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Mars Base

Reversal of type 1 diabetes in mice may eventually help humans - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...es-mice-eventually-humans.html

scibyte135 Diabetes

shared by Mars Base on 15 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • Investigators at the University of Cincinnati (UC) have found a therapy that reverses new onset Type 1 diabetes in mouse models and may advance efforts in combating the disease among humans.
  • Type 1 diabetes is usually diagnosed in children and young adults and affects about 5 percent of all people with diabetes
  • . In Type 1 diabetes, the body does not produce sufficient insulin, which is central to glucose metabolism: without insulin, blood glucose rises
  • ...15 more annotations...
  • There is no cure for Type 1 diabetes though it can be controlled with insulin therapy
  • by using an antibody to stimulate a specific molecule in the innate immune system we can reverse—with a high rate of success—new onset diabetes in mice that have already developed the symptoms of diabetes
  • The cause of this reversal is a preservation of the endocrine pancreatic beta cells that produce insulin
  • These cells are preserved from the autoimmune attack which is the hallmark of Type 1 diabetes
  • The key to reversing Type 1 diabetes in mice,
  • is catching the disease at its onset, which is typically within a very short time window
  • The time frame would be longer in humans, but it is still a relatively short time from new onset to end-stage Type 1 diabetes
  • Ridgway says this approach differs from most in combating Type 1 diabetes because his team's therapies in mice do not directly interact with T-cells
  • treatment of autoimmunity has often been directed at suppressing an over-zealous adaptive immune response by eliminating auto-reactive T-cells
  • In Type 1 diabetes, autoimmunity causes the body's T-cells to attack its insulin-producing beta cells.
  • targeting a different part of the immune system
  • There are two arms of the immune system.
  • respond to many different antigens
  • The innate system tends to have a stereotypical response. We are targeting a receptor that is found mostly on the innate immune cells, such as dendritic cells.
  • Additional study will be required, but the therapy may hold promise because one agonistic anti-TLR4 agent is already FDA approved and others are under development
Mars Base

Potential diabetes breakthrough: Researchers discover new hormone spurring beta cell pr... - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...kthrough-hormone-spurring.html

scibyte92 Diabetes

shared by Mars Base on 26 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • have discovered a hormone that holds promise for a dramatically more effective treatment of type 2 diabetes
  • researchers believe that the hormone might also have a role in treating type 1, or juvenile, diabetes
  • The hormone, called betatrophin, causes mice to produce insulin-secreting pancreatic beta cells at up to 30 times the normal rate
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • The new beta cells only produce insulin when called for by the body, offering the potential for the natural regulation of insulin
  • The researchers who discovered betatrophin
  • caution that much work remains to be done before it could be used as a treatment in humans
  • the results of their work, which was supported in large part by a federal research grant, already have attracted the attention of drug manufacturers.
  • could eventually mean that instead of taking insulin injections three times a day, you might take an injection of this hormone once a week or once a month, or in the best case maybe even once a year
  • Type 2 diabetes,
  • usually caused by a combination of excess weight and lack of exercise
  • causes patients to slowly lose beta cells and the ability to produce adequate insulin
  • provide this hormone, the type 2 diabetic will make more of their own insulin-producing cells, and this will slow down, if not stop, the progression of their diabetes
  • betatrophin primarily as a treatment for type 2 diabetes, he believes it might play a role in the treatment of type 1 diabetes as well
  • perhaps boosting the number of beta cells and slowing the progression of that autoimmune disease when it's first diagnosed
  • betatrophin could be in human clinical trials within three to five years, an extremely short time in the normal course of drug discovery and development
  • not for the federal funding of basic science research, there would be no betatrophin
  • impressed National Institutes of Health grant reviewers, and received federal funding for 80 percent of the work leading to the discovery of betatrophin
  • just wondering what happens when an animal doesn't have enough insulin. We were lucky to find this new gene that had largely gone unnoticed before
  • Another hint came from studying
  • What happens during pregnancy
  • During pregnancy, there are more beta cells needed, and it turns out that this hormone goes up during pregnancy
  • in pregnant mice
  • when the animal becomes pregnant this hormone is turned on to make more beta cells
  • not interested in curing mice of diabetes, and we now know the gene is a human gene
  • know that the hormone exists in human plasma; betatrophin definitely exists in humans
Mars Base

Glooko app offers diabetics easier self-checks - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...betics-easier-self-checks.html

scibyte21

shared by Mars Base on 11 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • Glooko helps diabetics check their blood sugar daily. Glooko is a Palo Alto startup that presents its core product as two items: a free-to-download logbook available at iTunes and a fee-charged cable, sold separately, at $39.95 from Amazon
  • MeterSync cable device. You plug it into the meter and the phone, and that is all.
  • the record-keeping features are able to carry information beyond meter readings. The user can generate a more informative record of the condition, by noting down varied factors that affect blood glucose.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Information from the logbook can then be emailed or faxed as a 14-day summary to the doctor
  • The patient can mark off notes about whether the reading was done before or after a meal, the number of carbs consumed, or can click on a predefined list of lifestyle factors
  • nearly 26 million adults and children in the United States -- or 8.3 percent of the population -- have diabetes.
Mars Base

Type 1 diabetes 'reversed' in mice - Medical News Today - 0 views

www.medicalnewstoday.com/...278289.php

scibyte135 Diabetes

shared by Mars Base on 07 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • There are two parts to the immune system: the innate immune system, which we are born with and attempts to fight infection straight away; and the adaptive immune system, which takes time to mount a response that is more specific to the particular pathogen.
  • The innate immune system includes a group of cells known as dendritic cells that send messages to the adaptive immune system
  • Previous studies have already established that non-obese diabetic mice have faulty innate immune cells, and that this could be partly due to a defect in TLR4, which many suspect helps to prevent type 1 diabetes when it functions normally
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • While the TLR4 pathway in humans is similar to that of mice, there are some differences, so further study is required to see if the treatment will work in humans
  • there is also a chance, if the therapy works in humans, that it will do so with an agonistic anti-TLR4 agent that is already approved, or under development
Mars Base

Yo-yo dieting can hurt the heart, study finds - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...12-12-yo-yo-dieting-heart.html

scibyte76 heart

shared by Mars Base on 14 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • women who lose weight and gain it back again may be increasing their risk for heart disease
  • Although cholesterol, blood pressure, triglycerides and blood sugar all improve with weight loss, with weight regain they all return to pre-diet levels and, in some cases, to even higher levels
  • r postmenopausal women considering weight loss, maintaining weight loss is just as important as losing weight
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Even partial weight regain is associated with worsened diabetes and cardiovascular risk factors
  • studied more than 100 postmenopausal
  • took part in a five-month weight-loss program
  • continued to monitor the women for a year
  • During the weight-loss program the women lost an average of 25 pounds
  • After a year, two-thirds of the women had regained at least four pounds, on average regaining about 70 percent of the weight they had lost
  • Women who regained 4.4 pounds or more in the year following the weight-loss intervention had several worsened cardiovascular and diabetes risk factors
  • women who maintained their weight loss a year later managed to preserve most of the benefits
  • this study highlights the importance of not just losing weight, but the need to develop effective and enduring strategies so that this weight loss can be successfully maintained long term
  • People should be focusing on being healthy, not skinny,
  • create strategies for reaching and maintaining a healthy weight throughout their lifetime
  • Start with simple changes such as swapping seltzer for soda, keeping a daily food record, adding a salad to lunch and substituting a second vegetable for half the starch at dinner
Mars Base

Study unravels central mystery of Alzheimer's disease - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...mystery-alzheimer-disease.html

scibyte90 Alzheimer

shared by Mars Base on 11 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Until recently, Polleux's laboratory has been focused not on Alzheimer's research but on the normal development and growth of neurons
  • In 2011
  • reported that AMPK overactivation by metformin, among other compounds, in animal models impaired the ability of neurons to grow output stalks, or axons
  • ...25 more annotations...
  • Around the same time, separate research groups found clues that AMPK might also have a role in Alzheimer's disease
  • One group reported that AMPK can be activated in neurons by amyloid beta, which in turn can cause a modification of the protein tau in a process known as phosphorylation
  • a postdoctoral research associate
  • began by confirming that amyloid beta, in the small-aggregate ("oligomer") form that is toxic to synapses, does indeed strongly activate AMPK
  • amyloid beta oligomers stimulate certain neuronal receptors, which in turn causes an influx of calcium ions into the neurons
  • that this calcium influx triggers the activation of an enzyme called CAMKK2, which appears to be the main activator of AMPK in neurons
  • AMPK overactivation in neurons is the essential reason for amyloid beta's synapse-harming effect
  • neurons' dendritic spines—the rootlike, synapse-bearing input stalks that receive signals from other neurons
  • scientists showed that amyloid beta oligomers can't cause this dendritic spine loss unless AMPK overactivation occurs—and indeed AMPK overactivation on its own can cause the spine loss
  • the team used J20 mice, which are genetically engineered to overproduce mutant amyloid beta
  • when we blocked the activity of CAMKK2 or AMPK in these neurons, we completely prevented the spine loss
  • Recent studies have shown that amyloid beta's toxicity to dendritic spines depends largely on the presence of tau, but just how the two Alzheimer's proteins interact has been unclear
  • their colleagues are now following up with further experiments to determine what other toxic processes, such as excessive autophagy, are promoted by AMPK overactivation and might also contribute to the long-term aspects of Alzheimer's disease progression
  • also interested in the long-term effects of blocking AMPK overactivation in the J20 mouse model as well as in other mouse models of Alzheimer's disease, which normally develop cognitive deficits at later stages
  • the pharmaceuticals industry who are potentially interested in targeting either CAMKK2 or AMPK
  • show that brain damage in Alzheimer's disease is linked to the overactivation of an enzyme called AMPK
  • Researchers have known for years that people in the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease begin to lose synapses in certain memory-related brain areas
  • findings, reported in the April
  • Small aggregates of the protein amyloid beta can cause this
  • but how they do so has been a mystery
  • Tangles of tau with multiple phosphorylations ("hyperphosphorylated" tau) are known to accumulate in neurons in affected brain areas in Alzheimer
  • investigate further, to determine whether the reported interactions of AMPK with amyloid beta and tau can in fact cause the damage seen in the brains of Alzheimer's patients
  • In addition
  • findings suggest the need for further safety studies on an existing drug, metformin.
  • , a popular treatment for Type 2 Diabetes, causes AMPK activation.
Mars Base

Microbes May Slim Us Down After Gastric Bypass - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...robiomes-surgical-weight-.html

scibyte88 WeightLoss

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • In many people with type 2 diabetes, the disease vanishes almost immediately after surgery, too quickly to be explained by the gradual weight loss that happens later
  • Patients also describe not being as hungry, or craving foods like salad that they hadn't liked much before
  • Because it bypasses part of the stomach and small intestine, the surgery alters the intestinal environment, changing elements such as pH and bile concentrations
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Another important question
  • is whether the transplants will have the same effect in animals who weren't raised in a sterile environment and who already have their own gut microbiome
  • These animals would more closely mimic people undergoing gastric bypass surgery
Mars Base

Breath Test Could Sniff Out Infections in Minutes | Observations, Scientific American B... - 0 views

blogs.scientificamerican.com/...niff-out-infections-in-minutes

scibyte77 MedicalDevice

shared by Mars Base on 12 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • Researchers have developed a test that can detect the presence of common infectious bacteria based just on the breath
  • The test picks up signature volatile organic compound (VOC)—particles emitted in gasses—profiles that the bacteria produce that are distinct those that the body—or other bacteria—give off
  • researchers
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • conducted the studies in lab mice that were infected with different types of common bacteria
  • two different strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause pneumonia, and one strain of Staphylococcus aureus, which can cause respiratory infections
  • The next day, the researchers tested the animals’ breath by ionizing breath samples then shooting them through a mass spectrometer to analyze concentrations of various VOCs in a process called secondary electrospray ionization mass spectrometry
  • The test detected the different bacterial infections as well as differentiated between healthy and infected
  • also located the difference between the two strains of P. aeruginosa
  • technique will have to be tested in large human trials before it makes an appearance in the clinic
  • the rapidity of the test is appealing. And it could at least make it a good first step in detecting bacterial infections, with a follow-up culture coming later if deemed necessary—to detect drug-resistant TB, for example
  • suspect that we will also be able to distinguish between bacterial, viral and fungal infections of the lung
  • Similar breath tests have also been studied for detecting other ailments, such as diabetes and cancer
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

Pioneering heart disease treatment - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...8-heart-disease-treatment.html

scibyte59 GrabBag MedicalTreatment

shared by Mars Base on 16 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • Researchers at King's College London have developed the first artificial functioning blood vessel outside of the body, made from reprogrammed stem cells from human skin
  • could have real potential to treat patients with heart disease
  • by either injecting the reprogrammed cells into the leg or heart to restore blood flow or grafting an artificially developed vessel into the body to replace blocked or damaged vessels
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • could also benefit diabetic patients with poor circulation, preventing leg amputation
  • Stem cell therapy to treat heart disease is already being carried out in the clinic using bone marrow cells
  • the long-term effectiveness at the moment is minimal and some types of stem cells have the potential to become a tumour
  • a new type of partial stem cell developed from fibroblasts (skin cells) can be reprogrammed into vascular cells before going into the body, which have no risk turning into tumours.
  • The process of developing vascular cells from skin cells took two weeks
  • the next step is to test this approach in cells from patients with vascular disease
  • This is an early study and more research needs to be done into how this approach works in patients, but the aim is to be able to inject reprogrammed cells into areas of restricted blood flow, or even graft an entirely new blood vessel into a patient to treat serious cardiovascular diseases
  • This team showed they can derive so-called ‘partial pluripotent’ cells from human skin cells in just four days, and convert them directly into a type of cell that lines our blood vessels
  • Traditional methods take longer and come with an increased chance of tumours forming from the new cells
  • discovery could help lead towards future therapies to repair hearts after they are damaged by a heart attack
  • possible future regenerative treatment, these cells might also be used in drug screening to find new treatments to tackle inherited diseases
Mars Base

Dextrose rub helps newborns with low blood sugar | Body & Brain | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/..._newborns_with_low_blood_sugar

scibyte104

shared by Mars Base on 25 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Newborns with low blood sugar face the prospect of a trip to the intensive care unit and intravenous infusions of glucose
  • rubbing a sweet gel onto the insides of babies’ cheeks
  • Low blood sugar in newborns, or neonatal hypoglycemia, occurs when the tiny body needs more glucose to meet energy needs than is available in the bloodstream
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • Prolonged hypoglycemia risks neurological injury.
  • Low blood glucose shows up in 5 to 15 percent of otherwise healthy newborns as measured by blood tests
  • Doctors typically don’t run the analysis on every newborn
  • If they spot low blood sugar symptoms such as poor color, seizures, irritability, lethargy, jittery behavior and a lack of interest in feeding, doctors are more likely to call for the blood test
  • many infants with low blood glucose don’t have such symptoms
  • report designates at-risk infants as those who are born preterm, have diabetic mothers, or are either large or small for their gestational age
  • new study, the researchers identified 237 apparently healthy newborns who had one of those risk factors or who were feeding poorly
  • Half of the babies were randomly assigned to get a gel made of dextrose, a form of glucose, rubbed on the inner cheeks up to six times over 48 hours; the rest received a placebo gel
  • During the following week, 30 babies getting the placebo gel were placed in intensive care for hypoglycemia while only 16 of those getting the dextrose gel needed such care for the condition
  • Dextrose had been tried in the 1990s as an oral rub for infants but wasn’t fully tested or put into widespread use
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