"said the trial's co-primary investigator, Sheri D. Weiser, MD, MPH, UCSF associate professor of medicine at the UCSF Division of HIV, Infectious diseases and Global Medicine at San francisco General
and address food insecurity, poverty and disempowerment if we are to achieve the UNAIDS goal of ending the HIV/AIDS epidemic by 2030."
and integrated disease and pest management. Financial training focused on record keeping, along with savings and investments."
immune components that help orchestrate the body's response to pathogens and other invaders. This mechanism may act as a firewall,
However, from a clinical standpoint, this discovery could lead to more effective cancer immunotherapies, better drugs for autoimmune conditions and new ways to expedite recovery from sepsis.
The research online July 28, appears in today's print edition of the journal Immunity.""There's a three-signal process to activate T cells
that approach could damage a patient's ability to fight off pathogens. While immunotherapies might fight cancer,
they may also open the door to opportunistic infections.""This was shown in mice which, after receiving systemic immunotherapy,
had trouble mounting a primary T-cell response. The finding was confirmed in samples from patients receiving high-dose interleukin 2 therapy to treat metastatic melanoma."
"We need to be very careful because immunotherapy could be generating both short-term gain and long-term loss,"noted lead author William Murphy, professor and acting chair in the UC Davis Department of Dermatology."
"In addition to illuminating how T cells respond to cancer immunotherapy, the study also provides insights into autoimmune disorders.
The researchers believe this CD4 paralysis mechanism could play a role in preventing autoimmunity, a hypothesis they supported by testing immunotherapy in a multiple sclerosis model.
By shutting down CD4 T cells, immune stimulation prevented an autoimmune response. This offers the potential to paralyze the immune system to prevent autoimmunity
but if we could safely induce paralysis just prior to surgery, it's possible that patients could develop tolerance,
CD4 paralysis may also be coopted by pathogens, such as HIV, which could use this chronic inflammation response to disable the immune system."
"For elderly people who have flu or pneumonia, their immune systems are activated, but maybe they can't fight anything else,
we may be able to better fight infection
#Engineers identify how to keep surfaces dry underwater for months Imagine staying dry underwater for months.
Symptoms include fatigue, dizziness, chest pain/pressure, heart murmurs, shortness of breath during activity, heart palpitations and fainting.
Aortic stenosis can lead to heart failure and death. About 100,000 people in the United states have aortic stenosis a
which means that melanoma is identified in all cases where it is ruled present, and out in 90.9%of cases where it is not."
"Skin malignant melanoma is a particularly aggressive cancer associated with quick blood vessel growth which means early diagnosis is vital for a good prognosis.
New device unveiled to give paralysis victims a voice A new device which transforms paralysis victims'breath 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,
the prototype analyses changes in breathing patterns and converts'breath signals'into words using pattern recognition software and an analogue-to-digital converter.
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
Robert is no stranger to AAC devices, having already invented a prototype called the m (eye) DAQ--a low cost digital letter board that allows victims of paralysis to communicate via eye blinks or finger movements s
#New synthetic tumor environments make cancer research more realistic University of Illinois researchers have developed a new technique to create a cell habitat of squishy fluids, called hydrogels,
and grow into a tumor. They were able to observe how differently cells act in the three-dimensional, gel-like environment,
and expensive mouse avatars that are created by injecting human tumor cells into mice.""This is really the first time that it's been demonstrated that you can use a rapid methodology like this to spatially define cancer cells and macrophages,
and finds out they've been diagnosed with some sort of solid tumor, "Kilian said.""You take a biopsy of those cells,
Scientists can use the NAPA to determine changes in cellular metabolite level distributions and metabolic noise upon environmental stress
the research group has determined the metabolic response of individual yeast cells to oxidative stress. Additionally, the NAPA platform has shown the capabilities to analyze a wide variety of biomolecules
we could be taking samples of different components of a cancer patient's mammary gland and building a model of their tissue to use as a personalized drug screening platform.
But in diseases such as breast cancer, the breakdown of this order has been associated with the rapid growth and spread of tumors."
it sets the stage for cancer.""But studying how the cells of complex tissues like the mammary gland self-organize,
and break down in disease has been a challenge to researchers. The living organism is often too complex to identify the specific causes of a particular cellular behavior.
but also to experiment with specifically adding in a single cell with a known cancer mutation to different parts of the organoid to observe its effects.
or more cells expressing low levels of the cancer gene Rasg12v affected the cells around them.
or structural changes in mammary glands can lead to the breakdown of tissue architecture associated with tumors that metastasize,
#Alzheimer disease: Overlooked for 30 years, there is a new kid on the block Alzheimer's disease is associated with the appearance of characteristic neurotoxic protein aggregates in various regions in the brain.
Chemical analysis of these insoluble deposits reveals that they are made up of a family of short protein fragments,
and Speaker for the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases in Munich) and Dr. Michael Willem (LMU) has made now a discovery
which extends this picture of the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, and has potentially far-reaching implications for our understanding of the condition:"
transmit neurodegeneration Multiple System Atrophy (MSA), a neurodegenerative disorder with similarities to Parkinson's disease, is caused by a newly discovered type of prion,
akin to the misfolded proteins involved in incurable progressive brain diseases such Creutzfeldt-jakob disease (CJD), according to two new research papers led by scientists at UC San francisco. The findings suggest new approaches to developing treatments for MSA,
which currently has no cure, but also raise a potential concern for clinicians or scientists who come in contact with MSA tissue.
The new findings mark the first discovery of a human disease caused by a new prion in 50 years
MD isolated the causative agent for a related disease called scrapie, found in sheep, and characterized it as a prion, for"infectious protein."
and spread disease was dismissed by the scientific community, as a tenet of modern biology held that only viruses
and living microbes such as bacteria could transmit disease. But subsequent work by Prusiner and others led to an understanding of how prions function at a molecular level.
Prusiner, a professor of neurology and director of the Institute for Neurodegenerative Diseases (IND) at UCSF
since that similar misfolded proteins may contribute to more common forms of neurodegeneration, such as Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease."
Its early symptoms can be mistaken for those of Parkinson's disease, and include movement and balance problems,
As in Parkinson's disease, neurodegeneration in MSA is accompanied by a buildup of clumps of alpha-synuclein protein within brain cells.
Both MSA and PD can arise sporadically in families with no history of the disease,
such as cellular stress and the aging process also are thought to make misfoldings more likely. The new work has its origins in experiments conducted in Prusiner's lab in 2013,
showing that samples of brain tissue from two human MSA patients were able to transmit the disease to a mouse model for Parkinson's disease,
the Massachusetts Alzheimer's disease Research center in Boston, the Parkinson's UK Brain Bank at Imperial College London,
and that infected mouse brain tissue could itself spread the disease to other mice. The discovery that alpha-synuclein prions can transmit MSA raises a public health concern about treatments
and researchers should adopt much more stringent safety protocols when dealing with tissue from patients with MSA and other neurodegenerative diseases, many
For instance, MSA is diagnosed frequently initially as Parkinson's disease, which is treated often with deep-brain stimulation. The disease could potentially be transmitted to other patients
if deep-brain stimulation equipment is reused.""You can't kill a protein, "Giles said.""And it can stick tightly to stainless steel,
There could be undiagnosed neurodegenerative diseases that --if they're caused by prions--mean infection could be a real worry."
"Unlike the danger of BSE from contaminated beef, the researchers stress that there is no apparent risk of infection by MSA prions outside of specialized medical or research settings.
In the earlier of the group's two PNAS papers published this month, Woerman led a research team in the development of a rapid new method to test prion transmission using human cell cultures.
in contrast to the 120 days it takes for the disease to spread to mouse models."
"The challenge of studying neurodegeneration is that it's a disease of aging, "Woerman said."
#Genetic cause of unknown disease uncovered Using modern high-tech methods, followed by thorough clinical, biochemical and molecular biological investigations,
and characterized the disease which is given the name RCDP5. The researchers believe that studies of the effect of the newly discovered genetic error will provide new insight into other diseases.
Arrayin 2004, professor Petter Strømme examined a child with congenital cataract, growth delay and symptoms from the brain, the peripheral nervous system,
and muscles as well as calcifications in cartilage tissue. The patient had two siblings with similar symptoms
Strømme assumed that the disease was caused by a defective gene inherited from the parents, whom he suspected were both carriers of the unknown disease causing mutation.
After clinical and diagnostic odyssey in the following years, and in depth discussions with colleagues internationally, the cause remained unknown.
leaving them more open to illness. Most sleep research focuses on the effects of sleep deprivation
or an overactive response in others, suggesting the altered circadian cycle made them potentially less able to fight illness
Many of the most threatening diseases are transmitted by so-called RNA VIRUSES, such as HIV, influenza, and hepatitis C. What they have in common is that the genome does not consist of DNA, but RNA.
Using MIME, scientists can determine how the genetic material of a virus is incorporated into nascent virions at the end of its reproductive cycle.
complete paralysis has regained enough voluntary control to actively work with a robotic device designed to enhance mobility.
and suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. At UCLA, Pollock made substantial progress after receiving a few weeks of physical training without spinal stimulation
"It will be difficult to get people with complete paralysis to walk completely independently, but even if they don't accomplish that,
"We need to expand the clinical toolbox available for people with spinal cord injury and other diseases."
and we are encouraged by these findings to broaden our understanding of possible treatment options for paralysis,
"Given the complexities of a spinal cord injury, there will be no one-size-fits-all cure but rather a combination of different interventions to achieve functional recovery."
and approaches to remind the spine of its potential even years after an injury, "he said.
"Neurorecovery Technologies, a medical technology company Edgerton founded, designs and develops devices that help restore movement in patients with paralysis. The company provided the device used to stimulate the spinal cord in combination with the Ekso in this research.
he now believes it is possible to significantly improve quality of life for patients with severe spinal cord injuries,
mobile microscope could significantly improve malaria diagnoses and treatment in developing countries that often lack the resources to address the life-threatening disease,
says a Texas A&m University biomedical engineer who has created the tool. The add-on device, which is similar in look
accurate diagnosis. While polarized light has been preferred the option for malaria detection due to its increased sensitivity,
"MOPID could represent a significant advancement in the detection methods for malaria, a disease that the World health organization estimates was responsible for 584,000 deaths in 2013,
along with an estimated 198 million new cases in that span of time. Given those numbers, a dire need exists for a low-cost, accurate and portable method of detection, particularly in areas of the world with few resources,
While failure to treat malaria can be fatal the administering of unnecessary malaria medications as a result of misdiagnoses can results in new, drug-resistant strains of the disease in addition to increasing costs for malaria medications, Coté notes.
Coté's solution takes advantage of existing mobile phone technology and networks--something to which a whopping 75 percent of the world has access.
This ever-increasing access to mobile networks and the fact that most mobile phones are equipped with advanced camera features make mobile phones the ideal platform for advanced imaging applications such as MOPID,
and specificity to detect malaria with both ios -and Android-based devices and requires less user expertise than traditional microscopy,
That user friendly aspect, coupled with the system's portability and expected low cost of about $10 per unit, makes it an easily adoptable technology in low-resource areas ravaged by malaria,
while being worn on the wrist could bridge the communications gap between the deaf and those who don't know sign language,
Researchers discover a gene variant that provides a delaying mechanism for Alzheimer's disease Medical research has yet to discover an Alzheimer's treatment that effectively slows the disease's progression,
These individuals have a rare gene mutation that leads to full-blown disease around age 49. However, in a few outliers, the disease manifests up to a decade later."
"We wanted to study those who got the disease later to see if they had a protective modifier gene,
"said co-author Kenneth S. Kosik, co-director of UCSB's Neuroscience Research Institute and a professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental biology."
We hypothesized the existence of gene variant actually pushes the disease onset as much as 10 years later."
the UCSB researchers collaborated with UC San francisco to study 150 individuals affected with Alzheimer's or dementia.
then we can modify the level of eotaxin in individuals to treat the disease. But our results must be replicated
#How anesthesia may fight lung infections: Mouse study The Johns Hopkins and University of Buffalo research team built its experiments on previous research showing that children with upper viral respiratory tract infections who were exposed to the anesthetic halothane during minor surgical procedures had significantly less respiratory symptoms
and a shorter duration of symptoms compared with children who did not receive halothane during surgeries.
led to decreased bacterial burden and lung injury following infection. The researchers report that the anesthetics augmented the antibacterial immune response after influenza viral infection by blocking chemical signaling that involves type I interferon
a group of proteins that help regulate the activity of the immune system. Using a combination of genetic, molecular,
as if the animals were infected never with a prior influenza virus. Array"Our study is giving us more information about how volatile anesthetics work with respect to the immune system,
suggest that volatile anesthetics may someday be helpful for combatting seasonal and pandemic influenza, particularly when there are flu vaccine shortages or limitations."
and treatments and could be a game changer in terms of our preparedness for future pandemics and seasonal flu outbreaks because it's focusing on host immunity,
and therapies that could change the infectious disease landscape.""The investigators say they are currently testing an oral small molecule immune modulator in phase 2 clinical trials that acts like volatile anesthetics to help reduce secondary infections after someone becomes sick with the flu u
#Mathematical'Gingko trees'reveal mutations in single cells that characterize diseases A new interactive analysis program called Gingko has been released that reduces the uncertainty of single-cell analysis
and provides a simple way to visualize patterns in copy number mutations across populations of cells.
disease can occur. Such mutations have been linked not only with cancer but a host of other illnesses, including autism and schizophrenia.
Researchers can learn a lot by analyzing CNVS in bulk samples--from a tumor biopsy for example--but they can learn more by investigating CNVS in individual cells."
"You may think that every cell in a tumor would be the same, but that's actually not the case,"says CSHL Associate professor Michael Schatz."
"We're realizing that there can be a lot of changes inside even a single tumor, "says Schatz."
"If you're going to treat cancer, you need to diagnose exactly what subclass of cancer you have."
"Simultaneously employing different drugs to target different cancer subclasses could prevent remission, scientists have proposed. One powerful single-cell analytic technique for exploring CNV is whole genome sequencing.
The challenge is that, before sequencing can be done, the cell's DNA has to be amplified many times over.
This process is rife with errors, with some arbitrary chunks of DNA being amplified more than others. In addition, because many labs use their own software to examine CNVS,
there is little consistency in how researchers analyze their results. To address these two challenges, Schatz and his colleagues created Gingko.
He adds that CSHL has collaborations with many hospitals, notably Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and the North Shore-LIJ Health System,
#Study creates cell immunity to parasite that infects 50 million There are two common approaches to protecting humans from infectious disease:
Targeting pathogens and parasites with medicines like antibiotics, or dealing with the conditions that allow transmission.
Adjusting the landscape of the human body to remove the mechanism that allows pathogens to cause disease.
"says Dan Theodorescu, MD, Phd, director of the University of Colorado Cancer Center.""Bill Petri and I had been social friends for years--Christmas parties, that kind of thing.
MD, Phd, chief of the Division of Infectious diseases & International Health at the University of Virginia led to the idea of applying an innovative cancer science technique to the study of infectious disease.
which infects 50 million people and causes 40,000-110,000 deaths via severe diarrhea worldwide.""Chelsea is a fearless experimenter.
She took a library of cells that Dan had developed in his work with bladder cancer
"We do this all the time in cancer research, "Theodorescu says.""Commonly, we're looking for genes that,
"In this case the analogue of chemotherapy was the infectious, dangerous pathogen.""This amoeba is a cluster bomb--a voracious killer.
and at that point there's no plan B. This could be the plan B--targeting the human genes that enable the parasite to cause disease."
"This is a major finding with translational implications for this infection that causes so many deaths worldwide, but also proof that this cancer-science approach can be used to explore genetic mechanisms of resistance in the field of infectious disease,
"Theodorescu says. The field of infectious disease has been focused on the infection, targeting pathogens and their transmission.
This study shows that in addition to characteristics of the parasite, mortality due to disease can be prevented by manipulating characteristics of the host t
#Super-stretchable metallic conductors for flexible electronics Washington state University researchers have discovered how to stretch metal films used in flexible electronics to twice their size without breaking.
The discovery could lead to dramatic improvements and addresses one of the biggest challenges in flexible electronics, an industry still in its infancy with applications such as bendable batteries, robotic skins, wearable monitoring devices and sensors,
#Pancreatic cancer subtypes discovered in largest gene expression analysis of the disease to date Dense surrounding tissue can block drugs from reaching pancreatic cancer tumors,
but it can also help prevent the cancer from spreading. Now a new study by UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center researchers and collaborators helps explain the conflicting role of the surrounding tissue known as stroma.
In the study, the researchers revealed that based on molecular characteristics, there are two subtypes of pancreatic cancer stroma.
researchers reveal findings of both new subtypes of stroma and two subtypes of pancreatic cancer tumors.
And the researchers say that could be particularly important for a disease that has only a 7 percent five-year survival rate."
while for some other cancers, we personalize treatment based on an individual patient's tumor genetics or other characteristics,"said the study's senior author Jen Jen Yeh, MD, a UNC Lineberger member and an associate professor and the vice chair for research in the UNC School of medicine Department of Surgery."
"The study reveals the most rigorously validated classification system for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma to date. Previous studies,
"The issue is that pancreatic cancer is a particularly difficult cancer to analyze because of its confounding stroma,
either promote or be a barrier to tumor spread, "Yeh said.""We are seeing two distinct types of stroma in patients."
"Their analysis also revealed two subtypes of pancreatic cancer tumors. One subtype, called"basal-like is linked to worse outcomes for patients.
"Basal-like tumors also trended toward a better response to adjuvant therapy.""If we know that your tumor is aggressive,
then it may be important to treat your whole body first with neoadjuvant therapy, which is given therapy prior to surgery,
as opposed to just trying to remove the tumor with surgery at the outset, "said Yeh, who,
"In addition, the basal-like subtype is very similar to basal breast and bladder cancers, which respond to therapies differently than other tumor subtypes,
so we are interested very in seeing whether or not this is true for pancreatic cancer as well.""Overall, the findings suggest that treatment decisions should be based on both a patient's stroma and tumor subtype.
Yeh said the researchers will be launching clinical trials to investigate how patients with the different subtypes respond to treatment."
"With this cancer, you don't have a lot of time to try different therapies. If a patient is given a therapy that is unsuccessful, that is time in
which the patient's disease has progressed. So the goal is to start patients on the right therapy from the get-go
Its physiological role is critical in protecting the vulnerable fetus against infections, and ensuring that cells will survive inflammation
and one as an herbicide--and another one is now in clinical trials to treat malaria,
which the team named argolaphos, was found to be most potent against three types of bacteria that cause illness:
#New drug-like compounds may improve odds of men battling prostate cancer, researchers find Researchers at Southern Methodist University,
Dallas, have discovered three new drug-like compounds that could ultimately offer better odds of survival to prostate cancer patients.
and developed into medicines that target a protein in the human body that is responsible for chemotherapy resistance in cancers,
So far there's no approved drug on the market that reverses cancer chemotherapy resistance caused by P-glycoprotein
"The problem when a person has cancer is that the treatment itself is composed of cellular toxins--the chemotherapeutics that prevent the cells from dividing.
Usually upon the first chemo treatment the cancer responds well, and initially goes away. Ideally it doesn't come back,
"Sometimes, however, the cancer returns,"she said.""The reason often is that some of the cancer cells"learn,"after the first rounds of chemotherapy,
"As a result, P-gp causes resistance of the diseased cells to a majority of drugs currently available for the treatment of cancer,
as well as drugs used for treatment of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS. Using computer-generated model speeds up the drug discovery process The new drug-like compounds discovered by Vogel
commonly used to treat prostate cancer patients. Also, each was tested on a companion cell line already multi-drug resistant,
they were able to push back the sensitivity of the resistant cancer line to the level of the non-resistant one."
just as if the cancer was seeing the chemotherapy for the first time, "Vogel said. About 14 percent of men will be diagnosed over their lifetime with prostate cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Survival is diagnosed highest if early before it has spread, the institute reports s
#New drug-like compounds may improve odds of men battling prostate cancer, researchers find Researchers at Southern Methodist University,
Dallas, have discovered three new drug-like compounds that could ultimately offer better odds of survival to prostate cancer patients.
The drug-like compounds can be modified and developed into medicines that target a protein in the human body that is responsible for chemotherapy resistance in cancers,
said biochemist Pia D. Vogel, lead author on the scientific paper reporting the discovery. So far there's no approved drug on the market that reverses cancer chemotherapy resistance caused by P-glycoprotein
or P-gp for short, said Vogel, a biochemistry professor at SMU. One potential drug, Tariquidar, is currently in clinical trials,
"The problem when a person has cancer is that the treatment itself is composed of cellular toxins--the chemotherapeutics that prevent the cells from dividing.
Usually upon the first chemo treatment the cancer responds well, and initially goes away. Ideally it doesn't come back,
"Sometimes, however, the cancer returns,"she said.""The reason often is that some of the cancer cells"learn,"after the first rounds of chemotherapy,
"As a result, P-gp causes resistance of the diseased cells to a majority of drugs currently available for the treatment of cancer,
as well as drugs used for treatment of infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS. Using computer-generated model speeds up the drug discovery process The new drug-like compounds discovered by Vogel
commonly used to treat prostate cancer patients. Also, each was tested on a companion cell line already multi-drug resistant,
they were able to push back the sensitivity of the resistant cancer line to the level of the non-resistant one."
just as if the cancer was seeing the chemotherapy for the first time, "Vogel said. About 14 percent of men will be diagnosed over their lifetime with prostate cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Survival is diagnosed highest if early before it has spread, the institute reports s
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