leading to the rapid synthesis of drug derivatives for treating Parkinson's disease. Nagoya, Japan-Yutaro Saito, Yasutomo Segawa and Professor Kenichiro Itami at the Institute of Transformative Biomolecules (ITBM
which is an anticholinergic drug used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease.''Parachuting'boron onto the para-position of a benzene ring by a bulky iridium catalyst.
Caramiphen, an anticholinergic agent used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease contains a monosubstituted benzene moiety along with ester and amine groups.
Thanks to this substance malaria is curable. Unfortunately, it could be found only in tiny quantities in the sweet wormwood-until the US researcher Jay Keasling was able to transfer the appropriate production route from the plant in bacteria.
#Quick, easy and early diagnosis with rare earth ions Lack of oxygen in cells is an indicator of diseases as serious as cerebral haemorrhages, stroke and cancer.
Cataract and External Eye diseases at Johns Hopkins. About 60 to 80 percent of patients dont take medicine the way they are supposed to.
and used in other conditions, such as glaucoma, macular degeneration and corneal ulcers, among others. The research team intends to continue the collaboration between engineering
and medicine to look further into better ways to treat eye diseases s
#Flexible sensors turn skin into a touch-sensitive interaction space for mobile devices (w/video) If a mobile phone rings during a meeting,
Whether it's watching immune cells attack a tumour or an infection, or watching an organ develop embryonically,
function, or react to damage or stress, all of these things you could observe at an organ level,
creating an asymmetrical stress that makes the membranes fold. Argonne researchers are able to fold gold nanoparticle membranes in a specific direction using an electron beam
#Artificial blood vessels become resistant to thrombosis Scientists from ITMO University developed artificial blood vessels that are not susceptible to blood clot formation.
"Surgery, associated with cardiovascular diseases, such as ischemia, often require the implantation of vascular grafts-artificial blood vessels,
#Nanotechnology developed to help treat heart attack and stroke Australian researchers funded by the National Heart Foundation are a step closer to a safer
and more effective way to treat heart attack and stroke via nanotechnology. The research jointly lead by Professor Christoph Hagemeyer, Head of the Vascular Biotechnology Laboratory at Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute and Professor Frank Caruso,
an ARC Australian Laureate Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular engineering at the University of Melbourne, was published today in Advanced Materials("Multifunctional Thrombin-Activatable Polymer Capsules for Specific Targeting to Activated Platelets").
Professor Frank Caruso from the Melbourne School of engineering said the targeted drug with its novel delivery method can potentially offer a safer alternative with fewer side effects for people suffering a heart attack
or stroke. p to 55,000 Australians experience a heart attack or suffer a stroke every year. bout half of the people who need a clot-busting drug can use the current treatments
because the risk of serious bleeding is too high, he said i
#Molecular tinkering doubles cancer drug's efficacy The drug paclitaxel has been used for decades to fight breast, ovarian, lung and other cancers.
But its effectiveness has been limited by its small molecular size and insolubility in water--properties that allow the body to clear the drug too quickly,
reducing its accumulation in tumors. Many molecular packaging systems have been developed to deliver the drug while counteracting these effects, with a protein-bound version of the drug called Abraxane currently the leading therapy.
the Duke team doubled tumor exposure to the drug compared to Abraxane while simultaneously reducing its effects on healthy tissue.
This kept mice with tumors alive significantly longer and, in some cases, completely eradicated the tumors.
The results were published online in Nature Communications on August 4, 2015("A paclitaxel-loaded recombinant polypeptide nanoparticle outperforms Abraxane in multiple murine cancer models".
and accumulate in tumors where they take advantage of a tumor's acidic environment.""The chemical bonds holding the polypeptide cage together are stable in blood,
but dissolve in a tumor's lower ph levels,"said Jayanta Bhattacharyya, senior researcher in Chilkoti's lab and first author on the paper."
"This delivers the drug directly to the tumor and helps prevent it from randomly absorbing into healthy tissue, reducing side effects."
A second group of mice had human prostate tumors growing under their skin. Similarly, while they did not survive past 60 days
the Duke technology showed a higher concentration of paclitaxel in the tumors with more staying power than Abraxane,
it could be a game-changer for cancer therapy.""In future work, Chilkoti and coworkers will begin applying the packaging system to other cancer drugs with the goal of developing a"one size fits all"technology to improve the effectiveness of many other cancer drugs s
#Engineering a permanent solution to genetic diseases (Nanowerk News) In his mind, Basil Hubbard can already picture a new world of therapeutic treatments for millions of patients just over the horizon.
Its a future in which diseases like muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and many others are treated permanently through the science of genome engineering.
Were moving towards a very logical type of treatment for genetic diseases, where we can actually say,
Your disease is caused by a mutation in gene X, and were going to correct this mutation to treat it.
In theory, genome engineering will eventually allow us to permanently cure genetic diseases by editing the specific faulty gene (s). Revolutionizing health care Genome engineering involves the targeted
but more improvements are needed to ensure off-target genes arent modifieda result that could potentially cause serious health problems itself.
Examples include diseases such as hemophilia sickle cell anemia, muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. While the field is still in its relative infancy,
Hubbard says human clinical trials involving sequence-specific DNA-editing agents are already underway. If successful, he expects the first clinical applications could be seen in the next decade.
gene editing could possibly provide a permanent cure for a lot of different diseases, says Hubbard. We still have to overcome many hurdles but
such as applying anticancer medications to melanomas or applying growth factors and antibiotics for wound healing, says Jin Di,
"Maybe someday we could apply this approach to healing of wounds or other applications, "he said."
When the material did fracture, the researchers found it far more likely for this to happen at the eight-member rings,
Failure to produce new bone marrow can be caused by disease, trauma, or some cancer treatments, and can lead to a significantly higher risk of infections,
and the need for blood transfusions. Understanding and reproducing key features of bone marrow formationnd hence, the creation of blood cells and platelets in tissue culture for storage and later useould help in treatment of a variety of medical problems.
The researchers worked to mimic the complex environment where megakaryocytes develop and mature into platelets.
including recalcitrant ulcers and burns. The key feature is that the platelets are functional, thus, the system can be used for fundamental and applied studies of the bone marrow. his is an elegant example of how to deconstruct a complex process into its basic elements,
#3d printed guide helps regrow complex nerves after injury A team of researchers has developed a first-of-its-kind,
3d printed guide that helps regrow both the sensory and motor functions of complex nerves after injury.
The groundbreaking research has the potential to help more than 200,000 people annually who experience nerve injuries or disease.
Because of this complexity, regrowth of nerves after injury or disease is very rare according to the Mayo Clinic.
"This represents an important proof of concept of the 3d printing of custom nerve guides for the regeneration of complex nerve injuries,
however, drugs could be encapsulated in protein cages that accumulate inside of a tumor and dissolve once heated.
#Protein-based sensor could detect viral infection or kill cancer cells MIT biological engineers have developed a modular system of proteins that can detect a particular DNA sequence in a cell
To achieve this, the researchers could program the system to produce proteins that alert immune cells to fight the infection,
a professor of biotechnology and bioengineering at The swiss Federal Institute of technology in Zurich, described this experiment as an legant proof of conceptthat could lead to greatly improved treatments for viral infection. entinel designer cells engineered with the DNA sense
While treating diseases using this system is likely many years away, it could be used much sooner as a research tool,
and fatigue has been a deadly disease for metals, "the researchers wrote.""We weaken the constraint of the substrate by making the interface between the Au (gold) nanomesh and PDMS slippery,
and cancer drugs Longing to find a cure for cancer, HIV and other yet incurable diseases,
and vaccines against many dangerous diseases including HIV, hepatitis and cancer. The research, led by Yury Stebunov,
a scientist at the MIPT, was published in the ACS Applied materials & Interfaces("Highly sensitive and Selective Sensor Chips with Graphene oxide Linking Layer").
"Our invention will help in drug development against viral and cancer diseases. We are expecting that pharmaceutical industry will express a strong demand for our technology,
and maintain excellent focusing properties under high stress, lead author of the research, Phd candidate Xiaorui Zheng said. hey have the potential to revolutionise the next-generation integrated optical systems by making miniaturised and fully flexible photonics devices.
"may aid efforts to build point-of-care devices for quick medical diagnosis of various diseases ranging from cancer, allergies, autoimmune diseases, sexually transmitted diseases (STDS),
when atoms are brought too close together-to detect a wide array of protein markers that are linked to various diseases.
explains that this novel signaling mechanism produces sufficient change in current to be measured using inexpensive electronics similar to those in the home glucose test meter used by diabetics to check their blood sugar.
allowing us to build inexpensive devices that could detect dozens of disease markers in less than five minutes in the doctor's office
including pathogen detection in food or water and therapeutic drug monitoring at home, a feature which could drastically improve the efficient of various class of drugs and treatments a
and reduce side effects of allergy shots Whether triggered by cats, bees, pollen or mites, allergies are on the rise.
And the bad news doesn stop there. The only current therapy that treats their causes is allergen-specific immunotherapy or allergy shots
which can cause severe side effects. Now, researchers report in Biomacromolecules("Biodegradable ph-Sensitive Poly (ethylene glycol) Nanocarriers for Allergen Encapsulation and Controlled Release")the development of a potentially better allergy shot that uses nanocarriers to address these unwanted issues.
For many people, allergies are a seasonal annoyance. But for others exposure to a particular allergen can cause adverse reactions such as itching, breathing problems or even death.
Allergy shots can reduce sensitivity by slowly ramping up exposure to the offending substance. But because these shots expose the body to the very thing people are allergic to,
the treatment itself can sometimes trigger reactions. In order to develop a safer, more direct, cause-based therapy,
researchers have developed nanoparticles that envelop an allergen and deliver it to specific cells. But these carriers degrade too slowly,
The researchers say this approach also could be used for vaccines or immunotherapies for other conditions such as cancer or AIDS o
#Chip-based technology enables reliable direct detection of Ebola virus A team led by researchers at UC Santa cruz has developed chip-based technology for reliable detection of Ebola virus and other viral pathogens.
accurate detection of Ebola infections is needed to control outbreaks. Laboratory tests using preparations of Ebola virus
"We are also working to use the same system for detecting less dangerous pathogens and do the complete analysis here at UC Santa cruz
and help design new drug therapies against pathogens by targeting enzymes that interact with DNA"There are other single-molecule tools around,
These fine details may also help scientists understand how mutations in proteins can lead to disease
Most commercial sunblocks are good at preventing sunburn, but they can go below the skin surface
the researchers tested their sunblock against direct ultraviolet rays and their ability to cause sunburn.
the researchersformulation protected equally well against sunburn. They also looked at an indirect and much less studied effect of UV LIGHT.
and cancer cells to help us unravel disease mechanisms, and for characterizing cells from diseased tissue of patients.""
cumbersome and expensive process of detecting the antibodies that can help with the diagnosis of infectious and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and HIV.
cumbersome and expensive process of detecting the antibodies that can help with the diagnosis of infectious and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and HIV.
this makes our platform adaptable for many different diseases"."""Our modular platform provides significant advantages over existing methods for the detection of antibodies,"added Prof.
misfolding is associated frequently with diseases such as Alzheimer and Parkinson. Until now, it has been difficult to fully characterize the different structures that proteins can take on in their natural environments.
but when human proteins form amyloids they are associated usually with diseases especially neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer, Parkinson,
and deform plastically under application of stress.""That means that a metal thin film lateral spring structure cannot be used as a stretchable antenna,
who has collaborated with Gelbard for 24 years. e are excited about pursing this research for the treatment and eradication of HIV infections."
Gelbard, director of UR Center for Neural development and Disease, developed URMC-099 to treat HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders or HAND,
reduce side effects and help people manage the disease, because they won have to think about taking medication every day. a
steel braces straighten crooked teeth, steel scalpels remove tumors. Most of the goods we consume are delivered by ships
Steel surgical tools can still carry microorganisms that cause deadly infections. Now researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of engineering and Applied sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated a way to make steel stronger, safer and more durable.
Future applications of such a DNA walker might include a cancer detector that could roam the human body searching for cancerous cells
constantly computing whether a cancer is present.""More immediate practical applications may include deploying the DNA walker in the body
Although it may be a long march from diagnosing cancer to curing it, "All breakthroughs begin with baby steps.
as the single strand moves over other portions of the structure, some"surveillance"protein components check for lesions or mistakes in the nucleotide sequence before it gets copieda sort of molecular quality control.
and now is in the Chemical Biology laboratory at the National Cancer Institute. Also part of the study were researchers from Johns hopkins university School of medicine
using a transmission electron microscope at the National Cancer Institute to show how the fibers change
or sterile growing environments where plants were protected from disease --and space was an intriguing option."
So just as nude mice can be really good models for cancer research, 'nude'versions of crop plants could also speed up agricultural research,
but brain disorders like schizophrenia, and degenerative brain disease. ACES Director and research author Professor Gordon Wallace said that the breakthrough is significant progress in the quest to create a bench-top brain that will enable important insights into brain function,
in addition to providing an experimental test bed for new drugs and electroceuticals. e are still a long way from printing a brain
These brain-like structures offer the opportunity to reproduce more accurate 3d in vitro microstructures with applications ranging from cell behavior studies to improving our understanding of brain injuries and neurodegenerative diseases r
Stony Brook researchers publish experimental findings in the Journal of Neuroscience that show the lateral position more efficiently rids the brain of solutes that may contribute to disease.
The buildup of brain waste chemicals may contribute to the development of Alzheimer disease and other neurological conditions.
and therefore the assessment of the clearance of damaging brain proteins that may contribute to or cause brain diseases. r. Benveniste and first-author Dr. Hedok Lee,
Many types of dementia are linked to sleep disturbances, including difficulties in falling asleep. It is increasing acknowledged that these sleep disturbances may accelerate memory loss in Alzheimer disease.
Our findng brings new insight into this topic by showing it is also important what position you sleep in,
eating disorders and anxiety disorders, but also for more common problems involving maladaptive daily decisions about drug or alcohol use, gambling or credit card binges.
lesions to other parts of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex, known to be involved in certain aspects of decision-making,
and those with brain disease, said Prof. Yogita Chudasama, of Mcgill Psychology department and the lead researcher on the paper. n some ways this relationship makes sense;
#Brain Friendly Interface Could Change the Way People with Spinal cord Injuries Lead Their Lives Recent research published in the journal Microsystems
and spinal cord injury lead their lives. Instead of using neural prosthetic deviceshich suffer from immune-system rejection
helping people living with limb loss and spinal cord injury become more independent. However not only do neural prosthetic devices suffer from immune-system rejection,
There is a significant burden in cost of care and quality of life for people suffering from this disability.
#How Chronic Inflammation Can Lead to Cancer Researchers discover how the immune system can create cancerous DNA mutations when fighting off infection.
Chronic inflammation caused by disease or exposure to dangerous chemicals has long been linked to cancer,
but exactly how this process takes place has remained unclear. Now, a precise mechanism by which chronic inflammation can lead to cancer has been uncovered by researchers at MIT a development that could lead to improved targets for preventing future tumors.
In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,
the researchers unveil how one of a battery of chemical warfare agents used by the immune system to fight off infection can itself create DNA mutations that lead to cancer.
As many as one in five cancers are believed to be caused or promoted by inflammation. These include mesothelioma,
a type of lung cancer caused by inflammation following chronic exposure to asbestos, and colon cancer in people with a history of inflammatory bowel disease, says Bogdan Fedeles,
a research associate in the Department of Biological engineering at MIT, and the paper lead author.
Innate immune response Inflammation is part of the body innate response to invading pathogens or potentially harmful irritants.
However, these molecules can also cause collateral damage to healthy tissue around the infection site:
he presence of a foreign pathogen activates the immune response, which tries to fight off the bacteria,
and James Fox all professors of biological engineering at MIT had identified the presence of a lesion,
or site of damage in the structure of DNA, called 5-chlorocytosine (5clc) in the inflamed tissues of mice infected with the pathogen Helicobacter hepaticus.
This lesion, a damaged form of the normal DNA base cytosine, is caused by the reactive molecule hypochlorous acid the main ingredient in household bleach
The lesion 5clc, was present in remarkably high levels within the tissue, says John Essigmann, the William R. 1956) and Betsy P. Leitch Professor in Residence Professor of Chemistry, Toxicology and Biological engineering at MIT,
who led the current research. hey found the lesions were very persistent in DNA, meaning we don have a repair system to take them out,
Essigmann says. n our field lesions that are persistent, if they are also mutagenic, are the kind of lesions that would initiate cancer,
he adds. DNA sequencing of a developing gastrointestinal tumor revealed two types of mutation: cytosine (C) bases changing to thymine (T) bases,
and adenine (A) bases changing to guanine (G) bases. Since 5clc had not yet been studied as a potentially carcinogenic mutagen,
the researchers decided to investigate the lesion further, in a bid to uncover if it is indeed mutagenic.
when triggered by infection, fires hypochlorous acid at the site, damaging cytosines in the DNA of the surrounding healthy tissue.
he explains. his scenario would best explain the work of James Fox and his MIT colleagues on gastrointestinal cancer.
the researchers replicated the genome containing the lesion with a variety of different types of polymerase,
or patterns of DNA mutations, associated with cancerous tumors. e believe that in the context of inflammation-induced damage of DNA,
says the paper provides a novel mechanistic link between chronic inflammation and cancer development. ith a combination of biochemical, genetic,
a type of mutation that is frequently observed in human cancers, Wang says. Studies of tissue samples of patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease have found significant levels of 5clc,
Fedeles adds. By comparing these levels with his team findings on how mutagenic 5clc is,
the researchers predict that accumulation of the lesions would increase the mutation rate of a cell up to 30-fold,
who was honored with the prestigious Benjamin F. Trump award at the 2015 Aspen Cancer Conference for the research.
Chang and his colleagues studied 182 participants who were shown negative photos (bodily injuries, acts of aggression, hate groups, car wrecks, human feces) and neutral photos.
Glaucoma is a neurodegenerative disease where patients lose seemingly random patches of vision in each eye.
This random pattern of vision loss is in stark contrast to loss from a brain tumor or stroke,
Scientists have thought long that glaucoma progression is independent of or uncontrolled by the brain. Last year
researchers found evidence that the progression of glaucoma is not random and that the brain may be involved after all.
Specifically, they found patients with moderate to severe glaucoma maintained vision in one eye where it was lost in the other like two puzzle pieces fitting together (a igsaw Effect. his suggests some communication between the eyes must be going on
Sponsel and his research team found that the Jigsaw Effect begins at the earliest stages of glaucoma and discovered clues as to
which part of the brain is responsible for optimizing vision in the face of glaucoma slow destruction of sight.
which challenge longstanding assumptions about glaucoma, have been met with skepticism. Other glaucoma experts challenged the results in a letter to the TVST editor. f the brain controls the distribution of vision loss in glaucoma,
then a patient vision with their two eyes should be better than if you simply ix and matchthe vision of right and left eyes from different patients,
their letter analyzed a new cohort of glaucoma patients in which hat essentially what we did.
The progression of Alzheimer and Parkinson diseases, which have neurodegenerative biology similar to glaucoma, may also be mediated actively by the brain. ur work has illustrated that the brain will not let us lose control of the same function on both sides of the brain
if that can be avoided. It seems likely that the same kind of protective mechanism will be at work with other neurodegenerative disorders,
or stop the progression of these diseases. ee opened up this beautiful new world; there is so much to discover here,
Centrally Mediated Preservation of Binocular Visual field in Glaucoma is Unlikelyby Jonathan Denniss and Paul H. Artes is available here.
Case control study of 41 consecutive patients with bilaterally mild to severe glaucoma; each right eye visual field locus was paired with randomly-selected co-isopteric left eye loci,
Refined data analysis of paired Matrix visual fields confirms the existence of a natural optimization of binocular visual function in severe bilateral glaucoma via interlocking fields that could only be created by CNS involvement.
The paired eyes and brain are reaffirmed to function as a unified system in the progressive age-related neurodegenerative condition chronic open angle glaucoma,
Given the extensive homology of this disorder with other age-related neurodegenerations, it is reasonable to assume that the brain will similarly resist simultaneous bilateral loss of paired functional zones in both hemispheres in diseases like
Alzheimer and Parkinson disease. Glaucomatous eyes at all stages of the disease appear to provide a highly accessible paired-organ study model for developing therapeutics to optimize conservation of function in neurodegenerative disorders. efined Frequency Doubling Perimetry Analysis Reaffirms Central nervous system Control of Chronic
Glaucomatous Neurodegenerationby Matthew A. Reilly; Analaura Villarreal; Ted Maddess; and William Eric Sponsel in Translational Vision Science & Technology d
#Giving Paralyzed People a Voice A new device which transforms paralysis victimsbreath into words believed to be the first invention of its kind has been developed by academics from Loughborough University.
Billed as a tool to help bring back the art of conversation for sufferers of severe paralysis and loss of speech,
A new device which transforms paralysis victimsbreath into words believed to be the first invention of its kind has been developed by academics from Loughborough University. hen it comes to teaching our invention to recognise words and phrases,
or other speech disorders communicate. In an intensive care setting, the technology has the potential to be used to make an early diagnosis of locked-in syndrome (LIS),
by allowing patients, including those on ventilators, to communicate effectively for the first time by breathing an almost effortless act
#Oxytocin Delivering Nasal Device to Treat Mental illness Researchers at the University of Oslo have tested a new device for delivering hormone treatments for mental illness through the nose.
About one out of every hundred Norwegians develop schizophrenia or autism in the course of their lifetime.
Many psychiatric disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are characterised by poor social functioning. Oxytocin is a hormone that influences social behaviour
and has shown promise for the treatment of mental illness. Researchers at Uio have discovered now that low doses of oxytocin may help patients with mental illness to better perceive social signals.
As part of this project, they have collaborated with the company Optinose, who have developed a new device designed to improve medicine delivery to the brain via the nose.
Medicine through the nose Because of oxytocin role in social behaviour, researchers have explored the possibility of administering the hormone for the treatment of mental illness.
May yield new treatments The next step in the research is to carry out the same tests on people with mental illness. e are now running tests in volunteers diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders,
says Dr Quintana. e hope that this research project is the first step in the development of a series of new medicines that may be of great help to more people with mental illness,
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