meaning more healthy women with benign lesions were recalled for further testing. This is a drawback in screening,
as it can cause unnecessary psychological stress. The ongoing research will also look at costs. Breast tomosynthesis is a somewhat more expensive technique."
"The UC Berkeley engineers teamed up with Dr. Thomas Nutman from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases,
or parasitic worm, diseases onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis. The video Cellscope, which uses motion instead of molecular markers
"This research is addressing neglected tropical diseases, "said Fletcher.""It demonstrates what technology can do to help fill a void for populations that are suffering from terrible, but treatable diseases."
"Battling parasitic wormsriver blindness is transmitted through the bite of blackflies and is the second leading cause of infectious blindness worldwide.
Lymphatic filariasis, spread by mosquitoes, leads to elephantiasis, a condition marked by painful, disfiguring swelling in parts of the body.
It is the second leading cause of disability worldwide and, like river blindness, is highly endemic in certain regions in Africa.
The antiparasitic drug ivermectin, or IVM, can be used to treat these diseases, but mass public health campaigns to administer the medication have been stalled because of potentially fatal side effects for patients co-infected with Loa loa,
which causes loiasis, or African eye worm. When there are high circulating levels of microscopic Loa loa worms in a patient,
treatment with IVM can lead to brain or other neurologic damage that can be severe or fatal.
representing a major setback in the efforts to eradicate river blindness and elephantiasis. Next generation Cellscope uses video, automationfor this latest generation of the mobile phone microscope, named Cellscope Loa, the researchers paired a smartphone with a 3d printed plastic base where the sample of blood
"The availability of a point-of-care test prior to drug treatment is a major advance in the control of these debilitating diseases,
#Photoactive dye could prevent infection during bone-repair surgery Despite extensive procedures to sterilize small and large bone fragments used in joint replacement or reconstructive surgeries,
the rate of infection remains around 5 percent and can reach 11 percent or even higher in bone repairs for gunshot wounds or reconstruction after tumor removal.
Infection after surgery is a serious complication that can require further surgery and can be life threatening.
A new study demonstrates for the first time that an antimicrobial dye activated by light avidly adheres to bone to prevent bacteria from growing on bone fragments used in reconstructive surgery
when a tumor or accident requires replacement of a large segment of bone. These bone materials can come either from the patient
but we think that this method could offer a more effective method to help improve patient outcomes by reducing infection rates
The assays for pathogens and cells were used as proof of concept to demonstrate the utility of several new detection and sensing technologies.
"The group is simultaneously developing multiple novel methods that target important diseases in underserved communities,
"Testing for HIV-1 in whole bloodcurrent tests for HIV infection detect antibodies to HIV in the individual's blood.
these tests do not detect individuals in the earliest stage of infection when they are most likely to pass on the disease.
In order to detect HIV-1 in recently infected individuals the researchers developed an assay that can detect the presence of the virus in whole blood or plasma.
In addition to detecting early stage infection, the electrical readout is much simpler and less expensive than current assays.
and S. aureus are the most common bacterial pathogens that cause food poisoning, skin infections and blood infections.
The group developed a sensitive biosensing platform that detects E coli by the aggregation of nanoparticles on cellulose Paper gold nanoparticles are covered with surface molecules that bind to E coli bacteria.
These platform technologies can be applied potentially broadly to other diseases such detecting oncogenic viruses such as KSHV, HPV, HBV and HCV,
#3d'organoids'grown from patient tumors could personalize drug screening Three-dimensional cultures (or'organoids')derived from the tumors of cancer patients closely replicate key properties of the original tumors,
reveals a study. These'organoid'cultures are amenable to large-scale drug screens for the detection of genetic changes associated with drug sensitivity
and pave the way for personalized treatment approaches that could optimize clinical outcomes in cancer patients."
"This is the first time that a collection of cancer organoids, or a living biobank, has been derived from patient tumors,
"says senior study author Mathew Garnett, a geneticist at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute.""We believe that these organoids are an important new tool in the arsenal of cancer biologists
and may ultimately improve our ability to develop more effective cancer treatments.""To study the causes of cancer
and develop new cancer treatments, many laboratories use experimental model systems such as cells grown from patient tumors.
However, currently available cell lines have been derived under suboptimal conditions and therefore fail to reflect important features of tumor cells.
As a result, it has been challenging to predict the drug sensitivity of individual patients based on their unique spectrum of genetic mutations.
In recent years, scientists have developed organoid cell culture systems as an alternative approach to grow normal and diseased tissue in a dish.
In contrast to cell lines organoids display the hallmarks of the original tissue in terms of its 3d architecture,
whether these cultures could potentially bridge the gap between cancer genetics and patient outcomes. In the new study, the researchers grew 22 organoids derived from tumor tissue from 20 patients with colorectal cancer
and then sequenced genomic DNA isolated from these cultures. The genetic mutations in the organoid cultures closely matched those in the corresponding tumor biopsies and agreed well with previous large-scale analyses of colorectal cancer mutations.
These findings confirm that the cultures faithfully capture the genomic features of the tumors from
which they are derived as well as much of the genomic diversity associated with colorectal cancer. To link drug sensitivity to genetic changes,
the researchers next screened the responses of the organoids to 83 experimental and approved cancer drugs.
indicating that the subset of cancer patients with RNF43 mutations would strongly benefit from a drug that inhibits a protein called porcupine."
"At some point in the future, this approach may be suitable for modeling individual patient response to cancer therapies to inform clinical treatment,
Moving forward, the researchers plan to expand the panel of existing colon organoids as well as develop an organoid biobank for other tumor types."
"Cancer is a diverse and complex disease and having a large collection of organoids is necessary to encompass this diversity to enable scientists
By increasing the stiffness of erythrocytes infected by the causal agent of malaria, Viagra favors their elimination from the blood circulation
and Tropical Medicine, could lead to a treatment to reduce the spread of malaria within a population.
Their work is published in PLOS Pathogens on 7 may 2015. Plasmodium falciparum the parasite that causes malaria, has a complex developmental cycle that is partially completed in humans and partially in the anopheline mosquito.
Treatments for malaria target the asexual forms of this parasite that cause symptoms, but not the sexual forms transmitted from a human to a mosquito when it bites.
Eradication of this disease thus necessitates the development of new types of treatments against sexual forms of the parasite
in order to block transmission and thus prevent dissemination of the disease within the population. The sexual forms of the parasite develop in human erythrocytes sequestered in the bone marrow before they are released into the blood.
They are then accessible to mosquitoes which can ingest them when they bite (see the top of the image on page 2)
This discovery could help find new ways to stop the spread of malaria in a population.
#Urine test for early stage pancreatic cancer possible after biomarker discovery A team at Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London, has shown that the three-protein'signature'can both identify the most common
--and distinguish between this cancer and the inflammatory condition chronic pancreatitis, which can be hard to tell apart.
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.
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,
3-D printed'tissue'to help combat disease A bench-top brain that accurately reflects actual brain tissue would be significant for researching not only the effect of drugs,
but brain disorders like schizophrenia, and degenerative brain disease. Researchers have completed now 3-D printing a six-layered structure similar to brain tissue, in
which cells are placed accurately and remain in their designated layer. Researchers at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Electromaterials Science (ACES) have taken a step closer to meeting this challenge,
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.""We are still a long way from printing a brain
Loss of rods and cones is the primary cause of vision loss in diseases such as macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa.
But those diseases leave most remaining neurons within the retina relatively intact, and various technologies under development aim to restore vision by targeting the surviving cells.
not only for a range of neuropsychiatric disorders such as ADHD, 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.
Importantly, 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's Psychology department and the lead researcher on the paper."
#Missing piece surfaces in the puzzle of autism A study carried out by the Laboratoire Neurobiologie des Interactions Cellulaires et Neurophysiopathologie (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université),
Understanding the mechanisms that underlie autism spectrum disorders (ASD), which affect 7. 6 million people according to the World health organization,
in order to determine new genes involved in this disease. Easily accessible from nasal biopsies, these cells--which belong to nerve tissues
In these different organisms, under-expression of the enzyme induced hypersensitivity to oxidative stress (i e. to the toxicity of free radicals), a smaller number of synapses and abnormal neurotransmission due to a reduction in the number of vesicles carrying neurotransmitters.
The involvement of this enzyme in susceptibility to oxidative stress, which has frequently been observed in autistic children, its association with gastrointestinal diseases
--which often accompany autistic disorders --and its role in nerve development and neurotransmission mean it is an ideal candidate for deregulation of its expression to lead to the abnormal brain development observed in ASD.
"This expansion and contraction of aluminum particles generates great mechanical stress, which can cause electrical contacts to disconnect.
and give rise to mature cells, even in the absence of injury or disease.""Nusse and his colleagues reported their findings August 5, 2015, in the journal Nature.
The lab is now investigating how the newly identified stem cells might contribute to regeneration of liver tissue after injury.
whether liver cancers tend to originate in these replicating cells, as opposed to more mature hepatocytes,
#Scientists determine how antibiotic gains cancer-killing sulfur atoms In a discovery with implications for future drug design,
This new discovery could open the way to incorporating sulfur into other natural products, potentially advancing new therapies for indications beyond cancer."
A number of compounds that contain sulfur have proven useful in the treatment of conditions ranging from acne and eczema to arthritis and cancer."
#Engineering a permanent solution to genetic diseases In his mind, Basil Hubbard can already picture a new world of therapeutic treatments for millions of patients just over the horizon.
It's a future in which diseases like muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis and many others are treated permanently through the science of genome engineering.
Thanks to his latest work, Hubbard is bringing that future closer to reality. Hubbard's research, published in the journal Nature Methods, demonstrates a new technology advancing the field of genome engineering.
"We're 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 we're 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)."Genome engineering involves the targeted, specific modification of an organism's genetic information.
but more improvements are needed to ensure off-target genes aren't modified--a result that could potentially cause serious health problems itself.
"Currently much of the research in the field of genome engineering is focused on treating monogenic diseases--diseases that involve a single gene--as they're much easier for researchers to successfully target.
Examples include diseases such as hemophilia, sickle cell anemia, muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis. While the field is still in its relative infancy,
gene editing could possibly provide a permanent cure for a lot of different diseases, "says Hubbard.""We still have to overcome many hurdles but
#Mechanism of epidemic bacterial disease identified Through identification of increased toxin production by epidemic forms of group A streptococcus (the"flesh-eating"bacterium),
for the first time scientists are able to pinpoint the molecular events that contribute to large intercontinental epidemics of disease.
and the U s. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases report their discoveries and implications for future studies of epidemic diseases in an upcoming Journal of Clinical Investigation (early online).
According to James M. Musser, M d.,Ph d.,principal investigator of the study and chair of the Department of Pathology and Genomic medicine at the Houston Methodist Research Institute, the collaborative research showed, at the precise nucleotide level,
genetic changes that contributed to large epidemics of group A streptococcus (GAS).""These findings now give us the opportunity to begin to develop new translational medicine tools
or dampen, epidemics.""According to the World health organization, GAS causes more than 600 million cases of human disease every year.
The majority of cases are group A streptococcus pharyngitis, more commonly known as strep throat. But group A strep is also the major cause of preventable childhood heart disease caused by rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease.
On the far end of the infection severity spectrum, group A streptococcus also causes necrotizing fasciitis("flesh-eating"disease), an infection with a high mortality rate.
The collaborating team of international scientists found that group A streptococcus was an excellent model organism to study the molecular basis of epidemic bacterial infections.
Researchers have known for more than a century that this pathogenic bacterium can cause epidemics but no one has been able to fully address the cause.
Now with next generation sequencing, scientists are able to sequence the entire genome of the bacteria,
was that changes in the genetic make-up of the GAS pathogen had underpinned new epidemics. To address this hypothesis
the collaborating international team sequenced the genome of thousands of disease-causing strains, precisely defining every base pair mutation in the strains."
"The surprise was that the changes involved alterations in the genes encoding two potent toxins that contribute to human infections,
who is director for the Center for Molecular and Translational Human Infectious disease Research at Houston Methodist.
The researchers found that in the epidemic form of group A streptococcus, which can manifest as necrotizing fasciitis,
or"flesh-eating"disease, there were two significant and crucial changes within the regulatory region of the epidemic strains.
All three of these SNPS contributed to building a pathogenic organism that is a more virulent machine capable of causing epidemics."
Musser and team are hopeful findings from their model study will allow other infectious disease researchers to use analogous strategies that focus on other pathogens, like Staphylococcus aureus (the leading cause of skin and soft-tissue infections),
and antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as Klebsiella pneumonia or Escherichia coli i
#Device may detect urinary tract infections faster Sepsis is a major killer and accounts for about half of the hospital deaths in the US by some estimates.
Hospital patients often acquire urinary tract infections via infected catheters and so untreated infections are a huge problem faced by healthcare providers around the world.
Early diagnosis could save lives and reduce healthcare costs. With this motivation in mind, a team of researchers in Germany and Ireland set out to speed up the detection process for bacteria that cause urinary tract infections.
Arraytheir medical diagnostics device is designed to harness centrifugal force--akin to the circular swing of A chair-o-Plane"carnival ride
in which a fast rotation creates a force that causes the seats to drift radially away from the ride's center--to capture the tiny bacteria directly from patients'samples of bodily fluidsn this case, urine.
and Enterococcus faecalis--two species known to cause urinary tract infections--within 70 minutes, directly from patients'urine samples,"said Schröder.
and diagnose urinary tract infections today, so the team's device shows great potential for improving the future of medical diagnostics.
--while a patient waits--identify the bacteria causing an infection directly within the patient's bodily fluid
Researchers at the Center for Molecular biology of Heidelberg University, the German Cancer Research center and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies collaborated on the project,
which we see in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and even in aging processes,"explains Prof.
Dr. Bernd Bukau, Director of the Center for Molecular biology of Heidelberg University (ZMBH), who is also a researcher at the German Cancer Research center (DKFZ.
"The formation of protein aggregates in different organs of the human body is associated with a large number of diseases,
"Dissolving protein aggregates is a critical step in recycling defective proteins and providing protection against stress-induced cell damage.
which has seen massive population decline over the last two decades from devil facial tumour disease.
#Cheaper, faster, more accurate test to identify gene defects in heart patients For the subset of heart patients whose illness isn't caused by a lifetime of cigarettes, trans fats or high glycemic foods,
In work that could advance precision health, Kitchener Wilson, MD, Phd, instructor of pathology, and Joseph Wu, MD, Phd, professor of cardiovascular medicine and of radiology, teamed up with a group of genome-sequencing specialists to develop the new technique:
This approach--surveying a small subgroup of relevant genes instead of the whole genome--is used already to test for other diseases, such as cystic fibrosis.
But cystic fibrosis involves only one gene albeit with hundreds of variants.""By comparison, the heart diseases are more challenging just
because there are so many genes to sequence, "said Wilson.""To do that accurately has been difficult and, until now,
older cardiac patient who comes in with chest pain, the result of a lifetime of poor diet and little exercise."
But what if a 30-year-old woman comes in with chest pain and her doctors can't find any obvious reason why she should be having heart problems at such a young age?"
That could be the moment for doctors to break out the complementary long padlock probes for inherited heart disease.
Wilson and Wu spearheaded the effort to put clpps to work diagnosing cardiac diseases. A preliminary test of the assay on blood samples and some skin samples from 29 participants from families with inherited heart disease validated the clpp approach
the researchers said. The heart disease clpp assay was cheaper, faster and more accurate than whole-genome assays.
The Stanford team next plans to test the technique on a group of 200-300 patients.
"The assay will shorten the time it takes to diagnose difficult or unusual heart disease cases,
"Suppose you have a 60-year-old patient who comes in with heart failure, "he said."
and we find he has no history of heart attack or other issues, and yet the heart is not performing well.
and find the man's illness has a genetic cause, such as dilated cardiomyopathy, we now have both a cause and a diagnosis,
and we can initiate treatment right away.""Avoiding a'fishing expedition'"Not having that result delays diagnosis
"But perhaps the most important benefit is that you can give the patient accurate answers about his or her disease."
and physicians to better predict individual risks for specific diseases, develop approaches to early detection and prevention,
However, the hormone has drawn renewed interest in recent years as a possible basis for treating obesity--in conjunction with leptin-sensitizing compounds--and also diabetes.
and serve a greater number of silos with the same ozonation system providing great versatility in removing pathogens from stored grain.
which lowers glucose levels, triglycerides and hypertension. He also states that the benefits of the pomegranate are better than those of fruits like the cranberry, grapefruit, grape or black and green tea,
It also reduces some of the signs of metabolic syndrome as the index of circumference high blood pressure and triglyceride levels.
Also they administered five grams of powder per day to a group of people with diabetes, the equivalent of approximately two fruits,
"We hope this project will be useful to treat serious public health problems such as diabetes and obesity,"concludes the specialist s
But eventually those suppressed memories can cause debilitating psychological problems, such as anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder or dissociative disorders.
"said principal investigator Dr. Jelena Radulovic, the Dunbar Professor in Bipolar Disease at Northwestern University Feinberg School of medicine."
One kind, synaptic GABA receptors, works in tandem with glutamate receptors to balance the excitation of the brain in response to external events such as stress.
Extra-synaptic GABA receptors change the brain's state to make us aroused, sleepy, alert, sedated, inebriated or even psychotic.
The findings imply that in response to traumatic stress, some individuals, instead of activating the glutamate system to store memories,
The drug rerouted the processing of stress-related memories within the brain circuits so that they couldn't be accessed consciously d
and whether there's any degradation of those structures in diseases.""Many diseases are caused either by an invading pathogen or degradation of a cell's internal structure.
Alzheimer's, for example, may be related to degradation of the cytoskeleton inside neurons.""The cytoskeleton system is comprised of a host of interacting subcellular structures and proteins,
Many mental disorders, including depression, schizophrenia and anxiety, affect neurotransmitter systems,"said Axel Brunger, the study's principal investigator.
#Scientists uncover nuclear process in the brain that may affect disease Every brain cell has a nucleus,
may play a critical role in health and disease. The study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, was funded partially by the National institutes of health (NIH."
"Unexpectedly we may have discovered a hidden pathway to understanding how astrocytes respond to injury and control brain processes.
The pathway may be common to many brain diseases and we're just starting to follow it,
including Alzheimer's disease and brain injury. Previous studies found that after brain injury astrocytes produce greater amounts of p75 neurotrophin receptor (p75ntr), a protein that helps cells detect growth factors.
The cells also react to TGF-beta by changing their shapes and secreting proteins that alter neuronal activity.
Dr. Akassoglou's lab showed that eliminating the p75ntr gene prevented hydrocephalus in mice genetically engineered to have astrocytes that produce higher levels of TGF-beta.
Hydrocephalus is a disorder that fills the brain with excess cerebral spinal fluid. Eliminating the p75ntr gene also prevented astrocytes in the brains of the mice from forming scars after injuries and restored gamma oscillations
which are patterns of neuronal activity associated with learning and memory. The cell nucleus is a ball of chromosomes wrapped in a protective fatty membrane.
and will continue to study how the nuclear pore complex controls neuronal development and disease
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