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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,368

Brain disease found in Australian rugby league players

Sydney — Post-mortem examinations have found a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated blows to the head in two elite Australian rugby league players, the first cases found in the sport, researchers said on Thursday.

The researchers said the players both had chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which has been widely diagnosed among former US National Football League (NFL) players but is little studied elsewhere.

The Sydney-based study said the condition, once known as ‘punch drunk syndrome’ occurred when repeated brain trauma led to a long-term decline in cognitive function.

Syringe-Injectable Electronics with a Plug-and-Play Input/Output Interface

Nano Lett. 2017 Sep 13;17:5836–5842. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b03081. Epub 2017 Aug 14.

Syringe-injectable mesh electronics represent a new paradigm for brain science and neural prosthetics by virtue of the stable seamless integration of the electronics with neural tissues, a consequence of the macroporous mesh electronics structure with all size features similar to or less than individual neurons and tissue-like flexibility. These same properties, however, make input/output (I/O) connection to measurement electronics challenging, and work to-date has required methods that could be difficult to implement by the life sciences community. Here we present a new syringe-injectable mesh electronics design with plug-and-play I/O interfacing that is rapid, scalable, and user-friendly to nonexperts. The basic design tapers the ultraflexible mesh electronics to a narrow stem that routes all of the device/electrode interconnects to I/O pads that are inserted into a standard zero insertion force (ZIF) connector.

Scientists discover molecular key to how cancer spreads

Yale researchers have discovered how metastasis, the spread of cancer cells throughout the body, is triggered on the molecular level, and have developed a tool with the potential to detect those triggers in patients with certain cancers. The discovery could lead to new ways for treating cancer.

The study was led by Andre Levchenko, the John C. Malone Professor of Biomedical Engineering and director of the Yale Systems Biology Institute at Yale’s West Campus. It was published June 26 in the journal Nature Communications. Levchenko is a member of the Yale Cancer Center.

One way metastasis occurs is through (EMT), a process that breaks neighboring apart from each other and sets them in motion. It’s been long assumed that chemical signals or in the cells trigger EMT. But Levchenko’s research team found that it could be caused by a simple change in the texture of the extracellular matrix (ECM), which acts as a scaffold for cells. They discovered that an alignment of the matrix’s fibers (a common biological occurrence) can trigger the EMT process without or other stimuli.

Chemicals Found In Toothpaste and Cosmetics Linked To Bone Disease

(CNN) — Exposure to a chemical commonly used to reduce bacterial contamination in cosmetics, toothpaste and products like toys and clothing may come with an unintended risk — osteoporosis. That’s according to a study in Tuesday’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

The study looked at data from 1,848 women between 2005 and 2010 and found that women who had higher levels of triclosan in their urine were more likely to develop osteoporosis later on in life. Osteoporosis is a metabolic bone disease in which a person loses bone mineral density. With the bones weakened, it puts a person at an increased risk for fractures, back pain and loss of height.

This the first such study to find this connection, researchers said.

Cytomegalovirus Infection May Contribute to Metabolic Syndrome

Today, we want to highlight a new publication that looks at cytomegalovirus (CMV) and its potential role in the development of metabolic syndrome, the precursor to type 2 diabetes.

What is cytomegalovirus?

CMV is part of the β-subfamily of herpes viruses, a family of viruses that are believed to have been co-evolving with their hosts for around 180 million years [1]. CMV is spread primarily by exposure to infected secretions and subsequent mucosal contact, which then leads to the acute infection of various cell types. After this acute infection, in which the virus spreads, it enters a dormant state in the body.