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Tag: medical research

  • New Tech Could Help Explain Miscarriages

    New Tech Could Help Explain Miscarriages

    NBC News is reporting on promising new technology that could shed light on one of the most heartbreaking events in a woman or couple’s life—miscarriages.

    According to the report, “miscarriages occur in up to a quarter of known pregnancies — and about 1 percent of women experience three or more miscarriages.” In spite of that, the cause is rarely uncovered. Chromosomal abnormalities are one of the most prevalent causes, but genetic testing is often prohibitively expensive. As a result, the procedure is usually not even recommended until a woman has miscarried several times.

    Dr. Zev Williams, director of the Columbia University Fertility Center in New York, has combined several new technological developments to create a new way of testing fetal tissue for genetic issues. The new method can be done in four hours and costs less than $200, although Dr. Williams hopes to eventually lower the cost even more.

    While the new testing won’t miraculously solve the underlying causes of miscarriages, it will help shed light on them. That information can not only help bring a measure of peace to women who have experienced miscarriages, but hopefully provide earlier identification of treatable causes.

    “Pregnancy loss has really been, from a patient’s point of view, incredibly devastating to be going through, but from a medical and scientific point of view, a black box,” said Dr. Williams. “We’re starting to chip away at that.”

  • IBM Using AI to Advance Huntington’s Disease Research

    IBM Using AI to Advance Huntington’s Disease Research

    IBM is using artificial intelligence (AI) to map the human brain and help track the progression of Huntington disease, according to a blog post.

    Huntington’s disease is one of several neurodegenerative diseases that includes Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. The disease is an inherited disorder and has no cure. Early symptoms can be hard to spot and vary from one person to the next. According to IBM, “people with HD show symptoms that start as subtle cognitive and motor changes, but gradually develop into uncontrollable movements and dementia before eventually leading to death.”

    To help researchers studying the disease, IBM teamed “with CHDI Foundation, a non-profit biomedical research organization devoted exclusively to collaboratively developing therapeutics that will substantially improve the lives of those affected by HD.” The goal of the collaboration is to use AI to spot patterns in brain scans that can give insights to the progression of the disease, even before symptoms are apparent.

    The collaboration won’t immediately result in a cure, but it will offer patients better options for care as the disease progresses, as a result of being able to better monitor the progression. IBM attributes this to the fact that “from a technical point of view HD displays a number of features that distinguish it from other neurodegenerative disorders and not only guide treatment design, but also help us to better understand the disease. In particular, genetic tests make it possible to study its progression many years before the onset of symptoms. In fact, several large studies followed hundreds of people with and without the HD mutation over time (4a, 4b, 4c). This set-up is optimal for building AI models that can learn the earliest signs of the disease in the brain and can inform ongoing and future clinical changes.”

    While there is still a long way to go in the fight against Huntington’s, IBM’s involvement is giant step in the right direction and will likely result in tangible qualify-of-life improvements for patients suffering with the disease.

  • Winter Tires Cause Health Problems, Swedish Medical Researchers Claim

    At a time when Sweden will soon get hit with its usual seasonal winter weather, medical researchers are asking for a ban against winter tires.

    In the 1960s, these tires were first introduced to consumers in the United States. Metal studs inserted into the tire were made to enhance the friction on slippery roads, particularly those covered in snow or ice.

    Tire companies such as, Nokian, Michelin, and Bridgestone, manufacture some of the most popular brands.

    However, these tires have come to develop a pretty bad reputation. Now, winter tires seem to be very damaging to roads and hazardous for drivers.

    In a report by Tiresrack.com, it states how winter tires during the drier seasons have been costly for taxpayers due to its tear on the road.

    “The studs were designed to use the vehicle’s weight and centrifugal forces to provide more ice traction as they repeatedly chipped into the driving surface. However, when the road wasn’t covered with snow or ice, tire studs noisily chipped into the road itself…Additionally as studded tires chip into the concrete, they eventually cut ruts in the road that will fill with water to create a hydroplaning hazard when it rains.”

    Aside from safety issues, Sweden’s MAIN concern is the health risk the tires produce. According to medical investigation, researchers assert that the chipping away of the road increases “…the amount of harmful particles in the air, leading to an increase in cardiac, vascular and pulmonary diseases.”

    In 2011, a scientific study in the Chemical Research in Toxicology journal concluded that studded winter tires presented similar health risks, as reported today.

    Countries like, Japan and Germany have banned the slip-resistant tires. State regulations prohibit winter tires in places such as, Texas, Alabama, Florida, and Maryland, while other states have minor seasonal restrictions.

    Along with Finland, Sweden has always been listed as one of the countries to substantially use winter tires.

    In the video below, Tire Rack visit Northern Sweden to test different tires that are best for winter time traction.

    Image Credit:  Youtube, Phillip O’Connor

  • New Diabetes Treatment Uses Injectable “Smart Sponge”

    Researchers from several U.S. universities this week announced a new diabetes treatment method that uses a “smart sponge” as a drug delivery device. The injectable sponge-like material surrounds an insulin core, expanding and contracting in response to blood sugar levels to regulate the amount of insulin released. The researchers also believe the technique could be used as a targeted cancer cell drug delivery device. A study of the device and how it works has been published in the journal ACS Nano.

    “We wanted to mimic the function of healthy beta-cells, which produce insulin and control its release in a healthy body,” said Zhen Gu, lead author of the research and an assistant professor at North Carolina State University. “But what we’ve found also holds promise for smart drug delivery targeting cancer or other diseases.”

    The tiny (250 micrometer) sponges are made out of a substance found in shrimp and crab shells called chitosan. Using the material, researchers created a spherical matrix containing small segments of glucose oxidase or catalase enzymes. As blood sugar rises, glucose causes a chemical reaction that positively charges the sponge, causing the strands of the chitosan matrix to spread apart and allow more of the insulin core to flow into the bloodstream. As glucose levels in the bloodstream begin to drop, the matrix begins to lose its positive charge and shrinks, trapping the insulin inside.

    The system was effective for regulating blood sugar in mice for up to two days. A more recent version, however, regulated blood sugar for up 10 days.

    “We can also adjust the size of the overall ‘sponge’ matrix as needed, as small as 100 nanometers,” said Gu. “And the chitosan itself can be absorbed by the body, so there are no long term health effects.”

    (Image courtesy Zhen Gu)

  • FDA Okays First ADHD Brain Wave Test

    The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) this week approved the marketing of a brain wave test for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in children and teens. The device is the first one to use brain function to assess children 6 to 17 years old for ADHD. The FDA concluded that the test can help confirm an ADHD diagnosis when used as part of a full medical and psychological exam. The approval was based on a clinical study of 275 children with “attention or behavioral concerns.”

    The brain wave test is called the Neuropsychiatric EEG-Based Assessment Aid (NEBA) System, developed by NEBA Health company in Augusta, Georgia. The NEBA System test takes 15 to 20 minutes, and is non-invasive. The test is similar to an electroencephalogram (EEG) exam, as it records electrical impulses in the brain. It then calculates the ratio of two brain wave frequencies called theta and beta waves, which has been shown to be higher in children with ADHD.

    “Diagnosing ADHD is a multistep process based on a complete medical and psychiatric exam,” said Christy Foreman, director of the Office of Device Evaluation at the FDA. “The NEBA System along with other clinical information may help health care providers more accurately determine if ADHD is the cause of a behavioral problem.”

    The American Psychiatric Association estimates that 9% of children in the U.S. have ADHD. Common symptoms of the disorder include behavioral problems such as inattention, hyperactivity, and a tendency to be impulsive.

  • Deafness Cure Demonstrated in Gerbils Using Stem Cells

    Researchers at the University of Sheffield have developed a possible cure for deafness that utilizes human embryonic stem cells, turning them into ear cells.

    The researchers found that when they transplanted human embryonic stem cells into deaf gerbils, the gerbils gained an average “functional recovery” of 46%. This recovery took only four weeks from when the cells were first administered.

    “We developed a method to drive human embryonic stem cells to produce both hair cells and neurons, or nerve cells, but we only transplanted the neurons,” said Dr. Marcelo Rivolta, Reader in sensory stem cell biology at the university and lead on the project. “We then used a technique called auditory brainstem evoked responses (ABR), which measures if the brain can perceive an electrical signal after sound stimulation. The responses of the treated animals were substantially better than those untreated, although the range of improvement was broad. Some subjects did very well, while in others recovery was poor.”

    The specific type of deafness that the cells cured, researchers said, is similar to a human condition called auditory neuropathy, which is a deafness that occurs “at the level of the cochlear nerve,” and has to do with the connection of the ear’s hair cells with the brain. They estimate that 15% of the worldwide population with profound hearing loss have the condition. People can be born with auditory neuropathy, though the researchers said that growing evidence indicates factors such as jaundice at birth and noise exposure later in life can be risk factors.

    “We believe this an important step forward,” said Rivolta. “We have now a method to produce human cochlear sensory cells that we could use to develop new drugs and treatments, and to study the function of genes. And more importantly, we have the proof-of-concept that human stem cells could be used to repair the damaged ear.”

    Rivolta did state, however, that more research is needed, including research on the long-term effects of the treatment. He also said that auditory neuropathy patients who do not have hair cells might require a cochlear implant in conjunction with the stem cell treatment.

    The study was undertaken with funding from the U.K. Medical Research Council and the U.K. research charity Action on Hearing Loss.

    (Image courtesy the University of Sheffield)

  • Scientific Breakthrough: Mixed-Embryo Monkeys

    The first mixed-embryo monkeys were born yesterday, and this is a major stepping stone in medical research. The monkeys were born in a lab in Western Oregon by the combining cells from six different embryos, BBC reports.

    What is significant about this feat, is that this is the first time primates have ever been created using this method of mixing embryo cells. “Knock-out” mice would be an example of a scientific method similar to the mixed-embryo monkeys. However, this is literally a whole different animal.

    To produce “knock-out” mice, scientists would take the embryonic stem cells, culture these cells in a lab, and then inject the cultured cells into a mouse embryo. With monkeys, their bodies rejected these cultured cells. But scientists discovered that they could get past this barrier by taking embryonic cells from different monkeys in order to produce the same effect.

    Here is a graphical abstract of the mixed-embryo process from Science Direct:

    monkey embryo

    Why should we care? Because these scientists aren’t creating mutant lab pets for pleasure. Many animals and their cells have significantly helped researchers understand and treat diseases such as diabetes, obesity, polio, and rabies.

    Fun Fact: The breed of monkey that scientists used is the Rhesus monkey. This is the same monkey that has been launched into space.