the treatment the mice were analyzed regularly with Tc-99m and a gamma camera to diagnose the tumors activity.  No toxicity was seen in the mice after treatment.  White blood cell counts were monitored for several months after the treatment and no alarming levels were reported.  Another check up at 23 months was given and no toxic levels were reported.  The conclusion of this research shows that intraperitoneal administration of At-MX 35F is non-toxic effective form of cancer therapy.  Since this was only the first trial, a max dose has not been reported.

This article struck me as interesting because I was just finishing up my presentation on radiopharmaceuticals for pharmacology and I started to look at new research.  I started to look more into TAT and found that this is exactly what I was doing this past summer.  We were attempting to attach radioactive nanoparticles to mouse antibodies for treatment of breast and brain cancer. 

article website: http://www.tat.gu.se/digitalAssets/1331/1331693_anderson-et-al-2009.pdf

Function Graded (FG) material for hip inplants

Using function graded materials instead of the traditional stems made of Cobalt Chromium alloy and Titanium alloy were developed and tested in vitro with promising results.  When compared to the traditional materials, the newly developed function graded stems used in hip transplants resulted in a reduction in shear stress between the bone cement and stem of implant. One of the advantageous of using function graded material is that it has a more distributed, uniform stress on the bone cement when compared to traditional materials. This is great because it reduces the amount of wear and tear on the replacement system and would really delay the rate of loosening in the hip replacement.  The clinical testing of a hip replacement stem of function graded material is promising and may lead to over all better hip replacements. I found this article interesting and found it of a particular interest to me with my want to become to an orthopedic surgeon.

 http://www.biomedical-engineering-online.com/content/12/1/5

Liver Reperfusion Device by OrganOx

OrganOx, a company based out of Oxford, has produced a device capable of reperfusing the liver for up to twenty four hours.  The device attempts to maintain a normal environment for the liver by keeping the temperature at 37 degrees Celsius and by continuous reperfusion of oxygenated blood.  Attached to the device circuit, the liver continues its normal functions such as bile and protein production while consuming glucose.  The current method of liver preservation is putting the liver on ice to cool the organ and slow its  metabolic rate. This device will vastly increase the number of donor livers as the previous method leaves many livers unsuitable for transplant due to ischemia and reperfusion injuries. I chose the article because it could be a source of inspiration for our device design project where we are attempting to create a device to reperfuse both the heart and lungs and keep them suitable for transplant up to twenty four hours.






http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/257765.php
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324392804578362574039198146.html

Artificial Pancreas Boosts Diabetes Treatment

Scientists at the Institut de Recherches Cliniques de Montréal (IRCM), Canada, were the first to conduct a trial comparing a dual-hormone artificial pancreas with conventional diabetes treatment using an insulin pump. Their research showed improved glucose levels and lower risks of hypoglycemia. Their results,could have a great impact on the treatment of type 1 diabetes by accelerating the development of an external artificial pancreas.

The pump is controlled by an advanced algorithm that controls both insulin levels and glucagon levels. Patients now a days have to constantly check and adjust the levels of what is needed but with this new feedback system patients have been freed from having to do the calculations themselves. Researchers say that eventually it can get to the point where the system can be downloaded onto a smart phone and controlled wirelessly. 

One Health

The future of healthcare combines aspects from human medicine, veterinary medicine, and environment research. Instead of functioning as individual branches, physicians, veterinarians, and environmentalists are working together and accelerating research developments, improving public awareness, and ultimately saving more lives. In this article, the relationship between animal healthcare and poverty are discussed. With livestock being the livelihood of around 70% of laborers, their well-being is essential for the farmer’s success. In well-developed countries, billions of dollars are spent maintaining the global animal health care market (companion and livestock), but for developing countries, the healthcare of animals suffer and they do not receive adequate funding for vaccination programs and research. Animal diseases are a growing concern from a financial and medical aspect: many of the diseases are zoonotic and also decrease productivity/restrict market access. Scientists are working together to develop vaccines or other preventative technologies against infectious diseases as well as allow them to be utilized by poorer sectors of society. Though efforts are being made, providing sufficient care for animals in areas of the world with very little money is a relentless struggle.  I chose this article because I sat in on a series of lectures last semester in College Station discussing the advancements and increasing success of an organization known as One Health. This article discusses efforts made from all three branches of this organization and I thought it was interesting to see it being utilized globally.

http://www.sciencemag.org.lib-ezproxy.tamu.edu:2048/content/315/5810/333.full

Drug-Free Migraine Treatment

According to a recent study, electrical stimulation may be an effective way to treat migraines. This form of treatment uses a device that stimulates the supraorbital nerve. The research found that those who received 20 minutes of electrical stimulation per day for 20 months had a decrease in the number of migraines they suffered from per month. However, this method of treatment has not been approved for use in the United States yet.

I chose this article because both my mom and my sister are chronic migraine sufferers. It would be great if a new treatment method was found. I know from  being around my mom that the side effects of migraine treatment drugs aren't always positive, and that sometimes the drug can provide no relief at all.

The Article