#Breathe on labels to know if drugs are counterfeit Counterfeit drugs make up to one-third of the pharmaceutical drug market in some countries.
and at worst are toxic, are thought to kill more than 700,000 people each year. While less than 1 percent of the US pharmaceuticals market is believed to be counterfeit,
says Nicholas Kotov, professor of chemical engineering, who led the University of Michigan effort. The method requires access to sophisticated equipment that can create very tiny features, roughly 500 times smaller than the width of a human hair.
But once the template is made, labels can be printed in large rolls at a cost of roughly one dollar per square inch.
That cheap enough for companies to use in protecting the reputation of their productsnd potentially the safety of their consumers. e use a molding process,
The labels work because an array of tiny pillars on the top of a surface effectively hides images written on the material beneath Shyu compares the texture of the pillars to a submicroscopic toothbrush.
MOLDED IMAGES Previously, it was impossible to make nanopillars through cheap molding processes because the pillars were made from materials that preferred adhering to the mold rather than whatever surface they were supposed to cover.
the team developed a special blend of polyurethane and an adhesive. The liquid polymer filled the mold
but as it cured, the material shrunk slightly. This allowed the pillars to release easily.
The usual material for making nanopillars is too brittle to survive handling well. The team demonstrated the nanopillars could stick to plastics, fabric, paper,
and metal, and they anticipate that the arrays will also transfer easily to glass and leather.
This work is reported in Advanced Materials. The university is pursuing patent protection for the intellectual property
and is seeking commercialization partners to help bring the technology to market. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
the National Science Foundation, the Korea Ministry of Science, Information and Communications technology and Future Planning, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy,
and the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industry Technology funded the project. Source: University of Michiga s
#This can make the organs in your body transparent Scientists have developed a way to see through tissues, organs,
an assistant professor of biology at the California Institute of technology (Caltech) and the principal investigator whose team has developed the new techniques,
within a mouse kidney, for example, or a human tumor biopsy? we have to slice the tissue very thin,
separately image each slice with a microscope, and put all of the images back together with a computer. t a very time-consuming process and it is error prone,
especially if you look to map long axons or sparse cell populations such as stem cells or tumor cells,
she says. LEARTHE TISSUE The new approach builds off a technique known as CLARITY that was developed previously by Gradinaru
and hydrogel water-based polymer gel that provides structural supporthus learingthe tissue but leaving its three-dimensional architecture intact for study.
By making clever use of an organism own network of blood vessels, Gradinaru and her colleaguesncluding scientific researcher Bin Yang and postdoctoral scholar Jennifer Treweek, coauthors on the paperan quickly deliver the lipid
When whole-body clearing is not necessary the method works just as well on individual organs by using a technique called PACT, short for passive clarity technique.
and RNARADINARU and her team collaborated with Long Cai, an assistant professor of chemistry at Caltech,
BIOPSY CANCER The Cell paper focuses on the use of PACT and PARS as research tools for studying disease and development in research organisms.
Using the techniques on a biopsy from a human skin tumor, the researchers were able to view the distribution of individual tumor cells within a tissue mass.
In the future, Gradinaru says, the methods could be used in the clinic for the rapid detection of cancer cells in biopsy samples.
The ability to make an entire organism transparent while retaining its structural and genetic integrity has broad-ranging applications,
Gradinaru also leads Caltech Beckman Institute BIONIC center for optogenetics and tissue clearing and plans to offer training sessions to researchers interested in learning how to use PACT
and PARS in their own labs. think these new techniques are very practical for many fields in biology,
she says. hen you can just look through an organism for the exact cells or fine axons you want to seeithout slicing
#Fabric dissolves to deliver HIV drug faster Bioengineers have developed a new way to protect women from HIV medicated,
The new method spins the drug into silklike fibers that quickly dissolve when in contact with moisture, releasing higher doses of the drug than possible with other topical materials such as gels or creams
discreet way to protect themselves from HIV infection by inserting the drug-loaded materials into the vagina before sex,
says Cameron Ball, a doctoral student in bioengineering at the University of Washington. FAST DELIVERY The team
led by bioengineering assistant professor Kim Woodrow, previously found that electrically spun cloth could be dissolved to release drugs.
showing that the fiber materials can hold 10 times the concentration of medicine as anti-HIV gels currently under development.
Oral pills are used in the US for people who are considered at risk for HIV infection,
Ball says. e have achieved higher drug loading in our material such that you wouldn need to insert a large amount of these fibers to deliver enough of the drug to be helpful.
SPINNING THE FABRIC The team created the soft fibers using a process called electrospinning. They first dissolved a polymer
and combined it with a drug, maraviroc, and other agents often used in pharmaceuticals that help a material become more water-soluble
and passed through a syringe. The electric charge on the substance surface causes it to form a long string from the syringe,
where it whips aroundr spinsefore collecting on an electrically grounded surface. A palm-sized swatch of the fabric takes about five minutes to make.
so the researchers looked at different ingredients for the fiber that would allow for the highest concentration of drug with the fastest-possible release in the body.
Because the electrically spun fibers have a large surface area, researchers were able to create samples in
By adjusting the ingredients in the fibers, researchers were able to dissolve the drug in about six minutes,
no matter how much drug mass was in the fiber. The research team says the soft, dissolving fibers could be rolled into a cardboard tampon applicator for insertion or built into the shape of a vaginal ring,
similar to those used for contraception. The material can accommodate different anti-HIV drugs and the team is testing several others for effectiveness.
Researchers are focused currently on developing prototypes based on user guidance that can be tested for safety and efficacy in animal models.
#Proteins could detox pesticides and sarin gas Scientists are developing a way to prevent brain damage among people exposed to poisonous chemicals found in pesticides and chemical weapons.
The work, published in the journal Chembiochem, centers on proteins called phosphotriesterases, which degrade chemicals in a class known as organophosphates.
Organophosphates are found in everything from industrial pesticides to the sarin gas used in chemical warfare. They permanently bond to neurotransmitters in the brain,
interfering with their ability to function and causing irreversible damage. The detoxifying ability of phosphotriesterases has been documented before,
The result is a thermo-stable protein with a longer half-life that retains all the detoxification capabilities. rganophosphates pose tremendous danger to people and wildlife,
whether through exposure to pesticide or an intentional chemical warfare attack, explains Jin Kim Montclare, associate professor of chemical and biological engineering at the New york University School of engineering. ee known that phosphotriesterases had the power to detoxify these nerve agents,
but they were far too fragile to be used therapeutically, she says. Nerve agent stockpiles The possibilities for this reengineered protein are considerable.
Montclare explains that in addition to therapeutic formulations which could prevent nerve damage in the event of a gas attack
or pesticide exposure and would likely be developed first for military use, these proteins also could be critical
when stores of toxic nerve agents need to be decommissioned. ftentimes, chemical agent stockpiles are decommissioned through processes that involve treatment with heat
she says. hese proteins could accomplish that same task enzymatically, without the need for reactors and formation of dangerous byproducts.
Montclare and Richard Bonneau, an associate professor in NYU biology department, have patented the process. Plans are under way to begin developing therapeutic applications.
Michelle Zhang a coauthor of the paper and, at the time, a high school intern in Bonneau lab, first broached the idea.
Zhang is now a student at Cornell University. The US ARMY Research Office and the National Science Foundation supported the research p
#Depressed preschoolers still suffer years later Children diagnosed with depression in preschool are 2. 5 times more likely to have the condition in elementary and middle school, report researchers. t the same old bad
says child psychiatrist Joan L. Luby, who directs Washington University Early Emotional Development Program. ut the good news is that
if we can identify depression early, perhaps we have a window of opportunity to treat it more effectively
and potentially change the trajectory of the illness so that it is less likely to be chronic
and recurring. The investigators followed 246 children, now ages 9 to 12, who were enrolled in the study as preschoolers
The children and their primary caregivers participated in up to six annual and four semiannual assessments.
As part of the evaluation, caregivers were interviewed about their children expressions of sadness, irritability, guilt, sleep, appetite,
In addition, researchers used two-way mirrors to evaluate child-caregiver interactions because the team earlier research had shown that a lack of parental nurturing is an important risk factor for recurrence of depression.
and to evaluate them for depression and other psychiatric conditions. However, if children were found to be depressed seriously or in danger of self harm
or if their caregivers requested treatment, they were referred to mental health providers. Currently, there are no proven treatments for depression that arises in the preschool years.
they found that 79 children met the full criteria for clinical depression based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders,
Fifth Edition (DSM-V). This manual contains the American Psychiatric Association most up-to-date official guidelines for diagnosing
and treating psychiatric illnesses. More than 51 percent of the 74 children who originally were diagnosed as preschoolers also were depressed as school age kids.
Only 24 percent of the 172 children who were depressed not as preschoolers went on to develop depression during their elementary and middle school years.
Luby group also found that school age children had a high risk of depression if their mothers were depressed.
And they noted that children diagnosed with a conduct disorder as preschoolers had elevated an risk of depression by school age and early adolescence,
but this risk declined if the children were found to have significant maternal support. But neither a mother with depression nor a conduct disorder in preschool increased the risk for later depression as much as a diagnosis of depression during preschool years. reschool depression predicted school age depression over and above any of the other well-established risk factors,
Luby explains. hose children appear to be on a trajectory for depression that independent of other psychosocial variables.
WHAT CAN DOCTORS DO? Luby says her findings continue to contradict doctors and scientists who have maintained that children as young as three
or four could not be depressed clinically. She advocates including depression screenings in regular medical checkups for preschoolers,
she explains. ediatricians don usually want to screen for a condition if they can then refer patients to someone who can help.
The National Institute on Mental health of the National institutes of health, the CHADS Coalition, and the Sidney Baer Foundation supported the work.
The study appears in The American Journal of Psychiatry h
#Gel fights breast cancer with fewer side effects A tamoxifen gel applied to the breast may work as well as a pill form of the drug to slow the growth of cancer cells.
Because the drug is absorbed through the skin directly into breast tissue, less of it enters the blood,
potentially minimizing dangerous side effects such as blood clots and uterine cancer. The gel was tested on women diagnosed with noninvasive cancer ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) in
which abnormal cells multiply and form a growth in a milk duct. Because of potential side effects
many women with DCIS are reluctant to take oral tamoxifen after being treated with breast-saving surgery
and radiation despite the drug effectiveness to prevent DCIS recurrence and to lower the risk of future breast cancer. elivering the drug though a gel,
if proven effective in larger trials, could potentially replace oral tamoxifen for breast cancer prevention and DCIS and encourage many more women to take it,
says lead author Seema Khan, professor of surgery and professor of cancer research at Northwestern University Feinberg School of medicine.
COLLATERAL DAMAGE or breast cancer prevention and DCIS therapy effective drug concentrations are required in the breast.
which should avoid potential blood clots as well as an elevated risk for uterine cancer. Women who have completed surgery
and radiation are given oral tamoxifen for five years to reduce the risk of the DCIS recurring at the same place
Tamoxifen is an anti-estrogen therapy for a type of breast cancer that requires estrogen to grow.
For a new study published in Clinical Cancer Research, researchers conducted a phase II clinical trial to compare the effects of the gel, 4-OHT, with oral tamoxifen.
The National Cancer Institute of the National institutes of health and BHR Pharma, LLC supported the research
#Test eliminates need for second thyroid surgery A new test increases the odds by 30 percent that people with thyroid cancer will undergo the correct initial surgery. efore this test,
about one in five potential thyroid cancer cases couldn be diagnosed without an operation to remove a portion of the thyroid,
says Linwah Yip, assistant professor of surgery in the University of Pittsburgh School of medicine. Yip says without the test a second surgery to remove the thyroid was required often
if the portion removed during the first surgery came back positive for cancer. he molecular testing panel now bypasses that initial surgery,
allowing us to go right to fully removing the cancer with one initial surgery. This reduces risk
and stress to the patient, as well as recovery time and costs, adds Yip, lead author of the study published in the Annals of Surgery.
Cancer in the thyroid, which is located in the dam applearea of the neck, is now the fifth most common cancer diagnosed in women.
Thyroid cancer is one of the few cancers that continues to increase in incidence, although the five-year survival rate is 97 percent.
Previously, the most accurate form of testing for thyroid cancer was a fine-needle aspiration biopsy
where a doctor guides a thin needle to the thyroid and removes a small tissue sample for testing.
However, in 20 percent of these biopsies, cancer cannot be ruled out. A lobectomy, which is a surgical operation to remove half of the thyroid,
is needed then to diagnose or rule out thyroid cancer. In the case of a postoperative cancer diagnosis, a second surgery is required to remove the rest of the thyroid.
Researchers have identified certain gene mutations that are increased indicative of an likelihood of thyroid cancer, and the new molecular testing panel can be run using the sample collected through the initial,
minimally invasive biopsy, rather than a lobectomy. When the panel shows these mutations, a total thyroidectomy is advised.
Yip and her colleagues followed 671 patients with suspicious thyroid nodes who received biopsies. Approximately half the biopsy samples were run through the panel,
and the other half were not. Patients whose tissue samples were tested not with the panel had a 2. 5-fold higher statistically significant likelihood of having an initial lobectomy
and then requiring a second operation. ee currently refining the panel by adding tests for more genetic mutations,
thereby making it even more accurate, says coauthor Yuri Nikiforov, a professor in the pathology department. hyroid cancer is usually very curable,
and we are getting closer to quickly and efficiently identifying and treating all cases of thyroid cancer. a
#Cancer drug helps some women get pregnant A new fertility drug, originally developed to prevent the recurrence of breast cancer,
is 30 percent more effective in helping some women become pregnant than one used for more than 40 years, new research shows.
For a study published in the New england Journal of Medicine, researchers at seven different academic centers recruited 750 couples to compare the long-used fertility drug clomiphene citrate, commonly called clomid, to letrozole.
Of the 376 women who were given clomid, 72 became pregnant and gave birth. Of the 374 women who took letrozole
103 gave birth. etrozole works better, has about the same cost, has fewer side effects, and has a slightly lower twin rate than clomid,
says Gregory Christman, director of the division of reproductive endocrinology and infertility at University of Florida. lomid has been available for fertility treatment for more than 40 years,
but with this new information, we may soon have to reconsider its role in the treatment of infertility due to anovulation in women with polycystic ovarian disorder.
Clomid is prescribed often to women with polycystic ovary syndrome as a first step in their treatmentnd that population accounts for about a third of women who seek fertility treatment
Christman says. About 1 in 20 women of childbearing age have the disorder. Women with the condition typically have fewer periodseven cycles per year fewer than women without the conditionnd
therefore have fewer opportunities to become pregnant. HOW THEY WORK Christman oversaw one of the trial sites as one of the principal investigators at the University of Michigan.
There, he recruited 75 of the 750 couples for the study. Women in the study, who were an average of 29 years old,
were assigned randomly to take either clomid or letrozole. Because the drugs were administered in the same wayoth were given for a five-day period at the beginning of a woman cyclehe study was blinded double.
Neither the doctor nor the patient knew which drug the patient was receiving. Clomid works by traveling to the brain, where it partially blocks estrogen receptors.
This triggers the brain to send a signal to the ovaries to produce more estrogen,
which causes ovulation. Letrozole is prescribed to prevent recurrence of breast cancer in women by shutting off an enzyme that converts circulating testosterone to estrogen.
It works primarily in fat or adipose tissue throughout the body, causing estrogen levels in a woman bloodstream to fall.
The brain sees this drop in estrogen and tells the ovaries to make more estrogen, which triggers ovulation,
Christman says. FEWER TWINS The study also found that letrozole results in fewer twins. Approximately 10 percent of women who are treated with clomid give birth to twins.
Christman says. his study indicates that there is a safe and effective medical treatment to help infertility patients with polycystic ovarian syndrome,
says David S. Guzick, senior vice president for health affairs and president of University of Florida Health,
University of Florid o
#Vaccine triggers alarm to fight dust mite allergy A new vaccine uses a booster normally found in cancer vaccines to combat dust-mite allergies by naturally switching the body immune response.
In animal tests, the nano-sized vaccine package lowered lung inflammation by 83 percent, despite repeated exposure. hat is new about this is we have developed a vaccine against dust-mite allergens that hasn been used before,
says Aliasger Salem, professor in pharmaceutical sciences at University of Iowa and a corresponding author of the paper.
Ubiquitous, microscopic dust mites that burrow in mattresses, sofas, and other homey spots are found in 84 percent of households in the United states,
according to a published, national survey. Preying on skin cells on the body, the mites trigger allergies and breathing difficulties among 45 percent of those who suffer from asthma, according to some studies.
Prolonged exposure can cause lung damage. Treatment is limited to getting temporary relief from inhalers or undergoing regular exposure to build up tolerance,
and holds no guarantee of success. Alleviate mite-induced asthma ur research explores a novel approach to treating mite allergy in
which specially-encapsulated miniscule particles are administered with sequences of BACTERIAL DNA that direct the immune system to suppress allergic immune responses,
public health professor and a contributing author of the paper. his work suggests a way forward to alleviate mite-induced asthma in allergy sufferers.
The vaccine takes advantage of the body natural inclination to defend itself against foreign bodies.
The booster has been used successfully in cancer vaccines but never had been tested as a vaccine for dust-mite allergies.
Put broadly, Cpg sets off a fire alarm within the body, springing immune cells into action.
theye also taking in the vaccine, which has been added to the package, much like your mother may have wrapped a bitter pill around something tasty to get you to swallow it.
In another twist, combining the antigen (the vaccine) and Cpg causes the body to change its immune response,
producing antibodies that dampen the damaging health effects dust-mite allergens generally cause. In lab tests, the Cpg-antigen package, at 300 nanometers in size, was absorbed 90 percent of the time by immune cells.
Researchers followed up those experiments by giving the package to mice and exposing the animals to dust-mite allergens every other day for nine days total.
Packages with Cpg yielded greater production of the desirable antibodies, while lung inflammation was lower than particles that did not contain Cpg. his is exactly
The National institutes of health and the American Cancer Society partly funded the research. Source: University of Iow S
#Lack of sleep can cause false memories When people suffer from sleep deprivation, they tend to misremember details of events,
an associate professor of psychology at Michigan State university. nd people are getting less sleep each night than they ever have.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) calls insufficient sleep an epidemic and says it linked to vehicle crashes, industrial disasters,
and chronic diseases such as hypertension and diabetes. The researchers conducted experiments to gauge the effect of insufficient sleep on memory.
#Tiny fly ear seesaw could boost hearing aids Engineers have developed a tiny, low-power device that mimics a fly ultra-sensitive hearing.
The advance could lead to hypersensitive hearing aids. The new device could be used to build the next generation of hearing aids with intelligent microphones that adaptively focus only on those conversations
or sounds that are of interest to the wearer. The researchers drew inspiration for the device from the yellow-colored Ormia ochracea fly.
Using the fly ear structure as a model, Neal Hall, an assistant professor of engineering at the University of Texas at Austin,
and his graduate students built a miniature pressure-sensitive device out of silicon that replicates the fly super-evolved hearing structure.
but current design is the first to include piezoelectric materials. These materials turn mechanical pressure into electric signals,
Researchers allowed beetle larva to feast on antibiotic-treated leaves and natural leaves and found that on the antibiotic-treated leaves,
the beetles suffered from the plant's anti-herbivore defense, but on the natural leaves the larva gained more weight and thrived.
Credit: andriux-uk/Flickr) ecause hearing aids rely on batteries, minimizing power consumption is a critical consideration in moving hearing-aid device technology forward,
Hall says. This technology may be a boon for people who are hearing impaired in the future. Currently, only two percent of Americans wear hearing aids,
but as much as ten percent of the population could benefit from wearing one, Hall says. any believe that the major reason for this gap is patient dissatisfaction,
Hall adds. urning up the volume to hear someone across from you also amplifies all of the surrounding background noiseesembling the sound of a cocktail party.
PINPOINT SOUND Humans and other mammals have the ability to pinpoint sound sources because of the finite speed of sound combined with the separation between our ears.
Insects generally lack this ability because their bodies are so small that sound waves essentially hit both sides simultaneously.
O. ochracea is a notable exception. It can locate the direction of a cricket chirp
even though its ears are less than 2 millimeters apart. In the four millionths of a second between the sound entering one ear and the other, the sound phase shifts slightly.
and integrated the piezoelectric materials. The use of piezoelectric materials allowed them to simultaneously measure the flexing and the rotation of the beam,
which in turn allowed them to replicate the fly hearing. Hall credits the pioneering work of Ronald Miles at Binghamton University and Ronald Hoy at Cornell University,
along with their teams, who discovered the fly unusual hearing mechanism, for inspiring this research and device.
In addition to possibly improving hearing aids, the device could have military and defense applications as well. In dark environments, for instance, where visual cues are not available
localizing events using sound may be critical. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency supported the research,
When the scientists disrupted passage through that pore in cell cultures the parasite stopped growing
a postdoctoral research scholar at Washington University in St louis. ee been searching for a single step that all those various proteins have to take to be secreted,
Researchers believe blocking the pore leaves the parasite fatally imprisoned, unable to steal resources from the red blood cell
or dispose of its wastes. The malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, is among the world deadliest pathogens. Malaria is spread mainly by the bite of infected mosquitoes
and is most common in Africa. In 2012 an estimated 207 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide, leading to 627,000 deaths, according to the World health organization.
Resistance to drug treatments is spreading among the parasite many strains, and researchers are working hard to find new drug targets.
EAT SHOCKPROTEINS Senior author of the paper published in the journal Nature, Daniel Goldberg, professor of medicine and of molecular microbiology and a Howard hughes medical institute investigator at Washington University studies how malaria affects red blood cells.
In the new study, he and his colleagues looked at heat shock protein 101 (HSP101. Scientists named this family of proteins eat shockbecause they become active
HSP101 may also give the proteins a biochemical kick that pushes them through the pore.
Beck notes that researchers at the Burnet Institute neutralized the parasite in a similar fashion by disabling another protein thought to be involved in the passage of proteins through this pore. hat suggests there are multiple components of the process that we may be able to target with drugs
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