Licorice Root: Trip to the Candy Store Might Help Ward Off Rare, but Deadly Infections (via ScienceDaily)
…a compound from licorice root (glycyrrhizin from Glycyrrhiza glabra) might be an effective tool in battling life-threatening, antibiotic-resistant infections resulting from severe burns.
New Method Targets Cancerous Tumors Without Harming Healthy Cells
Two University of Rhode Island associate professors, biophysicists Yana Reshetnyak and Oleg Andreev, have discovered a technology that can detect cancerous tumors and deliver treatment to them without the harming the healthy cells surrounding them, thereby significantly reducing side effects….
The key lies in the acidity level of cells. While normal cells maintain a pH of 7.4 with little variation, cancer cells, expend a great deal of energy as they rapidly proliferate, pumping protons outside and creating an extracellular pH level of 5.5 to 6.5. (The lower the number, the higher the acidity.)…
In addition to targeting cancerous tumors, the couple has discovered a novel delivery agent, a molecular nanosyringe, which can deliver and inject diagnostic or therapeutic agents specifically to cancer cells.
‘Bionic Eye’ May Help Blind See: Retinal Prosthesis Shown To Restore Partial Vision (via ScienceDaily)
A new artificial retina, an array of electrodes implanted on the back of the eye, has been found to restore partial vision to totally blind people.
New Repellent Foils Cling-On Bugs
A non-toxic insect repellent designed to make insects slip on almost any surface has been unveiled by scientists at Cambridge University. The substance creates a coating that causes the creatures to behave like “someone with wet feet in the shower”, a university spokesman said. It is hoped the coating could restrict the movement of pests such as termites, cockroaches, ants and locusts…. (continues @ BBC News)
Jaw bone created from stem cells (via BBC News)
Scientists have created part of the jaw joint in the lab using human adult stem cells. They say it is the first time a complex, anatomically-sized bone has been accurately created in this way. It is hoped the technique could be used not only to treat disorders of the specific joint, but more widely to correct problems with other bones too.
New Strategy For Mending Broken Hearts? (via ScienceDaily)
By mimicking the way embryonic stem cells develop into heart muscle in a lab, Duke University bioengineers believe they have taken an important first step toward growing a living “heart patch” to repair heart tissue damaged by disease.
In a series of experiments using mouse embryonic stem cells, the bioengineers used a novel mold of their own design to fashion a three-dimensional “patch” made up of heart muscle cells, known as cardiomyocytes. The new tissue exhibited the two most important attributes of heart muscle cells -– the ability to contract and to conduct electrical impulses. The mold looks much like a piece of Chex cereal in which researchers varied the shape and length of the pores to control the direction and orientation of the growing cells.
The researchers grew the cells in an environment much like that found in natural tissues. They encapsulated the cells within a gel composed of the blood-clotting protein fibrin, which provided mechanical support to the cells, allowing them to form a three-dimensional structure. They also found that the cardiomyocytes flourished only in the presence of a class of “helper” cells known as cardiac fibroblasts, which comprise as much as 60 percent of all cells present in a human heart.
HIV Vaccine Reduces Infection (via BBC News)
An experimental HIV vaccine has for the first time cut the risk of infection, researchers say.
The vaccine - a combination of two earlier experimental vaccines - was given to 16,000 people in Thailand, in the largest ever such vaccine trial. Researchers found that it reduced by nearly a third the risk of contracting HIV, the virus that leads to Aids. It has been hailed as a significant, scientific breakthrough, but a global vaccine is still some way off….
Stimulating Sight: Retinal Implant Could Help Restore Vision To The Blind People
Inspired by the success of cochlear implants that can restore hearing to some deaf people, researchers at MIT are working on a retinal implant that could one day help blind people regain a useful level of vision.
The eye implant is designed for people who have lost their vision from retinitis pigmentosa or age-related macular degeneration, two of the leading causes of blindness. The retinal prosthesis would take over the function of lost retinal cells by electrically stimulating the nerve cells that normally carry visual input from the retina to the brain.
Such a chip would not restore normal vision but it could help blind people more easily navigate a room or walk down a sidewalk…. (continues @ ScienceDaily)
Killing Cancer Like A Vampire Slayer: New Drug Cuts Off Blood Supplies To Starve Cancer Tumors
Like vampires, cancer tumors require an ample supply of blood to stay alive. Without fresh blood for sustenance, cancer cells shrivel up like raisins and die…. (more @ ScienceDaily)
Using Magnetism To Turn Drugs On And Off (via ScienceDaily)
Many medical conditions, such as chronic pain, cancer and diabetes, require medications that cannot be taken orally, but must be dosed intermittently, on an as-needed basis, over a long period of time. A few delivery techniques have been developed, using an implanted heat source, an implanted electronic chip or other stimuli as an “on-off” switch to release the drugs into the body. But thus far, none of these methods can reliably do all that’s needed: repeatedly turn dosing on and off, deliver consistent doses and adjust doses according to the patient’s need.
Researchers led by Daniel Kohane, MD, PhD of Children’s Hospital Boston, funded by the National Institutes of Health, have devised a solution that combines magnetism with nanotechnology.
The team created a small implantable device, less than ½” in diameter, that encapsulates the drug in a specially engineered membrane, embedded with nanoparticles (approximately 1/100,000 the width of a human hair) composed of magnetite, a mineral with natural magnetic properties. When a magnetic field is switched on outside the body, near the device, the nanoparticles heat up, causing the gels in the membrane to warm and temporarily collapse. This opens up pores that allow the drug to pass through and into the body. When the magnetic force is turned off, the membranes cool and the gels re-expand, closing the pores back up and halting drug delivery. No implanted electronics are required.
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