#RNA molecules found in urine, tissue that detect prostate cancer Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have identified a set of RNA molecules that are detectable in tissue samples and urine of prostate cancer patients,
but not in normal healthy individuals. The study sets the stage for the development of more-sensitive and specific noninvasive tests for prostate cancer than those currently available,
which could result in fewer unnecessary prostate biopsies with less treatment-related morbidity, according to a new study in The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.
According to the American Cancer Society, prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer in American men (behind skin cancer
and the second-leading cause of cancer death in men (after lung cancer. In 2014, more than 230,000 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed.
One in seven American men will get prostate cancer during his lifetime, and one in 36 will die from it.
Since most men with prostate cancer have indolent (nonaggressive) disease for which conservative therapy or surveillance would be appropriate treatment,
the clinical challenge is not only how to identify those with prostate cancer, but also how to distinguish those who would benefit from surgical
or other aggressive treatment from those who would not. Today, prostate cancer is detected primarily and monitored by testing for high concentrations of prostate specific-antigen antigen (PSA) in blood samples.
High PSA levels are followed often by a biopsy to confirm the presence of cancer, and whether it's slow growing or aggressive."
"While elevated PSA can be an alert to a lethal cancer, it can also detect less aggressive cancers that may never do said any harm
Vipul Patel, M d.,medical director of the Global Robotics Institute at Florida Hospital in Orlando."
"Moreover, only 25 percent of men with raised PSA levels that have a biopsy actually have prostate cancer.
Prostate cancer needs to be screened for; we just need to find a better marker.""The researchers believe that they have identified a group of RNA molecules--known as long noncoding RNAS (lncrnas)--that hold the potential for serving as better prognostic markers for prostate cancer. lncrnas are non-coding RNA
molecules that until recently were dismissed by scientists as nonfunctional noise in the genome. Now, lncrnas are thought to regulate normal cellular development
and are reported increasingly as contributing to a range of diseases, including cancer.""We have identified a set of lncrnas that appear to have an important role in prostate cancer diagnostics,
"said Ranjan J. Perera, Ph d.,associate professor and scientific director of Analytical Genomics and Bioinformatics at Sanford-Burnham's Lake Nona campus in Orlando."
"The findings advance our understanding of the role of lncrnas in cancer biology and, importantly, broaden the opportunity to use lncrnas as biomarkers to detect prostate cancer."
"The study profiled the lncrnas in three distinct groups:(1) human prostate cancer cell lines and normal prostate epithelial cells,(2) prostate adenocarcinoma tissue samples and matched normal tissue samples,(3) urine samples
from patients with prostate cancer or benign prostate hypoplasia, and normal healthy individuals. In each case, the lncrnas were elevated in prostate cancer patient samples,
but not in patients with benign prostate hypoplasia or normal healthy individuals. One advantage of lncrnas is that the molecules can be detected in urine samples,
which are more easily available than blood tests. One lncrna, PCA3, was commercialized recently as a urine test to identify which men suspected of having prostate cancer should undergo repeat prostate biopsy.
However discrepancies have been found to exist between PCA3 levels and clinicopathologic features, said Dr. Perera.
In the current study, PCA3 was detected in some, but not all of the study samples, suggesting that reliance on a single biomarker may be insufficient for prostate cancer detection,
while combining additional markers may increase the specificity and sensitivity of the test.""There is a tremendous unmet clinical need for better noninvasive screening tools for early detection of prostate cancer to reduce the overtreatment and morbidity of this disease,"added Dr. Patel."
"Our findings represent a promising approach to meet this demand.""Technical Details of the Study The goal of the first experiment was to see
whether lncrnas are expressed differentially in prostate cancer by measuring total RNA from prostate cancer cell lines
and normal epithelial prostatic cells using NCODE human ncrna array and Sureprint G3 human lncrna microarrays.
Hierarchical clustering revealed distinguishable lncrna expression profiles. Thirty lncrnas were regulated up and the expression levels of three top-ranking candidates XLOC 007697, LOC100287482,
and AK024556 (also known as SPRY4-IT1) were confirmed in prostate cancer cell lines by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qpcr) analysis. The SPRY4-IT1 was found to be regulated up more than 100-fold in PC3 cells compared with prostatic epithelial cells.
In a second experiment lncrna expression was compared in pooled prostate cancer tissue samples and matched normal tissues from 10 frozen biopsy specimens.
Hierarchical clustering of the differentially expressed lncrnas was observed and 10 up-regulated lncrnas were detected using microarrays.
An additional set of 18 prostate cancer tissue samples was analyzed by qpcr and five lncrnas were found to be significantly higher in prostate tumor tissues compared with matched normal tissues.
Researchers used qpcr to analyze total RNA isolated from urine in another experiment. Urine was collected from 13 prostate cancer patients and 14 healthy controls.
All six lncrnas were found to be regulated significantly up in the urine samples from the prostate cancer patients compared with normal patient controls
while there were no differences between normal and benign prostatic hyperplasia patient samples. In other studies focused particularly on SPRY4-IT1.
Using both qpcr and highly sensitive droplet digital PCR, expression of SPRY-IT1 was found to be increased in 16 of 18 (89 percent) tissue samples from patients with prostatic adenocarcinoma,
compared to normal tissue samples. The researchers developed chromogenic in situ hybridization (CISH) techniques to visualize SPRY4-IT1 expression in cancerous and matched normal tissue.
Intense staining was seen in all adenocarcinoma samples, but not in normal prostatic tissue. Finally, the investigators showed that reduction of SPRY4-IT1 in prostate cancer cells through the use of small interfering RNA (sirna) leads to decreased cell viability and cellular invasion as well as increased apoptosis similar to
what is seen in melanoma cells s
#Experimental rapid test could tell sinusitis sufferers if they need antibiotics...or just patience It's that time of the year where a perfect storm of fall allergies
and cold and flu season will send hordes of sniffling sneezing sufferers to the doctor's office.
Currently, physicians don't have a quick way to tell if sinus problems are allergic, viral or bacterial.
However, many patients will end up with a diagnosis of bacterial sinusitis and a prescription for antibiotics--despite evidence showing that in most cases,
the medication won't help. Now, researchers from The Ohio State university Wexner Medical center and Nationwide Children's Hospital have developed a new rapid screening test that could help physicians know exactly what type of sinusitis they are dealing with
--and help get patients the right treatment.""A quick in-office nose swab, and less than 5 minutes later, physicians will be able to more confidently prescribe antibiotics for the estimated 10 percent of sinusitis sufferers who actually need them,
versus the 53 percent that currently get them, "said Subinoy Das, MD, an adjunct professor of otolaryngology at Ohio State's College of Medicine,
who spent nearly a decade working with a team of researchers to develop the diagnostic."
"The use of the test could translate into 18 million fewer people getting antibiotics that they don't need,
and a positive step towards addressing the major public health issue of antibiotic overuse.""Investors seem to agree.
A presentation given by Das about the science behind the diagnostic caught the attention of two Texas-based entrepreneurs.
The executives recently formed a start-up called ENTVANTAGE, with Das as Chief Medical officer, and are actively seeking funding to help push the screening tool closer to market.
Bacteria behaving badly Das first became interested in diagnostics as an otolaryngology resident during research to find potential biomarkers of sinusitis in the blood.
The project wasn't successful, but it got Das thinking about a more specific target--bacteria in the nasal passages."
"Research has shown that people with chronic sinusitis often have bacteria in their sinuses that have created biofilms--communities of bacteria with sticky protective covers that help them evade antibiotics and flourish unchecked.
Bakaletz, who is director of the Center for Microbial Pathogenesis at Nationwide Children's Hospital
In the process, they developed a novel chinchilla model of bacterial sinusitis following a viral infection.
who is also a professor of Pediatrics and Otolaryngology at Ohio State's College of Medicine."
not only help dramatically reduce the overuse of antibiotics in sinusitis, but could also be used to identify other types of pathogenic respiratory bacteria
so that patients can get the best medicine for the specific type of infection that they have.""Das says the research also helps explain why viral infections appear to promote bacterial infections--a primary reason physicians will often"preemptively"prescribe antibiotics."
"Viruses don't have great mechanisms for spreading on their own, so they hijack bacteria to help them.
but some doctors make the mistake of trying to prevent an infection that isn't likely to develop anyway."
An accomplished sinus surgeon, Das is working with his nurses and staff to engineer and test hundreds of nasal swab collection devices to make sure that they are simple
#Skin exposure may contribute to early risk for food allergies Many children may become allergic to peanuts before they first eat them
Early in the process of developing an allergy skin exposure to food allergens contributes to sensitization which means the skin is reactive to an antigen such as peanuts especially by repeated exposure.
The question of how peanut allergies start is an important one given the extremity of some reactions the prevalence (1 to 2 percent of the population)
and because such allergies tend to be lifelong. Past studies have shown that children may first become allergic
when exposed to peanut proteins through breast milk or in house dust but this current study adds skin exposure to the list of culprits that make a child allergic by the first time they taste a peanut.
The results also make elements of the human immune system in the skin targets for future treatments or preventive efforts.
The peanut protein responsible for most allergic reactions in humans is seen as foreign or dangerous by the immune system of the skin said Cecilia Berin Phd Associate professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of medicine at Mount sinai.
Blocking those immune pathways activated in the skin prevented the development of peanut allergy in the mice
and our next step will be to confirm this in humans. In a collaboration among the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute The Mindich Child Health and Development Institute Immunology Institute and Tisch Cancer Institute at The Mount sinai Hospital researchers exposed mice
to peanut protein extract on the skin and observed that repeated topical exposure to peanut allergens led to sensitization and a severe whole-body allergic reaction upon a second exposure.
The data found that peanuts are allergenic due to inherent components the lead to a more robust immune response.
This research helps us to understand why peanut out of the many foods in our diet is such a common cause of food allergy said Berin..
and prevent the food allergy altogether. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by The Mount sinai Hospital/Mount sinai School of medicine.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. Journal Reference e
#Community justice court associated with lower rearrest rates The opening of a community court in a high-crime area of San francisco was associated with a lower chance that offenders would be arrested for another crime within a year, according to a new RAND Corporation study.
like substance use disorders, mental health issues and unemployment. At community courts, the criminal case management process itself involves providing access to treatment and social services.
#Women who eat fried food regularly before conceiving at increased risk of developing gestational diabetes during pregnancy Women who eat fried food regularly before conceiving are increased at risk of developing gestational diabetes during pregnancy,
Gestational diabetes (GDM) is a complication that can arise during pregnancy, and is characterised by abnormally high blood glucose during the pregnancy (especially in the final 3 months).
It can lead to increased birthweight of the child, as well jaundice and other complications. When left untreated, it can cause complications or stillbirth.
New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that women who eat fried food regularly before conceiving are increased at risk of developing gestational diabetes during pregnancy.
Gestational diabetes (GDM) is a complication that can arise during pregnancy and is characterised by abnormally high blood glucose during the pregnancy (especially in the final 3 months.
It can lead to increased birthweight of the child, as well jaundice and other complications. When left untreated, it can cause complications or stillbirth.
Women who have GDM are more likely to later develop full blown type 2 diabetes.
However, there are few prospective epidemiological studies examining the association of fried food consumption with other health outcomes,
The authors included 21,079 singleton pregnancies from 15,027 women in the Nurses'Health Study II (NHS II) cohort.
NHS II is an ongoing prospective cohort study of 116,671 female nurses in the USA aged 25-44 years at the start of study in 1989.
The participants received a questionnaire every two years regarding disease outcomes and lifestyle behaviours, such as smoking status and medication use.
and diabetes, partly because they promote oxidative stress and inflammation. Moreover, intervention studies with a diet low in AGES have shown significantly improved insulin sensitivity, reduced oxidant stress, and alleviated inflammation."
"When analysed separately, the authors found that there was a statistically significant association of GDM with fried food consumption away from home,
Igor Spetic had family open his medicine bottles. Cotton balls give him goose bumps. Now, blindfolded during an experiment,
That's one of several types of sensation Spetic, of Madison, Ohio, can feel with the prosthetic system being developed by Case Western Reserve University and the Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical center.
"How the system works and the results will be published online in the journal Science Translational Medicine Oct 8."
Surgeons Michael W Keith, MD and J. Robert Anderson, MD, from Case Western Reserve School of medicine and Cleveland VA, implanted three electrode cuffs in Spetic
A novel osseointegrated (bone-anchored) implant system gives patients new opportunities in their daily life and professional activities.
An article about this achievement and its long-term stability will now be published in the Science Translational Medicine journal."
a technology in limb prostheses pioneered by associate professor Rickard Brånemark and his colleagues at Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
Rickard Brånemark led the surgical implantation and collaborated closely with Max Ortiz Catalan and Professor Bo Håkansson at Chalmers University of Technology on this project.
Before the surgery, his prosthesis was controlled via electrodes placed over the skin. Robotic prostheses can be advanced very,
and since the surgery he has experienced that he can cope with all the situations he faces; everything from clamping his trailer load and operating machinery,
Because the implant is a bidirectional interface, it can also be used to send signals in the opposite direction--from the prosthetic arm to the brain.
A percutaneous component (abutment) is attached then to the titanium implant to serve as a metallic bone extension,
Thanks to a leading-edge procedure performed at UT Southwestern Medical center Mrs. Henderson is now breathing
"said Dr. Steven Marso, Medical Director of Interventional Cardiology and Professor of Internal medicine.""People who wouldn't have had an option for treatment now have an option for treatment,
"I didn't wake up until the nurse woke me this morning, "Mrs. Henderson said, happily y
however for communicating with deaf people; they are for controlling your smartphone. By mimicking the firing of a pistol for example a user can switch to another browser tab change the map's view from satellite to standard
The new technology platform opens new possibilities for devising an approach to prevent HIV infection,
"We desperately need solutions to prevent HIV infection, which, to date, has infected or killed more than 70 million people worldwide,
it could potentially be used to decode infection processes for other viruses, he says. Using Light to Watch HIV Dance In the Science study,
exposing the gp41 subunit that is essential for subsequent aspects of the mechanism that causes infection."
and why it is challenging for researchers to develop vaccines targeting the HIV envelope proteins,
when they introduced a small molecule now under development to prevent HIV infection.""The practical outcome from this technology is that we can begin to understand how the biological system moves.
We are working now to improve the technology to achieve the imaging precision we need to make broadly effective therapies,
Technologies Work Hand in hand The Nature study, led by researchers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases,
#Slime-producing molecules help spread disease from cats to endangered sea otters The spread of diseases from land animals to sea otters
These large complex molecules form slimy biofilms and bind waterborne organic matter into larger particles in which disease-causing microorganisms can become embedded
Using the parasite Toxoplasma gondii as a model they showed how these sticky polymers increase the chance that disease-causing organisms would be picked up by marine snails
Findings from the new study will be published Oct 8 in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Discovering the role that these invisible polymers play in disease transmission in the ocean is a tremendous step forward in helping us better understand
Contamination of coastal waters with disease-causing microorganisms is known to pose a threat to the health of both humans
and animals but the mechanisms by which diseases are transmitted in marine ecosystems has remained until now a mystery.
Puzzled by the high rate of T. gondii infection in sea otters and other marine mammals the researchers set out to track the route of transmission.
Noting that T. gondii infections were 10 times more common among sea otters that fed heavily on kelp-grazing marine snails than among otters that fed on abalone
In laboratory tests the researchers discovered that the gelatinous polymers excreted by seaweed act in two ways to provide an environment conducive to transmission of infectious diseases.
when the snails are eaten by otters completing the intricate chain of disease transmission from land-based cats to the endangered coastal sea otters Other researchers on the study were Colin Krusor Patricia A. Conrad John L. Largier
and Ecology of Infectious disease program provided funding for the study y
#Colorectal cancer: New clues for early detection Researchers at the University of Luxembourg have identified potential new ways to test for the first signs of one of the most deadly types of cancer:
colorectal cancer. They have found new biomarkers: molecules whose increased presence or absence in tissue suggests the development of tumorous cells.
These indicators could help detect colorectal cancer at an early stage predict its severity or even offer new treatments.
Colorectal cancer is still one of the most frequent and deadliest cancers worldwide. But diagnosed in time it can be cured in 9 out of 10 cases said Professor Serge Haan from the Life science Research Unit at the University of Luxembourg.
Thus it is highly important to identify more sensitive and specific markers to improve early diagnosis as well as therapeutic strategies.
The research team around Prof. Serge Haan and Dr. Elisabeth Letellier studied over 800 detailed results of tissue-analysis of both patients with various stages of colorectal cancer and healthy individuals.
They completed this study with original analysis of patient material from the Ontario Tumor Bank in Canada and the Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg.
The Luxembourg-based team were the first to see a significant reduction in certain proteins (specifically SOCS2 and SOCS6) in pre-cancerous and cancerous colorectal cells.
They concluded that especially SOCS2 could be a very sensitive early diagnostic biomarker. Further analysis also revealed that this protein could even give an early prediction of the cancer's severity.
SOCS stands for Suppressor Of Cytokine Signalling regulatory proteins which are essential for normal cell growth.
There is increasing evidence that the loss of SOCS proteins plays a role in many cancers as this induce uncontrolled cell growth and tumour development.
These findings have been published in The british Journal of Cancer. The research team included several Luxembourg biomedical research institutions:
The National Health Laboratory the Santé Public Research Centre and the Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg.
This study was financed by the Luxembourg Cancer Foundation. Further work is needed now to expand on these findings before they can be used clinically l
#Worlds first novel method for label-free identification of stem cells will lead to more consistent, efficacious stem cell therapies,
doctors can be certain that the concentration of highly enriched MSC mixture is stated as, making it easier for them to develop stem-cell-based treatment that would be more consistent
Department of Reproductive Medicine at KKH, said, "This important discovery will allow us to identify
and select the best population of stem cells that we can use for treating different diseases such as brittle-bone disease
and found that these cells could repair both muscle and bone injuries, while marrow-derived cells identified as osteogenic stromal cells were able to repair bone but not muscle.
Researchers investigating the feasibility of 3d printed implant materials often turn to magnesium-aluminum (Mg-Al) alloys
"Our chemical analysis of the transport rates and distribution of vaporized species in the plume offers improved understanding of critical laser processes, including those used in additive manufacturing,
#Double blast to ward off pneumonia: Dry powder inhaler formulation Despite advances in vaccination and antimicrobial therapy, community-acquired pneumonia remains a leading cause of morbidity and mortality, even in highly developed countries.
Desmond Heng, Reginald Tan and co-workers at the A*STAR Institute of Chemical and Engineering sciences have developed now a dry powder inhalation formulation to treat bacterial infections associated with this disease1.
Community-acquired pneumonia, a type of lung inflammation contracted outside of a hospital or nursing-home setting, is caused most often by infections with bacteria, such as Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus.
The condition affects people of all ages but is particularly prevalent among infants, the elderly and patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The formulation developed by the team contains two important ingredients: ciprofloxacin hydrochloride (CIP), an antibiotic commonly used to eliminate pathogenic bacteria,
"Our follow-up microbial assays show that a concentration as low as one microgram per milliliter is enough to inhibit three of the bacteria known to cause this type of pneumonia.""
""We found that it is feasible to package the CIP-BP dry powder in an inhaler that can treat bacterial infections associated with community-acquired pneumonia,
The delivery of CIP and BP via dry powder inhalers may become a novel and useful strategy for treating patients with community-acquired pneumonia a
#Smallest world record has ndless possibilitiesfor bionanotechnology Scientists from the University of Leeds have taken a crucial step forward in bionanotechnology a field that uses biology to develop new tools for science technology and medicine.
and to aid our understanding of a range of diseases, "explained 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."
Key contributions to this work were provided by Dr. John Dye's laboratory at the U s army Medical Research Institute of Infectious diseases (USAMRIID), the lab of Christopher P. Hill, D. Phil.
initiating infection. Importantly, the researchers were able to demonstrate this peptide target is suitable for use in high-throughput drug screens.
Current experimental drugs generally target only one of Ebola's five species."The current growing epidemic demonstrates the need for effective broad-range Ebola virus therapies,
"Importantly, viral sequence information from the epidemic reveals rapid changes in the viral genome, while our target sequence remains the same.
Therefore, our target will enable the discovery of drugs with the potential to treat any future epidemic,
"Ebola is a lethal virus that causes severe hemorrhagic fever with a 50 percent to 90 percent mortality rate.
"Although the current push of clinical trials will hopefully lead to an effective treatment for the Zaire species causing the present epidemic,
or new Ebola species. Development of a broadly acting therapy is an important long-term goal that would allow cost-effective stockpiling of a universal Ebola treatment."
The Utah group has developed previously highly potent and broadly acting D-peptide inhibitors of HIV entry, currently in preclinical studies,
#New lab-on-a-chip could revolutionize early diagnosis of cancer Scientists have been laboring to detect cancer and a host of other diseases in people using promising new biomarkers called exosomes.
Indeed Popular Science magazine named exosome-based cancer diagnostics one of the 20 breakthroughs that will shape the world this year.
Exosomes could lead to less invasive earlier detection of cancer and sharply boost patients'odds of survival.
Exosomes are minuscule membrane vesicles --or sacs--released from most if not all cell types including cancer cells said Yong Zeng assistant professor of chemistry at the University of Kansas. First described in the mid-'80s they were thought once to be'cell dust
Now Zeng and colleagues from the University of Kansas Medical center and KU Cancer Center have published just a breakthrough paper in the Royal Society of Chemistry journal describing their invention of a miniaturized biomedical testing device for exosomes.
Zeng and his fellow researchers have developed the lab-on-a-chip for early detection of lung cancer--the number-one cancer killer in the U s. Today lung cancer is detected mostly with an invasive biopsy after tumors are larger than 3 centimeters in diameter and even
Unlike some cancer types such as breast or colon cancer no widely accepted screening tool has been available for detecting early-stage lung cancers.
Diagnosis of lung cancer requires removing a piece of tissue from the lung for molecular examination.
Tumor biopsy is often impossible for early cancer diagnosis as the developing tumor is too small to see by the current imaging tools.
and more sensitive thus suitable for large population screening to detect early-stage tumors. Zeng said the prototype lab-on-a-chip is made of a widely used silicone rubber called polydimethylsiloxane
Beyond lung cancer Zeng said the lab-on-a-chip could be used to detect a range of potentially deadly forms of cancer.
Our technique provides a general platform to detecting tumor-derived exosomes for cancer diagnosis he said.
In addition to lung cancer we've also tested for ovarian cancer in this work. In theory it should be applicable to other types of cancer.
Our long-term goal is to translate this technology into clinical investigation of the pathological implication of exosomes in tumor development.
Such knowledge would help develop better predictive biomarkers and more efficient targeted therapy to improve the clinical outcome.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Kansas. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
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