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If a mutation occurs in a person's genes it can cause cancer. The future of cancer therapy is identifying and targeting these mutations. A trial at the University of Florida, known as NSCABP-FC-7 takes the genetic fingerprint of a patients DNA and gives them a personalized treatment based on the information. The idea is to move away from the traditional cytotoxic treatment, and towards less toxic personalized medicine. However, the toxicity of cancer drugs is decreasing due to technology's increasing ability to target and destroy specific cells, and not healthy cells. Washington University St. Louis as well as other institutions have become part of the study. Overall, the future of cancer treatment lies in targeted therapies and personalized medicine.

This article pertains to the neurological disorder, Parkinson's Disease (PD). PD is known to reduce motor system function due to the loss of dopamine-producing brain cells. Most symptoms related to PD include tremors, trembling, and slowness of movement (bradykinesia). As the disease progresses these tremors begin to effect daily activities like chewing and speaking. Unfortunately there is no cure for Parkinson's Disease. The most common treatment for PD is the use of medications such as levodopa. Due to complications with current medications other treatments like deep brain stimulation and surgery are commonly used. Parkinson's Disease is both chronic and progressive. Tremors and other symptoms will occur for long periods of time and possibly grow worse. Patients with PD experience varying symptoms and intensities. Current research being done in response to Parkinson's is being conducted at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and elsewhere. Current topics of research include discovering the cause of PD, and the development of protective drugs needed to delay, prevent, and even reverse the disease.

Using the ISOpure computational purification tool, scientists and medical professionals can develop a prognosis and treatment plan for a certain cancer patients at a much quicker rate. The tool used in this process can help identify the cancerous tissue located in the organs and provide medical professionals further notice of the proportion of RNA originating from cancer cells allowing them to develop treatment plans ahead of time. ISOpure uses an algorithm which determines the proportion of RNA in the organ(s). The real challenges of developing these treatments is of course extracting a portion of tissue with both a normal profile and a cancer profile to predict the spread of the disease. After this portion of tissue has been extracted the ISOpure modeling can process the data using simple MATLAB software. The success of this computational tool is noted to improve the prediction of extra-prostatic-extension (EPE) by 10% in cancer profiles compared to the unpurified models. 

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder associated with sudden seizures. In diagnosing epilepsy, the patient must have displayed two unexpected seizures. Epilepsy can be life - threatening and disabling or benign. Typical symptoms associated with epilepsy are strange sensations, emotions, and behavior. The cause of epilepsy is uncertain, but abnormal brain wiring may have an effect. With no cure for epilepsy, modern day medications and surgeries are used to treat patients. Due to the stigma associated with epilepsy, some children develop behavioral and emotional issues. The restriction of independence, like being denied a drivers license due to seizures, is also emotionally challenging for these patients. Current research being conducted for patients with epilepsy include the development of new models used to determine treatments, and brain implants which control seizures. 

There is no "magic bullet" in the fight against cancer, but one step towards curing cancer is Immunotherapy. The generally accepted hypothesis is that the immune system is the best tool humans have for fighting disease. Immunotherapy is thought to be less toxic than current treatments, however it is rarely used by itself to treat cancer. There are limitations to the effectiveness of Immunotherapy; the normal immune system cannot sense tumor cells, the response from the immune system is not strong enough when the body does recognize tumor cells, and tumors can defend themselves. There are three types of Immunotherapy Passive, components of the immune system are engineered outside of the body to attack cancer cells; Active, stimulates the body's own immune system to fight cancer; and Combination, uses both passive and active activity. Passive Immunotherapy's use antibodies created outside of the body to provide immunity or help fight off a disease. One type of passive immunotherapy is Monoclonal antibody therapy (mAb), the most widely used form of immunotherapy. Active Immunotherapy work by stimulating the immune system to 'actively' respond to the disease. One type of active immunotherapy is Provenge, a therapeutic prostate cancer vaccine. Therapeutic cancer vaccines are given to patients with cancer to help stimulate the immune system to fight the cancer. Combination Therapy is still in clinical studies but is thought to have a greater potential than active or passive immunotherapy because it combines the activity of both therapies. Immunotherapy may not be the magic bullet to fighting cancer, but when used early and with other treatments it has proven effective.

In cancer cells good genes are turned off, while bad ones are turned on through a process called DNA Methylation. The good genes could suppress the cancer if the methyl groups suppressing the genes were removed. Soy Isoflavones, antioxidants found in anything made of soy flour, have been shown to reverse Methylation. This allows the good genes to become activated. This can not only help prevent cancer, but help improve the efficiency of existing treatments, radiation and chemotherapy. The prevention of methylation may also help slow the progression and spreading of cancer. Soy Isoflavones have virtually no negative side affects making them another useful tool in finding better ways to fight and cure cancer.

Though MS obviously has no cure there are plenty of procedures and medications that can be used to lessen the effects of the disease. Treating specific attacks reduces the damage to the myelin sheath. Two methods for controlling the attacks are plasma exchanges and corticosteroids. Another way to control the effects of MS is by slowing the progression of the disease. There are many different drugs that slow the rate of relapses some of which include Beta Interferons, Copaxone, Gilenya, and Tysabri. In addition to these medications, other strategies can be used to treat the symptoms, which include physical therapy and muscle relaxants. 

A very depressed zebrafish normalized by antidepressants. Chronic stress can lead to depression and anxiety in humans. The fish lack the receptor cortisol this means they exhibited a consistent high level of stress. When antidepressants where added to the water the fishes behavior returned to normal. Finding this new drug treatment has opened a door for new research to be done on treating psychiatric disorders.

As a pharmacist, Catherine Ulbricht studied different types of music and its therapeutic effects. There are scientific evidences that support that music influences mood and helps with stress. 5 conditions for which music therapy has good evidence for are autism, dementia, depression, infant development, and sleep quality. However, music shouldn't be listened to at high volumes nor should be a sole treatment for dangerous medical/psychiatric conditions; therefore, safety should be taken into account.

Proton therapy in a painless, noninvasive type of radiation to treat malignant tumors. It has been used successfully in against a variety of tumors and has fewer side affects then conventional photon therapy. Both Photon and Proton therapies work in the same ways by destroying cancer cells and preventing them from dividing. Proton therapy penetrates less healthy tissue than photon therapy. That means that proton therapy has fewer side effects and a faster recovery. Proton therapy needs time to grow. Costs for therapy rooms are falling, but many insurances do not cover proton therapy and many medical professionals need to be educated about and trained to use proton therapy. Overall proton therapy is a quickly becoming a more efficient, better way to treat cancer.

Washington University School of Medicine and St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital have teamed up to identify genetic mutations that cause pediatric cancer. There are over 600 patient's genes being analyzed. The tumor cells are compared to the patients healthy cells and the differences are recorded. The program is trying to identify a mutation that causes a healthy cell to turn into a cancerous one. This in turn can help scientists develop new treatments to help young cancer patients.

Pediatric patients are surviving their cancer and growing into adults. However, doctors are becoming increasingly concerned about the long-term health effects of the treatments that saved their patient's life. Many serious health conditions go undiagnosed because Doctors do not always think about the conditions that may effects pediatric cancer survivors. There was a study conducted with 1700 participants by St. Jude's Hospital. The participants were 10 years past their diagnosis and underwent lots of tests to determine any long-term conditions they might have. The average age of the study was 33. There are almost 400,000 pediatric cancer survivors and that number will grow. It is imperative to ensure follow up programs are in place and that doctors use minimal radiation.

Multiple sclerosis has been associated with attacks against the central nervous system. The immune system has been identified to targeting organs such as the brain, spinal cord, and optic nerves. It is known as an immune - mediated disease because there is no specific target that has been identified. The attacks by the immune system often damage myelin and create scarred tissue (sclerosis). Patients with multiple sclerosis could experience one of four courses identified with the disease. One course is the Relapsing-Remitting MS. In this course the patient experiences a severe attack on the CNS followed by remissions. The second course is known as the Primary-Progressive MS. In this course the central nervous system slowly deteriorates without any relapses or remissions. Another course of MS is the Secondary-Progressive MS. This form of MS generally follows the relapsing-remitting form of MS and progressively worsens the CNS with or without remissions and plateaus. The most rare form of MS is perhaps the Progressive-Relapsing MS. In this course of MS, patients generally experience a progressive worsening of neurological function, without any remissions.  

There are two types of strokes. One is caused by a hemorrhage, and the other is caused by a clot. When someone has a stroke it is crucial to get immediate medical attention, but doctors lose a lot of time waiting for the results of MRIs or CAT scans in order to conclude if a stroke was caused by a hemorrhage or clot. So, researchers in Sweden have developed a super helmet of sorts that can judge whether a stroke was caused by a clot or hemorrhage. The helmet works by sending low-intensity frequencies through the head; then, the helmet senses how the waves scatter. If there is a hemorrhage the helmet will pick up how the waves reflect off of the pooling blood and display it on an attached computer. This innovative helmet will help EMTs determine what kind of stroke a patient is having which will increase the efficiency in which a stroke victim is treated. Helmet trials are scheduled to begin this fall.

Type 2 diabetes is typically likened to obesity. This article showed how exercise (without a change in diet) may prove to be a big help to people with type 2 diabetes. In order to test this idea researchers took 12 adults with type 2 diabetes and gave them MRI body scans. Those scans revealed that all 12 subjects had substantial amounts of fat buildup around organs such as the heart, liver, etc. The next step researchers took was to have all 12 subjects exercise for 3.5-6 hours a week for 6 months as well as take a hiking trip which was then followed by another MRI. The results showed that there was a 37% reduction in fat levels around the heart, and fat around the liver had decreased too. These results lead to the conclusion that exercise can have a significant impact on people with type 2 diabetes.

Researchers have recently discovered that hydroxynorketamine (HNK) may be just as effective in treating depression as ketamine. Studies using rats showed that the drug maybe more useful than ketamine, due to the fact  that it does not act as an anesthetic agent. and it is a lot stronger. HNK could also be used in neurodegenerative disorders because it slows D-serine production, which allows neuron connections to reform. 

Lung cancer is able to metastasize quickly. Many lung cancer patients are missing an anti-cancer gene called LKB1. It was recently discovered that LKB1 is important because it sends instructions to a gene called DIXDC1, which keeps the cells in their place. The cancer either deletes LKB1 or takes control of DIXDC1. Scientists also found out that they were able to slow the spread of the cancer by reactivating DIXDC1. This means that patients missing either of these two genes would gain better results from newer therapies which focus on focal adhesion enzymes. 

Proteus, a 0.14 inch tall motor using piezoelectricity  which puts electrical charge into motion. The whole idea of this motor is to send it into the brains blood to help treat the damaged tissue. The study plans on inserting the little motor into a robot with article blood and cells and see how it work and the reduce it to the size of 1/300 of a sprinkle. 

A 50 year old man who previously went to a rock concert about a month before he started having very bad and persistent headaches. The doctors did lots of different tests and the patient never was a substance abuser and never experienced any head injuries, but did mention doing head banging at the concert. When they did a cranial Ct scan the man had received a blood clot. They doctors believed the blood clot was from the headbanging and they removed the blood clot and the patient was sent home with no more headaches.

This article didn't necessary discuss what caused Lyme disease, but rather it talked about how the modern Lyme disease test is inefficient in determining whether a patient truly has Lyme disease. See, the concept is that the Lyme disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. So, natuarally the Lyme disease test is designed to only look for said bacterium, but the problem is that in Europe Lyme disease is commonly caused by the bacterium Borrelia garinii which means that if one were to contract Lyme disease from the bacterium Borrelia garinii and get tested for Lyme disease in America they would get a negative result despite actually having the disease. European screening for Lyme disease is called the c-6 based ELISA test and it can detect approximetly 18 different species of Borrelia, but the CDC reports that this test isn't used in America, and this neglect can prove detrimental for many who have Lyme disease. As a result of America's dreadful Lyme disease test many companies have developed their own tests, but none of those have shown to be any more reliable than the one recommended by the CDC. Thusly showing that America should improve its Lyme disease test.