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Mars Base

Scientists discover molecular secrets of 2,000-year-old Chinese herbal remedy - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-secrets-year-old-chinese.html

scibyte34 remedy

shared by Mars Base on 18 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • For roughly two thousand years, Chinese herbalists have treated Malaria using a root extract, commonly known as Chang Shan
  • Now, researchers from the Harvard School of Dental Medicine have discovered the molecular secrets behind this herbal extract's power.
  • recent studies suggest that halofuginone, a compound derived from this extract's bioactive ingredient, could be used to treat many autoimmune disorders
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • halofuginone (HF) triggers a stress-response pathway that blocks the development of a harmful class of immune cells
  • prevents the autoimmune response without dampening immunity altogether
  • This compound could inspire novel therapeutic approaches to a variety of autoimmune disorders."
  • exciting example of how solving the molecular mechanism of traditional herbal medicine can lead both to new insights into physiological regulation and to novel approaches to the treatment of disease
  • Prior research had shown that HF reduced scarring in tissue, scleroderma (a tightening of the skin), multiple sclerosis, scar formation and even cancer progression.
  • Recognized only since 2006, Th17 cells are "bad actors," implicated in many autoimmune diseases such as inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and psoriasis
  • minute doses of HF reduced multiple sclerosis in a mouse model
  • Further analysis showed that HF was somehow turning on genes involved in a newly discovered pathway called the amino acid response pathway, or AAR
  • evidence that it extends lifespan and delays age-related inflammatory diseases in animal studies on caloric restriction
  • during a power outage we conserve what little juice we have left on our devices, foregoing chats in favor of emergency calls," said Whitman. "Cells use similar logic
  • Researchers do not yet fully understand the role that amino acid limitation plays in
  • researchers were able to home in on a single amino acid, called proline, and discovered that HF targeted and inhibited a particular enzyme (tRNA synthetase EPRS) responsible for incorporating proline into proteins that normally contain it.
  • proline also reversed other therapeutic effects of HF, inhibiting its effectiveness against the malaria parasite as well as certain cellular processes linked to tissue scarring
Mars Base

'The Pill' for Men Is Closer to Reality - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...d-points-toward-the-pill-.html

scibyte59 DrugTech

shared by Mars Base on 17 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • A compound called JQ1, which was originally developed as a cancer therapy, can also cause reversible infertility in male mice without apparent side effects for the rodents or their offspring
  • male contraceptive that would be more effective than condoms and more easily reversible than a vasectomy
  • compound isn’t ready for testing in healthy men
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • offers a promising lead
  • originally developed as an anticancer agent
  • designed to inhibit a protein called BRD4, which helps regulate cell division and is known to be involved in a type of aggressive skin cancer
  • after 6 weeks of daily injections of JQ1 the animals' sperm counts were reduced by nearly 90%. Only 5% of the remaining sperm were able to swim properly, compared with 85% of sperm in control mice. After 3 months of treatment, none of the mice were able to sire offspring
  • had no apparent effect on the production of testosterone or other hormones made by the testes
  • A month or two after treatment stopped, all of the mice were again able to father as many pups as control mice
  • no obvious side effects in the mice, and the offspring of the treated animals showed no abnormalities.
  • compound seems to target developing sperm both before and after meiosis
  • If you're taking healthy people in their twenties and giving them a drug, you want to be very sure it doesn’t affect anything else
  • the lifespans of mice aren’t sufficient to test the possible long-term effects of drugs that people might want to be able to take for decades
  • Primate experiments, meanwhile, are prohibitively expensive, and funding is scarce
Mars Base

16th-century Korean mummy provides clue to hepatitis B virus genetic code - 0 views

phys.org/...rean-mummy-clue-hepatitis.html

scibyte49 health

shared by Mars Base on 30 May 12 - No Cached
  • discovery of a mummified Korean child with relatively preserved organs enabled an Israeli-South Korean scientific team to conduct a genetic analysis on a liver biopsy which revealed a unique hepatitis B virus
  • may be used as a model to study the evolution of chronic hepatitis B and help understand the spread of the virus,
  • may shed further light on the migratory pathway of hepatitis B in the Far East from China and Japan to Korea as well as to other regions in Asia and Australia where it is a major cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Carbon 14 tests of the clothing of the mummy suggests that the boy lived around the 16th century during the Korean Joseon Dynasty
  • viral DNA sequences recovered from the liver biopsy enabled the scientists to map the entire ancient hepatitis B viral genome.
  • researchers compared the ancient DNA sequences with contemporary viral genomes disclosing distinct differences
  • changes in the genetic code are believed to result from spontaneous mutations and possibly environmental pressures during the virus evolutionary process
  • analysis suggests that the reconstructed mummy's hepatitis B virus DNA had its origin between 3,000 to 100,000 years ago.
  • In recent years, universal immunization of newborns against hepatitis B in Israel and in South Korea has lead to a massive decline in the incidence of infection.
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Data From NASA Rover's Voyage To Mars Aids Planning - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte96 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 03 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • Curiosity's Radiation Assessment Detector (RAD) is the first instrument to measure the radiation environment during a Mars cruise mission from inside a spacecraft that is similar to potential human exploration spacecraft
  • The RAD data showed
  • indicate radiation exposure for human explorers could exceed NASA's career limit for astronauts if current propulsion systems are used.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • Two forms of radiation pose potential health risks to astronauts in deep space. One is galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), particles caused by supernova explosions and other high-energy events outside the solar system. The other is solar energetic particles (SEPs) associated with solar flares and coronal mass ejections from the sun
  • NASA has established a three percent increased risk of fatal cancer as an acceptable career limit for its astronauts currently operating in low-Earth orbit
  • The findings,
  • Only about three percent of the radiation dose was associated with solar particles because of a relatively quiet solar cycle and the shielding provided by the spacecraft
  • In terms of accumulated dose, it's like getting a whole-body CT scan once every five or six days
  • Current spacecraft shield much more effectively against SEPs than GCRs. To protect against the comparatively low energy of typical SEPs, astronauts might need to move into havens with extra shielding on a spacecraft or on the Martian surface, or employ other countermeasures
  • GCRs tend to be highly energetic, highly penetrating particles that are not stopped by the modest shielding provided by a typical spacecraft.
  • RAD data collected during Curiosity's science mission will continue to inform plans to protect astronauts as NASA designs future missions to Mars in the coming decades.
Mars Base

Multiple sclerosis breakthrough: Trial safely resets patients' immune systems and reduc... - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...breakthrough-trial-safely.html

scibyte97 MultipleSclerosis

shared by Mars Base on 06 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • In MS, the immune system attacks and destroys myelin, the insulating layer that forms around nerves in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve
  • When the insulation is destroyed, electrical signals can't be effectively conducted, resulting in symptoms that range from mild limb numbness to paralysis or blindness
  • A phase 1 clinical trial for the first treatment to reset the immune system of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients showed the therapy was safe and dramatically reduced patients' immune systems' reactivity to myelin by 50 to 75 percent
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • The therapy stops autoimmune responses that are already activated and prevents the activation of new autoimmune cells
  • In the trial, the MS patients' own specially processed white blood cells were used to stealthily deliver billions of myelin antigens into their bodies so their immune systems would recognize them as harmless and develop tolerance to them
  • Current therapies for MS suppress the entire immune system, making patients more susceptible to everyday infections and higher rates of cancer
  • the study did show patients who received the highest dose of white blood cells had the greatest reduction in myelin reactivity
  • While the trial's nine patients
  • were too few to statistically determine the treatment
  • primary aim of the study was to demonstrate the treatment's safety and tolerability
  • the intravenous injection of up to 3 billion white blood cells with myelin antigens caused no adverse affects in MS patients
  • it did not reactivate the patients' disease and did not affect their healthy immunity to real pathogens
  • researchers tested patients' immunity to tetanus because all had received tetanus shots in their lifetime
  • One month after the treatment, their immune responses to tetanus remained strong, showing the treatment's immune effect was specific only to myelin
  • human safety study sets the stage for a phase 2 trial to see if the new treatment can prevent the progression of MS in humans
  • the trial, which has already been approved in Switzerland
  • patients' white blood cells were filtered out, specially processed and coupled with myelin antigens by a complex GMP manufacturing process
  • In the phase 2 trial we want to treat patients as early as possible in the disease before they have paralysis due to myelin damage
  • Then billions of these dead cells secretly carrying the myelin antigens were injected intravenously into the patients
  • The cells entered the spleen, which filters the blood and helps the body dispose of aging and dying blood cells
  • During this process, the immune cells start to recognize myelin as a harmless and immune tolerance quickly develops
  • This therapy,
  • may be useful for treating not only MS but also a host of other autoimmune and allergic diseases simply by switching the antigens attached to the cells
  • recently published research in mice in which he used nanoparticles—rather than a patient's white blood cells—to deliver the myelin antigen
  • Using a patient's white blood cells is a costly and labor-intensive procedure
  • study showed the nanoparticles, which are potentially cheaper and more accessible to a general population, could be as effective as the white blood cells as delivery vehicles
Mars Base

Sensory hair cells regenerated, hearing restored in mammal ear - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...-cells-regenerated-mammal.html

scibyte77

shared by Mars Base on 10 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common form and is caused by the loss of sensory hair cells in the cochlea.
  • Hair cell loss results from a variety of factors including noise exposure, aging, toxins, infections, and certain antibiotics and anti-cancer drugs
  • there are no known treatments to restore hearing
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Medical School researchers demonstrate for the first time that hair cells can be regenerated in an adult mammalian ear by using a drug to stimulate resident cells to become new hair cells
  • resulting in partial recovery of hearing in mouse ears damaged by noise trauma
  • This finding holds great potential for future therapeutic application that may someday reverse deafness in humans.
  • This is the first demonstration of hair cell regeneration in an adult mammal
Mars Base

Tiny Sponge Soaks Up Venom in Blood: Scientific American - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte92 MedicalTreatment

shared by Mars Base on 27 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • A tiny sponge camouflaged as a red blood cell could soak up toxins ranging from anthrax to snake venom, new research suggests
  • The new "nanosponge,"
  • The nanoparticles, also called nanosponges, act as decoys that lure and inactivate the deadly compounds
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • When injected into mice, the tiny decoys protect mice against lethal doses of a toxin produced by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
  • Follow-up studies need to be done in humans
  • One of the mainstay strategies of bacteria and poison is to poke holes in cells, disrupting their internal chemical balance and causing them to burst
  • far, researchers haven't had much success creating all-purpose treatments to exploit this vulnerability
  • researchers created a tiny spherical core of a lactic acid byproduct, which forms naturally during metabolism in the human body
  • They then wrapped the cores in the outer surface of red blood cells. (To get the outer skin of red blood cells, they used a difference in particle concentration inside and outside the cells to cause them to burst, and then collected their outer membranes
  • The entire ensemble became a tiny nanosponge, which was about 85 nanometers in diameter, or 100 times smaller than a human hair
  • In cell cultures, the camouflaged sponges act as decoys, luring the toxins from
  • the bacteria that causes strep throat) and bee venom
  • then binding to the structure the "poisons" normally use to poke through cells
  • When they stick onto the nanosponge, that particular damaging structure gets preoccupied, and then the body can digest the entire particle
  • the team injected 18 mice with a lethal dose of a MRSA toxin. Half the mice then got a dose of the nanosponges
  • Whereas all the mice in the control group died, all but one that received the treatment survived
  • Because so many bacteria use the same pore-forming strategy, the nanosponges could be used as a universal treatment option when doctors don't know exactly what is causing an illness
  • The sponges' tiny size means a small amount of blood, for camouflage, can be used to make an effective dose
  • also allows them to circulate freely through blood vessels, lure enough of the toxins to have an impact and still be degraded safely
  • the researchers want to see whether the method works in human blood, and against other toxic chemicals, such as scorpion venom and anthrax, which use similar attack strategies
Mars Base

Alien Super-Earth Light Seen for 1st Time | Exoplanet Search | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/light-detected-55-cancrie.html

scibyte45 exoplanet Spitzer

shared by Mars Base on 09 May 12 - No Cached
  • Light from an alien "super-Earth" twice the size of our own Earth has been detected by a NASA space telescope for the first time
  • spotted light from the alien planet 55 Cancri e, which orbits a star 41 light-years from Earth
  • A year on the extrasolar planet lasts just 18 hours
  • ...27 more annotations...
  • 55 Cancri e was first discovered in 2004 and is not a habitable world
  • The world is about twice the width of Earth and is super-dense, with about eight times the mass of Earth.
  • until now, scientists have never managed to detect the infrared light from the super-Earth world.
  • pioneering the study of atmospheres of distant planets and paving the way for NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope
  • Spitzer first detected infrared light from an alien planet in 2005
  • that world was "hot Jupiter," a gas giant planet much larger than 55 Cancri e that orbited extremely close to its parent star
  • other telescopes have performed similar feats
  • Spitzer's view of the 55 Cancri e is the first time the light from a rocky super-Earth type planet has been seen
  • Since the discovery of 55 Cancri e, astronomers have pinned down increasingly strange features about the planet
  • already knew it was part of an alien solar system containing five exoplanets centered on the star 55 Cancri in the constellation Cancer
  • But 55 Cancri e stood out because it is ultra-dense and orbits extremely close to its parent star
  • 26 times closer than the distance between Mercury and our own sun
  • observations revealed that the star-facing side of 55 Cancri e
  • temperatures reaching up to 3,140 degrees Fahrenheit (1,726 degrees Celsius).
  • likely a dark world that lacks the substantial atmosphere needed to warm its nighttime side
  • the planet is oozing
  • Past observations of the planet by the Spitzer Space Telescope have suggested that one-fifth of 55 Cancri e is made up of lighter elements, including water
  • the extreme temperatures and pressures on 55 Cancri e would create what scientists call a "supercritical fluid" state
  • Supercritical fluids can be imagined as a gas in a liquid state, which can occur under extreme pressures and temperatures
  • On Earth, water can become a supercritical fluid inside some steam engines.
  • This graphic illuminates the process by which astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have for the first time detected the light from a super-Earth planet, the alien world of 55 Cancri e 41 light-years from Earth.
  • planet is likely a rocky world covered with water in a supercritical fluid state and topped off with a steam blanket
  • could be very similar to Neptune, if you pulled Neptune in toward our sun and watched its atmosphere boil away
  • detailed in the Astrophysical Journal
  • Spitzer Space Telescope launched in 2003
  • telescope engineers modified several settings on the observatory to optimize its alien planet vision
  • conceived of Spitzer more than 40 years ago
Mars Base

This breathalyzer reveals signs of disease (w/ Video) - 0 views

phys.org/...zer-reveals-disease-video.html

scibyte46 breathalyzer diagnosis

shared by Mars Base on 09 May 12 - No Cached
  • Single Breath Disease Diagnostics Breathalyzer, and when you blow into it, you get tested for a biomarker—a sign of disease
  • blow into a small valve attached to a box that is about half the size of your typical shoebox and weighs less than one pound
  • lights on top of the box will give you an instant readout
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • green light means you pass (and your bad breath is not indicative of an underlying disease; perhaps it’s just a result of the raw onions you ingested recently
  • red light means you might need to take a trip to the doctor’s office to check if something more serious is an issue.
  • sensor chip that
  • It's coated with tiny nanowires that look like microscopic spaghetti and are able to detect minute amounts of chemical compounds in the breath
  • nanowires enable the sensor to detect just a few molecules of the disease marker gas in a 'sea' of billions of molecules of other compounds that the breath consists of
  • can't buy this in the stores just yet
  • individual tests such as an acetone-detecting breathalyzer for monitoring diabetes and an ammonia-detecting breathalyzer to determine when to end a home-based hemodialysis treatment--are still being evaluated clinically
  • researchers envision developing the technology such that a number of these tests can be performed with a single device
  • you might be able to self-detect a whole range of diseases and disorders, including lung cancer, by just exhaling into a handheld breathalyzer.
  • nanowires can be rigged to detect infectious viruses and microbes like Salmonella, E. coli or even anthrax
Mars Base

Nanotechnology breakthrough could dramatically improve medical tests - 0 views

phys.org/...logy-breakthrough-medical.html

scibyte49 NanoDevice MedicalTreatment

shared by Mars Base on 01 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • The material consists of a series of glass pillars in a layer of gold. Each pillar is speckled on its sides with gold dots and capped with a gold disk. Each pillar is just 60 nanometers in diameter, 1/1,000th the width of a human hair
  • laboratory test used to detect disease and perform biological research could be made more than 3 million times more sensitive
  • increased performance could greatly improve the early detection of cancer, Alzheimer's disease and other disorders by allowing doctors to detect far lower concentrations of telltale markers than was previously practical.
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • The greater the glow, the more of the biomarker is present.
  • if the amount of biomarker is too small, the fluorescent light is too faint to be detected, setting the limit of detection
  • major goal in immunoassay research is to improve the detection limit.
  • involves a common biological test called an immunoassay, which mimics the action of the immune system to detect the presence of biomarkers
  • When biomarkers are present
  • the immunoassay test produces a fluorescent glow (light) that can be measured in a laboratory
  • tackled this limitation by using nanotechnology to greatly amplify the faint fluorescence from a sample
  • fashioning glass and gold structures so small they could only be seen with a powerful electron microscope
  • able to drastically increase the fluorescence signal compared to conventional immunoassays, leading to a 3-million-fold improvement in the limit of detection
  • key to the breakthrough lies in a new artificial nanomaterial called D2PA
  • a thin layer of gold nanostructures surrounded glass pillars just 60 nanometers in diameter.
  • A nanometer is one billionth of a meter; that means about 1,000 of the pillars laid side by side would be as wide as a human hair.
  • e pillars are spaced 200 nanometers apart and capped with a disk of gold on each pillar
  • sides of each pillar are speckled with even tinier gold dots about 10 to 15 nanometers in diameter
  • a sample such as blood, saliva or urine is taken from a patient and added to small glass vials containing antibodies that are designed to "capture" or bind to biomarkers of interest in the sample
  • Another set of antibodies that have been labeled with a fluorescent molecule are then added to the mix
  • biomarkers are not present in the vials
  • fluorescent detection antibodies do not attach to anything and are washed away
  • immunoassays are commonly used in drug discovery and other biological research.
  • plays a significant role in other areas of chemistry and engineering, from light-emitting displays to solar energy harvesting
Mars Base

June 7 - Today in Science History - Scientists born on June 7th, died, and events - 0 views

www.todayinsci.com/...6_07.htm

scibyte133 LookingBackJun

shared by Mars Base on 29 May 14 - No Cached
  • Ultrasound article
  • In 1958, a seminal article that launched the widespread use of ultrasound in medical diagnosis was published in The Lancet by Ian Donald, an English physician. After a few years developing the experimental use of ultrasound, Donald had applied it to treat patients in his hospital. In the Lancet article, Investigation of Abdominal Masses by Pulsed Ultrasound, he described how he was able to make the life-saving diagnosis of a huge, easily removable, ovarian cyst in a woman who had been diagnosed by others as having inoperable stomach cancer. Donald knew about sonar from his service in WW II, and industrial use of reflected ultrasound waves for flaw detection in materials, and with help from others, he launched its use in medicine
Mars Base

Researchers find novel approach to reactivate latent HIV - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...ach-reactivate-latent-hiv.html

scibyte134

shared by Mars Base on 06 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • A team of scientists
  • has identified a new way to make latent HIV reveal itself
  • could help overcome one of the biggest obstacles to finding a cure for HIV infection
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • They discovered that increasing the random activity, or noise, associated with HIV gene expression–without increasing the average level of gene expression–can reactivate latent HIV
  • When HIV infects an immune cell, it inserts its genetic material into the DNA of the infected cell
  • In most cases, the immune cell's
  • makes copies of the viral genetic material
  • eventually leads to the production
  • of all the components needed to make more viruses
  • In some cases, however, HIV
  • goes into a holding pattern and the virus enters a latent state within the infected immune cell
  • This means that a small percentage of HIV hides in infected cells, beyond the reach of even the most potent drugs
  • people with HIV infection have to take antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) for the rest of their lives
  • Roy Dar, PhD,
  • "If we can make the virus show itself, we can then use ARVs to eliminate it.
  • This so-called 'shock and kill' approach holds great promise, but to date it has unfortunately shown only limited success."
  • In this study, the team tested the counter-intuitive notion that compounds that increase noise in gene expression could work together with transcriptional activators to increase overall levels of HIV reactivation
  • They found that while the noise enhancers could not cause reactivation on their own, 75 percent of them could synergize with activators and increase viral reactivation relative to activator alone
  • some noise enhancers doubled reactivation levels when combined with activators
  • "The implications for using noise also extend far beyond HIV reactivation, since random cellular activity contributes to a wide range of processes, from antibiotic persistence to cancer metastasis
  • Dr. Weinberger
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