Archive for the 'Medical Procedures' Category
July 23rd, 2010 by admin
A group of scientists have demonstrated that specially engineered stem cells could be used to fights off AIDS, successfully testing the approach in mice engineered to develop immune systems similar to humans. The investigators started with the observation that a small group of people who are virtually immune to HIV have disabled CCR5 receptors on their immune cells–a door the virus uses to infect the cells. The scientists engineered stem cells with the ‘door’ essentially locked, then inserted them into the mice, where they developed into immune cells that were able to guard the mice against HIV.
Continue reading ‘Specially Engineered Immune Cells Ward off AIDS’
June 25th, 2010 by admin
Lithium is the most effective treatment for bipolar disorder. However, its use is limited because of neurological side effects and a risk for overdose-induced toxicity. Many of the beneficial effects of lithium are mediated by its inhibition of GSK-3 proteins, but whether this is the mechanism underlying its negative effects has not been determined. However, Raquel Gómez-Sintes and José Lucas, at CSIC/UAM, Spain, have now delineated a molecular pathway by which chronic administration of therapeutic doses of lithium has negative effects in mice.
Continue reading ‘Reducing the Toxicity of Lithium’
June 18th, 2010 by admin
I’ve always envied people who can get injections without flinching, as somehow, seeing a needle enter the skin gives me the jitters. This is probably the reason intravenous drug abuse has never appealed to me (next to the addiction and death issues, of course). But thanks to Pantec Biosolutions and its Please (Painless Laser Epidermal System) device, getting a jab may no longer require the doctor to chase after a 33-year-old man shrieking down the hospital halls.
Continue reading ‘Forget Needles. ‘Please’ Delivers Drugs via Lasers’
May 28th, 2010 by admin
When muscle tissue experiences trauma or disease, such as muscular dystrophy, stem cells in the muscle known as “satellite cells” respond to repair and regenerate the muscle. These cells are particularly important in neuromuscular diseases, such as muscular dystrophy, which affect muscle stability and repair. Now, University of Missouri researchers have used time-lapse photography to document satellite cell movements and behaviors when they interact with their ‘host’ myofiber. Scientists hope that if they can understand more about what satellite cells do in healthy muscle, obstacles to cell or gene therapies for muscular dystrophy might be overcome.
Continue reading ‘Muscle Stem Cell Movements Documented’
April 30th, 2010 by admin
Scientists from Buffalo, Cleveland, and Oklahoma City made a huge step toward making the blind see, and they did it by using a form of gene therapy that does not involve the use of modified viruses. In a research report published in the April 2010 print issue of The FASEB Journal, scientists describe how they used a non-viral, synthetic nanoparticle carrier to improve and save the sight of mice with retinitis pigmentosa, an inherited disease characterized by progressive vision loss and eventual blindness.
Continue reading ‘Toward Making the Blind See: Gene Therapy Restores Vision in Mice’
April 26th, 2010 by admin
Exposure to an increased level of air pollutants, especially nitrogen dioxide, has been associated with lower likelihoods of successful pregnancy among women undergoing in vitro fertilization, according to a team of fertility researchers. The team examined the outcomes of the first pregnancy attempt of 7,403 women undergoing IVF at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, Pa.; Shady Grove Fertility, Rockville, Md.; and Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, New York, N.Y. They conducted their observations over a seven-year period from 2000 to 2007.
Continue reading ‘Exposure to Nitrogen Dioxide Lowers in Vitro Fertilization Success’
April 6th, 2010 by admin
A federal judge struck down patents on two genes linked to breast and ovarian cancer. The decision, if upheld, could throw into doubt the patents covering thousands of human genes and reshape the law of intellectual property. United States District Court Judge Robert W. Sweet issued the 152-page decision, which invalidated seven patents related to the genes BRCA1 and BRCA2, whose mutations have been associated with cancer.
Continue reading ‘Judge Invalidates Human Gene Patent’
April 5th, 2010 by admin
A Columbia scientist has become the first to grow a complex, full-size bone from human adult stem cells. Gordana Vunjak-Novakovic, a professor of biomedical engineering at the Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, reports that her team grew a temporomandibular joint (TMJ) from stem cells derived from bone marrow. Her work is reported in the online Early Edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences this month.
Continue reading ‘Jaw Bone Grown from Adult Stem Cells’
April 2nd, 2010 by admin
A federal court has determined that the theory that thimerosal-containing vaccines cause autism is “scientifically unsupportable,” and that the families of children diagnosed with the condition are not entitled to compensation. Three special masters in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims determined that families of Jordan King, William Mead and Colin Dwyer didn’t prove a link between the vaccines and autism. The three released more than 600 pages of findings after reviewing these test cases.
Continue reading ‘Federal Court Rejects Vaccines-Autism Link’
March 31st, 2010 by admin
A new therapy that reduces the risk of mortality and heart failure in patients with mild cardiac disease received a thumb’s up this week from an advisory panel to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The panel recommended that the cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D), tested extensively nationwide under the leadership of cardiologist Arthur Moss, M.D., professor of Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center, be approved for use in patients with mild heart failure in the United States.
Continue reading ‘Recommendation for Use of Heart Failure Treatment Formulated’
