New device offers clues (Nanowerk News) Why do some cancer cells break away from a tumor and travel to distant parts of the body?
Cancer becomes deadly when it spreads, or metastasizes. Not all cells have the same ability to travel through the body,
The differences in individual cancer cells are a key aspect of how cancer evolves becomes resistant to current therapies or recurs."
"A primary tumor is not what kills patients. Metastases are what kill patients. Understanding which cells are likely to metastasize can help us direct more targeted therapies to patients,
"says co-senior study author Sofia D. Merajver, M d.,Ph d.,scientific director of the breast oncology program at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The researchers believe this type of device might some day help doctors understand an individual patient's cancer.
Which cells in this patient's tumor are really causing havoc? Is there a large population of aggressive cells?
"In this work, extensive studies were performed on cell lines representing various types of cancer. The new device was designed to trace how cells move, sorting individual cells by their movement.
and appearance under the microscope of metastatic cells and expressed significantly higher levels of markers associated with metastatic cancer."
"Understanding specific differences that lead some cancer cells to leave the primary tumor and seed metastases is of great benefit to develop
hold great promise for treating cancer and other diseases. However, several inefficiencies have limited their translation to the clinic,
says Gregory Szeto, a postdoc at MITS Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and the papers lead author.
Gail Bishop, a professor of microbiology at the University of Iowa Carver School of medicine and director of the schools Center for Immunology and Immune-Based Diseases, says that this paper presents a creative new approach with considerable
and putting them back into your body to fight your disease, whatever that may be, Sharei says.
#Nanotechnology helps protect patients from bone infection Leading scientists at the University of Sheffield have discovered nanotechnology could hold the key to preventing deep bone infections,
from small dental implants to hip replacements, could protect patients from serious infection. Scientists used revolutionary nanotechnology to work on small polymer layers inside implants
the risk of deep bone infection is reduced substantially. ur research shows that applying small quantities of antibiotic to a surface between the polymer layers
which make up each device could prevent not only the initial infection but secondary infection it is like getting between the layers of an onion skin.
Bone infection affects thousands of patients every year and results in a substantial cost to the NHS.
Treating the surface of medical devices would have a greater impact on patients considered at high risk of infection such as trauma victims from road traffic collisions or combat operations,
and those who have had previous bone infections. Professor Hatton added: eep bone infections associated with medical devices are increasing in number,
especially among the elderly. s well as improving the quality of life, this new application for nanotechnology could save health providers such as the NHS millions of pounds every year.
The study, funded by the European commission and the UK Engineering and Physical sciences Research Council, is published in Acta Biomaterialia("Functionalised nanoscale coatings using layer-by-layer assembly for imparting antibacterial properties to polylactide
A Universal Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Substrate for All Excitation Wavelengths"),the photonics advancement aims to improve our ability to detect trace amounts of molecules in diseases, chemical warfare agents, fraudulent
"The ability to detect even smaller amounts of chemical and biological molecules could be helpful with biosensors that are used to detect cancer, Malaria, HIV and other illnesses."
#Intelligent bacteria for detecting disease Another step forward has just been taken in the area of synthetic biology.
in association with Montpellier Regional University Hospital and Stanford university, have transformed bacteria into"secret agents"that can give warning of a disease based solely on the presence of characteristic molecules in the urine or blood.
The bacteria thus programmed detect the abnormal presence of glucose in the urine of diabetic patients.
published in the journal Science Translational Medicine("Detection of pathological biomarkers in human clinical samples via amplifying genetic switches
and are considered often to be our enemies, causing many diseases such as tuberculosis or cholera. However, they can also be witnessed allies,
Medical diagnosis is a major challenge for the early detection and subsequent monitoring of diseases.""In vitro"diagnosis is based on the presence in physiological fluids (blood and urine, for example) of molecules characteristic for a particular disease.
Because of its noninvasiveness and ease of use, in vitro diagnosis is of great interest. However, in vitro tests are sometimes complex,
in association with Professor Eric Renard (Montpellier Regional University Hospital) and Drew Endy (Stanford university), applied this new technology to the detection of disease signals in clinical samples.
The authors used the transcriptor's amplification abilities to detect disease markers, even if present in very small amounts.
and detected the abnormal presence of glucose in the urine of diabetic patients.""We have deposited the genetic components used in this work in the public domain to allow their unrestricted reuse by other public
"Our work is focused presently on the engineering of artificial genetic systems that can be modified on demand to detect different molecular disease markers,
In future, this work might also be applied to engineering the microbial flora in order to treat various diseases, especially intestinal diseases
decades of exposure to only slightly higher levels a level we wouldn even notice can increase the risk of heart and lung diseases,
stroke and cancer. o work out the factors we should be worried about, and how we can intervene,
#New composite protects from corrosion at high mechanical stress (Nanowerk News) Material researchers at the INM Leibniz Institute for New Materials will be presenting a composite material
New composite protects from corrosion at high mechanical stress. This patented composite exhibits its action by spray application,
As a result, it can withstand high mechanical stress. The coating passes the falling ball test with a steel hemispherical ball weighing 1. 5 kg from a height of one meter without chipping
The actuators are customizable to accommodate each patient's specific hand size and pathology. Image:
which could help patients suffering from muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), incomplete spinal cord injury, or other hand impairments to regain some daily independence and control of their environment.
in relation to making it customizable for the specific pathologies of each individual and understanding what control strategies work best
"For patients suffering from muscular dystrophy, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and incomplete spinal cord injury, the soft robotic glove could allow them to regain some of their daily independence through robotic gloveassisted hand functions.
Walsh and his team have also been aided in their work through key expertise from two other Wyss Core Faculty members George Whitesides, Ph d,
Down the road, the team is interested in developing the glove beyond an assistive device to a rehabilitation tool for various hand pathologies,
For the authors of the research, finding a nanothermometer sensitive enough at this scale is a great step forward in the field of nanotechnology, with applications in biology, chemistry, physics and even in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases s
#Injectable nanoelectronics for treatment of neurodegenerative diseases It's a notion that might be pulled from the pages of science-fiction novel-electronic devices that can be injected directly into the brain,
and treat everything from neurodegenerative disorders to paralysis. It sounds unlikely, until you visit Charles Lieber's lab. A team of international researchers, led by Lieber, the Mark Hyman, Jr.
whose speed and precision make them useful for cataract and other eye surgeries. A femtosecond is one-quadrillionth,
reduce pollution-related health problems and eliminate emissions from the United states. There is very little downside to a conversion, at least based on this science."
such as viral disease markers, which appear when the immune system responds to incurable or hard-to-cure diseases,
including HIV, hepatitis, herpes, and many others. The sensor will enable doctors to identify tumor markers,
whose presence in the body signals the emergence and growth of cancerous tumors. The sensitivity of the new device is characterized best by one key feature:
according to its developers, the sensor can track changes of just a few kilodaltons in the mass of a cantilever in real time.
One Dalton is roughly the mass of a proton or neutron, and several thousand Daltons are the mass of individual proteins and DNA molecules.
So the new optical sensor will allow for diagnosing diseases long before they can be detected by any other method,
stretchy electronic sensors are also capable of detecting harmful levels of UV radiation known to trigger melanoma.
The engineered organ has implications for everything from rapid production of immune therapies to new frontiers in cancer or infectious disease research.
Germinal centers are a sign of infection and are not present in healthy immune organs.
the organ could be used to study specific infections and how the body produces antibodies to fight those infections from Ebola to HIV. ou can use our system to force the production of immunotherapeutics at much faster rates,
he said. Such a system also could be used to test toxic chemicals and environmental factors that contribute to infections or organ malfunctions.
The process of B cells becoming germinal centers is understood not well, and in fact, when the body makes mistakes in the genetic rearrangement related to this process,
blood cancer can result. n the long run, we anticipate that the ability to drive immune reaction ex vivo at controllable rates grants us the ability to reproduce immunological events with tunable parameters for better mechanistic understanding of B cell development and generation of B cell tumors,
as well as screening and translation of new classes of drugs, Singh said g
#3d potential through laser annihilation (Nanowerk News) Whether in the pages of H g wells, the serial adventures of Flash gordon,
The relationship between genes and specific traits is complicated more than simple one-to-one relationships between genes and diseases.
but scientists are just beginning to explore how, specifically, genetic variations affect health and disease. Two major statistical challenges to finding these connections involve analysing associations between many different genetic variants and multiple traits,
"But the simple models we use to do this are too simplistic to uncover the complex dependencies between sets of genetic variants and disease phenotypes."
and a favorable fracture behavior including self-healing ability. Key to the success are the supramolecular bonds within the soft polymer matrix.
but at substantial stress levels, the bonds can open up and provide fracture energy dissipation by stick/slip interactions and frictional sliding of the platelets against each other."
"These so-called sacrificial bonds allow full control over the material on different levels, because, depending on their amount,
#Smart insulin patch could replace injections for diabetes Painful insulin injections could become a thing of the past for the millions of Americans who suffer from diabetes, thanks to a new invention from researchers at North carolina State university and the University
painless patch could lower blood glucose in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes for up to nine hours.
A paper describing the work is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. e have designed a patch for diabetes that works fast,
and the UNC Diabetes Care Center. he whole system can be personalized to account for a diabetic weight and sensitivity to insulin,
Diabetes affects more than 387 million people worldwide, and that number is expected to grow to 592 million by the year 2035.
Patients with type 1 and advanced type 2 diabetes try to keep their blood sugar levels under control with regular finger pricks and repeated insulin shots, a process that is painful and imprecise.
MD, Phd, co-senior author of the PNAS paper and the director of the UNC Diabetes Care Center, said,
njecting the wrong amount of medication can lead to significant complications like blindness and limb amputations,
or even more disastrous consequences such as diabetic comas and death. Researchers have tried to remove the potential for human error by creating losed-loop systemsthat directly connect the devices that track blood sugar
they had to figure out a way to administer them to patients with diabetes. Rather than rely on the large needles
The researchers tested the ability of this approach to control blood sugar levels in a mouse model of type 1 diabetes.
when administered too frequently. he hard part of diabetes care is not the insulin shots, or the blood sugar checks,
the director of the North carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences (NC Tracs) Institute and past president of the American Diabetes Association. f we can get these patches to work in people,
what may be a major leap forward in the quest for new treatments of the most common form of cardiovascular disease,
known as atherosclerotic vessel disease, is the leading cause of heart attacks and strokes that claim some 2. 6 million lives a year worldwide, according to the World health organization.
and cardiac hypertrophy through biodegradable polymer-encapsulated delivery of glycosphingolipid inhibitor), "builds on recent research by the same team that previously identified a fat-and-sugar molecule called GSL as the chief culprit behind a range of biological glitches that affect the body's ability to properly use, transport
That earlier study showed that animals feasting on high-fat foods remained free of heart disease if pretreated with a man-made compound, D-PDMP,
but not potent enough to stop the disease from advancing. Perhaps, most importantly, the team says,
and pumping dysfunction, the hallmarks of advanced disease.""Our experiments illustrate clearly that while content is important,
and its ability not merely to prevent disease but to mitigate some of its worst manifestations."
D-PDMP treatment improved heart function in mice with advanced forms of atherosclerotic heart disease, marked by heart muscle thickening
if a poor state of health is caused by disease or a lack of water anyway,
They contribute to the early detection of diseases that affect grapevines, such as flavescence dore and black wood, declares Stefano Sgrelli, Ceo of Salt&lemon.
and could identify new targets for cancer medications. Throughout the human body, certain signalling chemicals--known as hormones--tell various cells
leading to cancer. To look into the responses of different cells, the U of T team harnessed the emerging power of digital microfluidics,
or proteins that could be targeted by drugs, eventually leading to new medicines to fight cancer r
It also helps improve our understanding of the development of some diseases that involve a defective transportation to the nuclear pores-such as intestinal ovarian and thyroid cancer r
Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, is classified by its spiral shape, which enables both its movement and the resultant cellular destruction.
and pills now needed to treat chronic diseases: Earlier this month, MIT spinout Microchips Biotech partnered with a pharmaceutical giant to commercialize its wirelessly controlled, implantable,
for example, diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and osteoporosis. Michael Cima (left) and Robert Langer Now Microchips Biotech will begin co-developing microchips with Teva Pharmaceutical, the worlds largest producer of generic drugs,
to treat specific diseases, with licensing potential for other products. Teva paid $35 million up front, with additional milestone payments as the device goes through clinical trials before it hits the shelves.
Obviously, this is a huge validation of the technology, Cima says. A major pharmaceutical company sees how this technology can further their efforts to help patients.
While its first partnership is for treating chronic diseases, Microchips Biotech will continue work on its flagship product, a birth-control microchip, backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,
and somewhat fantastical, applications beyond drug delivery, including disease diagnostics and jewelry that could emit scents.
and researchers from Microchips, conducted the microchips first human trials to treat osteoporosis this time with wireless capabilities.
The paper was authored by former doctoral student Alexander X. Cartagena-Rivera, now a postdoctoral fellow at the National institutes of health's National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD;
who is affiliated with the Purdue Center for Cancer Research. And thats one of the reasons we were looking at this particular type of cancer cell with this particular form of Syk in it.
One goal of the research is to correlate physical properties of cells with tumor suppression and the action of the kinase on the cell.
#Chitosan coated, chemotherapy packed nanoparticles may target cancer stem cells (Nanowerk News) Nanoparticles packed with a clinically used chemotherapy drug
and kill cancer stem-like cells, according to a recent study led by researchers at The Ohio State university Comprehensive Cancer Center-Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital
and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC-James). Cancer stem-like cells have characteristics of stem cells
and are present in very low numbers in tumors. They are highly resistant to chemotherapy
and radiation and are believed to play an important role in tumor recurrence. This laboratory and animal study showed that nanoparticles coated with the oligosaccharide called chitosan
and encapsulating the chemotherapy drug doxorubicin can target and kill cancer stem-like cells six times more effectively than free doxorubicin.
The study is reported in the journal ACS Nano("Chitosan-Decorated Doxorubicin-Encapsulated Nanoparticle Targets and Eliminates Tumor Reinitiating Cancer Stem-like Cells").
""Our findings indicate that this nanoparticle delivery system increases the cytotoxicity of doxorubicin with no evidence of systemic toxic side effects in our animal model,
and be used to treat many types of cancer.""This study showed that chitosan binds with a receptor on cancer stem-like cells called CD44,
enabling the nanoparticles to target the malignant stem-like cells in a tumor. The nanoparticles were engineered to shrink,
break open, and release the anticancer drug under the acidic conditions of the tumor microenvironment and in tumor-cell endosomes and lysosomes,
which cells use to digest nutrients acquired from their microenvironment. He and his colleagues conducted the study using models called 3d mammary tumor spheroids (i e.,
, mammospheres) and an animal model of human breast cancer. The study also found that although the drug-carrying nanoparticles could bind to the variant CD44 receptors on cancerous mammosphere cells,
for example as gene therapy to suppress the production of a disease-causing protein n
#Photonic crystal fibre: a multipurpose sensor Glass fibres can do more than transport data. A special type of glass fibre can also be used as a high-precision multipurpose sensor,
which could overcome current shortcomings of low drug efficacy and multi-drug resistance in the treatment of cancer as well as viral and bacterial infections.
"the study identified a new mechanism of targeting multi-subunit complexes that are critical to the function of viruses, bacteria or cancer,
Guo holds a joint appointment at the UK Markey Cancer Center and in the UK College of Pharmacy."
or die and thus, no longer able to cause disease. ne of the vexing problems in the development of drugs is drug resistance,
former Dean of the UK College of Pharmacy and current UK provost. r. Guo's study has identified a new mechanism of efficiently inhibiting biological processes that are critical to the function of the disease-causing organism,
Guo focuses much of his work on the use of ribonucleic acid (RNA) nanoparticles and a viral nanomotor to fight cancer
viral infections and genetic diseases. He is well-known for his pioneering work of constructing RNA nanoparticles as drug carriers u
where they create clothing that kills bacteria, conducts electricity, wards off malaria, captures harmful gas and weaves transistors into shirts and dresses.
which could help in warding colds, flu and other diseases. Two of Hinestrozas students created a hooded bodysuit embedded with insecticides using metal organic framework molecules,
Malaria kills more than 600,000 people annually in Africa. While insecticide-treated nets are common in African homes
This means that when we want to stimulate genes to work harder to fight a genetic disease
This condition is the basis of some syndromes and neurological diseases.""If we can stimulate the remaining gene to work harder,
we can reduce the symptoms of the disease in some cases, "says Fimiani.""Hopefully our study will encourage others to repeat our research
On the other hand, nanosilver could have potential applications in fighting bacterial diseases. Uncovering shape The shape of the surface of nanoparticles is key,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a common disease-causing bacterium; Ralstonia, a genus of bacteria containing numerous soil-borne pathogen species;
and Staphylococcus epidermis, a bacterium that can cause harmful biofilms on plastics like catheters in the human body.
It was observed by a team of researchers including Gilles Hickson, an assistant professor at the University of Montreals Department of Pathology and Cell biology and researcher at the CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre, his assistant Silvana Jananji, in collaboration with Nelio
it can be a source for triggering cancer, for example, said Hickson. It is well known that microscopic cable-like structures,
and to certain diseases, said Hickson, who has devoted the last 15 years of his research life to cell biology.
In fact, all cancers are unchecked characterised by cell division, and the underpinning processes are potential targets for therapeutic interventions that prevent cancer onset and spread.
But before we get there, we must continue to expand our knowledge about the basic processes
Too many white blood cells may indicate a bacterial infection, tissue damage or inflammatory diseases such as arthritis or allergies,
whereas too few could denote a viral infection or bone marrow deficiency. Furthermore, white blood cell count can be used to predict a person risk of developing conditions such as diabetes and heart disease.
Currently, white blood cell counts are performed at large central laboratories equipped with large and expensive analysis systems that are operated by experienced medical technicians.
But many parts of the world lack such facilitates or expertise. To address this problem, Yi Zhang, Jianhao Bai,
such as mental disability, autism and cancer. A new technology--called"Sticky-flares"--developed by nanomedicine experts at Northwestern University offers the first real-time method to track
which was the first genetic-based approach that is able to detect live circulating tumor cells out of the complex matrix that is human blood.
a substance that can derail the body's hormone balance and potentially cause cancer or birth defects.
for Integrative Cancer Research. Eliana Martins Lima, of the Federal University of Goiás, is the other co-author.
'If you experience a major heart attack the damage could cost you around five billion heart cells.
#A'nanomachine'for surgery with no incision (Nanowerk News) A surgical operation has long been considered one of the first options in cancer treatment;
or magnevist) broadly used as an MRI contrast agent to the affected area("Hybrid Calcium phosphate-Polymeric Micelles Incorporating Gadolinium Chelates for Imaging-Guided Gadolinium Neutron capture Tumor Therapy").
and is delivered to cancer tissues. The research team has clarified that selective accumulation of the developed nanomachine in a cancer tumor enables contrast imaging of a solid cancer.
Moreover, when the Team applied the nanomachine to cancer neutron capture therapy, they confirmed a remarkable curative effect.
This nanomachine therapy enables an imaging-guided thermal neutron irradiation treatment; thus it can be expected to lead to a reliable cancer treatment with no missed cancer cells.
The realization of surgery with no incision (chemical surgery) by nanomachine allows us to anticipate outpatient treatment with no need of hospitalization n
or the induction of mechanical stress-all of which can change the properties of a particular hydrogel designed to be responsive to those triggers."
However, these devices, often created with nondegradable elastic polymers, bear an inherent risk of intestinal obstruction as a result of accidental fracture or migration.
Now, researchers at MITS Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) have created a polymer gel that overcomes this safety concern
as there is a greater risk for fracture if a device is too large or too complex.
The researchers also say that single-administration delivery systems for the radical treatment of malaria
and other infections could significantly benefit from these technologies. In a March 2015 commentary piece in Nature("Perspective:
Special delivery for the gut"),Traverso and Langer wrote that the GI TRACT is an area rife with opportunity for prolonged drug delivery in tackling this global health problem.
enabling epigenomic analysis with a mere 100 cells A new technology that will dramatically enhance investigations of epigenomes, the machinery that turns on and off genes and a very prominent field of study in diseases such as stem cell differentiation,
inflammation and cancer, is reported on today in the research journal Nature Methods("A microfluidic device for epigenomic profiling using 100 cells").
This epigenomic characterization potentially allows medical doctors to create personalized treatment of diseases, by understanding the state of a patient,
Chang Lu, a professor of chemical engineering at Virginia Tech, has worked on the development of tools to effectively analyze living cells with the long-term goal of gaining a better understanding of a range of diseases.
the team plans to use this technology to study other epigenomic changes involved in inflammation and cancer in the near future e
Since the realignment of the atoms causes stress and eventually fractures in the material, the atomic lattice of a substance cannot be rearranged infinitely often.
and someone with schizophrenia would be a leap in our understanding of how our brains shape who we are (or vice versa).
certain skills and gear helped people avoid injury or death: Owning a reliable, waterproof tactical flashlight was absolutely essential,
as many people suffered injuries from being hit by debris in flood waters. The ability to navigate on foot,
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