#Topical antibiotics may raise pneumonia risk University of Melbourne rightoriginal Studyposted by David Scott-Melbourne on October 13 2014patients in hospital intensive care units have a higher risk of developing pneumonia
The findings contradict previously published research that topical antibioticsâ##medication applied to the patient s airwayâ##would decrease pneumonia rates.
Ventilator-associated pneumonia develops in approximately 20 percent of patients in intensive care units (ICUS) who are receiving prolonged medical ventilation.
However in the control groups of these published clinical trials of topical antibiotics in this patient group the pneumonia rates were as high as 40 percent.
For a new study published in the journal CHEST researchers analyzed 206 international publications evaluating pneumonia prevention methods in ICUÂ##s from the last 30 years.
The new findings will help improve understanding of how to evaluate pneumonia prevention methods in the ICU says associate professor James Hurley from the University of Melbourne.
Use of topical antibiotics increases the pneumonia risk in ICU patients by disrupting the balance of bacteria
##This changed flora is spread around the ICU environment to other patients through cross-infection##Hurley says.##
##This surprising finding is not apparent in any one study examined in isolationâ##it requires a meta-analysis of the control group pneumonia rates in all 206 studies to demonstrate these findings.
Pneumonia is acquired commonly by ICU patients leads to longer stays in intensive care and can also increase mortality risk.##
###Therefore it appears topical antibiotics used in an effort to prevent pneumonia in the ICU are a hazard
Researchers studied roughlyâ#80000 households from 600 villages and found a 64 percent drop in mortality from diseases covered by insurance.
##The free insurance covered specific high-impact medical conditionsâ##such as heart disease and cancerâ ##which poor residents often die from
and public hospitals empaneled by VAS for below-the-poverty-line (BPL) families with little or no access to tertiary care;
and health camps in rural areas by empanelled hospitals which helped screen patients for tertiary care and transport them to hospitals in urban centers.##
##The results of this study are important to India as it makes choices on how to make progress towards universal health coverage##says Onno Ruhl World bank Group Country Director for India.##
##The program shows how purchasing health services for the poorest can both improve health and provide protection from impoverishment due to out-of-pocket payments for health care.##
##The study published in the journalâ#BMJ included more than 82000 households. Since the program was phased covering poor households in the northern part of Karnataka in the first phase before expanding to the rest of the state the study compared the health outcomes of roughly 45000 households from villages that were covered by the insurance to roughly 37000 households
but such disparities were eliminated completely in villages with insurance coverage##says Neeraj Sood professor and director of research at the Schaeffer Center for Health policy and Economics at University of Southern California.##
##Rates of early death and illness from chronic conditionsâ##such as heart disease and cancerâ##have increased dramatically in India in the past few decades putting the poor at high risk of not having access to services they need
and incurring payments for health care that push them deeper into poverty##says Patrick Mullen a World bank Group senior health specialist and the manager of the evaluation.
#Drug for parasitic worms fights diabetes in mice Rutgers rightoriginal Studyposted by Rob Forman-Rutgers on October 7 2014a modified form of a drug commonly used to eliminate intestinal parasites may hold the key to battling type
2 diabetes at its source. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects that 40 percent of all Americans now alive will develop type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 is the form of diabetes once known as##adult onset##in which the body produces insulin that ordinarily would keep blood sugar under control
but either it does not produce enough insulin or the body s ability to use that insulin is degraded.
Researchers say it s important to find a suitable medication to correct the cause of the disease as quickly as possible
because the only way now known to##cure##the condition involves major gastric bypass surgery.##
##The surgery can only be performed on highly obese people##says Victor Shengkan Jin associate professor of pharmacology at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical school
and lead author of a new study published in the journal Nature Medicine ##and carries significant risks that include death
With nowhere else to go much of the excess glucose remains in the bloodstream where in high concentrations it can damage tissues throughout the bodyâ##potentially leading to blindness kidney damage cardiovascular diseases and other severe health problems.##
and ultimately reverse the diabetes entirely. That outcome is far from certain but Jin says the positive changes he saw in the mice are encouraging.
people of normal weight can develop fatty livers and type 2 diabetes. This kind of medication if shown to be effective could safely treat patients of all weights.
#These ignored cells might prevent osteoporosis Johns hopkins university rightoriginal Studyposted by Catherine Kolf-Johns Hopkins on October 7 2014a type of cell overlooked by scientists appears to play a critical role in preventing osteoporosis a condition that affects an estimated
It also explains the success of an experimental osteoporosis drug that has had promising results in clinical trials.
A summary of the new research conducted using mice with a bone condition similar to osteoporosis has been published in the journal Nature Medicine.##
##We didn t know that the drug affects preosteoclasts nor did we understand how important preosteoclasts are in maintaining healthy bones##says study leader Xu Cao professor of orthopedic surgery at the Johns hopkins university School of medicine.##
##Now drug companies hoping to reverse osteoporosis can look for even more drugs that make use of and target these interesting cells.##
But in women who have entered menopause decreases in estrogen can cause bone resorption to outpace bone rebuilding leading to osteoporosis and frequent bone breaks.##
##Most osteoporosis drugs on the market slow down bone resorption but do nothing to encourage bone rebuilding##Cao says.
##The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin diseases China s National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scientists and Merck
#Stop cancer from spreading without chemo Stanford university rightoriginal Studyposted by Tom Abate-Stanford on October 6 2014 Researchers are testing a protein therapy that stops breast
and ovarian cancer from metastasizing in mice. The majority of patients who succumb to cancer fall prey to metastatic forms of the disease says Jennifer Cochran an associate professor of bioengineering at Stanford university.
Today doctors try to use chemotherapy to slow or stop cancer from spreading from the original tumor site to other parts of the body
but these treatments are unfortunately not very effective and have severe side effects. The new therapy doesn't have side effects.
It works by preventing two proteins Axl and Gas6 rom interacting to initiate the spread of cancer.
Axl proteins stand like bristles on the surface of cancer cells poised to receive biochemical signals from Gas6 proteins.
When two Gas6 proteins link with two Axls the signals that are generated enable cancer cells to leave the original tumor site migrate to other parts of the body and form new cancer nodules.
To stop this process Cochran used protein engineering to create a harmless version of Axl that acts like a decoy.
In collaboration with Amato Giaccia professor of radiation oncology the researchers gave intravenous treatments of this bioengineered decoy protein to mice with aggressive breast and ovarian cancers.
Mice with ovarian cancer had a 90 percent reduction in metastatic nodules when treated with the engineered decoy protein.
This is a very promising therapy that appears to be effective and nontoxic in preclinical experiments Giaccia says.
It could open up a new approach to cancer treatment. Giaccia and Cochran are scientific advisors to Ruga Corp. a biotech startup in Palo alto that has licensed this technology from Stanford.
Further preclinical and animal tests must be done before determining whether this therapy is safe and effective in humans.
Source: Stanford Universityyou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license e
#Why a deadly drug didn t hurt lab rat livers Scientists believe they ve solved the mystery of why a diabetes drug introduced in 1997 caused fatal liver failure in 63 patients.
In 1997 troglitazone was approved for use in the United states as one of the first drugs designed to treat type 2 diabetes.
In preclinical studies using rats there was no sign of danger to the liver. During human trials adverse effects from the drug were characterized as rare and relatively mild.
and the human trials weren t large enough for the true risk of liver injury to become apparent says Paul Watkins coauthor of the study and professor of medicine and pharmacy at University of North carolina.
In a simulated population the model successfully predicted that rare patients would develop life-threatening liver injury
The team s findings are published online in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The simulation we used was able to predict the effects that were seen in patients who actually took troglitazone
The study shows that a computer model could accurately forecast the occurrence of troglitazone-induced liver injury.
Before DILISYM no one had been able to completely explain troglitazone liver injury or suggest improved approaches
It turns out that animals do a poor job predicting human drug-induced liver injury.
Drug-induced liver injury is the most common reason drug-development programs are terminated. It is also the leading cause of regulatory actions that lead to failed
and reducing the costs of new medicines. The DILISYM software is the result of the DILI-sim Initiative a partnership between the Hamner-UNC Institute for Drug Safety Sciences
Kim Brouwer is chair of the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
Funding for the study came from the National Institute of General Medical sciences. Source: UNC-Chapel Hil l
#Autism diagnosis catches up for kids in Tanzania Brown University rightoriginal Studyposted by David Orenstein-Brown on October 2 2014to diagnose autism in Tanzania researchers adapted several techniques
There is no autism diagnostic measure validated for use in Swahili a major language of the region.##
##Historically in Tanzania parents that have sought autism diagnoses had to go to other countries to receive those diagnoses##says Ashley Johnson Harrison a former postdoctoral fellow at Brown University who is now an assistant professor at University of Georgia. Researchers used the new
Using the diagnostic panel researchers were able to make diagnoses that consistently distinguished kids with autism spectrum disorder from those with other similar disorders.
because distinguishing between autism spectrum disorders and other conditions can ensure that children receive proper education
##Initially we only identified the most severe cases of autism##says Johnson Harrison who works under the mentorship of Eric Morrow in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown.##
and Developmental Disabilities and was presented at a meeting of the International Meeting for Autism Research.
They used the Childhood Autism Rating Scale-Second Edition (CARS-2) to help rate child behavior because of the instrument s flexible usage guidelines.
or guardians information about autism and guidance on using behavioral strategies to improve child skills.
Of the children she tested 30 were diagnosed as having autism spectrum disorders and 11 as having other##global delay##conditions such as suspected intellectual disabilities Down syndrome or other disorders.
After returning to the United states Johnson Harrison tallied precise quantifications of the CARS-2 score
if her diagnostic assessment had produced reliable statistically significant differences between the autism and non-autism groups.
The average CARS-2 score for the autism group was 28 percent higher (at 37.75) than the average for the global delays group (at 27.15) a statistically significant difference.
In addition Tanzanian children diagnosed with autism scored in similar ranges on the CARS-2 as compared to children with autism in the United states. The autism group also had significantly more DSM-V autism symptoms than the global delays group suggesting that the assessment measures
were helpful in reliably eliciting the information needed to assess autism spectrum disorders. Johnson Harrison says she hopes that the assessment protocol
and humans a phase transition at the temperature of infection allows the DNA to change from a rigid crystalline structure into a fluid-like structure that facilitates infection.
and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) provide a promising new target for antiviral therapies.
Such a therapy could be generalizable across all types of Herpes viruses and wouldn't be prone to developing resistance The exciting part of this is that the physical properties of packaged DNA play a very important role in the spread of a viral infection
and those properties are universal says Evilevitch an associate professor in Carnegie mellon s physics department. This could lead to a therapy that isn't linked to the virus gene sequence or protein structure
which would make developing resistance to the therapy highly unlikely. Most viruses whether they infect bacteria plants
or animals have fairly similar structures. They consist of an outer shell called a capsid that contains the viral genomeâ either DNA or RNA.
In the HSV-1 study which was published in Nature Chemical Biology Evilevitch set out to see what physical conditions lead to successful viral infection.
and mobility of the DNA inside a virus. The VIRAL DNA was much more fluid at temperatures close to that of infection (37 degrees Celsius)
They found that at the temperature of infection the phage s DNA underwent a solid-to-fluid-like disordering
which resulted in increased DNA mobility and subsequent cell infection. The Swedish Research Council the National Science Foundation the National institutes of health and the Mcwilliams Fellowship at Carnegie mellon supported the research published in Nature Chemical Biology.
The findings which appear in PLOS Pathogens provide knowledge that could help researchers treat the disease more effectively.
For years the conventional approach to target the dengue virus was through control of the vectorâ the mosquito that carries the disease from one host to another.
The elusive mechanics of the virus have hampered the development of effective treatments and vaccines. Typically when a virus enters the body
In 30 years of dengue-related research this new mechanism was discovered never according to senior author Professor Mariano Garcia-Blanco of the Program in Emerging Infectious diseases.
We not only found a new way in which the pathogen (dengue virus) interferes with the host response (human immune system) we also uncovered the first mechanistic insight into how this non-coding RNA works says Garcia-Blanco.
He believes that the latest discovery opens the door to exploring therapeutics through this channel.
and for dengue how the virus has managed to evade these defenses. The work also highlights the differences between the four dengue strains
and how more research is necessary to understand this highly complex virus. Source: National University of Singaporeyou are free to share this article under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noderivs 3. 0 Unported license n
#3, 600 crystals in wearable skin monitor health 24/7 A new wearable medical device that uses up to 3600 liquid crystals can quickly let you know
The technology and its relevance to basic medicine have been demonstrated in the study but additional testing is needed before it can be put to use.
With its 3600 liquid crystals the photonic device has 3600 temperature points providing sub-millimeter spatial resolution that is comparable to the infrared technology currently used in hospitals.
#DNA test could diagnose TB without the wait University of Warwick right Original Studyposted by Kelly Parkes-Harrison-Warwick on September 24 2014 A new approach quickly diagnoses tuberculosis by relying on direct sequencing of DNA
Laboratory diagnosis of TB using conventional approaches is a long drawn-out process which takes weeks
It is exciting to be involved in the development of new diagnostic approaches for this deadly disease says Martin Antonio head of the TB diagnostics laboratory at the Medical Research Council Unit in The gambia.
The researches have used shotgun metagenomics before to detect bacterial pathogens in contemporary and historical human material.
which causes an infection called brucellosis in livestock and humans from a 700-year-old skeleton from Sardinia Italy.
and hope it will help detect mixed infections caused by more than one kind of bacterium. But metagenomics is still some way from routine diagnostic use Pallen says.
and respond in a graduated way##says Wilbur Lam assistant professor in the pediatrics department at Emory University School of medicine and a physician in the Aflac Cancer and Blood disorders Center at Children s Healthcare of Atlanta.
The researchers findings could influence the design of medical devices because when platelets grab onto the surfaces of catheters
and medical implants they tend to form clots a major problem for patient care. Modifying the stiffness of materials used in these devices could reduce clot formation the authors suggest.
which are prescribed to millions to reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke. The team was able to separate physical and biochemical effects on platelet behavior by forming polymer gels with different degrees of stiffness
#At home test diagnoses anemia in 60 seconds A device that uses a single drop of blood can quickly diagnose anemia
The disposable self-testing device uses a chemical reagent that produces visible color changes corresponding to different levels of anemia.
By allowing rapid diagnosis and more convenient monitoring of patients with chronic anemia the device could help patients receive treatment before the disease becomes severe potentially heading off emergency room visits and hospitalizations.
Anemia which affects two billion people worldwide is diagnosed now and monitored using blood tests done with costly test equipment maintained in hospitals clinics or commercial laboratories.
Because of its simplicity and ability to deliver results without electricity the device could also be used in resource-poor nations.
Our goal is to get this device into patients'hands so they can diagnose and monitor anemia themselves says Wilbur Lam a physician in the Aflac Cancer and Blood disorders Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and the department of pediatrics at Emory University School of medicine.
Patients could use this device in a way that's very similar to how diabetics use glucose-monitoring devices
but this will be even simpler because this is a visual-based test that doesn't require an additional electrical device to analyze the results adds Lam who is senior author of a paper published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
A patient sticks a finger with a lance similar to those used by diabetics to produce a droplet of blood.
what is required by other anemia tests says Erika Tyburski the paper's first author and leader of the undergraduate team that developed the device.
and the patient sees a color ranging from green-blue to red indicating the degree of anemia.
The team also plans to study how the test may be applied to specific diseases such as sickle cell anemia.
The FDA-funded Atlantic Pediatric Device Consortium the Georgia Research Alliance Children's Healthcare of Atlanta the Georgia Center of Innovation for Manufacturing and the Global Center for Medical Innovation
Using CT imaging researchers monitored the healing of a human rib that had been removed partially by a surgeon.
We believe that the development of this model in the mouse is important for making progress in the field of skeletal repair where an acute clinical need is present for ameliorating skeletal injury chronic osteoarthritis
and the severe problems associated with reconstructive surgery says team leader Francesca Mariani assistant professor of cell and neurobiology and principal investigator in the Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative medicine and Stem Cell Research at University
or using rib perichondrium-like cells for regenerative therapy. The lab received support for this study and future work from the NIH the Merck Investigator Studies Program and the USC Regenerative medicine Initiative Award.
By answering these questions we are accelerating the discovery of new regenerative therapies for the patients who need them the most.
Funding came from an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery Foundation Research Award; the Baxter Medical Scholar Research Fellowship;
Additional coauthors contributed from USC and Children s Hospital Los angeles s
#Cells press down to make wounds heal faster National University of Singapore rightoriginal Studyposted by Karen Loh-NUS on September 12 2014scientists have uncovered more details about how our bodies repair wounds.
They say having a clearer idea of how the process works might help researchers develop drugs that speed up healing.
Earlier studies identified two processes at play in mending injury in the body. One involves the"purse-string"mechanism where a ring of proteins forms at the edge of a wound
and tightens like the strings of a purse. The second is"cell crawling"where cells move across the gap using armlike projections to close the gap.
At the early stages traction forces point away from the wound which suggests wound closure is driven initially by cell crawling.
At later stages the team observed forces pointing toward the wound. The investigators discovered a new mechanism
The contractions enable the cells to close the wound by cooperatively pressing down on the underlying tissue thus quickening the healing.
This study was conducted jointly with collaborators from the Institut de Bioenginyeria de Catalunya the Institute for Research in Biomedicine Universitat Polit cnica de Catalunya and Universitat de Barcelona in Barcelona Spain
#Fake platelets could keep you from bleeding to death Emory University Georgia Institute of technology rightoriginal Studyposted by John Toon-Georgia Tech on September 9 2014a new class of synthetic platelet
-like particles could give doctors a new option for curbing surgical bleeding and addressing certain blood clotting disorders without the need for transfusions of natural platelets.
or by medics in the military we expect this technology could reduce the number of deaths from excessive bleeding##says Ashley Brown a research scientist at the Georgia Institute of Technologyâ
and then go specifically to the site of a serious injury they could help decrease the number of deaths associated with serious injuries.##
When they receive the right signals from a protein known as thrombin these precursors polymerize at the site of the bleeding.
Researchers also tested blood from infants that had undergone open heart surgery which requires that their blood be diluted reducing its clotting ability.
Finally safety testing was done on blood from hemophiliac patients. Because that blood lacks the triggers needed to cause fibrin formation the particles had no effect.
But the researchers believe the particles could also reduce the need for platelet transfusions in patients undergoing chemotherapy or bypass surgery and in those with certain blood disorders.##
##For a patient with insufficient platelets due to bleeding or an inherited disorder physicians often have to resort to platelet transfusions
which can be difficult to obtain##says Wilbur Lam another coauthor and a physician in the Aflac Cancer and Blood disorders Center at Children s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Department of Pediatrics at the Emory University School of medicine.##
##These particles could potentially be a way to obviate the need for a transfusion. Though they don t have all the assets of natural platelets a number of intriguing experiments have shown that the particles help augment the clotting process.##
##In addition to providing new treatment options the particles could also cut costs by reducing costly natural transfusions says Lam assistant professor in the biomedical engineering department at Georgia Tech and Emory University.
Mounting evidence suggests that these microscopic teeming communities play a role in human health and disease treatment and transmission.
and in our environmentâ but it only causes disease when our immune systems are disrupted otherwise. Home microbiome studies also could potentially serve as a forensic tool Gilbert says.
Eleven percent of college students in 2013 or one in every nine indicated some Adderall use without medical supervision in the prior 12 months.
The use of narcotic drugs other than heroin like Vicodin and Oxycontin peaked in 2006 with 8. 8 percent of college students indicating any past-year use without medical supervision.
#Heart disease could be written on your face University of Rochester rightoriginal Studyposted by Mark Michaud-Rochester on September 2 2014new technology that uses software algorithms
and diagnose cardiac disease using contactless video monitoring##says Jean-Philippe Couderc from the University of Rochester Medical center s Heart Research Follow-up Program.
Â#More than three million Americans suffer from the disease. While the condition can be diagnosed readily it often goes undetectedâ
The blood levels of certain fats that are predictors of heart disease risk also improved more in the low-carb group.
The results challenge the perception that low-fat diets are always better for the heart says lead author Lydia Bazzano professor in nutrition research at Tulane University School of Public health and Tropical Medicine.##
##Yet we found those on a low-carb diet had significantly greater decreases in estimated 10-year risk for heart disease after six and 12 months than the low-fat group.##
Women could use this method to protect against the spread of sexually transmitted infections during unprotected heterosexual intercourse the researchers say.
Because carrageenan is plant-based it is acceptable to vegetarians there is no risk of animal-acquired infections
Condoms have been successful in preventing transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. However effectiveness depends on correct and consistent use by the male partner she says.
Due to socioeconomic and gender inequities women in some countries and cultures are not always in a position to negotiate regular condom use so a drug-dispersing suppository can protect against transmission of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections during heterosexual intercourse
whose infection status may or may not be known to the woman. As part of the research Zaveri who earned her doctorate in biomedical engineering at the University of Florida conducted extensive sensory-perception testing to assess acceptability of the suppositories among women.
The initial evaluations all were done only in the hand as part of this preclinical development effort.
Zaveri notes that some may be surprised that biomedical research is done in the food science department. But she says it seemed natural given her collaboration on the study with Gregory Ziegler who has expertise in biopolymers such as carrageenan
The biomedical use of a food additive a material widely used in the food industry for its gelling thickening and stabilizing properties as a medium for a drug-delivery system is a novel idea
A National institutes of health grant to Hayes and Ziegler through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases supported this work
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