Stem cell treatment for GLIOBLASTOMA

●Glioblastoma is a highly vascular tumor, it is also most common primary brain tumor.

●Human stem cells which are made from human skin cells can help treating human brain cancer as published in Science Translational Medicine.

●Firstly mouse skin cells were converted into stem cell that killed huma brain cancer cells, effectively increasing time of survival 160 to 220 percent, depending on the tumor type.

●Now the same is done with human stem cells and the results were not only better but quicker and could help whose median survival is less than 18 months and chance of surviving beyond two years is 30 percent.

●“Speed is essential,” says Shawn Hingtgen. “It used to take weeks to convert human skin cells to stem cells. But brain cancer patients don’t have weeks and months to wait for us to generate these therapies. The new process we developed to create these stem cells is fast enough and simple enough to be used to treat a patient.”

Image: Globocan

●The key to Hingtgen’s treatment is “skin flipping,” a technology for creating neural stem cells from skin cells that won a Nobel Prize in 2012. 

●The first step is to harvest fibroblasts—skin cells responsible for producing collagen and connective tissue—from the patient and reprogram those cells to become what are called induced neural stem cells.

●Then these stem cells are engineered to carry therapeutic agents that the cells can launch at the tumor to kill it.

●Hingtgen’s stem cells can carry a protein that activates an inert substance called a prodrug that is given to the patient. The cells can then generate a small halo of drug that is located just around the stem cell, rather than it being circulated throughout the patient’s body, reducing unwanted side effects.

●“We’re one to two years away from clinical trials, but for the first time, we showed that our strategy for treating glioblastoma works with human stem cells and human cancers,” Hingtgen says. “This is a big step toward a real treatment—and making a real difference.”

Credit and source: weforum.org

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Glowing cats - 3rd article GMO series

First there were glow-in-the-dark fish, then rats, rabbits, insects, even pigs. And, now, researchers have inserted the jellyfish genes that make fluorescent proteins into Felis catus, or the common household cat.
glowing-kitten-next-to-regular-cat
The goal was just to make sure that the researchers could successfully insert novel genes into the cats. Past efforts at cloning and injecting DNA into fertilized cat embryos, among other genetic modification techniques, had failed. But the good doctors at the Mayo Clinic and Yamaguchi University in Japan succeeded by injecting a lentivirus bearing the novel genetics directly into unfertilized cat eggs. (Human immunodeficiency viruses 1 and 2 (HIV-1 and HIV-2), feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) and simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) are all lentiviruses, named for their slow incubation period.)
glowing-catThe result is visible to the naked eye (under blue light).
The goal is to use genetically modified cats as a better proxy for human diseases. After all, FIV plagues cats in much the same way that HIV plagues people. For that reason, cats can serve as useful animal models for learning more about the human version of the disease. The researchers, or their colleagues, plan to continue manipulating the cat genome to test potential gene therapies for HIV and other potential cures for AIDS.
But it's also only a matter of time until a night-glowing cat (say goodbye to nightlights and tripping over the cat!) becomes a breed and joins the GloFish at the pet store.

Fight against cancer: IBM Watson plays doctor at Manipal Hospitals (India)

IBM Watson is a cognitive computing system which has been particularly designed to support the oncology community. This is a great module that allows physicians to consider treatment options with their patients. With its core capabilities—reading natural language, evaluating cases with evolving machine-learned models, finding and providing supporting evidence from a wide variety of sources, and rapidly processing large volumes of data—cognitive computing is being used in oncology to transform healthcare and help address some of the challenges oncologists are facing.

Cancer is fast turning into an epidemic in India.According to a study by The National Cancer Institute (NCI), every 13th new cancer patient in the world is an Indian. In 2016, the total number of new cancer cases is anticipated to be around 14.5 lakh and that figure is likely to reach nearly 17.3 lakh in 2020, as per a study by The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The good news is that the paramount importance of technology, especially cognitive, is being recognised by healthcare institutes. Manipal Hospitals has adopted IBM Watson for Oncology, a cognitive computing platform, to help physicians identify options for individualised, evidence-based cancer care across India. This is the first deployment of Watson’s cognitive computing platform in the country.

Researchers are using cognitive computing to find personalised cancer treatments for patients. Humans and machines are forging a new age of understanding. Clinicians and analysts are training cognitive computing system to interpret cancer patients’ clinical information and identify individualised, evidence-based treatment options that leverage decades of experience and research by top oncologists, across the globe.

A ray of hope

Watson can understand the case and highlight a list of potential treatments with a percentage rank of certitude. The doctor then reviews the list and makes the final treatment decision in consult with the patient.

Watson for Oncology will be able to have information to allow them to explore treatment options, and gather evidence specific to a patients’ individual health needs. Watson ranks identified treatment options and provides links to supporting evidence for each option to help oncologists as they consider treatment options for their patient.

Watson for Oncology draws from an impressive corpus of information, and, to date, more than 300 medical journals, more than 200 textbooks, and nearly 15 million pages of text. The cognitive computing platform also supplies for consideration supporting evidence in the form of administration information, as well as information regarding the different drug options. Watson’s machine learning capability means it is continuously learning over time,and doctors have access to peer reviewed studies, clinical guidelines and expert perspectives.

Imagine, cancer patients—irrespective of their financial backgrounds—receiving personalised treatment in a country which is starved of oncologists, cancer-specialised hospitals, and is home to 2.5 million cancer patients, with 1 million new cases being added every year and a chance of the disease rising five-fold by 2025. These terrifying numbers emphasize the pressing need for, among other things, cognitive computing in redefining healthcare.

Without doubt, valuable lessons can be learned from use of cognitive computing by healthcare institutes and replicated elsewhere across the country.

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3D printed vertebra transplant in Medanta, Gurugram ( India )

Keypoints

1. Damaged vertebrae replaced with 3D-printed titanium vertebrae.
2. First such surgery in India using 3D-printing technology, third in world.

Gurugram: A team of surgeons at MEDANTA on Wednesday announced they have successfully implanted 3D-printed vertebrae in a 32-year-old woman, helping her walk again after a bout of disabling spinal tuberculosis.

The team replaced the damaged vertebrae with a 3D-printed titanium vertebrae to bridge the gap between the first and fourth cervical vertebrae.

The patient today on 12 post-operative days is now walking with minimal support, all her pain has gone, her voice and dysphasia has recovered completely and, most importantly, her life was saved by this technique," Dr V Anand Naik, Senior Consultant (Spine Surgery), Bone & Joint Institute at Medanta who led the team of surgeons.

"This is the first such surgery in India and probably third in the world by using 3D-printing technology. These techniques have opened a new avenue wherein any type of complex reconstruction can be done in the spine with less collateral damages," Dr Naik added.

A teacher by profession, the woman was battling infertility and she suffered tuberculosis (TB) due to high intake of steroid which lowered her immunity to a level where the patient developed TB at 10 different vertebrae in the spine.

The first, second and third cervical vertebrae were severely damaged up to an extent that there was no skeletal support available between the skull and the lower cervical spine -- a disconnect between the skull and lower part of the spine.

As a result, the head of the patient was sliding forward and curved in such a way that it was causing obstruction to the spinal cord.

It resulted in progressive weakness in all the limbs and increased the risk of quadriplegia, a condition linked to compression of the respiratory nerves that could lead to death.

The team of surgeons at Medanta used an intricate computer software to plan every detail of the operation.

The titanium cage was customised according to the patient's original spine.

The high-resolution CT and MRI scans of the patient spine were uploaded on the software and a dummy of the patient's spine was 3D printed to measure the gaps and surgical resection between the first and the fourth cervical vertebrae.

Finally, the three-dimensional titanium implant was printed, which was to be placed in the body.

The printed 3D titanium vertebrae were further tested for biomechanics and stress risers after receiving inputs from design teams in India, Sweden and the US, Medanta said.

The patient is now recovering fast with the newly-reconstructed cervical vertebrae, according to the doctors.

"We are extremely happy with the results as the patient is gradually moving back to normalcy," said S.K.S. Marya, Chairman, Institute of Bone & Joint at Medanta.

The patient is expected to lead an independent risk-free life in about two weeks, according to the doctors.

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India's 1st Robotic Intravesical Bilateral Ureteric Reimplant

Dr. Gursev Sandlas: India’s 1st Robotic Intravesical Bilateral Ureteric Reimplantation
A 12 year old boy from Jalgaon was brought by parents with complaints of frequent stomach aches. He was investigated in Jalgaon and found to have a unique and rare problem. He had a duplex system on the Right Kidney and a bilateral Vesico-Ureteric Reflux.
In simple terms this means that he had two tubes draining his right kidney in to the bladder and the valves of the tubes on both sides was defective leading to backflow of urine from the bladder back towards the kidneys. This kind of REFLUX can cause kidney damage in long run. He was advised open surgery and even removal of the anomalous kidney. He researched on the internet and decided to seek a second opinion at KDAH with me. Given the complex nature of malformation we counselled the parents that an intravesical Robotic repair would be best suited to the child. In this repair the robotic arms were inserted inside his bladder and the entire surgery was carried out inside his bladder.
The surgery was all the more challenging considering he had two ureters on the right side.
He underwent the surgery on 7 Feb and is doing extremely well and on road to full uneventful recovery and has been discharged.
This surgery is the first of its kind in India. Even around the world there are only a handful of centres who have even attempted this kind of procedure.

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Glow in dark mice - 1st article GMO series

Stanford scientists have successfully developed glow-in-the-dark mice using compounds that create proteins responsible for lighting up fireflies, an advance that may pave the way for new gene therapies.
Timothy Blake, a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University in the US refined compounds that carry instructions for assembling the protein that makes fireflies light up and delivered them into the cells of an anaesthetised mouse.

This success could mark a significant step forward for gene therapy. It is hard enough getting these protein instructions, called messenger RNA (mRNA), physically into a cell. It is another hurdle altogether for the cell to actually use them to make a protein. If the technique works in people, it could provide a new way of inserting therapeutic proteins into diseased cells.
“It’s almost a childlike enthusiasm we have for this,” said Robert Waymouth, a professor at Stanford. “The code for an insect protein is put into an animal and that protein is not only synthesised in the cells but it’s folded and it becomes fully functional, capable of emitting light,” said Waymouth.
Although the results are impressive, this technique is remarkably simple and fast. Unlike traditional gene therapy that permanently alters the genetic makeup of the cell, mRNA is short-lived and its effects are temporary.
The transient nature of mRNA transmission opens up special opportunities, such as using these compounds for vaccination or cancer immunotherapy. Gene therapy is a decades-old field of research that usually focuses on modifying DNA, the fundamental genetic code. That modified DNA then produces a modified mRNA, which directs the creation of a modified protein.

The current work skips the DNA and instead just delivers the protein’s instructions. They used a novel, deceptively straightforward creation, called charge-altering releasable transporters (CARTs). “What distinguishes this polycation approach from the others, which often fail, is the others don’t change from polycations to anything else,” said Paul Wender, professor at Stanford.
“Whereas, the ones that we’re working with will change from polycations to neutral small molecules. That mechanism is really unprecedented,” Wender said. As part of their change from polycations to polyneutrals, CARTs biodegrade and are eventually excreted from the body.
One application of this technology is vaccination. At present, vaccines require introducing part of a virus or an inactive virus into the body in order to elicit an immune response. CARTs could potentially cut out the middleman, directly instructing the body to produce its own antigens.

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Gene transfer using HIV - 2nd article GMO series

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By using an innocuous virus derived from HIV, scientists at the California Institute of Technology have developed a new way of giving animals genes from other organisms to produce specific traits.

Termed transgenic animals, they are important to progress in biological research and have a wide range of potential benefits in human health, agriculture, and many other fields.

Body parts of mouse glows when seen under fluorescent light demonstrating that the animal's body cells contain a gene from a jellyfish. Researchers found that the successful transfer of the jellyfish gene to mice made almost all tissues of the animal fluorescent.

Animals that have been "engineered" to acquire certain medical conditions, for example, serve as good surrogates for studying human diseases and testing potential treatments and cures. In the future, cows might be given genes that enable them to produce milk containing therapeutic human proteins, or there may be transgenic chickens that can produce eggs low in cholesterol.
Since the first transgenic animal, a mouse, was created more than two decades ago, different methods of development have been tried, but met with mixed success. The new method announced by the researchers at Caltech has some advantages over other techniques.
Today, transgenic animals are generally created by injecting "foreign" genes into the nucleus of animal cells—a procedure that is costly and requires a high degree of precision and expertise. The new technique entails using a powerful virus, much like the one that causes AIDS, to deliver the genes into the cells and insert them into an animal's genome.
"It's surprising how well it works," said David Baltimore, a Nobel Prize-winning biologist who led the research team. "This technique is much easier and more efficient than the procedure now commonly in use, and the results suggest that it can be used to generate other transgenic animal species.

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Miniature MRI - MRI scanner for newborns

At Royal Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield, UK, a unique prototype technology is being tested: a miniature MRI scanner, designed for fragile new born babies*. The scanner is much smaller than a standard MRI scanner which means that it can be placed within or close to the neonatal unit so that fragile newborns won’t have to travel far.

“Not having to leave the department" is a massive advantage, because having to transfer elsewhere at what is already a difficult time, is very risky for the newborns.

Together with GE Healthcare, Paul Griffiths, Professor of Radiology at the University of Sheffield and Martyn Paley, Professor of MR Physics, designed the scanner over the course of 12 years. The neonatal MRI is the only one of its kind and part of a two-year collaboration with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, the University of Sheffield and the Wellcome Trust, to examine the feasibility and benefits of scanning babies in the neonatal unit. If the research is successful and the quality of the images and data and clinical benefits are proven, it is hoped that the scanner will be granted relevant approvals which would enable it to be used on a routine clinical basis in years to come.

“Babies, particularly with brain problems, are unstable – they can stop breathing or their blood pressure can change in an unpredictable way. If that happens it is useful to have neo-natal staff who are used to that situation in such close proximity, which will improve safety,” said Griffiths. “The motivation to keep going with this project is a belief that at the end we will have something that is better for babies with these types of brain problems.”

By placing miniature scanners within or close to the neonatal unit, examinations can be performed more quickly and the risks and difficulties associated with moving vulnerable newborns can be reduced. It also enables doctors to gain additional clinical information than they could with a bedside ultrasound scan. Ultrasound is, today, most often used for scanning the brains of newborn babies and while it is less expensive and more portable, some parts of the brain can’t be viewed with it. With MRI, doctors can get more detailed images which can help them provide a more accurate diagnosis for babies with brain problems, said Griffiths.

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Non condom sterilisation for men #Vasagel

Vasalgel is a long-acting, nonhormonal contraceptive with a significant advantage over vasectomy: it is likely to be more reversible. The procedure is similar to a no-scalpel vasectomy, except a gel is injected into the vas deferens (the tube the sperm swim through), rather than cutting the vas (as is done in vasectomy). If a man wishes to restore flow of sperm, whether after months or years, the polymer is flushed out of the vas with another injection.

Vasalgel was inspired by the work on a polymer contraceptive called RISUG®, which is in advanced clinical trials in India; some of the men have been using RISUG® for more than 15 years. But right now, only local men near the study sites in India are eligible for the trials, and formal reversibility studies have only been done in animals, not men.

In early 2010, Parsemus Foundation began developing a polymer contraceptive for the rest of the world outside India. The new polymer contraceptive is called Vasalgel™, and 12 months of rabbit studies have shown no sperm from the second semen sample onwards! Sperm flow quickly returned in rabbits that had the polymer flushed out. The goal is to have it on the market as an alternative to vasectomy as soon as possible, with the first clinical trial has started in 2016.

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Early detection of HIV in 1st week itself

A team from the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) has developed a biosensor that detects type 1 HIV during the first week after infection. In the experiments, performed on human serum, the biosensor detected the p24 antigen. This new technology detects the protein at concentrations 100,000 times lower than in current techniques.

In addition, the total test time is 4 hours, 45 minutes, meaning clinical results could be obtained on the same day.

Principle

The biosensor combines micromechanical silicon structures with gold nanoparticles, both functionalised with p24-specific antibodies. At the end of the immunoassay procedure, p24 is sandwiched between the gold nanoparticles and the micromechanical silicon structures. The gold nanoparticles have optical resonances known as plasmons. These are capable of scattering light very efficiently and have attracted interest in the field of optics over the last decade. Micromechanical structures are excellent mechanical sensors capable of detecting interactions even at the scale of intermolecular forces. The combination of these two structures produces both mechanical and optical signals that amplify one another, producing the sensitivity required to detect p24.

The technology, which has been patented by CSIC, is also being applied toward the early detection of certain types of cancer.

"The biosensor uses structures which are manufactured using well-established microelectronics technology, thus making large-scale, low-cost production possible." says Tamayo.

Procedure

The experiment begins by incubating one millilitre of human serum on the sensor for one hour at 37 °C to allow binding of HIV-1 p24 antigens to the capture antibodies located on the sensor's surface. Next, it is re-incubated at 37 °C, for 15 minutes so the captured p24 proteins can be marked.

Finally, the resulting material is rinsed to remove any unbound particles. "The test takes a total of four hours and 45 minutes, which is really rapid. In fact, to confirm the diagnosis you could even repeat the test and the clinical results could be back on the same day as the medical examination. The results are statistically significant and could be adapted to medical requirements," explains the CSIC researcher.

HIV detection systems

Acute human immunodeficiency virus infection is defined as the time from virus acquisition to seroconversion, i.e. the onset of detectable antibodies of HIV in the blood. Today there are two ways to detect HIV in the blood. First, infection can be diagnosed by detecting viral RNA in the blood using nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT); second, by detecting that p24 protein with fourth-generation immunoassays.

1. The first method, based on detecting viral RNA in the blood, has a detection limit of 20 to 35 copies of RNA per millilitre, i.e. a concentration typically occurring two weeks after HIV acquisition.
2. In the second method, during the fourth-generation immunoassays, a detection threshold of p24 in 10 picograms per millilitre is reached. This occurs approximately three to four weeks after infection.

Researchers Javier Tamayo and Priscila Kosaka. "This new technology is capable of detecting p24 at concentrations up to 100,000 times lower than the previous generation of approved immunoassays methods and 100 times lower than methods for detecting viral RNA in blood. This reduces the undetectable phase after infection to just one week," says CSIC researcher Priscila Kosaka from Madrid's Institute of Microelectronics.

Detecting HIV in blood

The period between infection and seroconversion is approximately four weeks. The early detection of HIV is crucial to improving a person's health. Progressive changes occur after HIV acquisition, such as irreversible depletion of gut CD4 lymphocytes, replication in the central nervous system, and the establishment of latent HIV reservoirs.

"The potential for HIV infectivity in the first stage of infection is much higher than in the later stages. Therefore, initiating antiretroviral therapy prior to seroconversion improves immune control and has been associated with benefits in CD4 cell count, a reduction in systemic inflammation, the preservation of cognitive function, and a reduction of the latent reservoir. Logically, its detection is critical to the prevention of HIV transmission," explains Kosaka.

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Breast pump just got redesigned

​Willow breast pump is the hands-free wearable that mothers really need.

The Willow wearable breast pump is a plastic teardrop-shaped device that looks more like a Bluetooth speaker, the Willow sits inside the mother's nursing bra, detecting when she starts to express and adjusting the pump mode accordingly.

The milk is pumped into a nifty doughnut-shaped bag inside the unit, and a one-way valve keeps it in without leaking. According to Willow CEO Naomi Kellman, you can toss the bag around "and you won't lose any of that liquid gold."

At first glance, Willow has clear benefits over a conventional breast pump:

Cordless design slips inside a nursing bra
Simple buttons for suction level and operation
Pumps milk into sealed single-use bags
Senses when milk starts and when mother starts to express
Pairs with app for details on pumping time and volumes
But undoubtedly the best part of the Willow is the noise, or, more accurately, the silence.

According to Kellman, this wearable breast pump is about giving mothers a bit of freedom.

"We knew we could just reinvent the breast pump, we had to reimagine it," Kellman told me. "Women want mobility and they want their hands back... The Willow cuts the cords and gets rid of dangling bottles for good."

The Willow is due to launch in the spring, with the company set to sell a double pump set on its website for $429 (AU$590 or £350 converted) with milk bags going for 50 cents each.

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Wearable Stimulator for anxiety and depression

The Fisher Wallace Stimulator® is cleared by the FDA for the treatment of depression and anxiety. During each 20 minute treatment session (once or twice a day), the device stimulates the brain to produce serotonin while lowering cortisol (the stress hormone). Patients should not reduce or cease taking antidepressant medication without first speaking to their doctor.

Will it help?

The Fisher Wallace Stimulator® is effective in treating the following symptoms of depression and anxiety:

Decreased energy and fatigue
Oversleeping or insomnia
Persistent sadness
Feelings of hopelessness
Feelings of worthlessness and/or helplessness
Loss of interest in activities and hobbies, including sex
Restlessness and irritability
Chronic and unsubstantiated worry
Repeated, random panic attacks
These symptoms are commonly associated with Major Depressive Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, Persistent Depressive Disorder, and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

How It Works

It uses patented waveforms to gently stimulate the brain to produce serotonin and other neurochemicals responsible for healthy mood and sleep. Unlike antidepressant medication that inhibits neuronal receptors from absorbing serotonin, the Fisher Wallace Stimulator® enables the brain to produce serotonin naturally while improving the brain's ability to regulate the limbic system.

Easy to Use

The device is extremely easy to use and the stimulation feels pleasant during the 20-minute treatment session, often causing the patient to feel immediately relaxed. Patients may read a book, watch TV, use the computer or engage in other quiet activities during the treatment session.

FDA-Cleared

Similar to how pharmaceutical drugs must be FDA-Approved to enter the market, medical devices must be FDA-Cleared. The Fisher Wallace Stimulator® is FDA-Cleared for the treatment of depression, anxiety and insomnia. It also has a separate FDA clearance to treat pain on the body. The only patients who are not qualified to use the device are those with implanted medical devices, such as a pacemaker or vagus nerve stimulator.

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Watch the video to learn how easy it is to use.
https://www.fisherwallace.com/

Hulk-green artificial skin developed from algae

Professor Tomas Egana, from the Institute of Biological Engineering at Santiago's Catholic University of Chile, came up with the green-coloured artificial skin dubbed as Hulk.

The main substance of this skin is microalgae. Egana came up with the idea of using plants as a way around a major problem in developing artificial skin for the body. Artificial skin cannot produce oxygen but Egana's plant-based solution uses photosynthesis to do so.

For example, when we apply artificial skin what we have is the characteristics of plants which means when it is lit up it can produce oxygen. Also, these micro-algae can be genetically modified so that in addition to producing oxygen they will produce different factors, for example antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and pro-regenerative molecules. So, we are going to have material which is completely artificial and still, which is a structure that has material that is alive and which will produce oxygen and which will produce pro-regenerative molecules," he said.

Common artificial skin does not contain the blood vessels needed for it to be successfully transplanted onto a human body. The lack of blood vessels mean it cannot pass through oxygen.

According to predictions, the algae in the artificial skin should die in about ten days, which could provide enough time for it to be better incorporated into the body and for the green colour to fade away.

Egana believes that his algae solution could be used in other medical procedures such as in treating open wounds and tumours.

Egana believes that in some instances his algae-based solution could even help patients avoid amputation. "There are many wounds that because they are not able to produce oxygen through the body they do not heal, they are chronic ulcers. They are wounds which for many years are open and in many cases end up being amputated. The idea that we have is that oxygen does not come through the blood vessels but through the material, the very material is what produced it. In this way, wounds that didn't heal now can. This means that for example people can go back to work which an amputation would have prevented them from doing," added Egana.

Animal-testing trials with the green artificial skin have proven a success and now investigators are looking to human trials with hospitals in 2017.

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See the video here:- Reuters
http://mobile.reuters.com/video/2016/12/19/artificial-skin-harnessed-from-algae?videoId=370749191