#Discovery Could Lead to Better Recovery After Stroke UCLA researchers have identified a molecule that, after a stroke,
signals brain tissue to form new connections to compensate for the damage and initiate repairs to the brain.
which is the leading cause of serious long-term disability in adults. The five-year study, performed in an animal model,
and programs in the UCLA department of neurology. he brain has limited a capacity for recovery after stroke,
and to RNA in the brain cells of people with other diseases. They found that GDF10 regulates a unique collection of molecules that improves recovery after stroke.
Stroke kills nearly 130,000 Americans each year one of every 20 deaths in the U s. according to the Centers for Disease Control.
including the cost of health care, medications and missed days of work. The study was funded by the National Institute of Neurological disorders and Stroke at the National institutes of health, the American Heart Association, the Richard Merkin Foundation for Neural Regeneration at UCLA, the Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson
#Radiotherapeutic Bandage Could Treat Skin cancer Research behind a new radiotherapeutic bandage that could potentially treat squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cancer was presented Wednesday, at the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists (AAPS) Annual Meeting and Expo in Orlando.
as a possible alternative to surgery for minimally invasive, cosmetic solution, or for SCC where surgery cannot be performed.
Electrospinning uses an electrical charge to create very thin fibers from a liquid. Researchers tested the bandages
which only become radioactive immediately prior to therapy, on mice with SCC for one hour. After 15 days of monitoring tumor size, three out of 10 mice that wore the radioactive bandage had their tumors completely eliminated.
The seven other mice in that group had significantly smaller tumor volumes, compared to control groups,
according to the researchers. adiation has a tendency to be a systemic, yet aggressive treatment for patients,
which can require large and specialized equipment. hese bandages can be tailored individually for easy application on tumor lesions of all shapes and sizes,
and medical doctor Martin D. Burke, built the machine to assemble complex small molecules at the click of a mouse,
They are very important in medicine most medications available now are small molecules as well as in biology as probes to uncover the inner workings of cells and tissues.
flexible and accessible, said Miles Fabian of the National institutes of health s National Institute of General Medical sciences,
The automated synthesis technology has been licensed to REVOLUTION Medicines Inc.,a company that Burke co-founded that focuses on creating new medicines based on small molecules found in nature.
The company initially is focusing on antifungal medications, an area where Burke s research has made already strides.
It is expected that the technology will similarly create new opportunities in other therapeutic areas as well as the industrialization of the technology will help refine
#Stellenbosch University Doctors Perform First Successful Penile Transplant In The World In a ground-breaking operation,
a team of pioneering surgeons from Stellenbosch University (SU) and Tygerberg Hospital performed the first successful penile transplant in the world.
The marathon nine-hour operation, led by Prof Andr van der Merwe, head of SU's Division of Urology, was performed on 11 december 2014 at Tygerberg Hospital in Bellville, Cape town.
This is the second time that this type of procedure was attempted, but the first time in history that a successful long-term result was achieved."
"South africa remains at the forefront of medical progress, "says Prof Jimmy Volmink, Dean of SU's Faculty of medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS)."
"This procedure is another excellent example of how medical research, technical know-how and patient-centred care can be combined in the quest to relieve human suffering.
It shows what can be achieved through effective partnerships between academic institutions and government health services.""Van der Merwe was assisted by Prof Frank Graewe, head of the Division of Plastic Reconstructive Surgery at SU FMHS, Prof Rafique Moosa, head of the FMHS Department of Medicine, transplant
coordinators, anaesthetists, theatre nurses, a psychologist, an ethicist and other support staff. The patient, whose identity is being protected for ethical reasons,
has made a full recovery and has regained all function in the newly transplanted organ.""Our goal was that he would be fully functional at two years
The end result of the transplant was the restoration of all the patient's urinary and reproductive functions."
"We are proud of the medical team, who also form part of our own staff compliment at Tygerberg Hospital.
It is good to know that a young man's life has been changed significantly with this very complex surgical feat.
From experience we know that penile dysfunction and disfigurement has a major adverse psychological effect on people."
"The procedure was part of a pilot study to develop a penile transplant procedure that could be performed in a typical South african hospital theatre setting."
After extensive research Van der Merwe and his surgical team decided to employ some parts of the model
and techniques developed for the first facial transplant.""We used the same type of microscopic surgery to connect small blood vessels and nerves,
and the psychological evaluation of patients was also similar. The procedure has to be sustainable
This procedure could eventually also be extended to men who have lost their penises from penile cancer or as a last-resort treatment for severe erectile dysfunction due to medication side effects.
As part of the study, nine more patients will receive penile transplants. Media enquiries Mandi Barnard Marketing Coordinator+27 (0) 21 938 9505+27 (0) 82 573 4477 mandi@sun. ac. za
Marketing and Communication Office Faculty of medicine and Health Sciences Stellenbosch University Prof Andr van der Merwe Head of the Division of Urology arvdm@sun. ac. za Department
of Surgical Sciences Faculty of medicine and Health Sciences Stellenbosch University Hey, check out all the engineering jobs. Post your resume today y
#Britain Becomes First Nation to Offer Meningitis B Vaccine After Tense Novartis AG Stand-Off The United kingdom will officially become the first country in the world to offer a vaccine for meningitis B after to infants covered under its national health system,
Britain will now be able to offer Glaxo Bexsero vaccine, formerly part of Novartis AG (NVS) vaccine portfolio under its massive asset swap earlier this year.
Meningitis causes severe neck pain after a bacterial infection of the lining surrounding the brain
Treating just one severe case of the disease can cost regulators more than $4. 5 million
estimated Reuters. U k. Health Secretary Jeremy hunt said Sunday he was pleased xceptionally that we will be the first country on the planet to have a nationwide Men B vaccination program. e had a stand-off really for the best part of
a year with the company that used to own this vaccine but since GSK have come on board they have reduced the price
and that means we can now go ahead this year with rolling out the meningitis B vaccine,
s Alectinib Shrank Tumors in Nearly Half of Patients With Specific Lung cancer Mutation Genentech Investigational Medicine Alectinib Shrank Tumors in Nearly Half of People With Specific Type of Lung cancer--Alectinib showed response rates of up to
which has been granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation--2015 ASCO Annual Meeting SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.--BUSINESS WIRE)--Genentech,
its oral investigational anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitor, shrank tumors (overall response rate; ORR: 50.0 percent and 47.8 percent, respectively) in people with advanced ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) whose disease had progressed following treatment with crizotinib.
In addition, alectinib was shown to shrink tumors in people whose cancer had spread to the central nervous system (CNS)( CNS ORR:
57.1 percent and 68.8 percent, respectively. People whose tumors shrank in response to alectinib continued to respond for a median of 11.2 and 7. 5 months, respectively (duration of response;
DOR). ) Alectinib demonstrated a safety profile consistent with that observed in previous studies. The most common adverse events (Grade 3 or higher occurring in at least 2 percent of people) were an increase in muscle enzymes (increased blood levels of creatine phosphokinase), increased liver enzymes
and shortness of breath (dyspnea. e plan to submit these data to the FDA this year to support alectinib as a potential new option for people
whose advanced ALK-positive lung cancer progressed on crizotinib. ancer spreads to the brain in about half of people with ALK-positive lung cancer,
and these studies suggest that alectinib can shrink tumors in people with this difficult-to-treat disease,
. chief medical officer and head of Global Product Development. e plan to submit these data to the FDA this year to support alectinib as a potential new option for people
Results from both studies will be presented at the 51st Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology ASCO).
and the NP28761 study will be presented by Dr. Leena Gandhi, assistant professor of medicine, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston (Abstract#8019, Monday, June 1, 8: 00-11:30 A m. CDT).
Alectinib was granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation by the U s. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2013 for people with ALK-positive NSCLC
whose disease progressed on crizotinib. Breakthrough Therapy Designation is designed to expedite the development and review of medicines intended to treat serious diseases
and to help ensure patients have access to them through FDA approval as soon as possible. ALEX, a global randomized Phase III study, is ongoing,
comparing alectinib to crizotinib as an initial (first-line) treatment for people with advanced NSCLC
whose tumors were characterized as ALK-positive by an investigational companion immunohistochemistry (IHC) test being developed by Roche.
whose disease progressed on crizotinib. The study showed by assessment of an independent review committee an ORR in 50.0 percent of people treated with alectinib,
An investigator assessment also showed tumors shrank in 47.8 percent of people who received alectinib.
CNS tumors shrank in response to alectinib in 57.1 percent of people whose disease had spread to the brain or other parts of the CNS.
In addition, the people whose tumors shrank in response to alectinib continued to respond for a median of 11.2 months (DOR
immature data. The median progression-free survival (PFS) for people who received alectinib was 8. 9 months.
or higher adverse event was shortness of breath (dyspnea; 4 percent. About the NP28761 Study NP28761 is a Phase I/II North american, single-arm, open-label,
whose disease progressed on crizotinib. The study showed by assessment of an independent review committee an ORR in 47.8 percent of people treated with alectinib,
An investigator assessment showed tumors shrank in 46.0 percent of people who received alectinib. CNS tumors shrank in response to alectinib in 68.8 percent of people
whose disease had spread to the brain or other parts of the CNS. In addition the people whose tumors shrank in response to alectinib continued to respond for a median of 7. 5 months (DOR, immature data.
The immature median PFS was 6. 3 months (95 percent confidence interval CI 5. 5ot estimable.
Alectinib demonstrated a safety profile consistent with that observed in previous studies. The most common (occurring in at least 2 percent of people) Grade 3
5 percent) and shortness of breath (dyspnea; 3 percent. About Alectinib Alectinib (RG7853/AF-802/RO5424802/CH5424802) is an investigational oral medicine created at Chugai Kamakura Research Laboratories
and is being developed for people with NSCLC whose tumors are identified as ALK-positive. ALK-positive NSCLC is often found in younger people who have a light
or nonsmoking history. It is almost always found in people with a specific type of NSCLC called adenocarcinoma.
About Lung cancer According to the American Cancer Society, it is estimated that more than 221,000 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2015,
and NSCLC accounts for 85 percent of all lung cancers. It is estimated that approximately 60 percent of lung cancer diagnoses in the United states are made
when the disease is advanced in the stages. About Genentech in Lung cancer Lung cancer is a major area of focus and investment for Genentech,
medicines and tests that can help people with this deadly disease. Our goal is to provide an effective treatment option for every person diagnosed with lung cancer.
We currently have approved two medicines to treat certain kinds of lung cancer and more than 10 medicines being developed to target the most common genetic drivers of lung cancer
or to boost the immune system to combat the disease. About Genentech Founded more than 35 years ago
Genentech is a leading biotechnology company that discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat patients with serious or life-threatening medical conditions.
The company, a member of the Roche Group, has headquarters in South San francisco, California. For additional information about the company, please visit http://www. gene. com
inexpensive test to screen people at high risk of developing the disease. A team at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, has shown that the three-protein'signature'can both identify the most common form of pancreatic cancer
when still in its early stages -and distinguish between this cancer and the inflammatory condition chronic pancreatitis,
which can be hard to tell apart. The study, published today, 03 august in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, was funded by the UK charity, the Pancreatic cancer Research Fund.
It looked at 488 urine samples: 192 from patients known to have pancreatic cancer, 92 from patients with chronic pancreatitis and 87 from healthy volunteers.
A further 117 samples from patients with other benign and malignant liver and gall bladder conditions were used for further validation.
while patients suffering from chronic pancreatitis had significantly lower levels than cancer patients. When combined, the three proteins formed a robust panel that can detect patients with stages I-II pancreatic cancer with over 90 per cent accuracy.
With few specific symptoms even at a later stage of the disease, more than 80 per cent of people with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed
when the cancer has already spread. This means they are not eligible for surgery to remove the tumour-currently the only potentially curative treatment.
The five-year survival rate for pancreatic cancer in the UK is the lowest of any common cancer
standing at 3 per cent. This figure has improved barely in 40 years. There is no early diagnostic test available.
people at higher risk of developing the disease include those with a family history of pancreatic cancer, heavy smokers, the obese and people over 50 years with new-onset diabetes.
if the 3-biomarker signature is present during the latency period-the time between the genetic changes that will cause the cancer to develop and the clinical presentation."
"For a cancer with no early stage symptoms, it's a huge challenge to diagnose pancreatic cancer sooner,
"says co-author and Director of Barts Cancer Institute, Professor Nick Lemoine.""With pancreatic cancer, patients are diagnosed usually
when the cancer is already at a terminal stage, but if diagnosed at stage 2,
Early diagnosis is an important part of our overall efforts against this aggressive cancer, alongside developing new treatments to tackle the disease once diagnosis is made.
It underlines the importance of increased research efforts to help improve survival rates.""Many of the urine samples from healthy individuals tested by Tanja's team were donated from the charity's own supporter community,
It is believed to be the first time voluntary leg movements have ever been relearned in completely paralyzed patients without surgery.
The results are reported in the Journal of Neurotrauma. hese findings tell us we have to look at spinal cord injury in a new way
said V. Reggie Edgerton, senior author of the research and a UCLA distinguished professor of integrative biology and physiology, neurobiology and neurosurgery.
he now believes that it is possible to significantly improve quality of life for patients with severe spinal cord injuries,
because youe not going to recover function below the lesion,?he said. hey have been told that for decades,
The finding led Edgerton to believe the same approach could be effective for people with complete paralysis. In the new research,
a drug often used to treat anxiety disorders. Researchers placed electrodes at strategic points on the skin
stepping and voluntary control of movements after paralysis. t was remarkable. Edgerton said most experts,
including himself, had assumed that people who were paralyzed completely would no longer have had neural connections across the area of the spinal cord injury.
But he and colleagues have published now data on nine people who have regained voluntary control of their legs four with epidural implants
and when the subjects see their legs moving for the first time after paralysis, they say it a big deal.
their injuries were suffered during athletic activities or, in one case, in an auto accident. All have been paralyzed completely for at least two years.
The research was funded by the National institutes of health National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (grants U01eb15521 and R01eb007615), the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation,
the Walkabout Foundation and the Russian Scientific Fund. hese encouraging results provide continued evidence that spinal cord injury may no longer mean a lifelong sentence of paralysis
director of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. he potential to offer a life-changing therapy to patients without requiring surgery would be a major advance;
Edgerton estimates that cost to patients of the new approach could be one-tenth the cost of treatment using the surgical epidural stimulator
because no surgery is required, it would likely be more easily available to more patients. The study co-authors were conceived Gerasimenko,
as well as Lu, associate professor of neurosurgery in UCLA David Geffen School of medicine, and researchers Morteza Modaber, Roland Roy and Dimitry Sayenko, research technician Sharon Zdunowski, research scientist Parag Gad, laboratory coordinator Erika Morikawa and research
and Adam Ferguson, assistant professor of neurological surgery at UC San francisco. Edgerton and his research team also plan to study people who have severe,
but not complete, paralysis. heye likely to improve even more, he said. The scientists can only work with a small number of patients, due to limited resources,
Almost 6 million Americans live with paralysis, including nearly 1. 3 million with spinal cord injuries. person can have hope, based on these results,
Edgerton said. n my opinion, they should have hope s
#Artificial blood Vessels Become Resistant To Thrombosis, Study Scientists from ITMO University developed artificial blood vessels that are not susceptible to blood clot formation.
The achievement was made possible by a new generation of drug-containing coating applied to the inner surface of the vessel.
The results of the study were published in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry. Surgery, associated with cardiovascular diseases, such as ischemia,
often require the implantation of vascular grafts-artificial blood vessels, aimed at restoring the blood flow in a problematic part of the circulatory system.
which results in compulsory and lifelong intake of anticoagulants among patients and sometimes may even require an additional surgical intervention.
they actively release medicine into the blood. The lifetime of such grafts is determined often by the amount of drug stored within the graft,
but to any kind of implants. You just need to take the right kind of drug. For example, after the implantation of an artificial ureter, urease crystals often start to grow inside
and doctors do not know how to deal with this problem. It is possible to apply a similar drug-containing coating that dissolves urease.
The same approach may be used for kidney or liver surgery, but these are plans for the future,
#Real-time Data For Cancer Therapy, MIT Study Biochemical sensor implanted at initial biopsy could allow doctors to better monitor
and adjust cancer treatments. In the battle against cancer, which kills nearly 8 million people worldwide each year,
doctors have in their arsenal many powerful weapons, including various forms of chemotherapy and radiation.
What they lack, however, is good reconnaissance a reliable way to obtain real-time data about how well a particular therapy is working for any given patient.
Magnetic resonance imaging and other scanning technologies can indicate the size of a tumor, while the most detailed information about how well a treatment is working comes from pathologistsexaminations of tissue taken in biopsies.
Yet these methods offer only snapshots of tumor response and the invasive nature of biopsies makes them a risky procedure that clinicians try to minimize.
Now, researchers at MIT Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research are closing that information gap by developing a tiny biochemical sensor that can be implanted in cancerous tissue during the initial biopsy.
The sensor then wirelessly sends data about telltale biomarkers to an external eaderdevice, allowing doctors to better monitor a patient progress
and adjust dosages or switch therapies accordingly. Making cancer treatments more targeted and precise would boost their efficacy
while reducing patientsexposure to serious side effects. e wanted to make a device that would give us a chemical signal about what happening in the tumor,
says Michael Cima, the David H. Koch (1962) Professor in Engineering in the Department of Materials science and engineering and a Koch Institute investigator who oversaw the sensor development. ather than waiting months to see
if the tumor is shrinking, you could get an early read to see if youe moving in the right direction.
Two MIT doctoral students in Cima lab worked with him on the sensor project: Vincent Liu, now a postdoc at MIT,
and Christophoros Vassiliou, now a postdoc at the University of California at Berkeley. Their research is featured in a paper in the journal Lab on a Chip that has been published online.
Measurements without MRI The sensors developed by Cima team provide real-time, on-demand data concerning two biomarkers linked to a tumor response to treatment:
ph and dissolved oxygen. As Cima explains, when cancerous tissue is under assault from chemotherapy agents,
you can see the response chemically before you see a tumor actually shrink, Cima says.
In fact, some therapies will trigger an immune system reaction, and the inflammation will make the tumor appear to be growing,
even while the therapy is effective. Oxygen levels, meanwhile, can help doctors gauge the proper dose of a therapy such as radiation,
since tumors thrive in low-oxygen (hypoxic) conditions. t turns out that the more hypoxic the tumor is,
the more radiation you need, Cima says. o, these sensors, read over time, could let you see how hypoxia was changing in the tumor,
so you could adjust the radiation accordingly. The sensor housing, made of a biocompatible plastic,
is small enough to fit into the tip of a biopsy needle. It contains 10 microliters of chemical contrast agents typically used for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
and an onboard circuit to communicate with the external reader device. Devising a power source for these sensors was critical,
a radiologist and director of the Center for Systems Biology lab at Massachusetts General Hospital who is familiar with the research. hatever you can do right then and there without any complicated testing,
he says. ee making these sensors out of materials that are in these kinds of long-term implants,
so we can use them to monitor tumor response, Cima says. e did a little bit of that in these experiments,
While the primary application of these sensors would be cancer care, Cima is also eager to collaborate with researchers in other fields, such as environmental science. or example,
The technique could improve access to medicines in impoverished nations. For thousands of years, people have used yeast to ferment wine,
Now Stanford researchers have engineered genetically yeast to make painkilling medicines, a breakthrough that heralds a faster and potentially less expensive way to produce many different types of plant-based medicines.
Writing Aug 13 in Science, the engineers describe how they reprogrammed the genetic machinery of baker yeast
It can take more than a year to produce a batch of medicine, starting from the farms in Australia,
and refined into medicines. hen we started work a decade ago, many experts thought it would be impossible to engineer yeast to replace the entire farm-to-factory process,
plant-based medicines. his is only the beginning, Smolke said. he techniques we developed and demonstrate for opioid pain relievers can be adapted to produce many plant-derived compounds to fight cancers, infectious diseases and chronic conditions such as high blood pressure and arthritis.
From plant to test tubes Many medicines are derived from plants which our ancestors chewed or brewed into teas,
or later refined into pills using chemical processes to extract and concentrate their active ingredients. Smolke team is modernizing the process by inserting precisely engineered snippets of DNA into cells, such as yeast,
to reprogram the cells into custom chemical assembly lines to produce medicinal compounds. An important predecessor to the Stanford work has been the use of genetically engineered yeast to produce the antimalarial drug artemisinin.
the team had to fill in a missing link in the basic science of plant-based medicines.
Many plants, including opium poppies, produce (S)- reticuline, a molecule that is a precursor to active ingredients with medicinal properties.
Smolke said. e need options to help ensure that the bio-based production of medicinal compounds is developed in the most responsible way.
where opioid medicines are already widely available, the focus is on potential misuse. But the World health organization estimates that 5. 5 billion people have little
and the techniques we developed show that it is possible to make important medicines from scratch using only yeast,
and fairly provide medicines to all who need. Stanford has patents on the technology, and Smolke and researchers on her team have formed a company.
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