Synopsis: Domenii: Health:

which is the destruction of the fluorescence dye that reduces the amount of time doctors and scientists have to image a tissue sample.

Our breakthrough will open up new doors in the various fields of nanomedicine bioimaging and cancer therapeutics.

If successful doctors will be able to release sequentially two or more drugs through the biomarker.#

#This will benefit cancer patients as there will be fewer side effects due to the small doses administered and also higher efficacy as the biomarker has the ability to accurately target tumour cells.

Nanosilver is used also in biomedical applications toys sunscreen cosmetics clothing and other items. We were surprised to see significant upset of the human gut community at the lowest concentration of nanosilver in this study says Dr. Das.

Walker and Das utilized another Queen's discovery repoopulate created by Elaine Petrof (Medicine. repoopulate is a synthetic stool substitute

which Dr. Petrof designed to treat C. difficile infections. In this instance rather than being used as therapy the synthetic stool was used to examine the impact of nanoparticles on the human gut.

The research showed that the addition of nanosilver reduced metabolic activity in the synthetic stool sample perturbed fatty acids

Das and Walker Julie AK Mcdonald (Kingston General Hospital) Dr. Petrof (KGH) and Emma Allen-Vercoe (University of Guelph) were published in the Journal of Nanomedicine and Nanotechnology.

#Paper electronics could make health care more accessible Flexible electronic sensors based on paper an inexpensive material have the potential to some day cut the price of a wide range of medical tools from helpful robots

or ultraviolet light did the DNA form base lesions, a form of DNA damage associated with attack by radicals.

#Research team developing injectable treatment for soldiers wounded in battle Internal bleeding is a leading cause of death on the battlefield,

and the Massachusetts institute of technology could buy wounded soldiers the time they need to survive by preventing blood loss from serious internal injuries.

Once injected, the material locks into place at the site of the injury and rapidly decreases the time it takes for blood to clot in some instances by a whopping 77 percent,

incompressible injury one where it is difficult if not impossible to apply the pressure needed to stop the bleeding he

"Our material's combination of injectability, rapid mechanical recovery, physiological stability and the ability to promote coagulation result in a hemostat for treating incompressible wounds in out-of-hospital, emergency situations,

and his colleagues solidifies at the site of the wound and begins promoting coagulation in the targeted area.

"Most of these penetrating injuries, which today are the result of explosive devices, rupture blood vessels and create internal hemorrhages through

Hydrogels are used biodegradable materials in a number of biomedical applications because of their compatibility with the body and its processes.

"These 2d, silicate nanoparticles are unprecedented in the biomedical field, and their use promises to lead to both conceptual and therapeutic advances in the important and emerging field of tissue engineering, drug delivery, cancer therapies and immune engineering,

"Gaharwar says. Encouraged by its results, the team plans on further enhancing the biomaterial so that it can initiate regeneration of damaged tissues through the formation of new blood vessels,

000 gallons of toxic solvents and 100 kilograms of toxic cadmium waste in U s. production each year.

Researchers synthesize platelet-like nanoparticles that can do more than clot blood (Phys. org) Stanching the free flow of blood from an injury remains a holy grail of clinical medicine.

Controlling blood flow is a primary concern and first line of defense for patients and medical staff in many situations from traumatic injury to illness to surgery.

while opening the door to therapies and treatments that can be customized to specific patient needs.

This is a significant milestone in the development of synthetic platelets as well as in targeted drug delivery said Samir Mitragotri CBE director who specializes in targeted therapy technologies.

The process of coagulation is familiar to anyone who has suffered even the most minor of injuries such as a scrape or paper cut.

Blood rushes to the site of the injury and within minutes the flow stops as a plug forms at the site.

and a viscous substance that brings healing factors to the injury. Coagulation is actually a choreography of various substances among the most important

of which are platelets the blood component that accumulates at the site of the wound to form the initial plug.

As soon as an injury occurs however the platelets because of the physics of their shape and their response to chemical stimuli move from the main flow to the side of the blood vessel wall

and congregate binding to the site of the injury and to each other. As they do so the platelets release chemicals that call other platelets to the site eventually plugging the wound.

But what happens when the injury is too severe or the patient is on anticoagulation medication

or is impaired otherwise in his or her ability to form a clot even for a modest or minor injury?

That's where platelet-like nanoparticles (PLNS) come in. These tiny platelet-shaped particles that behave just like their human counterparts can be added to the blood flow to supply

or augment the patient's own natural platelet supply stemming the flow of blood and initiating the healing process

Emergency situations can be brought under control faster injuries can heal more quickly and patients can recover with fewer complications.

and flexibility of natural platelets PLNS can also flow to the injury site and congregate there.

Additionally this technology allows for customization of the particles with other therapeutic substances medications therapies

This technology could address a plethora of clinical challenges said Dr. Scott Hammond director of UCSB's Translational Medicine Research Laboratories.

One of the biggest challenges in clinical medicine right now which also costs a lot of money is that we're living longer

When an elderly patient presents at a clinic it's a huge challenge because you have no idea

With optimizable PLNS physicians would be able to strike a finer balance between anticoagulant therapy

and wound healing in older patients by using nanoparticles that can target where clots are forming without triggering unwanted bleeding.

In other applications bloodborne pathogens and other infectious agents could be minimized with antibiotic-carrying nanoparticles.

and truly targeted therapies. Additionally according to the researchers these synthetic platelets cost relatively less and have a longer shelf life than do human platelets a benefit in times of widespread emergency

For example we can buy cockroach bait that contains a toxic substance to kill cockroaches. However the bait could potentially harm whatever else ingests it Zhu said.

If we can incorporate dsrna specifically targeting a cockroach gene in the bait rather than a toxic substance the bait would not harm other organisms such as pets

If the production of chitin can be reduced further the insects can be killed without using any toxic insecticides.

yielding insights into treatment for degenerative neurological conditions or restoring nerve connections after injury. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Wisconsin-Madison created the microtube platform to study neuron growth.

They posit that the microtubes could one day be implanted like stents to promote neuron regrowth at injury sites

or to treat disease.""This is a powerful three-dimensional platform for neuron culture, "said Xiuling Li,

"There are a lot of diseases that are very difficult to figure out the mechanisms of in the body,

-and time is crucial for restoring severed connections in the case of spinal cord injury or limb reattachment.

""Getting to the clinic will take a long time, but that is what keeps us motivated, "Li said d

#What exactly is Google's'cancer nanodetector'?'Last week US tech giants Google made a splash in the media announcing plans to develop new'disease-detecting magnetic nanoparticles'.

'This was welcomed almost universally after all trying to detect diseases earlier is something that's a focus of many research organisations including ours.

But when we tried to dig deeper into the detail behind the story things remained pretty light on actual context and detail.

and expert advisor to Cancer Research UK to get his take on the announcement. The technical definition is that a nanoparticle is an object that is less than 100 nanometres wide along one of its edges Professor Graham told us.

And more immediately they're already used in medical detectors for example the pregnancy tests you buy over-the-counter work use gold nanoparticles attached to antibodies.

Why are they good for medical detection? Nanoparticles have an extremely high surface area in relation to their volume.

One of the top people in this field as far as cancer goes is called a guy Sanjiv Gambhir at Stanford university in the US.

The key thing to emphasise is that there's so much research that needs to be done before we can say'this is a disease-specific diagnostic'says Graham.

when we use the word'diagnose'its doctors not instruments that actually diagnose patients. An instrument can only ever highlight a set of conditions to a clinician it's always going to be the doctor who makes a call as to

whether someone has a disease. There is of course a wider issue here. What utility does the information you're producing actually have?

If I'm wearing a gadget that suddenly tells me I have a form of brain cancer that's incurable

what practical use is that to me? How has helped that my life? This is something Google really seem to have ducked in their announcement.

Are there any other applications of nanotechnology in the field of cancer? Of course it's not all about diagnostics.

There are other ways nanotechnology is being explored by cancer researchers. The other big focus of nanotech in cancer is to deliver treatments says Graham.

This is a field that's in its infancy lots of basic research in animals some of it promising

and neck cancers and lung cancer it will be incredibly exciting to see what this approach yields.

Professor Graham's'take-home'message is that it's a mistake to see Google as the only organisation focusing on nanotechnology to detect disease it's a vibrant active field with incredible potential but still in its early days.

#Cancer-killing nanodaisies NC State researchers have developed a potential new weapon in the fight against cancer:

and toxicity said Dr. Zhen Gu assistant professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical engineering at NC State and UNC-Chapel hill.

which researchers attach the cancer-killing drug camptothecin (CPT) like bunches of grapes on a vine.

The result is that the drugs launch an attack on cancer that's more closely#coordinated

So far in vivo testing in mice has shown that this approach produces significant accumulation of drugs in tumor sites instead of healthy organs.

Gu noted that in vitro testing had demonstrated also the potential of nanodaisies to effectively target different kinds of cancer.

It's shown a broad killing effect for a variety of cancer cell lines including leukemia breast

Gu has led other research that#has yielded a bio-inspired cocoon that tricks cells into consuming anticancer drugs and an injectable nanonetwork that controls blood sugar levels in diabetics.

He is supported by faculty staff and Ph d. students in the Joint Department of Biomedical engineering a partnership between NC State and UNC-Chapel hill that tackles urgent biomedical problems.

The next step for nanodaisies is preclinical testing to determine whether they might be ready to fight cancer in humans.

For Gu that prospect has personal significance: His father was diagnosed with cancer when Gu was still in the womb.

When friends and family came to console Gu's mother she told#them that the baby she was carrying might#one day help to treat cancer.

I don't want to say it's a mission but it is a passion that drives

When I moved into the cancer treatments with nanotechnology that's when my mum became really excited about my work.

The wires could also be applied in the biomedical field to maximize heat production in hyperthermia treatment of cancer.

-or even nanorobots could someday perform medical tasks in the human body. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart have taken now a first step towards this goal.

so that it can navigate through the human body enabling the crew to perform surgery in the brain.

and transporting a surgical team to a disease site will certainly remain fiction. Nevertheless tiny submarines that could navigate through the body could be of great benefit:

and Molecular Systems Research Group at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart then doctors will in the foreseeable future call upon micro

As in the case of their plastic micro-scallop the researchers also envision medical applications for their nanosubmarine.

and then deposit a microscopic amount on electrodes in a prototype handheld scanner that can detect toxic gases such as sarin or chlorine,

or toxic chemicals caught by the nanotube, you will see an increase or decrease in the current."

and about two-dozen different toxic gases, says Zang. The technology also can be applied to existing detectors

#An unlikely use for diamonds Tiny diamonds are providing scientists with new possibilities for accurate measurements of processes inside living cells with potential to improve drug delivery and cancer therapeutics.

Published in Nature Nanotechnology researchers from Cardiff University have unveiled a new method for viewing nanodiamonds inside human living cells for purposes of biomedical research.

and because of their low toxicity they can be used as a carrier to transport drugs inside cells.

and chemical degradation can often be toxic and significantly perturb or even kill cells. There is a growing consensus among scientists that nanodiamonds are one of the best inorganic material alternatives for use in biomedical research, because of their compatibility with human cells,

and due to their stable structural and chemical properties. Previous attempts by other research teams to visualise nanodiamonds under powerful light microscopes have run into the obstacle that the diamond material per se is transparent to visible light.

Danny Porath, the Etta and Paul Schankerman Professor in Molecular Biomedicine at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reports reproducible and quantitative measurements of electricity flow through long molecules made of four

#New nanodevice to improve cancer treatment monitoring In less than a minute, a miniature device developed at the University of Montreal can measure a patient's blood for methotrexate, a commonly used but potentially toxic cancer drug.

Just as accurate and ten times less expensive than equipment currently used in hospitals, this nanoscale device has an optical system that can rapidly gauge the optimal dose of methotrexate a patient needs,

while minimizing the drug's adverse effects. The research was led by Jean-François Masson and Joelle Pelletier of the university's Department of chemistry.

Methotrexate has been used for many years to treat certain cancers among other diseases, because of its ability to block the enzyme dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR.

This enzyme is active in the synthesis of DNA precursors and thus promotes the proliferation of cancer cells."

"While effective, methotrexate is also highly toxic and can damage the healthy cells of patients,

Until now, monitoring has been done in hospitals with a device using fluorescent bioassays to measure light polarization produced by a drug sample."

and Jean-François Masson, an expert in biomedical instrument design, investigated how to simplify the measurement of methotrexate concentration in patients.

The accuracy of the measurements taken by the new device were compared with those produced by equipment used at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital in Montreal."

"In the near future, we can foresee the device in doctors'offices or even at the bedside,

"We were studying the toxicity of iron oxide nanoparticles in the waste treatment of anaerobic biological processes when we discovered that not only were they not toxic,

they actually stimulated the production of biogas, "he adds. Researchers saw this discovery as the opportunity to begin a business project

"Our business concept focuses on the design of processes with low energy, low toxicity, minimisation of waste and reduction of contaminating emissions",Víctor Puntes affirms."

or are perturbed by injury or disease. The new device uses graphene a recently discovered form of carbon on a flexible plastic backing that conforms to the shape of tissue.

Moreover graphene is nontoxic to biological systems an improvement over previous research into transparent electrical contacts that are much thicker rigid difficult to manufacture and reliant on potentially toxic metal alloys.

and treat brain injury and disease. Explore further: See-through sensors open new window into the brain More information:

Hersam a professor of materials science engineering chemistry and medicine at Northwestern University has developed a method to separate nanomaterials by size

That allows us to integrate electronics on flexible substrates like clothing shoes and wrist bands for real time monitoring of biomedical diagnostics and athletic performance.

#See-through one-atom-thick carbon electrodes powerful tool to study brain disorders Researchers from the Perelman School of medicine and School of engineering at the University of Pennsylvania and The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have used graphene

Pinning down the details of how individual neural circuits operate in epilepsy and other neurological disorders requires real-time observation of their locations firing patterns

The Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics (CNT) under the leadership of senior author Brian Litt Phd has solved this problem with the development of a completely transparent graphene microelectrode that allows for simultaneous optical imaging

Because of graphene's nonmagnetic and anti-corrosive properties these probes can also be a very promising technology to increase the longevity of neural implants.

Graphene's nonmagnetic characteristics also allow for safe artifact-free MRI reading unlike metallic implants. Kuzum emphasizes that the transparent graphene microelectrode technology was achieved through an interdisciplinary effort of CNT and the departments of Neuroscience Pediatrics and Materials science at Penn and the division of Neurology at CHOP.

Ertugrul Cubukcu's lab at Materials science and engineering Department helped with the graphene processing technology used in fabricating flexible transparent neural electrodes as well as performing optical and materials characterization in collaboration with Euijae Shim and Jason Reed.

#Engineers develop prototype of low-cost disposable lung infection detector Imagine a low-cost, disposable breath analysis device that a person with cystic fibrosis could use at home

along with a smartphone to immediately detect a lung infection, much like the device police use to gauge a driver's blood alcohol level.

Timely knowledge of a lung infection would let people with CF or other inflammatory respiratory conditions seek immediate treatment

and thereby prevent life-shortening permanent damage to their already vulnerable airways. Thanks to a nearly $1. 3 million grant from the National Science Foundation

Materials scientist Regina Ragan and electrical engineer Filippo Capolino have created a nano-optical sensor that can detect trace levels of infection in a small sample of breath.

In addition to diagnosing medical conditions, the device could be modified to monitor environmental conditions for instance, identifying harmful airborne agents produced through automotive or chemical industry practices.

disease detection and more. We built tiny foundries made of stiff DNA to fabricate metal nanoparticles in exact three-dimensional shapes that we digitally planned

These coatings can also help scientists develop highly sensitive multiplex methods of detecting early-stage cancers

and genetic diseases by combining the chemical specificity of the DNA with the signal readout of the metal.

This capability should open up entirely new strategies for fields ranging from computer miniaturization to energy and pathogen detection n

The research which has been published in the journal Small drew on the medical expertise of Dr Neil Smyth and Dr Michael Ardern-Jones as well as contributions from physicist Professor Otto Muskens.

Our interest is focused now on incorporating these findings into the design of new nanotechnological drugs for transdermal therapy says Dr Kanaras.

#Drug-infused nanoparticle is right for sore eyes For the millions of sufferers of dry eye syndrome their only recourse to easing the painful condition is to use drug-laced eye drops three times a day.

Now researchers from the University of Waterloo have developed a topical solution containing nanoparticles that will combat dry eye syndrome with only one application a week.

Dry eye syndrome is a more common ailment for people over the age of 50

Currently patients must frequently apply the medicine three times a day because of the eye's ability to self-cleanse a process that washes away 95 per cent of the drug.

and reduce the possibility of toxic exposure due to excessive use of eye drops said Liu.

The research team is now focusing on preparing the nanoparticle eye drops for clinical trials with the hope that this nanoparticle therapy could reach the shelves of drugstores within five years.

a field that uses biology to develop new tools for science, technology and medicine. The new study, published in print today in the journal Nano Letters,

and to aid our understanding of a range of diseases, "explained Professor Evans. Aside from biological applications,

or to create artificial noses for the early detection of disease or simply to advise you that the milk in your fridge has gone off."

#Targeted nanoparticles that combine imaging with two different therapies could attack cancer other conditions Nanosystems that are'theranostic'they combine both therapeutic and diagnostic functions present an exciting new opportunity for delivering drugs

to specific cells and identifying sites of disease. Bin Liu of the A*STAR Institute of Materials Research

The natural fluorescence of the polymer assists with diagnosis and monitoring of therapy as it shows where nanoparticles have accumulated.

The ROS generated by light stimulation have a direct'photodynamic'therapeutic activity which destroys the targeted cells.

Thus cancer cells can be subjected to a two-pronged attack from the ROS therapy and the chemotherapy drug that is released within them (see image).

and imaging-guided photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy with triggered drug release through one light switch explains Liu emphasizing the significance of the system.

Crucially the combined therapy had a greater cytotoxic effect than any one therapy alone. The white light used in this work does not penetrate tissue sufficiently for in vivo applications Liu explains

but we are now attempting to use near-infrared laser light to improve the tissue penetration and move toward on-demand cancer therapy.

She also suggests that with a few modifications the system may be suitable for the diagnosis and treatment of other pathological processes including inflammation and HIV infection.

Explore further: Introducing the multitasking nanoparticle More information: Yuan Y. Liu J. & Liu B. Conjugated-polyelectrolyte-based polyprodrug:

which is known to have therapeutic applications in the treatment of many disorders including cancer. Using EGCG IBN researchers have engineered successfully nanocarriers that can deliver drugs

the combination of carrier and drug also dramatically reduced tumor growth compared with the drug alone.

A key challenge in chemotherapy is ensuring that the drugs are delivered only to the tumor

When injected into the body these carriers act like homing missiles traveling through the body to zoom in on the target cells where they will release the cancer-destroying drugs.

Effective therapy would typically require the administration of substantial amounts of drug-encapsulating vessels into the body.

Unfortunately existing carriers are made of materials that have no therapeutic effect and they may even cause side effects if used in large quantities.

To solve this problem IBN has designed a therapeutic nanocarrier for drug delivery using novel compounds derived from EGCG.

and filtered out of the body by the immune system before it reaches the tumor. Micellar nanocomplexes of less than 100 nanometers in dimension are formed from the OEGCG core

and renal clearance while providing for tumor targeting. The research team conducted animal studies to evaluate the performance of IBN's green tea-based protein delivery system.

The study revealed that IBN's green tea nanocomplex loaded with Herceptin reduced tumor growth much more effectively

Using the new nanocarrier twice as much drug accumulated in the cancer cells indicating an improved tumor targeting ability.

and can boost cancer treatment when used together with the protein drug. Unlike conventional therapy our green tea carrier can eradicate more cancer cells

and accumulate significantly less drugs in vital organs where they could cause adverse side effects. This invention could pave the way for a better drug delivery system to fight cancer,

said Dr Motoichi Kurisawa IBN Principal Research Scientist and Team Leader. IBN has filed a patent on their green tea nanocarrier

#Researcher develops optically traceable smart 2-D nanosheet that responds to ph Nanoparticles have the potential to revolutionize the medical industry

so that doctors and researchers can track the particles. Finally they need to perform their function at the right moment ideally in response to a stimulus. The Nanoparticles By design Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science

Using these optical properties to characterize the nanosheets Kim determined that he could approximate ph. Kim envisions biomedical engineers wrapping drugs inside of scrolled nanosheets

so that when the sheet unrolls it releases the medicine. PH responsive nanosheets for example could prove useful for targeting different parts of the human digestive tract

A nanosheet with a heat-sensitive polymer could burn surrounding tumors to destroy them functioning as a kind of super-specific chemotherapy.

By encapsulating a dangerous substance such as a cancer-treating drug into a nanosheet doctors can attack very specific parts of the body.

Like cling wrap new biomaterial can coat tricky burn wounds and block out infection More information:

Smart Composite Nanosheets with Adaptive Optical Properties Jeong-Hwan Kim Murtaza Bohra Vidyadhar Singh Cathal Cassidy and Mukhles Sowwan Applied materials & Interfaces2014.

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