Cuba Announces Release of the World's First Lung Cancer Vaccine From the island nation known for the quality of its cigars comes some pretty big news today: Xinhua reports that Cuban medical authorities have released the first therapeutic vaccine for lung cancer. CimaVax-EGF is the result of a 25-year research project at Havana's Center for Molecular Immunology, and it could make a life or death difference for those facing late-stage lung cancers, researchers there say. CimaVax-EGF isn't a vaccine in the preventative sense--that is, it doesn't prevent lung cancer from taking hold in new patients. It's based on a protein related to uncontrolled cell proliferation--that is, it doesn't prevent cancer from existing in the first place but attacks the mechanism by which it does harm. As such it can turn aggressive later-stage lung cancer into a manageable chronic disease by creating antibodies that do battle with the proteins that cause uncontrolled cell proliferation, researchers say. [Xinhua]
South Africa Develops Nanotech ‘Tea Bag’ To Filter Water for Pennies (video South Africa's newest water purification system uses nanotech inside a common tea bag. Provide people cheap access to clean water and you could save billions of lives. South Africa may use tea bags to do just that. Researchers at Stellenbosch University’s Water Institute have developed a new water filtration system that uses activated carbon and nanofibers to quickly filter out pathogens. The carbon and nanofibers are placed in common tea bags and then fitted into a bottle. The ‘tea bag’ filtering system works thanks to the nanofibers contained within. South Africa’s Bureau of Standards is currently reviewing the nanofiber filter and accessing its viability. I should mention that there are many other water purification systems out there, each with their own promises and limitations. A nanofiber filtering tea bag before and after use. [image credits: Hope Project/Stellenbosch University Water Institute] [source: Hope Project, Engineering News (South Africa), SciDev Net]
Seeing Things? Hearing Things? Many of Us Do In other cultures, hallucinations have been regarded as gifts from the gods or the Muses, but in modern times they seem to carry an ominous significance in the public (and also the medical) mind, as portents of severe mental or neurological disorders. Having hallucinations is a fearful secret for many people — millions of people — never to be mentioned, hardly to be acknowledged to oneself, and yet far from uncommon. The vast majority are benign — and, indeed, in many circumstances, perfectly normal. Most of us have experienced them from time to time, during a or with the sensory monotony of a desert or empty road, or sometimes, seemingly, out of the blue. Many of us, as we lie in bed with closed eyes, awaiting sleep, have so-called hypnagogic hallucinations — geometric patterns, or faces, sometimes landscapes. At the other end of sleep are hypnopompic hallucinations, seen with open eyes, upon first waking. Misdiagnosis is especially common if people admit to “hearing voices.” Mr.
Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology Boy Who Received Stem-Cell Trachea Implant Doing Well After Two Years Born with a restricted trachea, Ciaran Finn-Lynch may have undergone his last surgery, doing well two years after receiving a stem-cell treated trachea. Just as the Olympic Games are kicking off in London, one boy from the UK is pulling ahead in his race to live a normal, healthy life. Two years after becoming the first child to receive a trachea transplant coated with his own stem cells, 13-year-old Ciaran Finn-Lynch is doing so well that he has finally returned to school. Ciaran was born with congenital tracheal stenosis, a condition in which a portion of the trachea is narrowed and causes breathing difficulties. Stem cell-treated tracheal implants are still at the cutting edge of medicine. But what made Ciaran’s surgery different from the one in 2008 was the fact that the stem cells were added only after the trachea had been implanted. Ciaran, who is from County Down in Northern Ireland, underwent the surgery at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital in 2010.
Europe Takes The Lead Toward Approval Of First Gene Therapy Drug It's taken decades of work but the first gene therapy is on the verge of finally getting approval in Europe. A watershed moment in gene therapy has finally come to pass. This month, a committee from the European Medicines Agency recommended the approval of a gene therapy drug, named Glybera (alipogene tiparvovec), for the treatment of a rare inherited genetic disorder. Final approval is now in the hands of the European Commission, which could take up to 3 months to complete, but it is believed that the drug will be approved for sale, the first time ever in the Western world. And with its approval, the floodgates for gene therapy could be opened. Fundamentally, gene therapy supplies the body with healthy genes to compensate for missing, deficient, or defective genes. Without the right digestive enzymes, buildup of fats in the blood (B) can lead to xanthomas (D and E) under the skin. These fats can fill macrophages to form small to large nodules under the skin called xanthomas.
Biomimicry: unintended consequences US scientists have devised a new way of storing and delivering vulnerable antibiotics and vaccines, with a little help from the silk moth. Infectious diseases kill millions of children every year, and continue to do so in the developing world more than two decades after the World Health Organisation, Unicef and charities such as Rotary International launched a campaign to eliminate polio and immunise every child against the six biggest killers. Civil war, corruption, ignorance and poverty all created problems, but one of the biggest is simply the fragile nature of vaccines: they tend to deteriorate rapidly unless kept in the refrigerator. This is a problem even for Britain's National Health Service. It is a much bigger problem in hot, humid regions without clinics, electricity or clean water – those regions where children are most at risk from mumps, measles and rubella, from gastric infections and pulmonary diseases, and where the wild polio virus still presents a threat.
Extending People’s Lives – One Artificial Heart At A Time Plagued with protein deposits on his heart, James Carelli became the first man in New England to receive a total artificial heart. A retired high-school teacher has become the first person in New England to receive an artificial heart. James Carelli, 66-years-old, was suffering from a rare condition that leads to total heart failure if left untreated. As with many others who have received an artificial heart, the substitute buys Carelli the vital extra time he needs while waiting for the real thing. Cardiac senile amyloidosis is a condition in which the protein amyloid – found normally in the bloodstream – is deposited onto heart tissue. That was when doctors and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston decided their only alternative was to give Carelli an artificial heart. The heart was made by SynCardia Systems, Inc. The mechanical heart is enabling the way for firsts at hospitals all over the country. (Source: SynCardia) It’s clear that we’re going to need more artificial hearts.
Scientist Invents World's First Perfectly Healthy Pizza Pizza is a surprisingly complex food. It's delicious, relatively easy to make, and can be created with a near infinite variety of toppings. You may prefer other meals, but the odds are pretty low that anyone will build specialized restaurants around them that deliver right to your doorstep. The only problem is that eating copious amounts of pizza on a regular basis lends itself to an early death via heart disease or diabetes. It all began when Professor Mike Lean of the university's human nutrition department became frustrated with the nutritional content of processed meals. Using pizza as an example of "common foods eaten in huge numbers" that could be consumed at any time of day, Lean and Maclean started looking at ways to raise nutrient and vitamin content while lowering calories and carbohydrates to reasonable levels. But is it any good? Source: BBC via Gizmodo
New Bedside Genetic Screen Yields Results In An Hour The Spartan RX rapidly identifies heart attack patients who cannot activate a common antiplatelet drug. A new point-of-care system accurately screens a patient’s DNA for a single gene in an hour. The shoebox-sized device from Canadian-based Spartan Bioscience analyzes cheek swabs taken from heart attack patients for a common genetic variant, responsible for a potentially deadly reaction to the antiplatelet drug Plavix® (clopidogrel). As recently reported in The Lancet (unfortunately, the article is behind a paywall, but you can read the abstract here), the bedside system dubbed the Spartan RX enabled doctors to identify every patient in the study who was a carrier of the gene, allowing doctors to provide alternative medications for treatment. The device is the fruit of a joint venture with the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, which is Canada’s largest cardiovascular center. So it’s imperative that carriers of the genetic variant be identified and fast. Dr.
Telomerase Gene Therapy Extends Lives Of Mice By Up To 24 Percent After being injected with the telomerase gene, adult and old mice lived 24 percent and 13 percent longer, respectively. (Source: www.irbbarcelona.org) Scientists are doing their best to give us the gift of immortality. The latest in the fight against ever dying is a gene therapy that gives mice a healthy dose of telomerase, the enzyme that keeps our chromosomes – and thus our cells and bodies – “young.” The therapy extended the lifespans of mice by 24 percent and, at least so far, the therapy appears to be completely safe. As we age the dying cells in our body are replenished through cell division. An inactive form of telomerase had no effect on lifespan, confirming that its telomere-lengthening enzymatic activity was crucial. Dr. The treatment involved replacing the genes of a virus with the gene for telomerase. Aging is a complex process with lots of components, many of which we might not even be aware.
Charting causes of death in America between 1970 and 2006 Western Countries have this weirdly high youth suicide rate.It was leading cause of death in Australia for a while in 15-26 yearolds, its second only to car accidents now. Psychiatric conditions may have associated physical disabilities and congenital defects that are a factor in death? Get over yourself with your passive aggressive BS "what with say healthcare or gun control laws etc." The data does not say that a significant portion of death is due to guns or healthcare (socialized or not). If anything, it speaks volumes that lifestyle is the number one killer. How people live their life with regard to diet, exercise, exposure to risk (HIV), etc. While Australia is only a half-dozen ranks higher in the WHO ranking of health systems than America, I do think that better access to healthcare (be it socialised or private or the kinda hybrid system Australia has) is a significant effects health related deaths.