Category Archives: BiomedNews

BiomedNews

Nano/bio NO anti-bacterial, drug to increase endurance, and stem cells for heart damage

Not often I find three news items at the same time that I can’t resist writing about. Here we go:

Healing With Light (NASA, 03/03/11)
Healing With Light (NASA, 03/03/11) (Photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center)
  1. Nitric oxide (NO) helps with many things including wound healing. Now researchers have manufactured a light-activated nano gel matrix that holds NO and can be used as an antibacterial shield against drug-resistant germs.We’re already blessed that nano is already helping doctors send cancer-killing drugs directly to malignant cells without damaging surrounding tissue. Imagine what other amazing partnerships we’re going to see between nanotechnology and biomedicine.
  2. Nature Medicine reports that researchers have discovered a new drug that could potentially increase the endurance and exercise capacity of people with seriously debilitating illnesses like obesity, COPD, heart failure and plain old aging. How exciting is that? Instead of accepting a gruesome long-term death sentence, people will be better able to improve their own quality of life.
  3. And last but not least, doctors are calling it a soon-to-be “medical breakthrough,” according to an article in ABC’s online Fort Myers Naples Port Charlotte news. Researchers at the Mayo Clinic have succeeded in “training” stem cells taken from bone marrow to grow into heart cells and be used to reverse heart damage and potentially add years to a person’s life.

Such are the many miracles we get to see in our own time.

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BiomedNews

Blood test could become early-screening tool for heart disease

It’s a long way off from availability, but isn’t it nice to know that some researchers who were looking for something else entirely – isn’t that how half our best discoveries are made? – have found a molecule that might be able to tell us with a simple blood test if we’ve got coronary artery disease (CAD). CAD is responsible for heart attacks and strokes and is the number one cause of death in the United States, according to an article in MedNewsToday.com.

Up til now, most people have no idea they have CAD (also known as atherosclerosis and, to many folks, just plain old heart disease) until they have a heart attack. Many felt fine and noticed no warning symptoms. Then suddenly, they’re in the hospital and terrified.

Researchers noticed the molecule – malondialdehyde-acetaldehyde (MAA) – because it showed up where there was inflammation while they were investigating arthritis and liver disease.

While a blood test isn’t totally non-invasive, it’s a darn sight less so than nasty tests like angiograms and catheterizations. So here’s hoping they can hurry this research along. Once it’s developed, people will know ahead of time that they have to make diet and lifestyle changes to avoid a heart attack.

 

Four Cheese Pizza at Grand Grill and Pizzeria

 

But I guess we already hear that all the time, and yet it doesn’t hit home to many. Maybe this test will come to serve as a less drastic wake-up call.

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BiomedNews, health dangers

Air pollution linked to lung cancer and heart failure hospitalizations, death

Just as President Obama is making a public stand to combat global warming, scientists are proving that air pollution isn’t just an inconvenience. In fact, long-term exposure even to low levels of pollution – such as living in a big city all your life -increases your risk of lung cancer, according to a study published in The Lancet Oncology journal. The pollutants mentioned in this study included “nitrogen oxides and particulate matter (including traffic, industry, and domestic heating).”

Indoor Air Pollution
Indoor Air Pollution (Photo credit: SEDACMaps)

What’s more, another study found a “strong and consistent” relationship between exposure to pollution and hospitalizations or death from congestive heart failure. The risks increased with “exposure to air pollutants, including carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide [a big contributor to smog].” This study concluded its findings by saying, “air pollution is a pervasive public health issue with major cardiovascular and health economic consequences, and it should remain a key target for global health policy.”

I read a news item about these studies the other day when the early morning temp was 80 degrees and the humidity was 81%. I have never been inclined to go out walking in weather like that, but now there’s a stronger reason beyond simple discomfort to stay home. For a person living with heart failure, taking a walk in those conditions could be considered suicidal.

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BiomedNews

NO may make transfusions safer

People who give blood are a blessing to the world. Who knows how many lives are saved because the Red Cross and others are able to preserve blood and have it available for emergencies? But transfusions don’t always work the way they’re meant to.

US-Navy Storekeeper 3rd Class Robert Franke do...
US-Navy Storekeeper 3rd Class Robert Franke donates blood (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The fact is, stored blood doesn’t have the vitality and the oxygen-carrying ability it had when first collected – even after a single day in storage. Giving a bunch of stored blood to a person already in serious trouble can sometimes even result in hypoxia – starving the person’s tissues and organs of oxygen. Certainly the opposite of the intended effect.

Nitric oxide (NO), a naturally occurring substance in the body, is known to attach itself to hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying component of red blood cells. When it does, it forms S-nitrosohemoglobin (SNO-Hb), which “causes blood vessels to dilate, making it easier for oxygen to reach cells,” according to this article in MedExpress.

A group of experimenters thought maybe if they added NO to stored blood it would carry oxygen better. They found a way to add it and called the resulting product renitrosylated blood. So far, they’ve tried it with mice, rats and sheep and found that in all cases, using the renitrosylated blood in a transfusion improved oxygen supplies to tissues and organs.

Next step will be setting up clinical trials with people who need transfusions. Sounds very promising.

P.S. NO is an amazing substance. Check out some of my other posts about nitric oxide.

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BiomedNews

CoQ10 improves functionality and mortality in heart failure – and statins decrease CoQ10

The jury was out for a long time on the effectiveness of taking CoQ10 supplements for people with various heart

English: The illustration shows the major sign...
English: The illustration shows the major signs and symptoms of heart failure. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

conditions. I used to take it because I’d read many doctors’ favorable accounts. However, my cardiologist never recommended it specifically, so I stopped when I realized how much I was paying for it.

New research points to the idea that this substance may be even more valuable than previously thought by its proponents. CoQ10 is said to improve every measure of functionality – and now to dramatically decrease mortality – in heart failure patients, according to an article on FireEngineering.com. I’ve included the article’s references below.

Further research shows CoQ10 levels decrease naturally as we age, and they actually decrease further when patients take statins. Statins are those over-prescribed cholesterol-lowering drugs that gradually damage people’s livers and can produce other nasty side effects such as blocking the effects of cardiovascular fitness training and inclining patients to develop diabetes.

Compelling reading.

References

  1. Heart Failure 2013
  2. SA Mortensen, A Kumar, P Dolliner, et al. “The effect of coenzyme Q10 on morbidity and mortality in chronic heart failure.” Results from the Q-SYMBIO study. Presented at Heart Failure Congress 2013 Final Programme Number 440.
    The full title of the Q-SYMBIO study is: “Coenzyme Q10 as adjunctive treatment of chronic heart failure: a randomised double blind multicentre trial with focus on changes in symptoms, biomarker status with BNP and long term outcome.”
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BiomedNews, health dangers

Statin drugs lead to memory loss, muscle pain and block benefits of exercise in obese

Cholesterol. It’s had an up-and-down history in terms of medical recommendations. I remember when my dad had his open-heart surgery and his doctor demanded that he eat only 1 or 2 eggs a week. This was killer for my father who adored his bacon-and-eggs breakfast. But he stuck to it… For six years. And then his doctor told him, well, it looks like dietary cholesterol doesn’t really contribute that much to the cholesterol levels in the blood. Can you imagine how angry my father felt?

The structure of Cholesterol
The structure of Cholesterol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Yes. Now here’s a man who’d religiously (pun intended) adhered to the Catholic Church’s ” no meat on Fridays” command – on pain of hell and damnation. And then, suddenly, it was no longer a mortal sin to eat meat on Friday? My dad stopped going to church for many years because of that one.

For many of us it’s becoming increasingly clear that statins can have novel types of negative side effects – with far-reaching consequences for the ingenuous patient who is following the doctor’s  insistence on taking this medicine. Here’s one about how statins disregulate the cholesterol balance and thus cause swelling in the brain that leads to memory loss (American College of Cardiology).

Here’s one about how statins are associated with unexplained muscle pain (American College of Cardiology). I actually knew a woman who was going through this – she could barely walk for the pain in her feet. Her doc took her off statins and the pain disappeared.

And my favorite today, a study that shows a pronounced connection between statin therapy and the reduced ability of the body to benefit from exercise (Disease Models and Mechanisms). Can you imagine the dilemma for docs here? On the one hand they’re insisting their patients take cholesterol medication and, on the other, they’re telling them to exercise. But oh, too bad, the exercise won’t do you any good because of the medicine.

Please.

Thank God they didn’t have cholesterol medicines around when my dad was alive.

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BiomedNews, nanotechnology

Nanotech may deliver bloodless diabetes monitoring – and lots more

?esky: Aplikace
?esky: Aplikace “rychlého” inzulínu inzulinovým perem (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nanotech is performing miracles on a lot of fronts. Now they’re using it to develop new ways to treat diabetes and even to monitor blood sugar without the painful blood-letting currently required.

This scholarly paper discussing new fronts in nanotechnology gives you an idea of the scope of the investigations. A quick rundown of the contents:

“…polymeric nanoparticles, oral insulin admin-istration using polysaccharides and polymeric nanoparticles, inhalable insulin nanoparticle formulations, and insulin delivery using BioMEMS [biomedical (or biological) microelectromechanical systems]. In addition to ceramic and polymeric nanoparticles, studies on gold nanoparticles for insulin delivery and treatment of diabetes-associated symptoms are discussed.”

I had to look up “polymeric,” so I’ll share. Polymeric just means made out of polymers, which are already in everything from synthetic plastics (your kitchen storage stuff) and other things we use every day at work and at home, to natural biopolymers (like in RNA, DNA and amino acids) that are critical pieces of our biological selves.

Carbon nanotubes
Carbon nanotubes (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

And here’s one about nanosensors that could selectively measure glucose concentrations. Glucose  would alter the current flowing down the conductive nanotubes. That data would then be fed to an embedded microchip which would send it wirelessly to a wearable computer. The technology’s not there yet, though. They’re still working on making these things compatible with staying inside the human body for long periods of time – not a small problem.

And then there’s something that’s closer to becoming a reality. Put on the diabetic patient like a tattoo, a solution of nanoparticle  sensor molecules reacts with sodium or glucose, creating “biomarkers”. Ultraviolet light makes the tattoo shine. They’re thinking they can use converted iPhones to make the light that’s needed. Though this probably won’t be a complete solution, it may help diabetes patients spot dangerous changes in between regular monitorings, according to an article on AZOnano.com.

 

 

 

 

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BiomedNews, health dangers, nanotechnology

Finally – Official safety standard for nanotech workers

nanofiber
nanofiber (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’ve written about the similarities in asbestos and nanofibers before – and therefore the similar dangers of the two substances. Asbestos was in use – and slowly killing people – for many hundreds of years before the connection was made between breathing it and dying of asbestosis or mesothelioma decades later. Nanofibers are incredibly strong and tough fibers of microscopic width – like one-one thousandth the diameter of a human hair – that are used to make supertough and strong composite materials.

The problem is that nanofibers, like asbestos fibers, are so tiny that people can easily breathe them deep into their lungs or ingest them (say, when eating a sandwich on the job). Inside the human body these fibers eventually cause scarring and disease and death.

Now I’m happy to report that the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has finally published a safety standard for the length of nanofibers. Workers involved in manufacturing items that use nanofibers must now be protected from exposure to nanofibers. The standard is set “as low as we can measure” according to Andrew Maynard, chair of environmental health sciences at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In other words, they want literally no loose nanofibers to be allowed in the air of a plant that uses them.

It took centuries to stop companies from recklessly exposing workers to asbestos fibers. Now perhaps all the asbestos lawsuits now being filed all over the world are serving as a warning to companies – and nanotech training schools – that they can’t pretend there’s no danger to people working with nanofibers.

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BiomedNews

$14 billion could have been saved on health care spending with common minimally invasive surgeries

English: A thoracic surgeon performs a mitral ...
English: A thoracic surgeon performs a mitral valve replacement at the Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. Slovenš?ina: Kirurgi med operacijo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Hard to believe but true. Not only does minimally invasive surgery mean less pain and suffering for the patient, it also means fewer days off work and lower costs – an estimated $14 billion in health care spending could have been saved in 2009 alone.  Check out the four types of surgery where minimally invasive equals big savings.

Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic both now do minimally invasive versions of several heart surgeries. Won’t it be grand one day when we can all expect to receive minimally invasive versions of surgeries – but only if earlier treatment with stem cells hasn’t worked.

And one fine day, perhaps, no one will have to face going “under the knife” at all.

BiomedNews, nanotechnology

Nano help for stem cell rebuilding hearts

English: Diagram to show how embryonic stem ce...
English: Diagram to show how embryonic stem cells are differentiated (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I’m excited to report news involving three of my favorite topics: nanotechnology, stem cells, and fixing hearts. Past efforts using stem cells to treat heart attacks and heart failure haven’t been very successful. And the worst part is, they don’t know why. Apparently they inject the stem cells into a patient but then don’t know where they end up. Do they stay in the targeted part of the heart or wander off somewhere else? If the treatment doesn’t work, up til now there’s been no way to determine why not. Now if only they could tell where the stem cells go and what they do…

Enter this new visualizing technique. Doctors at Stanford University School of Medicine have designed a way to use nanotechnology to track stem cells after they’ve been introduced into a patient’s body. The thought is that once they know where the stem cells have gone, they’ll be able to see more clearly what’s happening with them.  The tracking technique, which also allows doctors to guide the stem cells more precisely to their intended location,  involves marking the stem cells with nanoparticles and a gadolinium-laced contrast agent and following them with standard ultrasounds (Yay, non-invasive!) as they enter the body and move around. The hope is the docs’ll be able to see exactly where the stem cells take up residence and watch what they do. Do they stay in the targeted area or do they diffuse away from the heart? Do they develop into the desired cells or into something else entirely?

I know that gadolinium as a contrast agent ingredient is known to cause people who have kidney problems to develop a terrible and disfiguring disease known as Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis. It’s certainly good to hear that the substance can also be used in this new way to potentially help people with serious heart issues.

Unfortunately, this exciting discovery has at least three more years before it can be used in humans. But as with all life-limiting conditions, those of us who live with them are always looking for reasons to hope.

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