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New Cancer Treatment
Image: National Cancer Institute
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just approved a new cancer therapy for pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia called CAR T-cell therapy.
Short for Chimeric Antigen Receptor T-cell therapy, the treatment premise is simple: extract a patient’s T cells from blood and train them to recognize and kill cancer by modifying them with a viral vector to express an artificial, or chimeric, receptor specific for a particular cancer-associated antigen - in this case, CD19, an antigen expressed in B-cell–related blood cancers - then reinfuse the cells back into the patient.
Source: http://www.sciencealert.com/a-cancer-treatment-that-one-expert-called-the-most-exciting-thing-i-ve-seen-in-my-lifetime-just-got-approved
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The First Humans on Mars By Space Time | PBS Digital Studios
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Life on Europa? | Space Time | PBS Digital Studios By PBS Space Time
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What If All The Ice Melted On Earth? ft. Bill Nye by AsapSCIENCE
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You Have A Second Brain By AsapSCIENCE
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The veins of America: Stunning map shows every river basin in the US By Cheyenne Macdonald and Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com Follow us on … Tumblr: http://tinyurl.com/nozt3gl Facebook: http://tinyurl.com/mbg2ldh
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Microsoft Excel is Screwing Up Science Video by HowStuffWorks NOW
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IRON NANOPARTICLES HELP THE IMMUNE SYSTEM FIGHT TUMORS
Image: Amy Thomas/Stanford University School of Medicine
According to researchers from Stanford University and Oregon Health & Science University iron nanoparticles were able to kickstart the immune system into attacking tumors in mice.
The researchers used ferumoxytol, an iron supplement already available for the treatment of anemia. The group use studying a potential use of the nanoparticles to deliver chemotherapeutric drugs into tumors. As it turns out, the nanoparticles along were able to reduce tumor size without the help of the chemo drug.
Follow-up tests determined that the nanoparticles were stimulating macrophages, phagocytic cells off the immune system, into attacking the tumor cells. Normally, macrophages don’t do this once the tumors reach a certain size. The nanoparticles appear to have a suppressive effect on metastasis (the spread of a tumor to other tissues) by stimulating pro-inflammatory responses macrophages causing them to attack the tumor tissues.
While the treatment isn't strong enough to completely remove cancer, it could be used in combination with existing chemo drugs.
The findings have been published in Nature Nanotechnology.
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WOMEN ON BIRTH CONTROL MORE LIKELY TO SUFFER DEPRESSION
Image: www.waynewomensclinic.com
A new study from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark has found evidence that hormones used in birth control devices, could have a noticeable effect on mood. According to the study “use of hormonal contraception, especially among adolescents, was associated with subsequent use of antidepressants and a first diagnosis of depression, suggesting depression as a potential adverse effect of hormonal contraceptive use.”
The researchers looked at data collected between 2000 and 2013 tracked prescriptions and diagnoses in of 1,061,997 women between the ages of 15 and 34. Estimating that 55% of the participants were currently or recently using hormonal contraception, they found that the risk of being diagnosed for depression increased by at least 20% in those women using contraceptives.
The strength of this study is in the large data set and the fact that relies on medical records rather than the patients’ recollection. One weakness though is the assumption on the number of participants on contraceptives. However, there has been contradicting data in the past. A 2010 study, showed only a small link, but in a 2007 study, showed no change in mood. And a 2011 study showed a positive increase in mood.
What none of the studies have shown is causation (ie. contraceptives cause depression). It is possible that other factors responsible for causing depression may be driving women to choose using contraceptive methods.
The research has been published in JAMA Psychiatry.
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HIV IN CHILDREN
Image: www.medicalnewstoday.com
Without treatment, over 50% of all children with HIV worldwide will die before the age of two. However, previous research has shown that up to 10% of infected children never develop symptoms making them what scientist and doctors call pediatric non-progressors.
Up until recently, the reasons for this non-progression was debatable. A new study of 170 pediatric non-progressors, now suggests that the immune systems of these children is not affected by HIV and has a different response. Their immune systems are “ignoring” the virus even though they have thousands of HIV particles in every milliliter of their blood, something that would normally set off an immune response.
This immune response would then cause high levels of inflammation, which coupled with the virus’ ability to infect white blood cells would drive the white blood cell count down and result in development of AIDS. Interestingly, ignoring the virus is also the strategy taken by other species of primates, which are able to survive an HIV infection by not allowing it to progress to AIDS. This strategy in humans, is pretty much unique to children. There is an elite group of adult non-progressors also but in their case their immune systems mount an aggressive attack against the HIV virus.
The research has been published in Science Translational Medicine.
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FDA APPROVES ARTIFICIAL “PANCREAS”
Image: Medtronic
The device, made by Medtronic, is called the MiniMed 670G and is approved for people with type 1 diabetes over the age of 14. The device works by monitoring a person’s blood sugar levels and administering insulin as needed.
Patients sometimes use, insulin pumps which administer insulin on demand throughout the day, or glucose monitors, which continuously monitor blood sugar levels. The new device is a hybrid between the two, measuring blood sugar every five minutes, then administering insulin if needed. The device can also manually inject insulin around mealtimes.
This article was originally published by Business Insider.
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Image: Freedom Studio/Shutterstock.com
A mysterious and extreme case of Zika in the US has shown that we still have a lot to learn when it comes to the virus – and suggests the virus may be capable of being spread by physical contact.
Earlier this year health authorities in Utah were baffled when a patient contracted Zika – but not via any of the usual channels through which the virus is known to spread.
Previously, scientists thought Zika could only be contracted from the bites of infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, through semen, or by being passed on from pregnant women to their foetuses.
But a new study, led by researchers from the University of Utah, has examined the Utah episode, and concludes that Zika virus – at least in this very peculiar case – appears to have been spread through physical contact alone.
Not only that, but the virus could be deadlier than we first thought, because while the patient in this scenario was elderly, he was otherwise healthy when he contracted the virus, but died soon after in hospital.
While Zika has been known to kill adults before – in very rare instances – usually such fatalities occur when people have compromised immune systems, which wasn't the case here.
"This rare case is helping us to understand the full spectrum of the disease, and the precautions we may need to take to avoid passing the virus from one person to another in specific situations," says infectious disease specialist Sankar Swaminathan.
"This type of information could help us improve treatments for Zika as the virus continues to spread across the world and within our country."
The circumstances of the case began when the elderly patient, a 73-year-old Salt Lake City resident, visited Mexico in May last year. During his trip, he was bitten by mosquitoes, which is the most likely explanation for how he contracted Zika.
Upon returning from his trip, he went to hospital experiencing inflammation, watery eyes, and a rapid heart rate.
With his condition deteriorating, the man's 38-year-old son visited him in the hospital, and comforted his father, helping to reposition him in bed and wiping away his tears.
The father later died in hospital, and tests after his death confirmed he had Zika. But only a week after the father passed away, Swaminathan happened to notice that the son also had watery eyes – a common Zika symptom – and tests confirmed he too had contracted the virus.
What baffled the researchers was that the son – unlike the father – had not travelled to a Zika-infected area, nor had sex with anybody who was infected (or who had travelled to a Zika area). And Utah doesn't have Aedes aegyptimosquitoes.
So how did he catch Zika?
In these circumstances, the researchers conclude "infectious levels of virus may have been present in [the father's] sweat or tears, both of which [the son] contacted without gloves."
While there's no precedent for this hypothesised channel of Zika transmission, it could be that the virus was able to spread due to the other perplexing anomaly of this case: an extraordinarily high concentration of virus in the father's blood, at 200 million particles per millilitre.
"I couldn't believe it," says Swaminathan. "The viral load was 100,000 times higher than what had been reported in other Zika cases, and was an unusually high amount for any infection."
In light of this extreme viral load, the researchers think it may have been what enabled both the deadliness of Zika in this instance (killing the father), and its previously undocumented ability to spread purely by physical contact (infecting the son).
The son later recovered from his comparatively mild case of Zika, but while it's an otherwise sad and somewhat disturbing story, the good news is that this strange episode tells us more about how Zika might be able to function – and it's better to be prepared than not.
"This case expands our appreciation for how Zika virus can potentially spread from an infected patient to a non-infected patient without sexual contact or a mosquito vector," says one of the team, Marc Couturier from the University of Utah's ARUP Laboratories.
"This and any future cases will force the medical community to critically re-evaluate established triage processes for determining which patients receive Zika testing and which do not."
As for Swaminathan, he says the questions raised by this unusual Utah infection will require further research to clear up – although there's no guarantee on when such an extreme viral load may show up again.
"We may never see another case like this one," says Swaminathan. "But one thing this case shows us is that we still have a lot to learn about Zika."
This article was first published in ScienceAlert: http://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-just-documented-the-first-case-of-zika-spreading-through-physical-contact
The paper is published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
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RNA THERAPY FOR PSORIASIS
Image: International Institute for Nanotechnology at Northwestern University
A phase 1 trial conducted by a private startup called Exicure has shown that the treatment could be used to fight psoriasis. Psoriasis is an auto-immune disease, triggered when the body creates too much of a normally healthy protein, tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). The immune system attacks this protein, causing red, itchy, and scaly skin patches.
RNA acts as a messenger between your DNA and protein. One of the ways scientists have been able to limit protein creation, such as the overproduction of TNF- α, is by destroying RNA genes using a relatively new technique called spherical nucleic acid (SNA), a form of RNA interference, or RNAi.
Exicure has shown in the past that SNAs can lower the amount of TNF-α in animal trials. Now, the initial trial results of the clinical trial suggest that SNAs are safe and that there appears to be a dose-dependent response in knocking down TNF-α, which suggests that doctors will be able to find a curative dose. This means that although there is more work to do in finding the correct dose, a treatment could be on the way for those suffering psoriasis.
If the treatment continues to show promise in this and other follow-up trials, it’s just the beginning for similar SNA therapies, with the potential for more new drugs based on this technique to target cancer-causing genes, and a number of auto-immune diseases.
The results are not yet published.
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THE VACATION EFFECT
Image: wrab.dvrlists.com
Everybody knows that going on holiday is a great way to reduce the stress of daily life, but just how much better do vacations really make us feel, and why? A new study comparing the biological effects of vacationing and meditation has found that both activities confer significant and long-lasting, physiological benefits with the best results seen in those who do both at the same time.
To gauge how vacationing and meditation affect biomarkers related to processes such as ageing and general health, the researchers recruited 94 healthy women aged between 30 and 60 to take part in a six-day retreat at a resort in California. Among the participants, 64 were not regular meditators. This group was randomly assigned to either simply enjoy their time at the resort with no further obligations or enroll in a meditation training program while at the resort.
The researchers took blood samples from all the participants immediately before and after the vacation. They also surveyed the participants before and after the retreat to assess their mental state, with follow-up surveys taking place one month and 10 months after the vacation. When comparing the before-and-after blood samples, the researchers examined some 20,000 genes to track changes in gene expression induced by the effects of vacationing and mediation.
They found all three groups showed significant improvements in stress levels and the functioning of the immune system. For the experienced meditators, biomarkers associated with antiviral activity also showed a boost. The post-resort surveys indicated that all participants reported increased feelings of well-being even a month after their holiday with the biggest benefits were seen in those who took part in meditation while on the retreat.
The findings come on the back of research from earlier in the year that found that meditation could lead to reduced levels of a key inflammation biomarker – called Interleukin–6, which has previously been linked to diseases including cancer, Alzheimer's, and other autoimmune conditions.
The results have been published in Translational Psychiatry.
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