They’re keeping people company, dispensing medication and more.
Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,752
Clinical Trials
Hamlet Pharma Ltd. is making great progress and has just concluded the first part of a clinical trial in patients with bladder cancer. Drug development often takes many years, due to complex development and approval processes. Based on our extensive prior experience, the drug candidate, Alpha1H, has passed a number of important milestones in a relatively short time and with moderate cost. Alpha1H is natural and is found in breast milk. The trial has shown its effectiveness in dissolving tumors.
The strategic goal of Hamlet Pharma is to develop novel cancer treatments for patients who currently lack therapeutic options. Conducting clinical trials is crucial to reach primary goals such as evaluating the therapeutic window for HAMLET in bladder cancer. We also aim to gain new insights that facilitate the drug development for Alpha1H and the diversification of our activities to include other indications.
UAMS-Developed Cytophone Detects Melanoma in Earliest Stages, Could Prevent Fatal Disease Spread
This device is 1,000 times more sensitive than other methods at detecting of CTCs in the blood of patients with melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer.
The Cytophone also has shown the ability to detect CTCs even when the tumor is not identifiable on the skin, either because too small (known as the T0 or TX stage) or after surgical removal, and then to destroy them without harming surrounding blood cells.
The team’s findings titled “In Vivo Liquid Biopsy using Cytophone Platform for Photoacoustic Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells in Melanoma Patients” were published in the June 12 issue of Science Translational Medicine, a prestigious scientific journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Piezo Proteins Findings Open New Paths in Understanding Their Role in Human Diseases
Researchers from Weill Cornell Medicine and the Rockefeller University say they have uncovered the basic mechanism of Piezo proteins, which function as sensors in the body for mechanical stimuli such as touch, bladder fullness, and blood pressure. The discovery opens up many new paths of investigation into the roles of Piezo proteins in human diseases and potential new therapeutic strategies, according to the scientists.
In the study (“Force-induced conformational changes in PIEZO1”), published in Nature, the team used advanced microscopy techniques to image the Piezo1 protein at rest and during the application of mechanical forces. They confirmed this complex protein’s structure and showed essentially how it can convert mechanical stimuli into an electrical signal.
“Piezo1 is a mechanosensitive channel that converts applied force into electrical signals. Partial molecular structures show that Piezo1 is a bowl-shaped trimer with extended arms. Here we use cryo-electron microscopy to show that Piezo1 adopts different degrees of curvature in lipid vesicles of different sizes. We also use high-speed atomic force microscopy to analyze the deformability of Piezo1 under force in membranes on a mica surface and show that Piezo1 can be flattened reversibly into the membrane plane,” the investigators wrote.
Researchers advance organ-on-chip technology to advance drug development
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) have developed an organ-on-an-electronic-chip platform, which uses bioelectrical sensors to measure the electrophysiology of the heart cells in three dimensions. These 3D, self-rolling biosensor arrays coil up over heart cell spheroid tissues to form an “organ-on-e-chip,” thus enabling the researchers to study how cells communicate with each other in multicellular systems such as the heart.
The organ-on-e-chip approach will help develop and assess the efficacy of drugs for disease treatment—perhaps even enabling researchers to screen for drugs and toxins directly on a human-like tissue, rather than testing on animal tissue. The platform will also be used to shed light on the connection between the heart’s electrical signals and disease, such as arrhythmias. The research, published in Science Advances, allows the researchers to investigate processes in cultured cells that currently are not accessible, such as tissue development and cell maturation.
“For decades, electrophysiology was done using cells and cultures on two-dimensional surfaces, such as culture dishes,” says Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering (BME) and Materials Science & Engineering (MSE) Tzahi Cohen-Karni. “We are trying to circumvent the challenge of reading the heart’s electrical patterns in 3D by developing a way to shrink-wrap sensors around heart cells and extracting electrophysiological information from this tissue.”
Remote control for brain cells: scientists use ultrasound waves to activate neurons
Some treatments for neurodegenerative diseases involve inserting wires into the brain and zapping certain brain cells with electricity. But what if you could do the same thing using sound waves?
Smart drugs: All-natural brain enhancers made by mother nature
Nootropics are colloquially known as “smart drugs” – substances that increase cognitive function in healthy people. In this video, bestselling author Dave Asprey discusses two naturally occurring nootropics: caffeine and nicotine.
Microdosing one milligram of the latter — about 5 to 10 percent of a cigarette’s worth — may even protect against Alzheimer’s.
The health effects of air pollution
On humans are many, and widespread across Earth. Respiratory and cardiovascular effects of air pollution have long been recognised, and account for the majority of air pollution-related deaths. There is also a strong link between poor air quality and the incidence of lung cancer.
Globally, ambient (outdoor) air pollution causes an estimated 25 per cent of all adult deaths from heart disease, 24 per cent from stroke, 43 per cent from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and 29 per cent from lung cancer. Household (indoor) air pollution also leads to a wide variety of similar diseases and is one of the top five causes for premature death across the world. Current estimates put the death toll from household and ambient air pollution combined at 7 million deaths a year.
The next trick for CRISPR is gene-editing pain away
The street performer was only 10 years old. He put knives through his arms and walked on hot embers. By 14 he was dead. Someone dared him to jump from a roof. He did it, knowing it wouldn’t hurt.
The case of the Pakistani boy with a rare genetic disorder was described in 2006. He could feel warmth and cold and the texture of objects. But he never felt pain.
Now scientists have paired the discovery with the gene-editing tool CRISPR, in what they say is a step toward a gene therapy that could block severe pain caused by diabetes, cancer, or car accidents without the addictive effects of opioids.
Drug-Resistant Salmonella Linked to Overuse of Antibiotics in Cattle Farming
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned Thursday of a drug-resistant strain of salmonella newport linked to the overuse of antibiotics in cattle farming.